Dear Nairalanders; The subject story appeared on the website of Premium Times about an hour ago, and is reproduced below for our information, and, of course, mature discussion:
EXCLUSIVE: Jonathan awards $40million contract to Israeli company to monitor
computer, Internet communication by Nigerians
Ogala Emmanuel - 1 hour ago
NATIONAL, NEWS
Here is a very important information from PREMIUM TIMES for the 47 million
Nigerian Internet users. Big Brother, in the form of the Jonathan administration,
is watching you, and your communication is no longer safe.
It is one of the most far-reaching policies ever designed in Nigeria’s history to
invade the privacy of citizens.
The Jonathan administration secretly, and in open violation of lawful contracting
procedures, has awarded an Israeli firm, Elbit Systems , with headquarters in
Haifa, a $40million contract to help it spy on citizens’ computers and Internet
communications under the guise of intelligence gathering and national security.
Elbit announced the contract award Wednesday in a global press release but
was silent on the Nigerian destination of the contract. Its general manager,
Yehuda Vered, opaquely announced that “Elbit Systems will supply its Wise
Intelligence Technology (WiT) system to an unnamed country in Africa under a
new $40 million contract announced on 24 April… for Intelligence Analysis and
Cyber Defense,” but effusively claimed, in the statement, that his company is
“proud to be selected to supply this unique system, which is already field-
proven, fully operational and customisable.
“Elbit Systems is a world leader in the fields of intelligence analysis and cyber
defense, with proven solutions highly suitable for countries, armies and critical
infrastructure sites. We hope that additional customers will follow in selecting
our highly advanced and cutting edge systems in these fields as their preferred
solution,” Mr. Vered added.
Multiple and very reliable sources in the administration confirmed to PREMIUM
TIMES that Nigeria is indeed the “unnamed African country,” and with details
from the Elbit statement, our sources say the contract will now help the
Jonathan administration access all computers and read all email
correspondences of citizens in what is clearly, an infringement on
constitutionally guaranteed freedom of expression.
No single policy of this administration has so far affected, in one fell swoop, the
lives of 47 million citizens, a third of the Nigerian population and about four
times the number of voters who brought the president to power two years ago.
Nigerian netizens, the horde of active citizens that use the computer and
Internet, are the 10th in a global ranking that make them 27 per cent of Africa’s
total Internet users, far ahead of Egypt [19th global ranking] and South Africa
[37th in global ranking].
The growth path of the Internet in Nigeria has also been dramatic, rising from a
mere 200,000 Internet users in 2002 to 47 million this year, according to data
from the Global Internet user, one of the Internet audit groups.
This development has not always gladdened public officials in Nigeria many
who have expressed open displeasure at the use of the Internet by social media
activists and the power of its possibilities as an empowering medium for
popular communication. The calls for regulation have been loud in both the
administration and in the Nigerian legislature.
The earliest hint that the Jonathan administration had desires to invade privacy
of citizens surfaced ealy April when researchers at the Munk School for Global
Affairs at the University of Toronto alerted the world that Nigeria, Egypt, and
Kenya were deploying Internet surveillance and censorship technology
developed by an American company, Blue Coat , which specializes in online
security. Blue Coat’s technology will allow the government to invade the privacy
of journalists, netizens and their sources. Its censorship devices use Deep
Packet Inspection, DPI, a technology employed by many western Internet
Service Providers, to manage network traffic and suppress unwanted
connections.
Civic groups kick against DPI because, they say, it makes it possible for
censors to look into every single Internet Protocol packet and subject it to
special treatment based on content (censored or banned words) or type (email,
VoIP or BitTorrent Protocol).
(End of Page 1 of 2.) |
Page 2...
DPI not only threatens the principle of Net
Neutrality and the privacy of users, civic
groups say, it makes single users identifiable
and, in countries that flout the rule of law and
violate human rights, often exposes them to
arbitrary imprisonment, violence or even
torture.
While details on the Blue Coat contract
appears to have managed to evade scrutiny up
till this point, PREMIUM TIMES sources say the
Elbit annunciation of the contract, opaque as it
was, terribly rattled top administration officials
– from the presidency to the National Security
Adviser’s Office, and the National Assembly.
“The presidency had wanted this contract to be
a top secret,” said one of our sources. “The
presidency did not envisage that Elbit was
going to make it public. Monitoring computers
and Internet use is a contentious issue and
the National Security Adviser had tried to keep
the contract secret.”
Elbit says it will take it two years to complete
the project, by which time it claimed, the
administration will have “a highly advanced
end-to-end solution, [to] supports every stage
of the intelligence process, including the
collection of the data from multiple sources,
databases and sensors, processing of the
information, supporting intelligence personnel
in the analysis and evaluation of the
information and disseminating the intelligence
to the intended recipient…[that] will be
integrated with various data sources, including
Elbit Systems’ Open Source Intelligence
(OSINT) solution and Elbit Systems’ PC
Surveillance Systems (PSS), an advance
solution for covert intelligence gathering.”
The administration had indicated in the 2013
budget that it would procure a Wise
Intelligence Network Harvest Analyzer System,
Open Source Internet Monitoring System and
Personal Internet Surveillance System at a
cost of N9.496 Billion ($61.26 million).
Now that the contract has been awarded to
Elbit for about $40million, it is unclear if the
National Assembly will raise questions as to
what becomes of the extra $21million
earmarked for the project.
Investigations indicate that in awarding the
contract to the Israeli firm, no tenders or calls
for bids were made just as there were no
public announcements. The contract was
awarded following a proposal from a single
vendor who dictated the contract sum and the
terms of the contract.
The procedure for public procurement of
services as stipulated by the Bureau of Public
Procurement (BPP), the Nigerian agency
charged with the duty of ensuring
transparency in all matters concerning
government contracts, were largely ignored. In
addition, there are no public records indicating
that the BPP approved this contract.
The manner of award directly contravenes the
2007 Public Procurement Act. While the Act
gives room for single source contracts, the
Elbit contract met none of the requirements
under which such special contracts could be
awarded.
Section 47 (3) (iii) of the 2007 Act stipulates
that single source contracts are to be awarded
in emergency situations such as “natural
disasters or a financial crisis”.
Presidential spokespersons, Reuben Abati, and
Doyin Okupe were not available for comments
Wednesday. They didn’t answer or return calls
seeking comments.
Calls to Elbit’s headquarters in Haifa, Israel,
were also unanswered.
Shari Clarkson, a spokesperson at the
company’s subsidiary in the United States
declined comments on the contract saying
only Dalia Rosen, a spokesperson based in
Israel, could comment. Rosen’s phone was
unanswered.
(End of Page 2 of 2.)
Source: http://premiumtimesng.com/news/131249-exclusive-jonathan-awards-40million-contract-to-israeli-company-to-monitor-computer-internet-communication-by-nigerians.htmlP34c3 |
