Jose Javier Olivas Profile picture
Apr 23, 2022 794 tweets >60 min read Read on X
This is a thread on the curious #catalangate and on the presumed espionage of separatist leaders in Catalonia. First a disclaimer: I do not intend to defend in any way the Spanish secret services, whose in my view either for action or omission have contributed to the scandal 1/ ImageImageImageImage
On 18 April 2022 journalist @RonanFarrow wrote a column on @NewYorker called "Spy on their Citizens" newyorker.com/magazine/2022/… explaining that @citizenlab had found evidence of the use of the Pegasus spyware (by Israeli @NSOgroup) on Catalan politicians, lawyers and activist...2/
...the article explains that the finding was possible because a pro-independence Catalan politician, Jordi Solé, brought his iphone to a pro-independence Catalan activist, fellow of @citizenlab, Elies Campo, in March 2022. Campo confirmed suspicion of malware infection, but ...3/ ImageImage
... this article not only gives credence to the accusation made by two secessionist activists against Spanish government, without requiring any further evidence, but also begins with a somewhat Manichean paragraph that follows a la lettre Catalan nationalist narratives...4/ Image
... there was no mention to the fact that many of those supposedly spied upon, were being investigated by illicit acts, such as misappropriation of public funds, subverting the constitutional order, attempting unilateral secession. It was also surprising that ... 5/ Image
...Spanish Government would spy using notifications from Spanish Social Security agency @ , and that the Catalan case had prominence over the dozens of confirmed cases (e.g., Mexico, UK, UAE, USA,etc.) (Spain not mentioned in the more solid source: blogs.microsoft.com/wp-content/upl…) ...6/ ImageImage
...why @RonanFarrow and @NewYorker suddenly in 2022 run a story of government espionage based on partial evidence in Spain, similar to stories run by other media years ago? theguardian.com/world/2020/jul…
As I am going to show this is part of a large-scale nationalist campaign...7/
...Curiously enough the @PostOpinions takes Farrow's article based on the testimony of a Catalan separatist activist, Campo, and on a report he co-authored that suggests "strong circumstantial evidence" to denounce "flagrant violations of civil liberties in Catalonia"...8/ Image
@PostOpinions forgets that the more flagrant violations of civil liberties occurred in Catalonia where those committed precisely by the separatists leaders (supposedly spied on), who not only stole citizens census data but ... 9/ elconfidencial.com/espana/2017-12…
also declared unilateral independence (against the will of the majority), breaching Catalan and Spanish laws as well as disobeying repeatedly Spanish Courts. Letting aside the odd eagerness (cynicism?) of @NewYorker and @washingtonpost to point the finger at Spain's spies.../10 ImageImage
...let's look also to the @citizenlab report that serve as trigger for the #catalangate nationalist campaign. citizenlab.ca/2022/04/catala… This report is authored by Elies Campo, @jsrailton and @RonDeibert (director of the lab) among others.../11
...the flashy (not very academic) title of "CatalanGate" is the first strange thing. It "surprisingly" coincides with that of supposedly the official Twitter account of the victims of this #catalangate case of cyberspionage, created in 2012(!?) and with 180K followers.../12 Image
and also coincides with the website of Catalangate.cat that the separatist organisation Assemblea Nacional Catalana had registered, on 10 January 2022 (!?) and that within a couple of days of the scandal announcement is a fully fledged website in English and Catalan...13/ ImageImage
As Catalan news outlet @El_Triangle revealed, not only the website was registerd by ANC, but the hosting is provided by a web that belongs to the other big civil society separatist organisation Omnium eltriangle.eu/2022/04/22/cat… This campaign has been prepared for months/years...14/
Let's take a closer look at Elies Campo, as (co)author of the "CatalanGate" report and source of @RonanFarrow. The first odd thing is that he appears as one of the "victims" of the CatalanGate (according to the website and the report), not only him but also his father ...15/ Image
According to the report Elies Campo, and some colleagues of him, suffered an infection attempt by another Israeli spyware company called "Candiru" in June 2020 and according to 247newsbulletin.news/politics/28823… he was the one promoting a wider investigation. 16/ ImageImage
The role of Campo as instigator explains why the latest report on NSO by @citizenlab focuses on Spain given that their work and that of @MicrosoftSec have always suggested much more problematic cases of utilisation of this spyware elsewhere... 17/ blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/…
Elies Campo organised the outreach process for the @citizenlab investigation, quit @telegram and became a "Fellow" in this organisation in January 2022 as the report and Linkedin profile attest. No research experience or university degree found 18/ linkedin.com/in/eliescampo/ ImageImage
That may explain some of the inconsistencies in the @citizenlab report. E.g. their 2021 report on "Candiru" Spyware does not refer to any specific case in Spain (but from other countries) citizenlab.ca/2021/07/hookin…, the CatalanGate one claims Joan Matamala to be patient zero...19/
Matamala, another independence activist, was identified as "patient zero" being targeted not only by Candiru's spyware but by Pegasus too. The explanation on the methodology followed in his identification and declaration as the first case is very obscured...20/ Image
The CatalanGate report states, that following Matamala's trace @MicrosoftSec discovered 100 victims over 10 countries, but why did the investigation focus exclusively on Catalan separatist activists, and why was it led by another activist? 21/
blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/…
Time to substantiate a bit why Mr Campo can be considered an activist. By looking at his twitter profile you can quickly gather his admiration and support for the separatist leaders that attempted the unilateral secession and were imprisoned or escaped from Spanish justice... 22/ ImageImageImageImage
In January 2019 he met with the nationalist President of Catalonia Quim Torra who visited Silicon Valley gathering international support for the independence cause. 23/ Image
And shared regularly political messages from secessionist groups expressing that those imprisoned and condemned for embezzlement, disobedience to courts, and sedition were "political prisoners". /24 ImageImageImageImage
But as it is disclosed in the CatalanGate report he was also adviser to the company Vocdoni, a blockchain voting platform used by the separatist NGO Omnium and that aims at serving as platform for future independence referendums....25/ ImageImage
Vocdoni organisation to which also other also collaborated with Plataforma Per la Llengua and collaborates with Research Groups at University of Girona (remember the unnamed experts that helped identify the first case of malware?)...26 ajuntament.barcelona.cat/digital/en/ini… Image
Interestingly enough, Xavier Vives (other of the supposedly spied individuals by Candiru) and CEO of Vocdoni, was helping Puigdemont to bypass the blockade imposed by Spanish government following the court ruling against the illegal referendum of 2017 ...27/ ImageImageImageImage
Interesting also the story of Vocdoni told in his personal website, a project launched by hackers and activists inspired by the referendum (find a way to establish a way of voting out of the control of the government), based on Ethereum tech ... 28/
xavivives.com/#?expr=[%22i12… ImageImageImageImage
Anyone following Catalan secessionism may remember that secessionist leaders announced that via Ethereum Blockchain technology they would manage personal data (IDs) a their independent Republic /29 es.cointelegraph.com/news/member-of… ImageImageImageImage
It is surprising that the repeated claims of separatist leaders (supposedly spied on) to bypass court sentences and the legality using Blockchain technology were not considered by @citizenlab in their work as legal justification on cyber-surveillance...30/ politico.eu/article/catalo…
The other co-founder of Vocdoni Pau Escrich and alleged target of spyware is a self-declared crypto-anarchist and hacker, current CTO of Aragon Labs. But...31/ Image
How can a skilled hacker be targeted by the Spanish government using Spanish ministries logos in the message? This links to other dubious aspect of the CatalanGate report. Why only analysing telephones of separatist activists? Why mixing attacks by Candiru and NSO spyware?...32/ ImageImage
Surprisingly in this investigation subject of analysis were self-selected. It is not clear when, how and why the 63 secessionist activists decided to contact @citizenlab to get their telephones checked. What about non nacionalist leaders or from other regions?.../33 ImageImageImageImage
Conveniently, many of the victims of the attack belong to ANC and or Omnium, organisations that had already bought the CatalanGate.cat domain months before the report was concluded and published 🤔... /34 ImageImage
Very convenient as well to have infographics, press releases, trending hashtag, website, biographic notes of victims the same day that this "independent" investigation by @citizenlab was published. Journalists were alerted. Perfectly orchestrated mass indignation.../35 ImageImageImageImage
All this campaign singling out Spanish Government is actually based on untested assumptions and on a non transparent and non-replicable methodology, led by a partisan "researcher". No test group or comparison established with other case. .../36 Image
Journalists may run a catchy speculative story like this one, but it is extremely worrisome that @UofT participated actively in this large scale propaganda operation publishing such problematic report.
@UofTEthics should look into it. citizenlab.ca/about/... 37/ ImageImage
What makes a research centre specialised on problems of information/transparency/accountability hire an activist, without research experience and with conflict of interests, and allow him to turn a valuable cybersecurity research project into a separatist propaganda tool?...38/ ImageImage
@citizenlab seems to be amending the report in the last few days, but there are still many problems. For example: the CatalanGate report starts by mentioning that Catalan leaders denounced being spied in 2020 by linking to this @guardian article theguardian.com/world/2020/jul… .../39 ImageImage
However, that Guardian article in fact draws from from an interview with Nationalist leader Roger Torrent, where he claims to be "possible victim of spyware". But in the interview, he cites @citizenlab as source of this information/suspicion (❗)... /40 ImageImage
So CatalanGate report report claims that the problem was revealed by Guardian in 2020, but Guardian in reality simply interviewed a secessionist politicians who suspected be spied upon after reading a @citizenlab report .../41 Image
The part about the independent validation is also very interesting. They chose apparently four cases out of the 60+ and gave them to Amnesty International to double check. Then mention 3, but do not specify who or how in Amnesty tested. .../42 Image
And they seem to forget that Amnesty International has not played precisely a very neutral role concerning the Catalan secessionist camp.
Here a link of separatist (propagandist site) ElNacional.cat : elnacional.cat/en/tag/amnesty… ... /43 ImageImageImage
Secret services may be spying on leaders and activists, who are trying to breach Spanish laws and break up the country (against the will of the majority). But certainly Spain is not among the worse offenders in surveillance as this campaign suggests en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_… .../44
What motivates this thread is observing how important international media such as @NewYorker @washingtonpost @euronews @guardian @politico @elpais_espana reported this accusatory story without double checking its foundations and fuelling nationalist agitprop operation ...45/ ImageImageImageImage
As with previous similar campaigns (e.g., referendum 2017, trials of 2019, etc) pro-independence media like @VilaWeb @elnacionalcat @catalannews @elpuntavui @diariARA @324cat as well as nationalist NGOs, politicians, and online influencers worked together to push the story...46/ ImageImageImageImage
The ultimate goal is to delegitimise Spain as democracy to justify Catalan secession. Hence the hashtag associated to #catalangate once more: #SpainIsAFascistState
But is there really any new evidence to justify this international signaling campaign against Spain? ...47/ ImageImageImageImage
Probably Spain was very clumsy with their cybersecurity policy in 2017-2020 (and communication backlash), but the previous investigations by @MicrosoftSec @citizenlab don't seem justify this "special treatment", precisely now... except that this helps reinvigorate separatism 48/ Image
Even "fact checkers" like @Newtral uncritically disseminate the "findings" of the report without checking other sources or flagging the fact that only secessionist leaders where analysed or how timely these new/old facts or the author/"victim" issue 49/
newtral.es/catalangate-es… ImageImage
The fact that the "Official" twitter account for the victims had 180k+ followers should have alerted journalists running the story. Here a disection of the propaganda campaigns that CatalanGate account has been previously involved via @aniol aniol.blog/2022/04/23/un-… ...50/ ImageImageImageImage
You can also check that this is a propaganda twitter account as @congosto demonstrates in this thread. It follows an intermittent utilisation pattern (maybe @Twitter should also flag these) coinciding with past secessionist communication campaigns...51/ ImageImageImageImage
Researchers work very hard and their contribution to this propaganda operation was most likely involuntarily. I would love to hear from @jsrailton @RonDeibert @billmarczak @gozdebocu @sienaanstis @insyria more on why authoring this "sketchy" report...52/ ImageImage
Also curious to know from the authors in @citizenlab @RonanFarrow and from the researchers in @AmnestyTech who validated the methodology, whether they have confidence in the attribution to Spanish government the infection of the phones. Can they falsify this hypothesis? ...53/ ImageImageImageImage
Have they envisaged any alternative hypotheses? Could hackers with the forensic capacity to detect infection attempts years before "plant evidence" in phones purposefully? Spain was indeed interested in monitoring those engaging on illicit activities in Catalonia, ...54/ Image
So these "victims", many of which have been sentenced by Spanish courts were probably surveilled, according to internal national security regulations, and they knew about it. How many of those suspected of being spied were not spied? What ratio? Any control group? 55/ ImageImageImageImage
When the report speaks of "unrestrained surveillance” it names only the father of the author Dr Elies Campo. Were there other "victims" that were not participating actively in the organisation of the illegal referendum and attempts to subvert Constitutional order? ...56/ ImageImageImageImage
Given the involvement of Russia in the 2017 referendum and on the Tsunami Democratic campaign, have you considered the hypothesis of spyware been used by Russian, American or other secret services? 57/ cepa.org/catalonia-wher…

nytimes.com/2021/09/03/wor…

washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-ca…
On the TV3, Campo explains that the project was launched in 2019 because @WhatsApp contacted @citizenlab to investigate espionage (and he was brought in due to his previous work in WhatsApp). Why did WhatsApp request to focus on only on Catalonia?...58/ ccma.cat/tv3/alacarta/p…
In the interview, Campo claims that in July 2020 he becomes coordinator of the second phase, but he only became Fellow in 2022 of @citizenlab in 2022, from where was he working on the project? On what capacity? Where were the phones analysed? Who funded this work? 59/ Image
In the interview Campo doesn't remember who was the first case, the report mentions Joan Matamala, and @RonanFarrow speaks of Jordi Sole Was he identified by WhatsApp? How many Spaniards/Catalan in the list of 1400, WhatsApp didn't mention Spain: openaccessgovernment.org/pegasus-spywar…
60/ ImageImageImage
Interestingly in the TV3 interview @jsrailton rightly reminds the audience that an "independent investigation" is key. Why then letting the project, as sensitive as this one in the hands of Catalan political activists, those supposedly spied upon? @whattsapp funded this? 61/ Image
It does strike me that Mr Campo, who claimed the honour of carrying a ballot box in a forbidden referendum and sent personal letters to the political leaders imprisoned for attempting an unilateral secession, was considered by @citizenlab as independent enough to lead this 62/ ImageImage
CatalanGate report and Guardian claim that Spanish investigation started because @WhatsApp notified Roger Torrent that he was targeted by Pegasus, but Torrent who published a book on the Pegasus espionage (in April 2021!) has a different version of this matter...63/ ImageImageImageImage
Torrent claims ara.cat/politica/novel… that the journalists from El Pais and Guardian who interviewed him were those who revealed the information (?l). And journalists @swajones & @skirchy wrote that the info was given to Torrent and ("victim") Anna Gabriel by @citizenlab 🤯64/ ImageImageImageImage
Maybe we need @citizenlab @munkschool @UofTNews @WhatsApp @MicrosoftSec @guardian @PostOpinions @elpais_espana @NewYorker @NSOgroup @Defensagob
meet and triangulate their info and write an erratum and explain why their initial accounts were so inconsistent 65/ ImageImage
Although this was a joint investigation of @elpais_espana and @guardian, El Pais work by @joaquingilr simply refers back to @skirchy @swajones's article and claims that WhatsApp gave @citizenlab the numbers of those hacked (mentioning @jsrailton) english.elpais.com/politics/catal… 66/ ImageImage
That original article claims that Torrent was alerted by "researchers working with Whattsapp". Who was the researcher who revealed the connection with Torrent? Why was this connection not salient in the Court case against NSO 67/ blogs.microsoft.com/wp-content/upl…

theguardian.com/world/2020/jul… ImageImage
@joaquingilr in an article published by El Pais before that of New Yorker confirms that 3 of the "victims" of spyware were warned by @citizenlab. But was the team of Citizen Lab alerting most of those in the 1400 long list by @WhatsApp? 68/ elpais.com/espana/2022-04…
Another question: Campo claimed in TV3 that he was brought into the project due to his past work in @WhatsApp. But Campo left WhatsApp in 2014 and was working in its competitor @telegram from 2015 until December 2021, and only then became Fellow at @citizenlab (?)... 69/ Image
Using insider knowledge from a company to run a project commissioned by that company, while you work formally for the main competitor?🤯 Strange given the NDAs and conflict of interests the tech sector. Here is presented as BD Director @telegram (2018) 70/ ImageImage
Campo was even interviewed by the prestigious @WIRED recently, where he referred to his past work at @telegram and claimed to know personally Pavel Durov, the founder and CEO, however ... 71/ google.com/amp/s/www.wire… ImageImageImageImage
According to @TheTimesHub Elies Campo never worked for @telegram
thetimeshub.in/who-is-elies-c…. Why would you trust a a sensible investigation project to someone external without doing a minimal background check? Is this usual in @citizenlab @munkschool? 72/ ImageImageImageImage
It is unknown the degree of involvement of Campo, from this online article it seems that he liaised with @jsrailton
vilaweb.cat/noticies/catal… but... 73/ ImageImage
Surprisingly, the report doesn't explain how, when and where the processes of forensic confirmation took place, who handled the devices, what research ethics protocols were followed, there are no disclosure of conflicting interests or references to the funding sources...74/
It is not clear the involvement of the rest of the authors, why the publication was withhold until April, and launched alongside the political propaganda campaign #catalangate and many other parameters that we researchers usually must explain...75/
From a prestigious centre devoted to defending transparency, accountability and ethics such as @citizenlab, I would have expected much more. Was this investigation according to @UofTEthics and @carebaccer protocols? /76
research.utoronto.ca/ethics-human-r…

