By: The American Prospect
July 21, 2021
The NSO Group, now part of a Washington Post exposé, has for years enlisted powerful consultants to save its reputation.
A new investigation by The Washington Post and a consortium of 16 international news outlets reveals that software from an Israeli company named NSO Group has spied on hundreds of journalists, activists, executives, and government officials. Its infamous product Pegasus can crack into encrypted phones without a trace and is used by autocrats. The findings are part of the Pegasus Project, which has already presented evidence of the spyware being used to hack the slain Mexican journalist Cecilio Pineda Birto as well as two people close to the journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
But NSO Group has been deflecting from its relationship with authoritarian governments for years. After its surveillance tech was caught being used to target dissidents, the notorious Israeli company sought the assistance of WestExec Advisors, the consultancy founded by now–Secretary of State Tony Blinken and staffed by prominent national-security experts from the Obama administration.
WestExec turned the company down, but NSO was persistent. It was investing heavily in a revamp of its global reputation in response to accusations of its spyware’s abuse, especially in the hands of Saudi Arabia. NSO must have sensed just how influential Blinken’s tight-knit group of former policymakers was, though the client didn’t align with WestExec’s stated principles.