President Barack Obama has signed a new order that authorizes sanctions and visa bans of companies that assist Syria and Iran to use technologies like cell phone monitoring as he sees it as an abuse to human rights.
A strategy to strengthen the management to avoid violence among the people and Atrocities Prevention Board has been organized to monitor the proceedings, said Obama on a serious note considering the severity of the concern at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day.
The executive order that was signed Sunday "authorizes sanctions and visa bans against those who commit or facilitate grave human rights abuses via information technology ... related to Syrian and Iranian regime brutality," according to a White House statement.
Obama stressed that the technologies provided to the citizens should be to "empower" them, not to "repress them."
The White House statement said: "This novel sanctions tool allows us to sanction not just those oppressive governments, but the companies that enable them with technology they use for oppression and the 'digital guns for hire' who create or operate systems used to monitor, track, and target citizens for killing, torture, or other grave abuses,"
Atrocities Prevention Board will have its first meet at the White House Monday and will have members from many government departments. State, Defense, Treasury, Justice and Homeland Security and other agencies will join allies to help Atrocities Prevention Board in responding to threats of atrocities more quickly, according to the White House Statement.
"Across government, alert channels will make sure that information about unfolding crises and dissenting opinions reach decision-makers, including me," Obama said taking full responsibility of issues. "Our Treasury Department will work more quickly to deploy its financial tools to block the flow of money to abusive regimes. Our military will take additional steps to incorporate the prevention of atrocities into its doctrine and its planning. The State Department will surge our diplomats and experts in a crisis," he said explaining roles of different government organizations as a part of Atrocities Prevention Board.