canada.ca/en/health-cana…
Even @RonDeibert finds unusual the very high number of victims in Catalonia, and also reminds us of the necessity of an independent investigation, so why tasking an pro-independence activist and "victim" with fieldwork? .../78
eldiario.es/catalunya/rona… ImageImageImageImage
Nobody in @citizenlab wondered that a person like Campo, implicated in organising the illegal referendum and who helped bypassing website blockades imposed by Spanish Courts could potentially bias the investigation, sample or even fabricate new evidence? .../79 ImageImageImageImage
Given that Spanish government had strong reasons to monitor separatist leaders, why devoting more efforts to this case that to other countries where the unlawful utilisation of cyber-surveillance was less justified? ...80/ elpais.com/espana/2022-04…
Nobody in @citizenlab was surprised that so many of the devices investigated were indeed subjects of spyware infection? How many devices were analysed to confirm the 63 attacks attempts? Were findings in Catalonia confirmed in Toronto?...81/ Image
I fully endorse efforts to held accountable governments for espionage and other issues and to implement transparency rules. However in doing so we, researchers, cannot breach transparency, accountability and integrity rules ourselves. ...82/
research.utoronto.ca/research-integ…. ImageImageImageImage
In this interview Campo explains how he was the one who contacted Citizen Lab. Supposedly thanks to the privileged information that was given to him by some of his former colleagues at @WhatsApp that confirmed to him the infections of Catalans... 83/
ara.cat/politica/anton…
Nobody in @citizenlab suspected political intent from someone who was actually being surveilled? In fact, as the Spanish government reveals Campo was legally monitored as member of the IT experts creators of Tsunami Democratic app to coordinate riots..84/ elconfidencial.com/espana/2022-04… ImageImageImageImage
Campo, Escrich and Baylina, were indeed spied upon, but due to their involvement in the system that generated the QR codes to access the info about new actions (many of which were illegal such as blockades of airports, stations roads,...)...85/ theguardian.com/world/2019/oct… ImageImageImageImage
Among the actions organised by Tsunami Democratic were the occupation of El Prat Airport, with 3.1m estimated loss, and the blockade of la Jonquera highway with a estimated loss of 45m euros in 2019...86/
amp.epe.es/es/politica/20… ImageImage
Secret services are investigating the connection between Tsunami Democratic and Russia. Nobody in @citizenlab noticed that many of those approaching them to provide evidence of espionage were presumably part of an operation to destabilise Spain?...87/
nytimes.com/2021/09/03/wor… ImageImageImageImage
Rather than investigating, all the research ethics issues flagged in this thread, the director of @citizenlab further contributes to the discredit campaign against Spain. An investigation is going to be conducted in Spain, will @UofT do the same about this research? 88/ ImageImage
Apparently, it's possible to get false positives of Pegasus infections. Would @citizenlab
willing to conduct a new forensic analysis on the devices of some of the odd cases to rule out fabrication of evidence? (Those not formally investigated by Spain) 89/
medium.com/@thehackpatrol…
Did you conduct the forensic confirmation of the infections/attempts in Toronto @jsrailton @RonDeibert @billmarczak @gozdebocu @sienaanstis @insyria? Could Campo or other of the IT team behind Tsunami Democratic have fabricated some infections?
github.com/thehackpatrol/… ImageImage
There are some sites that explain how to get false positives purposefully. vimeo.com/696991504
Additionally, could other malwares or spywares leave traces similar to those of Pegasus? How is the infection with other spywares ruled out? 91/
Given that this was
"the largest forensically documented cluster of such attacks and infections on record," and some of the odd cases (several victims weren't logical priority targets for such expensive spyware), nobody thought some may be false positives?...92/ ImageImage
There is the strange case of Matamala which according to the report was supposedly targeted and infected by both Candiru and Pegasus, why? Or Campo's father Why would the government target them given the 70 to 80 thousand euros cost per infection Campo suggests? 93/ ImageImage
Wouldn't be better to use sometimes different external organisations for the independent validity checkups? If both organisations work closely together for so long, can we call the validation independent? As flagged by @johnathandata1, there is some overlapping between them...94/ ImageImage
It seems that it is precisely this Fellow @citizenlab, Etienne Maynier who joined them in 2016, who now speaks on behalf of @AmnestyTech on the matters concerning Pegasus. For instance here in an interview in La Vanguardia...95/ lavanguardia.com/politica/20220… ImageImageImageImage
Can we consider an external validation one conducted by a member of the same team, although presumably on behalf of another organisation? This is again a not very orthodox practice in academic research. Certainly something that would be flagged in any peer review process ...96/ ImageImage
But stranger even is that not only @AmnestyTech customarily validates @citizenlab findings and methods, Citizen Lab validates Amnesty methods too as this article show. Can you do "independent peer review" when you work so closely together?...97/
citizenlab.ca/2021/07/amnest… ImageImage
In the interview published today refuses Prof. Deibert refuses to reveal the number of devices analysed and claims that it is due to confidentiality, what seems unusual. What is the problem in speaking of the analysis of 100, 200 or 1000 devices? lavanguardia.com/politica/20220… ...98/ Image
Prof Deibert claims that in a decade the scientific community has not identified a single error in their reports. But how could the scientific community identify errors if reports are not peer-reviewed and data are not available for replicability or external validation?... 99/ Image
Why did @citizenlab only submit 4 of the more than 60 cases to @AmnestyTech? And why submitting cases, of people who were investigated by the courts? If the real goal was checking the validity of cases, why not checking the cases of people who were strangely monitored? 100/ ImageImageImageImage
In La Vanguardia Prof. Deibert claims that his team was the one contacting Campo, "a 39 yo engineer working on WhatsApp and later Telegram," but Campo in an interview with @antonibassas (min 2:30) explains that he contacted @citizenlab 101/ ara.cat/politica/anton… ImageImage
Deibert claims that it is standard practice to work with "volunteers and researchers from affected groups", but Campo was no researcher, and belonged to a group trying to subvert legality in a democracy, many of whom were actually convicted...102/ elconfidencial.com/espana/2022-05… ImageImageImageImage
Deibert claims that he supervised the investigation and that it was approved by the Ethics Board of @UofT. They certainly apprived the Pegasus project, but did they know that Campo was coordinator of fieldwork in Catalonia? Did they know his background? @UofTEthics ...103/ Image
Didn't the Ethics Board find a bit odd the focus on the investigation in the Catalan case, with 4 cases out of 1400 identified by WhatsApp, an investigation "instigated" and conducted by the same group that was trying to delegitimise Spain internationally?...104/
Last tuesday I asked the following questions to several instances @UofT @UofTEthics @UofTNews including different members of the Ethics Board. Unfortunately I have not received any specific response to any of them yet. (Just a generic copy paste response)...105/ ImageImage
Another question that has been evaded repeatedly concerns the timeline of the fieldwork and forensic analyses. Campo contacted @citizenlab presumably around July 2020, he became a Fellow in January 2022, and the report is published in April 2022. Why not disclosing timeline? 106/ Image
The plot thickens. Today Spain admits that the phones of Prime Minister Sánchez and Minister of Defense Robles were infected by Pegasus in 2021 😳. Maybe
@citizenlab @NewYorker @PostOpinions should consider other possible perpetrators too 107/ elpais.com/espana/2022-05…
Maybe time to reassess the hypothesis I launched a week ago about potential involvement of other secret services...108/ Image
@jsrailton is today interrogating Spanish government doubting their findings and requesting transparency about their forensic methods. Good!
Would you also act transparently and respond the many questions made in this thread about your CatalanGate research? 109/ ImageImage
Wow, questioning the timing of government allegations and accusing Spanish government of smears and trolling...
It could probably be used as example of projection in a psychoanalysis class. 110/ ImageImage
The #CatalanGate agit-prop campaign continues. The secessionist EMP Toni Comin (who is actually escaped from Spanish justice) has sent a letter to all EMPs hoping to get signatures for a collective letter addressed to @vonderleyen, full of half truths and odd allegations ...111/
Firstly, the use of mercenary spyware on "at least" 65 secessionist figures has been "certified" by a research instigated and coordinated by a secessionist activist, Elies Campo, and not confirmed by any peer-review or external validation process (except for 4 cases) 112/ ImageImage
Spanish government has revealed investigations of people involved in the organisation of illegal activities, such as the Tsunami Democratic blockades, that provoked millions in losses and even the death of a French passenger in El Prat Airport, not of "political disidence" 113/ ImageImage
Indeed the case of Catalonia reveals problem concerning the rule of Law, but it is precisely the secessionist leaders monitored by the government who repeatedly violated Catalan and Spanish laws as well as the civil rights of the majority of Catalans and Spaniards... 114/ ImageImageImage
1-Comparing Spain with Poland and Hungary is laughable. 2-Indeed the EP should look into the respect of the Rule of Law, especially in Catalonia. 3-An investigation of Pegasus requires @citizenlab to be transparent about their work and share their "evidence" against Spain...115/ ImageImageImage
The letter used by EMP Comin to convince EMPs to write to @vonderleyen. There isn't evidence of selective espionage of minorities/opposition leaders. The credibility of @citizenlab report has been questioned by independent journalists and academics, not by @desdelamoncloa ...116/ ImageImageImage
Back to the report. It seems unusual that @citizenlab doesn't share samples of their analyses with the IT community, so that their validity and reliability can be tested. More so given that the CatalanGate report does not seem to have been peer reviewed independently...117/
Meanwhile, they do request information on methodology from other experts in this area. For instance, Etienne Meynier (Amnesty Tech/Citizen Lab) reached out to @jonathandata1 enquiring about how he detected Pegasus. @jonathandata1 shared a sample of infection with him...118/ ImageImage
I find completely normal that Meynier reaches out and Scott responds and shares his knowledge, that apparently he was going to make public so others can learn from it...119/ ImageImageImageImage
More unusual is that authors of a published report avoid responding to questions regarding the research process, timing, sources of funding, etc. Is @citizenlab fighting for transparency and accountability but refusing to be transparent or accountable concerning their work? 120/ Image
Spanish secret services CNI director revealed today that they spied only 18 pro-independence leaders and activists. All with Supreme Court authorisation, for the organisation of mobilisations in 2019 (Tsunami Democratic), including Elies Campo ...121/
elconfidencial.com/espana/2022-05… ImageImageImage
@RonDeibert keeps on accusing Spanish secret services CNI of lack of accountability the day the Director of CNI reported to a Congressional committee (contradicting @citizenlab). When are they @UofT show similar accountability and respond to our questions on their research? 122/ ImageImageImage
Prof Deibert seems to have adopted an activist profile in this CatalanGate affair and vehemently accuses Spanish Government. Going even beyond the findings and conclusions of the report he co-authored. Is he really confident about the 63 Pegasus cases?...123/ ImageImageImageImage
Oh wait, even Gonzalo Boyé, one of the "victims" of surveillance and lawyer of the secessionist leaders has sued NSO, but in the 109 pages long document submitted to court, only 17 names mentioned (what matches what CNI claims minus Pere Aragonés)🤔124/ files.mediaset.es/file/10002/202… ImageImage
@El_Triangle has just confirmed what I revealed a few dozens tweets ago: Elies Campo, who presented himself as a BD director at @telegram, has never been employed in the company. He fooled @citizenlab and @RonanFarrow on this. Only on this? /125 eltriangle.eu/es/2022/05/06/… ImageImageImageImage
In an interview, Campo (supposedly the first non-Northamerican in @WhatsApp and "responsible for the company in Spain and Latin America") admitted to have met governments, operators and journalists pretending to be an employee before being hired😳 ...126/
lavanguardia.com/vida/20140228/… ImageImageImageImage
Still no answers from @UofTEthics to the questions I made on 26 April regarding the fieldwork in Catalonia and Campo involvement (not the overarching project Pegasus at @citizenlab as such, that I have not questioned)...127/ ImageImage
I doubt the co-authors of the report @jsrailton @RonDeibert @billmarczak @gozdebocu @sienaanstis @insyria and @SalSolimano were aware of Campo's background and intentions when agreeing to sign the report. But their reluctance to respond to the issues raised here is puzzling 128/
Sooner or later they will have to explain their involvement and the decision to trust it to Campo. Actually they may have to do it in a Spanish court, given that Gonzalo Boyé, has requested their questioning as experts in the trial. Are they aware of the implications? 129/ ImageImage
Since Boyé intends to keep on using them, I believe they should know a bit more about Boyé: the first interesting thing about this lawyer is that he is a former terrorist (who actually studied law in my University from prison) en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gonzalo_B… ...130/
Boyé is not only the lawyer of many Catala secessionist leaders, he usually defend other high profile individuals and get great media attention. For instance: he was the lawyer of Josu Ternera, former ETA leader (convicted for 23 killings) 131/ openkat.eu/former-head-of…
He was the lawyer of Sito Miñanco, the famous Galician narco showcased in Netflix' "Cocaine Coast". Boye is being investigated for drug-related money laundering
elnacional.cat/en/politics/sp… ...132/
In the context of espionage, that is the area @citizenlab analyses, Boyé is notorious for his ties with Russia.
For instance, New York times reveals his involvement in the Russian operation to back Catalan separatism ...133/ google.com/amp/s/www.nyti… ImageImage
More recently, Boyé has become the lawyer of a Spanish journalist arrested in Poland accused of spying for Russia during the Ukraine invasion...134/
nst.com.my/world/world/20… ImageImage
Boyé is also the lawyer of Anatoly Sharij, recently detained in Spain and accused of high treason by Ukraine...135/ kyivpost.com/ukraine-politi… ImageImage
Boyé is also the lawyer of Josep Alay, investigated for his repeated connections with Russian secret services as part of the strategy of Catalan secession ...137/
elconfidencial.com/espana/2022-03… ImageImage
The connection between Catalan secessionism, Russia and cybercrime (that Spanish secret services investigated) was evident when in 2019 the Spanish public TV was hacked to broadcast an interview of Puigdemont at Russia Today. 🤔...138/
theguardian.com/world/2019/dec… ImageImage
@jsrailton @RonDeibert @billmarczak @gozdebocu @sienaanstis @insyria @SalSolimano @citizenlab @UofT still have a choice: either help shed light on the allegations of misconduct against Campo (potentially admitting being victims of trickery) or cover up (becoming complicit?)...139
Going back to the problematic work of @amnesty for "external" validation process, as revealed by @jonathandata1, not only Etienne Meynier worked for both organisations. Apparently Prof. Diebert also serves as technical advisor at Amnesty..
140/ ImageImageImageImage
Today Prof. Deibert provides a strange explanation. Campo worked as voluntary in the Catalan investigation since July 2020, but on 1 February 2022 was made Fellow to help them identify potential victims. So when were the analyses conducted?...141/ europapress.es/nacional/notic… Image
Let's rewind and try to shed some light on the build-up of the CatalanGate. According to Roger Torrent's book Pegasus (2021) it all started on 6 July 2020, when he received an email from @joaquingilr 142/ ImageImageImageImage
Torrent had never listened about Pegasus before, on the 8 July 2020, Joan Serra informs him about the contact with @swajones and @joaquingilr who worked coordinated by @skirchy and let him know that they suspect Torrent may have been spied upon 143/ ImageImageImage
Torrent gave permission to @skirchy to contact @citizenlab and request information. The three journailsts informed Joan Serra (Torrent's press officer) that they have information concerning 6 followers of the Catalan independence movement being spied with Pegasus. 143/ ImageImageImageImage
But who leaked to @el_pais and @guardian the fact that 6 secessionist figures were being spied? Did it come from @WhatsApp or @citizenlab
Weren't they surprised to receive the info about this 6 out of 1400 people? Didn't they request info about the other cases? 143/
The journalists provided the telephone of @jsrailton and explain that he should confirm the infection attempt. This is actually good practice from @joaquingilr @swajones and @skirchy (👏👏) as they request written confirmation before publishing the exclusive ...144/ ImageImage
Torrent also explains the rigourous security measures followed by @jsrailton and @RonDeibert given that they fear interference and apparently had suffered interferences and smear campaigns by secret services...(odd they later trusted Campo so easily) 145/ Image
@jsrailton explained that they had been tasked with finding the people who were suspected of being victims of the espionage, and he had tried to contact Torrent unsuccessfully. Why getting @el_pais and @guardian involved to reach out? 146/ ImageImage
In my view it is even more odd that @citizenlab decides to warn people victim of possible espionage without checking out first with the Spanish secret services whether there was a legal investigation in place? Aren't they concerned about hindering judicial investigations?... 147
ERC (Torrent's party) launched a parallel investigation to that of @citizenlab and informed ERC leader Junqueras, during a visit to Lledoners prison (10 July), about the upcoming publication of @guardian & @el_pais exclusive (13 July 148/ google.com/amp/s/amp.theg… ImageImageImageImage
Interestingly it is after the meeting at the Prison with Junqueras (and Romeva that Torrent decides to give permission to Citizen Lab to investigate the telephone. So the publication was agreed even before any forensic analysis was concluded...149/ Image
It seems that the first analysis of Torrent telephone was launched by @jsrailton on the evening of 10 July 2020, they were going to monitor the phone for 72 hours,... 150/ ImageImage
Right after the 72 hours of remote monitoring via VPN, @guardian publishes the exclusive, where @jsrailton oddly admit that that still don't know if the phone was hacked, but "have no reason to believe it wasn't" and directly suggests "domestic political espionage" 😳 ...151/ ImageImageImage
In fact, just a few hours after the beginning of the VPN monitoring process (on the evening of the 10 July), they had already sent to Barcelona an 8 pages report confirming the targeting of Torrent. That was sent to @joaquingilr and @swajones to accelerate the publication..152/ ImageImage
That night Torrent receives a message from Canada claiming that they have contacted @WhatsApp to write an official confirmation message. That supposedly would arrive on Tuesday. 153/ Image
It was only 2 weeks later that @WhatsApp wrote an official confirmation letter, but they claim not to be in position to confirm whether Torrent phone was compromised, as it would require exhaustive forensic analysis.
theguardian.com/technology/202… ...154/ ImageImageImage
Why were @citizenlab @el_pais @guardian in such hurry to publish news of a potential hacking that was first discovered in May 2019? Why publishing without forensic confirmation of hacking? Why did they have the publication arranged even before the first remote analysis?...155/ Image
On 13 July the espionage had become suddenly central to ERC communication strategy and wanted to fix the dates. On the other the journalists were afraid that if they waited longer another media could release the news, not so clear why @citizenlab was also in a hurry...156/ ImageImageImageImage
The snowball starts. Next day, 14 July, @Damien_Leloup @lemondefr publishes a piece claiming "Catalan militants targeted by a sophisticated spyware". Although the only info is the one about Torrent whose phone was just analysed remotely, ...157/ lemonde.fr/pixels/article… Image
That same day 14 July at 12:45 Torrent in a press conference that "it is the first time, therefore, that it is proved in a conclusive way what many of us already knew and denounced for some time: the Spanish state spies to its political adversaries". 🤔 Cc: @citizenlab...158/ Image
Torrent was distorting the facts (there was no conclusive evidence of anything, less so of political espionage, and he even claimed 3 days earlier that knew nothing about it). But facts cannot get in the way of a good narrative. Most media and some parties followed suit. 159/ ImageImageImage
Oddly, in his book Torrent claims that on the 12 July, the parallel investigation by ERC had established that Ernest Maragall was a likely victim, but that he decided not to alert him to avoid losing trust from @citizenlab and @WhatsApp. (But why?❗) ...160/ ImageImage
If Maragall was shortlisted as victim by ERC leaders on the 12th and Torrent decided not to act on it, how did they manage to confirm technically the attack by the 14th afternoon? Did @citizenlab @jsrailton receive authorisation to analyse Maragall's phone? When? ...161/ ImageImage
Torrent works with Andreu Van Den Eyden (lawyer of Junqueras, Torrent, Maragall and Romeva, also "victim" in the report as all his clients) to improve the narrative. That same night, Torrent is told @eldiarioes is publishing a story on the espionage of Puignero and Miquel 162/ ImageImage
The article @eldiarioes (15 July) is ambiguous and initially seems to indicate that the attacks on Puignero and Miquel were confirmed by @citizenlab. But then seems that the source were only these politicians, without any external confirmation. 🤦‍♂️163/ eldiario.es/tecnologia/con… ImageImage
But now things start to get more interesting. On 15 July 2020 @el_pais publishes a 4 columns story and Torrent is interviewed by Jordi Baste @rac1 where, according to Torrent, he meets for the first time (virtually) Elies Campo!!! ...164/ ImageImage
No surprise that Campo appears in Baste's programme. They seem to know each other quite well. Baste interviewed Campo at this Palo Alto House in April 2019. Campo expressed hyper critical stance on @facebook (remember @WIRED interview on @telegram?) 165/ ccma.cat/tv3/alacarta/n… ImageImageImage
This is the @rac1 on 15 July 2020 conducted by Baste, when theoretically Torrent and Campo met for the first time. Campo, as in the interview in 2019 presents himself as employee of @telegram rac1.cat/programes/el-m… 166/ ImageImage
That day, Ernest Maragall coined the flashy name #CatalanGate (later adopted by @citizenlab for their report). Before even having certified properly any infection beyond the attacks to Torrent. Convenient to discredit Spain, but sustained on no incriminating evidence 167/ ImageImage
The magic of poor journalism helps magnify events and create crisis. On 15 @diariARA quoted @lorenzofb article for @VICE, which replicated what @guardian and @el_pais had published plus allegations that Spain was a client of Pegasus since 2015...168/ vice.com/en/article/pky… ImageImageImageImage
Even before conducting any confirmatory forensic analysis, (@WhatsApp claimed later not to be able to confirm the hacking), on the 14th July a group of nationalist and left parties had already registered a Congressional Committee to investigate it. 169/ elpais.com/espana/2020-07… ImageImage
@el_pais and @La_SER kept on running the story on the 16 July, despite the absence of new evidence and that @RonDeibert had reminded that they could only confirm an attack to Torrent, not by whom or whether it was successful ...170/ ImageImageImage
Torrent was aware that they needed official confirmation from @WhatsApp for the Court case they had opened against the CNI director Felix Sanz. However, that day on the 16th he received from Canada confirmation that his phone was actually not currently infected. 171/ ImageImage
Moreover, Torrent spoke with Margarita Robles, Minister of Defence, on the 17 July who told him that the attack was not by CNI. (It's worth noting that neither Torrent, Maragall, Puignero or Miquel were mentioned in Gonzalo Boyé's lawsuit this week)...172/ ImageImageImage
Torrent and his entourage are aware that they need allies to push forward. They consider approaching @WhatsApp and @PODEMOS (Torrent claims that he ruled out relying on counterintelligence agencies that offered them their services to counter Pegasus)...173/ ImageImageImage
On 21 July, Torrent is informed that Campo has directly contacted @jsrailton and will work together in the case.
Suddenly Campo, who supposedly worked for Telegram, seems to have become an expert in Pegasus, offered his services and be accepted by @citizenlab. Wow...174/ Image
But more importantly, Torrent is told that Campo and @jsrailton were working on the final (❗) report with an American communication company 💥💥💥 Why did @citizenlab need a communication agency even before the official statement by @NiamhSweeneyNYC @WhatsApp, no evidence 175/ Image
They had basically no solid evidence yet, but @citizenlab was interested in finding many cases to "provide ammunition" (❗) for @WhatsApp, @Apple and secessionists (for their court cases). The number of victims will grow, is told.
I doubt this is in line with @UofTEthics 175/ Image
Ammunition for court cases... I have talked about the big lawsuit of @WhatsApp, but did you know about the more recent one @Apple? Torrent claimed @jsrailton already worked on behalf of @Apple in 2020. In Nov 2021 he was delighted when Apple launched lawsuit vs @NSOgroup ..176/ ImageImage
Not surprising given that it was @citizenlab that identified the weaknesses in Apple, & that @Apple announced alongside the lawsuit a 10 million💲contribution support cybersecurity researchers and advocates like @amnesty and @citizenlab 177/ apple.com/uk/newsroom/20… ImageImageImageImage
Conveniently, the hunt for lawsuit evidence in Catalonia, with Campo as guide, seem to have yielded many attacked iPhones, which fits great the purpose of new @Apple lawsuit, as well as the political campaign of secessionist leaders (@WhatsApp case was about Android phones) /178 ImageImageImageImage
Everyone happy with many infected iPhones. Even the journalists that had the intuition that this could not be a story limited to a few cases.
In less than 2 weeks "everyone suspected that the thing would grow", Why many "believers'?
Faith in #CatalanGate? 🙏🙏🙏
179/ ImageImage
#CatalanGate report does not mention the role of ERC in the investigation and sampling process. According to Torrent the parallel ERC investigation (coordinated by Oriol Sagrera) selected the suspicious SMSs and sent them to Campo and @jsrailton for examination (27 July) ...180/ ImageImage
Torrent claims that at ERC they have become experts and don't need computer scientists to identify suspicious messages. They were building a repository for the lawsuit. They collect them for Campo. And JxCat is doing the same under coordination of Boyé ❗181/ Image
Was @citizenlab @UofTEthics aware that the sampling was in fact coordinated by two separatists parties that fed Campo with the suspicious messages Boyé and Sagrera filtered? (4 days before @samjones @skirchy @joaquingilr publish the @WhatsApp confirmation of Torrent attack😳 182/ ImageImage
On 27 July @citizenlab apparently has just sent to ERC the first conclusions over the monitoring of telephones that ERC had asked them to analyse. None of them is hacked (although some SMS seemed Pegasus attempts to infect phones). #CatalanGate still a matter of faith...183/ Image
Still no names, but apparently they were working from Toronto and the United States on the analysis of Pegasus potential cases. Who was working on the Catalan case from the USA? The communication company? Was this stakeholder disclosed by @citizenlab to the @UofTEthics? ...184/ Image
On 27 July ERC received the official confirmation that Torrent was one of the 1400 targets of 2019 cyberattack (no confirmation of hacking or authorship). Good for the lawsuit and open communication channel with @WhatsApp. They send it to @swajones and @joaquingilr...but... 185/ ImageImage
Didn't they already know that Torrent was in the list that @WhatsApp had provided to @citizenlab? Wasn't the whole investigation triggered by this? If Whattsapp had not confirmed earlier Torrent attack, why @citizenlab @skirchy @swajones and @joaquingilr contacted him? 🤯 186/ ImageImage
Despite the lack of evidence of successful hacking or authorship (just @swajones & @joaquingilr articles) Torrent and Maragall sent on behalf of @parlamentcat a formal complaint to @Dunja_Mijatovic (@coe) @davidakaye (UN) @julieverhaar (@amnesty) 187/ elnacional.cat/en/politics/sp… ImageImageImageImage
Thus, the first #CatalanGate attempt was launched in July 2020, with little evidence by a group of politicians (from ERC and Junts), journalists (from @el_pais @guardian @rac1) and researchers/activists (@citizenlab) whose interests converged to create a story/scandal ...188/ ImageImage
The instrumentalisation of media and a research institution (@citizenlab @UofT) was in this case enabled by some eager researchers and journalists that offered Catalan secessionist politicians the opportunity to generate a crisis. As other populist movements, they seized it 189/ ImageImage
As Torrent reflects on his book, media were key in keeping the story alive despite the lack of new evidence. In particular it seems that @el_pais and @guardian were their reference and tool to legitimate their claims. Mutual sources. 190/ ImageImageImage
The communication campaign was working. In October 2020, @amnistiaespana informs ERC that @amnesty is also pushing Spanish Government to investigate Pegasus. Still no new evidence, but Amnesty that later conducts external validation of the #CatalanGate report, is on board 191/ Image
Torrent thanks @WhatsApp @citizenlab @joaquingilr @swajones and @skirchy, whose bravery and obstinacy he acknowledges. Keeping such a story / crisis alive with such thin foundations is a difficult endeavour, ... 192/ ImageImage
In the epilogue supposedly written on 21 October 2020, Torrent claims that in the following days Campo and @jsrailton would publish the final list of people affected. We don't know yet what happened until 18 April 2022 that the #CatalanGate was finally out. 192/ ImageImage
The Catalan Pegasus scandal hibernated for 18 months, on 18 April all of a sudden, after @Apple lawsuit against @NSOgroup, coinciding with a drop in popular support for the secessionist movement, and the growing allegations of collusion with Russia, #CatalanGate was reborn...193/ ImageImage
Once more, journalists, researchers, activists & politicians have collaborated to foster a public opinion crisis, with deep political consequences. This time based on a report with extremely serious methodological and ethical issues, that apparently nobody saw 😳 194/ ImageImageImageImage
The entrepreneurial spirit of the actors involved in the #CatalanGate report is admirable.
However, I am afraid this "lawsuit driven" approach to social research may not resonate with the ethos of @UofT @SSHRC_CRSH or most academic institutions. 195/ Image
If gathering ammunition for @Apple lawsuit against @NSOgroup was the goal of @citizenlab (and @AmnestyTech), and @jsrailton was working on behalf of Apple, as Torrent claims in his book, it seems that the plan worked out well for them 196/ Image
Very shortly after US appeals court rejects @NSOgroup claim of immunity in the @WhatsApp lawsuit.
@Apple launches their own lawsuit on 23 November 2021 (was this related to the push back in the publication of the CatalanGate report from 2020?) 197/ theguardian.com/us-news/2021/n… ImageImage
The role of @citizenlab and @AmnestyTech in gathering evidence for @Apple was acknowledged in the official press release for the lawsuit. Alongside a 10 million contribution they will pay for damages from the lawsuit. This creates a perverse incentive.198/ apple.com/uk/newsroom/20… ImageImage
@jsrailton suggested ERC politicians that it was the opportunity to launch a lawsuit at the EU. He said that on 18 July, according to Torrent, before they had confirmation of any hacking❗

