SNOWDEN: ISRAELI SPYWARE USED BY GOVERNMENTS TO PURSUE JOURNALISTS TARGETED FOR ASSASSINATIONNSA whistleblower Edward Snowden told an Israeli audience on Tuesday that surveillance software designed by an Israeli company had been used to target groups of journalists in Mexico as well as Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi who was murdered last month in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
He explained that even if some “good actors” use NSO’s surveillance software, known as Pegasus, “it is not just being used for catching criminals and stopping terrorist attacks…not just for saving lives, but for making money…such a level of recklessness…actually starts costing lives.” Pegasus is a government-exclusive “lawful intercept” spyware program that is not available to the general public or even non-state clients.
During the conference, Snowden stated that NSO’s software had been used to track Saudi journalist and U.S. resident Jamal Khashoggi prior to his murder in Istanbul last month. Snowden’s assertion comes after a report last month revealed that Israel sold Pegasus to Saudi Arabia after a series of covert meetings in the United States and the United Kingdom as part of a deal that netted Israel an estimated $250 million.
Additionally, a group of Canadian academics revealed last month that they had noted a “significant expansion of Pegasus usage” by Gulf states such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and that these governments were largely targeting dissidents and journalists living abroad. Saudi Arabia also recently came under fire for using the software to target global human rights advocacy group Amnesty International.
Snowden’s statements regarding the kingdom’s use of Pegasus to pursue Khashoggi are highly relevant given that Saudi Arabia recently tortured another dissident journalist to death in a Saudi prison. The death of Turki bin Abdulaziz al-Jasser, a Saudi dissident writer and journalist, was made public on Tuesday. Al-Jasser is alleged to have been the individual behind a Twitter account that was critical of top Saudi officials and the ruling House of Saud.
https://southfront.org/snowden-israeli- ... ssination/Beginning to make sense then...