RAB denies surveillance equipment purchase from Italy
A Russian television channel (RT) said in their online report that Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) is buying surveillance equipment from an Italian company. The report said the Italian company is marketing the equipment after jointly manufacturing it with an Israeli company. According to the news report, used over the internet, the surveillance equipment can listen in on conversations on any computer or smartphone. The report was published on 9 July.
Asked about buying such technology, RAB legal and mass media wing director, commander Mufti Mahmud Khan, denied knowing anything regarding the matter. However, another RAB official on condition of anonymity told Prothom Alo that representatives of a foreign company met with RAB about purchasing such equipment. But nothing has been decided yet on whether to buy the equipment or not.
RT in their report said, the equipment to be bought from the company is made by an Israeli company named ‘Nice Systems.’ The company has a worldwide surveillance equipment business.. The report also said a representative from the company visited Dhaka to practically show the performance of the equipment. The report said ‘Nice Systems’ is a corporate partner of a mother company named 'Hacking Team.’ ‘Nice Systems’ has close ties with the Israeli army and intelligence services. The CEO of Nice Systems, Barack Eilam, is a former official of the special intelligence unit, Signals Intelligence Core, of the Israeli Army. He is focused on expanding the company’s business worldwide. Hacking Team and Nice Systems are secretly selling such equipment worldwide, but have never acknowledged it.
Regarding the source of the report, RT said a hacker group recently hacked into some secret e-mails of Hacking Team. Those e-mails contained information about selling the technology to a number of governments and intelligence services , including Bangladesh. The other countries included India, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Saudi Arab, Kuwait, South Korea, Germany, Australia, Spain, Switzerland, and, the USA. Indian television channel NDTV, in a report on Friday said, India bought the technology from the company during the Manmohan government's tenure .
It has been learned from a hacked e-mail that an individual of a hacking team from Bangladesh informed the middleman organisation that he handed over the technology and all papers of required instruments to RAB.
Terming the RAB a ‘death squad’, the RT report said the force is brutal and known for its extrajudicial killings and tortures.
Earlier, Switzerland stalled a shipmentof mobile phone tapping and surveillance materials bought by RAB, on allegations that the equipment would be used to violate human rights.
The device purchased for surveillance is called International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) catcher. These are extremely powerful intelligence gears. The gears are used for tapping in to mobile phones. These are portable and can be used in vehicles.
Though the surveillance equipment was bought secretly, Privacy International, a UK based rights organisation, came to know about this and campaigned to take stern action against the export of surveillance equipment.
A RAB team visited Switzerland to have a look at the purchased surveillance equipment. Privacy International then tracked the team and several reports were published in the Swiss media, closing the door for RAB's purchase of the equipment consignment.
Existing laws support wire-tapping in Bangladesh. Telecommunications Act 97 (a) Section states, “The government will be able to give authority to any Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency, investigating agencies, or law regulating agencies, from time to time to collect information for the sake of national security, to resist holding or collecting of text and voice call of any mobile subscribers.”
However, no law enforcement agency of Bangladesh has yet admitted to their role or responsibility in recent telephone conversation leaks of several political personalities.