Iran business could be costly for Siemens

Washington Times:

One of the world's largest engineering firms, Siemens, could lose hundreds of millions of dollars in sales to the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) because it sold Iran equipment used to spy on dissidents.

California politicians and Iranian human rights advocates say in awarding contracts, officials should take into account the fact that the German company participated in a joint venture with Nokia in 2008 to sell Iran's telecommunications company a monitoring center that, according to the joint venture's own promotional literature, can intercept and catalog e-mails, telephone calls and Internet data.

Political pressure because of Iran's recent crackdown on postelection protesters - as well as the country's advancing nuclear program - could affect a vote next week on who will supply rail cars for Los Angeles County.

"At a time when the city and the board of supervisors are urging divestment from Iran, it would be hypocritical of our board to make a deal with Siemens or anyone else who is doing business in Iran," said Richard Katz, a member of the MTA board.

Shirin Ebadi, an Iranian human rights lawyer and winner of the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize, told The Washington Times Thursday that she is urging Los Angeles County not to award Siemens the contract. She also urged Californians to write letters to their local representatives to boycott Siemens.

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I have posted earlier on the internal boycott within Iran of Nokia and any other company that has helped the regime suppress communication of those who oppose it. While I normally oppose secondary boycotts, in this case I can see the wisdom of putting pressure on companies that aid the repression of people in Iran.