February 8, 2023 • 45 mins
For lovers of true crime, EXILE Content Studio proudly presents their latest show, Shoot the Messenger: Espionage, Murder, & Pegasus Spyware (subscribe here). Beginning with the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Shoot the Messenger investigates the sophisticated spyware used on his inner circle, Pegasus - and how vulnerable we all might be.
Jamal Khashoggi’s life, assassination, and betrayal opened up a timeline for a new digital battle: cyber-surveillance weapons.
In 2018, Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi entered the Saudi consulate in Turkey and was never seen again. Weeks later, the Turkish intelligence released secret tapes of Khashoggi’s last moments before being brutally murdered, causing an international uproar. It has been four years since Khashoggi’s murder, and what we now know is that the first weapon used against Khashoggi was digital and it’s called Pegasus - a kind of software that can be used to hijack your phone; a military-grade, spyware software.
A new biweekly serialized podcast, every season Exile Content Studio investigates one international new story. You may have heard the headlines — this is the deep dive. The first season examines the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, and his inner circle that has had the world's most sophisticated military-grade spyware confirmed on their phones. It's called Pegasus. How did this spyware come to be, how does it work, and how vulnerable are you?
Shoot the Messenger is hosted by Rose Reid and Nando Vila and is a production of Exile Content Studio.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, they're Sacred Scandal listeners. I'm Nando Vila. We're taking
over the feed to share a pretty wild story with you.
It's called Shoot the Messenger, Espionage, murder and Pegasus Spyware.
I've been working on this project for over two years.
Shoot the Messenger is a new bi weekly serialized podcast
from Exile Content. Season one is all about Pegasus spyware.
(00:25):
Pegasus is the world's most sophisticated spyware to date. It
can give full access to your phone. That means everything,
your texts, emails, phone calls, camera, microphone everything. How did
this spyware come to be? We'll investigate how it works,
who makes it, and the industry booming around it. An
(00:47):
episode one, which you're about to hear, will start with
the murder of journalist Jamal Kashogi and uncover how Pegasus
was found on the phones of many in his inner circle.
Here is Shoot the Messenger. Dubai is known for luxury,
(01:07):
high end shopping and a bump in nightlife. The heat
and the United Arab Emirates can be oppressive, but in
springtime Dubai can be pleasant. You can expect sunshine with
clear skies, balmy but not too hot. It was a
(01:29):
night like this on ap when Hanan, a latter, landed
in her hometown of Dubai. After twenty two years as
a flight attendant with Emirates Airlines, the routine had long
turned to muscle memory. On this Saturday night, Hanan had
just finished a long flight from Toronto. Her shift was
over and she was tired and ready to go home.
(01:53):
Hanan would have been wearing the standard Amarani uniform, a
fitted cream colored blazer with red piping with signature red
pill box hat. And this is where I like to
imagine Hanan and red pumps clacking along in the manner
which is distinctive to crew and pilots no matter how
often you fly, pulling a black roll away behind her,
always black, and maybe she had one of those squarish
(02:16):
topebags trapped on top of her roll away. Hannan had
deboarded a plane, exited the gate area, and walked through
immigration at Dubai's International Airport thousands of times, but this
time something was different. And this immigration people they know
(02:37):
me by name. He normally took my passport to speak
to me about my flight, but in this case, he
said Hannan within the side. The system is down and
I feel there is something wrong. Hannan rushed into a
nearby bathroom and locked herself in install She called the
person she always called once she landed at home, her sister,
(03:00):
and I told you, my sister, there's something go and
go on. Hanan had a terrible feeling that the Emiadi
men hanging around immigration had something to do with her fiance.
Her fiance was a journalist known for speaking out on
human rights, and in the UAE, loudly defending human rights
could get you detained or even jailed. Hanan's fiance had
(03:23):
already told her he worried about the way his work
would impact her life. He gave me the engagement drink,
and when he put the rink in my hand, he said,
Hannan and his kids, I might be a curse in
new life. I might create a problem for you. Hanan
wasn't involved in politics, She hadn't had any run ins
(03:45):
with the police. But sitting in that bathroom stall in
the Dubai airport, her fiance's words echoed in her head.
I remember this wound. I was very scared. She gathered
herself and left the stall. When Hanan walked out, of
the bathroom. She was quickly flanked by Emirati intelligence officers.
(04:08):
One of the member woke was us quietly and the
behavior shift. I realized you just have to comply with Jim.
Hanan was unhandcuffed, blindfolded, put in a car, and taken
to an interrogation cell. I cannot express to you what
(04:28):
is my feeling is this time the band in my
stomach from the bannock. The intelligence officers demanded she hand
over all of her devices, a laptop and two Android phones,
and that to share her passwords. She was taken to
a remote location where she was questioned overnight and into
the morning. Seventeen hours later, the intelligence officers returned Hanan's
(04:53):
devices and took her home. Hanan wanted to resume the
life she had built for herself, leading a cabin crew
across trans atlantic flights, traveling and visiting family. She looked
forward to her wedding ceremony in Washington, d C. Just
a couple of months away. But after she was detained,
everything changed. It turns out that while Hanan was being questioned,
(05:18):
the Emirati intelligence officers were executing a much more effective
plan to get information from her. I never had my
normal life back. That's because when Amiradi intelligence officers had
Hanan's phone, they installed a highly sophisticated piece of spywear,
and as Hanan went about her life, the spy where
(05:39):
had unknowingly turned her into an informant, providing a direct
window to the person she cared about. Most fears are
growing over the fate of missing Saudi journalist Jamaka, who
vanished after entering the Saudi Arabian consulate in Restrountable details
(06:01):
are pouring in about the likely death of this Washington
Post columnist because and they are just simply horrified. Jamal
Kashogi Hannan's newly what husband, the Saudi journalist who had
been living in Washington, d C. In South exile writing
op eds for the Washington Post, was assassinated just months
after her detention. We never thought me under Jomal, they
(06:26):
will be extremists to their level to kill him, and
this terrible way. When Kashoki disappeared from the Saudi consulate
in it would be weeks before the world learned what
occurred in his final hours. But it's taken years for
us to learn he wasn't just killed, he was systematically
(06:46):
hunted in a way we have never seen before. And
what we now know is that the first weapon used
against Kashogi was digital and it's called Pegasus. Pegasus is
probably the most advanced piece of spy where it is
effectively the most invasive form of surveillance imaginable licenses this
software to intelligence and law enforcement agencies. Worldwime tool can
(07:10):
also be deployed by a government to crush descent. Pecasus
is a kind of software that can be used to
hijack your phone. It's a military grade spying software. It's
this magic thing. It can infect your phone, and once
it does, it's inside of your phone and it's like
a little worm and it can burrow into every piece
(07:33):
of equipment in your phone. This is Dana Priest. She
covers national security for the Washington Post, the same newspaper
as Jamal Kashogi. It can turn the microphone on, it
can turn the camera on. It can go into all
of your photos, all of your emails, even your deleted messages,
(07:54):
and scoop them up and take them somewhere seven and
you'll never know it. You'll never know it. Pegasus implicates
several countries and multiple government agencies. And unites unlikely allies.
It's part of a massive and mostly unregulated, multibillion dollar
global industry. Battlefields aren't physical anymore. They aren't far away
(08:19):
across oceans or borders. They're in our pocket. And the
threats that journalists face as they seek out and reveal
uncomfortable truths are threats that we are all vulnerable to,
no matter where we live, who we know, and what
we do. Jamaica Showgi's assassination reveals that journalists are the
(08:39):
canaries in the coal mine these days. You don't have
to be a high profile journalists or a dissident or
a famous truth teller to get swept up. If you've
ever had a phone, if you've ever had a secret,
you're at risk too. I'm Nando Vila and I'm Rose
Reed and this is Shoot the Messenger, a new investigative
(09:03):
reporting podcast from Exile Content Studio. Every season, we investigate
one international news story. You may have heard the headlines.
This is the deep dive. Nando and I started the
series with one question, what is the biggest threat to
journalists today? We put up a bulletin board and stuck
a pen for every journalist who was threatened or assassinated,
(09:26):
or if they had a family member who was threatened
or assassinated directly because of their work in the last
five years, and we found one link that kept coming
up again and again from Mexico to d C to
the United Arab Emirates Pegasus. How did this spyware come
to be? How does it work? And how vulnerable are you?
(09:49):
Over the course of ten episodes, we're doing a special
partnership with the Committee to Protect Journalists on espionage, murder
and Pegasus spyware put in the hell could have happened
in there? Which he's together what happened? Almost like who
done it? Given one instance of an attack, can we
trace that to other instances in other countries as well?
