Pegasus purchased from Israel by Indian intelligence

According to a New York Times (NYT) writer participating in the newspaper's investigation into the usage of the monitoring system worldwide, the "Indian intelligence service" purchased Pegasus from Israeli business NSO in a contract valued at "dozens of millions of dollars."

According to The New York Times, the acquisition of Pegasus was inked during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Israel in 2017 and cleared by Israel's then-Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

The New York Times' Tel Aviv-based correspondent Ronen Bergman described the NSO procedure for Pegasus, a high-grade cyberweapon on Israel's export control list, as follows: "The Israeli Ministry of Defense had cleared the contract, and NSO engineers would have had to travel to India to install the system themselves, and Israeli intelligence agency Mossad would have liaised with them."

The New York Times and Mr. Bergman did not specify whether they were referring to the Intelligence Bureau (IB), the Research and Analysis Wing, or any other institution reporting to the National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS), which is headed by National Security Adviser Ajit Doval.

“While the ongoing technical maintenance is done by NSO vis-a-vis, in this case, Indian intelligence service, which was the entity that purchased Pegasus – the overall connection is also with the involvement of the agency in Israel that is in charge of running secret intelligence and political relationships, which is the Mossad.”

Mr. Bergman said in an interview with the Indian news outlet The Wire that the Pegasus software had been used to hack thousands of phones belonging to civilians, including lawmakers, judges, journalists, and activists with no criminal background. The list also included journalists from The Wire, The Hindu, and other Indian news outlets.

The New York Times piece and the current interview elicited no response from the Ministry of External Affairs and the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Last July, IT and Communications Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, whose phone was also on the list of Pegasus-hacked devices, said in parliament that the news reports were "sensational" and "had no factual basis and were categorically denied by all parties including in the Supreme Court," referring to an ongoing case in the apex court, which subsequently ordered its own inquiry committee to investigate the allegations against the government. The Ministry of Defence, on the other hand, maintained it had "no dealings" with the NSO company.

Mr. Bergman provided no evidence for the NYT's accusations in the interview, but he did outline the workings of NSO and the procedures followed by each of the countries that had purchased the Pegasus program, including India, Mexico, Hungary, Morocco, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. He wouldn't reveal his sources, but he did say that The New York Times had completed a multi-country investigation based on documents he had access to.

Mr. Bergman said, “Some of the details that are specified, this comes from a very sensitive, a long-time dealing with sources, and, therefore, I’ll be a little bit cagey in some of the details… we have been working for a year in 12 different countries, speaking with intelligence officials, with leaders of law enforcement agencies, politicians, leaders, cyber experts, human rights activists, etc. and I think we got as close as possible to the full picture – if not the whole picture.” 

Because the program is on a restricted export list, NSO executives claim that the Israeli government has approved all of their contracts. The New York Times piece said that the Pegasus purchase in each of the countries was tied to contacts between their leaders and Mr. Netanyahu and that as a result of the relationship, those governments' foreign policies and votes at the United Nations had changed.

“[In] India, [there is] the relationship, a close personal relationship between the leaders of India and Israel that gave birth to, I would say, a new generation of military expenditure as well as a new Indian stand, including international public steps towards Israel,” Mr. Bergman further stated.

Also read: http://arthparkash.com/english/the-opposition-accuses-the-modi-government-of-treason/