Torture in Bahrain Aided by Nokia Siemens

Torture victims in Bahrain report that interrogators confronted them with detailed transcripts of mobile phone conversations. Surveillance equipment in Bahrain was sold by Siemens AG and maintained by Nokia Siemens Networks and Trovicor, according to company employees who requested anonymity. “The use of the system for interrogation in Bahrain illustrates how Western-produced surveillance technology sold to one authoritarian government became an investigative tool of choice to gather information about political dissidents – and silence them,” write Vernon Silver and Ben Elgin for Bloomberg. Monitoring technology is among the newest artillery in an unfolding digital arms race and abuses are rife, notes one European parliament member, yet the US and Europe impose few export restrictions on such equipment. The companies contend that end users are accountable for how tools are used. For regimes desperate to hang on to power, the products are weapons against any and all critics. – YaleGlobal