A small woman, with scattered hair and soul, enters the "Center for Jewish History" in South Manhattan. She speaks fluently, jumping from one finding to another, connecting seemingly unrelated bits of information. Her English is interspersed with a heavy Russian accent, which hints to the unusual interest that the powerful entities have in her. "I didn't realize that I am so important," she mocks them in response.
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Irina Zuckerman's story is a contemporary version of "The Emperor's New Clothes". She is an independent researcher, known in relatively limited circles, sans connections, and above all, without an organization standing behind her. But her findings go against all claims of intelligence organizations, cyber companies, the human rights industry and left-wing media.
"The emperor has nothing on. The Israeli company NSO did not do what others say it did," she says, "a sophisticated international campaign is spreading these claims for political reasons."
Not many were exposed to Zuckerman's research, yet Twitter blocked her account several days before our meeting at the end of July. Someone is apparently very concerned about what she has to say.
Zuckerman, 37, lives with her husband Jason in Connecticut. He is younger than her, devoted to her, and follows every step of hers among the powers that be. She began her public activities many years ago as a human rights activist, continued to various organizations, later moving to research in various frameworks and in recent years has taken a freelance track.
In August 2020, Zuckerman published an article entitled "Global Amnesty and Qatar's Information Warfare," under the patronage of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar Ilan University. Based on public information, she claimed that the international battle against the Israeli cyber company NSO is partially financed by Qatar and is part of an ongoing effort, partnered by Amnesty, aimed at harming Israel and strengthening extremist Islamic forces. Zuckerman underscored, among others, the ties that Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist who was murdered in Turkey, had with Qatar and highlighted his distant past in the 1980s as a friend of Osama bin Laden, perpetrator of the 9/11 bombings.
"There is growing concern that the organized allegations of surveillance [by NSO] and the many articles, published under fictitious names, by pro-Islamic and anti-Israel theorists, may well be a long-term and well-planned campaign of disinformation, demonstrating the infrastructure and broad reach available to Qatar's information warfare," Zuckerman wrote in conclusion to her article.
The direction Zuckerman's research was taking completely refuted the conventional approach in the West, including Israeli media. Conventional beliefs presented Saudi ruler, Mohammed bin Salman, as the bad guy behind Khashoggi's murder. It was claimed that the Pegasus software, owned by Israeli cyber expert NSO, was the surveillance tool used by the kingdom's security services to track down the journalist, thus linking NSO and Israel to the affair.
Khashoggi was a well-known personality in liberal circles in the US. His murder and dismemberment in 2018 in the Saudi consulate in Turkey, apparently by Saudi Arabian security services, crushed the Kingdom's position in the West.
The main source that spread the critical claims against NSO is a Canadian research institute called "Citizen Lab". Amnesty, the human rights industry and progressive media channel all over the world, echoed its "research". Zuckerman, at least at that stage, was the only one who stood up to them.
The NSO itself believed that Zuckerman was right. Back then and today, the company completely rejects all claims about spying on journalists or political opponents. NSO insists that if someone misused Pegasus or other products, they did so on their own accord. The company, and not only them, are convinced that powerful international forces are behind the campaign against them.
But denials, as well as Zuckerman's discoveries, were not enough to stop the wave. The investigations and accusations continued, putting her on a path that could end in ruins. The US government recently blacklisted the company and is even conducting an investigation against it. Notwithstanding the pressures, the legendary manager, Shalev Julio, resigned, and a hundred employees were fired. The shockwaves rippled through the entire cyber industry in Israel.
In the two years since the first study, Zuckerman has expanded and intensified her work. Among others, she indicated at clear connections between Amnesty and Citizen Lab, and between these entities and Qatar. Despite their importance and ingenuity, her findings did not resonate in world media. On the other hand, since she started going against the flow, she has been subjected to harsh attacks on Twitter.
"Some of my attackers are real people; some are fictitious. I would expect them to hold a discussion on the essence of the findings, instead of attacking me. But I was permanently blocked from Twitter, without any explanation. I had 26 thousand followers. I did not break any social rules and I did not attack anyone. I asked questions," Zuckerman says at the offices of the Center for Jewish Heritage, where we meet.
Q: Why do you think you were removed from Twitter?
"I received clear messages from my attackers that if I was able to be more restrained, they would make sure that I would not be blocked. They wrote to me and said that if I say that NSO is responsible for Khashoggi's murder, my account would be unblocked, but of course I won't do that. I won't change my mind. My silencing is a political move against me."
Being a lone voice in the world and the lack of support from Israel and others in the face of the attacks against her on social media did not, as mentioned, deter Zuckerman and about two months ago for the first time she found significant support for her position.
Her supporter is named Jonathan Scott, a "white hat hacker", i.e. a positive Internet hacker, who reports on security breaches to warn organizations and companies, and not to extort them. In the world of hackers, Scott is known as "Jonathan Data." He was rated by well-known cyber companies and also by the US Pentagon, as a world-class top hacker. Among others, he forwarded about 800 reports on security flaws on the websites of the American security system to the Pentagon. More than 600 were found to be true reports. This credibility is important when dealing in the cyber world.
