Documents obtained by The Wall Street Journal open a rare window into a new global market for the off-the-shelf surveillance technology that has arisen in the decade since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
The techniques described in the trove of 200-plus marketing documents, spanning 36 companies, include hacking tools that enable governments to break into people's computers and cellphones, and "massive intercept" gear that can gather all Internet communications in a country.
Nikahang Kowsar's Mehdi Hashemi2045 GMT: Currency Watch. The Iranian rial, already at a historic low against the US dollar (see 1250 GMT), has slipped another 0.9% to 13560:1.
2035 GMT: The Battle Within. Alef, the website linked to key MP Ahmad Tavakoli --- a leading critic of the Government --- complains that the President has extended his "red line" against prosecution from his Cabinet to his advisors.
Another Government critic, MP Ali Motahari, has criticised both the raid on Iran newspaper and the ban on the reformist Etemaad. At the same time, he said that if Ali Akbar Javanfekr, the Presidential advisor and managing editor of Iran sentenced to a year in prison, and his colleagues had protested over the brutality against post-election protesters, they would not have experienced such a disaster.
Two videos of the thousands in the funeral procession in Ala'ali in Bahrain, for a man killed on Wednesday after an incident with a police jeep, before the march was dispersed by security forces:
1700 GMT: News has just arrived that Kamal Ghanzouri has been appointed as the new prime minister of Egypt by SCAF. Ghanzouri is a former prime minister, who served under ex-President Hosni Mubarak from 1996 to 1999 and has a PhD from the University of Michigan.
The 501-page report of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry deserves to be read in its entirety. This is a meticulous effort to document the events and transgressions of February and March, from the outbreak of pro-reform protests on 14 February to the regime's crackdown of 16 March and beyond.
We post the General Observations and Recommendations and, while noting again that justice to the Commission's work can only be done with an examination of the complete text, we offer the following 14-point guide to the conclusions.
1. Given the stronger tone that follows, the report is surprisingly quiet on the period between 14 February and 15 March, but it does put the onus for the crisis --- and the initial deaths --- on the regime: "Forceful confrontation of demonstrators involving the use of lethal force and resort to a heavy deployment of Public Security Forces led to the death of civilians. This caused a marked increase in the number of persons participating in protests
and led to a palpable escalation in their demands. As protests continued into
mid-March 2011, the general state of security in Bahrain deteriorated
considerably."
Dawn Near Tahrir Square In Egypt you get the feeling that the upper class has completely ignored the social roots of the January uprising, and at the same time backed a return to similar kinds of politics of patronage, where parties and movements try to buy the poor with handouts and cheap meat at Eid. People don't want to be given charity, they want to be given social rights. This too is political — it's not about economic mismanagement. It's not about an uprising of the poor. It's about the political vision for a social economy.
Whether it's about police brutality, social change or politics, my feeling is that Egyptians want to feel like they've actually had a revolution. Whoever gives them that feeling might win the people in Tahrir over.
Political Prisoners in Iran2020 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Student activist Rojin Mohammadi, studying medicine at the University of Manila, has been arrested at the airport on her return to Iran.
1955 GMT: Tough Talk of the Day. The Supreme Leader's military advisor, General Yahya Rahim Safavi, assures, "The IRGC [Revolutionary Guards] control the identity and destination of every US warship which intends to pass through the Strait of Hormuz. "And Americans fully respond to the IRGC's telecommunications center with complete answers."
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An estimated 40% of the world's oil supply passes through the Straits of Hormuz, at the entrance to the Persian Gulf.
Rahim Safavi also said that air defences protecting Israel were "inefficient" against Iran's arsenal: "“These missile shields which they have deployed in Turkey, occupied Palestine, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates cannot hit all our missiles. They may hit some of our missiles, but the number of our missiles is so large that they will not be able to target our missiles."
2150 GMT: The week of Thanksgiving 2011 will be remembered for what happened in the Middle East. Once again, Egypt was so eventful that it merited its own liveblog. Two other major developments will make the history books. In Yemen, President Saleh signed the Gulf Cooperation Council deal, effectively agreeing to trade his rule for immunity. In Bahrain, the independent report on human rights, and the regime's reaction to it, will likely set the stage for the next phase of unrest there.
With these two stories, and Egypt's news, Syria was doomed to the bottom of the priority list today. And yet, we saw some massively important developments, an unseen amount of protest in Damascus and Aleppo, and signs that Europe may be contemplating an intervention in the crisis.
There are many parallels between Yemen and Egypt, as both may have removed a dictator but neither has seen lasting change. In Bahrain, the opposition continues to struggle to be heard. But the developments in Syria may be the most important in the long run. With the news of protests reaching the reaching the two largest cities, the opposition appears stronger than it has ever been, and the Assad regime appears weaker. As Yemen and Egypt struggle to chart their next chapter, and the Bahraini opposition struggles to establish itself against a powerful regime, it appears that Syria could be the next domino to fall, perhaps the largest and most important domino yet.
2108 GMT: We still have an overhead feed from Tahrir Square at the top of this entry, but this live video feed appears to be from Mohamed Mahmoud street in Cairo:
2030 GMT: The live images from Alexandria are dramatic. So much tear gas was fired at a car that it lit on fire. At times, the gunfire is almost constant, though it is hard to tell whether the gunshots are tear gas cannisters, rubber-coated steel bullets, or live ammunition.
Protesters are now walking directly into the line of fire of the police.
There was a telling moment in the drama yesterday. As his senior advisor Ali Akbar Javanfekr was sitting in a chair in handcuffs, his face bruised, as 33 staff of Iran were arrested, as the building was ransacked, the President had to call the security forces and ask them to back off. They did so (after speaking with whom?), to the point of letting Javanfekr avoid immediate detention, but the point was made.
Beg, Mahmoud. Beg us to let you and your advisors survive.
Thursday, November 24, 2011 at 10:15
Documents obtained by The Wall Street Journal open a rare window into a new global market for the off-the-shelf surveillance technology that has arisen in the decade since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
