Happy Nice Mall

The Mexican example demonstrated both the promise and the dangers of working with the NSO. In 2017, researchers at Citizen Lab, a University of Toronto-based watchdog group, reported that Mexican authorities used Pegasus to hack the accounts of soda tax advocates. part of a broader campaign targeting human rights activists, political opposition movements and journalists. What was even more disturbing was the fact that someone in the government had used Pegasus to spy on lawyers working to solve the massacre of 43 students in Iguala in 2014. Tomás Zerón de Lucio, Mexico’s chief equivalent to the FBI, was the lead author of the book. The federal government version of the event that concluded the students were killed by a local gang. But in 2016, he himself became the subject of an investigation on suspicion of covering up federal involvement in the events there. It has now emerged that he may have used Pegasus in this effort – one of his official duties was to sign the supply of cyber weapons and other equipment. In March 2019, shortly after Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who replaced Peña Nieto after a crushing election, investigators charged Zerón with torture, kidnapping and tampering with evidence in connection with the Iguala massacre. Zerón fled first to Canada and then to Israel.where he entered the country as a tourist and remains today, despite an extradition request from Mexico, which is now seeking him on additional embezzlement charges.

American reluctance sharing intelligence, creating other opportunities for the NSO and Israel. In August 2009, Panama’s new president, Ricardo Martinelli, had just come off a presidential campaign based on promises to “eliminate political corruption”, trying to persuade US diplomats in the country to give him surveillance equipment to spy on “security threats and political dissidents.” . According to a State Department cable published by WikiLeaks. “The United States will not be party to efforts to expand wiretapping to domestic political goals,” the deputy mission chief said.

Martinelli tried a different approach. In early 2010, Panama was one of six countries to support Israel at the UN General Assembly against the decision to keep the Goldstone Commission report on war crimes committed during the 2008-9 Israeli attack on Gaza on the international agenda. A week after the vote, Martinelli landed in Tel Aviv for one of his first trips outside Latin America. Panama will always stand on Israel’s side, he told Israeli president Shimon Peres, appreciating the “protection of the world’s capital, Jerusalem.” He said that he and his accompanying ministers, businessmen and leaders of the Jewish community came to Israel to learn. “We’ve come a long way, but we are very close because of Panama’s Jewish heart,” he said.

Behind closed doors, Martinelli used the trip to go on a supervised shopping spree. In a private conversation with Netanyahu, the two men discussed the military and intelligence equipment Martinelli wanted to buy from Israeli vendors. According to one person attending the meeting, Martinelli was particularly interested in the ability to hack BlackBerry’s BBM text service, which was very popular in Panama at the time.

Within two years Israel was able to offer him one of the most advanced vehicles ever built. After the installation of NSO systems in Panama City in 2012, the Martinelli government voted in favor of Israel multiple times, including against the United Nations decision to upgrade the status of the Palestinian delegation – 138 countries voted in favor of the resolution, with Israel alone. . , Panama and seven other countries that oppose it.

The equipment was used in a widespread campaign to “violate the privacy of Panamanians and non-Panamanians” – political dissidents, judges, union leaders, business rivals – all “without following legal procedure,” according to a later legal statement by Panama National Security Council analyst Ismael Pitti. . Prosecutors later said: Martinelli even ordered the team that runs Pegasus to hack his mistress’s phone. It all came to an end in 2014 when Martinelli was succeeded by vice president Juan Carlos Varela, who claimed he was the target of Martinelli’s espionage. Martinelli’s subordinates broke up the espionage system, and the former president fled the country. (In November, he was acquitted of wiretapping charges by the Panamanian courts.)

NSO was doubling its sales every year – $15 million, $30 million, $60 million. This growth attracted the attention of investors. In 2014, Francisco Partners, a US-based global investment firm, paid $130 million for 70 percent of NSO’s shares, then combined it with their new acquisition of another Israeli cyberweapon firm called Circles. Founded by a former senior AMAN officer, Circles has given customers access to a vulnerability that allows them to locate any mobile phone in the world – a vulnerability discovered by Israeli intelligence 10 years ago. The combined company can offer more services to more customers than ever before.