Researchers or bounty hunters getting rewards for Pegasus positives from big techs? /199 Image
@jsrailton was already searching for evidence for @Apple lawsuit against @NSOgroup in July 2020, he felt very happy when Apple announced the lawsuit. You can see here a thread that was erased from Twitter: threadreaderapp.com/thread/1463206… ...200/
Some things he mentioned are interesting. First the enthusiasm at a "massive lawsuit". Second, he explains that the lawsuit was triggered by the effort of @citizenlab @AmnestyTech and others 201/ ImageImage
Thirdly, @jsrailton also showed to be proud that the FORCEDENTRY exploit that @citizenlab and @AmnestyTech discovered in March 2021 and that presumably was used by @NSOgroup to spread #Pegasus spyware from February to September 2021...202/ ImageImageImageImage
But if the lawsuit @Apple Vs @NSOgroup is based on FORCEDENTRY, discovered by @citizenlab/ @AmnestyTech in March 2021, when @jsrailton told secessionists in July 2020 he worked on behalf of @Apple collecting evidence for a lawsuit, The lawsuit was just a project, a wish 🧐.203/ ImageImage
Here the link to the official complaint by @Apple: apple.com/newsroom/pdfs/…
It would be great to know if Apple had already commissioned the investigation for a planned lawsuit to @citizenlab in July 2020 or if they were hoping to find in Catalonia what they found in Saudi 204/ ImageImage
I am no friend of spyware or cyber-surveillance. But I find hypocritical that @jsrailton mentions 3 times NSO spyware is used by dictators/repression and no reference to its use by democracies to preserve citizens' security. Meanwhile Facebook and Apple love privacy, right? 205/ ImageImageImageImage
Given the entrepreneurial character of @citizenlab and their eagerness to feed lawsuits, if you take a look at the #CatalanGate report, you may notice that they just discovered a new exploit: HOMAGE.
Will this be the key for their new @NSOgroup court case (in the EU?)...206/ ImageImage
@amnistiaespana @amnesty
accusing Spain of possible human right violations with Pegasus: in Oct 2020 & May 2022.
In both cases without providing any evidence that Spain was doing something illicit.
The head of CNI director not enough for them?😳 207/ theguardian.com/world/2022/may… ImageImage
There is another extremely problematic aspect in this case. Not sure the @UofT was informed of. By the time @citizenlab investigation in Catalonia started it was well known that many of the secessionist leaders presumably spied had been involved in illegal activities 208/ ImageImageImageImage
Additionally, Russian secrets services involvement with Catalan separatism was very notorious by the time @citizenlab started their investigation. There were many news major international newspapers, so certainly this was known at Toronto ... 209/ ImageImageImageImage
Russian involvement presumably aimed generating a crisis in Spain to destabilise the European Union, hence their support to the referendum and unilateral declaration of independence. Many of those in @citizenlab report had contacts with Russian agents 210/ occrp.org/en/investigati… ImageImage
Additionally, unlike other countries investigated before @citizenlab for potential abuses, Spain was a among the best democracies in thw world and scored high in rule of law index at the time the investigation in Catalonia was launched...211/ ImageImage
Who in @citizenlab @UofT @UofTEthics @munkschool @WhatsApp approved @jsrailton approaching separatist leaders that were either convicted, fugitives, being judged or investigated, to warn them about potential government surveillance (obstructing Spanish justice)? 211/ ImageImage
Why did @citizenlab @UofT @UofTEthics @WhatsApp @skirchy
assume that an EU democracy in the midst of an illegal separatist pustch, supported by Russia, would not use (legally sanctioned) cyber-surveillance on those who threatened citizens' rights & country stability ... /212 ImageImageImageImage
What type of academic or journalist researcher assumes wrongdoing by a democratic state without any solid evidence (just suspicion of spyware infection attempts on 6 phones), and blindly trust fugitive and convicted separatist leaders actively challenging the rule of law ? 213/ ImageImageImageImage
I really hope that @UofT @UofTEthics finally sheds some light on the questions regarding potential research malpractice and breach of ethics protocols that I have been denouncing on this thread (without any response), many of which are collected on this letter from @EUparl...214/ ImageImageImageImage
The interview to Prof. Deibert to @el_pais makes quite evident that @citizenlab is an activist organisation that does not follow scientific standards.
How can they claim infallibility and the impossibility of false positives? (Without peer-review)...215/ elpais.com/espana/2022-05… ImageImage
How can he categorically reject conflict of interest by Campo, when he is a pro-independence activist working in the campaign to subvert Spanish constitution, and theoretically "victim", and therefore interested in making Spain look guilty of illicit espionage? 🤯...216/ Image
He accuses Spain of illegal espionage, without providing any solid evidence, and ruling out alternative hypotheses for authorship (Russia, separatists,...) overreaching the conclusions of his report). He rejects Spain's explanations, claiming that they cannot verified 🤦‍♂️...217/ ImageImage
So we are expected to accept @citizenlab non verifiable, non-peer reviewed accusations against Spain, but we must reject the evidence provided by CNI in Congressional committee on legal surveillance to 18 cases.
Hypocritical & inconsistent.
Burden of proof on defendant?🤔 218/ ImageImage
But the more worrisome thing in the entire interview is at the end.
No Spanish authority has requested them information❗
Spain has sacked the head of CNI and launched congressional investigations but nobody in the government has asked them evidence of the accusations? /219 Image
As the court hearing confirms, some of the "participants/victims" in @citizenlab research were conspiring to get Russia backing a Catalan secession with troops and money, with the single condition of turning Catalonia into a cryptocurrency haven ...220/ elperiodico.com/es/politica/20…
Puigdemont did not decline Kremlin's offer, on the contrary secessionist leaders launched several initiatives in 2018 to turn Catalonia in the cryptocurrency-friendly land Russian emissaries had requested in October 2017...221/ medium.com/@DecentralEng/…
Let's look at some of the cryptocurrency initiatives in Catalonia that "coincidentally" followed Kremlin's request, involving "victims"/participants in @citizenlab fieldworks. Jordi Baylina and Joan Matamala created Fundacio Nord...222/ fundacionord.cat/en
Fundacio Nord promotes Blockchain technology to "decentralise" governance. Here you can see how they promote the conception of a digital Republic in Catalonia and disconnecting from Spain...223/ ImageImageImageImage
Baylina was also supporting the efforts to dodge Spanish police forces (Court sanctioned) efforts to block some illegal secessionist initiatives on 2017...224/ ImageImageImage
Baylina is one of the most prominent proponents of Ethereum in Catalonia...225/ ImageImageImageImage
Also an admirer of Vitalik Buterin, the Canadian-Russian founder of Ethereum ...226/ ImageImage
Baylina also moved to the Zug, the Silicon Valley of Crypocurrencies in Switzerland juliusbaer.com/es/insights/di… in 2018 and works as Technical Lead at Iden3 iden3.io(do you remember the efforts to create a digital identity for the Catalan Republic? ... 227/ ImageImage
@identhree has a somewhat curious manifesto that refers to Governments as "fundamentally anti-demicratic forces" and sets as a target to make impossible for them to access individuals' info without consent. Drug cartels, terrorist groups, tax evaders must love it!
228/ ImageImage
The person at Iden3 that posts the manifesto and run their blog posts makes also quite some odd claims about Catalonia. In 2020 claims that crypto will play an essential role in Catalan self-determination. 229/ ImageImageImageImage
That crypto-anarchist/anarcho-capitalist conception of society seems to be shared by many of the "participants" in @citizenlab study and secessionist leadership. 230/ ImageImageImageImage
Small interlude, it seems that @citizenlab is slightly amending some aspects of the report.
The acknowledgement of the work of Campo as coordinator of the investigation outreach is not there anymore. ...231/ Image
@citizenlab starts nuancing some of the accusations made in earlier versions of the report.
Well done! Let's see how the rewriting of the report progresses overtime. A little oubli in this case, using Snowden mistaken information ...232/ Image
It seems that they have also corrected the presumed infection dates for Albert Botran (CUP), who coincidentally happen to be also one of the new members of the congressional Official Secrets committee, that oversees now Spain's espionage investigation,...233/ ImageImage
Interestingly, secessionist parties have also managed to appoint among 2 other of the participants to oversight committees. Miriam Nogueras (Junts) to Spanish Official Secrets Committee, and Diana Riba (ERC) to the European Parliament inquiry committee for Pegasus ... /234 ImageImage
Since they sit in committees investigating Pegasus, can we assume that @miriamnoguerasM, @albertbotran @DianaRibaGiner would have no problem with giving their authorisation to get their phones checked again by independent experts and rule out possibility of false positives? 235/
Yesterday another pro-independence leader visiting Prof. Deibert @citizenlab and declaring after the meeting that the 65 cases are only the tip of the iceberg ❗Has Deibert revealed new non published evidence that substantiate more espionage by Spain? Could they share it? 236/ Image
Before going back to the issue of the cryptocurrency initiatives triggered by Kremlin's emissaries in which many of the participants of the report were involved, I want to share some thoughts and hypothesis about the obscure origin of the CatalanGate scandal. 237/
Torrent claimed that in 2020 he was informed by some journalists from @el_pais and @guardian about the presumed attack, but we don't know who leaked the information to these journalists. @citizenlab and @WhatsApp have not recognised sharing this information with them. 238/
Who decided to select the name of a few Catalan secessionist leaders from a list of 1400 names and pass them to @swajones @skirchy and @joaquingilr? Who managed to provoke a large scale scandal in July 2020 without any confirmation of infection? 239/
Well, the sly amendment of the report in the part where it referred to Snowden made me check this connection. Also because Snowden, from his exile in Moscow has been publicly sharing views on Catalan secessionims and the @NSOgroup 240/ Image
One of the interesting things to notice is the excellent personal relationship between Prof. Deibert and Snowden. 241/ ImageImageImage
In fact in Sep 2020 Prof. Deibert Published a book and the first recommendation endorsement on the book... 242/ ImageImageImage
Snowden and Deibert have praised each other work frequently. And have both denounced publicly @NSOgroup m.calcalistech.com/Article.aspx?g… ...243/ ImageImageImageImage
Snowden quotes Scott-Railton announcing the Apple Vs NSO lawsuit and claims that it would not be possible without years-long investigations of @citizenlab ... 245/ ImageImage
But definitely more interesting and revealing in the context of the #CatalanGate report and scandal is the relationship between Catalan secessionist leaders and Snowden. Although most messages were later deleted, his support for the independence of Catalonia was notorious 246/ ImageImage
By 2019, it was already known that Snowden and Assange had led Russian misinformation campaign during the 2017 illegal referendum .../247
politicalcapital.hu/russian_sharp_… ImageImageImage
It was been revealed that Russian automated “bots”, including Russian propaganda ones, amplified tweets by Assange and Snowden 248/ medium.com/dfrlab/electio… ImageImage
A third of all Twitter traffic under the hashtag #catalonia which overwhelmingly disseminated pro-secession messages, is attributed to Assange and Snowden, ...249/
theguardian.com/technology/201… ImageImage
In fact Snowden, who never before had known links with Spain or Catalonia, suddenly became the top influencer for #Catalonia in 2017. This seems to match well the usual Russian information campaign strategies...250/ google.com/amp/s/amp.smh.… ImageImage
Catalan pro-independence media proudly reported Snowden support for their movement and critiques to Spain's efforts to prevent the illegal referendum ...251/ catalannews.com/news/tag/Edwar… Image
Back to the Pegasus investigation, Snowden acknowledges that @citizenlab and @AmnestyTech examined phones in a leaked list. In a exchange with @rj_gallagher he argues that the origin of the list with numbers is irrelevant as far as they are analysed (as in CatalanGate?)... 252/ ImageImageImage
Not only Snowden approves the strategy of leaking lists of telephones suspected of espionage (regardless of the authorship of the list) so that @citizenlab and @amnesty can analyse these phones, but actually Snowden may been somehow involved in this specific case ...253/
Snowden also became a personal acquaintance of Gonzalo Boye: participant in @citizenlab investigation, not only "victim" but also involved in pre-selecting suspect cases for Campo and Scott-Railton, lawyer of presumed Russian spies (as well as narcos and terrorists)...254/ ImageImage
For years Boye praised online Snowden. But the admiration and support that Snowden shows for Boye was clearly expressed the other way around ...255/ ImageImage
On 2017, Boye celebrated that Russia would allow Snowden to stay longer ...256/ ImageImageImageImage
On Nov 2019 both agreed on Twitter that spyware by @NSOgroup was being used to spy journalists, activists, etc.
Please note that this happened months before the initial investigation of Citizen Lab in Catalonia...257/ ImageImage
But we need to go back to April 2018 to find them both personally meeting publicly. Boye shares here some pics of the two them.
Well it seems that they are not only acquaintances but friends ...258/ ImageImageImage
But if you want to learn more about the origin of this friendship, you can for instance watch the documentary, Boye (2016), where among many other things he refers to his role as lawyer defending Edward Snowden in 2014 ...259/ m.imdb.com/title/tt554102… ImageImage
Boye defended Snowden in 2014. He is referred to in Boye's documentary in 2016, Snowden participates in Russian disinformation campaign in Catalonia during the 2017 illegal referendum, in 2018 Boye visits Snowden, in 2019 both claim lawyers are being spied with NSO spyware...260/
Then, in Feb 2020 JL Alay (another participant and "victim") traveled to Moscow and had in the agenda a meeting with Snowden❗
Only months before the leak to @swajones @joaquingilr and @skirchy of the names of Torrent and other secessionist leaders 261/ elconfidencial.com/espana/2022-03… ImageImageImage
As @OCCRP revealed in September 2021 (months before the publication of CatalanGate report), the messages intercepted to Alay the meeting with Snowden was on top of the agenda for his Moscow trip in Feb 2020...262/ occrp.org/en/investigati… ImageImageImage
After this meeting Alay also starts making public references to Snowden arguments on government espionage. ...263/ ImageImage
Although Alay's interest on espionage is not new and he has long express his admiration for spies. Some of which he met personally in his trips to Moscow
nytimes.com/2021/09/03/wor… ...264/ ImageImageImageImage
What is revealing regarding the CatalanGate is that presumably Alay and Boye were both key in the international secessionist strategy, "coincidentally" connected with Russia and Snowden, "coincidentally" involved @citizenlab fieldwork in Catalonia /265 occrp.org/en/investigati… ImageImage
In August 2020, one month after leak that initiated the first Catalangate scandal, three of the "victims"/participants in @citizenlab study: Puigdemont, Ponsati and Comin coincidentally signed an open letter requesting Trump to pardon Snowden...266/ ImageImageImage
Alay and Boye discussed this public support in an exchange of messages revealed by @OCCRP.
Alay was afraid that this could be too revealing of their strategy of betting on the Kremlin. Boye a friend of Snowden seemed less concerned about this. 267/ occrp.org/en/investigati… ImageImage
Remember that according to Torrent's book, Boye was in Jul 2020, working in the selection of suspected cases for @citizenlab, the exchanges with Alay happened in Aug 2020 during Catalangate investigation and 2 months before Alay's arrest in Oct 2020...268/ google.com/amp/s/www.vozp… ImageImageImageImage
@OCCRP revealed that Alay and Boye agreed that Puigdemont should not make references to Navalny's poisoning and detention or to Lukashenko's brutal repression of the protests for irregularities in elections (that caused hundreds of injured people and some deaths)... 269/ ImageImageImage
They wanted to prevent alienating Russia. A week later they had to make up a story for their Russian "friends" to justify that Puigdemont had been among those receiving Belarusian opposition leader @Tsihanouskaya in her visit to the European Parliament... Maquiavelian ...270/ ImageImage
In October 2020, before Alay's arrest they planned an interview of Puigdemont with who Alay considered his journalist in Moscow. An interview with agreed questions and where no questions about Navalny should be made ...271/ ImageImage
They decided that Puigdemont should talk about the weaknesses and challenges to the EU, provide intelligence but avoid "what would piss off the Russians". 271/ ImageImageImageImage
Let's rewind a bit, in June 2020. Alay proudly informed Boye that Evgeny Primakov was appointed as head of Rossotrudnichestvo, the government agency. That he was Putin's right hand. Alay and Primakov knew each other personally. He was one of the people met in Moscow 272/ ImageImage
The trips and meetings of Alay with Russian secret services agents after Russian economic and military support to Catalan secessionists were well documented. Even GRU agents travelled repeatedly to Catalonia. 273/ elconfidencial.com/espana/catalun… ImageImageImageImage
The relation of Puidemont and Alay with Russia was notorious given all the public interviews. It is odd that Deibert or the other members of @citizenlab never mentioned that this connection could be the cause for some the espionage attempts. 274/
elconfidencial.com/espana/2022-03… ImageImageImageImage
But maybe Snowden helps understand this point. Snowden not only provided endorsement to Deibert's work, their relationship also goes years back. In 2013 he sent an important chunk of the classified intelligence he leaked to Deibert. 275/
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Among other collaborations Deibert organised an event @UofT in 2016 politics.utoronto.ca/2016/02/snowde… . His familiarity is also captured by how he refers to Snowden as "Ed" and who he invited to become a @citizenlab
Fellow, (like Elies Campo) /276 deibert.citizenlab.ca/2016/04/chatti… ImageImageImage
@citizenlab must feel indebted with Snowden as his leaks helped them discover leads to states abuses. Even in the CatalanGate report they use a reference to Snowden documents disclosed in 2013 to wrongly suggest 60million calls intercepted in Spain 277/ citizenlab.ca/tag/edward-sno… ImageImageImageImage
Could Snowden, a friend of both Boye and Deibert, have mediated to get @citizenlab accept the collaboration of secessionist leaders involved with Russia? Did Snowden suggested Catalonia as a case study? Did he leak the name of Torrent to @el_pais and @guardian?... 278/
Even Roger Torrent oddly mentions twice Snowden in his book, Pegasus. It could be just a coincidence...279/ ImageImage
In Oct 2020 Spanish Civil Guard linked some of the other arrested participants in @citizenlab research, i.e., Vendrell and Madi, as well as Snowden, Assange, RT and Sputnik to a strategy of disinformation and destabilisation. Still @citizenlab decided to work with them 280/ ImageImage
Kremlin emissaries not only wanted to develop a cryptocurrency platform to guarantee financial stability of an independent Catalonia, but participate in the communication strategy Vendrell, Madi and Catalan media tycoon Jaume Roures were developing...281/
eldiario.es/1_612cde?utm_c… ImageImageImageImage
When Primakov and Alay met in Moscow on 16 June 2020 elconfidencial.com/espana/2022-03…
They discussed how they could help each other publishing Russian perspectives in Catalonia and secessionist one in Russia. Primakov compared Russian minority in #Ukraine with the Catalan case. ... 282/ ImageImageImage
It seems that Deibert, Boye, Snowden and Assange have other friend/acquaintance in common the celebrated journalist Glenn Greenwald who reveived the leaks from Snowden. 283/ ImageImageImageImage
Greenwald, Boye and Snowden actively support Julian Assange pardon. Deibert doesn't currently support Assange publiclly but he did express admiration in the past and Citizen Lab. 284/ ImageImageImageImage
Actually Snowden and Gleenwald (who was instrumental in the 2013 leak) appear very frequently defending Assange and criticising western governments theintercept.com/2019/04/11/the…
.../285 ImageImageImageImage
Curious fact: Greenwald, Assange and Boye appeared in 2014 on Snowden biopic: Citizenfour ...286/ m.imdb.com/title/tt404436… ImageImage
Nonetheless Greenwald has erased from Twitter his exchanges with Boye since. ...287/ ImageImageImageImage
Also interesting to see how Prof. Deibert, although now rejects submitting @citizenlab work to independent peer review, was apparently in the past a staunch advocate of it. Maybe @UofT @munkschool @UofTEthics can manage to apply his former principles to his work again 288/ ImageImageImageImage
But hypocrisy does not stop there. Prof. Deibert tells off other researchers for being paid by autocracies... still he expresses no problem whatsoever with Snowden's and Catalan secessionists' collaboration with Russia to destabilise Europe (those invited in his research)... 289/ ImageImageImage
But speaking of hypocrisy, Boye and Snowden, who according to the press, have collaborated with Russian disinformation campaigns to destabilise the EU, constantly give lessons about democratic practices to Western countries...290/ ImageImageImageImage
No surprises, Boye has been also whitewashing Russian #UkraineInvasion. Remember that he was afraid of "pissing of the Russians", whose support he was seeking for Catalan separatist strategy ...291/ ImageImageImageImage
Likewise Snowden, who have been lecturing on how democracies are threatened for years, has kept silence on the invasion, his last messages related to #Ukraine took place in February.
...292/ ImageImageImageImage
Deibert refers to Kremlin propagandists, but does he also refer to those who collaborated in the fieldwork and communication campaign of the CatalanGate report that he supervised? ...293/ ImageImageImageImage
Prof. Deibert has a point it seems that nobody from the the Spanish government has requested to meet and validate the findings. Nobody in @desdelamoncloa @Defensagob @MAECgob bothered to approach @citizenlab and help amend potential issues such as false positives, etc? 🤦‍♂️...294/ Image
In Oct 2017 several meetings involving Kremlin's emissaries took place in Catalonia with Puigdemont, Artadi, Terradellas & Sarda Bonvehi, a Catalan businessman that in 2012 cheated Ukraine in a fraudulent 1bn dollar gas deal 295/ nytimes.com/2012/11/30/bus…

