Tunesia, Egyt and now Yemen: a domino effect in the Middle East?

Meanwhile, digital rights group Free Press questioned the role of Narus, a California company and subsidiary of Boeing, in aiding the Egyptian government. Narus has sold real-time intelligence software that monitors Internet traffic to the state-run Telecom Egypt, the largest telecom carrier in the country. Narus provides deep packet inspection technologies that allow network managers to inspect, track and target content from Internet users and mobile phones, Free Press said.

"What we are seeing in Egypt is a frightening example of how the power of technology can be abused," said Timothy Karr, Free Press' campaign director. "Commercial operators trafficking in deep packet inspection technology to violate Internet users' privacy is bad enough; in government hands, that same invasion of privacy can quickly lead to stark human rights violations."

Companies that sell deep packet inspection technology need to be held to a "higher standard," Karr added in a statement. "The harm to democracy and the power to control the Internet are so disturbing that the threshold for the global trafficking in [the technology] must be set very high."

The companies that profit from sales of this technology need to be held to a higher standard. One in particular is an American firm, Narus of Sunnyvale, Calif., which has sold Telecom Egypt "real-time traffic intelligence" equipment.

Narus, now owned by Boeing, was founded in 1997 by Israeli security experts to create and sell mass surveillance systems for governments and large corporate clients.

"Anything that comes through (an Internet protocol network), we can record," Steve Bannerman, Narus' marketing vice president, once boasted to Wired about the service. "We can reconstruct all of their e-mails along with attachments, see what web pages they clicked on; we can reconstruct their (Voice Over Internet Protocol) calls."

In addition to Narus, there are a number of companies, including many others in the United States, that produce and traffic in similar spying and control technology. This list of DPI providers includes Zeugma Systems (Canada), Camiant (USA), Procera Networks (USA), Allot (Israel), Ixia (USA), AdvancedIO (Canada) and Sandvine (Canada), among others.

Narus is the global leader in real-time traffic intelligence for the protection and management of large IP networks.


Narus is the only software company that provides security, intercept and traffic management solutions within a single, flexible system. With Narus, service providers, governments and large enterprises around the world can immediately detect, analyze, mitigate and target any unwanted, unwarranted or malicious traffic. Narus solutions provide its customers with complete, real-time insight into all of their IP traffic from the network to the applications, enabling customers to take the most appropriate actions quickly.


Narus’ system protects and manages the largest IP networks in the U. S. and around the world, some of which include: KT (Korea), KDDI (Japan), Raytheon, Telecom Egypt, Reliance (India), Cable and Wireless, Saudi Telecom, U.S. Cellular, Pakistan Telecom Authority and many more.


Narus was incorporated in Delaware in 1997 as a privately held U.S. company and became a wholly owned subsidiary of The Boeing Company in 2010. The company is headquarted in Sunnyvale, Calif., in the United States, with regional offices around the world.

Brasil Telecom and several other Brazilian phone companies are using Narus products to charge each other for VOIP calls they send over one another's IP networks. Internet companies in China and the Middle East use them to block VOIP calls altogether.

But even before the product's alleged role in the NSA's operations emerged, its potential as a surveillance tool was not lost on corporate America.

In December, VeriSign, also of Mountain View, chose Narus' product as the backbone of its lawful-intercept-outsourcing service, which helps network operators comply with court-authorized surveillance orders from law enforcement agencies. A special Narus lawful-intercept application does this spying with ease, sorting through torrents of IP traffic to pick out specific messages based on a targeted e-mail address, IP address or, in the case of VOIP, phone number.

"We needed their fast packet-detection and inspection capability," says VeriSign Vice President Raj Puri. "They do it with specialized software that can isolate packets for a specific target."

Narus has little control over how its products are used after they're sold. For example, although its lawful-intercept application has a sophisticated system for making sure the surveillance complies with the terms of a warrant, it's up to the operator whether to type those terms into the system, says Bannerman.

