Syria Crackdown Aided by U.S.-Europe Spy Gear

When the system is complete, Syrian security agents will be able to follow targets on flat-screen workstations that display communications and Web use in near-real time alongside graphics that map citizens’ networks of electronic contacts, according to the documents and two people familiar with the plans.

Such a system is custom-made for repression, says Mark Dubowitz, executive director of the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies, which promotes tighter sanctions against Syria.

“Any company selling monitoring surveillance technology to the Assad regime is complicit in human rights crimes,” he says.