Rick Scott Tied To Internet Censorship In Iran And Saudi Arabia

A report released on Tuesday calls out former hospital CEO Rick Scott for sitting on the board of a company used by Saudi Arabia and Iran to suppress Internet access. In recent months, Scott has become the most high-profile conservative activist working to oppose the health care reforms backed by the Obama administration.

The newly formed organization Media Matters Action Network released a document on Tuesday detailing Scott's links to the Internet monitoring company Secure Computing, and the use of that company's software by some of the world's most oppressive regimes.

The findings add another politically provocative element to the battle over health care reform. While officials with Secure Computing did not immediately return requests for information on Scott's work or compensation, the optics could be problematic. Scott has pledged to spend more than $5 million of his own money to build resistance to greater government involvement in the health care industry. Where that money comes from changes the perception of his opposition.

Scott secured his board position in early 2006 after the company for which he previously worked -- CyberGuard -- was bought by Secure Computing for $295 million. According to Hoovers.com, Scott received $35,000 per year for serving on Secure Computing's board. He also received a half share of Secure stock and $2.73 for each CyberGuard share that was purchased. According to the company's website he remains in his Secure Computing post, though an SEC filing says he left in November 2008.

At the time of merger, Secure Computing was already facing criticism for allowing its SmartFilter software to be used by governments eager to limit public Internet access. As far back as 2001, Saudi Arabia had been using Secure Computing's content filtering technology to block access to certain websites. Often the prohibited sites were pornographic in nature. Occasionally, however, the censorship was of political, religious or culturally sensitive content.

Secure Computing's work for Saudi Arabia continued well into Scott's tenure on the board. In May 2007, the site OpenNet did a country profile that concluded that the Saudi Arabian government used "Secure Computing's SmartFilter software for technical implementation and to identify sites for blocking."

In November 2008, Business Week reported that Saudi Arabian Internet "censorship is considered among the most restrictive in the world." The government, the story went on, "uses more sophisticated software from San Jose-based Secure Computing that offers a menu of 90 categories of sites to block."

Perhaps more controversial was the use of Secure Computing's technology by the government of Iran. In 2005, OpenNet reported that "Internet content regulation in Iran" was occurring "at multiple levels, through multiple methods." The filtering, it added, was being enabled by "Secure Computing's SmartFilter software" and was blocking such sites as: www.lesbians-against-violence.com, www.gayegypt.com, www.gay.ru, and gaytoday.badpuppy.com.

The company insisted at the time that they had "sold no license to any entity in Iran" and were taking steps to stop the "illegal" use of their products. That said, in May 2008 (with Scott now on the board), the group Reporters Without Borders issued a report that said Iran was using "filtering technologies" that were "supplied by Secure Computing," allowing "users to block Internet website addresses."

"According to Secure Computing," the report read, "this software makes it possible to block millions of websites in over 60 categories. It is therefore easy for the Iranian government to block websites for political reasons."

OpenNet has also reported that the governments of the United Arab Emirates and Tunisia have used Secure Computing's technology to restrict Internet access among their populace.

Secure Computing did not return a request for comment about the extent of Scott's involvement or the use of its software in Saudi Arabia and Iran. In the past, officials have noted that the company provides a technology and is not in the business of policing how clients use the product. ''Once we sell them the product, we can't enforce how they use it," said sales executive Matthew Holt in a 2001 New York Times article on Saudi Arabia's internet censorship efforts.

That said, the Media Matters Action Network report -- which follows on similar efforts among progressive groups to target major GOP donors -- seems likely to find its way into the current health care debate. Scott is more than just a bankroller of the movement to defeat health care reform. He has lent his voice to television advertisements, spent (already) more than $1 million, conducted polls and coordinated a PR campaign to influence the debate.

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Comments

[Bold1]

If Rick Scott and his group of radical right wing zealots who only want more money continue this course of action, then people of this country will need to begin marching, protests and planning for revolution. How many times will he be allowed to perpetrate fraud on this country and on this government. He already obtained enormous wealth through MEDICARE AND MEDICAID FRAUD and paid the largest fine ever , $1.7 BILLION , to settle the case. Why is he leading this cause to destroy universal healthcare ? MORE MONEY !!!!!!!! Hold on for a rough ride. He's defrauding the government and the taxpayers of this country again.

[olmossy]

Why, because any money left in the commoners pocket is money NOT in Globalist pockets.
The right wing Friedman folks need a large labor force( no middle class) ,hopefully unemployment rate of 25-50%
No healtcare, no unemployement , no social security no union , no civil rights. A frightened , unsure hungry populations is easier to manipulate.

[Candyx]

Huff Po continue to expose this guy. He is basically a crook. He has stolen from the government and now wants to use his money or perhaps ours to lobby against our interest. PLEASE CONTINUE TO EXPOSE THIS GUY!!

