THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

Tuesday, April 1, 2014 | 13

OPINION
Many Europeans are upset
over revelations that the United
States government spies on them.
But European companies are sell-
ing surveillance tools and know-
how to other governments, allow-
ing them to spy abroad. Their
customers include some of the
worlds most abusive govern-
ments and at least one of them
Ethiopiais targeting its diaspora
population in Europe. The results
extend beyond outrage over pri-
vacy violations: They put people
in danger.
The global trade in this power-
ful spyware is virtually unregu-
lated and that needs to change.
Using digital technology to moni-
tor the Ethiopian diaspora in Eu-
rope, the regime in Addis Ababa
has brought its abuses right into
Europes midst. The EU needs to
regulate the sale of such technol-
ogy, at least to governments with
such questionable human-rights
records.
Inside Ethiopia, Prime Minister
Hailemariam Desalegns govern-
ment abuses mobile and Internet
networks to monitor opposition
groups and journalists, and to si-
lence dissenting voices. Using
Chinese-made telecom equipment,
the Ethiopian security agencies
have nearly unfettered access to
civilians phone records and re-
corded calls. Taped calls have
been played back to people being
interrogated by security officials
and used against them in trials
under the governments deeply
flawed antiterrorism law.
For mobile or Internet users in
Ethiopia, the violation of the
right to privacy is not an abstract
harm. One Ethiopian man, who
asked only to be identified as
Jirata, was once a member of a
registered political party; he now
struggles to survive as a refugee
in Kenya.
I was becoming well known
and respected in my political
party and one day security offi-
cials came and arrested me and
showed me list of phone calls I
had made, Jirata recalled to me
in a recent interview. They de-
manded to know who the foreign
numbers were. I told them every-
thingI had nothing to hide.
They began to beat me with a
rubber whip, demanding I confess
to belonging to the [banned]
Oromo Liberation Front. I was
kept in solitary confinement for
three months and pulled out each
night to be beaten.
His story is too common.
Thousands of Ethiopians have
fled threats to their lives and se-
curity, and many have found asy-
lum in Europe. Now Ethiopian spy
agencies are trying to silence any
independent criticism of govern-
ment policy by extending their
reach abroad, with the aid of ad-
vanced surveillance tools de-
signed and sold by several Euro-
pean companies. These tools give
intelligence officials access to
files, emails and activity on a tar-
gets computer. They can log key-
strokes and passwords and re-
motely turn on a devices webcam
and microphoneeffectively turn-
ing a computer into a listening
device.
Yohannes Alemu, a former ref-
ugee and now a Norwegian citi-
zen who supports an Ethiopian
opposition party that the govern-
ment has banned, found out too
late about the spyware. In late
2012, when Mr. Alemus wife and
two children were visiting family
in Ethiopia, security officials de-
tained and questioned her about
her husbands political connec-
tions. They sent Mr. Alemu emails
demanding more information
about his opposition-party associ-
ates. He refused, and after 20
days his wife was finally released
and returned to Norway.
That was not the end of the
incident.
One of the government emails
Mr. Alemu received contained an
attachment infected with spyware
known as FinFisher. FinFisher
GmbH, based in Munich, did not
respond to Human Rights Watchs
requests for comment regarding
the use of its product by Ethio-
pian authorities.
Once Mr. Alamus computer
was secretly infected, the Ethio-
pian security agencies had unfet-
tered access to it. After Mr. Al-
emu unwittingly forwarded the
infected emails to other people,
the spyware gave Ethiopian secu-
rity agencies potentially unfet-
tered access to their computers,
too. Researchers at Citizen Lab, a
Toronto-based center focused on
security and human rights online,
confirms that at least one of Mr.
Alamus contacts computers was
monitored as a result. Different
spyware developed in Italy has
been used to target the comput-
ers of others in the diaspora.
Such sales are currently per-
fectly legal, but European compa-
nies nonetheless risk complicity
in human-rights abuses when
they provide products and serv-
ices that facilitate Ethiopias sur-
veillance. Ethiopians living in the
U.K., the U.S., Norway, and Swit-
zerland are among those known
to have been targeted with Addis
Ababas spyware. Citizen Lab has
documented evidence of use of
these tools in over 25 countries.
