A few days ago the Iranian government completed the process of “privatizing” the Iranian national telecommunications company.
Sounds great right? Less state control, more public sector involvement, free market and all that jazz.
However, a closer looks shows that the majority stake (50% + 1 share), purchased for $7.8 billion, were bought by a consortium that is directly connected to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. Out of the 3 groups contending, one was disqualified by the government for not having the necessary security credentials (read: probably not affiliated with the Guard).
If you are not that familiar with the Guard, here’s some background: The Revolutionary Guard, or in its full name, “Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution”, was founded right after the revolution in 1979 as an independent force loyal to Khomeini, but later became a full military force alongside the regular army.
Here’s what AP describes in their article (link below):
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The 120,000-strong elite force controls Iran’s missile program, and has its own ground, naval and air units. On top of its enormous military power, the Guard has become a vast military-based conglomerate, and has amassed a network of economic and political power in recent years that extends to virtually every aspect of life in Iran.
Companies tied to the force routinely land lucrative construction contracts in the oil, gas and farming industries. Its finances are not on the government budget, and are free from any state oversight. The Guard is accountable only to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say on all state matters in Iran.
So what is the meaning of this action? (or at least with high likelihood..)
Now, as a private company, the Guard and the Islamic hardliners (including current president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is himself a former member of the Guard), can do pretty much anything they want with their control of a huge chunk of the nation’s phone (landlines and mobile) and internet access. This includes anything you can think of from unrestricted access to call-logs, eavesdropping to voice and data communication, filtering calls, shutting down communication in case of riots, and so on.
This development seems especially interesting when viewed in the context of Iran’s internal political conflict that became very visible during the recent elections. The government and the hardliners never had an issue with controlling the communications over maters of national security, international relations, and the likes. They had a national consensus for doing that. However, when they started going against the moderates and other political rivals, it became a controversy – election recounts, investigations into Guard’s violence against protesters, and all the other things we all saw on the news.
This move would allow the Guard and the controlling faction to do pretty much whatever they want to with the phones and Internet communications, without having to report these actions to the governmental system.
Remember the story of Azerbaijani government doing SMS eavesdropping to detect which of their citizens voted for the “rival” country Armenia and then calling them in for interrogation on matters of national security back in August?
Now think about the next time a “Twitter revolution” tries to start up in Iran, or when citizens try to send pictures of demonstrations, or when someone who voted for the wrong candidate tries to get a cellphone account. Think about what it means to have the raw GSM cell location of so many phones in the country.
Sure – many governments have the power to do similar things. However, think of the domestic situation – of having all of this power in the hands of a political group within a country. Think about the fact that this political group also has business interests and might even use the telco system for gaining an edge in that respect as well.
The result of this privatization mixes national security, foreign policy, religion, internal politics, personal freedoms, and business interests. I’m not sure I’ll want to take a bite from what comes out of that recipe…
Sources:
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Privatization deal: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jibF1CnP0V3DTXUc2G8rkU…
Republican Guard: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_of_the_Guardians_of_the_Islamic_Revolu…
Azerbaijan: http://www.asbarez.com/2009/08/14/azerbaijani-authorities-interrogate-mu…