22.07.2021
Today L’Express Editor, Nad Sivaramen, is taking notice of the dangers of spyware like “Pegasus”, exposed by an international consortium of 17 media outlets and human rights groups. We congratulate him for his clear stand against this type of spying. In fact, this Israeli company was exposed two years ago and written up by Alain Ah Vee for our REVI LALIT number 137 of July 2019. A pity Mr. Sivaramen did not read it. In our article, we accuse the Government NSS of using Israeli software, as well as the Immigration section at Plaisance. Now, it seems likely that this may well be the “Pegasus” software.
The Israelis have sold the spyware to repressive governments world-wide and it is now exposed that this has already been used to spy on well known journalists, other heads of state, and human rights and anti-government activists all over the world. So worried is Emmanuel Macron about this infringement upon France’s sovereignty and upon his privacy that today he is having a rare meeting of his “Cabinet de Defence” to see what to do about it.
It has also been reported that all mobile phones starting with a number “1” are prevented from being hacked by the spyware from in the factory. These are USA numbers. Afterwards, new versions of the spyware prevent British phones starting with number “44”, too, from being hacked. This makes the Israeli company even more suspicious: they are acting not only with the express knowledge of the Israeli State (by Israeli law on the subject of selling spy equipment abroad) but also with the patronage of the USA and its smaller partner, Britain.
Macron is right to be mad. The Canadian, Australian and New Zealand state apparatuses will also be madder than snakes because they are supposed to be in the “Five Eyes” Anglophone spy network with the US and UK – set up after World War II – and have clearly been excluded from the “pardon” given to the US and UK by the Pegasus software. So many Governments and people are mad at the Israeli State (which has to ratify software sales abroad, like the Pegasus ones) that the Israeli Cabinet has had to set up a special unit to see how to handle the fall-out. The Israeli newspaper, Haaretz on 22 July said: “NSO’s Pegasus spyware, a cyberweapon enabling state-sponsored terrorism against civil society, has outraged the world.” They also say, where Netanyahu went, when Prime Minister of Israel, the company NSO followed, and point out that specific permits have been given to the NSO to sell Pegasus spyware, thus blaming the State. The judiciary in Israel seems to have buckled and says only the government can decide such things when cases against Pegasus and the NSO have come before them.
We remind people that journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s murder was afterwards found to have been planned by means of information the Saudi Arabian State got via its “Pegasus” bought from Israel. LALIT exposed this at the time. Note that it was Khashoggi’s Canadian friend whose mobile was hacked. Now we know why: US phones, like that of Khashoggi and most of his close associates, were probably American and thus protected from any Pegasus invasion. He was assassinated in 2018.
What makes Pegasus all the more ominous is that the Israeli State has increasingly become a worse and worse bandit state. It ignores all international law. It has nuclear weapons, and refuses that they be monitored by the UN. It commits assassinations in other countries. It continues an illegal state of siege in Gaza and maintains illegal colonies in the West Bank and Jerusalem, and has built and kept an illegal wall built often upon Palestinian land. And it is an Israeli company selling this spyware to other repressive states, starting with Saudi Arabia under Prince Mohammed bin Salman, India under Modi and Hungary under Orban.
In addition, the spyware can turn on your microphone and camera and then from long-distance listen to and watch you even when you think your phone is off.
It took a consortium of 17 powerful international media outlets to come up with the details. Forbidden Stories (Paris), Washington Post, Le Monde, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Die Zeit, The Guardian, Daraj, Direkt36, Le Soir, Knack, Radio France, The Wire, Proceso, Aristegui Noticias, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, Haaretz and PBS “Frontline” together with Amnesty International.
Journalists who have been spied upon include those from well-known newspapers and outlets, including CNN, Associated Press, Voice of America, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg News, Le Monde, Financial Times and Al Jazeera.
Here is our article, published two years ago, and on our website www.lalitmauritius.org, where it is in the “Documents” section, Revi LALIT Number 137 (July-Aug 2019):
Konpayni Israelyin hak sistem WhasApp
Enn konpayni Israelyin, NSO Group Technologies, finn hak sistem aplikasyon, WhatsApp. Dan kumansman mwa Me [2019] ki WhatsApp, enn konpayni Facebook, finn dekuver ki li finn sibir enn sibertak. NSO finn itiliz enn sofwer, antiviris apel “Pegasus” pu rant andan so sistem. WhatsApp itilize par 1.5 milyar dimunn dan lemond.
Kimanyer NSO reysi fer sa kalite atak la?
Enn avoka drwa imin dan Lond finn explike kuma li ti pe gayn plizir korl depi enn nimero inkoni e dan bann drol ler, lor so WhatsApp, me kan li reponn personn pa pran, li zis sone plizir fwa lerla arete. Li ti truv sa bizar e li finn supsonn sa bann korl la. Alor li finn dimann enn grup serser, Citizen Lab, ki spesyalis dan siberatak, pu examinn so telefonn. Lerla ki zot finn al dekuver kuma so portab ti finn hak. Anfet sa bann korl la form parti enn sistem latak sofistike ki permet enn haker gayn akse tu lapel lor u portab san mem ki u bizin reponn u korl. Pegasus kapav extrer data ki deza lor u portab, tu mesaz, kontak, GPS, emel ki u finn garde. Anplis li mem kapav kree nuvo data par servi u prop mikro ek kamera lor u smartphone pu anrezistre tu seki pase ek tu bann son dan u lakaz ek dan lezalantur.
NSO, ki osi koni kuma Q Cyber Technologies, finn deklare ki so kliyan li zis bann guvernman e ki sanse zot servi so sofwer Pegasus pu konbat kriminalite ek terorism. Me anrealite servis sekre sa bann pei la itiliz Pegasus kuma enn sistem sirveyans ek inplike dan espyonaz disidan politik, aktivis drwa imin ek zurnalis dan Mexik,
Mwayin Oryan, Lazi ek Lerop. Dayer ena ka lor ka kont NSO dan lakur depi plizir lasosyassyon defans drwa imin. Amnesty ek 50 lorganizasyon finn met ka dan lakur Israel pu dimann ki revok lisans exportasyon NSO. An Desam lane dernyer [2018] Omar Abdulaziz, enn disidan Saudyin, ki viv dan Montreal, Kanada, finn met ka kont NSO dan Israel. Li pe akiz NSO finn sible so portab alepok kan li ti an kontak ar Jamal Khashoggi, ki finn asasine par azan Larabi Saudit, dan zot konsila Latirki lane dernyer. An 2017, Larabi Saudit finn aste pu 55 milyon dolar teknolozi NSO.
Li inkyetan ki National Security Service (NSS) Moris ekipe ar sofwer Israelyin ki kapav detekte laparey anrezistreman ek mikro. Anplis NSS pe servi lekipman teknolozik Israelyin pu ekut seki dimunn koze lor zot telefonn. Ena mem azan Israelyin ki poste dan seksyon imigrasyon laeropor Plaisance. Li grav e danzere ki Guvernman MSM-ML pe aste ek servi teknolozi Israel pu sistem sir veyans pei, enn Leta bandi, ki bafwe lalwa internasyonal, ki ankor pe koloniz teritwar Palestinn e so larme pe teroriz abitan Wes Bank, Gaza ek Zerizalem Est.