elconfidencial.com/espana/catalun… ImageImage
In one of those meetings it was decided to request support to ultranationalist leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky. He did organised a rally days later in front of the Spanish Consulate in Moscow replicating secessionist slogans👇 296/
&
outono.net/elentir/2017/1… ImageImageImageImage
The pro-Putin Minister of Foreign Affairs of South Ossetia (SO/ participated in one of the meetings. He theoretically went to establish the first embassy in an independent Catalonia. The 10000 troops offered to Catalonia match the Russian troops in SO 297/ eurasianet.org/south-ossetian… ImageImageImageImage
Interestingly this Foreign Affairs minister Dimitri Medoev, arrived to Barcelona from Italy, were he had meetings with leaders of Matteo Salvini's Lega Nord leadership. Coincidentally, Salvini, like Zhirinovsky, also supported Catalan secessionist movement...298/ ImageImageImageImage
Actually these meetings also seem to explain the somewhat surprising campaign in favour of Blockchain technology and cryptocurrency in which several of the participants in Citizen Lab study were involved, presumably following Moscow' guidelines... 299/
elconfidencial.com/espana/catalun…
Cryptocurrencies have been a long-term strategy in Russia. Apparently with Catalonia they sought to erode the solidity and stability of the Euro. This idea emerges also in the discussions between Terradellas and Vendrell, and between Alay and Boye ...300/ ImageImageImageImage
Worth noting: the idea of using a passport with QR codes that would allow you pay proposed by Russia has been dutifully followed by the secessionist leaders /301 ImageImageImageImage
If you look closely to the Catalan government Blockchain strategy, you can see how this was formally approved in Jun 2019 politiquesdigitals.gencat.cat/en/tic/estrate…
The Blockchain Technology Observatory launched in Aug 2020
esmartcity.es/2020/08/31/en-… .../302 ImageImage
The Centre Blockchain de Catalunya opens in Barcelona in Oct 2020 and in Dec 2020 they announce a Blockchain Centre of Catalonia at the University of Girona ...302/ cbcat.io/portfolio-item…
&
chathurangam.com/girona-will-ho… ImageImageImage
I spoke earlier of the Fundacio Nord, also in Girona, by Joan Matamala the zero patient for Citizen Lab and Jordi Baylina (both participants)? parcudg.com/portfolio/fund… Both monitored by Spanish security services 303/ Image
A new branch of the of the Centre Blockchain de Catalonia (CBCat) in Vic was announced in Sep 2021 and another in Badalona in Jan 2022. ...304/ govern.cat/salapremsa/not… ImageImage
No surprises, the Judge in Barcelona sees no ground to proceed with the complaint by Torrent and Maragall. It was based on @citizenlab investigation that did not manage to prove successful infection and less so authorship. Propaganda stunt? ...305/ elmundo.es/cataluna/2022/…
Linking back to the issue of double standards, @citizenlab and Russia. Here Prof. Deibert of 2017, giving a lesson to Obama Administration, that he could perfectly apply to Prof. Deibert of 2022. The extended version published in Just Security
...306 justsecurity.org/35989/dhsfbi-r… ImageImage
For instance, 2017 Deibert rightfully questions the use of a flashy title "Grizzled Steppe" report and lack of independent verification. But 2022 Deibert named "CatalaGate" the report to match pro-independence slogan and was not submitted to independent verification...307/ ImageImage
2017 Deibert accuses the report by the Obama administration of failing to map out clearly the connection to this specific case of cyber espionage to Russia. 2022 Deibert accepts "circunstancial evidence" (absence of solid evidence) to incriminate Spain..308/ ImageImage
2017 Deibert rightly questions the validity of using certain traces to accuse Russia as they may be used by others. 2022 Deibert assumes that no cyber criminal would think of using fake Spanish institutional messages except Spanish secret services 🤔...309 ImageImage
2017 Deibert requests prudence given the ramification and impacts and criticises faith-based conclusions based on leaks. 2021 Deibert suggests Spanish government spies for political reasons its citizens, and shows faith that they would find more cases 310/ elconfidencial.com/tecnologia/202… ImageImageImage
2017 Deibert criticises DHS/FBI report for the lack of transparency, and not sharing data with the public, as well as lack of rigour. 2022 Deibert uses the excuse of privacy to avoid sharing basic methodological info and any data...311/ ImageImageImage
And wow, 2017 Deibert questions Obama's administration report for not providing degrees of confidence for each indicator. 2022 Deibert does not provide any degree of confidence in his report, and when questioned claims 100 reliability and no possibility of false positive 🤯 312/ ImageImageImage
Another surprising fact is that despite his critique to the Obama administration report, Prof. Deibert suggests that there is little doubt Russia was behind the attacks, the entire cybersecurity community seem to believe this fact. 313/ Image
Short memory? Not only Deibert acknowledged in his critique to the DHS/FBI Report on Russian Hacking that Russia was behind that hacking case, but also @citizenlab published a report on 2017 referring to a Russian phishing operation in 39 countries 314/
citizenlab.ca/2017/05/tainte… ImageImage
If @citizenlab wrote about Russian cyberspionage actions in the West, how come they didn't even consider Russian authorship in the case of Spain (knowing the negotiations with secessionist leaders and disinformation campaign in 2017)? Why did they stop investigating Russia? 315/ ImageImageImage
It seems that after 2017 @citizenlab has "only" look into Russia with regard of online censorship, what about Russian hacking and phishing operations? Anything to do with the participation of Snowden in Russian disinformation campaigns abroad? ...316/ ImageImageImageImage
Here more evidence of how well aware Prof. Deibert was of Russian operations abroad & capabilities. The omission of any reference to Russia in the CatalanGate report is even more flagrant. It was give published amidst Ukraine's invasion and Catalan-Russia scandal news 317/ ImageImageImageImage
And probably the strangest of all things: why is Snowden pretending on 2021 that he didn't know Deibert in one of his latest videos, posted by Anonymous Youtube channel? (btw it is basically a commercial for @citizenlab) and poor acting skills ... 318/ ImageImage
Very odd indeed, given that: Deibert was the recipient of a significant chuck of the 2013 Snowden leaks, he interviewed Snowden who he called Ed and invited to join @citizenlab and hosted a Q&A with Snowden's lawyer in 216...319
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Snowden seems to have forgotten that the shared a panel in 2016 RightsCon and that he appears in the Documentary Black Code (about Ron Deibert's work) ...320/ m.imdb.com/title/tt593796… & ImageImageImage
Snowden wrote the first endorsement of Deibert's 2020 book. "No one has done more than Ron Deibert to expose the enemies of the internet...", a year later he had forgotten who Deibert was ("a guy named Ronald Deibert I believe, you will have to fact-check it")🤦‍♂️❗321/ ImageImageImage
Many journalists believed Elies Campo worked at @telegram: @RonanFarrow @NewYorker @DarrenLoucaides @WIRED @jordibaste @tv3cat @antonibassas @diariARA @albertmurillo, @HolaMariola @alex_gubern, etc.
Is any of them interested in finding out what he was really up to? 322/ ImageImageImageImage
Contrary to what Deibert declared (see @UofT @UofTEthics exchange with @RenewEurope) the Catalan Cybersecurity Agency(ACC) was analysing phones for @citizenlab investigation since 2020, as declared by its director Oriol Tortuella in an interview.
lavanguardia.com/politica/20220…
323/ ImageImageImageImage
The ACC director (controlled by pro-independence government) also contradicts the testimony of Deibert and confirms that secessionist parties/NGOs such as ERC, Junts, CUP, ANC and Omnium were selecting the phones submitted to @citizenlab (as Torrent's book also explains) 324/ ImageImage
@citizenlab @UofT
Listen to Puigdemont after Kremlin's emissaries offer of 500bn USD +10,000 troops to support an independent Catalonia in exchange to turn it into a cryptocurrency haven:
No need to monitor the participants in this project?
325/ ImageImageImageImage
Many of those @citizenlab claims to be "victims" of illegal espionage were quite openly explaining how they were working on an (illegal) secession creating a crypto friendly digital Republic out of control of Spain, fitting the proposed plan by Kremlin's emissaries 326/ ImageImageImageImage
This secessionist push via the creation of separated institutions
was not only blatant and public by the time that @citizenlab started its investigation, elpais.com/politica/2017/…
it was already illegal and investigated elpais.com/politica/2019/…
...327/ ImageImageImageImage
Conveniently some of the incriminatory evidence has been disappearing from the website of @govern or this video of a conference by Puigdemont @helsinkiuni 🤔
Didn't @citizenlab consider that monitoring these people was justified? No worthy even as working hypothesis? ...328/ ImageImageImage
Btw one of the hosts of this conference, Finnish MP Mikko Karna requested that same year the resignation of Spanish Ambassador for the dismissal of pro-independence consul in Barcelona Albert Ginjaume who today was arrested for drug trafficking 329/ lavanguardia.com/vida/20180301/… ImageImageImageImage
A good day to remember that @UofTEthics @UofT has not responded yet to the basic questions I asked on 29th April about the involvement of Elies Campo and pro-independece parties in the sampling process for the Citizen Lab CatalanGate investigation. 330/ ImageImageImageImage
We are also expecting that after the reminder sent a week ago, the formal petition for an independent investigation by 16 academics on 20 May, concerning the allegations of research ethics misconduct by @citizenlab is accepted by @UofT @UTM_AIU @researchuoft @carebaccer ...331/ ImageImageImageImage
Going back to the "independent validation" of the CatalanGate report by AmnestyTech, I had already referred to Etienne Maynier, but actually the other expert in Pegasus in Amnesty is Claudio Guarnieri (aka Nex), a Senior Research Fellow in Citizen Lab until 2016. 332/ ImageImageImage
Guarnieri has the copyright of the MVT software used to detect Pegasus (Maynier being the other contributor). github.com/mvt-project/mvt

Coincidentally in 2021 MVT was "peer reviewed" by @citizenlab: citizenlab.ca/2021/07/amnest… (Maynier was still a Fellow there) 😳 ...333/ ImageImageImageImage
Do @UofT @UTM_AIU @researchuoft @carebaccer consider these mutual "independent peer reviews" as really independent? Reviewers and reviewed are colleagues and have worked together for long time? (Deibert acts also as advisor of Amnesty)
331/ ImageImageImageImage
Don't you reckon Amnesty/Citizen Lab guys seem too close to each other to be able to independently assess each other work? Why not asking real independent experts to assess @citizenlab and @amnesty work? ...332/ ImageImageImageImage
Interestingly enough both @amnesty former @citizenlab
Fellows also share Deibert's admiration for Snowden. Here Guarnieri hosting Snowdem in a conference in 2018 Trondheim, Snowden, as usual has erased his Twitter exchanges with him...332/ ImageImageImageImage
Still no response from @UofT @UTM_AIU @researchuoft concerning the independent investigation that we requested formally on 20 May. The UofT Research Integrity protocol is quite clear about this. Why this abnormal reluctance to investigate it? researchgate.net/publication/36…
...333/ ImageImage
Meanwhile let's take a closer look at one of the people @citizenlab considers an innocent victim of unjustified espionage by Spain: Jordi Baylina of Ethereum Blockchain guru and secessionist activist, investigated for Tsunami Democratic platform ethercash.wordpress.com/tag/jordi-bayl… ...334/ ImageImageImage
Baylina is key in the Ethereum/Blockchain strategy (proposed to Puigdemont by Kremlin's emissaries in 2017). With support from Matamala (another "victim") he became a "for life" president of Fundacio Nord to promote a crypto Catalan administration
elconfidencial.com/espana/catalun…
...335/ ImageImageImageImage
Baylina explains openly the separatist strategy to create a new state using Block chain technology (similar to video by Puigdemont a few tweets above ☝️). Why does @citizenlab @munkschool @UofT collaborate with those who attempt to break democracies? .336/ Image
In line with Puigdemont speech, Baylina explains the process to create institutions that are totally out of the control of states: identities, currency,...What he calls 'decentralised' means uncontrollable. A perfect haven for anarchocapitalists, tax evaders and criminals...337/ ImageImageImageImage
Baylina proposes the "tokenisation" meaning the replacement of current states controlled banking system by cryptocurrencied and of "liquid democracy", what is definitely not compatible with our current system of representative welfare state democracies in Europe 338/ ImageImage
Strangely, Baylina an IT expert on privacy was infected 8 times with Pegasus after knowing about his Candiru attacks 🤔 (remember Matamala, his associate was patient zero of Candiru according to @citizenlab report). More careless than his associates Vives, Escrich & Campo 339/ ImageImageImageImage
Joan Matamala, tech entrepreneur from who Baylina borrowed money for the Foundation, was even less careful that Baylina❗ A real infection magnet, zero patient Candiru and being infected even after the Pegasus scandal broke out in July 2020 citizenlab.ca/2022/04/catala…
... 340/ ImageImage
But if the fact that some of the IT savvy secessionists kept on being infected even after knowing they were targets (not changing phones or using extra precautions), what comes next it is even more strange. Baylina's partner is Sonia Urpi, another activist "victim"...341/ ImageImage
In this video of the Catalan secessionist organisation ANC (those who set up the Catalangate.cat domain and helped identifying cases for @citizenlab fieldwork) Urpi claims to have been illegally spied on by Spanish authorities...342/ ImageImageImageImage
She claims that she found out that she was spied on in July 2020 warned by Baylina who apparently discovered to be hacked through a routinary security check up. A new version of the story of how people were informed of the attacks❗. 343/ ImageImageImageImage
This version resonates with Torrent's who claimed that in July 2020 they were working on the final report. Why did @citizenlab kept these findings until April 2022? Convenient to for secessionists to divert attention away from their Russian connection and recover popularity 344/ ImageImage
While @UofT @munkschool and @citizenlab are trying to avoid an independent investigation of the #catalangate report, more evidence of the operation by Russia and several "participants"/"victims"⁉️ in the report to destabilise Spain and the EU emerges 345/
elconfidencial.com/espana/catalun…
Other odd thing concerning @citizenlab @munkschool @UofT is the focus on @NSOgroup as if there were no other spyware providers. They have published 48 reports about them since 2017 about the Israeli company... 345/ citizenlab.ca/tag/nso-group/…
This crusade against @NSOgroup contrasts with the low interest @citizenlab shows on fighting privacy abuses by Big Techs: 7 reports about Facebook (last one in 2013), a couple on Apple, close ties with Google & no criticism since 2013 either... 346/ ImageImage
On the contrary, they worked with Facebook and Apple to collect evidence that they could use against NSO in their court cases.
Funnily enough it seems Facebook tried to purchase Pegasus In 2017, the year @citizenlab "crusade" started...347/ cybersecuritynews.com/facebook-secre…
While @munkschool @UofT show reluctance to open a formally requested investigation, @citizenlab continues to participate in Catalan secessionist propaganda events: next one press conference with convicted (and pardoned) Jordi Cuixart in Geneva, ... 348/
eldebate.com/espana/2022062…
This is the #Catalangate propaganda campaign @citizenlab @munkschool are backing. Omnium is the owner of the domain CatalanGate that Deibert chose to use as title for the report. Cuixart, the separatist leader Scott-Railton is joining in Geneva was its President ...349/ Image
Do you remember how independence parties were the first requesting an investigation at the Spanish parliament in 2020 about #CatalanGate...
Now they are blocking such commission in the Catalan parliament. Anything to hide? ...350/
elnacional.cat/es/politica/at…
Here the link to the political propaganda event organised by Omnium that took place yesterday. In the end Scott-Railton was replaced by Elies Campo.
Is @citizenlab starting to realise that participating in this political operation was a bad idea?...351/
pressclub.ch/human-rights-a… Image
By the way Campo is presented as representing @citizenlab, if so why is he still not appearing on @citizenlab @munkschool website as such? Also very curious that this press conference/event did not take questions from journalists or public 🤔...352/ ImageImageImageImage
Today computer scientist @jonathandata1 has just released a white paper that demolishes the credibility of the @citizenlab report and that @munkschool @UofT should consider in their (much needed and delayed) investigation on #Catalangate study ... 353/
researchgate.net/publication/36…
The analysis of the domains reported as indicators of compromise fingerprints show that the tool @citizenlab was using to detect Pegasus (or other spywares infections) had a dubious validity at best (contradicting Deibert claim of 100% reliability 🤦‍♂️ elpais.com/espana/2022-05…) 354/ ImageImageImage
In 2017 Deibert acknowledged that part of the problem of cybersecurity was the lack of cooperation of Big Techs with governments. Now @citizenlab efforts focus on helping Apple and WhatsApp collect evidence for their court cases against @NSOgroup 355/ ImageImage
Is this (business?) model compatible with @UofT research ethics and the original mission of @citizenlab? Is diverting the attention away from largely unaccountable Big Techs (main source of privacy/data concerns) towards governments and smaller companies good activism? ...356/ ImageImageImageImage
Speaking of business model, this press release from Apple apple.com/uk/newsroom/20… sheds light on the method how @citizenlab is paid by its services by Big Techs. In this case Apple funding goes to Ford Foundation that then forward it to Citizen Lab (and Amnesty Tech?)... 357/ ImageImage
Conveniently the allocation of the 10M USD by the Ford Foundation will be decided by an "independent committee" that includes Deibert (@citizenlab), Rahim (@AmnestyTech), Bedoya (Access Now), Mosso (Engineer Room) and Krstic (Apple). It's all a great family! 358/... ImageImage
No surprise Railton-Scott is excited now that the 10 million dollars are approaching. Remember, according to "never infected victim" Torrent's book, by July 2020, Citizen Lab were already working on behalf of Apple and seeking "ammunition" for court cases against @NSOgroup 359/ ImageImageImageImage
What do @munkschool @PeejLoewen @UofT think of the formal statement by Prof. Deibert gave to @RenewEurope questions, now that we know that Apple channels its donations via a committee on Ford Foundation where Deibert sits? New reason to investigate ...360/ apple.com/uk/newsroom/20… ImageImage
As part of the corruption investigation Voloh case, Spanish Guardia Civil, has revealed just more evidence that confirms that secessionist parties were conducting forensic analyses themselves instructed by @citizenlab in 2020 🤦‍♂️ ...361/ elmundo.es/cataluna/2022/… Image
This adds to the testimony of Roger Torrent and Oriol Tortuella lavanguardia.com/encatala/20220… & contradicts the statement by Deibert sent to @RenewEurope. Is hiding and lying about key steps in the analytical process an acceptable practice? @UTM_AIU @PeejLoewen @UofT @munkschool 362/ ImageImageImageImage
Cynicism: Deibert accusing @Europarl_EN members of blocking an investigation about Pegasus (which has been ongoing for months), while he @munkschool are blocking a similar investigation @UofT. And separatist parties blocking a CatalanGate commission at Catalan Parliament 🤯 363/ ImageImageImageImage
@munkschool @researchuoft Was Citizen Lab contacted and commissioned by Big Techs to help them collect evidence for lawsuits? Or was Citizen Lab who offered WhatsApp and Apple their services to find incriminating evidence? Lawsuit driven research
threatpost.com/whatsapp-hack-… 364/...
Hackers and hacktivists have found a new business model: litigation battles. Is this something @munkschool @UofT endorses? Would you endorse CitizenLab researchers "selling" court cases to companies and political parties (as Torrent:s book suggests)? 365/
reuters.com/investigates/s… ImageImageImage
More than a hundred professors and researchers signed a letter by @foroprofesores requesting @UofT @munkschool @PeejLoewen to cease blocking the demands to open an independent investigation about @citizenlab report #CatalanGate report...
366/ cronicaglobal.elespanol.com/politica/catal…
The text of the letter can be found here: …lforodeprofesores.files.wordpress.com/2022/07/letter…
It echoes many of the very allegations made in May and that as per their own internal regulation the #UniversityofToronto must be already investigating. 367/ ImageImageImageImage
In May secessionist parties requested the urgent opening of a parliamentary committee to investigate the #CatalanGate report. However, now the are blocking such committee. What are they afraid of? Anything to hide? Afraid of any expert testimony?... 368/ eltriangle.eu/es/2022/07/11/…
Once more @AmnistiaCAT @amnistiaespana @amnesty actively peddling a propaganda campaign by Catalan secessionists. Not only they "validated" the report, they also participated in the operation at least since 27 July 2020 (according to Torrent)...369/ amnistiacatalunya.org/en-que-treball… ImageImageImageImage
By the way, Citizen Lab report has undergone a new round of non reported revisions. That add to the previously reported in this thread... 370/ ImageImageImageImage
Here some of the previous changes. Also remember how the references to Elies Campo and footnotes were changing...
Is editing published reports without reporting the modifications an ethically acceptable practice at @UofT @UofTEthics
@researchuoft?
371/ ImageImageImage
Genuine mistakes or way to make "evidence" fit the narratives in the secessionist propaganda campaign?
On the new version Torrent's lawyer was infected a month earlier, is this something "helpful" for their court case now that Judge requested phones? es.ara.cat/politica/caso-… 372/ Image
The unreported modifications to the #CatalanGate report I have been denouncing since May ()
are not only academically dodgy, but have legal implications as the report link was submitted as evidence for court cases: e.g. Boye's files.mediaset.es/file/10002/202… 373/ ImageImage
Remember the litigation business model I was referring to some tweets ago (and litigation driven research) and how Railton-Scott suggested opening court cases in Europe? Just "victim/lawyer" Boye announced complaints in 8 European cities 6 countries 374/
elindependiente.com/espana/2022/05… ImageImageImageImage
Interestingly Citizen Lab has just changed the date of Mr Van Der Eynde from 14 June to 14 May 2020 Coincidentally he has just admitted a complaint against @NSOgroup last week. Could being espied a month earlier yield benefits in a trial? 375/ en.esquerra.cat/en/esquerra-co… ImageImageImageImage
Today one of those accounts that are defending Citizen Lab made a thought-provoking point: Citizen Lab cannot be judged against academic standards as their report is not academic work but an industry report. Interesting new argument that would invalidate part of my critique.376/ ImageImage
But they vehemently present themselves as an academic group, and world the principle of "academic freedom". Do @UofT @munkschool @PeejLoewen @researchuoft agree with @citizenlab being beneficiary of academic freedom but not subject to academic accountability and ethics? ...377/ ImageImageImageImage
We are not the first making formal complaints to @UofT @munkschool about Citizen Lab "unorthodox" practices and apparent lack of research ethics.
On a post by Deibert I found that their lawyer uses academic freedom in their defense citizenlab.ca/wp-content/upl… 378/ ImageImageImage
While #UniversityofToronto allows Citizen Lab a quite unusual level of "academic freedom" (no need to comply with professional integrity internal regulations, methodological and ethics research conventions?) Deibert seems to be much more strict on others. 379/ Image
The guy defending Citizen Lab may be right. Their work belongs to the domain of industry reports and activism. Their work for Big Techs' & politicians' court cases is controversial since they are part of @UofT @munkschool and claim to be academics, why not setting a company? 380/ ImageImageImageImage
Double standards: Spain must open a "serious independent investigation".
But fine if secessionist parties working on the CatalanGate report are blocking a similar commission in the Catalan parliament.
&
No way to open an independent investigation @munkschool @UofT on it? /381 ImageImageImageImage
It seems that some high profile guys are going a bit wild in their defence of their pals at Citizen Lab. Although unable to articulate a single tweet without ad-hominem attacks, appeal to authority and non sequitur fallacies 🤭🤭🤭 382/ ImageImageImageImage
I guess Deibert did not appreciate that Scott wrote a technical paper questioning their approach. What about the good old academic transparency, sharing samples and methodology details and demonstrating your findings rather than insulting and attempting to discredit Scott? 383/ ImageImage
Unorthodox way of defending @citizenlab report by high profile friends of them.
This exchange with Marc Owen Jones, who works for @BBC
and @nytimes and is supposed to be an academic working on #misinformation
Not sure he is actually helping Citizen Lab's cause though 😂...384/ ImageImageImageImage
It seems that the arguments of the paladins of @citizenlab are becoming increasingly sophisticated. 🤣🤣
Btw, my only payroll comes from my university, UNED. Some of us still have principles and are willing to spend their time and efforts for what they think a good cause..
385/ ImageImage
The level of embarrassment does not cease to mount. Mr Hutchins, a popular hacker who claimed to be the "kings of trolls", after calling me a stooge doubles down ... 386/ ImageImageImage
I reminded him that within academia, we have methods and a distinct deontological code, that we must respect. As far as @citizenlab operates within the @UofT and @munkschool they are held accountable for them.
Are they just "industry" or hackers ? 387/
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientifi… ImageImageImageImage
🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿 ... 388/ ImageImageImage
One thing I am learning about the cybersecurity sector is the lack of scrupulous, manners and argumentative capacity. Social sciences world is a haven compared with that. These are the guys who claim to be the good guys...how are the bad guys?🫣
...389/ ImageImage
It seems that Citizen Lab's hacker-pals are all defending that Citizen Lab's work belongs to the industry or hackers' domain. I tend to agree. Maybe they should just suggest them to cease claiming they do scientific academic work...390/ ImageImageImage
Marcus insists that Citizen Lab is not claiming to do academic work and never claimed so.
391/ ImageImageImage
After a few insults, fallacies and contradictions, Marcus the hacker has given up and blocked me.

