The secret deal between India and Israel for the sale of Pegasus in 2017 was struck at the ‘highest levels’ of each country’s political and intelligence leadership and flowed from the Modi government’s ‘specific interest’ in and ‘specific emphasis’ on acquiring the controversial spyware, Israeli investigative journalist Ronen Bergman told The Wire on Monday.
The video and transcript of the interview will be published on YouTube and The Wire later today.
Bergman, who has spent years covering Israel’s intelligence and military establishment and has followed the NSO Group since its inception in 2007, jointly reported last week’s explosive New York Times story with Mark Mazzetti on Pegasus, which they called the ‘world’s most powerful cyberweapon’. Speaking to The Wire via Zoom from his home in Tel Aviv,
— source thewire.in | Siddharth Varadarajan | 01/Feb/2022