In December, the 41 member
states participating in the Wasse-
naar Arrangementa multilateral
export-control regime for dual-
use technologiesagreed to regu-
late the export of intrusion soft-
ware and IP network
surveillance systems. This devel-
opment signals growing consen-
sus that the trade in powerful
surveillance tools being used to
violate rights should be reined in.
But much more is needed. The
European Commission should lead
efforts to regulate the export of
such technology to governments
with poor human rights records,
and to implement the new Wasse-
naar controls without delay. Until
then, Yohannes Alemu will not be
the last victim of Ethiopian cy-
ber-surveillance.
Mr. Horne is an Africa re-
searcher at Human Rights Watch
and co-author of a new report,
They Know Everything We Do:
Telecom and Internet Surveil-
lance in Ethiopia.
Boys play with a cellphone as Bill Clinton tours an Ethiopian health center.
G
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How Ethiopia Spies on Its Diaspora in Europe
BY FELIX HORNE
Germanys Russia lobby in-
cludes industrial and political in-
fluence groups of considerable
power, a faction of the Social
Democratic party, and anti-Euro-
pean Union activists of the far left
and right. They successfully en-
courage the notion that the West,
America in particular, has humili-
ated Russia to the point of being
responsible for Vladimir Putins
actions on Ukraineand, above
all, that confronting Russia on vir-
tually any issue is catastrophic for
German business.
A little reality here, please.
According to the German Sta-
tistical Office, Russia ranks 11th as
a German trading partner, behind
Belgium. Data from the MSCI re-
search organization shows that, as
a percentage of overall revenue
among listed European companies,
the highest German exposure to
Russia is 11.5% for retailer Metro.
BASF is exposed to Russia for 4.1%
of its revenue, as is Siemens.
Volkswagen, Porsche and BMW
are situated at 4.8%, 4.8% and
3.6%, respectively.
In fact, Switzerland-based soft-
drink bottling firm Coca-Cola Hel-
lenic faces about double the com-
bined Russian exposure of those
German auto makers.
Thats great to know for bar
bets. But it also says that Ger-
manys efforts to avoid being
tough with Russia on Ukraine are
colored by a nervous, not totally
frank and extremely emotional el-
ement. Arguments against stron-
ger sanctions could be countered
by stressing the factual limits of
the lobbys were-gonna-go-
broke poor-mouthing.
But the wider context for the
German government involves
postwar national guilt, and centu-
ries of a both romantic and ruth-
less vision of Russia as a nearby
Amazonia. It represents enormous
potential German wealth, coupled
with a German notion of Russias
need for German guidance.
In the Germany of Chancellor
Angela Merkel and Foreign Minis-
ter Frank-Walter Steinmeier, all of
these habits get masterfully mas-
saged by the Russians.
Last week, I asked a high-level
European security official to eval-
uate Germanys position on
Ukraine. He said, I dont see the
positive effect of all these phone
calls by [Mrs.] Merkel to Putin. As
for [Mr.] Steinmeier, there have
been instances at international
discussions where he seems to be
pitching for the other side.
Held up against the crisis in
Ukraine, Germanys new, projected
engagement in foreign-policy lead-
ership boils down to making sure
its old lets-talk-this-over and
maybe-we-can-do-nothing ap-
proaches stay in place.
In February, to wide interna-
tional applause (and to occasional
remarks that Chancellor Merkel
wasnt necessarily on board), Fed-
eral President Joachim Gauck
dared Germans to take risks for
freedom and justice, to turn away
from comfort and excuses, and to
assume possibly painful front-line
responsibilities in the world.
Heres a checklist on how Ger-
manys coalition government was
holding up to that task with
40,000 Russian troops just over
Ukraines eastern frontier.
When Defense Minister Ursula
von der Leyen, a Christian Demo-
crat, said last week that it was im-
portant for NATO countries on
Russias borders that the Alliance
show its presence there, she
was immediately shot down by
Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel, a
Social Democrat. Mr. Gabriel said,
The impression must not be
given that were playing with mili-
tary options even in theoretical
terms.
In the process, Mr. Gabriel
looked like he was disregarding a
warning issued the day before by
U.S. Gen. Philip Breedlove, the top
commander of NATO forces in Eu-
rope, about the unexplained and
troubling nature of the Russian
troop buildup.