He probably felt offended because I did not insult him back or felt into the trolling trap. 🤔
392/ Image
The hypothesis that @citizenlab does not do academic work grows among Citizen Lab supporters, who think of it as an intelligence firm.
If they were openly operating as a firm @UofT and @munkschool may avoid the embarrassment
393/ ImageImage
By the way another IT expert who had examined Amnesty and Citizen Lab in the past also debunks Deibert's argument about no possibility of false positives and the dubious mutual "peer reviews" between both organisations. @UofT could ask him to check it 394/ ImageImageImageImage
More embarrassment for @citizenlab. Laura Borras, another "#CatalanGate victim", will be tried for corruption facing 6 years in prison and 21-year ban from public office. Catalan police @mossos started investigation in 2018, recordings were key 395/ en.ara.cat/politics/laura… ImageImage
Now she refuses to resign as President of the Catalan Parliament, (last week she even chaired and anti-corruption summit 🤯)
However, in May she requested the resignation of PM Sanchez and 2 other ministers on the basis of @citizenlab @UofT report 396/🤦‍♂️eldiario.es/catalunya/laur… ImageImageImageImage
Another of the guys defending Citizen Lab, that after some insults and strangely misinformed comments, has blocked me. I have tried to be constructive and help him understand the but...anyone can check the exchanges and see.
397/ ImageImageImageImage
@elconfidencial today launches another piece explaining that in the EU they have realised that the CatalanGate report by Citizen Lab @munkschool @UofT is not a reliable source. How long will they block an investigation on the case?...
398/ elconfidencial.com/espana/catalun…
Another #Catalangate "victim", Anna Gabriel, fugitive in Switzerland since 2017 (during the time she collaborated with @citizenlab) has finally surrendered to Spanish justice. I hope they question her about Tsunami Democrátic and Citizen Lab... 399/
elconfidencial.com/espana/catalun…
Tweet 400 announcement: Prof. Deibert and Scott-Railton have both blocked me (like others who tried to undermine this inquiry on @citizenlab). The transparency and public accountability they request from other stakeholders does not seem to apply to them...400/ ImageImageImageImage
The Research Oversight and Compliance office @UofT has rejected 3 different requests for an independent investigation on Citizen Lab (by two groups of academics and by MEP @jordi_canyas) with the same copy-paste letter, that conceals the research ethics allegations made, 🤯401/ Image
The #CatalanGate propaganda campaign isn't yielding the expected results, Cuixart (sentenced to 9 years & pardoned by Sanchez) organised an agit-prop event in Geneva with @citizenlab and now claims that he is moving to Switzerland lead Omnium campaign from there...🤔402/ ImageImageImage
#CatalanGate World Tour.
Cuixart, after being pardoned by Pedro Sanchez moves to Switzerland (country where Tsunami Democrátic was planned) to continue with the defamation campaign against Spain and operate his personal business in a tax haven 403/
elpuntavui.cat/politica/artic… Image
I am going to continue introducing to you the "victims" of the #CatalanGate. Today @El_Triangle publishes this (google translated) 👇 eltriangle.eu/es/2022/07/27/… 404/... ImageImageImageImage
No surprises, Guanyet is another of the IT experts who helped organised the illegal 2017 referendum and praised publicly Tsunami Democratic illegal platform and aware of Snowden support to secession cause. His blog 👇
ganyet.cat/article/i-amb-… ... 405/ ImageImage
Ganyet who knew very well how Tsunami Democrátic works, and provided advice on how to launch it, expressed admiration by its impact in shaping a media narrative by Spectra an elite of "libertarian technohackers"and their capacity to cause a governance crisis in states. ...406/ ImageImageImageImage
Remember the crypto-anarcho-capitalist discourses of Baylina and Puigdemont in this thread? "Coincidentally" Ganyet is part of the public body that oversights media in Catalonia @CCMA_cat that is electing the new @tv3cat and @CatalunyaRadio directors moneytrainingclub.com/sigfrid-gras-a… 407/ ImageImageImageImage
And what is more shocking, he claims to be the fone who discovered to be spied by Pegasus in 2019 (coinciding investigations by Spanish justice regarding Tsunami Democrátic) and send it to @citizenlab🤯 408/
rac1.cat/programes/el-m… ImageImageImage
He claims to speak because he "has lived it from inside" as "he collaborated in the investigations from within" (what @citizenlab did not report). Moreover he had a relationship with Elies Campo and admits his company created @ConsellxRep web... 409/ api.audioteca.rac1.cat/embed/dcc9206c… ImageImage
Ganyet and his influence on public media @CCMA_cat @tv3cat also explains part of the support that the Tsunami Democrátic and the CatalanGate propaganda campaigns have enjoyed in Catalan media. Here Ganyet on Tsunami Democrátic 👇410/
ccma.cat/tv3/alacarta/3…
Let's move to another "victim" of the #CatalanGate report, Aria Baye, member of secessionist organisation ANC. Baye alongside other ANC members, and following Citizen Lab suggestions, made another legal complaint against @NSOgroup 411/ elpuntavui.cat/politica/artic…
Baye appears in a video explaining that ANC does periodic checks to detect spyware attacks and found out about his espionage. He claims that Spain is a repressive State that seek to create fear and that neither Spanish or EU justice are trustworthy 412/ Image
"Coincidentally" as many/most victims, Baye also had problems with Spanish justice during Citizen Lab research. He was arrested alongside other activists for violent riots in 2017 during a non authorised demonstration (although acquitted in 2021). 413/ ImageImage
Baye seems very involved in the actions of Tsunami Democratic (as many, most?) of the "victims" in the #CatalanGate report (#TsunamiGate?). He even prepared a Prezi presentations promoting further mobilisations with pics of the illegal blockades in 2019...414/ ImageImageImageImage
He claims to have participated in most of the paradigmatic (illegal) secessionist actions such as the riots in Urquinaona square, the blockade at the airport and highway towards France, and praises also Cuban and Venezuelan regimes...415/ ImageImageImageImage
There is no evidence Baye was surveilled by Spanish secret services. But why did @citizenlab /@munkschool / @UofT assume a radical activist, waiting for trial and involved in the promotions of non authorised secessionist acts and use of violence was being illegally spied?... 416/ ImageImageImageImage
5 testimonials from 5 ANC "victims" (according to Citizen Lab's report), and 5 different versions of how they found out their phones were infected and the #Catalangate investigation started (inconsistent with the account by Citizen Lab) 🤔....417/
eltriangle.eu/es/2022/08/09/…
Let's look at the testimony of the former president of secessionist ANC, and #catalangate "victim" Elisenda Paluzie. She says that first time she found out she was spied was in June 2018 418 /
Image
Paluzie claims that from that moment on she had her mobile checked regularly to detect spyware attacks (what coincides with the testimony of other secessionist activists). In August 2019 she was asked to check her phone for some suspicious SMS, then...419/ Image
Paluzie claims they found Pegasus on her phone in November 2019 🤯 This confirms the involvement of secessionism in the Catalangate project before @swajones @joaquingilr @skirchy contacted Torrent in July 2020 and "reveal" the scandal. This contradicts CitizenLab account too 420/ ImageImage
Neither Paluzie, Urpi, Baye, etc where in the list of suspected cases theoretically provided by @WhatsApp to @citizenlab. But in July 2020 they also started to work with Citizen Lab in the CatalanGate investigation. Why weren't they mentioned by @el_pais or @guardian? 421/ ImageImage
In fact @skirchy @swajones and @joaquingilr @el_pais @guardian could easily help shedding light on what really originated this dubious report. It seems quite clear that the WhatsApp list they were leaked was a justification to set into motion something planned ahead. 422/ ImageImageImage
Citizen Lab needed someone to ask "victims" to authorise Citizen Lab to investigate their phones and "legally" obtain their Whatsapp records (due to privacy policy). @el_pais and @guardian played that role and thus helpes to ex-post legitimise the launch of the investigation 423/ ImageImageImage
The fact that the forensic analysis of the phones of all those in the WhatsApp list resulted negative was unimportant. Citizen Lab could still consider them as "targets" and therefore "victims" (included in the 65). The goal was to justify the launch of an investigation 424/ ImageImage
Most people would never realise the difference between victims confirmed by forensic analyses or those that simply claiming to have received suspicious SMS. All victims bundled together, including those legally being monitored by Spanish justice (and some faking infections?) 425/ ImageImage
As other "victims" Paluzie was also being investigated by Spanish justice due to some controversial declarations in October 2019 when she claimed that the violent riots in Catalonia had positive aspects as helped give visibility to the conflict 426/ Link: lavanguardia.com/politica/20191…
Next victim testimony: Jordi Domingo (another ANC member).
A very interesting case too, he claims he was contacted by Railton-Scott from Citizen Lab, apparently on behalf of @WhatsApp in October 2019. 😳...427/ ImageImageImageImage
He claims to have been spied upon illegally by the Spanish government. But while other secessionist activists in the WhatsApp list made a formal complaint in 2020, Domingo waited from to October 2019 to May 2022 to go request a judge to act. Why? 428/ europapress.es/nacional/notic…
However, the most surprising testimony is that from former ANC president, Jordi Sanchez, who at the time the CatalanGate investigation started was in prison (later pardoned by Pedro Sanchez). He claims attempts to infect his phone since 2015 😳...429/ Image
His phone was checked for Pegasus infections while in prison (presumably in 2020) with negative results. But he claims that in early April 2022 Elies Campo insisted on having his phone and that of his family checked again...and then they found out he had been infected ...430/ Image
According to Roger Torrent Citizen Lab started drafting the final report in July 2020. But the report was kept unpublished until April 2022, when its publication was needed to counter the drop in support for independence, and their problematic connections with Russia... 431/ ImageImage
In March 2022, shortly after Russian invasion of Ukraine, new evidence about their dealings with the Kremlin resurfaced. In such a dire context, the CatalanGate scandal would offer again an opportunity to turn into "victims" those who involved 432/ elperiodico.com/es/politica/20…
Elies Campo/ Citizen Lab hurried to get some new last minute victims to grow the numbers in the report, revising even those who many months earlier had been tested negative. How come it tested positive then? New more flexible criteria? Fabrication of false positives? 433/ ImageImage
A forensic analysis conducted and published in April 2022, regarding a mobile already checked in 2020 (with negative results), of someone who knew since 2015 of infection attempts, shows that he was infected in 2017 4 times, but kept the phone even after jailed 🤯 🤔 434/ Image
Elies Campo, who lies about his professional life, has no research experience and gives quite inconsistent accounts of how he landed on CitizenLab and on the launch of the investigation is going to give the main speech in Sants Festival (Bercelona) 🫢435/
el3.cat/noticia/77358/…
Campo claims to continue his professional life at @citizenlab, and that @WhatsApp commissioned @citizenlab to try to detect the people who had been victims of attacks with Pegasus and that they investigate cases of abuses such as those who were mainly found in Catalonia". 436/ Image
We know that none of the people in the list by Whattsapp had their phones infected. But Campo and the secessionist parties had already lined up a list of political leaders and activists they wanted to turn into "victims" to clear them up for their involvement in illegal acts 437/
Fun fact, @citizenlab had made no reference to Spain but denounced dozens of other countries Pegasus, until September 2019. No mention to Spain in their reports or in the evidence provided for the WhatsApp Vs NSO formal complaint. 438/
google.com/amp/s/www.time… ImageImageImage
By the end of 2019 secessionist activists, involved in Tsunami Democratic and other Blockchain initiatives suggested by Kremlin's emissaries, find out their phones were attacked by Pegasus and, coincidentally, @citizenlab realises that there were Catalans in Whatsapp list 🤔 439/ ImageImage
They have dismissed Jonathan Scott from his PhD program, allegedly due to the pressures received by @NorthcentralU regarding Scott's working paper on the CatalanGate report.
Meanwhile @UofT @munkschool refuses to investigate @citizenlab.
Shameful and hypocritical... 440/ Image
It seems @runasand and @tarah have been those who have requested @NorthcentralU to dismiss Jonathan Scott. They are turning blind eye to all the accusations of bad praxis made against Citizen Lab from over a hundred academics and attacking a PhD student 441/ Image
Trying to silence critical voices is a rather unacademic position. Would you apply similar criteria vis-a-vis the many misrepresentations and ethical issues contained in the CatalanGate study? (you have here over 400 tuits with them) 442/ ImageImageImageImage
@tarah considers the people at Citizen Lab "heroes". Zero evidence or attempt to engage in any of the many arguments launched by those criticising the CatalanGate report.
Ad-hominem attacks against Scott (very basic attempt to delegitimise him). What about the report? 443/ ImageImageImage
@runasand (another friend of Snowden) and fan of Citizen Lab is definitely not a neutral source for the dismissal of a PhD student from @NorthcentralU. Why would someone contact a university to request the dismissal of a student for criticising such a problematic report? 444/ ImageImageImageImage
If @runasand had read this thread about #CatalanGate she would know that the lawyer of that presumed spy she referred to in March is Gonzalo Boye. A personal friend of Snowden and one of the people selecting "victims" for the CatalanGate report (siding with the wrong people) 445/ ImageImageImageImage
Deibert declared to @el_pais that @citizenlab methodology was 100% reliable and no false positives possible 🤔
However, technical committee reporting to Supreme Court in India finds that out of 29 "victim" phones examined only 5 had a malware... 446/
newsclick.in/Justice-RV-Rav… ImageImageImage
The investigation on India's Pegasus reports by a technical committee shows that Citizwn Lab's method is by no means reliable, shouldn't @UofT @munkschool @PeejLoewen invite @citizenlab to release the #CatalanGate forensic analysis data and enable an independent validation 447/ Image
While experts question @citizenlab/ @AmnestyTech findings and denounce many false positives, Catalan secessionist Omnium continues their propaganda/smear campaign using as justification the dubious CatalanGate report (translated from @El_Triangle 👇) 448/ eltriangle.eu/es/2022/08/30/… ImageImage
Repeat a lie a thousand times and it becomes a truth. Elies Campo has become a celebrity in Catalonia thanks to the #Catalangate report @citizenlab @munkschool @UofT
Now he appears in a commercial of @Parlem that insists he worked in @telegram 449/
eltriangle.eu/es/2022/08/31/… ImageImageImageImage
Indeed Deibert knows about disinformation.
@mariaressa @MargaretAtwood @NahlahAyed should take a look at the disinformation related issues revealed in this long twitter thread ☝️or here👇: researchgate.net/publication/36…
Unfortunately those aren't fictional
festivalofauthors.ca/event/disinfor… ..450/ ImageImage
Back to malpractice and false positives. Amnesty Tech last year discovered a false positive in a report that Citizen Lab had review for them. Etienne Maynier (who was transitioning from Citizen Lab to Amnesty Tech) did well and report the mistake 451/ github.com/AmnestyTech/in… ImageImage
This false positive was corrected immediately apparently after an alert by @ZecOps. The Pegasus positive was in fact something related to an iOS process. Nothing to panic about. 452/ ImageImage
However that (false positive) "infection" still fed into an statement for an investigation for presumed illegal espionage by Rwandan government on Carine Kanimba.
Formal statement here on 27 July 2021 (5 day after):
docs.house.gov/meetings/IG/IG…
...453/ ImageImage
Precisely the false indicator/process "Diagnosticd" they had already acknowledged to be a false positive in July 2021, appears in the first place as indicator of compromise in the report Amnesty Tech wrote and was submitted with Carine Kanimba complaint. 454/ ImageImageImageImage
No surprises, forensic methodology had been supposedly peer reviewed and validated by @citizenlab citizenlab.ca/2021/07/amnest…
The "independent peer review" report that does not make reference to the false positive is still online.

Very selective approach to amending reports 455/ ImageImageImage
Neither Amnesty Tech or Citizen Lab amended their reports so the complaint was submitted omitting to the authorities that at least one of the presumed fiest infections Carine Kanimba had suffered was simply a false positive due to an error in their methodology 🤦‍♂️ 456/
The forensic evidence was submitted to the Belgian security services @SgrsAdiv for validation. Even taking for granted Amnesty Tech indicators of Pegasus infection (that had already shown flaws) they only found circumstancial evidence and no possible attribution 457/ ImageImage
It didn't matter to @citizenlab who in June 2022 wrote another formal statement (@UofT @munkschool) to support the claim of illegal surveillance on Carine Kanimba omitting the fact that in her case there was at least a false positive 🤯. This could have legal implications 458/ ImageImageImageImage
Again, @skirchy @guardian report Citizen Lab's findings without any reference to the false positive acknowledged 1 year earlier or the @SgrsAdiv inconclusive analysis. Were they unaware of this or simply choosing to keep the story alive regardless? /459 theguardian.com/world/2022/jul… ImageImageImageImage
Ms Kanimba may indeed be victim of illegal espionage and she deserves support and media visibility. However, omitting relevant information such as "false positives" in articles and reports, more so if they feed court cases and @HouseIntel is extremely problematic /460 ImageImage
By the way, Railton-Scott does not lose an opportunity to push the CatalanGate propaganda operation. Here acting as expert witness in that same @HouseIntel
committee referring to Pegasus infections of Catalan civil society.

/461 ImageImage
More interesting is the familiarity of Google with Citizen Lab. Google's Mr Huntley claims Citizen Lab is the one discovering the exploit in Kanimba case, and refers to the good cooperation.

After WhatsApp & Apple, is Citizen Lab pushing for a @Google Vs NSO case? ...462/ ImageImageImage
On 17 June 2022 @citizenlab @munkschool @UofT provided a formal statement for @ckanimba that included the "diagnosticd" false positive discovered in 2021. Even in the midst of the #CatalanGate malpractice allegations, they acted in such careless/unscrupulous way .../463 ImageImageImageImage
This video at the Oslo Freedom Forum in May, makes CitizenLab/Amnesty methodology sound even less credible. They bring public booths to conventions where in minutes they tell you if you had Pegasus 🤔@ckanimba seems amused having her phone hacked 464/... ImageImageImageImage
Once more, a supporter of Citizen Lab/AmnestyTech ends up exposing them further. He claims that automated forensic tools need to be always manually verified ❗
But the phones of most of the #CatalanGate 65 "victims" were never manually verified and still counted ... 465/ ImageImage
@UofT @munkschool and @citizenlab continue to be accomplices in the political disinformation campaign by secessionist groups. Run internationally for internal consumption but still damaging. 466/ elnacional.cat/ca/politica/jo…
Cuixart, who was condemned and later pardon by Pedro Sanchez @desdelamoncloa, moved to Switzerland to lead the secessionist campaign abroad. He has a point, the Spanish government is the only one that hasn't commissioned an independent investigation on #CatalanGate...467/ ImageImage
Btw, this latest propaganda stunt is hosted by the @UNHumanRights that has received in donations around 1.3 million dollars from the Catalan nationalist Government and already wrote a couple of controversial reports for them 468/
elconfidencial.com/espana/catalun… ImageImageImageImage
Not sure if @UofT and @munkschool @PeejLoewen are aware of the circus they are going to be involved (indirectly) in...
Secessionist parties after months blocking an investigation at the Catalan Parliament just reached an agreement to open it, but..469/... elperiodico.com/es/politica/20…
This is such a charade that the president and vice-president of the (supposedly impartial) investigation commission are "victims" in the #CatalanGate report: Meritxell Serret and Albert Batet. Third member of the board also a secessionist politician 470/.. eltriangle.eu/es/2022/09/21/… ImageImageImage
Some of the Citizen Lab fans that have been stalking me since I started investigating the #CatalanGate case show quite an erratic behaviour, they transition from trying to convince me in private to discredit Scott, to insult me, to block me, to unblock me and to insult again 471/ ImageImageImageImage
Catalan President Pere Aragones just travelled to the US with Diana Riba (EMP / CatalanGate "victim"/ EP Pegasus committee vice-president / wife of jailed then pardoned secessionist Raúl Romeva) to sell @RepLowenthal the farsical espionage story...🍿🍿472/ ImageImageImageImage
🤯"Dodging accountability" says Deibert, who alongside @UofT @munkschool @UofTOmbuds @UTM_AIU refuses sharing the very basic info about funding, methodology, conflict of interests, etc. regarding CitizenLab's #CatalanGate report (against the Uni's Good Governance policy) ...
473/ Image
Trying to revive the secessionist process using as one of the axis the #CatalanGate. Fugitive Puigdemont presenting himself as "victim" (not in report), but omits that he sent emissaries to Israel to try to purchase Pegasus and @govern used similar spyware earlier, Cerberus 474/ ImageImageImage
As already explained, secessionists' plan was using the #CatalanGate report (and unverified "positives") in an attempt to nullify court processes against their leaders. They turned lawyers into Pegasus "victims" and adjust infections accordingly. 475/
elnacional.cat/es/politica/pu…
The @munkschool @UofT @UofTOmbuds @citizenlab efforts to cover up the ethics and methodological issues of the #Catalangate report makes them responsible too. The subterfuge modification of "infection dates" for lawyer Van Eynde after publication is really appalling 476/ ImageImageImage
Boye was being monitored by Spain (with a judge approval) given his connections with Russian destabilisation campaign 👇 occrp.org/en/investigati…
In July 2020 he coordinated the selection of Pegasus "victims" for Junts and somehow still got infected in October 🤔 convenient 477/ ImageImage
The somewhat exotic and over-the-top secessionist propaganda tour (I assume most Catalans feel embarrassed when these nativist bourgeois compare their privileged situation with that of real oppressed people) continue to rely on the CatalanGate report ...478/ ImageImageImage
They claim that @citizenlab @munkschool @UofT "proved" that dozens of activists were spied illegally, however in each court case in Spain these victims, when requested to share their phones to verify the infection as evidence, they have all refused to do so, why? 479/ ImageImage
All "victims" in all court cases so far, e.g., Torrent, Maragall, Van Eynde, Sole, Botran, Fernández, Riera,... have refused to submit their phones when the judges have requested to verify the presumed infections. Are they afraid their "infections" were fabricated or errors? 480/ ImageImageImageImage
Jordi Puignero, a #CatalanGate "victim" (he was legally spied but did not appear in report), was yesterday sacked as vice-president of Catalonia. Today Josep Alay, another "victim" in the report regrets it, claiming to have worked many years together for independence 481/ ImageImage
But Alay, Puignero, and other "victims" worked together to achieve independence (illegally) by implementing Blockchain platforms to bypass Spanish control of citizens and finances (cryptocurrency), as recommended by Russia in 2017❗ Inconvenient vicepresident? New evidence?
482/ ImageImageImage
What a coincidence, another member of Puignero's party and Catalan Minister makes references to the project they co-led in Switzerland and to the fight against cyber espionage. That is a bit odd in two ways...483/ ImageImage
On the one hand, speaking about the fight against cyber-espionage is not something credible coming from a party that presumably was involved in espionage and that sent emissaries to Israel to purchase cyber-espionage software (NSO didn't want to sell them Pegasus) 484/ ImageImageImage
On the other, Switzerland is the country where the Tsunami Democratic operation and the Blockchain platform to coordinate riots was planned. Also where some of the secessionist IT activists worked and where contacts with Russian agents took place. 485/... ImageImageImageImage
As mentioned earlier, Switzerland seems to be the country from which Catalan secessionism wants to orchestrate a new campaign against Spain 486/ ImageImageImageImage
They are working in another initiative against Spain. Hypocritically, after being caught in several espionage scandals, Catalan government pretends to become a spyware free territory, and peddle the Catalangate report, alongside Access Now,...487/
elnacional.cat/es/politica/ca… ImageImage
We already saw @citizenlab participating in a previous propaganda event in Geneva. This time they do not appear, only Access Now...oh wait...it seems they are basically part of the same cybersecurity network/cartel. 488/... accessnow.org/cms/assets/upl…

apple.com/jo/newsroom/20… ImageImageImageImage
They have even created a cybersecurity lobby in which, in addition to the Citizen Lab/AmnestyTech/AccessNow there are several of the CatalanGate report paladins, several @UofT alumni and speaking of Switzerland, many people from ETH Zürich 489/...
threatintelcoalition.org ImageImageImageImage
Apparently Citizen Lab also made accusations based on circumstancial evidence and adopted a somewhat "lawsuit driven research" in a 2020 report.
Why is this kind of (lucrative and not scientific) activism promoted at @munkschool @UofT?
eidclimate.org/activists-now-…
490/...
The #CatalanGate propaganda operation will likely continue its farsical tour in the foreseeable future. They have just appointed foreign affairs minister one of the "victims" of espionage (although Citizen Lab was unable to determine infection 🤔)...492/ cronicaglobal.elespanol.com/politica/merit… ImageImageImage
Serret was part of the fugitive members of the Catalan Government that escaped to Brussels with Puigdemont after declaring (and cancelling) unilateral secession, she returned from Belgium in 2021 and she is now precisely presiding the Pegasus comission 493/... ImageImage
Are @citizenlab @munkschool @UofT aware that their "circunstancial evidence" and "top-up" of the legally monitored politicians with dubious "positives" to create an appearance of mass espionage cost the career to Paz Esteban (+30 years of service)? 493/... elpais.com/espana/2022-10… ImageImage
Is Citizen Lab getting anxious? Rather than answering the questions made to @UofT @munkschool @PeejLoewen their surreal approach to "academic" debate seems to be sending out fan/trolls to discredit me via insults, YouTube videos and now blog posts, medium.com/@maldr0id/jona… 494/... ImageImageImageImage
Citizen Lab fandom is kind of cute. They are trying to call me a conspiracy theorist (something I actually do research on) but they forget to mention that THE conspiracy theory here is precisely the #CatslanGate report. Accusing a government without incriminating evidence 495/... ImageImageImageImage
Citizen Lab found malware attacks on some phones but decided to overstretch their findings and accused a democracy of an operation of mass espionage on civil society with no solid incriminating proof, and contributing to the nationalist disinformation campaign #CatalanGate 496/ ImageImageImageImage
Aren't @citizenlab @munkschool embarrassed of how CL's minions are trying to silence those who found the CatalanGate report to be extremely problematic?

