U.S. Eases Iran Tech Sanctions To Make Way For Musk’s Starlink Amid Protests
September 23rd, 2022Cryptogon 2019: Recently Retired USAF General Makes Eyebrow Raising Claims About Advanced Space Technology:
If you’re like me, you’ve been wondering: What is Starlink’s actual purpose?
I didn’t entirely believe the prosaic narrative about better rural broadband Internet and a funding source for Elon Musk’s Mars aspirations, etc. Well, it might be about those things at some level, but the massive scale of the project and the rapid approval by the U.S. Government made me think that there had to be some sort of national security element in play.
What I don’t understand is why the Iranian government would allow the importation of the Starlink systems if the stated purpose is to increase anti-government protests???
Keep in mind, Starlink was deployed by Ukraine soon after the start of the war with Russia.
Via: ZeroHedge:
It’s not often these days that the US administration announces it is easing sanctions on Iran, but that’s what the US Treasury Department unveiled on Friday.
It appears a strategy for encouraging protests by freeing up communications and social media platforms. The anti-government protests have now been raging for a full week: “The Treasury Department announced exceptions to Iranian sanctions Friday to allow companies to provide more online services in the country after Iran’s government cut internet access for most of the country amid protests,” The Hill reports.
“With these changes, we are helping the Iranian people be better equipped to counter the government’s efforts to surveil and censor them,” Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo explained of the new measure.
Specifically the partial sanctions rollback applies to US and international tech companies which are in a position to help the Iranian population access outside secure platforms and services, in the hopes of the freer flows of information, especially on social media platforms. According to the new US Treasury text:
“As courageous Iranians take to the streets to protest the death of Mahsa Amini, the United States is redoubling its support for the free flow of information to the Iranian people,” said Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo. ”
“Today, Treasury is announcing the expansion of Iran General License D-2, which will expand the range of internet services available to Iranians. With these changes, we are helping the Iranian people be better equipped to counter the government’s efforts to surveil and censor them. In the coming weeks, OFAC will continue issuing guidance to support the Administration’s commitment to promoting the free flow of information, which the Iranian regime has consistently denied to its people.”
The Islamic Republic reportedly blocked Instagram and other popular sites this week as part of a broadening crackdown on anti-hijab protests in the wake of the death of 22-year old Mahsa Amini.
2011: U.S. Has Secret Tools to Force Internet on Dictators
That 2019 link has a link back to a Cryptogon post from 2007 that I remember very well:
https://www.cryptogon.com/?p=895
Major Ralph Peter’s article, Constant Conflict, is still available in at least a couple places:
https://press.armywarcollege.edu/parameters/vol40/iss4/16/
It’s quite an eye-opener, written back in 1997, and in it he states:
“For a generation, and probably much longer, we will face no military
peer competitor.” and
“We will survive and win any conflict short of a cataclysmic use of
weapons of mass destruction.”
Been about a generation.