WSJ: Nokia Siemens infrastructure keeping Twitter out of Iran

I followed this link from Jonathan Kim on Facebook earlier this evening. It’s a Wall Street Journal article titled:

Iran’s Web Spying Aided By Western Technology
…with a sub-title of:

European Gear Used in Vast Effort to Monitor Communications

Ben Roome of Nokia Siemens Networks is quoted thus:

The “monitoring center,” installed within the government’s telecom monopoly, was part of a larger contract with Iran that included mobile-phone networking technology, Mr. Roome said.

“If you sell networks, you also, intrinsically, sell the capability to intercept any communication that runs over them,” said Mr. Roome.

Nokia Siemens Networks apparently exited the ‘intelligence solutions’ business with a sale to Perusa Partners in March.

What’s your view on this? It’s not the kind of press the Nokia and Siemens board are going to want to be waking up to tomorrow morning.