Btw, far right is no friend of mine, I do research them, and Spanish government is left wing. 497/... trthhrtz.com/2022/09/09/fro… ImageImageImageImage
But speaking of embarrassment, Deibert has become once more an active actor in the nationalist propaganda campaign. This weekend they have a special program on the #CatalanGate in Catalan government @tv3cat, Elies Campo will also be there 🍿🍿🍿
Look at the teaser...498/ ImageImage
In the teaser video, Deibert literally says "in Catalonia because you have this situation with the Constitution and the fact that even the mere act of advocating for independence is considered illegal...This is about a spy agency in Spain that is operating without control"😱 499/
What is more worrisome:
1- @munkschool @UofT professor participating in such grotesque disinformation campaign?
2-a political science prof. that doesn't realise secessionist parties (and independence advocacy) are legal and control most Catalan public institutions?...500/
The secessionist parties and activists that helped CitizenLab analysing infections (creating new ones?) and writing the #CatalanGate report did it protected by the Constitution Deibert mentions. Meanwhile in other democracies secessionist parties aren't allowed (e.g. Germany)501/
A warning to @citizenlab @munkschool (Cc: @PeejLoewen)
@UofT, as they don't seem to grasp the seriousness of what they are getting involved with. Do they understand the apparently hectic nature of the #CatalanGate campaign, launched in summer 2020 dormant until 2022? ... 502/...
Let me summarise some things. After the failure of the 2017 attempt to unilaterally secede and following the advice of Kremlin's agents ( occrp.org/en/investigati…)
Key figures in the independence prepared a new operation: Tsunami Democratic 503/ google.com/amp/s/elpais.c… ImageImage
#TsunamiDemocratic was officially launched on 2 September 2017 after a meeting in Switzerland. As you can see below 👇many / most CatalanGate "victims" were promoters of this operation. Coincidentally all decided to quote the Tweet of these supposedly anonymous group 504/ ImageImageImageImage
More #CatalanGate victims and some of the operations by Tsunami democratic, that in theory sought to stage the taking of control of key infrastructures such as airport, train station, and roads, as suggested by Kremlin's emissaries in 2017
505/... ImageImageImage
Another "coincidence": most IT expert considered victims by CitizenLab were advocates/gurus of Blockchain technology and expressed their frustration with the successful control by Spanish police of the online platforms in 2017, and met with Puigdemont 506/
google.com/amp/s/www.poli… ImageImageImageImage
But Tsunami Democratic did not succeed. The online platform was used to coordinate some riots and blockades of roads and Prat Airport that cost millions of tax payers money and Spanish justice started to investigate it ...507/ elpais.com/politica/2019/…
google.com/amp/s/cronicag… ImageImage
In addition to the millions of euros in damages, a French tourist died of s heart attack in the airport blockade. 508/ elindependiente.com/politica/2019/… ImageImage
By October 2019 it was already notorious that Spanish justice was investigating Tsunami Democratic. Actually, many of the #CatalanGste "victims" were investigated following a court request 509/ elconfidencial.com/espana/2019-10…
&
google.com/amp/s/amp.onda… ImageImage
Catalan secessionists leaders were aware of the investigation related to Tsunami Democratic. They knew, they were monitored and they that the audios and private conversations were extremely problematic and incriminating. They needed to somehow neutralise their public impact. 510/ ImageImage
Brilliant plan:
Why not turning the perpetrators of Tsunami Democratic (politicians who launch it and IT experts that implemented the Blockchain platform) into "victims" vis-a-vis public opinion?
@citizenlab, @guardian @el_pais helped launching the campaign in July 2020... 511/ ImageImage
As Torrent explains, ERC and Junts were in charge of identifying "victims" that needed to be added to those that were monitored by Spanish justice. They needed to turn a criminal investigation into a case of mass espionage on civil society. Their lawyers were involved...512/ ImageImage
CitizenLab did not find any infection in the first batch of phones (Torrent, Maragall, Miquel,...) and they realised Spanish justice is slow. So the tapped conversations on the organisation of Tsunami Democratic and collaboration with Russia would not be revealed yet...513/ ImageImage
That is why the CatslanGate went into hibernation. In early 2022, they saw that judges started to move things, Elies Campo was tasked to top up the list of "victims" and write the report as a way to mitigate the impact of the upcoming embarrassing revelations 514/ ImageImage
In April they did another round of "forensic analyses" and manage to transform a list of 18 people investigated for collaboration in serious crimes and corruption into a list of 65 "victims" (mostly relying on friends and families of the investigated by justice) 515/ ImageImage
But why are they launching now in October 2022 a new wave of propaganda regarding CatalanGate? Why reactivating it now once more (after having blocked a Parliamentary committee for several months) eltriangle.eu/es/2022/07/11/…...
Let me explain you why...516/
Spanish justice is slow, but CatalanGate "victims" have learnt recently that the investigations concerning their involvement in crimes (Tsunami Democratic illegal blockades, riots, misappropriation of funding,etc) and collaboration with Russia will be public soon 517/...
They need to shape public opinion so to mitigate the impact of the embarrassing upcoming revelations. With the support of @citizenlab @munkschool @UofT they are (re)launching a campaign to discredit Spain, judges, police and ongoing legal investigations 518/ ImageImageImageImage
To give you a taste of the magnitude of the upcoming revelations, just an example: Former president Torra is being investigated for promoting a nationalist militia in Catalonia and there is an ongoing investigation on terrorism since September 2019..elmon.cat/politica/tribu…
519/
While in the USA Trump is not going to prison (yet) because they haven't found evidence of him directly promoting the Capitol incident, former President Torra asked radical group CDR to "push". CDR was responsible for several attacks to the Parliament
520/ ImageImageImageImage
In sum, @citizenlab is contributing to a disinformation campaign to help a network of politicians and activists, investigated by Spanish justice, to turn their role of "perpetrators" into that of "victims". They have even edited the report
cc: @munkschool @UofT @PeejLoewen
521/ ImageImageImageImage
An agit-prop documentary on Pegasus @tv3cat.
By Deibert's quotes you get a sense of the level of neutrality and rigour of the work of Citizen Lab. He calls a "theatre" the official Spanish Congress Secrets Committee 522/
. tv3.video/30mPegasus ImageImage
He calls for an "independent investigation". Does he know that that Committee has members of many different parties. One of the "victims" sits in the committee? Meanwhile @munkschool @UofT continue to avoid opening an independent investigation on the CatalanGate report 523/ Image
Interview with Deibert in early January in @abcnews... abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireS…
other in May at @el_pais google.com/amp/s/elpais.c…
Do you know any minimally credible researcher capable of such type of not very scientific banter?
524/ ImageImage
The monitoring by Spain on Catalan secessionist leaders that @citizenlab claims illegal just revealed that then President of the Generalitat plotted with leaders of radical CDRs to take control of the territory to facilitate unilateral secession. 🤯 525/ niusdiario.es/nacional/tribu… ImageImage
As predicted earlier, today @elconfidencial reveals also some extremely serious findings in Spanish security forces investigation that are going to be public soon related to the attempt to stage an unilateral secession after the failed one in 2017. 526/...
elconfidencial.com/espana/2022-10…
According to the audios, Catalan IT Blockchain specialists 🤔worked to coordinate groups of secessionist Catalan police @mossos, fire-fighters @bomberscat and forest rangers to be able to secure the control of territory for s new unilateral declaration of independence, 527/ ImageImage
They had constituted a far reaching, well structured and hierarchical organisation to challenge Spain's control. Do you think if similar attempts were investigated by US or Canada services @citizenlab would be calling them "illegal, disproportionate and unrestrained"? 528/... ImageImageImage
Amokg the names of those presumably participating in the operation, according to leaks, you can find some of the CatalanGate "victims" such as Elsa Artadi (who recently resigned), Joan Puigneró (recently sacked), Antoni Comin (fugitive), Puigdemont, Torra and Aragones, and...529/ ImageImage
Although @elconfidencial forgets to mention it today, one of the 4 people in charge of the platform is another of the @citizenlab "victims" to whom I devoted some tweets in this thread: Mr Ganyet. He is another IT specialist and collaborator in several Catalan media...530/ Image
No surprises, Ganyet expressed admiration for the Tsunami Democratic initiative (basically the public outing of the operation he was involved according to these new revelations). He was acting as media advisor and recurrent guest on this issue 531/ ImageImageImage
E.g.,in this documentary about Tsunami he was acting as expert and uni professor and trying to dispel the idea that Tsunami was in reality a hierarchical initiative conducted by an elite of IT experts (what according to investigations it was the case) 532/ Image
When will @citizenlab (@munkschool @UofT) apologise for participating in #CatalanGate disinformation operation? That was planned by those who plotted an unilateral secession, against the will of the majority of Catalans, that could have triggered a civil war 533/ ImageImageImageImage
News from the police investigation of #Catalangate "victims". They were planning to create a parallel defense structure to that of Spain and were planning even to acquire war drones. @citizenlab is this kind of court sanction investigation "illegal"? 534/ elconfidencial.com/espana/2022-10…
New revelations, link the supposedly AI strategy in Catalonia with the organisation of the "Catalan CNI", a clandestine group that was meant to coordinate a series of parallel operations to subvert the constitutional order. 535/ europapress.es/nacional/notic… ImageImageImageImage
One of the leaders of this group is notorious for his ultranationalist views is Miguel (Miquel) Montero de Quadras, who from his social networks spreads constantly xenofobic messages against Spain and openly advocates for destroying the Spanish State 536/ elconfidencial.com/espana/2022-10… ImageImageImage
According to police documents, there is this another @citizenlab "victimim" linked to this subversive group: Jordi Domingo, an ANC members who appeared in the @WhatsApp (?) list and whose infection was never confirmed and claimed to have been contacted by CL in Oct 2019. 537/ ImageImageImageImage
💥Spanish police reveals evidence of what I announced months ago. That the secessionist IT entrepreneurs/"victims" were in fact collaborating with Puigdemont to create an app to be able to process payments and votes escaping control of Spain. 538/ elperiodico.com/es/politica/20… ImageImageImageImage
Campo, the author of the #CatalanGate, fake director at Telegram, fellow at @munkschool was involved in this application meant to be used to subvert the constitutional order in Spain. Him and other victims like Jordi Baylina, Xavier Vives appear in the police investigation 539/.. ImageImageImageImage
Look at these pics as, "coincidentally" you see the precursors of the AI intelligence strategy (Torra and Angels Chacón), that police links to an operation to take control of the territory, with Elies Campo and Ganyet. What a big family that of #CatalanGate #Tsunamigate 540/ ImageImage
One of the presumed leaders of the "Catalan CNI", Miquel Montero, announces a formal complaint that will be presented in court by Puigdemont's lawyer, Gonzalo Boye. Boye is also a Citizen Lab "victim" and collaborated identifying "victims" within JxCat party. Big family! 541/ ImageImageImage
Police investigation suggests secessionist leaders/#CatalanGate "victims" were creating parallel state structures so to be able to make viable an independent Catalonia after a new attempt of unilateral secession that was to be coordinated digitally 542/...
theobjective.com/espana/2022-10…
Domingo being monitored on Court's request with a software similar to Pegasus, suspect of being the link between the fugitive leaders and the IT experts in charge of the plan seeking to digitally "disconnect" Catalonia from Spain.
543/ larazon.es/espana/2022102… ImageImageImageImage
Why did @citizenlab interfere in an investigation in Spain alerting Domingo of being monitored by police (as well as several other of those plotting a unilateral secession attempt)?
What kind of ethics committee validated this @munkschool @UofT?👉
545/.. Image
"Victims" keep on making legal complaints in courts hoping that Citizen Lab's reports would suffice. However judges are not that easy to fool and are requesting phones to be submitted for forensic examination. But they refuse to provide them, why? 446/ elnacional.cat/es/politica/ab… ImageImage
As suggested here months ago, the Vocdoni platform (on which crypto-bros/"victims" Escrich, Vives, Baylina and Campo worked), was meant to enable an independent Catalonia to vote (without Spanish control) and host a Catalan cryptocurrency 556/ elespanol.com/espana/2022102… ImageImageImageImage
Vocdoni had a shady business ownership structure. It was set in Estonia with six companies in its capital and had 8 employees. At very early stages they were already invoicing clients. In one of the invoices the contact phone was that of a 88 yo woman 557/ elconfidencial.com/espana/2022-10… ImageImageImageImage
These Vocdoni crypto-bros / @citizenlab "victims" (including Elies Campo the author of CatalanGate) travelled to Belgium to meet with the fugitive former president of Catalonia Puigdemont. They were apparently recruited by Sergi Miquel (another "victim"🤨) in the report. 558/... ImageImageImageImage
@EUparliament session on Russian interference (multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/en/webstreamin…) @jgalbalat (15:53) explains that Putin's emissary met with Puigdemont and "victim" Artadi days before the declaration of independence, when Puigdemont had in mind to call elections instead 559/ ImageImage
Phone recordings show discussions with Russians to set up a cryptocurrency payment system and a conversation right before the unilateral declaration of independence reveals a Russian offer to provide soldiers and pay Catalan debt with cryptocurrency 560/ occrp.org/en/investigati…
David Madi, another #CatalanGate "victim", has just been convicted to 14 months of prison for fraud. Although the "Voloh" investigation regarding Russian interference and misappropriation of public funding to finance Tsunami Democratic continues 561/
elmundo.es/cataluna/2022/…
New evidence revealed by @elconfidencial suggest that Torra gave direct orders to CDR radical groups to stage an assault at the Catalan Parliament and thus generate situation of chaos and civil conflict that would pave the way for secession. 562/ elconfidencial.com/espana/2022-10… ImageImageImageImage
And police investigation report concludes that some of these CDRs were creating a terrorist group with infrastructure across Catalonia. They even got videos of them about explosives. so some CatalanGate "victims" aimed to coordinate violent activities 563/
elmundo.es/espana/2022/11…
As @resd9 reminds us, one of those CDRs attempted to shoot down a police helicopter in Barcelona in 2019 and was convicted for that crime👇 elpais.com/espana/catalun…
But for @citizenlab
monitoring those planning an escalation of violence to reach secession is illegal, right? 564/
The group of people some of the "victims" of Catalangate were liaising with and presumably coordinating were apparently extremely radical, 13 are currently being investigated on terrorism charges. For instance they were testing explosives 565/
elconfidencial.com/espana/2022-11…
The AI Strategy some of the CatalanGate victims had designed for Catalonia in 2019 proposes Catalonia should acquire combat drones, anti-missiles systems and combat robots. Secessionist leaders planning the acquisition of heavy weapons? 🤔 566 ImageImageImage
That is not completely surprising as Puigdemont government had attempted to acquire military equipment such as hand grenades and submachine guns in 2017. The government vetoed as considered it unjustified. Arming themselves for unilateral secession? elconfidencial.com/espana/catalun…
567/
On Monday two members of Citizen Lab, and a group of people that have been trying to silence any critical voices with their investigation, sent to the members of the @europarl PEGA committee a defamatory letter to avoid me from testifying on the session on Spain 568/ ImageImageImageImage
Shockingly an @Europarl_EN Committee of Inquiry accepts to veto an academic researcher who is giving expert testimony, based on a defamatory letter form a group of people with vested interests on the case. Here the invitation, my acceptance and the withdrawal of invitation🤯 569/ ImageImageImage
If Citizen Lab investigation and report is so credible as they claim, why are they so desperate to silence my testimony? See earlier in this thread the several attempts of some of their colleagues to discredit me and the connection between signatories 570/ ImageImageImageImage
One of the signatories of the defamatory letter against me is also one of the persons who requested Jonathan Scott to be expelled from his PhD and who is also trying to prevent Professor Gregorio Martín to testify @EP_PegaInquiry.
571/ ImageImage
This person was recently also disseminating a blog post signed by other of the signatories of the defamatory letter to @EP_PegaInquiry in which again tried to discredit my work in a very sloppy (infantile) way. 572/ ImageImageImage
Indeed there is a disinformation campaign targeting the @EP_PegaInquiry, but as I explained to @skirchy, it is conducted by those trying to silence my testimony and the evidence I have been collecting (part of which I have been sharing on this thread) 573/
theguardian.com/world/2022/nov… ImageImage
@EURACTIV also decided to rectify the article that they had originally published following the defamatory letter from Citizen Lab and associates, after I provided evidence about my work and the previous attempts to silence me 574/ euractiv.com/section/digita…
The group of people engaged in a Trumpian campaign to discredit me and in peddling a conspiracy theory (Spain's mass espionage of Catalan civil society), based on non transparent methods and non verifiable data,
claim that this Twitter thread is a "disinformation campaign"🤔 575/ Image
A "victim" of CatalanGate investigated on corruption charges gave the "Dignity" Award to another "victim": G. Boye (lawyer of Puigdemont). Today attorney requests a 9-year sentence for him for money laundering and forgery (for a narco boss client) 576/ elconfidencial.com/espana/2022-11… ImageImage
@politico has also amended the article they published that reflected the defamatory letter by the Citizen Lab people, reflecting my views on this scandalous issue. I hope they start investigating this case.
577/
politico.eu/article/eu-spy… ImageImage
Victim/ERC politician/Vice-chair of Committee of Inquiry for Pegasus/partner of convicted (later pardoned) secessionist leader Raul Romeva, Diana Riba will participare in the next CatalanGate 2022 world tour event. Council of Europe again helping nationalist narrative? 578/ ImageImageImageImage
Ms Riba at the @coe told @PieterOmtzigt and other representatives that she had been infected twice. The first time in June 2019 coinciding with a meeting to discuss the legal defense strategy of Junqueras. Convenient, but #CatalanGate report does not recognise that infection 579/ Image
She said Spain "has a clear
interest in knowing what our political and legal strategies are...they
will use any system at any cost to get this information, they do not care if it violates any
kind of political rights, rule of law, or human rights"🤨580/ Image
Mr Riba @CEO: "I can confirm that the Catalan Government never had contact with Russia, never, and my party now are the Catalan Government".

Yesterday Terradellas confirmed in France TV Russian offer to Puigdemont of 10000 soldiers, See video 👇: theobjective.com/espana/2022-12… 581/
Apparently Antoni Comin who even testified @EP_PegaInquiry as victim of espionage didn't have his devices infected or attacked. Still Citizen Lab tries to justify potential victimhood claiming they could not analyse one device because he didn't remember his password 🤨582/ ImageImage
A group of rapporteurs of @UNHumanRights (organisation funded by the Catalan government elconfidencial.com/espana/catalun…) makes a complaint, upon request from ERC, that reproduces several errors including infection dates. Disinformation spreads. 583/ eltriangle.eu/es/2023/01/04/…
Coincidentally, ERC Government has increased the funding to this @UNHumanRights group to 490,000 euros. Money supposedly earmarked for cooperation and developing countries, ends up funding nationalist political narratives (ERC claims to be leftwing🤔) 584/ elconfidencial.com/espana/catalun…
Prof. Gregorio Martín and Jonathan Scott have just published a working paper that captures what Martín explained to the @EP_PegaInquiry committee and shows how fragile is the methodology used in the #CatalanGate report and prone to false positives: researchgate.net/publication/36…
585/ ImageImageImage
The #CatalanGate show moves to Barcelona. Secessionist parties control the Pegasus Committee and have rejected the participation in the hearings of any expert questioning the work of Citizen Lab.
They have vetoed Prof. Gregorio Martín and Mr Scott 586/ eltriangle.eu/es/2023/01/20/…
Secessionist parties have "forgotten" to invite Elies Campo (better to avoid potential embarrassment) but invited many pro-independence politicians and their allies in the @EP_PegaInquiry ...587/ Image
And among the "experts" they have included Citizen Lab and their close collaborators (Amnesty Tech, EFF) and those involved in the #Catalangate campaign (Farrow, M. Borras,...) . And it seems that the connexion Citizen Lab - Snowden - Independence politicians seems confirmed 588/ ImageImage
Citizen Lab's friends continue spreading misinformation and conspiracy theories. Here they claim I have been collaborating with someone I follow on Twitter but who I have never talked to or met in my life. 😂😂😂, 589/ Image
@EP_PegaInquiry is discussing the extremely problematic draft by in't Veld. They vetoed my testimony, but rest assured the evidence against the validity of the CatalanGate report is overwhelming and the truth behind this operation will emerge shortly
590/
Another "victim" in the Catalangate report publishes a book, one who is involved in a police investigation too, for belonging presumably to a network that was planning to coordinate a take over Spanish territory to declare unilateral independence for Catalonia 591/ ImageImage
@UofT continues to conceal the information on the funding of Citizen Lab, among the few documents they released following my FIPPA request there is this contract for a webpage to illustrate the #Catalangate report: 46,900 CND to a Catalan company 592/❗
eltriangle.eu/es/2023/02/13/… ImageImageImage
Not surprisingly, the provider of services, Alex Gasulla, thanks Elies Campo (and Genis Roca). Are @UofT @munkschool so rich to pay 46,900 CND for an infographic webpage to illustrate one report? @UofTOmbuds @Varsity_Blues why did you drop the investigations on Citizen Lab? 593/ Image
Citizen Lab also thanks Gasulla's company, Domestic Data Streamers, for their (overpriced) work.
Still @UofT does not want to respond what or whether a Catalan organisation funded that extravagant service. 594/ Image
Another #CatalanGate "victim" having troubles with Spanish justice. Josep Maria Jove faces trial for embezzlement and the accusation attorney requests a six year sentence. Most "victims" were involved in police and court investigations 595/
elpais.com/espana/2023-02…
Spanish Constitutional Court has unanimously ruled that the attempts to create a "Digital Republic" using Blockchain technology to manage Catalan citizens' data, in which many of the CatalanGate "victims" were actively involved is unconstitutional, 596/ elconfidencial.com/espana/2023-02…
Another #CatalanGate "victim", involved in several corruption scandals (and presumed former member of Terra Lliure terrorist group) seems to be trying to get a diplomatic passport from his friend Colombia President Petro to escape justice 597/
elconfidencial.com/espana/catalun…
And another of the presumed victims of #CatalanGate, Mr Botran, member of @cupnacional secessionist party, here praising a Catalan fascist, totalitarian and xenophobic party, Estat Catala/Front Nacional de Catalunya, that operated in the 30's. 🤯 598/ ImageImageImageImage
@FCBarcelona chooses #Catalangate "victim" and @EP_PegaInquiry witness, lawyer Mr Van den Eynde, to defend them from the high profile accusations of sustained corruption (presumably having paid millions to a boss of Spanish referees). 599/ elmundo.es/deportes/futbo…
Citizen Lab associates, those who harass anyone who criticises its (problematic) work, have been activated once more to try to discredit me.
Remember the defamatory letter they sent to @EP_PegaInquiry to veto me? Runa is one of the signatories 600/ Image
In addition to the lack of transparency, methodological flaws, non declared conflicts of interest, @citizenlab hides behind a team of online bullies. It seems desperate.
Why are they so afraid to debate things academically?
My report 👇
researchgate.net/publication/36…
601/ #CatalanGate ImageImageImageImage
Catalan secessionist parties complain that @EP_PegaInquiry mission is not going to Barcelona to meet more "victims"/activists and parliamentary committee member/"victims"/activists

However Citizen Lab never went to Barcelona to analyse devices. 🤷‍♂️
602/

Image
Since the @EP_PegaInquiry mission is not going to Barcelona, the Pegasus Committee at the Catalan Parliament is planning to go to Madrid. An odd Committee as no "Constitutionalist" party is participating and half of those leading it are "victims"🤯/603
vilaweb.cat/noticies/arago…
Activists/victims/committee chairs sent letter to @jeroen_lenaers complaining that Government is not sending representatives to their Pegasus Committee. They forgot to mention they vetoed all critical voices and that all non-sovereignist parties abandoned it for its bias 🤷‍♂️ 604/ ImageImage
Boye, lawyer of Puigdemont (Snowden, narcos & presumed Russian spies)/"victim"/ responsible for doing triage of victims/former terrorist/etc. claims that the corruption scandal of Barcelona FC is in reality a conspiracy against Catalan secessionists 😳605/ elnacional.cat/es/opinion/clu…
Another presumed "victim" former President of Catalonia, who was banned from office (and famous for his xenophobic remarks), also wants to come to Madrid to meet the @EP_PegaInquiry.
Will "victims" be questioned about their involvement in fieldwork? 606/
vilaweb.cat/noticies/torra… Image
A serious question to the @EP_PegaInquiry:
Why are they using the term victims (of illegal espionage), rather than "presumed victims" in their Committee Inquiry Committee? Don't you need to finish your investigation before concluding Spain's guilt?🤔 607/
Why has @EP_PegaInquiry only discussed 1 hypothesis: Spain's illegal espionage? Objectivity requires several hypotheses:
What about legal monitoring ("victims" involved in criminal activities)? Espionage by other secret services due to Russian involvement? False positives? 608/ ImageImage
@SophieintVeld appealing to authority (fallacy) and ignoring the over 200 pages I presented that demonstrates the lack of rigour and impartiality of the #CatalanGate report @EP_PegaInquiry Madrid is a bit embarrassing
Report👇 researchgate.net/publication/36…
609/
vilaweb.cat/noticies/ponen… Image
@SophieintVeld seems to ignore that Deibert himself in 2017 demolished a similar report that accused Russia of espionage, for exactly the same methodological problems his #CatalanCate report displayed in 2022
Deibert 2017: justsecurity.org/35989/dhsfbi-r…

