Free Republic

The Pegasus Affair: This is how the right-wing government was overthrown They had a problem. The majority of the people in Israel vote right. The national camp has been in power for too long and they had no democratic way to replace it, so they found a solution Yehuda Vald, 10.02.22 The revelation this week [https://www.srugim.co.il/?p=645212] in the Calcalist newspaper about the activation of spy software against senior officials in the economy, including those close to Prime Minister Netanyahu, is the tip of the iceberg that has been revealed about the anti-democratic revolution led by influential people in the police...

The FBI has obtained Pegasus spyware from the Israeli company NSO Group, which allows the agency to take complete control of a person’s phone without their knowledge. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) has demanded answers from the FBI about how often it uses this invasive tool to hack Americans and whether the agency has gotten authorization from the courts to do so.“The American people have a right to know the scale of the FBI’s hacking activities and the rules that govern the use of this controversial surveillance technique,” Wyden said in a letter Tuesday to FBI Director Chris Wray.In particular, Wyden...

In the wake of a close victory for leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva over President Jair Bolsonaro in the recent election, tens of thousands of Bolsonaro supporters have been marching in the streets protesting what they contend was a fraudulent outcome. In a bid to end the protests, Brazilian Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes ordered the bank accounts of the leaders of these "anti-democratic protesters" frozen. Lula praised the Court for "helping save our democracy. Ultimately, seizing the assets from those who wrongly possess them is fundamental to our program to fully socialize Brazil. By targeting the enemies...

Foreboding Signals Amid Discovery the FBI Can Launch Pegasus Cell Phone Targeting With Appointment of Special CounselNovember 22, 2022 | Sundance | 39 CommentsIf you read the article about the “Pegasus Project”, spyware created to infect cell phones that was marketed by Israeli intelligence through a company called NSO {Go Deep Here}, then you essentially know the background. Pegasus is “no click” targeting spyware that can be deployed against cellular phones, simply by inputting the phone number and transmitting to it.The Guardian previously reported,“Claudio Guarnieri, who runs Amnesty International’s Security Lab, said once a phone was infected with Pegasus, a...

Israel used the NSO Group’s software as a tool of diplomacy. The F.B.I. wanted it for domestic surveillance. Then everything soured. Here are highlights of a New York Times Magazine investigation. It is widely regarded as the world’s most potent spyware, capable of reliably cracking the encrypted communications of iPhone and Android smartphones. The software, Pegasus, made by an Israeli company, NSO Group, has been able to track terrorists and drug cartels. It has also been used against human rights activists, journalists and dissidents. Now, an investigation published Friday by The New York Times Magazine has found that Israel, which...

In a statement to the Guardian, the Us intelligence agency says it bought a license from NSO Group for 'product testing and evaluation only' and not 'operational use' The FBI confirmed on Wednesday that it had purchased Pegasus spyware from Israel's NSO Group, but denied ever using it during an operation. In a statement to the Guardian, the FBI said it purchased the powerful cellphone hacking software in order to "stay abreast of emerging technologies and tradecraft." The US security agency said it bought a "limited license" to use Pegasus for "product testing and evaluation only," and said "there was...

It is widely regarded as the world’s most potent spyware, capable of reliably cracking the encrypted communications of iPhone and Android smartphones. The yearlong investigation, by Ronen Bergman and Mark Mazzetti, also reports that the FBI bought and tested NSO software for years with plans to use it for domestic surveillance until the agency finally decided last year not to deploy the tools. The Times found that sales of Pegasus played a critical role in securing the support of Arab nations in Israel’s campaign against Iran and negotiating the Abraham Accords, the 2020 diplomatic agreements, signed at a Trump White...

Female journalists and activists say they had their private photos shared on social media by governments seeking to intimidate and silence them. Ghada Oueiss, a Lebanese broadcast journalist at Al-Jazeera, was eating dinner at home with her husband last June when she received a message from a colleague telling her to check Twitter. Oueiss opened up the account and was horrified: A private photo taken when she was wearing a bikini in a jacuzzi was being circulated by a network of accounts, accompanied by false claims that the photos were taken at her boss’s house. Over the next few days...

Activists, journalists and politicians around the world have been spied on using cellphone malware developed by a private Israeli firm, it emerged Sunday, igniting fears of widespread privacy and rights abuses. The use of the software, called Pegasus and developed by Israel's NSO group, was reported on by the Washington Post, the Guardian, Le Monde and other news outlets who collaborated on an investigation into a data leak. The leak was of a list of up to 50,000 phone numbers believed to have been identified as people of interest by clients of NSO since 2016. One of those targeted was...

Snap Summary: Pegasus: Snowden-Level Spy Tech + 8 Years of "Improvement"

The hitmen came for Cecilio Pineda Birto as he swung in a hammock at a carwash, waiting for his pickup to be cleaned. The 38-year-old freelance reporter was shot dead ... A few hours earlier, Pineda had in a broadcast on Facebook Live accused state police and local politicians of colluding with a violent local capo known as El Tequilero. In previous weeks, Pineda had received a string of anonymous death threats. At about the same time, his mobile phone number was selected as a possible target for surveillance by a Mexican client of the spyware company NSO Group. A...

