Arash Aramesh
Since the publication of US State Department’s wires and cables on WikiLeaks, the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has tried to downplay the importance of revealed documents, especially those dealing with senior Arab leaders requesting military attacks by the US against Iranian targets. Meanwhile, President Ahmadinejad accused the US of being behind the WikiLeaks scandal and claimed that the US was waging a “psychological war” against the Islamic Republic. more»
Shayan Ghajar
On October 29 the United Nations General Assembly received a draft resolution (pdf file) signed by over three dozen nations censuring Iran for human rights abuses. The resolution did not shy away from highlighting Iran’s more flagrant abuses of human rights, including “torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, including flogging and amputations,” executions of children, stoning and strangulation, misogyny, and ethnic and religious discrimination, among other abuses. more»
Shayan Ghajar
Turkey currently finds itself in the unenviable position of mediating between the demands of its most powerful NATO ally, the United States, and its neighbor Iran in two different issues critical to its foreign relations. The first issue Turkey will have to address in the coming month is the proposed missile shield NATO hopes to install on Turkish soil to defend its members against potential missile attacks from Russia or Iran. After Turkey’s decision on the shield is finalized–which will inevitably irk either NATO or Iran and Russia–Turkey must determine its role in the next round of proposed nuclear negotiations between Iran and the P5+1. While historically Turkey has enjoyed its status as a literal and figurative bridge between East and West, when it comes to Iran, Turkey is caught in the middle of an uncomfortable dilemma. more»
Iran Filters and Jams Internet to Combat the Opposition
Arash Aramesh
Among all the countries in the Middle East and Persian Gulf, Iran has the most Internet users. For the past six months, Iran’s young population has used this effective medium as a tool for the opposition movement to organize events and demonstrations.
Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society says Iran is home to one of the world’s richest and most varied blogospheres, with major clusters for secularist and reformist politics as well as conservative politics, for “CyberShia” religious discussion as well as Persian poetry appreciation.
At the same time, the OpenNet Initiative says Iran has one of the world’s most extensive Net filtering systems, on par with China’s. Iranians, however, manage to get around the filters by using proxy servers. Many major Iranian news sources such as Voice of America and Radio Farda—both funded by the U.S. government—make daily announcements informing their viewers and listeners how to use proxies.
In order to combat the use of Internet by the opposition, the authorities have purchased sophisticated technology from Western companies to filter undesired information and monitor the activities of Iran’s 23 million Internet users. This has caused a backlash in Iran against these companies, chief among them are Finland’s Nokia and Germany’s Siemens. The Wall Street Journal provided some good information on this topic outlining the purchases made by the Iranian authorities and how these new sophisticated technologies help them monitor the activities of the opposition.
The Iranian government, Iran’s only Internet service provider, plans ahead of demonstrations and shuts down access to the Internet and, at times, cell phone communication. This limits the opposition’s ability to organize and reach a large number of people. For instance, prior to the Student Day protests on December 7, the Iranian authorities reduced Internet speeds in the country to such a slow pace that it was impossible for most to use the Internet effectively.
The Iranian government has a history of shutting down means of communication in order to prevent mass demonstrations. More than the Internet, the Iranian masses use their cell phones and the SMS feature. Political jokes and opposition articles circulate freely from phone to phone via SMS. After the disputed results of the June 12 election were announced, the Iranian authorities, fearing large gatherings and demonstrations, shut down the entire SMS network in the country. SMS services in Tehran and some major cities were down even two weeks after the election. One article describes how SMS networks were shut down by the government from June 11, a day before the election, and were not reactivated until ten days later.
In order to retaliate against the government’s efforts at silencing the opposition on the Internet, opposition activists wave what is called a DOS Attack, sending an enormous amount of traffic to overload the server. OpenNet outlines how the government cracks down on digital means of organization and how the opposition responded to it. According to OpenNet, restricted Internet access made it extremely difficult for news and photos to reach the outside world, but the opposition managed to do it anyway.