Iran has been leaving the Internet up so they can spread disinformation and target the protesters. The West has given them the ability to choke the life out of the revolution. Those who control communication, control the war:

Instead, in confronting the political turmoil that has consumed the country this past week, the Iranian government appears to be engaging in a practice often called deep packet inspection, which enables authorities to not only block communication but to monitor it to gather information about individuals, as well as alter it for disinformation purposes, according to these experts.
The monitoring capability was provided, at least in part, by a joint venture of Siemens AG, the German conglomerate, and Nokia Corp., the Finnish cellphone company, in the second half of 2008, Ben Roome, a spokesman for the joint venture, confirmed.
[…]
All eyes have been on the Internet amid the crisis in Iran, and government attempts to crack down on information. The infiltration of Iranian online traffic could explain why the government has allowed the Internet to continue to function — and also why it has been running at such slow speeds in the days since the results of the presidential vote spurred unrest.

Go read the rest of the article, it’s scary what’s being done in the name of protecting citizens. Notice how the monitoring and censorship starts:

Nokia Siemens Networks provided equipment to Iran last year under the internationally recognized concept of “lawful intercept,” said Mr. Roome. That relates to intercepting data for the purposes of combating terrorism, child pornography, drug trafficking and other criminal activities carried out online, a capability that most if not all telecom companies have, he said.

That’s how it allows starts, with security and censoring porn, who could be against that? Giving governments the ability to keep their citizens safe, that shouldn’t be a problem, right? Obviously, we are seeing the results of what happens when the camel gets its nose in the tent. Governments won’t stop at just security and porn, if they have the technology, they’ll use it. Isn’t that what the left has been saying about the Bush administration for years? Now that the left is in charge of our government, I get their point 🙂
Now, the big question is how can the people overcome this technology? Flooding the gate with data? Maybe it could crash the system. Maybe in the interest of saving lives, the people from Nokia Siemens Networks might be willing to help the people defeat their system.
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