US Firms Also Linked to Iranian Internet Censors

Many of those hoping the U.S. and West can avoid armed intervention or inevitably “leaky” trade embargoes against Iranian nuclear and regional ambitions hope that eventual “regime change” emerging from among Iranians themselves will do the trick, if in time before a catastrophe initiated by the fanatics ruling Iran.

While much attention is focused on the willing, profit-driven complicity of U.S. and Western technology firms in furthering China’s Internet censorship, similar behavior in Iran is even more troubling. Simply, the immediate threat from Iran is more pressing, and some Western firms’ trade behavior is even more contradictory to peaceful transition hopes.

As the most extensive study of “Internet Filtering in Iran” by the international Opennet Initiative and Harvard Law’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society said in its Executive Summary:

”Iran has adopted one of the world’s most substantial Internet censorship regimes….Iran is also one of a growing number of countries, particularly in the Middle East region, that rely upon commercial software developed by for-profit United States companies to carry out the core of its filtering regime.”

The report continues with the example of Iran’s use of SmartFilter from the U.S.:

”In effect, Iran outsources many of its decisions for what its citizens can access on the Internet to a United States company, which in turn profits from its complicity in such a regime.”

SmartFilter’s corporate parent, Secure Computing says its software has been pirated by Iran. However, it does sell it to Tunisia, another leading Internet censorship state. Clearly, increased U.S. controls over the export of such dual-use software is required.

The BBC reports that:

“Unlike China, which filters content in a centralized way at the national level, the Iranian government relies on the country’s various internet service providers to assist with its censorship….SmartFilter, according to the Secure Computing website, comes with a database of millions of blockable web addresses, in more than 60 categories.”

The BBC report interviewed the co-director of Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society:

”I take them at their word, -- that they are ‘shocked to find gambling going on in this establishment,’ to quote from the movie Casablanca,” said Jonathan Zittrain co-director of…one of the groups who helped write the Iran report. “But the fact remains that the software has been in use for an extended period of time there. And we’ve seen Secure Computing software turn up in more than just Iran. We’ve seen it in Saudi Arabia as well,” he said….”I think there’s a spectrum ranging from providing steel to a regime, to providing them with finished bullets, to providing them with execution services, where at some point you say, ‘we’re not going to do it’.”

According to the director of the ISP association Data Communications Company of Iran, “Iranian-made filtering applications do not have the quality of ‘foreign-made’ software’s.”

Tehran’s chief prosecutor has the lead in cracking down on Internet “criminals.” According to the BBC Persian service, “Mortazavi has been directly involved in the recent arrests of technicians and journalists related to a few reformist websites and is aid to be responsible for torturing them.”

Iranian rulers’ self-isolation of its peoples marches on. The BBC reports three days ago that, “The Iranian authorities have started to block the BBC’s Persian language Internet site, for the first time.”

Meanwhile, Iran is also moving toward the Chinese model of more centralized censorship. Last September an Iranian company, Delta Global, won the contract “for the management of the Internet control and censorship system.” Delta Global’s head said “he wanted to put an end to ‘the anarchy of the Internet Service providers (ISP’s)’ by centralizing the filtering system. He also claimed that Delta Global’s technology was capable of blocking access to all the tools used to get round censorship.”

Reporters Without Borders noted, “This is very bad news for Iranian bloggers and Internet users.”

The report also notes, even more ominously for those who hope for internal fissures among Iran’s rulers or with its peoples to lead to moderation, “The ban points to internal struggles within the conservative camp” as those differing from Ahmadinejad are also silenced.

There are delicate issues involved in a U.S. embargo of such software to Iran, including their use for more tolerable or desirable uses in quashing some of the Middle East’s infamously legendary sex and pornography trade. Also, Iran or others may penetrate the embargo. Nonetheless, technological means exist to block usage from, say, an Iranian site.

Also, nonetheless, it is just as important that the U.S. have a consistent policy in accomplishing its foreign policy goals, if it is to lead by example. Allowing such contrary dual-use technology to flow into the hands of the Iranian tyrants is not consistent with our hopes and goals for more peaceful from-within regime change.

UPDATE: In correcting a link, I realized I'd left out this message from Secure Computing:

We sell to ISPs where the law allows. It's really up the customer how they use our software.
David Burt
Public Relations Manager
Secure Computing(r)
Securing connections between people, applications, and networks(tm)www.securecomputing.com
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