(10:11):
Regarding the spying and the Bagatis, we did not know
they did drag through me because they do and the
closest to hunt him they started with me. Episode one
Jamaica Shogi, a story told in three parts his life,
(10:32):
death and betrayal. Jamal was a great man as a
journalist and as a husband. Hanana latter first met Jamalka
Shogi at a conference in two thousand and nine. Jamal
is a kind of person we can say is not
in the right or left. He's in the middle in
(10:54):
his opinion and his vision because he's very open minded.
Any bad ground can sit down with Jamal, any race,
any doluji and do you have a different view home him?
But you will walk away with a smile. Nana Kashoki
captain touch and they are friends for almost a decade
before their romance began. I met Jamal first time with
(11:17):
was a nine in Dubai where I grown up and
I remember very well. We had a conversation over two hours.
He was talking about the Middle East politics and form
policy of US toward the Middle East, and we realize
we are like a twin and we continue. And I
(11:39):
always used to give him a feedback in any article
in the published opinion. I used to give him a
feedback and he was always waiting for me, calling me up,
discussing with me. Kahoki spent most of his career as
a writer and editor for Amadina, one of the oldest
and biggest newspapers in Saudi Arabia. Kashoki had grown up
(11:59):
among a social elite and considered himself a moderate, but
over time he developed a reputation in the Middle East
for speaking truth to power. Speaking out cost him several jobs.
He was fired from Almadina for publishing pieces that were
critical of the Saudi regime, supporting women's rights to drive,
or blowing the whistle on corruption among the religious police.
(12:23):
Kaushoki then worked for Saudi ambassadors and diplomats, living between Washington,
d C. And Saudi Arabia. This way he was able
to maintain his elite social status in the kingdom, and
then in the Arab spring erupted across the Middle East.
It's the first Arab revolution of three or it will
(12:44):
be that people were fearless, but that they were joyous deposed.
Egypt eighteen day revolution defies all expectations. Protesters across Tunisia, Libya, Egypt,
Syria and Bahrain used social media to nice the masses
and take to the streets. In turn, many leaders in
the region began to heavily surveil social media in order
(13:07):
to curtail public discourse and dissent. A new industry developed
to keep up with government's demand to surveil. The press
was a major target. The Committee to Protect Journalists has
reported that at the end of more than three hundred
and sixty journalists, which is increase over around the world.
(13:28):
Are currently imprisoned, either charged with crimes against the state
like treason, or their paper of record charged with libel,
or even a personal matter exposed if illegal in their country,
like committing adultery. Journalism such a critical component at the
outset of the Arab Spring has become one of its
(13:48):
long term casual. For the very first time, a lot
of the main television channels in Egypt are directly owned
by the Egyptian military. This is new. You only need
to target a handful of journalists before the rest of
them are in line. Enjoying the episode, make sure to
subscribe to Shoot the Messenger Espionage Murder and Pegasus spyware.
(14:12):
You can find exiles Shoot the Messenger anywhere you get
your podcasts. Okay, let's get back to the episode. Following
the Arab Spring in two thousand and eleven, authorities across
North Africa and the Middle East increased online censorship and
took over broadcast networks and media companies. Revolution did not
(14:32):
come to Saudi Arabia, but in Saudi Arabia got a
new leader, now a thirty one, an astonishing rights to
power appears complete. They call him MBS. He's young, popular
and promising more change than these country's ever seen. The
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, commonly referred to as MBS,
(14:55):
initially spoke of reforms. He allowed women to drive and
attend sporting events. But while MBS endorsed some social reform,
he crushed any type of political reform or opposition. Here's
a clip of Jamal ka Shogi commenting on the new leadership,
taken from an interview he did with Global News. I
(15:16):
have fixed freelings about that. I'm very much supportive for
his reform, for his social reform, but in the same
time I immediately say he doesn't need to disintimidation. Mohammed
bin Samon took the new social media playbook to a
new level in Saudi Arabia. He worked closely with authorities
(15:36):
to watch, target and silence any opposition, either discrediting opponents
and complex media campaigns or arresting them and sometimes their
family members as well. Kahoki's friends advised him to be careful.
It was sad to me, but it is not that
(15:57):
I time to shave MBS and his media is our
singled out independent journalists after Koshogi openly questioned the Saudi
regime support for the newly elected American President Donald Trump
on Twitter. Authorities told Koshogi to stay offline in two
thousand sixteen because he said a negative opinion about electing
(16:17):
President Donald Trump. The Saudi authority did most like he
speaking frankly and ask him to sit down at home,
not to write anything. Most to a bear almost under
house arrested in the summer of two thousand seventeen, Jamak
Kashogi decided it was time to leave his home country
(16:40):
of Saudi Arabia. What iver ner space I had was
getting nerwer So I just decided to leave before I
just do it. Sixty years old and they want to
enjoy life and they want to be three to speak
for my country. Kashoki continued his reporting, but he never
considered himself a dissident. Jammal did not leave to criticize,
(17:02):
only just for a sick of criticize. Jam l was
of domestic about future of his country. He loved his country,
but he loved to be identified as in Saogia and Arabs.
Kashoki went to d C and began writing Our Beds
for the Washington Post. Kashogi put more than six thousand
miles between himself and the Crown Prince, and thought he
(17:25):
would start a new chapter, one where he could be
free to speak his mind. Hanan allowed her remembers the
day Kaushoki arrived in the United States. I was in
London in this day, operating my flights. Immediately I called
to him to chicken him. I was so happy, and
(17:45):
I did tell him something and I believe in it.
I said, make use of your freedom. Speak up, And
Kashoki did speak up. He used his new platform in
the United States to comment on his home country and
Middle Eastern politics, and his first columns for The Washington Post,
Kashogi wrote, quote Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince is acting like Putin,
(18:09):
and quote Saudi Arabia wasn't always this repressive. Now it's unbearable.
As Jamaka Shogi worked in exile, his fan base grew
to over a million followers on Twitter. Saudi has an
extremely active Twitter base. There's data showing that more than
seventy of Saudis are Twitter users. Even in ocean away
(18:32):
from Saudi Arabia Jamaica, Shogi still knew he had to
be cautious. He avoided going to Saudi embassies and would
tell his fellow exiled friends to avoid them too, But
he wasn't scared. As Hanan would describe, he was trying
to be careful, but he wasn't scared for his life.
He never come back home and the books that change
(18:53):
fifty chin in the door I used to do before
we go to sleep. Kashoki got comfortable with his new
life in exile, but he was homesick. He wanted to
build a more permanent home and turned to Istanbul, Turkey,
a mix between east and West, closer to his home country,
but what Kashogi considered a safe enough distance. We agree.
(19:14):
You have to buy a fleft in the stumble, to
get a passport and to get a shelter from the
Turkish authority. Moving a Turkey this is where things got
a little more complicated. Well, Jamal's personal life was more
complex than we knew before he died. He had two relationships.
(19:37):
One was a longer relationship and he was married and
that was Hanan. And the second relationship that we knew
more about was his recent fiance Hatija in Turkey, so
the two women did not know each other. During a
(19:58):
trip to Istanbul, a friend entroduce Koshogi to a Turkish scholar,
Hatija Sindas. Around the same time, Kashoki married Hanan in
a religious Muslim ceremony and Washington d c he began
dating Hatija and Istanbul and Hanan didn't know about Hadija,
and Atisha didn't know about Hanan, and most people, honestly,
(20:21):
even his good friends, did not know about Hanan. We're
not here to focus on Koshogi's romantic endeavors. He's not
here to explain himself to us or to the women
in his life. But it's important to know because to
understand how Koshoki died, we need to unpack the logistical
details around the engagement to Turkish scholar Hatija Sindas because
(20:45):
to get legally married in Turkey, Kashogi needed paperwork, and
to get that paperwork, Kashoki had to go to the
Saudi consulate in Istanbul. On Friday, septem eighteen, Jamal Ko
(21:09):
Shogi didn't make an appointment to visit the Saudi consulate.
He just walked in and to kashogi surprise, he was
greeted warmly. After years of experiencing harassment and intimidation from
the government, which had ultimately forced him to live in exile.
Kaushogi found himself being offered tea by the Saudi officials
in Istanbul. They told him to come back Tuesday, October
(21:32):
two to get the final paperwork. In the last five days,
Kashogi was alive. He lived like a freeman. He traveled
to London for a conference, made plans for the future.
