World Blog by humble servant. HomeWorld News Saudi activist sues Israeli firm for ‘helping’ Riyadh snoop on murdered journalist Khashoggi.Story 2.But Bolton, like the president, cherishes the US’s special relationship with the Saudis, who last year signed a 10-year, multibillion-dollar arms deal – an agreement that has recently come under scrutiny for including “aspirational” arms sales.

 A Saudi activist who regularly corresponded with slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi has sued an Israeli spyware firm. He claims the company helped the Saudi government snoop on Khashoggi before his murder.
In the lawsuit, Montreal-based Saudi dissident Omar Abdulaziz claims that the Israeli firm, NSO Group, provided Saudi Arabia with powerful software which gave the Kingdom access to communications between himself and Khashoggi.

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© Reuters / Leah MillisHear no evil without subtitles? Bolton says no reason to listen to Khashoggi murder tape in Arabic
As a result, the Saudi government was allegedly made aware of a project that the pair were working on – “cyber bees” – an online youth movement aimed at holding the Kingdom accountable for “human rights abuses.”

In text exchanges obtained by CNN, Khashoggi told Abdulaziz that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was a “beast” with an insatiable appetite for power.

“The more victims he eats, the more he wants,” Khashoggi reportedly wrote in May.

“I will not be surprised if the oppression will reach even those who are cheering him on.”

According to Abdulaziz, in August the two men began to suspect that their conversations were being intercepted and that the Saudi government was aware of their opposition project.

“God help us,” Khashoggi wrote to Abdulaziz. Two months later, he was murdered at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

The lawsuit – which was filed in Israel by lawyers representing Abdulaziz – is far from the first legal trouble faced by the NSO Group. The company has previously been slapped with suits from citizens from Mexico and Qatar, who claim that the firm’s software was used to illegally hack their phones. Amnesty International has also recently accused the Israeli company of helping the Saudi government spy on their employees.

The NSO Group said that its software, known as Pegasus, provides governments and law enforcement agencies the ability to “lawfully fight terrorism and crime,” the New York Times reported. In another twisting in the wind.US National security adviser and uber-hawk John Bolton defended his and President Trump’s refusal to listen to a recording of the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, implying the journalist’s death throes would get lost in translation.
When pressed by a reporter who insisted that surely the man’s dying agonies could be understood by any human being regardless of their nationality, Bolton was dismissive. “I’m very satisfied that we know what the tape picked up, and it’s factored in the president’s position.”

That the veteran war hawk should shy away from a gruesome recording of the Saudi reporter’s dying moments is surprising, given that it’s his main duty to advise the US President on national security issues, which can get messy. But Bolton, like the president, cherishes the US’s special relationship with the Saudis, who last year signed a 10-year, multibillion-dollar arms deal – an agreement that has recently come under scrutiny for including “aspirational” arms sales.