Washington-Sana
The American news network CNN revealed that the Israeli spying company “NCO” targeted activists, journalists and politicians through “military-grade espionage systems”, especially through the “Pegasus” program, in many countries around the world.
A network report published today stated that 37 smartphones belonging to journalists, human rights activists, executives and two women connected to the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was liquidated at his country’s embassy in Turkey, were targeted by “military-grade spy systems” licensed by an Israeli company to governments, according to an investigation. It has a consortium of media outlets, including the Washington Post.
The network indicated that these phones were "on a list of more than 50,000 numbers concentrated in" countries known to practice surveillance on their citizens.
The network pointed out that the investigation, which was carried out with the help of Amnesty International and "Forbidden Stories", a non-profit press organization based in Paris, "was able to identify more than 1,000 of these people in more than 50 countries through research and interviews on four continents."
The network indicated that "several members of Arab royal families, at least 65 CEOs, 85 human rights activists, 189 journalists, and more than 600 politicians and government officials, including ministers, diplomats, military and state security officers, and prime ministers whose names appeared on the list."
The network also pointed out that more than 15,000 numbers were in Mexico and belonged to politicians, union representatives, journalists and critics of the government, and it also found the numbers of dozens of Americans working abroad.
The New York Times had revealed that the Israeli government had granted licenses to a group of electronic surveillance and espionage companies, the Israeli “NSO” group, along with two other companies to continue working for the benefit of the Saudi regime. It also granted a new license to a fourth company in order to work with it and monitor its opponents.
She added: "The NSO Group" is responsible for developing the "Pegasus" spy program that was used by many governments to spy on and arrest human rights activists, as the company sold this program to Saudi Arabia in 2017, which in turn used it in a campaign against opponents at home and hunting down those who live abroad".
