August 8, 2013: Iran has discovered fair and impartial European courts to be their most powerful weapon in fighting over a year of economic sanctions that are causing the Iranian dictatorship a great deal of trouble. This lawfare works for Iran because the sanctions can be challenged in EU courts and the EU is losing some of these cases because the courts demand to see highly classified intelligence data about the Iranian nuclear program. That data is kept secret because many of the sources are people or organizations within Iran that would be severely punished by the Iranian government if they knew who to go after. So far the courts have not been swayed by the need for secrecy and have ruled for Iran. These decisions are being appealed and Iran may yet be able to litigate its way out of the sanctions. 

EU (European Union) participation in the latest round of sanctions against Iran (in an effort to halt the Iranian nuclear weapons program) was the key to the success of these sanctions. With the EU involved it meant nearly all Western nations were complying with trade sanctions against Iran. This cost Iran half its oil income and blocked access to a wide range of Western goods.

But the EU still suffers from a massive amount of guilt and anxiety over the misuse of government power in Europe during the first half of the 20th century. Thus the court’s hostility to their own intelligence services. These organizations are nothing like the infamous Nazi era gestapo (secret police) but the memory persists. Ironically, the Europeans are using their own fear of government misuse of power within Europe to benefit a nation that abhors democracy and wants to make Europe part of an Islamic religious dictatorship.