Opinion Editorials, January 2011

Boeing-Owned Narus of Sunnyvale, California Americans Helped Mubarak to Crush Dissent

By Tariq Khattak

Al-Jazeerah, CCUN, January 31, 2011

 
Egypt's Mubarak regime today shut down Internet and cell phone communications before launching a violent crackdown against protesters.
 
It has been just discovered that one American company — Boeing-owned Narus of Sunnyvale, Calif. — has sold Egypt "Deep Packet Inspection" (DPI) equipment that can be used by the regime to track, target and crush political dissent over the Internet and mobile phones.
 
Egyptian security forces have already arrested leading opposition figures for speaking out online. At such a crucial moment of democratic upheaval, it’s shocking that an American company would help Egypt repress its people.
 
Since the 2009 crackdown in Iran, HR bodies have raised the alarm over the abuse of this technology. Today, they are calling on Congress to investigate global trafficking in DPI technology by American firms.
 
Masses seem to agree that democracy everywhere is at risk when you let repressive regimes block open networks.
 
Internet Censorship is a real challenge, and not one any particular industry — much less any single company — can tackle on its own.
 
America is jeopardising efforts to promote freedom of expression.
 
The power to control the Internet and the resulting harm to democracy are so disturbing that the threshold for using DPI must be set very high. That’s why, before DPI becomes more widely used around the world and at home, such surveillance technologies must be controlled.
 
Today, we’re watching the grave dangers of DPI technology unfold in real time on the streets of Cairo, it’s urgent that people do everything they can to protect free speech and democracy.
 

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