During the last two years I have been talking about Middle East regimes and their relations with western companies that provided them with Hi-Tech repression tools. With evidences collected during Arab uprisings we started to understand that there is multibillion-dollar market between western companies and oppressive regimes in MENA. My latest article explained how Arab dictators used these tools to track, hack, and kill innocent people. But it seems that this is not the end of the story…!
Wikileaks released the long-awaited leak of the year (THE SPY FILES)
“Who here has an iPhone? Who here has a Blackberry?” asked Julian Assange at a press conference in London. “Who uses Gmail? Well, you’re all screwed.”
All these services are selling details to mass surveillance companies across world, he said. Assange also said that”Right now, no banking transaction on the internet can be considered secure”.
Police and intelligence services can “take over computers without the help or knowledge of the telecommunication providers,” said a WikiLeaks statement. “Users’ physical location can be tracked if they are carrying a mobile phone, even if it is only on standby.”
The Spy Files Portal published 287 file so far and still hundreds to come!
It includes Catalogues, brochures, manuals, presentations, contracts, and papers for all kind of surveillance and spying tools that are used around the world and also by Arab dictators!
The following map represents valuable data for those looking to understand the origin of specific software from specific country around the world. It is also called:
“The United Nations of Surveillance”
This huge leak requires extensive study and research for each document and links it with the events on current Geo-political map. I can’t really think of spying and surveillance tools without keeping politics in mind..!
The followings are fast findings and highlights for Middle East links:
Egypt
GAMMA Group software (Arabic)
GAMMA Group (German)
Israeli Technology Monitors Egypt’s Cell Phone (NARUS)
Vendor(s): GAMMA
Libya
A Guide to Libya’s Surveillance Network
listening in on Libya
Gaddafi Surveillance
Vendor(s): AMESYS : VASTECH
Tunisia
Microsoft aided Ben Ali’s regime! (Wikileaks cable)
Bahrain
Vendor(s): Bluecoat : TROVICOR : GAMA
Nokia Siemens helps Bahrain
BBC Radio (Government Spies on People in Bahrain)
Iran
Vendor(S): CREATIVITY : ERICSSON : TROVICOR
OMAN
Vendor(S): GAMMA
Qatar
Vendor(s): Bluecoat : NETSWEEPER
Aiding repression or just doing business?
Saudi Arabia
Vendor(s): GAMMA
Syria
Vendor(s): AREA – UTIMACO – QOSMOS – BLUECOAT – SEIMENS
UAE
Vendors: BLUECOAT – NETSWEEPER – SS8 (Wikileaks Cable source)
(Spy Files)
Yemen
Vendors: NETSWEEPER – GAMMA
It looks like this industry booming after 9/11 and at the beginning of War on Terror. Western companies sold surveillance and spying tools especially to Middle East as an effective technical weapon against terrorists. Since western governments wanted the dictators to be part of the game, they supplied them with surveillance and spying technology.
When the so called “Global War on Terrorism” started to bankrupts, dictators and their tools started to fall and new maps begin to unfold..!