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HP Accused of Illegal Exportation To Iran
AdamWeeden writes "According to research done by the Boston Globe, HP has been secretly using a third-party company to sell printers to Iran. This is illegal under a ban instituted in 1995 by then US President Bill Clinton. The third-party company, Redington Gulf, operates out of Dubai and previously stated on their web site that the company began in 1997 with 'a team of five people and the HP supplies as our first product, we started operations as the distributor for Iran,' though now the site has been changed to remove the mention of Iran. Has HP unknowingly been supplying Iran with technology or have they been trying to secretly get by the US government's export restrictions?"
It's not the printer technology per se, it's the ban on crypto export. Them there printers can be used to print steganographic messages :)
For those to lazy to look up what he is talking about check this out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steganography#Usage_in_modern_printers I am amazed at the example shown in the wikipedia page.
So if HP quits selling to Iran, what's to stop them from buying from Turkey or England or India or Japan or China, and how could we ever pretend to know or that we could prevent it?
Absolutely nothing, and in fact, that is what already happens. Embargoes against Iran are impossible. During my last trip there, the shops were littered with pretty much the same consumer goods - both electronic and not - that you would find here in the States.
For goods produced by U.S. companies, there is always a middle-man involved. I am not 100% sure who, but from talking to several small-business owners over there, they get most of their U.S. produced goods through Italy. There is a big mark-up on hardware, however. You can expect to pay the equivalent of several hundred dollars more for a top-of-the-line graphics card by Nvidia, for instance.
I know you're not really discussing whether they are a good idea, but I can't help but share my two cents. The embargoes are about as retarded as the ones on Cuba are. The embargoes will never "punish" the Iranian government as they will always have enough wealth and power to get whatever they want from Dubai. The people who suffer are the citizens of Iran who actually LIKE the U.S. and want a friendly, normal relationship.
With the trade deficit being as high as it is, and with a huge market in Iran wanting U.S. made items, it really makes no sense to keep these restrictions, especially since they are getting it through third-parties anyway.
Best "String" Ever!