Sunday, May 05, 2013

Israel's dirty hands in...Nigeria

"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]."