U.S. and Israeli companies are selling top-of-the-line surveillance technology and devices to some of the world’s most repressive regimes, a British watchdog group accused.
And these countries, in turn, are using the technology to set up spy operations on their own innocent citizens, Privacy International found, in its just-released report, United Press International reported.
Kasakhstan, Uzbekistan and other Central Asian nations with questionable human rights practices, and known civil rights violations, are among the nations that have bought the technology, UPI said.
“This is exactly the kind of nightmare scenario that becomes inevitable when you have an unaccountable industry operating under the radar,” said Privacy International report co-author Edin Omanovic, UPI reported,
And the companies that were cited as sellers: Nice Systems in Israel, Verint Systems in New York and Netronome in California. Nice, meanwhile, said in response that it does business only with those nations that are lawful under Israel rules, UPI said.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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