UPDATES

Can Iran block America’s ‘Internet in a suitcase’?

Jul 20, 2011 | Geoffrey Levin

Can Iran block America’s ‘Internet in a suitcase’?
news_item/Supreme_Leader_of_Iran_and_Commanders_3.jpg

Several weeks ago, the New York Times reported an Obama Administration effort to distribute a device it had developed called ‘Internet in a suitcase’, which could bring web access to dissidents in authoritarian countries across the world. The report stated:

Financed with a $2 million State Department grant, the suitcase could be secreted across a border and quickly set up to allow wireless communication over a wide area with a link to the global Internet…The State Department, for example, is financing the creation of stealth wireless networks that would enable activists to communicate outside the reach of governments in countries like Iran, Syria and Libya, according to participants in the projects.

This week, Iranian intelligence minister Heidar Moslehi responded to the news:

The minister, Heidar Moslehi, told Muslim worshippers that Iran was aware of the program from the start. “We prepared a solution for it,” he said in a speech broadcast live on state radio. He did not elaborate

Earlier this month, Iran’s telecommunications minister, Reza Taqipour, said Iran is taking technical measures to combat the program. Taqipour was quoted by state media as saying that the program is part of a “cultural invasion” by Iran’s enemies aimed at promoting dissent and undermining Iran’s ruling system.

The Arab Spring protests highlighted the important role the Internet plays in modern uprisings and protest movements, with Libyan dissident Malik Ibrahim Sahad saying that he did not think the Libyan uprising would have been impossible “without the existence of the World Wide Web.”

There is reason to doubt the Iranian officials who claim to be able to block this technological advance, which threatens a regime with a reputation for quashing free speech. Last month, an AIJAC Update noted Iran’s plan to create its own internet, thus cutting online ties with the rest of the world. In 2009, the anti-Ahmadinejad Green Movement in Iran failed to achieve the democratic reforms it hoped for, but technologies like these could ensure that next time, things may end differently. Until then, the Iranian regime’s horrors, such as the acts of torture recorded by Maziar Bahari in Newsweek, show no sign of ending. 

Geoffrey Levin

Tags:

RELATED ARTICLES


A scene from the unusually intense and extended battle that took place in Jenin on June 19, which left eight Israelis injured and seven Palestinians dead, six of them gunmen (Photo: Ayman Nobani/dpa/Alamy Live News)

Growing security challenges in the northern West Bank

Jun 27, 2023 | Update
Khamenei called for Iran to create 20,000 megawatts of nuclear power capacity - which would require at least 19 more plants the size of Iran's only current nuclear power plant, the Russian-built Bushehr plant (Image: Wikimedia Commons).

Iran’s ambiguous pronouncements on a possible new nuclear deal

Jun 16, 2023 | Update
Image: Shutterstock, Stuart Miles

A “Less for Less” Nuclear Deal with Iran?

Jun 9, 2023 | Update
Recent weeks have seen the rei-gnition of intense discussions regarding US efforts to negotiate a Saudi-Israel normalisation deal (Image: Shutterstock, lunopark)

Saudi-Israel deal progress?/ Israel and Erdogan’s Turkey

Jun 5, 2023 | Update
Palestinian demonstrators demand the resignation of PA President Mahmoud Abbas - the PA is increasingly viewed by many Palestinians as no longer representing their interests (Photo: Shutterstock, Anas-Mohammed)

Palestinian Authority in Crisis

May 25, 2023 | Update
Screenshot from a tiktok video showing Palestinian Islamic Jihad rockets being launched at Israel from amidst civilians in a heavily populated area of Gaza

“Shield and Arrow”: Yet another Gaza conflict

May 12, 2023 | Update

SIGN UP FOR AIJAC EMAILS

RECENT POSTS

Israeli tanks in the Sinai Desert, 1973 (Image: Public domain)

From 1973 to Israel’s next war

Image001

The Last Word: Jeremy Jones – In Memoriam

Clinton appreciated Netanyahu’s political skills, but the two were divided over some key policy issues, leading to a tense relationship (Image: Shutterstock)

Essay: Bibi’s seven presidents

Destined to be an iconic landmark: The new National Library of Israel (Image: Herzog & De Meuron/ National Library of Israel/ Twitter)

Biblio File: Unique monument for the “People of the Book”

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah (Image: Shutterstock)

Deconstruction Zone: US outreach vs. Iranian aggression

Israeli tanks in the Sinai Desert, 1973 (Image: Public domain)

From 1973 to Israel’s next war

Image001

The Last Word: Jeremy Jones – In Memoriam

Clinton appreciated Netanyahu’s political skills, but the two were divided over some key policy issues, leading to a tense relationship (Image: Shutterstock)

Essay: Bibi’s seven presidents

Destined to be an iconic landmark: The new National Library of Israel (Image: Herzog & De Meuron/ National Library of Israel/ Twitter)

Biblio File: Unique monument for the “People of the Book”

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah (Image: Shutterstock)

Deconstruction Zone: US outreach vs. Iranian aggression

SORT BY TOPICS