Wednesday, 22 January 2020

UN report on Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s hacking of Bezos’s phone raises questions over other potentially compromised elites – Raw Story


“If the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman personally hacked Bezos’s cellphone through malicious information despatched over textual content, it appears extraordinarily seemingly he’s hacked heads of state the identical approach.”

The United Nations on Wednesday known as for a far-reaching investigation into allegations that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman hacked Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s cellular phone, enabling him to extract information from the gadget and doubtlessly blackmail Bezos.

A report on the matter, commissioned by Bezos, was launched by two U.N. investigators Tuesday. The contents raised alarm amongst political observers who mentioned if the claims have been true, bin Salman seemingly hacked different highly effective individuals’s accounts as properly—together with key Trump administration figures.

As investigators Agnes Callamard and David Kaye mentioned within the report, an account belonging to bin Salman despatched Bezos a WhatsApp message containing “malicious code” that rapidly started extracting information from Bezos’s cellphone 5 months earlier than the October 2018 killing of Washington Put up columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

“Jared Kushner additionally has talked to bin Salman extensively over WhatsApp. This info raises the query of whether or not Kushner’s cellphone was equally compromised by Saudi intelligence, which can be blackmailing Kushner to affect U.S. Center East coverage. Certainly, for all we all know, Donald Trump’s personal cellphone could have been hacked on this approach by bin Salman.”
—Juan Cole

The findings recommend “the potential involvement of the crown prince in surveillance of Mr. Bezos, in an effort to affect, if not silence, The Washington Put up‘s reporting on Saudi Arabia.”

Bezos bought the Put up in 2013 and exchanged numbers with the crown prince a day after the paper printed one among Khashoggi’s columns criticizing the federal government of Saudi Arabia, his house nation.

Callamard and Kaye posited that bin Salman’s entry to Bezos’s information was a part of a “steady, multi-year” effort to focus on perceived opponents—together with information retailers that wrote critically of the Saudi authorities—and that after Khashoggi’s killing the prince could have sharpened his concentrate on Bezos to observe the Put up‘s reporting on the incident.

In response to the U.N. report, the prince’s account despatched Bezos a photograph of the Amazon founder with a girl who was not his spouse in November 2018, a month after Khashoggi’s homicide and two months earlier than Bezos publicly acknowledged his extramarital affair.

The brand new report suggests the prince could have straight blackmailed Bezos because the Put up was reporting extensively on the loss of life of its personal columnist and the Saudis’ alleged involvement within the homicide.

Historian Juan Cole wrote following the U.N. report that the alleged hacking of Bezos’s cellphone by the Saudi crown prince “ought to ship chills down the backbone of everybody who has ever chatted with the prince over WhatsApp.”

Bezos’s expertise could also be a part of a a lot bigger strain marketing campaign concentrating on U.S. elites—with far-reaching results for a lot much less highly effective individuals all around the world, Cole wrote:

Bin Salman made a public relations journey to the U.S. in spring of 2018. He met with Silicon Valley CEOs, Hollywood producers, and New York businessmen. What number of cellphone numbers did he collect up and later use to speak to those movers and shakers over WhatsApp? How a lot filth and what number of secrets and techniques may the prince have by now swept up from the American elite, helpful for blackmail and strain campaigns?

We all know that Trump son-in-law and excessive muck-a-muck with out portfolio Jared Kushner additionally has talked to Bin Salman extensively over WhatsApp. This info raises the query of whether or not Kushner’s cellphone was equally compromised by Saudi intelligence, which can be blackmailing Kushner to affect U.S. Center East coverage. Certainly, for all we all know, Donald Trump’s personal cellphone could have been hacked on this approach by Bin Salman.

The identical month Bezos obtained the non-public {photograph} from bin Salman’s account, Trump issued a press release signaling his indifference relating to the query of whether or not the prince was concerned in killing Khashoggi and saying the U.S. would proceed to help the Saudis as a result of the dominion is a significant purchaser of American arms, one of many world’s largest oil producers, and an ally to the U.S. within the “combat in opposition to Iran.”

“We will solely speculate about such issues, since this White Home is the least clear in historical past,” wrote Cole Wednesday. “However simply as an example, we all know that the Saudis have lengthy needed Iranian normal Qasem Soleimani lifeless. Did they’ve the sort of filth on Kushner and Trump that may permit them to blackmail the U.S. into taking Soleimani out?”

On social media, others joined the U.N.’s name for a deeper investigation into the brand new allegations in opposition to bin Salman and into the chance that the prince additionally hacked high-level U.S. authorities officers’ information.

“The Home wants to instantly launch a probe of Mohammed bin Salman, his ties to Trump and Jared Kushner, and our army and nuclear help for the Saudi monarchy,” tweeted Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch.





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source https://downthemiddlenews.com/un-report-on-saudi-crown-prince-mohammed-bin-salmans-hacking-of-bezoss-phone-raises-questions-over-other-potentially-compromised-elites-raw-story/

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