It is the name for perhaps the most powerful piece of spyware ever developed – certainly by a private company. Once it has wormed its way on to your phone, without you noticing, it can turn it into a 24-hour surveillance device. It can copy messages you send or receive, harvest your photos and record your calls. It might secretly film you through your phone’s camera, or activate the microphone to record your conversations. It can potentially pinpoint where you are, where you’ve been, and who you’ve met. Pegasus is the hacking software – or spyware – that is developed,...

A Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket launched the U.S. Space Force’s Tactically Responsive Launch-2 (TacRL-2) mission June 13 at 1:11 a.m. Pacific from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. The payload was successfully deployed its intended orbit, a Space Force spokesman confirmed on Sunday. Pegasus is an air-launched rocket deployed from a Stargazer L-1011 aircraft. Shortly after its release from Stargazer, at approximately 40,000 feet above the Pacific Ocean, Pegasus ignited its first stage and flew TacRL-2 to a sun-synchronous low-Earth orbit. Launch vehicle assembly, integration and testing were completed within four months of contract award, said Lt. Col. Ryan Rose,...

GRAVITY works by synching the VLT's four unit telescopes to perform like a bigger, more powerful telescope. For the first time, the Very Large Telescope's GRAVITY instrument has observed a distant exoplanet using optical interferometry. Observations of the exoplanet's atmosphere revealed massive, swirling storm clouds of iron and silicates stretching across the entirety of the alien planet. Astronomers described GRAVITY's feat and shared details about the observed target, exoplanet HR8799e, in a paper published this week in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics. GRAVITY works by synching the VLT's four unit telescopes to perform like a bigger, more powerful telescope. Astronomers...

Rick Davis, the manager of Senator John McCain’s presidential campaign, is a typical Washington insider in many ways, having long worked as both a lobbyist and a political operative along the intersection of politics, policy and money. Now Mr. Davis is overseeing new lobbyist-related guidelines that the campaign has issued in an effort to safeguard Mr. McCain’s reputation as an opponent of special interests. The plan, among other things, bars “registered” lobbyists, those who must file disclosure reports listing their clients, from working on the campaign. Mr. Davis, who last worked as a registered lobbyist in 2005 and took a...

The colossal Stratolaunch carrier plane rolled out of its hangar at the Mojave Air and Space Port in Mojave, California, today (May 31) to undergo fueling tests. It's the first public look at the full craft —which is designed to launch rockets into orbit from the sky — since construction began. "We're excited to announce that Stratolaunch aircraft has reached a major milestone in its journey toward providing convenient, reliable, and routine access to low-Earth orbit," Stratolaunch Systems Corp. CEO Jean Floyd said in a statement. "This marks the completion of the initial aircraft-construction phase and the beginning of the...

A disturbing Reddit thread claims that in 2008 the ex-business partner of James Alefantis, DC chef and restauranteur Carole Greenwood, caught Alefantis in the act of sexually battering her then 17 year-old son. Subsequent internet postings identified the location of the alleged crime scene as being Comet Ping Pong Pizza, a DC ping pong-themed pizzaria featuring live music acts. Citing a "family emergency", Greenwood abruptly terminated her business dealings with Alefantis and disappeared, finally surfacing as Executive Chef at Bethesda's Food & Wine Co. An anonymous poster to the thread, presumably Alefantis, objects to the dark story: "Why wouldn't I...

After refusing to sell Israel new planes for several years, mostly for fear that Israel would turn around and go bomb Iran with them, the White House now agreed in principle to let Israel buy the Boeing KC-46A Pegasus, using the US security assistance package. According to Walla, the Dept. of Defense initially offered Israel to purchase older models, to make room on its shelves for the new merchandize, but Israel refused, and started spreading hints that if Obama won’t give her what she needs, she can always get it from the next tenant in 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. So last...

Explanation: Is this galaxy trapped in a web of dust? No -- it is far in the background. However, spiky stars and spooky shapes are abound in this deep cosmic skyscape. Its well-composed field of view covers about a Full Moon on the sky toward the constellation Pegasus. Of course the brighter stars show diffraction spikes, the commonly seen effect of internal supports in reflecting telescopes, and lie well within our own Milky Way galaxy. The faint but pervasive clouds of interstellar dust ride above the galactic plane and dimly reflect the Milky Way's combined starlight. Known as high latitude...

Explanation: This wide, sharp telescopic view reveals galaxies scattered beyond the stars and faint dust nebulae of the Milky Way at the northern boundary of the high-flying constellation Pegasus. Prominent at the upper right is NGC 7331. A mere 50 million light-years away, the large spiral is one of the brighter galaxies not included in Charles Messier's famous 18th century catalog. The disturbed looking group of galaxies at the lower left is well-known as Stephan's Quintet. About 300 million light-years distant, the quintet dramatically illustrates a multiple galaxy collision, its powerful, ongoing interactions posed for a brief cosmic snapshot. On...