From: Virus Guy <Virus@Guy.C0M>

Ed Snowden: Infamous Israeli Spyware 'Pegasus' Helped Kill Khashoggi

  Thu, 11/08/2018 - 17:35

Via MiddleEastMonitor.com

US whistle-blower Edward Snowden yesterday claimed that Saudi Arabia 
used Israeli spyware to target murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Addressing a conference in Tel Aviv via a video link, Snowden claimed 
that software made by an Israeli cyber intelligence firm was used by 
Saudi Arabia to track and target Khashoggi in the lead up to his murder 
on 2 October inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.

Snowden told his audience:

     ôHow do they [Saudi Arabia] know what his [Khashoggi's] plans were 
and that they needed to act against him? That knowledge came from the 
technology developed by NSO,ö Israeli business daily Globes reported.

     Snowden accused NSO of ôselling a digital burglary tool,ö adding it 
ôis not just being used for catching criminals and stopping terrorist 
attacks, not just for saving lives, but for making money [à] such a 
level of recklessness [à] actually starts costing lives,ö according to 
the Jerusalem Post.

Snowden û made famous in 2013 for leaking classified National Security 
Agency (NSA) files and exposing the extent of US surveillance û added 
that ôIsrael is routinely at the top of the US' classified threat list 
of hackers along with Russia and China [à] even though it is an allyö.

Snowden is wanted in the US for espionage, so could not travel to Tel 
Aviv to address the conference in person for fear of being handed over 
to the authorities.

The Israeli firm to which Snowden referred û NSO Group Technologies û is 
known for developing the ôPegasusö software which can be used to 
remotely infect a target's mobile phone and then relay back data 
accessed by the device. Although NSO claims that its products ôare 
licensed only to legitimate government agencies for the sole purpose of 
investigating and preventing crime and terror,ö this is not the first 
time its Pegasus software has been used by Saudi Arabia to track critics.

In October it was revealed that Saudi Arabia used Pegasus software to 
eavesdrop on 27-year-old Saudi dissident Omar Abdulaziz, a prominent 
critic of the Saudi government on social media.

The revelation was made by Canadian research group Citizen Lab, which 
found that the software had been used to hack Abdulaziz' iPhone between 
June and August of this year.  Citizen Lab's Director Ron Deibert 
explained that such actions by Saudi Arabia ôwould constitute illegal 
wiretappingö.

A separate report by Citizen Lab in September found a ôsignificant 
expansion of Pegasus usage in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) 
countries in the Middle East,ö in particular the United Arab Emirates 
(UAE), Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. Citizen Lab added that in August 2016, 
Emirati human rights activist Ahmed Mansoor was targeted with the 
Pegasus spyware.

Snowden's comments come less than a week after it emerged that Israeli 
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked the United States to stand by 
Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Salman (MBS) in the wake of the Khashoggi 
case. The revelation was made by the Washington Post , which cited 
information from US officials familiar with a series of telephone 
conversations made to Jared Kushner û senior advisor to President Donald 
Trump and Trump's son-in-law û and National Security Adviser John Bolton 
regarding the Khashoggi case. The officials told the Post that:

     In recent days, Egyptian President Abdel Fatah Al-Sisi and Israeli 
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have reached out to the Trump 
administration to express support for the crown prince, arguing that he 
is an important strategic partner in the region, said people familiar 
with the calls.

Bin Salman has come under intense scrutiny in the month since Khashoggi 
first disappeared, with many suspecting his involvement in ordering the 
brutal murder. Yet while several world leaders have shunned the crown 
prince, it is thought that Israel would suffer from any decline in Saudi 
influence in the region in light of its purportedly central role in the 
upcoming ôDeal of the Centuryö.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-11-08/ed-...
egasus-helped-kill-khashoggi
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