NEWS - Microsoft
provided IT training to law enforcement officials in Tunisia while the country
was governed by a repressive regime, embassy cables published by Wikileaks
show.
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| Cables leaked by Wikileaks show that Microsoft provided IT training to law enforcement officials in Tunisia, before the country threw off its repressive regime in 2011. Photo credit: Nasser Nouri on Flickr |
According
to a cable sent by the US embassy in Tunis on 22 September, 2006, Microsoft was
so keen to get the Tunisian government to drop its policy favouring open-source
software that it agreed to set up a "program on cyber criminality" to
cover training. The deal also entailed the company giving the Tunisian regime,
headed by President Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali, the original source code for
Microsoft software.
The cable
was made public last week by Wikileaks as part of a massive and largely
accidental publication of unredacted US embassy messages. In it, embassy
officials told Washington there was a risk the training could be used to
further oppress the Tunisian people.
"Through
a program on cyber criminality, Microsoft will train government officials in
the Ministries of Justice and Interior on how to use computers and the internet
to fight crime. As part of this program, Microsoft will provide the GOT
[Government of Tunisia] with original source codes for its program," the
cable read.
"In
theory, increasing GOT law enforcement capability through IT training is
positive, but given heavy-handed GOT interference in the internet, Post
questions whether this will expand GOT capacity to monitor its own
citizens," it continued.
The cable
ended with the observation that "ultimately, for Microsoft the benefits
outweigh the costs".
Tunisia
'not free'
Freedom
House's assessment of Tunisia in 2010 rated the country as 'not free'. It noted
that Ben Ali "tightly controlled" elections and that the government
harassed and imprisoned bloggers, journalists and political opponents. At the
start of 2011, Ben Ali's regime was overthrown, kicking off the so-called Arab
Spring.
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| Internet freedom: world's strictest regimes |
The
partnership agreement between Tunisia and Microsoft was signed at a forum in
South Africa in July 2006. At first, neither party would give the embassy any
information about the terms of the deal. In September, however, Microsoft
Tunisia's director general Salwa Smaoui gave an overview to the US consulate's
Economics Office (abbreviated in the cable as 'EconOff').
In addition
to giving the Tunisian government access to its source code — most likely to
allay fears about the company's "American-ness", according to Smaoui
— Microsoft agreed to establish an 'Innovation Centre' in Tunisia for
"developing local software production capacity". The cable notes that
this would address the regime's concerns over local employment.
The company
appears to have agreed to train handicapped Tunisians in IT. Smaoui suggested
this was probably in view of the fact that the Tunisian leader's wife, Leila
Ben Ali, ran a charity for handicapped Tunisians.
Microsoft
also offered to help the government "upgrade and modernise its computers
and networking capabilities", according to the embassy.
"In
turn, the GOT agreed to purchase 12,000 licences to update government computers
with official Microsoft software, rather than the pirated versions that have
been commonly used, according to one Microsoft employee. Since 2001, the GOT
adopted an open software policy, using only free software programs.
"Additionally,
future GOT tenders for IT equipment will specify that the equipment must be
Microsoft-compatible, which is currently prohibited by the Tunisian open
software policy," the cable added.
In early
2010, the US warned that state censorship of the internet was increasing in Tunisia. When the revolution came a year later, the government briefly tried to
suppress online information about the dissent that would topple it within days.
Open-source
opposition
The
Tunisian cable is just one of several that appeared last week, providing
details of Microsoft's efforts against open-source rivals. For example, a cable
sent in February 2010 described how Microsoft and the Business Software
Alliance (BSA) met with Thai officials to argue that their government was wrong
to promote open-source software as a way to fight piracy.
Another cable, sent from the Caracas embassy on 16 June, 2006, outlined Microsoft's
opposition to a draft Venezuelan law that mandated open-source software for
governmental use. It revealed that a Microsoft general manager had shown US
EconOff officials an internal memo from Venezuela's state oil company,
Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA).
According
to the cable, the memo "claimed that all US software companies had a 'back
door' mechanism whereby the US government could at any time access information,
citing the supposed Calea Law (United States Law of Assistance in
Communications for Security Systems)".
"The
memo made a claim that the [US government] simultaneously shut down all
Microsoft operating systems in Iraq before attacking, and then detailed various
NSA and CIA hacker programs. The memo concludes that [Venezuela] should not
contract any services from American providers," the cable continued.
Microsoft
was unable to provide comment about any involvement with the Tunisian regime or
its dealings with the PDVSA internal memo at the time of writing.
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