enhanced_deficit
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- Mar 17, 2013
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As AP sting found, spies Not much talk about this in MSM, excerpts from AP report:
AP Exclusive: Undercover spy exposed in NYC was 1 of many
By RAPHAEL SATTERyesterday
LONDON (AP) — When mysterious operatives lured two cybersecurity researchers to meetings at luxury hotels over the past two months, it was an apparent bid to discredit their research about an Israeli company that makes smartphone hacking technology used by some governments to spy on their citizens. The Associated Press has now learned of similar undercover efforts targeting at least four other individuals who have raised questions about the use of the Israeli firm’s spyware.
The four others targeted by operatives include three lawyers involved in related lawsuits in Israel and Cyprus alleging that the company, the NSO Group, sold its spyware to governments with questionable human rights records. The fourth is a London-based journalist who has covered the litigation. Two of them — the journalist and a Cyprus-based lawyer — were secretly recorded meeting the undercover operatives; footage of them was broadcast on Israeli television just as the AP was preparing to publish this story.
All six of the people who were targeted said they believe the operatives were part of a coordinated effort to discredit them.
“There’s somebody who’s really interested in sabotaging the case,” said one of the targets, Mazen Masri, who teaches at City University, London and is advising the plaintiffs’ attorney in the case in Israel.
Masri said the operatives were “looking for dirt and irrelevant information about people involved.”
The details of these covert efforts offer a glimpse into the sometimes shadowy world of private investigators, which includes some operatives who go beyond gathering information and instead act as provocateurs. The targets told the AP that the covert agents tried to goad them into making racist and anti-Israel remarks or revealing sensitive information about their work in connection with the lawsuits.
NSO has previously said it has nothing to do with the undercover efforts “either directly or indirectly.” It did not return repeated messages asking about the new targets identified by the AP. American private equity firm Francisco Partners, which owns NSO, did not return a message from the AP seeking comment.
The undercover operatives’ activities might never have been made public had it not been for two researchers who work at Citizen Lab, an internet watchdog group that is based out of the University of Toronto’s Munk School.
Who hired the undercover agents remains unclear, but their operational and digital fingerprints suggest they are linked.
The six operatives all began approaching their targets around the same time with individually tailored pitches. Their bogus websites followed the same patterns; all of them were hosted on Namecheap and many were bought at auction from GoDaddy and used the Israeli web design platform Wix. The formatting of the websites was similar; in at least two instances — MGP and Lyndon Partners — it was identical. Even the operatives’ email signatures were the same — consisting of three neatly packed, colorful lines consisting of a phone number, web address and email.
An Israeli television channel, Channel 12, broadcast a report on Saturday claiming that an Israeli private investigation firm, Black Cube, had been investigating issues around the lawsuits against NSO. The TV channel showed secretly shot footage of the Cypriot lawyer, Markou, and the London journalist, Hamid, which matched the pair’s description of their encounters with undercover agents.
lack Cube does have a possible tie to Almog-Assouline, the man who held the hotel meeting about NSO in New York. During a long-running Canadian legal battle between two private equity firms — Catalyst Capital and West Face Capital — one man caught up in the litigation said he recognized Almog-Assouline because he’d been approached by the same operative under a different identity several years ago. “I recognized the individual, down to the accent and the anecdotes,” said the man, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.
When an AP reporter rang the door at his penthouse in Tel Aviv suburb of Ramat Hasharon a week ago, a woman who identified herself as his wife said he wasn’t home. When the reporter followed up with a phone call to Almog-Assouline, he said: “I have no interest in speaking to you.”
Online:
Documents related to the undercover operation: https://www.documentcloud.org/search/projectid:42174-Citizen-Lab-Undercover-Op
https://apnews.com/a1d1af4256c04cc5a36347667e966a14
Potentially Related
Sep 20 2018
They Got 'Everything': Inside a Demo of NSO Group's Powerful iPhone Malware
A source managed to see Israeli surveillance vendor NSO Group’s powerful iPhone malware up close. Despite a wave of highly controversial customers, the company appears to be popular worldwide.
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/qvakb3/inside-nso-group-spyware-demo
Trump Skips Deadline to Report to Congress on Khashoggi Murder
Memes in response to Tribe's tweet crossed the line
Terry Crews sex assault claim: Did Enquirer use blackmail to protect pro-Israel figure?
Weinstein scandal: Asia Argento says being followed by ex-Mossad agents was 'terrifying'
Sara M Moniuszko, USA TODAY
November 07, 2017
In a tweet posted Tuesday, she confirms information found in the investigation, saying it was part of the reason herself and other accusers didn't speak up sooner.
Report: Ex Israeli PM Ehud Barak Negotiated Hiring Ex-Mossad Agents to Intimidate Weinstein's Victims
The Jewish Press - 9h ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lh04uu1EkIU
James Woods: 'I Don't Expect to Work Again' in Hollywood
The Washington Times Thursday, September 12, 2013
The latest came this week, in response to a report from British press that revealed the National Security Agency commonly provides Israel with intelligence data — without first stripping out private and personal information on American citizens. The Guardian in London reported the item, the latest in its coverage of document leaks from Edward Snowden.
Mr. Woods unleashed his views of the matter — and of Mr. Obama's role in allowing the practice to occur — on Twitter.
He wrote: "Report: Data on Americans shared with Israel ... Obama: the gift from hell that keeps on giving."
