A very odd sequence of events (more on that later) created a need for me to pause the ongoing “Fourth Branch of Government” series.  A rather important discovery connected to Israeli intelligence and China came into view.  I am still evaluating, and researching deeper than comfortable in this rabbit hole. It is very time consuming and more than a little complex to unravel.

If 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.  However, a very serious connection and discovery has been made that changes the dynamic of that story completely.

It has been identified that the actual code that created the malware behind Pegasus was not, in actuality, code generated from within the network of the Israeli company that sells the software/spyware.

There is a very strong indication the actual spyware was created by the Chinese.

Yes, that would make the “Pegasus spyware” Chinese spyware distributed to western governments and agents (outside 5-eyes) through the false front of the Israeli government.

Obviously, if we can verify this evidence, the entire dynamic behind the story changes dramatically.  The Israelis, specifically the NSO company that markets Pegasus, would have to know the origin was China.  Questions: (1) Why would Israel act as the front for Chinese spyware to infect phones of western targets? (2) If the Israelis did not know the origin of the software/spyware was China, well, that’s an even bigger issue by itself – but the baseline there is doubtful.

The original Guardian Article explained Pegasus like this:

NSO creates tech software, spyware, that allows governments to spy on cell phones.

As the Guardian notes, [NSO] “sells surveillance technology to governments worldwide. Its flagship product is Pegasus, spying software – or spyware – that targets iPhones and Android devices. Once a phone is infected, a Pegasus operator can secretly extract chats, photos, emails and location data, or activate microphones and cameras without a user knowing.”

Due to the nature of the product they sell, NSO works with the Israeli government to vet the purchaser of the spyware they sell.

Returning to the Guardian report, “Claudio Guarnieri, who runs Amnesty International’s Security Lab, said once a phone was infected with Pegasus, a client of NSO could in effect take control of a phone, enabling them to extract a person’s messages, calls, photos and emails, secretly activate cameras or microphones, and read the contents of encrypted messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Telegram and Signal.”

Pegasus has been deployed to target tens-of-thousands of cell phones by the people who Israel sold the spyware to.  The Guardian, and a group of allied leftists in media, has been granted access to a leaked massive batch of 50,000 phone numbers that the Pegasus software was operating in.

If the Chinese origin is accurate; and it looks to me like it is; then the real benefactor of all that spyware data extraction was actually the Communist Party of China.  The people, and western governments who deployed the spyware, would have access to the phone data of the target.  However, unbeknownst to the originating entity, the CCP would end up with access to the results of the spyware the Western government launched.

If this turns out to be correct, that is one super stealthy intelligence operation by the Communist Chinese with a myriad of downstream consequences.

Instead of infiltrating the databases of western enemies, the Chinese may have just provided a trojan horse to their enemy (Western governments) who then unwittingly (?) deployed spyware on their behalf, thinking the Western agents were conducting cell-phone surveillance on their own targets….. and while doing so they were unwittingly feeding the intelligence result to Chinese intelligence services.

More later….

Initial thoughts?

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