In Case You Missed It: "AdaptiveMobile Drops Iran Contracts on Gear for Text Monitoring"

   

In Case You Missed It: "AdaptiveMobile Drops Iran Contracts on Gear for Text Monitoring" Latest UANI Success Covered by Bloomberg News AdaptiveMobile Drops Iran Contracts on Gear for Text Monitoring By Ben Elgin and Vernon Silver Bloomberg News June 7, 2012 AdaptiveMobile Security Ltd. ended its contracts with an Iranian phone company following the disclosure that the closely held firm supplied and serviced technology for monitoring and storing text messages. AdaptiveMobile, based in Dublin, stopped doing business with MTN Irancell, Iran's second-largest mobile provider, as of May 24, according to United Against Nuclear Iran, a New York- based advocacy organization that pressures companies to cut business ties to Iran. The group cited an e-mail from AdaptiveMobile. Iranian authorities use surveillance technologies to round up and interrogate political activists, according to accounts provided by victims and human rights groups. AdaptiveMobile sold technology for monitoring and storing text messages to Irancell in 2008, Bloomberg News reported last October. The company was still servicing the commercial gear. Police have access to the system, two former MTN Irancell managers said. "We applaud AdaptiveMobile for ending its business in Iran," said Kristen Silverberg, president of United Against Nuclear Iran, in a statement. "AdaptiveMobile has made the responsible decision, and we encourage other telecommunications companies to follow suit." Three AdaptiveMobile executives didn't immediately respond to e-mailed or telephoned requests for comment. They are Brian Collins, chief executive officer; Gareth Maclachlan, chief operating officer; and Hannah Summers, who sent the e-mail to the advocacy group. "AdaptiveMobile formally terminated all contracts with MTN Iran, and no longer has any business in the country," Summers said in the e-mail to United Against Nuclear Iran. 2008 Transaction The company said last year that its technologies were for fighting spam, viruses and "inappropriate content" and weren't designed or sold for law enforcement. The company planned to cease doing business in Iran when the contract was up in late 2012, it said, because continuing the arrangement could damage its reputation. Johannesburg-based MTN Group owns 49 percent of Irancell and operates the network. Other authoritarian countries across the Mideast and North Africa also employ Western surveillance tools for political repression, Bloomberg reported last year. An AdaptiveMobile document detailed the system requirements for the equipment sold in 2008 to Irancell. The technology would be used to analyze all messages in English, Persian or Arabic for keywords or phrases, store them and flag those caught by filters for review. ... Click here to read the full article. ###                                                                        United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) is a program of the American Coalition Against Nuclear Iran, Inc., a tax-exempt organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. The prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran should concern every American and be unacceptable to the community of nations. Since 1979 the Iranian regime, most recently under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's leadership, has demonstrated increasingly threatening behavior and rhetoric toward the US and the West. Iran continues to defy the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the United Nations in their attempts to monitor its nuclear activities. A number of Arab states have warned that Iran's development of nuclear weapons poses a threat to Middle East stability and could provoke a regional nuclear arms race. In short, the prospect of a nuclear armed Iran is a danger to world peace. United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) is a non-partisan, broad-based coalition that is united in a commitment to prevent Iran from fulfilling its ambition to become a regional super-power possessing nuclear weapons.  UANI is an issue-based coalition in which each coalition member will have its own interests as well as the collective goal of advancing an Iran free of nuclear weapons. The Objectives of United Against a Nuclear Iran Inform the public about the nature of the Iranian regime, including its desire and intent to possess nuclear weapons, as well as Iran's role as a state sponsor of global terrorism, and a major violator of human rights at home and abroad; Heighten awareness nationally and internationally about the danger that a nuclear armed Iran poses to the region and the world; Mobilize public support, utilize media outreach, and persuade our elected leaders to voice a robust and united American opposition to a nuclear Iran; Lay the groundwork for effective US policies in coordination with European and other allies; Persuade the regime in Tehran to desist from its quest for nuclear weapons, while striving not to punish the Iranian people, and; Promote efforts that focus on vigorous national and international, social, economic, political and diplomatic measures. UANI is led by an advisory board of outstanding national figures representing all sectors of our country.

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