He was emailing his editors at the Washington Post, bloodsapping
with friends across the world, texting with Hanan, and arranging
logistics with Hatch back in Istanbul. The morning of Tuesday
(21:55):
October two, two eighteen, Kashogi met Hatija at an empty
apart minut in his temple one that would be their
new home. CCTV captured the couple holding hands on their
walk to the Saudi consulate. They went together to the
points to look and it's in a quiet, leafy, very
pretty residential area. This is Carlotta Golf, the bureau chief
(22:18):
of the New York Times in is Stumble who reported
on the Jamaica Shogi case. He handed her his bones
and goes in, and so she waited outside. It was
one four pm when Kashogi entered the consulate and then
that was the last, only one sort of thing um,
and then she's hanging around for hours after until finally
(22:42):
it's clear that concerts closed and she asks the god.
They say there's no one here. She asks the police
and they say everyone's gone. And that's when she started
and it calls to people. Her teacher made many calls
that night, including some to journalists, which is how Carlotta
got the tip. Because Shogi had disappeared from the Saudi consulate.
(23:05):
The next day, I went up to consulate and that's
where I ran into her teacha and she was sort
of still there, pacing sidewalk, and she'd been there all
that previous night, and then um was outstanding outside the
whole one next day, and I was the first interview
she gave in. But actually when she saw me, she
(23:26):
just started to open up the society dissidents who wouldn't
go near a Saudi concert or embassy. I knew there
were stories of previous kidnappings. I was thinking he might
have been taken out in the trunk of a car,
and I was imagining she had been taken to an airport,
private airport, and already deport or renditioned as the word
(23:50):
goes what happened from Jamaica security camera captured the last
time journalist Jamaica Shogi was seen a lot. The group
of senators is also written to trigger an investigation. The
State Department says that is premature. Dana Priest remembers the
(24:12):
day Jamaka Shogi went missing. My mind kept flashing back
to the two of us. We were seated around this
gigantic empty table, very beautiful white tent, white tablecloth. That
face kept coming back to me, and I just kept saying,
what in the hell could have happened in there? You know,
in no way could I have imagined what was happening.
(24:36):
Mm hmm yeah. As news of Kashogi's disappearance spread across
the world, local reporters on the scene in Istanbul, including
Carlotta Gal, We're working together to get more information, but
none of us had any idea of what really had happened.
We pieced together what happened, almost like who done it?
(24:58):
For one week, Jamaka Shogi remained unaccounted for, the Saudi
government evaded questions about his disappearance. It was as if
he had vanished into thin air. And then Turkish intelligence
released secret tapes. So We've been able to piece together
the last minutes of Kashogi's life. Be warned, it's quite explicit.
(25:20):
Major breaking news this morning, A jaw dropping exclusive on
the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamaka Shogi. New footage
that is flat out shocking. Lying in white inside was
a Saudi hit squad. The transcript indicates noises as people
set upon KOI can be heard saying I can't breathe.
(25:42):
Kashogi was then injected with a sedative and suffocated with
a plastic bag brought with them an autopsies expert and
a bone sawed to put the body in a bug
no too heavy, very cool. Kagi was allegedly beheaded and
dismembered limb by Limb, apparent leader of the team. May
at least three phone calls during the murder to a
(26:03):
number of Turkish officials identify as being in the Saudi
Royal court. The thing is done, It's done. It is
possible that Jamal's body was transported back on on one
of the planes. A lot of meat was bought for
a barbecue that took place in the console's garden just
after the murder took place, and that the theory being
(26:25):
that Jamal's body was mixed with this meat and incinerated
at a very high temperature. And it's still kind of
appalls me that we were standing there in the street
outside this building where this unbelievable murder had already occurred,
you know. And I still think of that of Paul
(26:47):
her dj to think that she was just standing there
while he was being hacked to death inside. And I'm
sure she's still thinks about every day. Koshoki's murder caused
an international uproar. The grizzly details came out because Turkish
intelligence admitted that they had been bugging the Saudi consulate.
(27:11):
The Turk shared the tapes with the u N so
the world would know what had happened to Jamal ka Shogi.
Investigations by both the u N and the CIA unequivocally
linked Kashoki's murder with direct orders from inside the Saudi Kingdom.
We have breaking news this afternoon. Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince
(27:31):
Mommed Bin Salman approved the assassination of Washington Post columns
Jamal ka In. In one of Kashi's last columns for
the Washington Post, he wrote, what the Arab world needs
most is free expression. It has been four years since
Kashoki's murder, and the link to the Crown Prince is
just the tip of the iceberg. That's after the break
(27:59):
after or his murder, there were a number of roundups
of Saudis whose numbers appeared in the phones of people
who were around Jamal. But I believe the Saudis picked
up and in this case detained for months and months
people who were in contact with some of the people
(28:23):
the Jamals in contact with. So you're seeing this kind
of ripple effect. You know, Jamal's in the middle, and
then there's people who followed people who followed Jamal. What
new evidence has revealed and what we are piecing together
on this series is that Jamal ka Shogi was being
tracked more deliberately than anyone ever imagined. Several of the
(28:44):
people that he was in touching where surveyed by Pegasus.
Pegasus has been linked to human rights abuses on ethical surveillance.
The Pegasus spy where made by Israeli company and s
O Group, has been used to target journalist, dissidents, and
activists around The Pegasus spyware it is the most sophisticated
spyware made to date. It was created by an Israeli
(29:06):
tech company. It's marketed to governments as a way to target,
track and capture criminals and terrorists. But our investigation shows
that many confirmed targets of Pegasus are not criminals or terrorists.
The big question remains, did Jamal ka Shogi have Pegasus
on his phone? We may never be able to answer
(29:26):
that questions phones are still with Turkish authorities more than
four years after his death, but what we can do
is examined the lives and the phones of those closest
to him. We all obviously had an interest in knowing
whether Pegasus was used in any way to surveil, track
(29:47):
and then aid the killers in murdering Jamal ka Shogi.
Dana Priest from the Washington Post as one of dozens
of journalists working on the Pegasus project, a coalition of
journalists and activist that uncovers who has been infected with
and surveilled by Pegasus, and together they found a list
of confirmed cases, a list of phone numbers. Danna Priest
(30:11):
was focused on finding out if any of them were
connected to Jamal Kashogi. I drew a big circle of
his friends and tried to get as many phone numbers
that we could and we found about ten people. And
then a colleague of mine uh here at the post
had was able to match a number that was in
(30:33):
the database and was known to be associated with him,
which was Hanan a Lotter. At that time, Hanan was
really still in the background. Dana priests learned about Hanana
Lotter three years after the death of Kashogi. How could
Hanan's experiences reveal new information about the plot to murder
(30:58):
Jamal Kashogi. Let's rewind to five months before the murder
of Jamaica Shogy April. They took me to a horrible
place in the border of Dubai called Allawire. I didn't
know where I am because they blinded me and they
han'dcuffed me. It was very high security place. I've never
(31:22):
seen it in my life. And they took sample from
my d n A from my mouth, They take a
photo for me from different angle, They take a finger
brand and then they took me to this room for investigation.
When Hannan was taken by ui A government officials, they
were looking for something on Hanan's phone during her interrogation.
(31:45):
Till this moment, I don't know why they've taken me.
I came to know why they took me because they
have my phone with them in another room. They have
my password, and he sent me a message and they
came back to me and showed me and they said.
In the middle of Hanan's interrogation, she received a text
(32:05):
from Jama Kashogi. The officials saw the text and their
questions took a different turn. They asked about Koshoki's colleagues,
his friends, his plans. They wanted to know what he
was working on and who he was working with. This
interrogation continued into the morning. After seventeen hours, she was
(32:25):
given back her devices and taken home. They put me
on the house arrisk. They have my boss porst. They
belectlisted me and my family. My entire family could don't fly,
and after that I couldn't know how to communicate with him.
Amarati officials. Detaining a flight attendant in what appears to
be a favorite of the Saudi government is a critical moment.
(32:48):
Hanan understood that this was a bold act, but didn't
know what it all meant for her or for Kashogi.
After she was detained, she did not tell Jamal right away.
She didn't want to tell him on the phone, but
she didn't know who was listening to her, how they
knew where to come and get her, and you know,
so she was so afraid to talk to him and
(33:10):
tell him what had happened. Hanan was under house arrest
for several weeks after she was detained and interrogated by
the Emeraldi intelligence and could not meet Jamal ka Shogi
as they had planned in Washington, d C. But she
didn't know how to tell him what had happened. Jamal
went to airport Washington, DC airport was waiting for me
(33:31):
in the airport. Suddenly he called me in Dubai. He
told me, Hannan, I'm waiting for you and airport where
are you? I said, General, I'm not coming. He said why.
