Area SpA, the Italian company building a Syrian surveillance system, is weighing options that may include exiting the deal, according to Chief Executive Officer Andrea Formenti.

“Before making a definitive decision, we need to, based on all the contractual obligations we have, evaluate what impact there will be for us,” Formenti said in a telephone interview.

If completed, the system would give Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime the power to intercept, scan and catalog virtually every e-mail that flows through the country, Bloomberg News reported Nov. 4, citing a person familiar with the project and blueprints for the system.

The Italian company had come under pressure in recent days, with non-profit groups such as Human Rights Watch calling for the project to be shut down. Protesters from Italy’s Pirate Party and the National Coalition to Support the Syrian Revolution rallied yesterday outside Area’s headquarters next to Milan’s Malpensa Airport, demanding the company pull the plug.

All work on the system had already been suspended for more than two months, Formenti said. He declined to explain why, saying technical problems “could be one of the reasons.”

The person familiar with the project said it had suffered technical setbacks.

Formenti declined to say whether he would prefer to abandon the project, citing the involvement of other parties. “There are factors that don’t just depend on us,” he said.

“We can’t respond now,” he said. “We don’t have all the information.”
Crackdown on Protests

As Syria’s crackdown on protests claimed more than 3,500 lives since March, Area employees had been installing the system under the direction of Syrian intelligence agents, according to the person familiar with the project, who has worked on it for Area and requested anonymity because Area employees sign non- disclosure agreements with the company.
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