That legal eavesdropping application was launched in February 2005, well after whistle-blower Klein allegedly learned that AT&T was installing Narus boxes in secure, NSA-controlled rooms in switching centers around the country. But that doesn't mean the government couldn't write its own code to do the dirty work. Narus even offers software-development kits to customers.

"Our product is designed to comply (with) all of the laws in all of the countries we ship to," says Bannerman. "Many of our customers have built their own applications. We have no idea what they do."

Obama's statement was delayed while he spent 30 minutes on the phone with Mubarak. I feel certain that our intelligence agencies have been working hard all day on an assessment of Mubarak's chances of staying in power. Based on how much time Obama gave the Egyptian dictator and the content of his statement, it would appear that the assessment is that Mubarak will survive.

Of course our government's track record on predictions is something less than stellar, and so Obama may be backing a loser.

Therein lies the catch 22; Mubarak who they want gone or another leader who is a worst tyrant and fraud.

• In another significant development, Mohamed ElBaradei, the former UN weapons chief who may stand in presidential elections later this year, was placed under house arrest for "his own protection" after returning from abroad.

Editorial
Washington and Mr. Mubarak
Published: January 28, 2011

Both President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, in power for three decades, and Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen, in power for 23 years, should have seen this coming. They didn’t — or didn’t care. Both countries share similar pressures: huge numbers of young people without jobs, growing outrage over abusive security forces, corrupt leaders, repressive political systems.
Related

Their people are right to demand more from their governments. The status quo is unsustainable and the result, perhaps inevitable, has been an explosion of protests and rioting in the streets of both countries.

Egypt, with Mr. Mubarak in charge, is an American ally and a recipient of nearly $1.5 billion in aid annually. It is the biggest country in the Arab world and was the first to make peace with Israel. Yemen is home to a dangerous Al Qaeda affiliate and has given the United States pretty much free rein to go after the extremists.

All of which leaves Washington in a quandary, trying to balance national security concerns and its moral responsibility to stand with those who have the courage to oppose authoritarian rulers. American officials must already be wondering what will happen to the fight against Al Qaeda if Mr. Saleh is deposed. And what will happen to efforts to counter Iran and promote Arab-Israeli peace if Mr. Mubarak is suddenly gone?

We won’t try to game Yemen’s politics. Even in Egypt, it’s impossible to know who might succeed Mr. Mubarak. He has made sure that there is no loyal opposition and little in the way of democratic institutions.

In the past, Washington has often pulled its punches on human rights and democracy to protect unholy security alliances with dictators, like Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines. There came a time when it was obvious that the Marcos tie was damaging American security interests and President Ronald Reagan — along with a people power revolution — played a role in easing him peacefully out of power.

Whether that point comes with Mr. Mubarak is now up to him. So far, he has shown arrogance and tone-deafness. He has met the spiraling protests with spiraling levels of force and repression. On Friday, in a sign more of weakness than strength, the government shut down Internet access and cellphone service. The protestors were undeterred.

Early Saturday, Mr. Mubarak ordered all of his ministers to resign and said his new government would accelerate reforms. He would be far more persuasive if he lifted the communications blackout, reeled in his security forces, allowed credible candidates to compete for president this year, and ensured a free and fair election.

Cables released by WikiLeaks show that the Obama administration has been privately pushing Mr. Mubarak to wake up, release jailed dissidents and pursue reforms. Unfortunately, those private exhortations did not get very far.

The administration struggled to get its public message right this week. On Thursday, it made clear that while Mr. Mubarak is a valuable ally, it is not taking sides but is trying to work with both the government and the protesters. By Friday, the White House said it was ready to “review” aid to Egypt — after Mr. Mubarak cut most communications, called out the army and effectively put Mohamed ElBaradei, a leading opposition figure and former leader of the International Atomic Energy Agency, under house arrest.

Mr. Obama will have to be willing to actually cut that aid if Mr. Mubarak turns the protests into a bloodbath and fails to open up Egypt’s political system.

But without a doubt US support (or withdrawal of support) will influence whether Mubarak retains his control of the Egypt government or not.