How the U.S. Came to Use Spyware It Was Trying to Kill

nytimes.com

66 points·mirthlessend··9 comments

- "The secret contract further illuminates the ongoing battle for control of powerful cyberweapons, both among and within governments, including the United States."

No; it illuminates the staggering hypocrisy of a White House that made a huge public show of banning NSO spyware, which it secretly itself was using, and continues to use – probably illegally. Times staffers must be some kind of credulous bumpkins, that they could even entertain the White House narrative they had no idea this was happening ("a battle within government").

How many times have we caught the government illegally spying on us, already; and how many different lies have they told us about it?

Is it that unthinkable that some part of the government is doing something that Biden doesn't know about?

Yes

Wouldn't they need to get some kind of court approval to use NSO software on an American?

I'd be pretty confident that the software doesn't ask you for a PDF of the warrant before it does its thing

No, they can just ask the UK to spy on that American. ...Or all of them, even.

The UK then conveniently has an agreement to share intelligence it has gathered with the US.

If the UK shares intelligence that happens to coincide with a person of interest even if they are American, well, shrug.

https://archive.ph/zatEi

This story will get plenty of follow-up and extraneous discussion but I do want to show some appreciation for the strength of this investigative journalism by Mazzetti, Bergman, and the Times.

Hopefully Biden brings the hammer down and WhatsApp v. NSO wraps up soon to put the final nail in the coffin.

Trying to kill? LOL.

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