Saudi Arabia Bought Israeli Pegasus Spyware Used on Khashoggi for $55 Million

Saudi Arabia was offered advanced Israeli spy software by NSO Group Technologies in 2017, reports Haaretz. This is a "no-click" way to hack cellphones which apparently is allowed under the law. The target doesn't even need to click on a link to activate the breach of their phone. NSO says they follow the law and the products they sell are used to fight crime and terrorism.

_{AFP PHOTO / JACK GUEZ}

The offer was made just months before Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman began his purge of opponents. Haaretz investigated testimony, photos, as well as travel and legal documents to validate the story.

Two Saudi officials met with two representatives of NSO in 2017:

Abdullah al-Malihi, a close associate of Prince Turki al-Faisal – a former head of Saudi Arabia’s intelligence services – and another senior Saudi official, Nasser al-Qahtani, who presented himself as the deputy of the current intelligence chief.

NSO showed a PowerPoint presentations of the Pegasus 3 system's capabilities. To show it off, they asked Qahtani to go buy a new iPhone and give them the number. Then they hacked the phone.

Although Saudi Arabia and Israel have no official diplomatic relations, they have been on mutual sides of the war on Syria as a proxy to get to Iran. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has expressed support for closer ties, and seems satisfied with selling advanced technologies to Saudi Arabia in that effort to become closer allies and fight Iran.

The police received a complaint from one of the business in the deal, who named a man called "W." The original meeting in Cyprus had a proposal of $203 million for the Pegasus 3 spy software. But after the man named "W" traveled to Saudi Arabia to make the sale with NSO founder Shalev Hulio, they struck a deal to sell it for $55 million.

The business man was supposed to pocket 5%, a $2.75 million commission fee. That didn't happen, so he lodged a complaint with Israeli police, which Haaretz investigated. The deal was apparently signed in the summer of 2017 right before the Saudi regime arrested and tortured members of the royal family and businessmen who were "accused" of corruption.

NSO is making huge profits. The original founders sold the company "to private equity firm Francisco Partnersbased on a valuation of $250 million." Verint Systems later made in offer in May 2018 for $1 billion which was rejected. The original Pegasus system required a user to click on a phishing link, but the new system works without any click being required. The speaker and camera are then made available for recording.

Despite claims that the software if only used against criminals or terrorists, in "certain countries the authorities identify anti-regime activists and journalists as terrorists and subject them to surveillance."*

The hunt for regime opponents eventually led to the murder of Jamal Kashoggi that made international headlines. As Edward Snowden said in a recent teleconference interview at an Israeli conference, the Saudis knew where Khashoggi was and lured him tot the embassy because they were using Pegasus 3.

The Saudis also tracked down a regime opponent in Canada named Omar Abdulaziz, as well as Ghanem Almasrir and Yahya Asiri who live in London. They were all in contact with Khashoggi. Snowden accused NSO of being "the worst of the worst" for the aiding of human rights violations. Snowden was right all along. Like he said at the conference: "Surveillance is not about safety. Surveillance is about control." These companies and governments with access to so much data are all trying to control us.

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