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Pegasus row spreads wings across the world

As snooping row spreads over 34 countries, governments and political parties seek answers over the new data revealed by a consortium of news outlets, reports Asian Lite News

As the Pegasus snooping row snowballs into a crisis across the world, the Israel-based NSO Group, maker spyware, is coming under increasing scrutiny across the world.

The leaked list, shared with the news outlets by Forbidden Stories, a Paris-based journalism non-profit, and rights group Amnesty International, showed the identities of people targeted with more than 300 of those phone numbers in India, including politicians, dozens of journalists, businessmen and even two ministers in the Modi government.

Meanwhile, fresh reports have revealed that mobile phone numbers of the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and 13 other heads of state and heads of government were snooped.

The South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa, and the Pakistani prime minister, Imran Khan, are also listed in the data, which includes diplomats, military chiefs and senior politicians from 34 countries. Other prominent figures who were snooped, includes, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the World Health Organization’s director general, Saad Hariri, who resigned as prime minister of Lebanon, Charles Michel, the president of the European Council, King Mohammed VI of Morocco, Saadeddine Othmani, Morocco’s prime minister, former president of Mexico Felipe Calderón, Robert Malley, a longtime American diplomat.

France orders probe

French President Emmanuel Macron has ordered multiple investigations to be carried out after his phone number, as well as those of his former Prime Minister and the majority of his 20-strong Cabinet, appeared in the leaked database at the heart of the Pegasus Project, The Guardian reported.

French Prime Minister Jean Castex said on Wednesday the Elysee (official residence of the French President) had “ordered a series of investigations”, after vowing to “shed all light on the revelations”, the report said.

But Castex said it is too early to comment or announce any new security measures or other action without knowing “exactly what happened”. He said: “We are going to look at this very closely.”

French politicians expressed shock after the mobile numbers of Macron, former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe and 14 serving ministers, including those for justice and foreign affairs, appeared in the leaked data.

Plea in SC seeks probe into snooping scandal

Meanwhile, in India a plea has been moved in the Supreme Court seeking a court-monitored SIT probe into the Pegasus snooping scandal. The plea filed by advocate M.L. Sharma has claimed that the snooping scandal is an attack on the Indian democracy.

The plea said: “Pegasus scandal is a matter of grave concern and an attack on the Indian democracy, country’s security and judiciary. The widespread use of surveillance is morally disfiguring. National security implications of this software are huge”.

The parliament which opened for the Monsoon session has been disrupted for the past three days, with the Opposition demanding a probe into the row. The government, however, stood its ground saying that it never authorised such a probe. Protests have spilled over to the streets with main opposition parties demanding answers from the government.

Israeli Defence Ministry studying investigation into NSO Group

The Israeli Defence Ministry is studying the investigation into NSO Group, Defence Minister Benny Gantz said Tuesday after it was revealed that the Israeli cyber company has been selling spyware to foreign governments to target journalists and activists, Jerusalem Post reported.

“We are aware of recent publications regarding the use of systems developed by certain Israeli cyber companies,” Gantz said on Tuesday at Cyber Week at Tel Aviv University, without naming the Herzliya-based company.

The report said Gantz asserted that as a matter of policy, Israel authorises the export of cyber products “solely to governments, only for lawful use and exclusively for the purposes of preventing and investigating crime and terrorism” and that the country controls the exports of such products and complies with international export control regimes.

“The countries acquiring these systems must abide by their commitments to these requirements. We are currently studying the information that is published on the subject,” Gantz said.

In a statement released after the investigation was published, the Defence Ministry said that it will take “appropriate action” if NSO Group violated the terms of its export licenses or end use certificates, the report added.

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As snoopgate snowballs, Govt faces Opposition fire

New data reveals that SC staffer who acusses former CJI Gogoi of sexual harassment and ex-EC Ashok Lavasa were in the snooping list, reports Asian Lite News

A political row erupted over the Pegasus spyware case with Amit Shah responding to Congress demands that he steps down as Union home minister by stating that reports of alleged surveillance were part of a choreographed attempt to defame India.

“People have often associated this phrase with me in a lighter vein but today I want to seriously say – the timing of the selective leaks, the disruptions… Understand the chronology. This is a report by the disrupters for the obstructers,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Pegasus Project, a special investigation coordinated by Forbidden Stories and 16 international media partners with the assistance of Amnesty International’s technical team revealed that three phone numbers belonging to the Supreme Court staffer, who had accused former Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi of sexual harassment, were selected as potential targets for surveillance.

The leaked records show that eight other phone numbers belonging to her husband and two of his brothers were also marked as possible candidates for surveillance in the same week, when her allegations against the CJI were first reported.

All told, a total of 11 numbers associated with the complainant and her family were selected, making them among the largest cluster of associated phone numbers.

Another big name that has tumbled out is that of former Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa, who was snooped. Lavasa was the only member of the 3-person Election Commission to rule that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had violated the Model Code of Conduct while campaigning for the 2019 general election.

Election Commissioners are constitutional functionaries, whose independence from government is guaranteed by statute and is considered crucial for the free and fair conduct of elections in India.

