Secret Police: Big Business

[drewkitty]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124562668777335653.html

The Iranian secret police and paramilitary (such as the Basij) are dependent on Western and Asian technologies, munitions and weapons systems, including observation, communications and torture equipment. This equipment is purchased by the West's thirst for oil.

"The [Iranian police] monitoring capability was provided, at least in part, by a joint venture of Siemens AG, the German conglomerate, and Nokia Corp., the Finnish cellphone company, in the second half of 2008, Ben Roome, a spokesman for the joint venture, confirmed."

In viewing video, I've seen stereotypically Western and modern equipment in use by both Iranian police and authorized paramilitaries. Night vision equipment, transparent Lexan riot shields (a General Electric invention with the style similar to ones sold by Galls in Kentucky), Japanese Honda motorcycles, and tear gas / nonlethal munitions which closely resemble those from Defense Technologies of the USA, a subsidiary of BAE systems which conducts worldwide sales, and many European manufacturers.

I'm just saying. But I will never again buy a Nokia product.

By the way, the weak link of the Basij is their presence in the community. The community should expel them. "It's 3 AM, you don't belong here." The knock on the door in the night is not just a secret police tactic.

Comments

[bradhicks.livejournal.com]

The problem with boycotting the Iranian government's technology providers is that, frankly, it's almost random who got the contract. You'd really have to boycott all of the bidders, and that would be, sadly, everybody in those industries. Technology makers don't care what their tools get used for. Sad but true fact.

There was something interesting about your last point on Rachel Maddow's show last night: according to one expert who's spoken to people in Tehran by phone, there's an interesting bit of back-and-forth psy-war going on over just that. On Saturday, the Basij started marking the doors of people they knew had been at protests. By Saturday night, other people were marking, differently, the doors of all known Basij.

[thomasj.livejournal.com]

How exactly do you know that the companies supplying their products to Iran, had any idea it would be used in those ways?

Should we boycott anyone who exports anything to Iran?

Should I boycott google because they provide a censored version of their search services to China?

If you follow these routes, eventually there isn't anything left to use.

[drewkitty.livejournal.com]

>> How exactly do you know that the companies supplying their products to Iran, had any idea it would be used in those ways?

An invoice reading "Iranian Police Ministry" is fairly definitive. Sales reps demonstrating various uses of ordinance know what they are selling and to who. Also there is an element of obviousness here: a shipment of 1000 cattle prods to the Ministry for Truth is not for herding sheep, at least not literally.

Also, Google "End User Certificate."

>> Should we boycott anyone who exports anything to Iran?

Present US law strictly regulates exports to Iran and limits them to certain categories. Financial transactions with Iranian entities outside these rules violate US banking law. Present US law requires third party sanctions for certain systems and components sold to Iran by non-US based companies, particularly those for military use.

See detailed guidance at http://www.treas.gov/offices/enforcement/ofac/programs/iran/iran.shtml

However net exports from the US to Iran have increased and there is a lot of middleman export, largely through the UAE. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090621/ap_on_bi_ge/us_iran_buying_american and http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/statistics/product/enduse/exports/c5070.html

This is the facts. All I said was "I'm just saying."

>> Should I boycott google because they provide a censored version of their search services to China?

Up to you. Depends on whether or not you believe their protestations that they are not evil.

>> If you follow these routes, eventually there isn't anything left to use.

Freedom of association includes the freedom not to associate with people who choose to support oppressive regimes.

Also there are often nontraditional and third party sources for just about everything if you look hard enough.