I said so, I tost me just I told him
I could to understand what's is my situation. Hanan's Code
is the name of an Egyptian actress. Both hananaka Shogi
(33:54):
shared a love for Egyptian cinema and are very familiar
with the star suart hostnik eat so what Hostne is
often called the Cinderella of Egyptian cinema. In two thousand
one swat host Ny fell from an apartment balcony in
(34:15):
London and died. Many believed she had ties to Egyptian
intelligence officials and that she was pushed from the balcony.
So what host me was an nonced code word to
indicate she didn't trust their line of communication. And he said,
so I tost me. He understood, He said to Hannah
(34:35):
and you, I would protect you. They kept changing ways
of communicating in an effort not to get surveilled. They
used all sorts of things at different times. So signal EMU,
what's that? A couple other things. They came and went.
After two months on house arrest, Hanan was released and
(34:57):
got her passport back. She was back to work okay
and went on a trip to the United States to
meet Kashog. They had plans to get married. We got
to marriage in June two thousand eighteen. They got married
here in Washington where Jamal had a house an apartment
in McLean, Virginia, and they were married in Islamics ceremony
(35:19):
only in part to protect her and all. They didn't
want to have any record in the civil courts that
she even existed here in the United States. Hanan Kashi
were married at a mosque, but they decided not to
get a civil license as Hanan did not have residents
in the US at the time. The summer of eighteen,
(35:39):
Hannan tried to put her detention behind her. She was
cautious but not paranoid. You think they are watching us
in a hotel lobby or in our room, but she
didn't move when we was in our room, Jamal unplug
the TV. This is what is the highest conscience for
(36:01):
him about buying or watching or something. Once I remember
he was trying to understood open in my bubile in
case I'm an our house in Virginia and his mother
there and they need to go around for my shopping
or something. He tried to install Uber and he was
going to put his credit card to number. Then he
(36:24):
deleted and they said why deleted German. He said, no,
if they get the phone from you and Dubai Hannah,
they can get get into my account. Hannan did not
know what to do after Kashoki was murdered, and occasionally
Amaradi intelligence officers will come by and ask questions, and
(36:46):
then Jamal's killed and she has nowhere to go. She's
frying for her life. She can't live in the U
a e. Anymore, So she comes to the United States
to talk to her lawyer, and her lawyers she just
just stay here and we'll apply for political asylum. And
so she is literally a forgotten woman. Here's this woman
(37:08):
that has potentially so much evidence to share in her
devices about Jamal's travels and who might have been tracking them,
and who might have been complicit with the Saudias, and
trying to figure out, you know, what his travel plans were,
what his other plans were, what he was thinking of doing,
and nobody had ever contacted her. So I took your
(37:31):
advices to a second group that does a lot of forensics,
Citizen Lab. So we worked with Bill. I'm Bill Marzac,
a senior research fellow at the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab.
I study government surveillance, basically trying to determine which governments
are hacking activists, dissidents, civil society and trying to defend
(37:53):
civil society against this this hacking. Bill Marzac is one
of the first people to discover Pegasus. He would need
to look at Hanan's phone. Who when I've been approached
first to cool from Washington post they asking me to corporate.
The exciplent to me, is they need my devices? I
did hand it over. Bill has experience reverse engineering Pegasus
(38:17):
and knew exactly what to look for examining Hanan's phone.
That's pretty much the only thing you can do when
you get a sample of something that might be interesting
spyware is you have to run it yourself and see
what happens. And I was monitoring the phone's Internet traffic,
so I was seeing everything that came into the phone
that left the phone. When I was monitoring the Internet traffic,
a bunch of weird traffic going to the spiral website
(38:40):
like it was downloading stuff. It was uploading stuff. Uh,
And that was sort of the first key that Oh wow,
so far as closed, but this connectivity is still happening
and it's sending information back. Pegasus can bypass any encryption
because it uses a loophole in a phone software to
be an incognito but active parasite. When Pegasus is on
a phone, Bill can see the evidence of it right away.
(39:04):
You can turn on the microphone to snoop in on
conversations happening around the device. You can take pictures through
the webcam, you can get passwords, you can get WhatsApp messages,
you can get signal messages, you can record calls, you
can track GPS, you can do other things with the
phone sensors. It was full access to the phone. And
there was something else they knew from the types of
(39:26):
text messages she had been sent, which had already been
identified as Pegasus bait, that they had tried to target
her uh several times. So why did the Emeraldi intelligence
officers detain Hanan a ladder and question her overnight. It
turns out they had been trying to trick Hanan into
(39:46):
downloading Pegasus herself. She had received random texts in the
months prior to her detention, but she never clicked on
the links. The bait to get Hanan to infect her
phone in two thousand eight teen were things like, you
have a package downtown at this address, Click here and
tell us that you want us to send it to you.
(40:08):
There was a message from her sister saying, oh, here's
a photo, click this to see the photo. And then
there was one saying you have a bouquet of flowers
waiting for you. Click this and we will get them
to you. Then Dana priest had to tell her non
the truth that she had spy wear on her phone,
(40:30):
and that she'd had it since April, since the day
she had been detained. When I recalled the moment this happened,
I took and I feel like my life force in
in a green affront of them. I'm talking about the
people miss use this technology, the be able who humped
(40:51):
my husband and humped me. The Hamaradi intelligence officials had
full access to Hanan's phone every part of her life
for five months before Koshoi was killed. No matter the
steps Hanan had taken, the codes she had used, or
the length she had gone to protect Koshoki, they could
(41:11):
still watch her and they did. I was feeling very bad,
and I'm still feeling very bad. Hanan is still trying
to get Koshogis devices from the Turkish authorities. In addition
to Hanana Lader, others close to Jamal Ka Shogi have
also discovered Pegasus on their phones. Every detail of their
digital footprint was surveiled, including Koshogi's Turkish fiance teacher sings
(41:37):
I blamed myself a lot, and Kashogi's close friend Omar
Abdulla ziz A fellow outspoken Saudi journalist living in exile
in Canada. All of their correspondences were monitored. The hacken
of my phone played the major role what happened to
(41:57):
jama that. On the next episode of Shoot the Messenger,
we find out how Omar Abduaziz found out he was
being hacked and discovered more than four hundred of his
text messages with Jamaica Shogi were compromised. We'll go into
how this technology works and how Pegasus was first discovered.
(42:19):
On this series, we investigate how Pegasus byware came to be,
what its capabilities are, and ask how does it implicate
ordinary people. Over the next nine episodes will follow the
thread of Pegasus to understand how it was intended to
be used, how it's abused, and the impact of its surveillance.
Pegasus spyware has been a boom for the cyber surveillance
(42:42):
industry and it's impacted the global economy. If you live
in the US and have mutual funds or pension, your
money could be supporting the organization that makes Pegasus spyware.
You've heard about Jamaica Shogu, but there are so many
others others who have been targeted and hacked, blackmailed, or
humiliated who have been hunted and killed. Some of the
(43:06):
names you may recognize, like Emmanuel mccron, the president of France,
or Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon. And then there
are stories you haven't heard about. I know, I don't
long her felt safe. Do you know if they got
the information that they were looking for. I don't think
they were looking for any information. I think it was
a form of psychological warfare. I would get a phone
(43:29):
call from someone, but never anyone on the end of
the phone. They would try to track my GPS. It
does seem like it's always your favorite people who are
being hacked and followed. We have to be way more
careful even about things like this. How do I know
who you are? It's kind of like the nuclear era
before there were nuclear arms treaties. Are you saying that
(43:50):
you think these texts I'm getting are Pegasus? Do you
think I'm being targeted? Oh? For sure? Now it don't
makes sense that it's on season one of Shoot the Messenger.
Shoot the Messenger is a production of Exile Content Studio.
We are distributed by PRX, hosted and produced by me
(44:11):
Rose Red with Nando Vila, Sabiniansen, Nora Kibness, Zak Kirsch,
and Anna Isabel Octavio. Written by Me rose Red with
story editing by Nando Vila, Danny Sadia, Jen Atschell, Zak Kirsch,
and Rachel Ward. Production assistant by Avro Saspatis Andrea Zavaios,
(44:32):
Jen Shipman, Stella Emmett and Aaron Reese. Special thanks to
Sonic Union and Gail and Matthew Reid. Sound design and
mixing by Patti Kens Daniel Batista, Overseas audio at Exile
Content Studio. Executive producers are myself rose Red with Nando Vila,
(44:53):
Carmen Bradol, and Isaac Lee. For more information on the
status of journal US and freedom of the press, visit
the Committee to Protect Journalists at CPUJ dot org. To
learn more about Exile and our other podcasts and films,
visit Exile content dot com. The next episode is out now.
