FDD Praises Release of Human Rights Bill and Releases Report Naming Companies Providing Tools of Opp

FDD Praises Release of Human Rights Bill and Releases Report Naming Companies Providing Tools of Oppression Used by the Iranian Regime to Brutalize Its People

Washington, D.C. (May 4, 2011) – FDD Executive Director Mark Dubowitz today introduced “Iranian Tools of Oppression,” an FDD research report of initial findings on companies that have been reported to have provided products and services that enable the Iranian regime to repress its people over the past decade. Dubowitz also congratulated a bipartisan group of four U.S. lawmakers for introducing the boldest legislation yet to promote human rights and democracy in Iran.

The Iran Human Rights and Democracy Promotion Act of 2011, sponsored by Senators Mark Kirk (R-IL) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Congressmen Robert Dold (R-IL) and Ted Deutch (D-FL), would impose sanctions on companies selling or servicing products that enable the Iranian regime to abuse human rights. It would compel the United States to help the Iranian people freely access and share information, enact a comprehensive strategy to promote Internet freedom in Iran, enable higher education for members of the Baha’i faith who are banned by the Iranian regime from pursuing university studies, and support Iran’s democratic activists by reauthorizing the Iran Freedom Support Act.

According to research conducted by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, the Iranian regime uses products provided by international companies to carry out its oppression. In a study published today, FDD reports on a number of such products and companies who have been reported to conduct business with Iran.

“International companies are providing goods and technologies that help the Iranian regime brutalize its own people,” said FDD Executive Director Mark Dubowitz. “These products range from sniper rifles, cranes and riot control equipment to web filtering and cell phone monitoring technologies. One day, a free Iranian people will build a museum displaying these tools of oppression with the logos of the companies that abetted the revolutionary regime’s crimes. Until then, this legislation will help identify and expose those companies that care about their reputations and punish those that don’t.”

The legislation also would establish a U.S. “Special Representative on Human Rights and Democracy in Iran” with budget authority over programs that help Iranians organize peaceful opposition to their regime and circumvent its restrictions on internet access.

“The legislation provides the most comprehensive support to date for measures that provide both material and moral support for Iran’s courageous dissidents,” said Dubowitz. “The Iranian regime poses a grave threat to America, our allies and the majority of the Iranian people. Economic sanctions must be coupled with tougher human rights sanctions that don’t let abusers and facilitators act without consequence.”

The full text of the Iran Human Rights and Democracy Promotion Act of 2011 is available upon request.

To access the full FDD report: “Iranian Tools of Oppression and the Companies that Provide Them” go to: http://www.defenddemocracy.org/images/IHR_Initial_Findings.pdf

For more information on the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ research on Iran, please contact David Donadio at [email protected] or (202) 207-3692. To book a broadcast appearance by Mark Dubowitz or FDD’s other Iran experts, please contact Susan Firey at [email protected] or (571) 289-7167.

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The Foundation for Defense of Democracies is a non-profit, non-partisan policy institute dedicated exclusively to promoting pluralism, defending democratic values, and fighting the ideologies that drive terrorism. Founded shortly after the attacks of 9/11, FDD combines policy research, democracy and counterterrorism education, strategic communications, and investigative journalism in support of its mission. For more information, please visit www.defenddemocracy.org.