Iran's resistance keeps up cat-and-mouse web game

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PROXIES
Arrayed against the web activists are the fact that Iran's government is equipped with latest monitoring technology, which enables it to detect computers making a secure connection, said Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer for Helsinki-based F-Secure Corporation.

Some proxy servers use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) to secure the connection with a remote server. This security layer helps ensure that no other computers can read the traffic exchanged.

When people make these SSL connections -- the same type used in the West for Internet shopping -- the authorities cannot see the content of material accessed. But they could physically raid sites to check on the computers involved.

National police chief Esmail Ahmadi-Moghaddam in January warned Iran's opposition against using text messages and emails to organise fresh street rallies.

"These people should know where they are sending the SMS and email as these systems are under control. They should not think using proxies will prevent their identification," he said.

"If they continue ... those who organise or issue appeals (about opposition protests) have committed a crime worse than those who take to the streets," Ahmadi-Moghaddam added.

Thousands of people were arrested during widespread street unrest after the election. Most have since been freed, but more than 80 people have received jail terms of up to 15 years, including several senior opposition figures.

On Jan. 28, Iranian media said two men sentenced to death in trials that followed the election had been executed. Tension in Iran rose after eight people were killed in clashes with security forces in December, including Mousavi's nephew.

"The security services can turn technology against the logistics of protest," Evgeny Morozov, a commentator on the political implications of the Internet, wrote in the November edition of Prospect magazine, citing experiences in Belarus and elsewhere.

DETERMINATION
But the authorities are facing determined resistance.

Journalists inside Iran have been banned from attending opposition demonstrations, but that has not kept footage of anti-government gatherings from reaching the Internet.

"It is extremely important for me to check my email messages in order to be informed about the latest developments in the absence of independent free media in the country," said Nooshin, her computer screen repeatedly flashing up the same message in Farsi: "Access to this page is prohibited by the law."

A young customer in the computer shopping centre in Tehran said: "It is very important to be unidentified while surfing the Internet these days ... currently the most secure way for us is to have a secure email account."

Hypponen said Iran's international isolation -- especially its tense relationship with the United States -- is likely to hamper its ability to catch web activists.

"It's easier for an activist from Iran to hide than for a web criminal," he said. "When chasing criminals, countries help each other."

"SOFT" WAR
The United States is also a factor. It cut ties with Iran shortly after its revolution toppled the US-backed Shah, and Tehran and Washington are now at odds over Iran's disputed nuclear work.

Iran has accused the West of waging a "soft" war with the help of opposition and intellectuals inside the country, and officials have portrayed the post-election protests as a foreign-backed bid to undermine the clerical establishment.

In January, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton challenged Beijing and other governments to end Internet censorship, placing China in the company of Iran, Saudi Arabia and others as leading suppressors of online freedom.

She said "electronic barriers" to parts of the Internet or filtered search engine results contravened the UN's Universal Declaration on Human Rights, which guarantees freedom of information.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei hit back, accusing the United States of trying to use the Internet as a tool to confront the Islamic Republic.

"The Americans have said that they have allocated a USD 45 million budget to help them to confront the Islamic Republic of Iran via the Internet," he said in a Jan. 26 speech.

The US Senate voted in July to adopt the Victims of Iranian Censorship Act, which authorises up to USD 50 million for expanding Farsi language broadcasts, supporting Iranian Internet and countering government efforts to block it.