Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Eye on Iran: Report: Web Monitoring Devices Made by U.S. Firm Blue Coat Detected in Iran, Sudan











For continuing coverage follow us on Twitter and join our Facebook group.
  
Top Stories

WashPost: "American-made devices used for Internet monitoring have been detected on government and commercial computer networks in Iran and Sudan, in apparent violation of U.S. sanctions that ban the sale of goods, services or technology to the autocratic states, according to new research. Several of the devices, manufactured by California-based Blue Coat Systems, were also discovered in Syria. Although Blue Coat tools have been identified in Syria in the past, the new research indicates that the government of President Bashar al-Assad has more of the monitoring devices than previously known... The Citizen Lab, based at the Munk School of Global Affairs, found six devices in Iran, three in Sudan and four in Syria, including on networks operated by the state-owned Syrian Telecommunications Establishment. Each device, Marquis-Boire said, probably can monitor the traffic of thousands of individual users... Iran, which uses sophisticated tools to censor the Internet and crack down on dissidents, is also facing tough economic sanctions imposed by Western countries seeking to curb its nuclear advances. Still, the Citizen Lab said it detected the presence of Blue Coat's devices on several networks, including one belonging to the Information Technology Co., which is partially owned by Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps. The elite unit is believed to be heavily involved in Iran's censorship of the Internet." http://t.uani.com/18KxRmF

Reuters: "Iran is to assign all citizens an individual email address which the communications minister said on Monday would aid interaction between state authorities and the people. It was unclear whether the move would add to regulations on Internet use imposed by a conservative Islamist leadership wary of secular cultural influences it blames on the West. President-elect Hassan Rouhani, a relative moderate who takes office next month, has called for less state intervention in people's private lives, including less filtering of the Internet and a loosening of media controls. More than half of the Islamic Republic's 75 million people use the Internet, official figures show. But authorities have tried to limit access with tools including a filter that blocks many websites on the grounds they are offensive or criminal." http://t.uani.com/11ynGPU

Reuters: "Iran on Monday called the Egyptian army's ousting of president Mohamed Mursi 'unacceptable' and said Israel and the West did not want to see a powerful Egypt. The comments from Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Araqchi were more disapproving than his immediate reaction last Thursday, when he merely called for the Egyptian people's 'legitimate demands' to be fulfilled. Iran welcomed the popular overthrow of Hosni Mubarak in 2011, calling it an 'Islamic awakening' inspired in part by its own 1979 revolution, and after Mursi's election victory last year it sought to repair its strained ties with Egypt... Araqchi warned against greater divisions in Egyptian society, adding: 'Certainly foreign hands are also at work, and ... the West and the Zionist regime (Israel) will not want a powerful Egypt.'" http://t.uani.com/15047gq
Election Repression Toolkit   
Sanctions

AFP: "French automaker PSA Peugeot Citroen on Monday said its global sales plunged almost 10 percent in the first half of the year, mainly owing to a weak European market... In February, PSA also saw its sales of component kit deliveries to Iran come to an abrupt halt following the tightening of international sanctions. A year ago, PSA sold 142,000 units of the kits to Iran." http://t.uani.com/12AP7DF

Human Rights


Iran Human Rights: "Three prisoners were hanged in the prison of Ardebil (northwestern Iran) early this morning. According to the official site of the Iranian Judiciary in Ardebil, three prisoners convicted of drug related charges were hanged in the prison of Ardebil. Three other prisoners were hanged in the same prison on July 6. Announcing the news about today's executions, head of the Judiciary in Ardebil said that more executions are expected in the coming days in Ardebil." http://t.uani.com/1a8oFqd