AP Exclusive: Undercover spy exposed in NYC was 1 of many
By RAPHAEL SATTERyesterday
LONDON (AP) — When mysterious operatives lured two cybersecurity researchers to meetings at luxury hotels over the past two months, it was an apparent bid to discredit their research about an Israeli company that makes smartphone hacking technology used by some governments to spy on their citizens. The Associated Press has now learned of similar undercover efforts targeting at least four other individuals who have raised questions about the use of the Israeli firm’s spyware.
The four others targeted by operatives include three lawyers involved in related lawsuits in Israel and Cyprus alleging that the company, the NSO Group, sold its spyware to governments with questionable human rights records. The fourth is a London-based journalist who has covered the litigation. Two of them — the journalist and a Cyprus-based lawyer — were secretly recorded meeting the undercover operatives; footage of them was broadcast on Israeli television just as the AP was preparing to publish this story.
All six of the people who were targeted said they believe the operatives were part of a coordinated effort to discredit them.
“There’s somebody who’s really interested in sabotaging the case,” said one of the targets, Mazen Masri, who teaches at City University, London and is advising the plaintiffs’ attorney in the case in Israel.
Masri said the operatives were “looking for dirt and irrelevant information about people involved.”
The details of these covert efforts offer a glimpse into the sometimes shadowy world of private investigators, which includes some operatives who go beyond gathering information and instead act as provocateurs. The targets told the AP that the covert agents tried to goad them into making racist and anti-Israel remarks or revealing sensitive information about their work in connection with the lawsuits.
NSO has previously said it has nothing to do with the undercover efforts “either directly or indirectly.” It did not return repeated messages asking about the new targets identified by the AP. American private equity firm Francisco Partners, which owns NSO, did not return a message from the AP seeking comment.
The undercover operatives’ activities might never have been made public had it not been for two researchers who work at Citizen Lab, an internet watchdog group that is based out of the University of Toronto’s Munk School.
Who hired the undercover agents remains unclear, but their operational and digital fingerprints suggest they are linked.
The six operatives all began approaching their targets around the same time with individually tailored pitches. Their bogus websites followed the same patterns; all of them were hosted on Namecheap and many were bought at auction from GoDaddy and used the Israeli web design platform Wix. The formatting of the websites was similar; in at least two instances — MGP and Lyndon Partners — it was identical. Even the operatives’ email signatures were the same — consisting of three neatly packed, colorful lines consisting of a phone number, web address and email.
An Israeli television channel, Channel 12, broadcast a report on Saturday claiming that an Israeli private investigation firm, Black Cube, had been investigating issues around the lawsuits against NSO. The TV channel showed secretly shot footage of the Cypriot lawyer, Markou, and the London journalist, Hamid, which matched the pair’s description of their encounters with undercover agents.
lack Cube does have a possible tie to Almog-Assouline, the man who held the hotel meeting about NSO in New York. During a long-running Canadian legal battle between two private equity firms — Catalyst Capital and West Face Capital — one man caught up in the litigation said he recognized Almog-Assouline because he’d been approached by the same operative under a different identity several years ago. “I recognized the individual, down to the accent and the anecdotes,” said the man, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.
When an AP reporter rang the door at his penthouse in Tel Aviv suburb of Ramat Hasharon a week ago, a woman who identified herself as his wife said he wasn’t home. When the reporter followed up with a phone call to Almog-Assouline, he said: “I have no interest in speaking to you.”
Online:
Documents related to the undercover operation: https://www.documentcloud.org/search/projectid:42174-Citizen-Lab-Undercover-Op
https://apnews.com/a1d1af4256c04cc5a36347667e966a14
Potentially Related
Sep 20 2018
They Got 'Everything': Inside a Demo of NSO Group's Powerful iPhone Malware
A source managed to see Israeli surveillance vendor NSO Group’s powerful iPhone malware up close. Despite a wave of highly controversial customers, the company appears to be popular worldwide.
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/qvakb3/inside-nso-group-spyware-demo
Trump Skips Deadline to Report to Congress on Khashoggi Murder
Memes in response to Tribe's tweet crossed the line
Terry Crews sex assault claim: Did Enquirer use blackmail to protect pro-Israel figure?
Weinstein scandal: Asia Argento says being followed by ex-Mossad agents was 'terrifying'
Sara M Moniuszko, USA TODAY
November 07, 2017
In a tweet posted Tuesday, she confirms information found in the investigation, saying it was part of the reason herself and other accusers didn't speak up sooner.
Report: Ex Israeli PM Ehud Barak Negotiated Hiring Ex-Mossad Agents to Intimidate Weinstein's Victims
The Jewish Press - 9h ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lh04uu1EkIU
James Woods: 'I Don't Expect to Work Again' in Hollywood
The Washington Times Thursday, September 12, 2013
The latest came this week, in response to a report from British press that revealed the National Security Agency commonly provides Israel with intelligence data — without first stripping out private and personal information on American citizens. The Guardian in London reported the item, the latest in its coverage of document leaks from Edward Snowden.
Mr. Woods unleashed his views of the matter — and of Mr. Obama's role in allowing the practice to occur — on Twitter.
He wrote: "Report: Data on Americans shared with Israel ... Obama: the gift from hell that keeps on giving."
Black Cube and Oligarchs in the Shadows
November 9, 2017 by Richard Silverstein
Dan Zorella, Black Cube co-founder and former IDF military intelligence officer, (Yossi Aloni)
In my post of yesterday, I forgot to include a Black Cube client at least as oily and disgusting as Harvey Weinstein.
Black Cube agents brought to court charged with spying on Romania’s corruption czar on behalf of Beny Steinmetz
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