(45:15):
Subscribe so you can hear every twist and turn of
this ten part series. You can find Exiles, Shoot the Messenger,
Espionage Murder, and Pegasus Spyware anywhere you get your podcasts.
Hey, they're Sacred Scandal listeners. I'm Nando Vila. We're taking
over the feed to share a pretty wild story with you.
It's called Shoot the Messenger, Espionage, murder and Pegasus Spyware.
I've been working on this project for over two years.
Shoot the Messenger is a new bi weekly serialized podcast
from Exile Content. Season one is all about Pegasus spyware.
(00:25):
Pegasus is the world's most sophisticated spyware to date. It
can give full access to your phone. That means everything,
your texts, emails, phone calls, camera, microphone everything. How did
this spyware come to be? We'll investigate how it works,
who makes it, and the industry booming around it. An
(00:47):
episode one, which you're about to hear, will start with
the murder of journalist Jamal Kashogi and uncover how Pegasus
was found on the phones of many in his inner circle.
Here is Shoot the Messenger. Dubai is known for luxury,
(01:07):
high end shopping and a bump in nightlife. The heat
and the United Arab Emirates can be oppressive, but in
springtime Dubai can be pleasant. You can expect sunshine with
clear skies, balmy but not too hot. It was a
(01:29):
night like this on ap when Hanan, a latter, landed
in her hometown of Dubai. After twenty two years as
a flight attendant with Emirates Airlines, the routine had long
turned to muscle memory. On this Saturday night, Hanan had
just finished a long flight from Toronto. Her shift was
over and she was tired and ready to go home.
(01:53):
Hanan would have been wearing the standard Amarani uniform, a
fitted cream colored blazer with red piping with signature red
pill box hat. And this is where I like to
imagine Hanan and red pumps clacking along in the manner
which is distinctive to crew and pilots no matter how
often you fly, pulling a black roll away behind her,
always black, and maybe she had one of those squarish
(02:16):
topebags trapped on top of her roll away. Hannan had
deboarded a plane, exited the gate area, and walked through
immigration at Dubai's International Airport thousands of times, but this
time something was different. And this immigration people they know
(02:37):
me by name. He normally took my passport to speak
to me about my flight, but in this case, he
said Hannan within the side. The system is down and
I feel there is something wrong. Hannan rushed into a
nearby bathroom and locked herself in install She called the
person she always called once she landed at home, her sister,
(03:00):
and I told you, my sister, there's something go and
go on. Hanan had a terrible feeling that the Emiadi
men hanging around immigration had something to do with her fiance.
Her fiance was a journalist known for speaking out on
human rights, and in the UAE, loudly defending human rights
could get you detained or even jailed. Hanan's fiance had
(03:23):
already told her he worried about the way his work
would impact her life. He gave me the engagement drink,
and when he put the rink in my hand, he said,
Hannan and his kids, I might be a curse in
new life. I might create a problem for you. Hanan
wasn't involved in politics, She hadn't had any run ins
(03:45):
with the police. But sitting in that bathroom stall in
the Dubai airport, her fiance's words echoed in her head.
I remember this wound. I was very scared. She gathered
herself and left the stall. When Hanan walked out, of
the bathroom. She was quickly flanked by Emirati intelligence officers.
(04:08):
One of the member woke was us quietly and the
behavior shift. I realized you just have to comply with Jim.
Hanan was unhandcuffed, blindfolded, put in a car, and taken
to an interrogation cell. I cannot express to you what
(04:28):
is my feeling is this time the band in my
stomach from the bannock. The intelligence officers demanded she hand
over all of her devices, a laptop and two Android phones,
and that to share her passwords. She was taken to
a remote location where she was questioned overnight and into
the morning. Seventeen hours later, the intelligence officers returned Hanan's
(04:53):
devices and took her home. Hanan wanted to resume the
life she had built for herself, leading a cabin crew
across trans atlantic flights, traveling and visiting family. She looked
forward to her wedding ceremony in Washington, d C. Just
a couple of months away. But after she was detained,
everything changed. It turns out that while Hanan was being questioned,
(05:18):
the Emirati intelligence officers were executing a much more effective
plan to get information from her. I never had my
normal life back. That's because when Amiradi intelligence officers had
Hanan's phone, they installed a highly sophisticated piece of spywear,
and as Hanan went about her life, the spy where
(05:39):
had unknowingly turned her into an informant, providing a direct
window to the person she cared about. Most fears are
growing over the fate of missing Saudi journalist Jamaka, who
vanished after entering the Saudi Arabian consulate in Restrountable details
(06:01):
are pouring in about the likely death of this Washington
Post columnist because and they are just simply horrified. Jamal
Kashogi Hannan's newly what husband, the Saudi journalist who had
been living in Washington, d C. In South exile writing
op eds for the Washington Post, was assassinated just months
after her detention. We never thought me under Jomal, they
(06:26):
will be extremists to their level to kill him, and
this terrible way. When Kashoki disappeared from the Saudi consulate
in it would be weeks before the world learned what
occurred in his final hours. But it's taken years for
us to learn he wasn't just killed, he was systematically
(06:46):
hunted in a way we have never seen before. And
what we now know is that the first weapon used
against Kashogi was digital and it's called Pegasus. Pegasus is
probably the most advanced piece of spy where it is
effectively the most invasive form of surveillance imaginable licenses this
software to intelligence and law enforcement agencies. Worldwime tool can
(07:10):
also be deployed by a government to crush descent. Pecasus
is a kind of software that can be used to
hijack your phone. It's a military grade spying software. It's
this magic thing. It can infect your phone, and once
it does, it's inside of your phone and it's like
a little worm and it can burrow into every piece
(07:33):
of equipment in your phone. This is Dana Priest. She
covers national security for the Washington Post, the same newspaper
as Jamal Kashogi. It can turn the microphone on, it
can turn the camera on. It can go into all
of your photos, all of your emails, even your deleted messages,
(07:54):
and scoop them up and take them somewhere seven and
you'll never know it. You'll never know it. Pegasus implicates
several countries and multiple government agencies. And unites unlikely allies.
It's part of a massive and mostly unregulated, multibillion dollar
global industry. Battlefields aren't physical anymore. They aren't far away
(08:19):
across oceans or borders. They're in our pocket. And the
threats that journalists face as they seek out and reveal
uncomfortable truths are threats that we are all vulnerable to,
no matter where we live, who we know, and what
we do. Jamaica Showgi's assassination reveals that journalists are the
(08:39):
canaries in the coal mine these days. You don't have
to be a high profile journalists or a dissident or
a famous truth teller to get swept up. If you've
ever had a phone, if you've ever had a secret,
you're at risk too. I'm Nando Vila and I'm Rose
Reed and this is Shoot the Messenger, a new investigative
(09:03):
reporting podcast from Exile Content Studio. Every season, we investigate
one international news story. You may have heard the headlines.
This is the deep dive. Nando and I started the
series with one question, what is the biggest threat to
journalists today? We put up a bulletin board and stuck
a pen for every journalist who was threatened or assassinated,
(09:26):
or if they had a family member who was threatened
or assassinated directly because of their work in the last
five years, and we found one link that kept coming
up again and again from Mexico to d C to
the United Arab Emirates Pegasus. How did this spyware come
to be? How does it work? And how vulnerable are you?
(09:49):
Over the course of ten episodes, we're doing a special
partnership with the Committee to Protect Journalists on espionage, murder
and Pegasus spyware put in the hell could have happened
in there? Which he's together what happened? Almost like who
done it? Given one instance of an attack, can we
trace that to other instances in other countries as well?
(10:11):
Regarding the spying and the Bagatis, we did not know
they did drag through me because they do and the
closest to hunt him they started with me. Episode one
Jamaica Shogi, a story told in three parts his life,
(10:32):
death and betrayal. Jamal was a great man as a
journalist and as a husband. Hanana latter first met Jamalka
Shogi at a conference in two thousand and nine. Jamal
is a kind of person we can say is not
in the right or left. He's in the middle in
(10:54):
his opinion and his vision because he's very open minded.
