[Washington Times] Eli Lake - Two European companies 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 a monitoring center to Irantelecom, Iran's state-owned telephone company. A spokesman for NSN said the servers were sold for "lawful intercept functionality" to tap phones, read e-mails and surveil electronic data. 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 could provide a valuable tool to intensify repression.
2009-04-14 06:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive