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Apple Should “Think Different” on Sanctions
By Bitta Mostofi
The continued nuclear negotiations between Iran and the P5 +1 in Moscow ended yesterday
with no sign of sanctions relief for ordinary Iranians. A spokesperson for Catherine Ashton, the
European Union’s foreign policy chief and lead negotiator for the six powers, was quoted by
The New York Times as stating that there is no question that EU sanctions will go into effect as
scheduled on the first of July.
Over the past three years we have witnessed a tremendous escalation of sanctions against Iran.
Sanctions expert Dr. Joy Gordon, author of Invisible War: The United States and The Iraq
Sanctions, has described the sanctions against Iran as overbroad and indiscriminate. They will
likely fail to achieve their objective, in this case curtailing Iran’s nuclear program, and instead
will add to the suffering of ordinary Iranians who are already suffering under a repressive
government.
The extent to which Dr. Gordon’s prediction is accurate is made evident by a report yesterday
from WSB-TV in Atlanta. The story follows Iranian, U.S. citizens in their attempts to purchase
an Apple iPad. The Apple salesperson refused to complete the sale because the women spoke
Farsi, the primary language spoken in Iran and identified herself as being from Iran. After
learning of similar experiences from other Iranians the reporter accompanies one of the Iranian
women who had sought to purchase the iPad to the Apple store. Once at the Apple store, their
refusal to sell to Iranians is reiterated by the manager and they are shown Apple’s policy on Iran
and other sanctioned countries:
The exportation, reexportation, sale or supply, directly or indirectly, from the United
States, or by a U.S. person wherever located, of any Apple goods, software, technology
(including technical data), or services to any of these countries is strictly prohibited
without prior authorization by the U.S. Government. This prohibition also applies to any
Apple owned subsidiary or any subsidiary employee worldwide.
Just three days ago New York Times reporter Nicolas Kristof recounted his visit to a store in
Tehran selling iPads and iPhones with a statue of Steve Jobs. This should not come as any
surprise to Mr. Kristof or the U.S. government. Not three years ago Secretary of State Clinton
was boasting of young Iranians and their “Twitter revolution” in response to Iranian use of social
networking to organize protests after the disputed 2009 Presidential elections. Iran is a tech-
savvy, young society, with an estimated 28 million Internet users and the highest number of
active blogs in the Middle East.
But what doesn’t seem to matter to Clinton or Kristof is that the very sanctions policy driven by
the U.S. is further isolating and repressing the society they speak so highly of. They know these
sanctions have already started to take their toll on the Iranian people. In the midst of an already
devastated economy Iranians have been faced with inflation rates of over 20%, estimates of
underemployment at 35%, and some reported food and medicine shortages.
I went to Iraq in 2002 and witnessed first-hand what comprehensive sanctions on a country can
do to the well-being and livelihood of a society. Imposition of sanctions did not weaken the
regime’s hold over its people, it was strengthened. It did not force people to rise-up against the
Dictator Saddam; rather, the economic sanctions made many struggle and worry about how they
were going to get by.
The U.S. has made some efforts to ease technology software sanctions against Iran, but in
the breadth of the current sanctions it is impossible to prevent the chilling effect against all
things Iranian. The sanctions against Iran are neither smart nor targeted. Technology and
telecommunications companies like Apple should be leading the charge to lift sanctions that
violate freedom of speech and access to information, not overzealously applying these policies.
Iranian-Americans, estimated at over 1 million,should protest against sanctions on Iran while
simultaneously calling on Apple to “think differently” and stand with their users in Iran.
Bitta Mostofi is a nonprofit, immigrant rights attorney and a long time civil and human rights
advocate. Over the last three years Bitta has advocated for an end to Iranian government
suppression of its people. In 2002 Bitta traveled to Iraq in protest against the U.S. led sanctions
and the then impending war.
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WESTERN CLASS/EMPIRE/FASCIST ELITES ARE PROMOTING GLOBAL FASCIST DICTATORSHIPS AT WAR WITH THEIR OWN PEOPLE. WE MUST TAKE DOWN ALL CLASS PARTIES, ALL CLASS POLITICIANS WHO ROUTINELY LIE, PROPAGANDIZE LIKE THE FIRST AXIS OF FASCISM UNDER HITLER, FRANCO AND MUSSOLINI. THE WORLD NEEDS TO GO TO WAR AGAINST WESTERN FASCISM, IDEOLOGICALLY, BY TAKING DOWN THEIR CLASS SYSTEMS, THEIR FASCIST MERCENARY THUGS, THEIR LIARS, THEIR CLASS DESPOTISM, THEIR FASCISM. IF WE DON'T THESE NEW NAZIS WILL START A REGIONAL WAR AND AGGRESSION AGAINST IRAN.........THE END OF HUMANITY, EARTH AND NATURE.
TIME TO CALL OUT THE DEMOCRATIC FASCISTS, THE BI PARTISAN FASCISM, THE WESTERN FASCISM AND NATO THUGS, AND EXPOSE THE U.N. COMPLICIT IN WESTERN FASCISM, DEMANDING THE DISMANTLING OF THE FASCIST SECURITY COUNCIL AND FASCIST PUPPETS CORRUPTING U.N. AGENCIES WHO SERVE PARASTICAL RULING CLASSES. SAVE THE WORLD BY ENDING THEIR POWER, REFUSE TO VOTE FOR FASCIST, CLASS PARTIES AROUND THE WORLD, AND YOU END FASCIST AUSTERITY, FASCIST CAPITALISM, FASCIST EMPIRES, CLASS SYSTEMS THEMSELVES.
Obama believes in the Fascist FUEHRER PRINCIPLE, where classified secrecy hides WAR CRIMES, FASCISM ITSELF, while leaking selectively to show what a THUG he is....showing that democrats can be equally fascist as the Republican neanderthals. THIS IS CALLED BI PARTISAN FASCISM, WESTERN FASCISM ,which hopes to become the GLOBAL FASCIST MATRIX. NATIONAL SECURITY CONCERNS MEANS CONCERN FOR FASCISM, typical ORWELLIAN, UPSIDE DOWN, INVERTED, CORRUPT, CO OPTED TERMINOLOGIES OF ALL CLASS SYSTEMS:
Obama White House Rejects Request for Targeted Killing Docs
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/06/21
excerpt:
"Citing national security concerns, the Obama administration on Wednesday rejected requests by the ACLU and the New York Times for documents relating to the US military's drone and targeted killing campaigns.
In response to the government's court action, ACLU Deputy Legal Director Jameel Jaffer said Thursday: "The notion that the CIA's targeted killing program is still a secret is beyond absurd. Senior officials have discussed it, both on the record and off."
The notion that the CIA's targeted killing program is still a secret is beyond absurd. Senior officials have discussed it, both on the record and off." --Jameel Jaffer, ACLU
The ACLU's Jaffer said, "The public is entitled to know more about the legal authority the administration is claiming and the way that the administration is using it."
HITLER WOULD BE SHOCKED, "ASTOUNDED" , HOW EFFECTIVE CLASS SYSTEMS TODAY ARE IN THEIR FASCIST SECRECY, MORE SO WHEN HE, HITLER, DEFENDED FASCIST CAPITALISM , FASCIST EMPIRE:
Obama Administration Files Midnight Brief Defending Secrecy Surrounding “Targeted Killing” Program
ACLU Condemns Lack of Transparency, Cites “Profound Concerns” With Bureaucratized Killing Program
http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2012/06/21
EXCERPT:
“We continue to have profound concerns with the power the administration is claiming and with the proposition that the President should be permitted to exercise this power without oversight by the courts. That the administration believes a power so sweeping should be exercised in secret is astounding.”
BUT NOTHING ASTOUNDS, SHOCKS THE FASCIST CONGRESS, BOTH CLASS PARTIES HAVE DEGENERATED THROUGH CLASS/EMPIRE COMPROMISES, EMBRACING TOTALITARIANISM, FASCISM.
New de classified documents relating to 9/11 firmly establish what was suspected for a long time. INTENTIONAL NEGLECT is proven and that Bush knew, along with the fascist CIA about the 9/11 attack, months before it happend. This squares with Sibel Edmonds book CLASSIFIED WOMAN which too reveals, earlier warnings and the deliberate institutional neglect and coverup which followed by fascist elites within the State Dept. , FBI, even the fascist judicial thugs, judges who were protecting corrupt class poliicians, criminal politicians in both class parties, who were selling nuclear secrets to Israel, Turkey and the hightest bidders. It also reveals HOW class parties degenerate into corruption and totalitarianism, outright Fascism. Such massive degeneration towards corruption and totaltiariansim, has turned the Democratic party and Obama into Fascist protectors of Bush , Israeli, Nato criminals:
Could A Treason Trial Be In The Air? Newly Declassified 9/11 Docs Reveal The Real Enemy: George W. Bush
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Could-A-Treason-Trial-Be-I-by-Rev-Dan-Vojir-120620-294.html
excerpt:
"Documents also show that the CIA gave warnings to the out-going Clinton administration, indicating that Bush knew about them from the very onset of his Presidency. <?xml:namespace prefix = o />
Big News?
To many people, the new evidence is not surprising, but what is the most damning about the situation is that the Bush administration defunded the CIA operation monitoring al-Qaida and bin-Ladin just as it was gathering this critical intelligence. Even the associated security meetings were downgraded to mere deputy level. Conspiracy theories have always centered around "intentional neglect" of some sort, and now that part of the theories seems more plausible than ever...."
THE APPEASING WESTERN CLASS ELITES TO TOTALITARIANISM HAS NOW MADE THEM OUTRIGHT FASCISTS:
Barack Obama - The More Insidious Evil
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Barack-Obama--The-More-In-by-Larry-Pinkney-120619-118.html
"To be sure: Neither the corporate owned Democrat or the corporate owned Republican parties are viable choices for the struggling everyday ordinary Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people of this nation. In fact, these corporate owned parties are the antithesis to the needs and hopes of ordinary people in this nation, and throughout Mother Earth.
The American Heritage College Dictionary defines the word 'insidious,' in relevant part, as "Working or spreading harmfully - in a subtle or stealthy manner. Beguiling, but harmful; alluring." Indeed, Mr. 'hope and change' - predator drone - 'you'll never see it coming' - U.S. president Barack Obama is the very embodiment of the word 'insidious.'
Barack Obama's secret negotiations with economic bloodsucking multinational corporations, his trillion dollar criminal 'bailout' of the corporate elite of Wall Street, his signing into law of the draconian indefinite detention (NDAA) horror, his ongoing wars in Afghanistan and elsewhere, his bombing of Libya, North Africa, his feverish clamp down on corporate and government 'whistleblowers,' and his infamous 'Kill List' are but a few of the horrible actions that Obama, has and is, engaging in under the cover of insidious stealth and beguilement....
Obama's flagrant violations of U.S. Constitutional and international law have, in less than four years, far surpassed even the outrages committed by his predecessors. His constant tactic of baiting the everyday people with omissions, half truths, and outright lies has quite possibly been the most insidiously effective against ordinary people of any U.S. president - ever.
Due, in substantial measure, to the support of many 'liberals,' so-called 'progressives,' and much of the 'left,' who hypocritically refuse to hold Barack Obama to the same standards of accountability as they did his Republican party predecessors, he has been able to hoodwink and emaciate the struggling everyday people of this nation. The Obama regime, from its very beginning, was (and continues to be) one of deception, subterfuge, political repression, and non-transparency. This is precisely why it was so crucial for the systemic power-brokers (both Democrat and Republican) to have ensured that the 'Obama brand' was, in 2008, installed as the head of the U.S.corporate/military Empire. The terribe damage that Barack Obama has inflicted upon the people of this nation and world is incalculable...."
BOYCOTT ALL CLASS PARTIES, ALL CLASS POLITICIANS, FASCIST ELITES AND SUPPORT SOCIAL PARTIES WHOSE SOCIAL AGENDA IS TO RECLAIM SOCIAL CONTROL OVER WEALTH AND LABOR, MEANS OF PRODUCTION BY ESTABLISHING INDEPENDENT, INDIVISIBLE MIDDLE CLASSES, GLOBALLY, THEREBY ENDING CLASS SYSTEMS AND THEIR FASCISM.