Who came to the defense of
Ms. von der Leyen, after the vice
chancellor clobbered her on an is-
sue where she was in tune with a
developing aspect of NATO policy?
Chancellor Merkel said nothing
specific.
The Frankfurter Allgemeine
Zeitungs (FAZ) explanation for
why was not reassuring. The
newspaper reported, in fact, that
the chancellors silence involved
her governments resistance to a
plan under in discussion in Brus-
sels, which would preposition
heavy military equipment in the
Baltic states and Poland. This is
the kind of action to which U.S.
President Barack Obama is refer-
ring when he says that NATO will
maintain a regular presence in
Alliance countries that feel threat-
ened by Russia.
More discomfort: The FAZ de-
scribed NATO members broad
view that Germany was slipping
into its old passive mode, akin to
its position during NATOs Libya
incursion. This included its atti-
tude towards certain practical
measures. Presumably, this
means deeper and riskier involve-
ment than flying the air patrols
over the Baltic Sea that the Ger-
mans had previously indicated
they would undertake.
All the same, it is common-
place among allies to say that
Germany is an ultimately sure
partner in the Ukraine crisis be-
cause of Mrs. Merkels known mis-
trust and dislike of Mr. Putin. But
the notion can wear thin.
After years of Germany accom-
modating Russia, the problem now
comes down to weak expectations
for fundamental change in Ger-
manys approach. Since little in
the realm of future cooperation
can be expected of Mr. Putin, it
would be reasonable for Berlin to
consider that its current relations
with Russia can not survive the
Crimean aggression.
But Mrs. Merkel, Mr. Stein-
meier and German public opinion
give no sign of willingness to con-
cede the point.
In terms of the existence of a
Ukraine whole, free and anchored
to Western institutions, that
means its new leaders in Kiev
must limit their reliance on Ger-
many. It also supports their case
for pressing (and perhaps sham-
ing) the Obama administration
and the rest of Europe into ac-
cepting historical responsibility
for preventing new Russian ad-
justments to the post-Cold War
map.
If Ukraine instead winds up
dismembered, neutralized and
parceled into Russian quasi-pro-
tectorates through an ugly inter-
national deal, the result will be a
triumph for Vladimir Putin and an
undisguised defeat for Barack
Obama. As for Germany, it would
mean life and business continuing
pretty much as usualon Ger-
manys own deeply self-involved
terms.
Mr. Vinocur is former executive
editor of the International Herald
Tribune.
The Russia Lobby in Germany
BY JOHN VINOCUR
Berlin appeases Moscow
out of a sense postwar
national guilt.
European companies sell
surveillance technologies to
abusive foreign regimes.
16 | Tuesday, April 1, 2014 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
INDEX TO BUSINESSES
Agricultural Bank of
China.......................... 19
Alstom...........................17
American Express.........19
Apple........................18,28
Arcadis.......................... 17
Atlantis Resources.......17
Bank of China...............19
Bank of America...........15
Bank of
Communications........19
Bank of New York
Mellon........................19
Barclays Bank...............20
BNP Paribas..................22
BP..................................22
BP Russia......................22
Capital One Financial..... 19
Carlyle Group................19
Chevron......................... 10
China Mobile.................28
China National
Petroleum.................. 11
China Telecom...............28
China Construction
Bank...........................19
Citigroup....................... 15
Cleary Gottlieb Steen &
Hamilton....................19
ConocoPhillips...............10
Credit Suisse................ 20
Deutsche Telekom........28
Dongfang Electric
Machinery.................. 17
Eco Wave Power...........17
Edgeworth
Economics..................19
Enel ............................... 17
Eni ............................ 10,17
Ericsson....................22,28
European Central
Bank...........................22
Exxon Mobil..................10
Facebook.................... 1,28
Federal Reserve............15
Financial Conduct
Authority................... 15
General Motors.............18
Glencore........................ 19
Goldman Sachs
Group..........................15
Google................... 6,18,28
Huawei
Technologies.........22,28
Industrial & Commercial
Bank of China............19
ING Groep..................... 20
J.P. Morgan Chase...15,20
Julius Baer Gruppe.......20
KazMunaiGas................10
King Digital
Entertainment.............1
Lockheed Martin...........17
Microsoft..................15,28
Natixis...........................18
Nokia........................ 15,28
Omnicom Group............15
Pfizer.............................28
Publicis Group...............15
Reignwood Group......... 17
Royal Bank
of Scotland................ 20
SAP................................16
Siemens........................ 17
Strukton Groep.............17
Supercell ....................... 18
Swiss National Bank......6
Telefnica......................28
Tesla Motors.................28
TNK-BP..........................22
Total .............................. 10
Twitter............................ 6
UBS............................ 6,20
Verizon
Communications........28
Vodafone Group............28
Weko............................. 20
Xstrata.......................... 19
YouTube...........................6
Zuercher
Kantonalbank.............20
Zynga............................ 18
Businesses
This index of businesses
mentioned in todays
issue of The Wall Street
Journal is intended to
include all significant
reference to companies.
