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IPFS News Link • Inventions

U.S. Can’t Find Iran’s Spy-Tech Suppliers

• Adam Rawnsley via WIRED.com

Want to know which companies are playing a double game of doing business with America and selling spy gear to Iran? Well, so would the Government Accountability Office, Congress’ investigative arm. They just released a report saying they can’t find any examples. But don’t take comfort in the absence of suspects. The reason might just be because Iran is getting pretty good at building its own snoop tech and buying it covertly.

In 2010, Congress tried to give Iranian dissidents a leg up against the mullahs behind the firewalls through the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act and the Ike Skelton National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2011. Sections of the laws banned any U.S. government executive agency from doing business with companies that sell “sensitive” technology to Iran that could allow them to spy on domestic telecommunications traffic.

Congress also asked the Government Accountability Office (GAO) with following up on the laws implementation. Thursday, GAO released a report detailing the results. It couldn’t find any companies in violation. But as the accounting office warns, just because they didn’t turn up any examples, doesn’t mean Iran is having a hard time spying on its own discontents.

 

www.universityofreason.com/a/29887/KWADzukm