The recent Hacking Team hack generated a rash of self-righteous tweets about the company’s sales to “repressive” governments.
Before you get overly excited about the sins of the Hacking Team, consider this graphic of arms sales by the United States and Russia:
From US/Russia Arms Sales Race by Allan Smith and Skye Gould.
Buying arms is a good indication of the intent to repress someone so I don’t see many places that don’t have repressive governments.
Speaking of repression, this is the best visualization I have seen to date of the Greek debt crisis:
http://demonocracy.info/infographics/eu/debt_greek/debt_greek.html
Its a very large visualization so I won’t attempt to replicate it here.
The German government is trying to repress the Greek people for the foreseeable future in order to collect on its debt. Think of it as international loan sharking. If you don’t pay, we will break your legs. Or in this particular case, austerity measures that will blight the lives of millions. Sounds repressive to me.
We can debate repression one way or the other but the important resource for US citizens is: Office of Foreign Assets Control – Sanctions Programs and Information. Sanctions programs, well, carry sanctions for violating their terms. On you.
I have serious questions about the sanctions list both in terms of who is included and who is not. However, unless you have a large appetite for risk, you had best follow its guidance (or your government’s similar list).