First reference to the
companies appears in
bold face type in all
articles except those
on page one and the
editorial pages. Corrections Amplifications
Readers can alert the London newsroom of The
Wall Street Journal to any errors in news articles
by emailing wsjcontact@wsj.com or by calling
+44 (0)20 7842 9901.
BUSINESS & FINANCE
Firms Find Autism Can Be a Job Skill
SAP, Freddie Mac Take Novel Approach to Fill Certain Positions That Call for Precision or New Thinking
DUBLINSome employers in-
creasingly are viewing autism as an
asset and not a deficiency in the
workplace.
German software company SAP
AG has been actively seeking people
with autism for jobs, not because of
charitable outreach, but because it
believes features of autism may
make some individuals better at cer-
tain jobs than those without autism.
Its a worthy initiative, according
to disability experts, since 85% of
adults with autism are estimated to
be unemployed.
Piloted in Germany, India and Ire-
land, the program is also being
launched in four North American of-
fices, according to an announcement
Thursday.
SAP aims to have up to 1% of its
workforceabout 650 peoplebe
employees with autism by 2020, ac-
cording to Jose Velasco, head of the
autism initiative at SAP in the U.S.
People with autism spectrum dis-
ordercharacterized by social defi-
cits and repetitive behaviortend to
pay great attention to detail, which
may make them well suited as soft-
ware testers or debuggers, according
to Mr. Velasco, who has two children
with the condition.
In addition, these people bring a
different perspective to the work-
place, which may help with effi-
ciency and creativity as well, he said.
They have a very structured na-
ture and like nonambiguous, precise
outcomes, Mr. Velasco said. Were
looking at those strengths and look-
ing at where those traits would be of
value to the organization.
Autistic employees at SAP take
on roles such as identifying software
problems, and assigning customer-
service queries to members of the
team for troubleshooting. One em-
ployee works in talent marketing,
issuing communications to employ-
ees internally. The company is look-
ing for someone to produce videos
and is considering an applicant with
autism who has experience in media
arts.
SAP is also considering other po-
sitions, such as writing manuals to
give clients very precise instructions
on how to install software.
Individuals with autism might ex-
cel at going step by step, without
skipping details that others may
miss, said Mr. Velasco. The business
procurement process, such as getting
invoices or managing the supply
chain, is another area in which an in-
dividual with autism might shine, he
said.
SAP isnt the only company to
have such a program. In the U.S.,
mortgage lender Freddie Mac has of-
fered career-track internships since
2012, including in IT, finance and re-
search.
The lender hired its first full-time
employee from the program in Janu-
ary, according to a Freddie Mac
spokeswoman. In IT, the company
has found that interns often perform
well in testing and data-modeling
jobs that require great attention to
detail and focus as well as a way of
seeing things that might not have
been anticipated by the developers.
Harnessing the unique skills of
people on the autism spectrum has
the potential to strengthen our busi-
ness and make us more competitive,
according to the lenders policy.
To be sure, as with any group,
people with autism have a range of
interests and abilities. SAP is work-
ing with a Danish autism-focused
training and consulting firm, Special-
isterne, which carefully screens and
interviews the candidates to find the
appropriate matches before sending
them to SAP to evaluate.