[Nyla785]

I"m sure he considers himself a good republican and solid defender of Constitutional rights.
Well, the rights that help him make money.

[HST]

There's big money in censorship and propaganda. Would you like a little disinformation with that?

[paramour]

n 1997 Rick Scott was forced out as head of the biggest hospital chain in the country [Columbia HCA]. . . Scott’s company ended up getting totally nailed for Medicare and Medicaid fraud . . . paid the largest fine ever paid to the government . . . $1.7 billion.

[Petey131]

Such christian values.

[lvdragonlady]

It appears that someone needs to put mr.scott and a very very sh.or.t leash. He appears to be a thr.ea.t to our rights as well as others overseas.

[poco767c]

Rights are for rich people, everyone else can take a number.

[Westof405]

As already noted, Rick Scott's company ripped off the taxpayers for billions in Medicare fraud. The fact that this guy is who the GOP wants as their spokesman on health care reform shows what they really are after-a way to keep soaking the taxpayers to enrich themselves.

If we get a single payer system, the opportunities for profiteering and fraud go way down. That's what the GOP is afraid of-cutting off the money they get from their big corporate donors who are gouging the taxpayers for overpriced drugs, and high premiums.

No wonder GM can't compete against foreign car makers who build overseas. GM spends more on health care per car than it does on steel, according to Matt Miller on NPR yesterday.

[help4mac]

These are the same people that tell us not to engage Cuba because it's a repressive regime. I guess it's all about business.

[blairtone]

So you are saying there are no political prisoners in Cuba? It is not repressive? Free speech? Freedom to congregate? Free press? Freedom to leave Cuba? When did this happen - I must have been having lunch.

[MJinCanada]

200-odd in a place called Guantanamo Bay....

[signwrite]

I hope he gets lots of press......

[Appleton]

So it appears that Rick Scott is actually multi-talented. Not only is he superb at profiting from massive Medicare fraud, he is apparently astute at developing methods to keep people from learning the truth. I'd say he possesses a symbiotic skill set.

[kevinz]

If what Bam is proposing is so bad to the repugs, then they should justify it by dropping out of the very system that is taking care of them unless they think they are special Americans (congressmen and senators), versus the very people who vote them in. Scott does not realize that the dynamics have changed, move over let the young people explore for themselves, your guidance has been pathetic.

[Loompa]

"The right wing of any government prefers that people only know what they want them to know." - now isn't that a brilliant statement!!?? You lefties are something else - so you say, then, that Pravda was a free press, USSR was a free country, there was no Berlin Wall, Stalin didn't murder over 20 million of his own people, there were no gulags, no political dissident arrests, etc. etc etc, - or was USSR run by the Republicans? My memory says they were lefties/commies/socialists.

[XLintLuvR]

Did your parents have any kids that survived childbirth? Why is it that the Right has an issue with anyone exposing a view different from their own. We're talking about governments that are restricting free knowledge based on political or religious idealogies. Which side of the political spectrum does that sound like to you? The problem with your side is that it just doesn't have any tolerance for anyone that disagrees with them. Who said that the Soviets were free and there was no Berlin Wall? There are certain undeniable facts throughout history but you're the type of right wing sympathizer that will deny the holocaust. Unfair when someone just throws out a judgement of you that's completely detached from anything that's actually happened huh?

[blairtone]

I'll have to agree with Loompa on this one. your statement, XLint, "The problem with your side is that it just doesn't have any tolerance for anyone that disagrees with them" is exactly what is wrong with the left. You don't hear of leftist speakers getting attacked, shouted down, etc., at the universities, it's the non-leftists that has that happen to them. Also, just watch any news program that has reps from both sides - inevitably it's the leftist that tries to shout down the other side. Wake up and smell the coffee!

[jhm1953]

Thanks for your response to Loompa. It really sums up how I feel about so many Rethugs and their sympathizers.

[MJinCanada]

Communism and socialism aren't the same any more than democracy and capitalism are.

The USSR began as a socialist communist union but quickly evolved into a corrupt totalitarian state. The US began as a democratic republic and evolved into a corrupt plutocracy.

[olmossy]

You could even say we were a social democracy. Just don't say it in public in Texas LOL

[Loompa]

According to the author's logic(?), how come Bill Gates isn't being attacked for supporting OBL - after all, Osama uses Microsoft hardware. Boy, these wingnuts will write anything that would only make sense to a democrap.

[bikerdude]

Google Scott and see what we are facing...His background before he screwed up Columbia/HCA was retail sales. During his tenure in healthcare he referred to patients as customers and diseases as product lines...He does NOT have the best interest of patient's rights in his vocabulary. He continues to try to keep health care as a monopolistic enterprise with as few controls and regulations as possible. He is the enemy of single payer, universal coverage.