US technology exports used in spying face scrutiny

Washington

AYMAN Ammar and Rashid Albuni claimed to be computer technology distributors, operating through multiple corporations in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates. The US government, though, charged them with smuggling - of illegally shipping US equipment to the Syrian government that can help it monitor Internet traffic and spy on dissidents.

The Syrian case, in which the two men were fined last month for violating US economic sanctions against Syria, is one of the few the Obama administration has pursued to limit authoritarian governments from acquiring technology that enables censoring, spying and hacking.

That is largely because many of the same tools that repressive governments seek from Western companies are vital for social media and other communications by political protesters and grass-roots organisers throughout the world. The software and other equipment are also used by US and other law enforcement agencies to track criminals or disrupt plots, and are needed to filter out unwant…