“What I hope is that once the Official Secrets Commission everything comes out, they can see the documentation and, perhaps, many of those who now give lessons will have to shut up when they see the performances they have had. Everything will be clear in that commission,” said the defense minister, Margaret Oakslast Wednesday, April 27, when responding to the telephone interventions of pro-independence leaders “Hopefully we will set up the commission soon and we can talk about Pegasus yes or Pegasus no, because I tell you that many would be surprised & rdquor ;, he added.
Surprise, surprise, like the witches, there is. According to a complaint by the Government before the National High Court, the mobile phones of the Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchezand the very Minister of Defense were spied on in 2021, according to a report by the National Cryptologic Center (CCN), an entity attached to the National Intelligence Center (CNI).
Who says CCN, the organization in charge of security in information technologies and protection of classified informationCNI is saying.
preliminary reports
The CCN, based in León, was entrusted by the judge then in charge of the ‘Tandem-Villarejo case’ in the central court of instruction number 6 of the National High Court, Diego of Egeathe task of decrypting the material seized in the registry of the former commissioner’s address Jose Manuel Villarejo when he was arrested, on November 3, 2017.
The news of the espionage against President Sánchez and Minister Robles, as had happened before with the 65 Catalan independentistas, He went around the world. The Israeli newspaper ‘Haaretz’ broke the news in Tel Aviv with Sánchez’s photograph on the cover of its digital editions in Hebrew and English.
Sources close to the Government did not want to specify when the Government became aware of the information about the espionage on Sánchez and Robles, but admitted that when the Defense Minister warned of possible “surprises & rdquor; that could be transmitted to Official Secrets Commission in the process of constitution, already had preliminary reports about the tests carried out by the CCN on their phones, tests that have been extended to other members of the cabinet.
no more information
The aforementioned Israeli newspaper ‘Haaretz’ stated this Monday, May 2, that sources from the company that manufactures the Pegasus technology, NSO Grouphas said that he does not know, as a provider of spy software, who the targets of his clients are.
The two periods in which the telephone interventions or ‘hacks’ of President Sánchez’s official device have taken place, according to the information provided by the Government to the National High Court, are May and June 2021.
At that time, the secret news was revealed according to which the Spanish Government had welcomed the Saharawi leader in Spain with a false identity Brahim Ghalisecretary of Polisario Front and president of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic, on April 21, 2021, when he arrived by plane from Algeria and was hospitalized at the San Pedro de Logroño Hospital, in a serious condition affected by covid. The diplomatic crisis with Morocco received an unprecedented response, when the Government of Rabat stimulated the massive departure of migrants from Tangier in early May 2021.
450 suspected spies
The aforementioned Israeli newspaper, ‘Haaretz’, drew up a list last April, in collaboration with the group of experts from Amnesty International Security Lab and the University of Toronto, Citizen Labwhich includes confirmed cases of Pegasus infection of phones, about 450 alleged cases of ‘hacking’ of phones. It includes some official cases such as that of French intelligence agencies or private firms such as Manzana Y WhatsAppwho have publicly denounced having been the target of attacks.
Still, Pegasus is no longer the only spyware system created by Israeli firms. This company, whose value is estimated at more than €900 million -a measure of the robust global espionage market-, has had competitors such as the predatorconceived by the company Cytrox. With this system, the person being spied on does not have to click on his smartphone for it to start working. Although the Pegasus has achieved the so-called ‘zero click’ in its most recent models, previously the affected had to click to activate the system. A third company Candiruone of the most mysterious, bills sales worth 900 million euros a year.
the greek journalist
Thanasis Koukakisan investigative journalist specializing in economics and financial issues who works for the CNN network in Greece, who had already been spied on by order of the security services of that country, has been the first european citizen to suffer the intervention of the Predator. ‘Haaretz’ bases its information on a report by Citizen Lab.
Related news
In an article published by the Israeli newspaper last Wednesday, April 27, Koukakis pointed out: “The democratic states they have no right to cut and sew the laws governing the surveillance of citizens as they see fit in each situation, especially since the means of surveillance are now so advanced that they can penetrate to the core of the personalitycareer and family life & rdquor ;.
And he concluded: “There must be right to free and open criticism of those at the highest levels of power who choose to exploit their position for these nefarious ends, and clear due process for their exemplary punishment”.