UAE claims Israeli, US risks reasons for BlackBerry ban
updated 02:00 pm EDT, Fri September 3, 2010
UAE thinks Israelis, US have unfair BBerry access
Police from the United Arab Emirates city of Dubai claimed that the US had a political motivation in objecting to the Arab state's BlackBerry service ban. The agency's chief Dhahi Khalfan Tamim accused the US of hypocrisy as it wanted no monitoring in the UAE while it allegedly had full access at home. He also suspected that Israel had more access to this information and could use it against the country.
It's not clear how much direct sway Tamim would have over the final political decision, but his opinion is considered only a partial factor. Officials have more commonly said their concern was to prevent terrorism and other concerns, although critics have argued that they also want to squelch criticism or enforce social norms.
RIM has insisted that its system makes it impossible to provide data, as the security keys only exist for users and not itself. It may have little choice but to find an alternative as the total BlackBerry service ban could cost it 500,000 customers.
