New Sanctions Announced for Aiding Syria and Iran
Source: New York Times
President Obama, seeking to expand his administration's response to oppression in the Middle East, announced new sanctions on Monday against those who provide Syria and Iran with cutting-edge technology to track down dissidents for abuse, torture or death.
The measures underscored the role that computers, social media and cellphones have played not just in organizing resistance to authoritarian governments but also in helping security services crack down on those dissidents. The new sanctions are meant to put technology providers on notice that they will be held responsible for enabling human rights abuses.
The announcement came as Mr. Obama continues to search for a more effective response to the killings in Syria, where more than 9,000 people have died over the last year as the government of President Bashar al-Assad has tried to suppress a popular uprising. Critics have described Mr. Obama's response as too passive and have called for more robust action to halt the violence. Mr. Obama argued on Monday that the focus on technology reflected an ever-widening set of actions that would eventually stop Mr. Assad.
Read more: http://mobile.nytimes.com/2012/04/24/world/new-sanctions-announced-for-aiding-syria-and-iran.xml
Err, shouldn't the US clean up its OWN civil liberties act (PATRIOT Act, NDAA) before bossing around other counties about cracking down on dissent by spying on telecom?