-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 I'd be interested to hear the views of people on this list as to whether they see themselves as being involved in a proxy war.
Cheers, Michael On 01/11/12 20:19, Rachel Fredman wrote: > Of interest to many on this list: > > > Syria's Digital Proxy War > > > By Sean Lyngaas > > /Iran and the United States are squaring off in a life-or-death > battle for information./ > > RTR2YJLN-615.jpg A Free Syrian Army fighter speaks on a radio in al > Qusayr. (Goran Tomasevic/Reuters) > > There is a proxy war going on in Syria, one measured in megabytes > rather than in arms. On one side, Iran is providing Bashar > al-Assad's regime with the tools of digital dictatorship to locate > and bait the Syrian opposition. On the other side, the United > States is trying to help the opposition protect itself from such > attacks and set up alternate channels of communication. The outcome > of this proxy war will affect the lives of many Syrians and the > credibility of the State Department's efforts to promote digital > freedom internationally. > > The Syrian regime has long been interested in improving its online > repression. Dlshad Othman, a member of the Syrian opposition and > an Internet expert, says that in recent years the regime has sent > its bureaucrats abroad for technical training in places like Dubai. > But Assad's censorship efforts remained clumsy and at times > ineffectual until the uprising against him began last year. He then > re-opened social media to the public in order to better monitor and > crush dissent, and confided in the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence > and Security for surveillance techniques. We are now seeing Iran's > sophisticated online crackdown on its own Green Movement in 2009 > being applied by Assad in Syria. Pro-regime hackers pose as > dissidents > <http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/iran-aids-syria-in-tracking-opposition-via-electronic-surveillance-us-officials-say/2012/10/09/410a3cae-1224-11e2-a16b-2c110031514a_story.html> > > in chat rooms to lure and locate the opposition before gunmen are > dispatched to kill them. > > Contrary to recent reports that the Syrian regime could unplug the > country from the web entirely, Assad considers the Internet a vital > tool to winning the civil war. This is a cyber war, Othman told me. > It is an opportune time for the United States to show that its > support of digital freedom can save lives. If communications > technology is the way in which the United States chooses to > intervene in the Syrian conflict, why not unleash the full > capabilities of American technology? > > An argument against arming the rebels is the possibility of > weapons ending up in jihadist hands. But is communications > equipment just as dangerous? On the contrary, more coordinated and > safer communications between commanding officers in the Free Syrian > Army and the jihadists who have joined their cause may help reel in > the latter in a post-Assad Syria. > > There are currently two separate U.S. policies that are falling > short of Washington's goal of safer and more widespread > communication among the Syrian opposition. The first is American > sanctions on Syria that make it more difficult for the regime's > opponents to obtain vital anti-tracking software. With fewer tools > to evade government surveillance, these Syrian activists are more > vulnerable to Assad's death squads. The second is the State > Department's distribution of satellite phones, modems, and other > gear to the Syrian opposition through a training program based in > Istanbul. Reports that this equipment has only on occasion reached > the front lines bode ill for the rebels and for America's future > influence in Syria. > > Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has made the freedom to > communicate -- whether online, on the phone, or in the public > square -- a central goal of U.S. statecraft over the last four > years. The State Department has ramped up funding for projects > promoting Internet freedom, with $30 million allocated last year on > circumventing censorship. > > But for every dollar the United States has spent on Internet > freedom, countries like Iran and China have spent many times more > in countermeasures. Iran has spent about $1 billion on an internal > version of the Internet that analysts say is nearing completion. > /The Washington Post /reported > <http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/online-tools-to-skirt-internet-censorship-overwhelmed-by-demand/2012/10/21/390457a2-082d-11e2-858a-5311df86ab04_story.html> > > this week that there is a shortfall in funding for the State Department > Internet freedom program. With budget cuts looming over many U.S. > foreign aid programs because of the fiscal crisis, the funding gap > between Tehran and Washington on the subject seems likely to > widen. > > Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has called his > country's investment in Internet censorship "the soft war" against > the United States and he sees it as a strategic asset to be > deployed to protect its regional interests. > > "Nowhere in the region has (censorship) been as severe as in Iran, > which is what makes their assisting Syria so dangerous," Jillian C. > York, an expert on Internet censorship at the Electronic Frontier > Foundation (EFF), told me in an email. The Syrian opposition could > benefit greatly from technical assistance > <https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/09/stop-the-piecemeal-export-approach> > > to circumvent government surveillance. But U.S. sanctions on Syria make > it illegal for American tech firms to sell this software to the > Syrian opposition. The few exemptions that exist have not been > effective in making this software more available to Syrian users. > > As for the estimated $10 million in communications equipment that > the State Department designated for the "Office of Syrian > Opposition Support," details are hard to come by. State Department > officials declined to comment for this article and communications > experts interviewed said the aid is shrouded in secrecy. "It's been > totally non-transparent," said EFF's Jillian York. "While I > understand the need for some secrecy, the State Department should > make this information available to certain groups, as we have no > idea if they're following important security procedures." > > According to reports from /The Washington Post > <http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/syrian-activists-say-pledges-of-us-communications-aid-are-largely-unfulfilled/2012/08/20/14dff95a-eaf8-11e1-9ddc-340d5efb1e9c_story.html> > > /and /The Telegraph > <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/9500503/Britain-and-US-plan-a-Syrian-revolution-from-an-innocuous-office-block-in-Istanbul.html>/, > > the communications aid comes in the form of satellite phones, laptops, > and other equipment that are distributed from an office in Istanbul > to heavily vetted Syrians. The State Department says that 900 > satellite phones have been distributed and 1,000 activists have > been trained to use the equipment. > > But Istanbul's sheer distance from the Syrian border means the > equipment and training are off-limits to many opposition activists > and rebels located in Syria. And whether or not the equipment is > reaching the rebels, the perception that it isn't matters for > America's credibility in the conflict. The rebels' impressions > about who was there for them when they were under siege will be > hard to change. This will leave bitter memories and diminish > American influence in Syria going forward. > > This article available online at: > > http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/10/syrias-digital-proxy-war/264309/ > > > > > -- Rachel Fredman c: 608-512-5726 Skype: rachel.fredman1 > > > > -- Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password at: > https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.10 (GNU/Linux) iQEcBAEBAgAGBQJQk6LpAAoJEBEET9GfxSfMJFQH/iBDJ+uOwgQTP931ySVYgtIc TotFyOGauZTA+A3F5+xoiH2LZhQ3aYU7sBxZCoY5pYwJsqWxLzkL94Rf2+zwmF9J pJ47LCPhYBsuY5fvk+korlKp6csLunKaaQTZnqfy9gEWfB4pWDZT9mY0vwRyG9ie QPgP4Qu4+OEF4noqRHBg2waj3IeWxC8wqDdg1kdG6mSd0wfR09/z/8zBHe7DZhlO tYYiBHM+xYWAaqhFpzrgTeWdNBEeb+K+Yyjvskj31Ixr5v/TnAB3iOBD2TLet+vl T1XXgkn2OfS15FBBTN9i7ZQz1crIL7ug3SZdxTVeO8MEprDfGF7crv6Z9GLux/U= =LZgx -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password at: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech
