Lawmakers Call On State To Probe Telco Firms' Dealings With Iran
January 4, 2012
| 7:04 PM
A group of House and Senate lawmakers want the State Department to investigate whether some telecom companies,including the Chinese tech firm Huawei, may have violated a U.S. law barring companies that export sensitive telecommunications technology to Iran from doing business with the U.S. government.
They wrote to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, pointing to an October story from the Wall Street Journal that identifies Huawei's dealings with Iran given that the State Department has yet to identify any companies that might be violating the 2010 Comprehensive Iran Sanctions Accountability and Divestment Act. The article claims that Huawei has supplied to Iranian mobile phone companies sensitive technology covered by the law that allows Iranian police to track users.
The letter, dated Dec. 22 and signed by Reps. Sue Myrick, R-N.C., and Frank Wolf, R-Va., and Sens. James Inhofe, R-Okla., Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., also notes that the Journal article and other news stories have identified other companies that may have supplied sensitive telecom technology to Iran.
"We ask you to expeditiously investigate whether Huawei and other telecommunications
firms have violated section 106 of CISADA by providing sensitive technology to the Iranian government that is or has been used to restrict the speech of the Iranian people and the free flow of unbiased information in Iran, and that you ensure taxpayer funds are not being used to support companies engaged in such activity," they wrote.
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