About a year ago, Scott published his first report on "Citizen Lab". The conclusion kept in line with Zuckerman's, without there being any connection between them prior to this. In early July 2022, he issued a more severe report, which made the connection between the two of them. They conducted a joint interview on YouTube and two days later Twitter closed Zuckerman's account. In a Zoom call from Texas, where he currently lives, Scott says that "Citizen Lab's findings about NSO are not true and cannot be."
Q: Why did you conduct the research?
"My starting point was the common belief that NSO is corrupted and Citizen Lab is right. But I am a person who is not willing to follow the crowd just like that. If everyone says something, I will initiate my own search and check the information to try and understand why. My conclusion was indisputable. This espionage did not happen."
Q: Why?
"Because according to Citizen Lab, Pegasus's infiltration was done using components that were no longer installed on the telephones at the time of the alleged invasion. That is why it is impossible that it happened. They say that Pegasus 'hunted down' people and that those people are walking around the world feeling that someone has intercepted them and invaded their privacy. But there is no evidence or explanation for this. Was the invasion by SMS? WhatsApp? Another App? No reasonable person can accept such a report which includes just allegations without any proof. And this is what Citizen Lab has been doing for the past 11 years."
Q: Is there a financial or any other relationship between you and NSO?
"No. They never contacted me and I'm not connected to them."
Q: Why did they silence Zuckerman after the interview and not you?
"She suffered terrible attacks by powerful 'Twitter monsters.' One of them is a person with a proven criminal record. She is a victim of the 'culture of elimination' that exists in the US. I guess she is the weakest of the three of us and she has fewer connections in the media, so only her account was closed."
When Scott talks about "the three of us" he means Zuckerman, himself and Jose Javier Olivas, a doctor of political science from Spain, who examined the Citizen Lab's report, which contained allegations that the Spanish government was using Pegasus to spy on senior officials in Catalonia. Like Scott and Zuckerman, and without any connection to them or coordinating data with them, Olivas also believes that the research does not meet academic standards and suffers from ethical flaws and a conflict of interests.
Thus, for example, a Catalan political activist, who has no academic background, became a leading researcher for Citizen Lab. "This does not meet any scientific standards," Olivas wrote. He also believes that the Citizen Lab reports contain conflicting interests and are politically biased. "The entire campaign accusing the Spanish government is actually based on unverified assumptions and a blatant methodology that cannot be replicated, led by a 'partisan researcher.' There was no control group or any comparison made to another case," Olivas wrote on April 24.
Q: Who gave the order?
This is the position that was adopted by the European Parliament. On July 19, the Parliament's investigation committee on Pegasus decided not to investigate Citizen Lab's accusations against the Spanish government. "There is no evidence of illegal espionage and the Spanish government has acknowledged that only 18 operatives were under surveillance (and not 65, as Citizen Lab claimed). The other reported cases are highly suspicious, to the extent that they might even have been forged, according to several reports by international experts. The great big espionage scandal is quickly turning into a big bluff," the Spanish magazine "Confidential" wrote.
Zuckerman, Scott and Olivas, each independently, and based on different findings, came to the conclusion that Citizen Lab's claims against NSO are unfounded and unscientific, but part of a political campaign. And if the accusations against NSO are in fact part of a campaign, the next question is "who is behind all this?". The two American researchers pointed a finger at Qatar, Amnesty and the progressive circles, as a coordinated and sophisticated approach, intended to harm Israel and Saudi Arabia (there has been a long-standing rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Qatar). However, in Israel, the most senior officials point the finger of blame in a completely different and much more powerful direction: the USA.
According to these sources – whether the reasons are for economic, political or intelligence gains, the US wants to weaken the Israeli cyber system. "The Americans have shot us between our eyes in the NSO affair," as a senior political official defined it.
A source in the cyber industry added that "the Americans want to eliminate the cyber industry in Israel. Now it is 'only' the "collective" cyber, but the next step will be the defensive cyber. Companies are already collapsing and closing down. It is impossible to give information, but there is economic, technological and security damage here. The investigation against NSO reminds us of the American demand to close down the Lavie project in the 1980s. Then they took action out of fear of competition and a desire for Israel 'not to spread its wings,' and these are their motives today.
"The public is not aware of the extent of the damage being caused. The most unfortunate part of this is the Israeli government's inability, or unwillingness, to fight back. They are accepting judgment with the hope that one day the storm will clear. But the damages are already extreme and they will only get worse."
Hacker Jonathan Scott shares in the criticism against the US government's attitude towards Israel regarding NSO. "Citizen Lab claims that Pegasus and NSO are the worst, but if there is anyone who is doing exactly this, it is the intelligence agencies, such as the CIA and the NSA (an American surveillance network spread all over the world). But no one talks about this. What I am saying is open information that can be found in WikiLeaks, but people are running to publish information and are not checking documents. What are they hiding here? American companies that are competitors of Israel's NSO are investing money and saying 'we can fight NSO's Pegasus'. There is a political agenda here. In my opinion, it is crazy".
Twitter did not issue any response to Israel Hayom's request.
