Vanguard Magazine

www.vanguardcanada.com FEBRUARY/MARCH 2019 35 Khashoggi: One Man Against the Saudi Regime A little background on Khashoggi. More than a journalist, Khashoggi had been a thorn in the side of Saudi crown prince, Mohammad bin Salman – MBS for short. Quite nearly an existential threat to the Saudi regime, Khashoggi, who was also a Saudi dissident, had faced years of perse- cution for his work. Khashoggi's rise, or evolution, from Saudi establishment asset to a moderate- cum-left-leaning Islamic militant is com- plex. Suffice it to say, his dichotomic career and personal and ideological views formu- lated two tempests in the Saudi camp: the Islamic rhetoric was challenged and intel- lectually scrutinized by one of their own, and a stronghold of ideologically and politically-vested MBS supporters were girding their loins. Tactically, not a great position to occupy. An enemy of the state, Khashoggi reject- ed the idea of creating an Islamic state and turned against the Saudi religious establish- ment while peppering them with criticisms. With indications that Khashoggi was plan- ning use his contacts to tactically under- mine MBS' agenda – strongly supported by the Trump administration – social me- dia "trolling" had ramped up, and Saudi authorities had banned him from media engagements after his criticism of Trump's ascension to the U.S. presidency. The alle- giance between MBS and Trump was clear, and Khashoggi dared to tread on it. In October 2018, following Khashog- gi's murder inside the Saudi Arabian con- sulate in Istanbul, Trump denounced the act (sort of) and then appeared to waffle and go soft on Saudi Arabia, calling them a "great ally" and underscoring the U.S.' commitment to remaining a steadfast part- ner. Maybe saying what Trump could not, Donald Trump Jr. took to Twitter calling Khashoggi "a democrat reformer journal- ist holding a RPG with jihadists." On the other side, Khashoggi was soberly eulogized by The Washington Post – where Khashoggi was a columnist – as "once sym- pathetic to Islamist movements," and CNN described him as a journalist "who evolved from an Islamist in his twenties to a more liberal position by the time he was in his forties." As the headlines spun, it became very clear: this was more than retaliation for bruised egos or ideological turn-coating. This was deeply political; Khashoggi was the nexus of knowledge on MBS' ground game and inside intel- ligence on the Saudi regime. Technology as a Subversive Tool With the backdrop of a political manoeu- vre, technology played a small but devas- tating role in Khashoggi's murder. The unsophisticated "trolling" on social media was relatively benign; nothing more than shots across the bow, it was means to deter and split Khashoggi's support base. But the infiltration of Khashoggi's phone texts and messages and tracking his whereabouts using Pegasus spyware turned this into a predatory game of mon- itoring, luring and ensnaring. Relying on unpatched zero-day vulner- abilities, Pegasus enables the one-click jail- break of a cell phone, allowing access to its microphone, camera, keyboard, messaging and data to permit keylogging, screenshot and live audio capture, remote control of the malware via SMS, and messaging data exfiltration from WhatsApp, Skype, Face- book, Twitter, etc. If attempts to disable are detected, it self-destructs. In fact, Pegasus is so powerful and dam- aging that the Israeli company who devel- oped it, the NSO Group, has been publicly criticized by Edward Snowden. Snowden has charged that Pegasus has only one pur- pose: a malicious "burglary tool used to violate the human rights of dissidents, op- position figures and activists." Mobile devices are renowned for vulner- abilities, and now there are two teams seek- ing them out: one is to 'find and fix' and the other is to 'find and exploit until fixed' (if ever). Continuous reverse-engineering of iOS and Android operating systems to look for vulnerabilities to exploit is the backbone of Pegasus' success. Citizen Lab researchers With the backdrop of a political manoeuvre, technology played a small but devastating role in Khashoggi's murder. The unsophisticated "trolling" on social media was relatively benign; nothing more than shots across the bow, it was means to deter and split Khashoggi's support base. Cyber have tracked the use of Pegasus to 45 coun- tries where operators "may be conducting surveillance operations" and at least 10 op- erators who "appear to be actively engaged in cross-border surveillance." At some point, Khashoggi seemed to sus- pect that his messages to Montreal-based activist Omar Abdulaziz had been inter- cepted. They had been discussing plans to fight Riyadh's communications crackdown, create secure social-media accounts for or- dinary Saudis, and likely much more. One message after this simply read, "God help us." Khashoggi knew those spying on his phone would know who he was communi- cating with and what they were discussing – even their GPS coordinates. Considering Khashoggi's well-publicized opinion of the Saudi regime, this bodes badly. In a political climate that encour- ages cross-plays as tactics – seen in the Iran-Contra affair (interestingly, Adnan Khashoggi is Jamal Khashoggi's uncle) – Russia's presence in Syria and the U.S.' re-imposed sanctions on Iran, the NSO Group's involvement looks, well, bad. While Israel and Saudi Arabia do not have any official diplomatic relations, they have definitely supported each other's political and intelligence agendas. Huawei's Year of the Jackal So far, Huawei is having a rough year. From the arrest of chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou for alleged violation of Iran sanctions, creating a U.S.-Canada- China diplomatic dispute, to the mount- ing number of countries banning Huawei's technologies and devices from broadband and mobile provider infrastructures, things have gone from bad to worse. Right now, the U.S. is moving ahead with extradition against Wanzhou, and Trump is considering an executive order to bar the use of Huawei's, and its compatriot ZTE's, equipment. The Czech Republic and Australia have already moved on a for- mal ban. More will certainly follow. The Huawei play is high stakes for Chi- na, and its global expansion was not by accident or luck. For over a decade, the Chinese government heavily funded Hua- wei with billions, and even included them in trade agreements. Their strategic spread was clearly a much-needed success for Chi- na. A blessing and a curse, Huawei's in- extricable ties to the Chinese government have been lucrative, but it has now become an enormous security risk for other nations who have been at the pointy end of Chi- na's espionage.

• Cover