Spot the differences ⤵️ 610/ Image
@EP_PegaInquiry considers Josep Maria to be a victim (not even presumed victim?), what about the charges of corruption and the seven year sentence the prosecutor is requesting in his trial? 611/ elpais.com/espana/2023-02… ImageImageImageImage
Maragall, who coined the term CatalanGate back in July 2020, claims @EP_PegaInquiry that he was spied upon . However, the #CatalanGate report itself suggests they did not find any infection or even suspect Pegasus SMS. He doesn't want to get his phone checked at court 612/ ImageImageImageImage
After the @EP_PegaInquiry secessionist leaders give a Press conference. Interestingly enough Marta Vilalta (ERC) speaks for ERC. She was part of the team that worked in the scandal in July 2020, according to Roger Torrent book. 613/
elnacional.cat/ca/politica/in… ImageImageImage
@SophieintVeld claims "the accusations of partiality against Citizen Lab have been refuted", Really? How? When? She has my report; researchgate.net/publication/36… and none of the issues raised has been addressed yet.
Serious accusations must be sustained on evidence, not on faith. 614/ Image
We knew Citizen Lab was helping WhatsApp/Facebook, Apple, and Google. Now they are also defending Tik Tok.
Is there any (intrusive-data collecting) #BigTech they do not support?
Weren't they supposed to keep at check these companies to prevent abuses of privacy? 🤔 615/ ImageImage
Unsurprisingly, @UofT @munkschool refuse to share the names of Citizen Lab's funding sources Why? Anything to hide? Not even upon FIPPA request. And Citizen Lab income has increased more two-fold since 2020. Refusal to reveal existing agreements with Big Techs. 616/ Image
If anyone hadn't realised yet that one of the main goals of the #CatalanGate campaign was to request the nullity of Catalan secessionist court cases, listen to Junts speaker at the Congress on the presumed espionage to Gonzalo Boye (who is being tried on money laundering) 617/ twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
Today @elpaiscatalunya publishes an embarrasing video, where Gil, the journalist who based on 5 leaked names helped manufacture the Pegasus scandal in 2020, insists that Pegasus was used to spy on the lawyers of the secessionist leaders condemned 618/ elpais.com/espana/catalun… Image
Before being appointed rapporteur at @EP_PegaInquiry, Ms In't Veld already appeared convinced of the outcome of the investigation. When appointed she spoke of leaving "no stone unturned". Now she vetoes testimonies and turns blind eye to evidence contradicting her narrative. 619/ ImageImage
"Victim" Miriam Nogueira gives another unbelieve version of how they discovered she was infected. She claims it was in 2019 (although CL says they are unable to provide any date). She had her phone regularly checked but with negative results, ... 620/ vilaweb.cat/noticies/entre… Image
...until another person infected (Elies Campo?) told her that strange things were happening and suggested her to have it checked again. And then she got her phone checked and the result was positive... 🤔
Is @EP_PegaInquiry taking note of all these contradictory accounts? 620/ Image
A video with an interview with Mr Oriol Tortuella, director of Catalan Cybersecurity Agency that shows that Ronald Deibert provided a false statement in his formal reply to @RenewEurope EMPs. He also requested @LaVanguardia to withdraw an article that revealed the same fact. 620/ twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
Deibert complains of Spain's lack of transparency and accountability, while Citizen Lab refuses to share information on:
-Who conducted the analysis
-When
-How
-How many decives
-Where
-Citizen Lab's sources of income
-Agreements with big techs
-Etc.
/621 ImageImageImageImage
Ms Riba caught lying @coe as she claimed she was infected twice (only once according to #CatalanGate report) and refusing contacts of Catalan Government with Russia, has now found an "impartial" expert (who?) that found a second infection. Convenient 622/ vilaweb.cat/noticies/entre… ImageImageImageImage
Ms Paluzie has also contracted other experts (who?) who have conveniently found new infections in her phone for a period not covered by the court authorisation.
Can anyone seriously believe that a court could consider that valid forensic evidence? 623/ vilaweb.cat/noticies/elise… ImageImage
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it"

Campo, author of @citizenlab #Catalangate report , continues to present himself as former @telegram employee.

But you need to trust him handling the forensic evidence 🤔 624/ ImageImageImage
Today at @EP_PegaInquiry, while the Spanish representative of the Defence Committee was speaking, Sophie In´t Veld was chatting with Catalan secessionist EMPs and "victims". She does not want to listen to academics who criticise the #Catalangate report but... 625/
Then, Puigdemont goes and chats with Jeroen Lenaers before leaving, while Int'Veld talks to "victims" Riba and Solé. None of them show up when I presented my report, with over 200 pages relevant to the case (except Puigdemont's aid). Objective and impartial investigation? 625/
"Victim" Clara Ponsati, escaped from justice since 2017, comes back to Spain accompanied by journalists and walks in the streets of Barcelona with her lawyer and "victim" G.Boye. Posing and posting pictures before she is arrested by Catalan police. #Catalangate the show 626/ ImageImage
No Oscar award in sight for Ponsati. She is pretending to be surprised and resist when she was arrested, although she was completely surrounded by journalists and reporters she had summoned precisely to capture the moment of the arrest.
625/
Nobody seems to care, except for the journalists they had called to capture the drama and repression. The police officer was very professional. Zero epic. Poor performance. 626/
Another spyware "caught in the wild" by Amnesty/Citizen Lab "hunters" consortium. After the lawsuit of WhatsApp and Apple, is Google's the next one?
Btw, Deibert insisted twice that vendor located in Spain. Indeed, in Barcelona, Catalonia. 627/ ImageImage
Very well coordinated network! They all campaign together for banning commercial spyware (what are countries without capabilities to build their own monitoring software supposed to do to to fight terrorism and organised crime?), and many invited to testify @EP_PegaInquiry 628/ ImageImageImageImage
Indeed, Variston should be investigated, but @SophieintVeld should have asked Pere Aragonés or Catalan MPs (who were all interviewed last week @EP_PegaInquiry). This is a company set by a German citizen in Barcelona. Catalan Government has autonomy and a police to do it.🤷‍♂️ 629/ ImageImageImageImage
Laura Borras sentenced to 4½ years of prison on corruption charges.
How long will @citizenlab and @EP_PegaInquiry refer to those involved in criminal activities and investigated with court authorisation as "victims of illegal espionage"?630/
elpais.com/espana/catalun…
Here the expert that the #CatalanGate politicians have hired to confirm the cases of infection (without having to give the phones to judges) and find new infections (to nullify court cases).
He claims 90% of phones analysed were infected 🤔🤔🤔 631/

parlament.cat/ext/f?p=700:DI… Image
He admits that they base their technique on that of Citizen Lab and Amnesty, so no wonder they get similar results.
He suggests they have also worked in the past with Citizen Lab.
632/
Very interestingly this expert admits that the report of Citizen Lab would not serve as evidentiary basis for a court, as they do not document chain of custody.
He (wrongly) seems to assume that in scientific research chain of custody or lack of transparency is fine. @UofT? 633/ Image
More important this "independent expert", admits that although they were hired formally after the 2020 analyses that led to the articles about Torrent, he admits that they had been contacted before 🤯🤯🤯. Remember Torrent claims that he learnt about attacks from journalists 634/ Image
@Nmartinblanco asked twice about Campo involvement in Tsunami Democratic without. response.

Campo continues to insist that he was employed in @telegram

Btw the chair of the Committee (and "victim") Mr Jove faces a potential 7 years sentence (on corruption charges) 635/ ImageImageImageImage
The degree of rigour and objectivity regarding Spanish affairs of one of the #CatalanGate actors:
Amnesty International quotes a famous parody account @elmundotoday as source and accuse PM @sanchezcastejon of poor record of Human Rights 😂😂😂 /636
ImageImage
While Citizen Lab and associates are trying to convince @EP_PegaInquiry that the governments of Spain, Greece, Poland, etc are the great threat for human rights in Europe. Russia's cyber-warfare capabilities are growing.
No reports on Sandworm? 🤔637/
theguardian.com/technology/202…
Let me go back to the session of the Pegasus Committee in the Catalan Parliament yesterday. So many interesting things were said with so many implications...
But surprisingly this morning the video has been removed from the @parlamentcat web, why??? 638/ Image
The expert Jose Navarro, who looked very professional, made nonetheless some statements that may fool most people but not everyone. He admits Citizen Lab didn't respect the chain of custody but he claims in the analysis he and his team conducted they did, problem solved?...639/
... obviously not. If you manipulate in 2020 or 2022 a device without respecting chain of custody, then you give it back to the user, no matter how well you deal with this same device in 2023. All infections or attacks from an earlier period are potentially tainted 640/
Imagine a victim bringing to a forensic expert, a knife supposedly used in an attack against them to get fingerprints checked (no chain of custody). Then a year later they hire another expert who goes back to the victim house, takes the knife, analyse it, ... 641/
...and he finds some new fingerprints. This expert goes to court claiming that he is providing evidence that respects chain of custody (omitting that between the presumed crime and his analysis the knife has been in possession of the presumed victim)...
Seriously Mr Navarro❗642/
Mr Navarro also admits that there is no solid proof of authorship of the presumed infections, while he defends Citizen Lab #Catalangate report that precisely accuses Spanish Government of large scale espionage (without any solid incriminatory evidence)... 643/
After admitting they have worked with Citizen Lab and Amnesty, he justifies the lack of documentation of the methodology and absence of chain of custody in report by saying that it is a scientific report, not a report for court. As if in science transparency was not required 644/
As I've denounced for months, it is becoming increasingly clear that Citizen Lab's work appears to be a key element in the Big Techs campaign to deviate the attention towards states and dodge responsibilities on the #CyberSecurity mismanagement 645/
support.apple.com/en-hk/HT212960 ImageImage
🚨 National High Court attributes to several #Catalangate "victims" the organisation of Tsunami Democratic platform and the planning of riots (hundreds of cases of violence triggered), including Rovira, Vendrell and Gabriel. Cc: @UofT @EP_PegaInquiry 646/
elconfidencial.com/espana/2023-04…
...as explained in the report some members of @EP_PegaInquiry want to ignore/silence, #CatalanGate is basically a disinformation operation to turn into "victims" politicians that were investigated for Tsunami Democratic and contacts with Russia. 647/
researchgate.net/publication/36… ImageImage
Police intercepted coded messages by Puigdemont where he assumed that some people may die in the riots and blockades organised by Tsunami Democratic. Finally, "only" a French citizen died of a heart attack in the blockade of Prat Airport ... 648/
elconfidencial.com/espana/2023-04… ImageImage
Police investigation shows that #CatalanGate "victim" Miquel led "victims" Baylina, Escrich and Campo (who is the author of the report and currently employee of Citizen Lab @munkschool) in the work related to Tsunami Democratic. "Victim" Alay also involved @EP_PegaInquiry...649/ ImageImage
Police investigations also attribute a core role in the organisation of Tsunami Democratic to #CatalanGate "victim" Vendrell. Remember that over 500 violent episodes where documented in just one week and millions of losses due to the sabotages, but...650/

theobjective.com/espana/tribuna… ImageImage
An important fact that may have escaped @EP_PegaInquiry and Citizen Lab (@munkschool @UofT) when attributing Vendrell the role of "victims" is that in 2018 he was caught by police in a private conversation referring to Russian involvement, and worse... 651 ImageImageImageImage
Vendrell and Terradellas were regretting not having blocked with mass mobilisations key institutions and infrastructures in 2017, to provoke a violent response from Spain and casualties 🤯
It seems Tsunami Democratic was precisely an attempt to do it 🤬
Vendrell the victim? 652/ ImageImageImageImage
@elperiodico publishes a chronology of #TsunamiDemocratic based on police sources. Most of those attending the meeting that decided its launch are all declared "victims" by the #CatalanGate report. How much did cost turning perpetrators to victims? 652/
elperiodico.com/es/politica/20… ImageImage
Nationalist press diverts the attention away from the serious responsibilities of those involved in Tsunami Democratic. Today @diariARA published an article praising Vocdoni, without mentioning the fact that its funders are under police investigation 653/ emprenem.ara.cat/empreses/vocdo… ImageImageImageImage
The IT people investigated for their participation in the plan of creating a Catalan Republic (out of Spanish control) are termed as #CatalanGate victims by Citizen Lab and the surrounding propaganda campaign. Trying to make society forget Tsunami and linked serious crimes?
654/ ImageImage
CatalanGate "victims" directly involved in exchanges with Russian secret services are more reluctant to present a formal complaint in court for "espionage". Afraid that the judges would request their phones?
eltriangle.eu/es/2023/04/17/…
655/...
Pro-independence Vilaweb publishes an article complaining that most court trials in the #CatalanGate are not progressing. Most judges find no evidence of espionage...
But why are "victims" refusing to share their phones (prove of crime) with Courts? 656/
vilaweb.cat/noticies/embol… Image
When Barcelona Court accepted lawyer Van den Eynde's appeal to question CNI. This was cheered as an achievement because they managed to pass as proxy of evidence CitizenLab's and hired experts testimony without having to provide phones to court 657/
vilaweb.cat/noticies/catal… ImageImage
The same person that made up a second Pegasus infection in a public hearing at the Council of Europe, who claimed Catalan Government never met Russian emmissaries and who is key actor in the #CatalanGate disinformation campaign, here pledges to fight against disinformation. 658/ ImageImage
While experts in #cybersecurity warns of an alarming increase in cyberwarfare capabilities by Russia and plans to disrupt democracies, Citizen Lab and their friends (Amnesty, Snowden, etc) are in campaign to sue & demonise EU states security services 658/ theguardian.com/technology/202…
The growing cybersecurity threat from Russia and China is such that the coalition government of @SophieintVeld and @jeroen_lenaers parties has just passed a law to give additional powers to Dutch security services, and yet... 659/ npostart.nl/nieuwsuur/17-0…
mensenrechten.nl/actueel/nieuws… ImageImage
...@EP_PegaInquiry assumes that the security services of Spain and other EU member states are guilty of engaging in illicit espionage based on Citizen Lab's ludicrous "circunstancial evidence". These double standards suggest a "orientalist" stance towards less rich MS. 660/ ImageImage
Meanwhile in Spain, nationalist parties keep on expanding the #CatalanGate story by adding new wtf elements. Here they claim that the Spanish government shared with Morocco Pegasus, but then Morocco used it to spy on the Spanish government 🤔 661/ elnacional.cat/es/politica/in… ImageImage
Given the lack of methodological rigour in the analyses by Citizen Lab, the strategy of #CatalanGate "victims" to avoid sharing phones with Courts is to provide other alternative confirmatory experts analyses but...662/
vilaweb.cat/noticies/audie… ImageImage
These analyses were conducted by Mr Navarro who not only uses a methodology based on Citizen Lab and Amnesty's one, but also recognised to have worked with them in the past and to have been contacted (and later hired) by secessionist parties in 2020. 663/ parlament.cat/ext/f?p=700:15… ImageImage
Once more they are making quite clear their intention to make coincide infections dates with meeting regarding legal defense of Catalan secessionist condemned like Cuixart or Junqueras. Thanks to new analyses they are tweaking the dates hoping to get the nullity of trials 664/ Image
Although Jose Navarro in his podcast warns us that most of the cases of suspect spyware infections end up being false positives, he seems not to have found odd that over 90% of the telephones provided by the independence leaders were infected enelpasillodeljuzgado.buzzsprout.com/1894171/105409… ...665/
Well, not surprising given that apparently they used as indicators of compromise of Pegasus infections the list of "suspicious" websites by Amnesty, probably provided by Citizen Lab themselves. So they checked that the phones contained the IOCs found by Citizen Lab, right?🤦‍♂️ 666/
Today G. Boye declared @EP_PegaInquiry as " victim" of espionage. @SophieintVeld failed to ask how the one Pegasus infection found by Citizen Lab has now turned into two of them. And conveniently, one now coincides with defense meetings with lawyers 667/ ImageImageImage
@SophieintVeld has also forgot to ask if the fact that Boye was investigated for money laundering for a narco boss, his contacts with Kremlin emissaries or participation in Tsunami Democratic could be the reason for the surveillance he was presumably subject to, and ...668/.. ImageImageImageImage
...@SophieintVeld also forgot to ask why is Boye so adamant about not letting Spanish courts examine the telephone which is supposed to be the sole evidence of the crime he claims to be victim of. Isn't it customary in other countries to get forensic analyses in court? 669/ ImageImage
I want to also let @rozathun know that what Boye said today about him being the only one requested by court to provide his devices is not true. A minimum of 7 #CatalanGate victims have been requested to provide as evidence in court the phones, all of them have refused. Why? 670/ ImageImage
Mr Navarro, the expert they hired to avoid giving their phones in court, will have to find a second infection on Boye's phone, fitting the date of the meetings so that they can later attempt to undermine or request the nullity of the cases against Puigdemont, Ponsati, Comin 671/ ImageImageImage
Today, Meritxell Serret another #CatalanGate "victim" condemned by a Catalan Supreme Court on disobedience charges. She won't be able to hold public office for a year. Last year she was cheering @SophieintVeld @EP_PegaInquiry draft report 672/ elpais.com/espana/catalun… ImageImage
Out of the 65 #CatalanGate "victims" is there any one who was really a victim? Anyone being monitored illegally? Anyone not involved in illegal actions? How many criminals you need in a network to consider it a criminal network? @EP_PegaInquiry @UofT @munkschool 673/
While @EP_Democracy of @europarl votes to expand the investigation on Russian disinformation campaign at the EU (including in Catalonia), @EP_PegaInquiry seems to be trying to bury all evidence that connects #Catalangate "victims" with such campaign 674/
ImageImageImage
It seems that #CatalanGate "victims" Puigdemont, Ponsati and Comin feel embarrassed and refuse to comment on the new investigation of Russian interference in Spain. Let's see how the @EP_PegaInquiry report deal with this proved connection.
675/
euractiv.fr/section/politi…
Another fun fact is that the list of #Catalangate "victims" in the report of Citizen Lab does not coincide with the list of "victims" in the ANC/Omnium Catalangate website. They may have messed up in the end those selected to become victims. 676/
eltriangle.eu/es/2023/04/28/…
What a joke. This time Amnesty discovers Pegasus infections and Citizen Lab does the peer review.
This mutual peer review charade by former colleagues that @UofT and @munkschool seem to be supporting is shameful and degrades social sciences 677/
#research elnuevodiario.com.do/descubren-soft…
Let's hope @EP_Democracy asks Boye the questions @EP_PegaInquiry didn't want to ask on Russian involvement. Boye is also the lawyer a of a presumed GRU asset who apparently spied on journalists and Putin's critics cc: @rozathun @jeroen_lenaers 678/...👇👇 wiadomosci.onet.pl/swiat/aresztow… ImageImageImageImage
Coincidentally another of the CatalanGate "victims", Jon Iñarritu, is the politician that has requested more vehemently and continuously that the presumed GRU agent Pablo González o Pavel Rubtsov (his Russian name) is released. 679/ ImageImageImageImage
Here there is more information about the presumed espionage on Russian opposition and dissident journalists. Apparently Gonzalez/Rubtsov had very good contacts among Moscow-backed separatists groups in different countries. 680/
elmundo.es/internacional/…
680/
Worth reminding @EP_PegaInquiry that Boye is also the lawyer of pro-Russian blogger Anatoli Shariy who was arrested last year under request of Ukraine 20minutos.es/noticia/499545…
And that @OCCRP revealed the connections of Boye and Alay with Kremlin occrp.org/en/investigati…
681/ ImageImage
And that Boye is former lawyer and apparently friend of Snowden (who coincidentally is also very close to Citizen Lab-Amnesty network).
How much evidence on the connection with Russian disinformation and destabilisation campaign in Europe can @EP_PegaInquiry ignore?
🙈🙉🙊 682/ Image
Here is the report by Agentstvo you can read in English on Gonzalo Boye's client.
Is @EP_PegaInquiry still considering that Spain had no reason to monitor the #catalangate activists linked to Russia or that only Spain could be interested in it?
683/
agents.media/gonzalez/
It is also important to remind the role that Snowden presumably played on the disinformation campaign orchestrated by Russia around the Catalan illegal referendum of independence in 2017 👇 google.com/amp/s/amp.smh.…
Here some tweets he later erased 684/ ImageImageImage
There seems to be a growing split between Junts and ERC "victims". The latter, who cynically used the Russian connection of the former, fear now payback as they are involved in 5 court investigations that will examine their role in #TsunamiDemocratic. 685/
eltriangle.eu/es/2023/05/04/…
For those who read Catalan here the story further developed. Great work by @El_Triangle btw 686/ ImageImageImage
The #CatalanGate show has released a new episode that you can watch here:
parlament.cat/web/index.html
As usually, there are lots of crazy contradictions. Judges studying the case should watch the video 687/ ImageImage
ANC president states @SophieintVeld told them that they should not give the telephones to Spanish justice as it would be dangerous. Is it normal that the rapporteur of @EP_PegaInquiry adivices EU citizens not to collaborate with legal investigations? Cc: @dreynders /688 Image
The president of Omnium also refers to @SophieintVeld as a way to ignore the many and obvious pitfalls in Citizen Lab methodology and the contradictions in the testimonies. Apparently she claimed that "Spain is the only country where the work of citizen lab is questioned"...689/
The fact that @SophieintVeld is turning blind eye to the many documents that demonstrate clear methodological and ethical problems in the #Catalangate investigation does not dispel the many valid criticisms that have not been countered yet @EP_PegaInquiry should investigate 690/
As many other speakers in this and other committees, Omnium president based most of his intervention in explaining that the espionage took place on the days that the victims were working in legal defense for several cour cases. 691/ Image
When asked whether they were trying to achieve the nullity of the court cases, Feliu, the president of ANC said yes. 🚨🚨🚨(Min: 1:54)parlament.cat/ext/f?p=700:DI…
There was little doubt about this but it has been now openly admitted in today's session 692/ Image
I would remind that the idea of using the presumed "illegal espionage" to claim that there is a breach of defendants rights in the court trials related to the secession attempt in 2017 and the other operations/cases such as Tsunami, Voloh, has been constant 693/ Image
My report has a chapter where you can find examples that show the clear intention of using the presumed Pegasus infections as justificarion to request the nullity of trials.
researchgate.net/publication/36….
Also the speaker of Junts stresses the same idea 694/
The fabrication of court evidence is a serious crime. Citizen Lab has changed dates of infections to make them fit legal meetings and Evidentia SL has discover new infections that coincidentally also fit legal defense meetings. Not sure they are aware of the implications.
695/ ImageImage
The presidents of Omnium and ANC also help confirm that the Pegasus scandal in 2020 was a manipulation. They claim that it is not possible to detect Pegasus infections in Android devices. Why did El Pais and Guardian run the story if Torrent had an Android phone? 696/ ImageImage
The chair of this committee, Jove, is a "victim" and investigated in a corruption case. Junts speaker Rius, also a "victim" and linked to the launch of Tsunami in Switzerland. ERC speaker Wasenberg (Konan) is investigated by his role in Tsunami.
Investigation committee???
697/ ImageImageImageImage
Feliu, following Jordi Sanchez video statement has spoken about espionage starting in 2015. It is fair to remind them that Pegasus was first discovered in 2016 and I doubt Citizen Lab or any organisation has claimed to have discovered their infections in 2015 698/ Image
It is noteworthy the constant references to the same organisations as a way to legitimise claims. Since no solid evidence has been found they rely on the status and reputation others they are very connected with 699/
In addition to Citizen Lab and Amnesty, now they add the references to the Arbitrary detention group of UN (who they have been funding for years), to Evidentia SL (who they have hired), and now to the report by the @EP_PegaInquiry that is not public yet 700/ ImageImage
Today it was claimed Evidentia SL found infections that had escaped Citizen Lab because they use a different method to detect Pegasus.
This is quite surprising as Jose Navarro from Evidentia recently suggested they follow a similar approach to Amnesty/Citizen Lab's 701/
Is @EP_PegaInquiry @europarl supposed to ignore all evidence provided showing gross methodological and ethical problems, institutional manipulation, untruthful statements, etc, and consider Spain guilty without any solid proof, just because it suits the agenda of some EMPs? 702/
This evening the @EP_PegaInquiry votes the amendments and recommendations of the report on #Pegasus.
It is worth reminding that the draft report was so weak that there are more than 800 amendments proposed. 🤦‍♂️ 703/ ImageImage
Today @EP_PegaInquiry votes an embarrassing report that contains not only factual mistakes, like including Antoni Comin as "victim" of espionage (error in Citizen LAB report), but... 704/ Image
Also a reference to a date of infection of Lawyer Van den that was changed secretly after the publication of report so that if coincided with some legal meetings he had.
Fabrication of evidence intended to alter the course of justice is a crime. 705/ ImageImageImage
There are also straight made up things. Like that illegal espionage against Catalan citizens started in 2015. This is just a distorted interpretation of a Citizen Lab's report that expressed suspicion of use of FinFisher in Spain, with no reference to Catalonia or authorship 706/ ImageImage
There are also ludicrous statements that demonstrate the bias of the report.
Although Citizen LAB was unable to determine infection dates for lawyer Alonso Cuevillas, @EP_PegaInquiry draft claims that it happened while representing relevant Catalan personalities, really 🤔? 707/ ImageImage
In the final report and press release @EP_PegaInquiry has been more careful and has left out some of the baseless accusations made by secessionist politicians and Citizen Lab @UofT @munkschool during the #Catalangate disinformation campaign 708/
europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-…
Actually the suggestion of an EU Tech Lab is the best thing that has come out of @EP_PegaInquiry. The EU cannot rely on unscrupulous researchers with dubious political and economic interests, who act as bounty hunters working for big techs, without a minimal accountability 709/ ImageImage
The EU should develop its own capacity to detect cases of illegal espionage and data abuse by states and big corporations. Reaching autonomy in terms of cybersecurity should be a top priority for the EU in the context of growing cyberwarfare threats, from Russia, China, etc. 710/
Breaking the oligopoly in spyware forensics that Citizen Lab, Amnesty Tech and their satellite organisations and activists try to impose in this sector could be an excellent byproduct of this EU Tech Lab. Please bring some rigour, transparency and ethics to this sector. 711/
ElNational.cat, one of the main sources for Spain's section in @SophieintVeld draft report, shares Puigdemont's anger with the final results. The journalist does not understand the difference between the EP and the European Commission 🤦‍♂️712/
elnacional.cat/es/politica/eu… ImageImage
No doubt the goal of the secessionist camp was getting a @EP_PegaInquiry report they could use to impact court cases, lawyer/"victim" Van den Eynde (who got modified his infections dates changed to fit dates of legal meetings) makes it clear here 713/ elnacional.cat/es/politica/bo… ImageImageImage
Given that they didn't manage to get all they wanted in the @EP_PegaInquiry report, now the secessionist propaganda machinery tries to make believe that the report proves that Spain spied illegally the lawyers and others involved in the defense 714/ ara.cat/politica/proce… Image
... of the Catalan nationalist politicians & activists investigated for corruption, disobedience, organisation of Tsunami and conspiring with Russia. It seems that secessionist spin doctors have decided that the message is that @EP_PegaInquiry assumes the illegal espionage 715/ Image
Eventia SL and Jose Navarro Hernandez may be about to get into serious legal troubles. "Finding" the infections that Citizen Lab didn't find but that the independence lawyers and activists made up and needed to "coincide" with legal meetings to request nullity of cases?🤔 716/ ImageImageImageImage
Evidentia should explain how they find normal that more than 90% of the devices they analysed for Pegasus were infected, when one year ago in their podcast they suggested that most of devices suspected of spyware being infected are false positives 718/
enelpasillodeljuzgado.buzzsprout.com/1894171/105409…
Evidentia should explain how in less than a year since their podcast they have become such experts in Pegasus, that they detect now many infections that Citizen Lab could not at a time closer that of the presume infection. 719/
Evidentia should tell us the exact date they were contacted by pro independence parties in 2020 regarding Pegasus, as Jose Navarro suggested at the Pegasus committee at the Govern that they knew about it before it became a scandal back then. 720/
Evidentia should explain how on earth they claim that they have respected the chain of custody of the devices analyses, when the chain of custody was long broken at the time of Citizen Lab investigations and evidence could have been planted many times in all these devices 721/
There is no proof of manipulation of elections but Int Veld claims there should be no doubt. Lenaers admits there is no hard evidence of Morocco's authorship but they have information. Did the @EP_PegaInquiry turn into a faith-based policy making tool?722/ multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/en/webstreamin… Image
@parlamentcat seems to have removed the video with the testimonies of Navarro and Campo that were very problematic for the interests of the independence activists as many contradictions emerge. However they forgot to eliminate the transcripts 😃 723/
parlament.cat/document/tranc… Image
The first "fun fact": the explanation about the chain of custody. Navarro acknowledges that it was not respected by Citizen Lab and Amnesty, but claims they did, even though this had been already broken by Campo, Scott-Railton and the "victims". Time travel involved? 🤯 724/ Image
Several online newspapers refer today to the #Catalangate based strategy by independence politicians and their lawyers to instrumentalise the @EP_PegaInquiry report to interfere in court cases. For instance this one 👇...725/
theobjective.com/espana/politic…
And this other article 👇
@UofT @munkschool should start considering the reputational cost of Citizen Lab participation in this type of operations that presumably seek to interfere in the course of justice in a democratic country...726/ vozpopuli.com/espana/separat…
This article refers to the utilisation of the #Catalangate report by Russian state-owned news outlet RT and Sputnik in their campaign to destabilise Spain and the EU.
@UofTNews @munkschool 727/
eltriangle.eu/es/2023/05/10/…
#CatalanGate world tour continues. Elisenda Paluzie travels to London in a new attempt to discredit Spain using the reports by @EP_PegaInquiry and Citizen Lab @munkschool. Good luck convincing Britons of the espionage capabilities of Spain...
728/ ImageImage
Boye, noticeably angry with @EP_PegaInquiry, writes a column calling them "accomplices" of abuses and lectures them on democratic values, human rights, rule of law. He who was a terrorist imprisoned for kidnapping a person, faces trial for money laundering for a narco,etc.729/... ImageImage
@EP_PegaInquiry failed to include the full disinformation bundle (keeping just part) they tried to plant in the report, so they could use it to alter the trials of the secessionist #Catalangate "victims", despite In't Veld, efforts. How inconsiderate! 730/ elnacional.cat/es/opinion/equ…
Funny, Boye claims that this espionage is particularly problematic because it targets an "objectively identifiable group" of people.
He is right. The "victims" are an objectively identifiable group of people conspiring and acting to achieve a secession by illegal means 730/ ImageImage
What an elaborate and subtle plan to conceal the connections between Catalan secessionist leaders/#CatalanGate "victims" and Russia 🤣🤣🤣🤣 731/ ImageImageImage
"Victim" Josep M. Jove requests back a phone police took from him in 2017 as he suspects it could also be infected with Pegasus and incriminatory evidence could have been planted on it (fabricating evidence?🤔). Jove facees charges on corruption (up to 7 years) but...732/ ImageImage
...in fact police confiscated 5 telephones and 2 Moleskine notebooks to Jove 🤯
Do you know many people using 5 different telephones? What for?

