It’s important to understand that this software is a product of Israeli intelligence members partnering with the private sector to produce spy tools for profit, and wide usage.
They have been entirely dishonest about how it is used. A recent PR release shows their spin.
Read that PR release summary closely, and then compare that with the reality of what today’s report reveals.
Interesting timing, that they released it three weeks before today’s damning report 👇 was published:
At first glance, “37 smartphones” seems insignificant.
But it’s important to clarify that this is not 37 out of 50,000.
This is 37 out of only 67 that they were able to inspect - and some of those 67 were not really viable candidates.
This is a very high percentage.
We don’t know where the list came from, but forensic data appears to show that each of these phones were targeted very close to the time they were added to the list - in some cases within seconds (automation?).
Again, contrast their statements with the reality of the situation:
So what exactly does NSO’s Pegasus spyware do?
It is a military grade hacking tool.
It allows these governments full access to your phone and everything on it - and you don’t even have to click on anything to be infected. Simply receive a text message.
It is also a mistake to believe that NSO is the only Israeli company that is exporting its military grade hacking and surveillance tools to be used by other governments around the world.
NSO claims that they care about preventing human rights abuses, and that they thoroughly vet their client governments/licensees.
But the data published today confirms that they license this tech to countries whose governments are known human rights abusers.
In fact, if NSO simply licenses their hacking software to governments, and does not use the software itself to target people, then why were researchers who criticized NSO, and who directly challenged them about abuses, themselves hacked shortly afterward?
This is part of a much larger story.
It is a story about the growing use of private companies to carry out spycraft and espionage against opponents - both political (for governments) and personal (for the wealthy and connected).
Erik Prince created his own, so the GOP could infiltrate their political opponents and carry out espionage activities against them, along with rooting out and purging our government of people who weren’t loyal to the leader and their “movement.”
NSO has been used to target dozens of journalists, human rights activists, politicians (the Speaker of the Catalan Parliament was hacked), and even Lindsey Graham’s former campaign manager (yes, you read that correctly).
It is a tool to give authoritarians & crooks an advantage.
NSO/Pegasus, hacking/surveillance tools like it, and privatized spycraft & espionage groups with no government oversight, are a threat to democracy worldwide - and they need to be treated as such.
And their subterfuge to pass themselves off as anything else needs to be exposed.
Jared Kushner’s former roommate, Adam Boehler (who was later appointed to be Director of the US Foreign Development Finance Corp, and likely played a role in selling off our only nuclear reactor manufacturer), was an operating officer for the company that owned NSO Group.
Iranian Intelligence Services Allegedly Plotted to Kidnap a Brooklyn Journalist, author and Human Rights Activist from New York City for Rendition to Iran.
Iranian Intelligence Officials Indicted on Kidnapping Conspiracy Charges
The network that Farahani directs has also targeted victims in other countries, including victims in Canada, the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates, and has worked to procure similar surveillance of those victims.
Why is there “a service offering military-style speedboats for self-operated maritime evacuation out of New York City?”
I know people get tired of talking - and hearing - about the fact that the GOP has been doing some of these things for decades, but this is why I keep bringing it up.
Conservatives have been hearing these things since they were children.
Nothing that Trump has done is more than just an incremental evolution.
Undoing “Trumpism,” is undoing 30+ years of toxic and divisive messaging that people have internalized since they were kids, riding in the car with their parents.
Nick Taurus only did this after the Orange County GOP sent out invitations to him and other Republicans, telling them they should go to Porter’s event and “press her.”
Notice the language he is using (hordes of immigrant voters) tracks closely with the “white replacement theory” propaganda that Tucker Carlson and InfoWars have been ratcheting up, where they warn that Dems are part of some sort of plan for a “genocide” of white people.
Excellent news, Biden just fired the Trump appointee who was sabotaging work in the Social Security Administration and delaying checks to SS beneficiaries.
We began trying to raise alarms about this - and point out that there was a path for action - about 3.5 months ago, so this is excellent, and very welcome news!
Notice in these videos, Republicans focus on an ideological commitment to blocking the will of the majority, claiming that’s the basic reasoning behind our republic.
This is how they’re able to avoid talking about *what* specifically they are blocking.
This is similar to the way libertarians take one core part of the constitution - “the right to do what I want” - and then ignore the rest of it, taking a sliver of truth and turning it into an ideology, nearly religious in nature.
It is similar to the way propaganda is created.
Taking HR-1 as an example, we know that the bill itself is highly popular, even among conservatives - based on their own internal polling.
This is why they are very careful to frame their language, sticking to the ideology and avoiding the actual policy.
“We had to wonder: Is this the best sort of partnership we can get from the Americans? This group of shady characters working for a close ally of Trump?” says Novikov, the former aide to Ukraine’s president. “It felt like the worst America had to offer.”
Another piece of this story that should not be missed: the two Ukrainians who Prince chose to work with, are both Russian assets: Andriy Artemenko and Andriy Derkach.
And both are under criminal investigation for their role in the 2020 election.