Euro telecom building Iran’s wiretap capabilities
posted at 10:58 am on April 13, 2009 by Ed Morrissey
Lenin reportedly said that capitalists would sell the rope with which the Communists would hang them. It didn’t work out that way in the end, but the concept appears to be alive and well in Iran. Eli Lake reports that German-Finnish telecom Nokia Siemens has provided the Iranian mullahcracy with key wiretap capability that will allow them to keep dissent suppressed and the current messianic theocracy in place:
Two European companies — a major contractor to the U.S. government and a top cell-phone equipment maker — last year installed an electronic surveillance system for Iran that human rights advocates and intelligence experts say can help Iran target dissidents.
Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN), a joint venture between the Finnish cell-phone giant Nokia and German powerhouse Siemens, delivered what is known as a monitoring center to Irantelecom, Iran’s state-owned telephone company.
A spokesman for NSN said the servers were sold for “lawful intercept functionality,” a technical term used by the cell-phone industry to refer to law enforcement’s ability to tap phones, read e-mails and surveil electronic data on communications networks.
In Iran, a country that frequently jails dissidents and where regime opponents rely heavily on Web-based communication with the outside world, a monitoring center that can archive these intercepts could provide a valuable tool to intensify repression.
First, we should question just how much technology got transferred in this exchange. If Nokia Siemens wants to sell its best technology to service an oppressive regime like Iran, we need to know what capabilities they now have. We should also rethink our own government contracts with Nokia and Siemens. We should not do business with those who deliberately aid in repression. Siemens did $900 million with the US government in the last four years, and in the next four, that money should go to companies that don’t provide dictatorships with listening centers.
This is reminiscent of the cooperation Google and Yahoo have lent China in tracking down dissidents. Companies like Google, Yahoo, Nokia, and Siemens should understand that they have a big stake in freedom. Without Western protections, these companies would have either never started in the first place or would have been highly restricted in what services and products they could sell. Selling tools of oppression to petty dictators and theocratic thugs is a betrayal of the people working for democracy and the same freedoms of choice.
Nokia Siemens claims that the monitoring center will only get used to conduct “lawful intercepts,” but that’s an interesting term to use with the Iranian mullahcracy. They note that the use of the monitoring center gets limited by laws and courts, but in Iran’s case, all of these checks serve the mullahcracy. That’s the entire problem with selling this kind of technology to oppressive regimes. Nokia Siemens sounds incredibly naive, but in reality they have taken an extremely cynical position just to justify a large sale, and a large-scale sellout.
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Siemens also invented the gas chambers, disguised as showers, for the Nazis.
They developed them so that the Nazis didn’t have to look into the eyes of the prisoners as they murdered them by the hundreds.
True fact.
UltimateBob on April 13, 2009 at 11:06 AM
Europe still has capitalists????
MarkTheGreat on April 13, 2009 at 11:08 AM
Weren’t you guys paying attention, Obama said this is not the time to be protectionists. We are all in this together. We are all Iranians now.
cntrlfrk on April 13, 2009 at 11:08 AM
I’d tell you what I think about this, but someone might be listening.
Ordinary American on April 13, 2009 at 11:11 AM
I work in telco.
Lawful Intercept is standards based technology. The only thing that protects innocent people is the buracracy associcated with submitting an L.I. request. Nokia Siemens would probably be more at risk if they were to deny Iran technology that is readily used to monitor European & American citizens.
L.I. includes the ability to monitor a call & get a general statement of where the caller is calling from. L.I. also includes data usage, so if you are using a mobile phone, L.I. applies there as well. In fact, here in the U.S. we refer to voice intercept as “CALEA” and data intercept as “Lawful Intercept”
If this is a big deal, then it seems like we should be more worried about what goes on here in the U.S. than what goes on in Iran. Honestly, we’re so far into 1984 & atlas shrugged that I can’t really figure out what to care about anymore.
StartinOver on April 13, 2009 at 11:15 AM
Do not worry. No one is listening. Just say anything you want. Trust me.
DasObamaReich on April 13, 2009 at 11:16 AM
Is General Electric’s past and present commerce with Iran now off the table or are they still considered “facilitators or contributors” to this regime?
Rovin on April 13, 2009 at 11:17 AM
I doubt if the Obama administration will object. Rahm more than likely is already building a IP Address database of his enemies who use a keyboard as their weapon of choice.
fogw on April 13, 2009 at 11:23 AM
US Progressives have most certainly been working it out that way in America. An idea has no “end”.
Russia has Iran’s confidence and they have their deals, regardless of who says what to Obama for Affekt. Western Civilization has been selling Islam anything for a price. European industries (French and German specifically) were in bed with Saddam Hussein selling biological and nuclear armaments despite UN decrees and their own nations’ proclamations.