The records show that Lavasa was selected for potential surveillance weeks after he had dissented not once but in five different matters of alleged violations of the Model Code of Conduct by then BJP President Amit Shah and Prime Minister Modi. Of the five matters, four related to complaints of alleged violations by Modi.

Congress plans protests

After it emerged that former party President Rahul Gandhi, among others, was one of the potential targets of snooping, the Congress has planned nationwide agitation and has decided to raise the issue in Parliament.

At least two mobile phone accounts used by Rahul Gandhi were among the 300 verified Indian numbers listed as potential targets by an official Indian client of the Israeli surveillance technology vendor, NSO Group.

The Congress has asked its state units to march towards Raj Bhavan to lodge the protest and it will also hold press conference in each state capital.

In Parliament, the party has moved suspension notice in the Rajya Sabha by K.C. Venugopal and adjournment motion in the Lok Sabha.

The Congress said that it’s “shocking and sensational” that news reports disclosing illegal and unconstitutional hacking of cellphones of Constitutional functionaries, Union Cabinet ministers, present and former heads of security forces, senior leaders of the opposition, journalists, lawyers and activists reflect treasonous and inexcusable dismantling of national security by the BJP government.

Issue to dominate Monsoon session

As the issue of snooping is getting murkier, the proceedings in Parliament are likely to be disrupted. Aam Aadmi Party member Sanjay Singh has given a Zero Hour notice in the Rajya Sabha while the opposition is meeting for joint strategy on the issue.

The opposition will also decide whether to attend the meeting of floor leaders called by the government.

The Congress has moved suspension notice under rule 267.

The IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw will make a statement regarding compromise of phone data of some persons as reported in the media.

In the legislative business, The Marine Aids to Navigation Bill, 2021 is there for consideration and passing. The bill provides for the development, maintenance and management of aids to navigation in India; for training and certification of operator of aids to navigation, development of its historical, educational and cultural value; to ensure compliance with the obligation under the maritime treaties and international instruments to which India is a party and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto, as passed by Lok Sabha, be taken into consideration, said the Rajya Sabha Bulletin.

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Pegasus snoop list has 40 Indian journalists

A good chunk of the journalists who appear in the records are based out of the national capital and work with prominent organisations…reports Asian Lite News.

The Pegasus snoop list has 40 Indian journalists and forensic tests confirm presence of Pegasus spyware on some devices, The Wire reported.

Those on leaked list of potential targets include journalists at Hindustan Times, The Hindu, The Wire, Indian Express, News18, India Today, Pioneer, besides freelancers, columnists, and regional media.

The presence of a phone number in the data does alone not reveal whether a device was infected with Pegasus or subject to an attempted hack. However, the Pegasus Project, a consortium of international news organisations, believes the data is indicative of potential targets identified in advance of possible surveillance attempts.

Two founding editors of The Wire are on this list, as is its diplomatic editor and two of its regular contributors, including Rohini Singh. Singh’s number appears after she filed back-to-back reports on the business affairs of Home Minister Amit Shah’s son, Jay Shah, and Nikhil Merchant, a businessman who is close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and while she was investigating the dealings of a prominent minister, Piyush Goyal, with businessman Ajay Piramal, The Wire said.

The number of former Indian Express journalist Sushant Singh appears on the list in mid-2018, at a time when he was working on an investigation into the controversial Rafale aircraft deal with France, besides other stories. Digital forensics conducted on Singh’s current phone showed signs of Pegasus infection earlier this year.

The Wire said the list of journalists to emerge from the Pegasus Project’s reporting cannot be considered exhaustive list or even a representative sample of reporters subject to official snooping as it is limited to an analysis of one leaked dataset over a narrow time period and covering only one potential vector of surveillance, i.e. Pegasus.

A good chunk of the journalists who appear in the records are based out of the national capital and work with prominent organisations.

For instance, the leaked data shows that at least four current employees and one former employee of the Hindustan Times group were of potential interest to the Indian Pegasus client – executive editor Shishir Gupta, editorial page editor and former bureau chief Prashant Jha, defence correspondent Rahul Singh, former political reporter who covered the Congress Aurangazeb Naqshbandi, and a reporter in HT’s sister paper, Mint.

Indian Youth Congress protested on the spying case of the country’s journalists.

Other prominent media houses also had at least one journalist whose phone number appears in the leaked records. This includes Ritika Chopra (who covers education and the Election Commission) and Muzammil Jameel (who writes on Kashmir) of the Indian Express, Sandeep Unnithan (who covers defence and the Indian military) of India Today, Manoj Gupta (editor investigations and security affairs) at TV18, and Vijaita Singh, who covers the Home Ministry for The Hindu and whose phone contained traces of an attempted Pegasus infection.

At The Wire, those targeted were founder-editors Siddharth Varadarajan and M.K. Venu, for whom specific forensic analysis showed evidence of their phones being infected by Pegasus. The number of Devirupa Mitra, The Wire’s diplomatic editor, also appears in the records.

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