[liberationtech] Executive Order: "Targeting Human Rights Abuses Via Information Technology" (Syria, Iran)

[Jillian C. York]

There's nothing wrong with it in letter, imho, nor is it overreaching (a
good thing, considering the collateral damage of existing controls from
Commerce).  That said, it's:

a) too little too late.
b) ridiculous that it only covers Syria and Iran and not Bahrain.



On Mon, Apr 23, 2012 at 10:04 AM, Andrew Lewis <andrew at pdqvpn.com> wrote:

> Well....
>
>  My fear is that either this will be fragrantly violated by cross shipping
> equipment via Dubai, or just lead to an increase in the purchase of new
> equipment from ZTE/Hauwei for all of the infrastructure. In the worst case
> scenario it creates a scapegoat similar to the one Cuba uses to explain
> away why infrastructure is so bad in country.
>
>
> They seem to also be missing quite a few players in the Syrian market
> specifically MTN-Syria, the number 2 in the local cell market, while also
> being a South African owned subsidiary company.
>
> On another note, these sanctions were announced parallel to another
> initiative to focus the US NSC on human rights and genocide, which sounds
> like an amazing step in the right direction. On the other hand I am still
> going to hold my breath until I see what it actually does.
>
> -Andrew
>
>
> On Apr 23, 2012, at 12:44 PM, Collin Anderson wrote:
>
> FYI
>
>
> http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/04/23/letter-blocking-property-and-suspending-entry-united-states-certain-pers
>
> http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/04/23/executive-order-blocking-property-and-suspending-entry-united-states-cer
>
> http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/OFAC-Enforcement/Documents/ghravity_eo_fact_sheet.pdf
>
> ----
>
> Letter -- Blocking the Property and Suspending Entry into the United
> States of Certain Persons with Respect to Grave Human Rights Abuses by the
> Governments of Iran and Syria via Information Technology
>
> Dear Mr. Speaker: (Dear Mr. President:)
>
> Pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C.
> 1701 et seq.) (IEEPA), I hereby report that I have issued an Executive
> Order (the "order") that takes additional steps with respect to the
> national emergencies declared in Executive Order 12957 of March 15, 1995,
> and relied on for additional steps in subsequent Executive Orders, and in
> Executive Order 13338 of May 11, 2004, as modified in scope and relied on
> for additional steps in subsequent Executive Orders.
>
> I have determined that the commission of serious human rights abuses
> against the people of Iran and Syria by their governments, facilitated by
> computer and network disruption, monitoring, and tracking by those
> governments, and abetted by entities in Iran and Syria that are complicit
> in those governments' malign use of technology for those purposes, threaten
> the national security and foreign policy of the United States. Consistent
> with the vital importance of providing technology that enables the Iranian
> and Syrian people to freely communicate with each other and the outside
> world, as well as the preservation, to the extent possible, of global
> telecommunications supply chains for essential products and services to
> enable the free flow of information, the measures in the order are designed
> primarily to address the need to prevent entities located in whole or in
> part in Iran and Syria from facilitating or committing serious human rights
> abuses. To address this situation, the order takes additional steps with
> respect to the national emergencies described above.
>
> The order blocks the property and interests in property, and suspends
> entry into the United States, of persons listed in the Annex to the order,
> as well as persons determined by the Secretary of the Treasury, in
> consultation with or at the recommendation of the Secretary of State:
>
>  to have operated, or to have directed the operation of, information and
> communications technology that facilitates computer or network disruption,
> monitoring, or tracking that could assist in or enable grave rights abuses
> by or on behalf of the Government of Iran or the Government of Syria;
>
>  to have sold, leased, or otherwise provided, directly or indirectly,
> goods, services, or technology to Iran or Syria likely to be used to
> facilitate computer or network disruption, monitoring, or tracking that
> could assist in or enable grave human rights abuses by or on behalf of the
> Government of Iran or the Government of Syria;
>
>  to have materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material,
> or technological support for, or goods or services to or in support of, the
> activities described above or any person whose property and interests in
> property are blocked pursuant to the order; or
>
>  to be owned or controlled by, or to have acted or purported to act for
> or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, any person whose property and
> interests in property are blocked pursuant to the order.
>
> I have delegated to the Secretary of the Treasury the authority, in
> consultation with the Secretary of State, to take such actions, including
> the promulgation of rules and regulations, and to employ all powers granted
> to the President by IEEPA, as may be necessary to carry out the purposes of
> the order.
>
> All agencies of the United States Government are directed to take all
> appropriate measures within their authority to carry out the provisions of
> the order.
>
> I am enclosing a copy of the Executive Order I have issued.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> BARACK OBAMA
>
> --
> *Collin David Anderson*
> averysmallbird.com | @cda | Washington, D.C.
>
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-- 
*+1-857-891-4244 |** jilliancyork.com | @jilliancyork *

"We must not be afraid of dreaming the seemingly impossible if we want the
seemingly impossible to become a reality" - *Vaclav Havel*
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