Any bad ground can sit down with Jamal, any race,
any doluji and do you have a different view home him?
But you will walk away with a smile. Nana Kashoki
captain touch and they are friends for almost a decade
before their romance began. I met Jamal first time with
(11:17):
was a nine in Dubai where I grown up and
I remember very well. We had a conversation over two hours.
He was talking about the Middle East politics and form
policy of US toward the Middle East, and we realize
we are like a twin and we continue. And I
(11:39):
always used to give him a feedback in any article
in the published opinion. I used to give him a
feedback and he was always waiting for me, calling me up,
discussing with me. Kahoki spent most of his career as
a writer and editor for Amadina, one of the oldest
and biggest newspapers in Saudi Arabia. Kashoki had grown up
(11:59):
among a social elite and considered himself a moderate, but
over time he developed a reputation in the Middle East
for speaking truth to power. Speaking out cost him several jobs.
He was fired from Almadina for publishing pieces that were
critical of the Saudi regime, supporting women's rights to drive,
or blowing the whistle on corruption among the religious police.
(12:23):
Kaushoki then worked for Saudi ambassadors and diplomats, living between Washington,
d C. And Saudi Arabia. This way he was able
to maintain his elite social status in the kingdom, and
then in the Arab spring erupted across the Middle East.
It's the first Arab revolution of three or it will
(12:44):
be that people were fearless, but that they were joyous deposed.
Egypt eighteen day revolution defies all expectations. Protesters across Tunisia, Libya, Egypt,
Syria and Bahrain used social media to nice the masses
and take to the streets. In turn, many leaders in
the region began to heavily surveil social media in order
(13:07):
to curtail public discourse and dissent. A new industry developed
to keep up with government's demand to surveil. The press
was a major target. The Committee to Protect Journalists has
reported that at the end of more than three hundred
and sixty journalists, which is increase over around the world.
(13:28):
Are currently imprisoned, either charged with crimes against the state
like treason, or their paper of record charged with libel,
or even a personal matter exposed if illegal in their country,
like committing adultery. Journalism such a critical component at the
outset of the Arab Spring has become one of its
(13:48):
long term casual. For the very first time, a lot
of the main television channels in Egypt are directly owned
by the Egyptian military. This is new. You only need
to target a handful of journalists before the rest of
them are in line. Enjoying the episode, make sure to
subscribe to Shoot the Messenger Espionage Murder and Pegasus spyware.
(14:12):
You can find exiles Shoot the Messenger anywhere you get
your podcasts. Okay, let's get back to the episode. Following
the Arab Spring in two thousand and eleven, authorities across
North Africa and the Middle East increased online censorship and
took over broadcast networks and media companies. Revolution did not
(14:32):
come to Saudi Arabia, but in Saudi Arabia got a
new leader, now a thirty one, an astonishing rights to
power appears complete. They call him MBS. He's young, popular
and promising more change than these country's ever seen. The
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, commonly referred to as MBS,
(14:55):
initially spoke of reforms. He allowed women to drive and
attend sporting events. But while MBS endorsed some social reform,
he crushed any type of political reform or opposition. Here's
a clip of Jamal ka Shogi commenting on the new leadership,
taken from an interview he did with Global News. I
(15:16):
have fixed freelings about that. I'm very much supportive for
his reform, for his social reform, but in the same
time I immediately say he doesn't need to disintimidation. Mohammed
bin Samon took the new social media playbook to a
new level in Saudi Arabia. He worked closely with authorities
(15:36):
to watch, target and silence any opposition, either discrediting opponents
and complex media campaigns or arresting them and sometimes their
family members as well. Kahoki's friends advised him to be careful.
It was sad to me, but it is not that
(15:57):
I time to shave MBS and his media is our
singled out independent journalists after Koshogi openly questioned the Saudi
regime support for the newly elected American President Donald Trump
on Twitter. Authorities told Koshogi to stay offline in two
thousand sixteen because he said a negative opinion about electing
(16:17):
President Donald Trump. The Saudi authority did most like he
speaking frankly and ask him to sit down at home,
not to write anything. Most to a bear almost under
house arrested in the summer of two thousand seventeen, Jamak
Kashogi decided it was time to leave his home country
(16:40):
of Saudi Arabia. What iver ner space I had was
getting nerwer So I just decided to leave before I
just do it. Sixty years old and they want to
enjoy life and they want to be three to speak
for my country. Kashoki continued his reporting, but he never
considered himself a dissident. Jammal did not leave to criticize,
(17:02):
only just for a sick of criticize. Jam l was
of domestic about future of his country. He loved his country,
but he loved to be identified as in Saogia and Arabs.
Kashoki went to d C and began writing Our Beds
for the Washington Post. Kashogi put more than six thousand
miles between himself and the Crown Prince, and thought he
(17:25):
would start a new chapter, one where he could be
free to speak his mind. Hanan allowed her remembers the
day Kaushoki arrived in the United States. I was in
London in this day, operating my flights. Immediately I called
to him to chicken him. I was so happy, and
(17:45):
I did tell him something and I believe in it.
I said, make use of your freedom. Speak up, And
Kashoki did speak up. He used his new platform in
the United States to comment on his home country and
Middle Eastern politics, and his first columns for The Washington Post,
Kashogi wrote, quote Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince is acting like Putin,
(18:09):
and quote Saudi Arabia wasn't always this repressive. Now it's unbearable.
As Jamaka Shogi worked in exile, his fan base grew
to over a million followers on Twitter. Saudi has an
extremely active Twitter base. There's data showing that more than
seventy of Saudis are Twitter users. Even in ocean away
(18:32):
from Saudi Arabia Jamaica, Shogi still knew he had to
be cautious. He avoided going to Saudi embassies and would
tell his fellow exiled friends to avoid them too, But
he wasn't scared. As Hanan would describe, he was trying
to be careful, but he wasn't scared for his life.
He never come back home and the books that change
(18:53):
fifty chin in the door I used to do before
we go to sleep. Kashoki got comfortable with his new
life in exile, but he was homesick. He wanted to
build a more permanent home and turned to Istanbul, Turkey,
a mix between east and West, closer to his home country,
but what Kashogi considered a safe enough distance. We agree.
(19:14):
You have to buy a fleft in the stumble, to
get a passport and to get a shelter from the
Turkish authority. Moving a Turkey this is where things got
a little more complicated. Well, Jamal's personal life was more
complex than we knew before he died. He had two relationships.
(19:37):
One was a longer relationship and he was married and
that was Hanan. And the second relationship that we knew
more about was his recent fiance Hatija in Turkey, so
the two women did not know each other. During a
(19:58):
trip to Istanbul, a friend entroduce Koshogi to a Turkish scholar,
Hatija Sindas. Around the same time, Kashoki married Hanan in
a religious Muslim ceremony and Washington d c he began
dating Hatija and Istanbul and Hanan didn't know about Hadija,
and Atisha didn't know about Hanan, and most people, honestly,
(20:21):
even his good friends, did not know about Hanan. We're
not here to focus on Koshogi's romantic endeavors. He's not
here to explain himself to us or to the women
in his life. But it's important to know because to
understand how Koshoki died, we need to unpack the logistical
details around the engagement to Turkish scholar Hatija Sindas because
(20:45):
to get legally married in Turkey, Kashogi needed paperwork, and
to get that paperwork, Kashoki had to go to the
Saudi consulate in Istanbul. On Friday, septem eighteen, Jamal Ko
(21:09):
Shogi didn't make an appointment to visit the Saudi consulate.
He just walked in and to kashogi surprise, he was
greeted warmly. After years of experiencing harassment and intimidation from
the government, which had ultimately forced him to live in exile.
Kaushogi found himself being offered tea by the Saudi officials
in Istanbul. They told him to come back Tuesday, October
(21:32):
two to get the final paperwork. In the last five days,
Kashogi was alive. He lived like a freeman. He traveled
to London for a conference, made plans for the future.
He was emailing his editors at the Washington Post, bloodsapping
with friends across the world, texting with Hanan, and arranging
logistics with Hatch back in Istanbul. The morning of Tuesday
(21:55):
October two, two eighteen, Kashogi met Hatija at an empty
apart minut in his temple one that would be their
new home. CCTV captured the couple holding hands on their
walk to the Saudi consulate. They went together to the
points to look and it's in a quiet, leafy, very
pretty residential area. This is Carlotta Golf, the bureau chief
(22:18):
of the New York Times in is Stumble who reported
on the Jamaica Shogi case. He handed her his bones
and goes in, and so she waited outside. It was
one four pm when Kashogi entered the consulate and then
that was the last, only one sort of thing um,
and then she's hanging around for hours after until finally
(22:42):
it's clear that concerts closed and she asks the god.
