Thread by @nytimes

Inside the battle to control Pegasus, the world’s most powerful cyberweapon: A yearlong investigation by @ronenbergman and @MarkMazzettiNYT reveals how Israel used sales of the spyware to advance its interests around the world. nyti.ms/3IO04fU

Pegasus promises what no one else can: to crack encrypted messages on iPhones and Androids.

For nearly a decade, the Israeli firm NSO has sold it to law-enforcement and intelligence agencies. Access helped Israel win votes in the UN and to reach an accord with Arab adversaries.

Pegasus has helped Mexican authorities capture El Chapo. European investigators have used Pegasus to thwart terrorist plots, fight organized crime and take down a global child-abuse ring. But the spyware's abuses have also been well-documented. nyti.ms/3IO04fU

Mexico deployed the software against journalists and political dissidents. The United Arab Emirates used the software to hack the phone of a civil rights activist. Saudi Arabia used it against women’s rights activists and to spy on Jamal Khashoggi. nyti.ms/3IO04fU

None of the documented abuses of Pegasus prevented new customers from approaching NSO, including the U.S., where it was bought by the FBI. The details of the FBI's Pegasus purchase and testing have never before been made public. nyti.ms/3IO04fU

Israel, wary of angering Americans, required NSO to program Pegasus so it was incapable of dialing U.S. numbers. This prevented its foreign clients from spying on Americans. It also prevented Americans from spying on Americans. nyti.ms/3IO04fU

NSO offered the FBI a workaround: a new system called Phantom. Israel granted a special license to NSO that permitted Phantom to attack U.S. numbers. The license allowed for only one type of client: U.S. government agencies. nyti.ms/3IO04fU

The New York Times obtained a brochure put together by NSO for potential customers, which says that Phantom allows American law enforcement and spy agencies to get intelligence “by extracting and monitoring crucial data from mobile devices.” nyti.ms/3IO04fU

The FBI finally decided not to deploy the spyware last summer. It was around this time that new revelations on NSO cyberweapons and their use against journalists and political dissidents emerged. Pegasus currently lies dormant at a facility in New Jersey. nyti.ms/3IO04fU

In November, the U.S. announced what appeared to be a complete about-face. The Commerce Department was adding the Israeli firm to its “entity list” for activities “contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States.” nyti.ms/3IO04fU

The U.S. rebuke led infuriated Israeli officials to denounce it as an attack on the country itself. With access to US servers denied, what comes next for NSO? Read our full investigation. nyti.ms/3IO04fU

Read the highlights from the investigation here. nyti.ms/3g66A5A