Good post, Ed. Life ain’t fair. The Iranians need to take hold of their own existence, just as the Iraqis, Afghans, Pakistanis and Palestinians do. Problem being, as is, the West supports Islam, not the peoples of any particular locale. Intention is of no matter as results prove reality.
maverick muse on April 13, 2009 at 11:23 AM
The Finns (with the old Soviet Union on their border) and the Germans (with their Nazi past)cannot plead innocent about their knowledge of how totalitarian regimes work. Fools.
Disturb the Universe on April 13, 2009 at 11:31 AM
Must have gotten the idea from Google’s work with the Chicoms tracking Chinese dissidents.
profitsbeard on April 13, 2009 at 11:33 AM
Washingtonians already ran out the original Cyber Security Chief and substituted an Obamaman in order to facilitate your premise, that US citizens are already documented.
maverick muse on April 13, 2009 at 11:35 AM
/fake sneeze…
Ehh… eh… eh…. Echelonnnn……..
Oh… excuse me…
Romeo13 on April 13, 2009 at 11:36 AM
There’s no parallel to the United States at all here, right…
The Dean on April 13, 2009 at 11:38 AM
I’d tell you what I think about this, but someone might be listening.
Ordinary American on April 13, 2009 at 11:11 AM
Do not worry. No one is listening. Just say anything you want. Trust me.
DasObamaReich on April 13, 2009 at 11:16 AM
I can’t tell you how relieved I am. Now I can tell you what I really think. Hold on a minute. Someone’s at the door. I’ll be right back.
Ordinary American on April 13, 2009 at 11:40 AM
That’s just alarmism. We still have free speech, so long as you watch what you say.
petefrt on April 13, 2009 at 11:53 AM
BTW, it was unsettling to watch GWB snicker when he suggested that citizens blog out their frustrations.
What potential-fascist measures that Homeland Security began are metastasizing under BHO’s permeation of power.
Question: what time limits for existence did Bush impose on all of the new federal bureaucracy that he created? He managed tax cuts only on temporary basis, and stimulus as a rebate to be repaid by the tax payer–that was DUMBER than dumb since it cost the feds a lot to do all of that processing. But when it came to augmenting federal powers beyond Constitutional allocation (upon departure, crowning the Treasury Secretary as an untouchable Czar accountable to no one), Bush made way for Obama’s obtuse Socialist radicalization. Globalists suck, regardless of party. And morons need not argue that I don’t respect or appreciate GWB. Bush certainly had his strengths that were a blessing to our nation! And as a man, I respect him immensely. As our president, I respected him and praised his beneficial work accomplished, though I certainly pointed out his flaws that injured American citizenship in favor of open border globalism that only benefits the fascist aristocrats (regardless of party, they are represented everywhere and pull our strings). Those poor policies benefit organized crime, particularly within governments, our own especially. Bush, though, maintained the highest standards of integrity with respect to those serving within his administration including Border Patrol and the Military. But selectively prosecuting abusively his own while ignoring or abstaining from prosecuting national enemies that include criminal illegal aliens and their knowing employers leaves Bush within the collection of abusive prosecutors who disregard rule of law. He’d bend over so far backwards to prosecute his own, yet he refused to permit the pendulum of justice to prosecute the corrosive organized criminal elements (within the government) that prosper in America via the illegal alien industry.
That irony assimilates Obama’s selection of the tax cheat incompetent TurboTax fraud Geithner as Treasury Secretary, particularly following Bush’s augmentation of that appointment as a power in and of itself.
maverick muse on April 13, 2009 at 11:54 AM
What these companies are doing is wrong, dangerous and should be stopped.
Loxodonta on April 13, 2009 at 11:57 AM
I don’t remember anything about Siemens inventing the gas chambers or developing them for Nazi use. Can you cite an on-line reference about the Siemens connection?
What I remember is that Siemens supported the Nazi’s, and that they and BMW, Krupp, Leica, VW, etc. used millions of slave laborers in the concentration camps. Like some other German firms, I believe they made a paltry compensation payment in the 60′s.
Loxodonta on April 13, 2009 at 12:01 PM
By whom? Us? How?
Dark-Star on April 13, 2009 at 12:08 PM
Modern warfare played by guerrilla rules.