They say there's no one here. She asks the police
and they say everyone's gone. And that's when she started
and it calls to people. Her teacher made many calls
that night, including some to journalists, which is how Carlotta
got the tip. Because Shogi had disappeared from the Saudi consulate.
(23:05):
The next day, I went up to consulate and that's
where I ran into her teacha and she was sort
of still there, pacing sidewalk, and she'd been there all
that previous night, and then um was outstanding outside the
whole one next day, and I was the first interview
she gave in. But actually when she saw me, she
(23:26):
just started to open up the society dissidents who wouldn't
go near a Saudi concert or embassy. I knew there
were stories of previous kidnappings. I was thinking he might
have been taken out in the trunk of a car,
and I was imagining she had been taken to an airport,
private airport, and already deport or renditioned as the word
(23:50):
goes what happened from Jamaica security camera captured the last
time journalist Jamaica Shogi was seen a lot. The group
of senators is also written to trigger an investigation. The
State Department says that is premature. Dana Priest remembers the
(24:12):
day Jamaka Shogi went missing. My mind kept flashing back
to the two of us. We were seated around this
gigantic empty table, very beautiful white tent, white tablecloth. That
face kept coming back to me, and I just kept saying,
what in the hell could have happened in there? You know,
in no way could I have imagined what was happening.
(24:36):
Mm hmm yeah. As news of Kashogi's disappearance spread across
the world, local reporters on the scene in Istanbul, including
Carlotta Gal, We're working together to get more information, but
none of us had any idea of what really had happened.
We pieced together what happened, almost like who done it?
(24:58):
For one week, Jamaka Shogi remained unaccounted for, the Saudi
government evaded questions about his disappearance. It was as if
he had vanished into thin air. And then Turkish intelligence
released secret tapes. So We've been able to piece together
the last minutes of Kashogi's life. Be warned, it's quite explicit.
(25:20):
Major breaking news this morning, A jaw dropping exclusive on
the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamaka Shogi. New footage
that is flat out shocking. Lying in white inside was
a Saudi hit squad. The transcript indicates noises as people
set upon KOI can be heard saying I can't breathe.
(25:42):
Kashogi was then injected with a sedative and suffocated with
a plastic bag brought with them an autopsies expert and
a bone sawed to put the body in a bug
no too heavy, very cool. Kagi was allegedly beheaded and
dismembered limb by Limb, apparent leader of the team. May
at least three phone calls during the murder to a
(26:03):
number of Turkish officials identify as being in the Saudi
Royal court. The thing is done, It's done. It is
possible that Jamal's body was transported back on on one
of the planes. A lot of meat was bought for
a barbecue that took place in the console's garden just
after the murder took place, and that the theory being
(26:25):
that Jamal's body was mixed with this meat and incinerated
at a very high temperature. And it's still kind of
appalls me that we were standing there in the street
outside this building where this unbelievable murder had already occurred,
you know. And I still think of that of Paul
(26:47):
her dj to think that she was just standing there
while he was being hacked to death inside. And I'm
sure she's still thinks about every day. Koshoki's murder caused
an international uproar. The grizzly details came out because Turkish
intelligence admitted that they had been bugging the Saudi consulate.
(27:11):
The Turk shared the tapes with the u N so
the world would know what had happened to Jamal ka Shogi.
Investigations by both the u N and the CIA unequivocally
linked Kashoki's murder with direct orders from inside the Saudi Kingdom.
We have breaking news this afternoon. Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince
(27:31):
Mommed Bin Salman approved the assassination of Washington Post columns
Jamal ka In. In one of Kashi's last columns for
the Washington Post, he wrote, what the Arab world needs
most is free expression. It has been four years since
Kashoki's murder, and the link to the Crown Prince is
just the tip of the iceberg. That's after the break
(27:59):
after or his murder, there were a number of roundups
of Saudis whose numbers appeared in the phones of people
who were around Jamal. But I believe the Saudis picked
up and in this case detained for months and months
people who were in contact with some of the people
(28:23):
the Jamals in contact with. So you're seeing this kind
of ripple effect. You know, Jamal's in the middle, and
then there's people who followed people who followed Jamal. What
new evidence has revealed and what we are piecing together
on this series is that Jamal ka Shogi was being
tracked more deliberately than anyone ever imagined. Several of the
(28:44):
people that he was in touching where surveyed by Pegasus.
Pegasus has been linked to human rights abuses on ethical surveillance.
The Pegasus spy where made by Israeli company and s
O Group, has been used to target journalist, dissidents, and
activists around The Pegasus spyware it is the most sophisticated
spyware made to date. It was created by an Israeli
(29:06):
tech company. It's marketed to governments as a way to target,
track and capture criminals and terrorists. But our investigation shows
that many confirmed targets of Pegasus are not criminals or terrorists.
The big question remains, did Jamal ka Shogi have Pegasus
on his phone? We may never be able to answer
(29:26):
that questions phones are still with Turkish authorities more than
four years after his death, but what we can do
is examined the lives and the phones of those closest
to him. We all obviously had an interest in knowing
whether Pegasus was used in any way to surveil, track
(29:47):
and then aid the killers in murdering Jamal ka Shogi.
Dana Priest from the Washington Post as one of dozens
of journalists working on the Pegasus project, a coalition of
journalists and activist that uncovers who has been infected with
and surveilled by Pegasus, and together they found a list
of confirmed cases, a list of phone numbers. Danna Priest
(30:11):
was focused on finding out if any of them were
connected to Jamal Kashogi. I drew a big circle of
his friends and tried to get as many phone numbers
that we could and we found about ten people. And
then a colleague of mine uh here at the post
had was able to match a number that was in
(30:33):
the database and was known to be associated with him,
which was Hanan a Lotter. At that time, Hanan was
really still in the background. Dana priests learned about Hanana
Lotter three years after the death of Kashogi. How could
Hanan's experiences reveal new information about the plot to murder
(30:58):
Jamal Kashogi. Let's rewind to five months before the murder
of Jamaica Shogy April. They took me to a horrible
place in the border of Dubai called Allawire. I didn't
know where I am because they blinded me and they
han'dcuffed me. It was very high security place. I've never
(31:22):
seen it in my life. And they took sample from
my d n A from my mouth, They take a
photo for me from different angle, They take a finger
brand and then they took me to this room for investigation.
When Hannan was taken by ui A government officials, they
were looking for something on Hanan's phone during her interrogation.
(31:45):
Till this moment, I don't know why they've taken me.
I came to know why they took me because they
have my phone with them in another room. They have
my password, and he sent me a message and they
came back to me and showed me and they said.
In the middle of Hanan's interrogation, she received a text
(32:05):
from Jama Kashogi. The officials saw the text and their
questions took a different turn. They asked about Koshoki's colleagues,
his friends, his plans. They wanted to know what he
was working on and who he was working with. This
interrogation continued into the morning. After seventeen hours, she was
(32:25):
given back her devices and taken home. They put me
on the house arrisk. They have my boss porst. They
belectlisted me and my family. My entire family could don't fly,
and after that I couldn't know how to communicate with him.
Amarati officials. Detaining a flight attendant in what appears to
be a favorite of the Saudi government is a critical moment.
(32:48):
Hanan understood that this was a bold act, but didn't
know what it all meant for her or for Kashogi.
After she was detained, she did not tell Jamal right away.
She didn't want to tell him on the phone, but
she didn't know who was listening to her, how they
knew where to come and get her, and you know,
so she was so afraid to talk to him and
(33:10):
tell him what had happened. Hanan was under house arrest
for several weeks after she was detained and interrogated by
the Emeraldi intelligence and could not meet Jamal ka Shogi
as they had planned in Washington, d C. But she
didn't know how to tell him what had happened. Jamal
went to airport Washington, DC airport was waiting for me
(33:31):
in the airport. Suddenly he called me in Dubai. He
told me, Hannan, I'm waiting for you and airport where
are you? I said, General, I'm not coming. He said why.
I said so, I tost me just I told him
I could to understand what's is my situation. Hanan's Code
is the name of an Egyptian actress. Both hananaka Shogi
(33:54):
shared a love for Egyptian cinema and are very familiar
with the star suart hostnik eat so what Hostne is
often called the Cinderella of Egyptian cinema. In two thousand
one swat host Ny fell from an apartment balcony in
(34:15):
London and died. Many believed she had ties to Egyptian
intelligence officials and that she was pushed from the balcony.