Opinion & Analysis

Gary Gambill in FPRI: "The growing infusion of Iranian-backed Lebanese and Iraqi Shiite fighters into the Syrian civil war is causing some veteran pundits to panic. Vali Nasr, dean of the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, warns that 'Iran is beating the U.S. in Syria.' Former Bush administration deputy national security adviser Elliot Abrams sees 'a humiliating defeat of the United States at the hands of Iran.' Nothing could be further from the truth. Setting aside the matter of how Washington can be losing a war it is not fighting, the claim that Iran is winning is dead wrong. The Islamic Republic's headlong intervention in Syria is akin to Nazi Germany's surge of military forces into the Battle of Stalingrad in the fall of 1942 - an operationally competent, strategic blunder of epic proportions. To be sure, the influx of thousands of foreign (mostly non-Iranian) Shiite fighters into Syria in recent months has enabled pro-regime forces to regain some ground in the Damascus suburbs and a belt of territory linking the capital to Homs and the coast. The town of Qusayr, critical to both rebel and regime supply lines into Lebanon, fell on June 5. That's a shame, but the Iranian surge won't prevent the overwhelmingly Sunni Arab rebels from eventually prevailing on the battlefield. Sunni Arabs have a 5-to-1 demographic edge over the minority Alawites who comprise most uniformed and paramilitary pro-regime combatants, and a 2-to-1 advantage over all of Syria's ethno-sectarian minorities combined. The rebels are strongly supported by the overwhelming majority of Arabs and Muslims worldwide who are Sunnis, and their four principal sponsors - Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Jordan - have a GDP well over twice that of Iran. Russia continues to do business with the regime, but it won't intervene decisively enough to change the math. Like the vaunted German Wehrmacht in the Stalingrad kessel, Iran's expeditionary forces have been thrown into a tactical military environment for which they are woefully unprepared. Although Hezbollah wrote the book on guerrilla warfare against conventional militaries, it has little experience fighting battle-hardened insurgents on unfamiliar terrain - and it shows. At least 141 Hezbollah fighters were killed in the span of just one month fighting in the battle for Qusayr, many of them elite commandos who cannot easily be replaced." http://t.uani.com/18KyBIx

Mehdi Khalaji in WINEP: "The collapse of the Morsi government poses new challenges for Iran at a time when its reputation in the Middle East has been taking hits from all sides. Over the past two years, Tehran sought to create an alternative narrative for the Arab Spring as crystallized in Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's term 'Islamic awakening.' This narrative portrayed the unrest in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, and Bahrain as an anti-Western movement inspired by Iran's 1979 revolution and aimed at establishing Iranian-style Islamic governments. Developments in Syria, Bahrain, and Egypt have spoiled this narrative, however. Iran's reaction to protests in Bahrain disappointed Shiites throughout the region because it did not go beyond words, and because it helped the island's Sunni rulers depict the uprising as a sectarian conflict rather than a democratic movement. Meanwhile, Tehran's overt support to the Syrian government amid massive bloodshed has seriously damaged the Islamic Republic's image in the Muslim world. In this context, the Muslim Brotherhood's failed government in Egypt is another significant blow to Tehran. Iran's leaders cut off diplomatic relations with Cairo after it signed the peace treaty with Israel in 1979, and subsequent Egyptian policies often ran counter to Tehran's designs. For example, Iran's longtime military and financial support for Hamas gave the regime influence in the Palestinian territories and beyond, but the Mubarak government's opposition to the group threatened this sway. Accordingly, Tehran tried to improve its relations with the Muslim Brotherhood and find common ground with Islamist groups inside and outside Egypt. The Brotherhood's post-Mubarak rise to power convinced Tehran that it could bridge its theological and political differences with the group, resume normal relations with Egypt, and strengthen its position in Gaza and, ultimately, the region." http://t.uani.com/14G7cTU

Eye on Iran is a periodic news summary from United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) a program of the American Coalition Against Nuclear Iran, Inc., a tax-exempt organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Eye on Iran is not intended as a comprehensive media clips summary but rather a selection of media elements with discreet analysis in a PDA friendly format. For more information please email Press@UnitedAgainstNuclearIran.com

United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) is a non-partisan, broad-based coalition that is united in a commitment to prevent Iran from fulfilling its ambition to become a regional super-power possessing nuclear weapons.  UANI is an issue-based coalition in which each coalition member will have its own interests as well as the collective goal of advancing an Iran free of nuclear weapons.

No comments:

Post a Comment