Always go to undefended targets and targets that do not yet have countermeasure same with situations that do not have defensive countermeasures. Never, never, attack your adversary’s strength on his terms. There will always be someone in the adversary’s camp that will aid and abet your goals. Practice patience wait for your targets to be off alert.
rsl775 on April 13, 2009 at 12:16 PM
This is exactly why I worry when an administration wants some new power and says to anyone concerned about granting that authority, “We would never do that.” Even if this were so, the next administration might, but by then, the frog in the pot of water has become accustomed to the increasing temperature. Whether it’s surveillance or creeping socialism/fascism, we are in great danger of becoming a nation of boiled frogs.
DrMagnolias on April 13, 2009 at 12:20 PM
Lol, the whole world is moving towards collectivism. The name does not matter, the underlying principle is taking over the world. What exactly are you talking about?
True_King on April 13, 2009 at 12:22 PM
Free Speach – Awww yes, the First amandment – That will go away right after the 2nd amendment once our dear leader decide there is no God which means there are no inalienable rights given by God so they must be given by man or better the goverment who can now take them away. Oh how the cookie crumbles.
Badbrucskie on April 13, 2009 at 12:24 PM
I don’t know how to stop them. It may help to publicize their actions and the consequences, as has been done here.
I suppose the UN Security Council could ban selling such equipment to Iran, but I doubt the UN would do it. And even if they did, I doubt that would stop Iran from obtaining it through some other means. However, such action might well slow Iran’s acquisition of technology that it can use to become a nuclear armed, totalitarian police state.
As in North Korea, the Iranian regime seems determined to become a major world threat. But to do so, they must also threaten, crush and propagandize their own people. I suppose it’s my old-fashioned values speaking, but I get angry when people are crushed by tyranny, even when they aren’t Americans and live on the other side of the world.
Loxodonta on April 13, 2009 at 12:30 PM
I’d tell you what I think about this, but someone might be listening.
Ordinary American on April 13, 2009 at 11:11 AM
Do not worry. No one is listening. Just say anything you want. Trust me.
DasObamaReich on April 13, 2009 at 11:16 AM
I can’t tell you how relieved I am. Now I can tell you what I really think. Hold on a minute. Someone’s at the door. I’ll be right back.
That’s just alarmism. We still have free speech, so long as you watch what you say.
petefrt on April 13, 2009 at 11:53 AM
I am now back. Yes, it is really me and not one of the men in black ski masks who did not just break down my door. No indeed. No one broke down my door. The
peopleperson at the door did not wear a ski mask and did not have a gun. No, it was a special delivery person from the Government Stimulus Clearinghouse Sweepstakes. I have won an all expenses paid trip to a beach resort on an island paradise off the coast of Florida. I will be a special guest at this resort where I will be given the VIP treatment for an undetermined period of time. I will not be considered an enemy combatant. It sounds like fun. It may be quite a while before I post more comments on HA.Ordinary American on April 13, 2009 at 12:34 PM
I wish I could – I’m at work now and I’m being blocked by the company’s system from searching for anything holocaust related.
I recently toured the concentration camp at Dachau, and was told this by an English-speaking tourguide.
UltimateBob on April 13, 2009 at 1:30 PM
IMHO, their stake in freedom supercedes their fiduciary obligations to their shareholders. Classic case in point is “IBM and the Holocaust” (nice book to read if you haven’t already). It also brings into question the fine line between capitalism and moral responsibility. At some point, corporations, just like individual citizens, need to ask themselves – is this really worth the profit? Unfortunately, if the corporation does not ask that question and goes the other route, should we (as a society) force them to do otherwise? We have 2 options:
(1) via government regulation : which is meddling into free markets and is a conservative anathema
(2) by a massive movement to not use their products : however that is easier said than done. For example, in the case of IBM during WWII, they were the only realistic option for computation, so it would have been akin to cutting your nose off to spite your face.
Comments?
peter_griffin on April 13, 2009 at 1:41 PM
As you suggest there is no easy fix. The fact is all kinds of companies including many American firms are engaged in doing business with repressive regimes and providing products and services which can be used to enhance that repression. Companies won’t stop trading. If they do stop or if their home government passes laws restricting trade, a host of middlemen will turn up and the regimes will still get the products they want. That is how Iran gets specialized printers made in Israel to make huge propaganda posters going around Israeli and Iranian prohibitions on such transactions.
lexhamfox on April 13, 2009 at 2:47 PM
I think you’re confusing Siemens, the electronics company with IG Farben, the makers of Zyklon B.
Siemens did have a slave labor camp in the Auschwitz-Birkenau complex.
IG Farben was disolved after WWII and many of their executives tried for war crimes.
The IG Farben building in Frankfurt became Supreme Headquarters, Allied European Forces after WWII and is now occupied by the University of Frankfurt.
schmuck281 on April 14, 2009 at 6:51 AM
Thanks.
Loxodonta on April 14, 2009 at 7:28 AM