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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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