© Facebook
Meta sued the NSO Group in October 2019 over its Pegasus hacking technology. Meta alleges that Pegasus allowed users to access WhatsApp servers and surveil some 1,400 individuals illegally.
In 2021 a reporting consortium investigated an NSO Group data leak (initially obtained by the Paris-based Forbidden Stories and Amnesty International) and discovered that Pegasus had been used by at least twenty authoritarian governments to spy on activists, journalists, and attorneys. Among the findings was news that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates surveilled the family of slain Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, before and after his murder.
Secretary General of Amnesty International Agnes Callamard, at the time, said:
"The Pegasus Project lays bare how NSO's spyware is a weapon of choice for repressive governments seeking to silence journalists, attack activists and crush dissent, placing countless lives in peril. These revelations blow apart any claims by NSO that such attacks are rare and down to rogue use of their technology. While the company claims its spyware is only used for legitimate criminal and terror investigations, it's clear its technology facilitates systemic abuse. They paint a picture of legitimacy, while profiting from widespread human rights violations."In court filings the NSO Group argued that it should be classified as a foreign government agent, which would grant it immunity from U.S. laws. The company is also being sued by Apple over the hacking software.
Israel government relationship
The Israeli government has well-documented connections to the company. It sold NSO the export license that enabled it to collaborate with foreign governments, despite a pledge to refrain from selling technology to countries that carry out human rights abuses. All sales of Pegasus have been approved by Israel's Defense Ministry. In 2020, then-Israeli Minister of Defense Naftali Bennett celebrated the fact that NSO had worked with the IDF to track COVID exposure in the country.
Last year the Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) published an investigation documenting how four U.S. lobbyists (Brian Finch, David Tamasi, Steve Rabinowitz, and Timothy Dickinson) had violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act by misrepresenting the Israeli government's relationship with NSO.
A statement put out by DAWN Director of Israel-Palestine Advocacy Adam Shapiro, read:
"Despite the well-documented human rights abuses committed with NSO Group's Pegasus spyware, these four lobbyists and their firms have chosen to contribute to the company's abuses by misleading public officials about its deservedly maligned reputation. Our investigation shows that the four lobbyists and NSO Group are misleading Congress, the Biden administration, and the American public by failing to register the Israeli government's control of the company in their FARA registration forms."
Biden administration sanctions
In November 2021 the U.S. Department of Commerce blacklisted the NSO Group, which prevents the company from acquiring U.S. technology. The Department said that NSO, and another Israeli company called Candiru, acted "contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States."
The Israeli government has lobbied Biden to lift these sanctions, but they have had no success. The administration had called on SCOTUS to dismiss the appeal. Last June the Justice Department told the court that, "NSO plainly is not entitled to immunity here."
You can easily triple that number (60+) to get a more accurate number of the abuse.
They only let us peep behind the curtain for something they want us to know. Been doing it for years.
No one is going to give you a real education that threatens their stranglehold on power & Babylonian Money Magic of Mammon Ra.