Patrick Brophy, 29 years old, has
a bachelors degree in computer sci-
ence in software systems and a mas-
ters in multimedia systems, which
includes website development and
editing. Mr. Brophy says he has
Aspergers, a term commonly used to
describe a milder form of autism
spectrum disorder. He had been
looking for full-tine work for a few
years but said that in the handful of
interviews he went to, he would
sometimes stutter or misinterpret
questions, which he felt reflected
poorly on him in the interviews.
When he arrived at SAP for the
screening day, however, he had the
technical qualifications, and he ap-
peared to have skills to work in a
corporate setting, according to Peter
Brabazon, Specialisterne program
manager. Mr. Brophy was hired by
the quality-assurance department in
July, where he identifies glitches in
software before it is issued to cli-
ents.
Four weeks before joining, I was
steadily more and more nervous,
said Mr. Brophy, who worried about
his adjustment to a new environ-
ment. Within a month, [the work]
was second nature. I had found my-
self.
Mr. Brophy said there have been
challenges with his job, particularly
when he has to revamp how he does
a certain task. From a social stand-
point, he found it easy to integrate
into his team, said both Mr. Brophy
and David Sweeney, a colleague as-
signed to be his mentor.
About 1% of the population in the
U.S. aloneor some three million
peopleis thought to have an au-
tism-spectrum disorder. The latest
figures issued on Thursday by the
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention show that one in 68 chil-
dren have been identified with an
autism-spectrum disorder. Their life-
time employment rate is extremely
low even though many want to work,
said disability experts. Among young
adults between 21 and 25 years old,
only half have ever held a paid job
outside the home, according to a
study published last year in the
Journal of the American Academy of
Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
Though many people with autism
go on to higher education and are
qualified for employment, they may
have trouble getting in the door of a
workplace because of difficulties
with networking or interviews, ac-
cording to Wendy Harbour, executive
director of the Taishoff Center for
Inclusive Higher Education, at Syra-
cuse University.
There are a number of companies
and outreach efforts that aim to hire
people with autism, seeking to tailor
work to their abilities. But SAP and
employers like Freddie Mac said
their effort is specifically a business
decision to take advantage of what
they see as unique skill sets. SAP
said that individuals being consid-
ered to work there usually have had
at least some higher education.
In Dublin, the candidates arrive
at the companys software design
center, dubbed the AppHaus, which
features open spaces, movable desks
and whimsical furniture. They are
asked to work in pairs on a task
building a motorized robot. Candi-
dates are given the instruction man-
ual and brief instructions.
Assessors from Specialisterne
look to see if the candidates listen to
instructions and pick up on cues, and
how they react to challenges such as
how the colors of the pieces to the
robot look different from the in-
struction manual. I want to see how
they work together and their techni-
cal skills, said Debbie Merrigan, one
of the assessors for Specialisterne.
She wants them to be meticulous,
she says. If they arent it doesnt
mean they arent employable, but
they may not be a good fit for work-
ing at SAP. Sometimes candidates
get overwhelmed and simply leave.
After Specialisterne identifies a
candidate as being a good fit, SAP
then does further interviews, as they
would with any other applicant, says
Kristen Doran, a program manager in
human resources at SAP Dublin. At
this facility, 15 candidates were
screened and interviewed to hire the
three who are currently placed as
contractors. Mr. Brophy works in the
quality-assurance department while
the other two individuals are in the
troubleshooting division.
The candidates are paid market
rate and if they succeed on the job,
they will be hired as full-time em-
ployees after a year, said Liam Ryan,
managing director of SAP Labs Ire-
land.
Difficulties with social interaction
and inflexibility can sometimes pose
significant problems for individuals
with autism, and SAP has a mentor-
ing system and in some cases has
made changes to the work schedule
to accommodate these new employ-
ees. The company also conducts a
month of employee-adaptation train-
ing to increase employees comfort
level at working with the team as
well as another month or more of
job training.
Its hard to go into a corporate
space if you prefer order to disor-
der, says Thorkil Sonne, founder of
Specialisterne. Our biggest effort is
to work with themto define and
strengthen their comfort zone, said
Mr. Sonne, who has a son with au-
tism.
BY SHIRLEY S. WANG
SAPs Patrick Brophy, right, with co-worker and mentor David Sweeney. Mr. Brophy was hired to identify software glitches.
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A number of firms and
outreach efforts aim to
hire people with autism.