Secret Police: Big Business
Jun. 24th, 2009 11:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
drewkittyhttp://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.
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.
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no subject
Date: 2009-06-24 07:17 pm (UTC)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.