The Most Powerful Weapon

Several oil-rich Middle East countries have recently banned BlackBerry services due to information security.

Canadian-designed BlackBerry has been on the market for about 10 years, and its popularity around the world is comparable to the United States Apple’s iPhone. Even U.S. President Barack Obama has continued to use his BlackBerry since his election. (U.S. Intelligence once worried about the infiltration by foreign agents into the president’s phone and wanted to ban its usage.) But why are the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and other countries in such a fuss now?

It is said that some of the BlackBerry communications content has been protected with encryption technology even the government is unable to break. Some countries worry that this encryption may be used by terrorists or interested parties to form a security loophole which will threaten national security.

Many have realized that many Western countries have captured the world by their soft power without firing a single shot to “rule” people around the globe.

The strongest penetration is nothing but American culture, which is all over the world — even in the most anti-American capital, Iran’s Tehran. I have seen fast-food restaurants imitating Starbucks and Kentucky Fried Chicken. America’s Coke has even entered into the remote mountains of Nepal and become an expensive premium drink.

Today, information technology from the West is leading the world with great inventions like the computer, the Internet and mobile phones. In every corner of the world, every computer in every household is using either a Microsoft or an Apple operating system.

The virtual community site Facebook, created by young American Mark E. Zuckerberg, and the iPhone, launched by Apple, are prevalent over the entire world. It simply shows how the West has changed the world using communications technology products.

These communications products from the West may be more powerful than nuclear bombs. They can control people’s minds without shedding any blood. Based on this point, how could those Middle East or Muslim countries not feel afraid?

Previously, the U.S.-led Western countries had used money to secretly influence Third World countries toward a pro-American agenda. Now, using these encrypted smart phones, one can escape the local government’s scrutiny and push for anti-government action. To prevent infiltration from the West, how could one not block these communications products?