So what host me was an nonced code word to
indicate she didn't trust their line of communication. And he said,
so I tost me. He understood, He said to Hannah
(34:35):
and you, I would protect you. They kept changing ways
of communicating in an effort not to get surveilled. They
used all sorts of things at different times. So signal EMU,
what's that? A couple other things. They came and went.
After two months on house arrest, Hanan was released and
(34:57):
got her passport back. She was back to work okay
and went on a trip to the United States to
meet Kashog. They had plans to get married. We got
to marriage in June two thousand eighteen. They got married
here in Washington where Jamal had a house an apartment
in McLean, Virginia, and they were married in Islamics ceremony
(35:19):
only in part to protect her and all. They didn't
want to have any record in the civil courts that
she even existed here in the United States. Hanan Kashi
were married at a mosque, but they decided not to
get a civil license as Hanan did not have residents
in the US at the time. The summer of eighteen,
(35:39):
Hannan tried to put her detention behind her. She was
cautious but not paranoid. You think they are watching us
in a hotel lobby or in our room, but she
didn't move when we was in our room, Jamal unplug
the TV. This is what is the highest conscience for
(36:01):
him about buying or watching or something. Once I remember
he was trying to understood open in my bubile in
case I'm an our house in Virginia and his mother
there and they need to go around for my shopping
or something. He tried to install Uber and he was
going to put his credit card to number. Then he
(36:24):
deleted and they said why deleted German. He said, no,
if they get the phone from you and Dubai Hannah,
they can get get into my account. Hannan did not
know what to do after Kashoki was murdered, and occasionally
Amaradi intelligence officers will come by and ask questions, and
(36:46):
then Jamal's killed and she has nowhere to go. She's
frying for her life. She can't live in the U
a e. Anymore, So she comes to the United States
to talk to her lawyer, and her lawyers she just
just stay here and we'll apply for political asylum. And
so she is literally a forgotten woman. Here's this woman
(37:08):
that has potentially so much evidence to share in her
devices about Jamal's travels and who might have been tracking them,
and who might have been complicit with the Saudias, and
trying to figure out, you know, what his travel plans were,
what his other plans were, what he was thinking of doing,
and nobody had ever contacted her. So I took your
(37:31):
advices to a second group that does a lot of forensics,
Citizen Lab. So we worked with Bill. I'm Bill Marzac,
a senior research fellow at the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab.
I study government surveillance, basically trying to determine which governments
are hacking activists, dissidents, civil society and trying to defend
(37:53):
civil society against this this hacking. Bill Marzac is one
of the first people to discover Pegasus. He would need
to look at Hanan's phone. Who when I've been approached
first to cool from Washington post they asking me to corporate.
The exciplent to me, is they need my devices? I
did hand it over. Bill has experience reverse engineering Pegasus
(38:17):
and knew exactly what to look for examining Hanan's phone.
That's pretty much the only thing you can do when
you get a sample of something that might be interesting
spyware is you have to run it yourself and see
what happens. And I was monitoring the phone's Internet traffic,
so I was seeing everything that came into the phone
that left the phone. When I was monitoring the Internet traffic,
a bunch of weird traffic going to the spiral website
(38:40):
like it was downloading stuff. It was uploading stuff. Uh,
And that was sort of the first key that Oh wow,
so far as closed, but this connectivity is still happening
and it's sending information back. Pegasus can bypass any encryption
because it uses a loophole in a phone software to
be an incognito but active parasite. When Pegasus is on
a phone, Bill can see the evidence of it right away.
(39:04):
You can turn on the microphone to snoop in on
conversations happening around the device. You can take pictures through
the webcam, you can get passwords, you can get WhatsApp messages,
you can get signal messages, you can record calls, you
can track GPS, you can do other things with the
phone sensors. It was full access to the phone. And
there was something else they knew from the types of
(39:26):
text messages she had been sent, which had already been
identified as Pegasus bait, that they had tried to target
her uh several times. So why did the Emeraldi intelligence
officers detain Hanan a ladder and question her overnight. It
turns out they had been trying to trick Hanan into
(39:46):
downloading Pegasus herself. She had received random texts in the
months prior to her detention, but she never clicked on
the links. The bait to get Hanan to infect her
phone in two thousand eight teen were things like, you
have a package downtown at this address, Click here and
tell us that you want us to send it to you.
(40:08):
There was a message from her sister saying, oh, here's
a photo, click this to see the photo. And then
there was one saying you have a bouquet of flowers
waiting for you. Click this and we will get them
to you. Then Dana priest had to tell her non
the truth that she had spy wear on her phone,
(40:30):
and that she'd had it since April, since the day
she had been detained. When I recalled the moment this happened,
I took and I feel like my life force in
in a green affront of them. I'm talking about the
people miss use this technology, the be able who humped
(40:51):
my husband and humped me. The Hamaradi intelligence officials had
full access to Hanan's phone every part of her life
for five months before Koshoi was killed. No matter the
steps Hanan had taken, the codes she had used, or
the length she had gone to protect Koshoki, they could
(41:11):
still watch her and they did. I was feeling very bad,
and I'm still feeling very bad. Hanan is still trying
to get Koshogis devices from the Turkish authorities. In addition
to Hanana Lader, others close to Jamal Ka Shogi have
also discovered Pegasus on their phones. Every detail of their
digital footprint was surveiled, including Koshogi's Turkish fiance teacher sings
(41:37):
I blamed myself a lot, and Kashogi's close friend Omar
Abdulla ziz A fellow outspoken Saudi journalist living in exile
in Canada. All of their correspondences were monitored. The hacken
of my phone played the major role what happened to
(41:57):
jama that. On the next episode of Shoot the Messenger,
we find out how Omar Abduaziz found out he was
being hacked and discovered more than four hundred of his
text messages with Jamaica Shogi were compromised. We'll go into
how this technology works and how Pegasus was first discovered.
(42:19):
On this series, we investigate how Pegasus byware came to be,
what its capabilities are, and ask how does it implicate
ordinary people. Over the next nine episodes will follow the
thread of Pegasus to understand how it was intended to
be used, how it's abused, and the impact of its surveillance.
Pegasus spyware has been a boom for the cyber surveillance
(42:42):
industry and it's impacted the global economy. If you live
in the US and have mutual funds or pension, your
money could be supporting the organization that makes Pegasus spyware.
You've heard about Jamaica Shogu, but there are so many
others others who have been targeted and hacked, blackmailed, or
humiliated who have been hunted and killed. Some of the
(43:06):
names you may recognize, like Emmanuel mccron, the president of France,
or Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon. And then there
are stories you haven't heard about. I know, I don't
long her felt safe. Do you know if they got
the information that they were looking for. I don't think
they were looking for any information. I think it was
a form of psychological warfare. I would get a phone
(43:29):
call from someone, but never anyone on the end of
the phone. They would try to track my GPS. It
does seem like it's always your favorite people who are
being hacked and followed. We have to be way more
careful even about things like this. How do I know
who you are? It's kind of like the nuclear era
before there were nuclear arms treaties. Are you saying that
(43:50):
you think these texts I'm getting are Pegasus? Do you
think I'm being targeted? Oh? For sure? Now it don't
makes sense that it's on season one of Shoot the Messenger.
Shoot the Messenger is a production of Exile Content Studio.
We are distributed by PRX, hosted and produced by me
(44:11):
Rose Red with Nando Vila, Sabiniansen, Nora Kibness, Zak Kirsch,
and Anna Isabel Octavio. Written by Me rose Red with
story editing by Nando Vila, Danny Sadia, Jen Atschell, Zak Kirsch,
and Rachel Ward. Production assistant by Avro Saspatis Andrea Zavaios,
(44:32):
Jen Shipman, Stella Emmett and Aaron Reese. Special thanks to
Sonic Union and Gail and Matthew Reid. Sound design and
mixing by Patti Kens Daniel Batista, Overseas audio at Exile
Content Studio. Executive producers are myself rose Red with Nando Vila,
(44:53):
Carmen Bradol, and Isaac Lee. For more information on the
status of journal US and freedom of the press, visit
the Committee to Protect Journalists at CPUJ dot org. To
learn more about Exile and our other podcasts and films,
visit Exile content dot com. The next episode is out now.
(45:15):
Subscribe so you can hear every twist and turn of
this ten part series. You can find Exiles, Shoot the Messenger,
Espionage Murder, and Pegasus Spyware anywhere you get your podcasts.
Host
Jasmine Romero
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