Macron, Prodi and the others: the excellent list in the Pegasus network

• Pegasus: from Amnesty a free software to inspect mobile phones

• Pegasus scandal, also Macron and Prodi in the list of spied on

• Pegasus.

  France opens an investigation, President Obrador is also spied in Mexico

• Media, cell phones of reporters and activists spied by governments with Pegasus software

Share

July 21, 2021

Within three days, that is, since the Washington Post and 15 other international newspapers revealed the result of a joint investigation on their pages, the list of political personalities controlled by the Israeli software Pegasus has become very long. From France to Italy, passing from South Africa and Pakistan to Mexico, a list of 50 thousand telephone numbers emerges through which the analysts and journalists responsible for the investigation were able to trace the identity of about 180 reporters; and with the passing of the days new names are being added also belonging to activists, defenders for human rights but, above all, precisely, heads of state and government.

,

, the president of South Africa Cyril

, that of Mexico

and Iraqi Baram

, the prime ministers of

,

and

and even of the king of Morocco,

: a long list that raises global alarm and reopens the issue of cybersecurity in a disruptive way. At least, it puts on the table the problem of the use made of these software, created to fight terrorism and protect states from cyber attacks. And this is what the Israeli government insists on today. Pegasus was developed by the Israeli company Nso Group. During a conference on the subject in Tel Aviv, Prime Minister

today declared that cyber attacks "represent one of the greatest threats to national security and to the whole world. We are forced to defend ourselves and for this reason we have created a National Cyber ​​Attack Defense Body to supervise our national infrastructures: water, electricity and even on private companies ". Bennet did not refer to the Nso affair. Instead, he reiterated that the cyber capabilities developed in Israel can thwart attacks that are launched by "negative countries" against third countries. "It is important that we work together to ensure general internet protection. We invite good countries around the world to join forces with us to create a global internet defense."

But a first official reaction in Israel came with the Defense Minister, Benny

: "Israel is a liberal democracy that controls the exports of cyber products according to international standards. We allow their exports only to governments and only for legitimate purposes, to fight against crime and terrorism. Countries that buy those systems must abide by the terms of sale . Now - he added, referring to the surveys published in the foreign press - we are studying the information that has appeared ". According to the daily Israel ha-Yom, the defense ministry is involved in an inter-ministerial 'team' to verify the allegations made to the NSO, to ascertain whether it has respected the limits imposed by the ministry and to verify whether its clients have actually made use of it. improper products. In light of the international sensation, the 'team', explains the newspaper,it also includes members of the National Security Council, the Mossad, the foreign ministry as well as experts in international law.

According to the Guardian (which is part of the international newspapers that conducted the investigation), it was the government of Rwanda that had the number of South African President Ramaphosa included in the list, but this fact alone is not enough to confirm that the smartphone was hacked, as analysts are keen to point out. The device should be analyzed for the presence of spyware, which allows you to extract phone numbers, private messages, photos and videos. The presence of Ramaphosa's private number in the Pegasus database comes at a delicate time for the country, which has faced a week of unrest in two eastern provinces due to the jail time of former president Jacob Zuma, sentenced to 15 months for corruption. His supporters have burned down streets and cities,looting and vandalizing public places. Two hundred dead, hundreds of arrests and thousands of soldiers mobilized. Today, the judges decided to postpone another trial against Zuma until August 10, again for corruption due to the new wave of Covid-19 and to avert new unrest.

Among the spied personalities, we said, there would also be

, as reported by the Washington Post. The name of the former Italian premier is part of the group of over 10 thousand contacts that would have been used mostly by the Moroccan intelligence against opponents and against rival Algeria. Among them also the current president of the European Council, Charles Michel, Macron, the king of Morocco and staff of the director general of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

The American newspaper reports that yesterday Prodi was contacted at the number that appears on the list. Prodi replied but declined to comment. His name could be linked to his appointment, in 2012, as UN special envoy for the Sahel. Michel, on the other hand, would have been a victim of spyware when he was still Prime Minister of Belgium. Among the 50,000 potential targets of the entire investigation there are also seven former prime ministers, who according to the investigation would have been put on the list while they were still in office: the Yemeni Ahmed Obeid bin Daghr, the Lebanese Saad Hariri, the Ugandan Ruhakana Rugunda, the French Édouard Philippe, the Kazakh Bakitzhan Sagintayev, the Algerian Noureddine Bedoui.

Morocco expressed "great astonishment" at the publication of "erroneous allegations", reports the daily. "Morocco is a state governed by the rule of law, which guarantees the secrecy of personal communications under the Constitution" was Rabat's reply.

For its part, the

, the Israeli manufacturer, defended itself by saying that the leaked list of 50,000 numbers "is a list of numbers that anyone can search for on an open source system for reasons other than surveillance via Pegasus. that a number appearing on that list is in no way indicative that that number has been selected for surveillance through Pegasus. " 

Also today, the government of Luxembourg wrote to the affiliated companies of the Nso Group present in the territory to remind that the country "applies to the letter all the obligations relating to export control and does not tolerate that operations of this type, based in Luxembourg, contribute to human rights violations ". In the letter, sent by the Foreign Minister, Jean Asselborn, "great concern" is expressed. The head of diplomacy explains that the government "is following the affair carefully", and asks the executives to "refrain from any decision that could lead to the illicit use of goods and technologies", and to "take a stand" with a response to its missive.

Meanwhile, the Paris Public Prosecutor's Office opened an investigation, while yesterday the EU justice commissioner, Diddier Reynder, announced informal investigations to shed light on the affair, which involves the Hungarian government in the EU.

A scandal. Reminiscent of the '

case

, the eye that spied on every movement, word, thought. It was the end of the 90s, when newspapers around the world revealed a spy network built in the middle of the Cold War by the USA, Great Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand; top secret bases in three continents capable of intercepting all conversations, faxes, e-mails and telexes all over the world, including Europe and Italy; very powerful computers that used artificial intelligence to extract from the billions of "any" words those considered interesting. 

The "global surveillance network known as Echelon" made headlines in a "European Parliament report" and the case began to mount. Exposed to the judiciary to find out if the wiretapping network had played a role in the mystery of Ustica and in the Moro case, investigations by the prosecutors of Rome and Milan to understand if the spying activity was legal, investigation by the Parliamentary Committee on secret services, interest also of the guarantor of privacy, who at the time was Stefano Rodotà. Institutional subjects, who explained that they had been encouraged to deal with Echelon "due to the gravity of what the mass media denounce".

The hypothesis of secret bilateral treaties was actually the only one that could explain the mystery why none of the 15 countries of the European Union, knowing they were being spied on, ever publicly denounced Echelon and asked the United States for explanations. The truth about Echelon never came out. It has never been known for certain whether it existed (and still exists) or whether it was a fantasy of writers, journalists and political activists. "Echelon has never been denied, not even unofficial. Neither from the United States nor from Great Britain. Why have these countries never denied such serious news?" said the then president of the Committee on Secret Services, Franco Frattini. The 'non-denial', for him, already had to be enough as proof. But this is perhaps another story.Which is worth remembering. (EM)