& he changed the pin of the phones every 15 days 🤔

& he chairs the #Pegasus committee @parlamentcat 😱733/
europapress.es/nacional/notic… ImageImageImageImage
Citizen Lab @munkschool @UofT the presumed #spyware and cyberespionage watchdogs, have published 74 reports since last they dealt with Russian cyber-espionage (5 years ago). Many more without dealing with US cybersurveillance. Why? How do they set their "research" agenda? 744/ twitter.com/i/web/status/1… Image
The irregularities in the drafting of the @EP_PegaInquiry report are becoming increasingly clear. I am not surprised if there are complaints or even legal action against it. I have not followed the Greek case, though 745/
brusselstimes.com/eu-affairs/510…
Several of the #CatalanGate victims (Vendrell, Madi, Alay) among the leaders of Tsunami Democratic, according to police investigations. Several others implicated too.
How convenient for them that Citizen Lab decided to make them victims!
746/
ccma.cat/324/la-causa-s…
It nonetheless seems that Xavier Vendrell (former terrorist group Terra Lliure member and ERC politician) was the one calling the shots at Tsunami Democratic. 747/
cronicaglobal.elespanol.com/politica/20230…
Judicial investigations are demonstrating the links between many of the Catalan secessionist leaders (that Citizen Lab @munkschool @UofT decided to consider "victims of illegal espionage") and the Russian disinformation campaign in Europe 748/
abc.es/espana/desinfo…
Citizen Lab helped Meta/Facebook sue NSO and divert data responsibility for security breaches away from them, blaming countries instead. Meta just got a 1.2bn fine for misuse of data and privacy.
Why isn't Citizen Lab investigating Big Tech abuses? 749/ politico.eu/article/eu-hit…
It is worth noting that Citizen Lab, presumed "watchdog" fighting surveillance capitalism, shows no concern when the perpetrator is a a Big Tech like Meta.
What if the "watchdog" also investigated Big Techs?

Unfortunately, this watchdog is a close collaborator of them... 750/ ImageImageImageImage
@EP_PegaInquiry should notice the hypocrisy. Citizen Lab provides "evidence" for Meta to accuse European countries of mining data, but says nothing about the much wider surveillance capitalism operation by Meta (that sells data to spies too) A watchdog on a leash? 751/ ImageImageImageImage
Very concerned with the possibility that an employee of Meta may be spied...
Not so concerned about the data of millions of EU citizens shipped overseas and sold to third parties including espionage agencies? 🤔

What kind of watchdog is #CitizenLab @UofT?

#cybersecurity 752/ ImageImageImage
#CitizenLab does not hide their collaboration with Meta, Apple, Google, etc. in what they call an "ecosystem of anti-democratic surveillance".
This ecosystem (cartel) consistently blames governments and smaller companies of #cybersecurity problems.
Big techs=good guys
753/ ImageImageImageImage
#CitizenLab diversion at play:

a) Meta is fined with 1.2 bn euros for selling private data of millions of EU citizens: CL said nothing🤐

b) Someone leaks a document that says that some Spanish representatives propose to ban end-to-end encryption: CL alarmed😲
754/ ImageImageImageImage
Citizen Lab associates/"victims" forget to mention that end-to-end encryption is a much debated issue, in addition to anonymous Spanish representatives many experts consider that it hinders security and benefits child abusers, terrorists, narcos,...755/
carnegieendowment.org/2021/03/31/enc… ImageImageImage
Who could have leaked the document to @WIRED and convinced them to focus the piece on Spain (one of the many countries requesting regulation)?🤔
Coincidentally Citizen Lab/Catalangate associates all quickly shared the news. None seemed to care about Meta scandal yesterday 756/ ImageImageImageImage
Surprising that @interiorgob and @MAECgob @desdelamoncloa pretend the @WIRED article and the document leaked does not exist. The Spanish position in that working paper is extremely controversial (regardless of the intention of those "planting" the article) 757/
#privacy Image
Today a British minister also spoke against end-to-end encryption. No @WIRED article about the UK @MORGANMEAKER? (this was a public statement from a government member not an internal working paper). 758/
bbc.com/news/technolog…
The modus operandi of this "academic watchdog": not only #citizenlab has refused to engage in open discussion about the ethical and methodological issues raised, but they send defamatory letters to journalists and rely on anonymous account to harass and cancel critics 759/ ImageImageImage
#CitizenLab has tried to sabotage public hearings of critics @EP_PegaInquiry. Meanwhile
The henchmen of the cartel obediently retweet and like the defamatory messages coming from anonymous accounts. Some of them at least have the decency to show their names. 760/ ImageImageImageImage
Police investigations attributes a very important role to Oriol Soler in the launch and coordination of Tsunami Democratic (also in making Assange a supporter of Catalan secessionist). Isn't Oriol Soler one of the anonymous "victims" of espionage? 761/
eltriangle.eu/es/2023/05/25/…
Remember how I exposed that most secessionist leaders / #Catalangate "victims" had all quoted the Tweet message in which #TsunamiDemocratic announced operations? 762/
It seems that police investigations found that the tweets of Puigdemont and other political figures were coordinated by the organisers of Tsunami Democratic. 763/ ImageImageImage
Citizen Lab network is a well-oiled machine. Citizen Lab publishes a note about a presumed Pegasus espionage in Armenia. Nobody has the possibility of double checking the validity of the findings but all major newspaper publish the same story immediately. #journalism? 764/ ImageImageImageImage
Many journalist seem to make a living out of Citizen Lab scoops. The same names writing all the stories they are fed, zero scrutiny. They also refuse to publish stories contradicting Citizen Lab. A sort of faith-based clientelism in #infosec journalism? /765
NSO Group probably deserves the criticisms. They have done nothing to defend any of the actors accused of spying illegally or to question Citizen Lab methods.

But #journalism does not deserve the fanboy stance of these journalists/activists who care little about facts.
/766
ERC "victims" including @EP_PegaInquiry Diana Riba use #Catalangate to make a show on local elections campaign. Her partner Romeva (with a new job after prison and presidential pardon) "claims we are in a demophobic State craving for repression" 🤔767/
elnacional.cat/es/politica/er… ImageImage
#CitizenLab last report is published when #Armenia and #Azerbaijan are about to sign a peace agreement, mediated by Turkey, that has not pleased Putin. Accusations of #Pegasus espionage fall on to Azerbaijan government (no friend of Russia) 768/ 9to5mac.com/2023/05/25/peg… ImageImage
It is worth reminding that #CitizenLab has not investigated Russian spyware operations since 2017. More than 70 reports published since.
Why?
Very surprising given the great concern that Deibert show about #Russia back then. 769/ Image
If I call #CitizenLab "watchdog" os because Deibert loves this name and when they plant stories in the press they seem to suggest its use.
But this is a very peculiar "watchdog". Very selective in those it watches:
Russia? Nope.
US? Nope.
Big Techs? Nope.

770/ ImageImageImage
#CitizenLab is a "watchdog" good at following the scent of Israeli spyware companies and barking at some less powerful governments, but who is blind to the actions of the top offenders in cybersecurity (Russia) and surveillance capitalism (Big Techs). Watchdog on a leash? 771/ twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
Watchdog #CitizenLab didn't see any of these problems 🤔👇

They speak of "surveillance capitalism" but ...

They say dogs don't bite the hand that feeds them?
772/ ImageImageImageImage
Watchdog #CitizenLab doesn't seem to care about the potencial collaboration of Apple and NSA to spy on thousands of people.
Don't bite the hand that feed you or the guy with the Big stick...
773/
telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/…
Russian Snake has been considered as one of the greatest security threats.
Why did watchdog #citizenlab ignore it? 774/
google.com/amp/s/theconve…
...and do the journalists publishing all #CitizenLab scoops and stories ever wonder why this #cybersecurity "watchdog" ignores Russian spyware threats and Big Techs' data abuses? @skirchy @omerbenj @ronenbergman @flornrnd @AntoanetaRoussi @criticalvas @Nataliekitro #infosec
775/ ImageImageImageImage
This time things may have gone a bit too far. Isn't reporting an unverified espionage case that, can be clearly used as alibi to sabotage an ongoing peace process in a war between #Armenia and #Azerbaijan, playing with the lives of many?
@arzugeybulla any thoughts?
775/ ImageImageImageImage
No #infosec journalist ever questions the strange modus operandi of #CitizenLab/AmnestyTech?

1-A list of party opposition leaders, journalists & activists supposedly spied with #Pegasus is leaked to CitizenLab or Amnesty or directly created by them (no explanation how, why)776/ ImageImageImage
Initially CitizenLab/Amnesty justified differently how they got these lists. They claimed they scanned the internet...but at some point it seems they needed to accuse new countries such as Spain, Armenia, Hungary, El Salvador, Domenican Republic, etc)...777/ ImageImage
2-#CitizenLab/Amnesty Tech brings the list to a big tech such as WhatsApp and Apple and strongly suggest they need to take action against NSO and contact those in the list and invite them to contact Citizen Lab or Amnesty to get their phones analysed for Pegasus infections 778/..
3-Activist and opposition leaders receive notification and, following the invitation, they contact #CitizenLab/Amnesty who tells them that they need to send an authorisation to WhatsApp or Apple so that privacy rules of big techs are followed. 779/
3- Once authorised, #CitizenLab/Amnesty conduct remote forensic analyses via VPN that confirm infections or at least attacks, based on the findings of indicators of compromise (IOC, i.e., links) that they have classified as related to Pegasus/NSO. 780/
#CitizenLab/Amnesty doesn't report the ratio of positive infections or attempts among the phones they analyse this way, neither they conduct physical forensic analyses or bother to document the chain of custody of the analyses. For them it is enough to locate an IOC... 781/...
4- #CitizenLab immediately strongly suggests the "victims" to:
a) Launch legal action Vs NSO group
b) Denounce the case of espionage publicly
(No need to second analyses).
Journalists and activists are also invited to join the international campaign/network against Pegasus
782/
5- #CitizenLab/Amnesty put in touch victims with:
a) Organisations and lawyers who have already sued NSO and can help them plan the domestic communication plan to accuse the government of espionage.
b) Journalists who can help give visibility to the story internationally
783/...
6- #CitizenLab/Amnesty publishes a short report that is not peer reviewed and which findings are not replicable in which they announce a new controversial case of illegal espionage by a government on opposition leaders and civil society (based on circunstancial evidence) 784/...
7- A group of tech journalists (@skirchy @omerbenj @ronenbergman etc.) immediately publishes the story (without requesting a confirmation of the analyses or reflecting the view of accused government). @amnesty @accessnow and other NGOs in the network also publish it ...785/
8- #CitizenLab/Amnesty suggest "victims" to request that CitizenLab people act experts and provide testimony in the court cases and Parliamentary Committees investigating these Pegasus attacks they themselves discovered. 786/
9- Associates of #CitizenLab/Amnesty (e.g. Runa, troll Infosec accounts) launch campaign to silence any critical voices with reports and veto contradicting testimonies. They write to journalists, send PMs via Twitter, write defamatory letters advising to cancel critics. 787/
10-#CitizenLab/Amnesty also suggest that those involved in cases invite as independent experts to provide testimony in committees and court people very close to CitizenLab as was the case @EP_PegaInquiry (e.g. Kaye, Guarnieri, Kirchgaessner, Kanimba, Fatafta, Cohn, etc). 788/
11- #CitizenLab advises victims not to surrender their phones to court or police requesting them to conduct a confirmatory forensic analyses, and to rely on the prestige of CitizenLab and associate experts to confirm the accusations (governments institutions untrustworthy) 789/
12-In parallel #CitizenLab/Amnesty pressures Big Techs to launch court cases against NSO, arguing that:
a) CitizenLab will provide evidence and act as expert witness
b) They'll assist with Big Tech security teams to confirm attacks ...790/
c) If Big Techs act against NSO they won't be accused by #CitizenLab/Amnesty network of poor security policy and of putting at risk (avoid bad publicity)
d) They will be part of the security network against mercenary spyware (which is good marketing)...791/
e) They will be helped to spin private data security breaches as responsibility of governments and spyware companies (exonerating Big Techs from blame and from pressures coming from the network).
f) #CitizenLab network will praise publicly security fixes they implement 792/
13-Then Big Techs are suggested avenues to reward #CitizenLab/ Amnesty and their satellite organisations that help produce the evidence finding victims. One is to channel funding via Foundations (like @FordFoundation) so CitizenLab is not seen as a private contractor...793/
"Coincidentally", Deibert, alongside representatives of Amnesty and @accessnow, decides who gets the funding from Apple at @FordFoundation.
@UofT has been refusing for 11 months to release the information of #CitizenLab funding sources 🤔
There might be other similar schemes 794/ Image
14-#CitizenLab continues to present their reports as "academic" while avoiding to make any disclaimer of interests. They do not acknowledge in reports being recipient of funds from the BigTechs or other organisations they help finding spyware cases. 795/
15-Snowden and the individuals and organisations that are part of CitizenLab network use events and public interviews to warn people of how dangerous Pegasus is and to strongly recommend anyone suspecting to be victim to contact #CitizenLab/Amnesty 796/
Overall, Big Techs (Apple, Microsoft, Meta, Google) are praised and the governments with high spyware capabilities (Russia, USA, UK, Israel,...) are ignored by #CitizenLab, as if the greatest danger in terms of privacy and mass surveillance were less powerful countries. 797/

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More from @josejolivas

Jul 9, 2022
Beware, xenophobic movements do not stop at the mainstreaming of hate speech, they keep on working until hatred, contempt and exclusion are institutionalised, entrenched, taught in schools, aired in media.
Unfortunately, we have good examples of these processes in Spain 👇 🧵 1/
Catalan publicly funded radio @CatalunyaRadio has a programme where people calls and shouts "Puta Espanta" ("whore Spain"). Video:
This TV programme has been renewed for another season recently eltriangle.eu/es/2022/07/09/… 2/ Image
Around 7000 primary and secondary school teachers members of unions demonstrated against the court sentence that established that Catalan schools should teach 25% of the classes in Spanish, shouting "puta España" in the streets. Video:
larazon.es/cataluna/20220…
3/
Read 17 tweets
Jul 7, 2022
Para los que no se hayan dado cuenta de que estamos en pleno proceso de revisionismo histórico de nuestra transición y dónde se diferentes discursos se hacen dominantes en distintos ámbitos geográficos. Aquí unos resultados de una encuesta a 3000 personas en AND y CAT. Abro 🧵 1/ Image
Cabe recordar que en 1976 un 93,36% de los catalanes votaron en el Referéndum que aprobó el proyecto político de la Transición (74 % de participación).
Curioso que los medios, sistema educativo y políticos hayan conseguido convencer a muchos catalanes que esta fue un engaño. 2/ Image
Los partidos independentistas (y parte de la izquierda) están encantados de que ahora haya leyes para revisar (y denostar aún más) la transición. Que hasta hace poco fue considerada modélica por los mayores expertos en democratización. 3/ Image
Read 5 tweets
May 14, 2022
Enhorabuena a Ucrania, Reino Unido y a #Chanel. Esta última que a pesar de recibir tanto odio en febrero desde dentro de España y peticiones para que se cancelase su elección, ha demostrado que es una pedazo de artista.
#Eurovision2022
Algunas rectifican
Pero otros siguen con la matraca como el account manager del @HuffPost
Read 4 tweets
Nov 26, 2021
Para el que quiera comprender porque no hay muchas más familias solicitando que se cumpla el 25% de educación en español en Cataluña 😔
Miren este video de una madre 👇

Dura competencia para @elmundotoday: Image
El tufillo rancio nativista.... Image
Read 575 tweets
Sep 11, 2020
Catalan secessionist demonstration tonight not only they seem not to care about #Covid19, but they are also singing "Visca Terra Lliure!" (which is the name of a separatist terrorist group which operated between 1978 and 1991.
Here some more images. Nationalism is felt to kill the virus
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Read 4 tweets
Mar 16, 2020
Como evolucionará la psicosis procesista con unas cuantas semanas de encierro a domicilio?
Otro caso... Sólo llevamos un par de días pero se ve que ya hace estragos la ansiedad Image
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Read 179 tweets

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