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Nokia Siemens Sued For Providing Monitoring Equipment To Iran
Just over a year ago, we found out that Nokia Siemens provided internet monitoring equipment to Iran. Now, reader Tootech sends in news that the company is being sued by an Iranian journalist who was captured with the help of that equipment. From El Reg:
"Isa Saharkhiz went into hiding following Iran's 2009 presidential elections, after publishing an article branding the Grand Ayatollah as a hypocrite who was primarily responsible for vote tallies widely regarded as being fraudulent. According to a complaint filed in federal court in Virginia, officials with the Ministry of Intelligence and Security in Iran tracked him down with the help of cellphone-monitoring devices and other eavesdropping gear provided by Nokia Siemens. 'Defendants knowingly and willingly delivered very capable and sophisticated equipment for unlawful intercepting, monitoring, and filtering of electronic communications ("Intelligence Solutions") to Iranian officials,' the complaint alleged. ... According to the document, Saharkhiz has been severely tortured since his arrest. He was held in solitary confinement for more than 80 days, and his ribs were broken in a struggle during his arrest. The complaint said it may be amended to add as many as 1,500 other political prisoners who are being held under similar circumstances. Additional defendants may also be added."
'Defendants knowingly and willingly delivered very capable and sophisticated equipment for unlawful intercepting, monitoring, and filtering of electronic communications ("Intelligence Solutions") to Iranian officials,' the complaint alleged.
Not to diminish in any way what this journalist has been through...unlawful where exactly? Iran or the US?
Sounds a bit like suing Heckler and Koch because they sold a gun to the government that provided it to the cop that used it to shoot you when the situation didn't warrant it.
People replying to my sig annoy me. That's why I change it all the time.
Until our governments and police forces stop using this invasive technology we can't expect others to do so.
Not that I'm defending Siemens and Nokia for providing spy equipment to a regime known to torture and kill its citizens for exercising political speech, but how exactly does a court in Virginia have jurisdiction over German and Swedish companies for civil damages allegedly sustained in Iran against an Iranian citizen?
Well, the Iranian government is not going to respect an American court decision. So, they're just trying to get headlines by suing a merchant. Was that equipment under embargo? But wait, an American embargo on Iran is bad because it hurts the common people more than the government. But if there was no embargo then how was it illegal to sell the equipment? I suppose Siemens should have recognized the Iranian government as "evil" and refused to do any business with them on a purely voluntary basis. But then that's racism against Muslims! Can anyone help? I'm so confused.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
"sophisticated equipment for unlawful intercepting, monitoring, and filtering of electronic communications "
Unlawful export, I would understand. That would probably violate some or other US law, if there were components, exported from the US used in those products.
But unlawful monitoring? What would the logic behind this be?
Don't be naive. Every single telecommunications vendor has tapping capability built into their equipment. Every western government *mandates* that this functionality is built in. It is not the equipment manufacturer who is morally wrong here. If you think it's wrong in Iran, it's wrong in the US or Europe too.
Totalitarian regimes are, by and large, quite benign. They only start getting heavy handed if you attack or subvert the power structures. In some countries it may well be the least worst option. While there was a compelling case for attacking Iran, making the same mistake over Iraq by sabre rattling, spreading hysterical libertarian arguments in the so-called "free press" in the West, and fermenting trouble on the ground can be counter productive.
A large part of Iraq's problems are recovering from historical problems such as their last democracy being undermined, a strong but understandable Islamic revolution, and last but not least developing their own self-confidence, understanding, and role in the world. I don't rate their President very highly but I get the sense he knows his limits. The ruling clerics have shown signs of subtle reasoning and an ability to negotiate. The people are intelligent enough.
Comic book villain leaders, Cold War style subversion, and dissidents are so yesterday because it heaps more problems on top of problems. If you want to turn the heat up into a shooting war or see a spectacular collapse that's probably the way to go but haven't we moved on from that? Shouldn't we be educating, supporting, and investing? It's not a soft option. Indeed, it can take a lot of work and patience. But where has force and impatience got us?
Just wondering what "not severely tortured" would feel like.
At a rough guess some lawyers are going to make a load of money out of this. So regardless of the final outcome there will be some winners: That's the way it usually works.
while (true != false) process_more_stupid_code();
You are totally right: The LI (Lawful Intercept) interface is a required part of all relevant telecomms standards, i.e. you cannot manufacture/sell a GSM/3G/LTE setup which doesn't have that LI interface.
Terje
(Currently working on the architecture of a large national cell phone network.)
"almost all programming can be viewed as an exercise in caching"
All completely irrelevant since in the US some americans call their president "a muslim that's going to destroy america" and they're never arrested which is going much further then this journalist did.
In fact you are just being a hypocrite, if you had posted this from Iran about Iran then you'd be screwed over like the journalist so I don't see how you can draw any comparison between the two.
All your post really attempts to do is distract people from actual censorship issues and the slashdot mods have bought into it hook, line and sinker.
Then what do you think of the USA, who added "male" in the 14th Amendment (the first place it showed up) and an attempt to remove that word with the ERA was seen as hippie extremism? They may not be cattle, but they are, by Constitutional definition, not EQUALS. And when the opportunity came to rectify that, it was ignored. Many other countries place them on explicitly equal footing, as opposed to the USA that explicitly divides the sexes.
Learn to love Alaska
The fucked up thing is the first country in the Middle East that offered help to the US was Iran. Iran was absolutely shocked when Bush added them to his "Axis of Evil" in his State of the Union address in 2002, which Bush did simply because you can't have an axis of 2 countries (Iraq and North Korea) and not look like you're bullying them. Iran used to be a very moderate, western country. Women's rights, great economy, progressive thinking, socially moderate, etc. Most Iranians are the same as they were back then, only the powers that be are still reeling from having the democracy overthrown by meddling western powers (US & UK, as we know), which has resulted in this theocracy taking place as the perceived last-gasp of maintaining their autonomy. It's no wonder they are acting the way they are.
Incorrect The largest surveillance system in the world is ECHELON, run by the US, UK, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. North Korean "work camps" are clearly not jails. The US has a massively disproportionate jail population, and no snide wordplay is going to change that. Lying doesn't make your position any stronger.