Day: February 15, 2024

FBI Director Christopher Wray made an unannounced trip to Israel, where he sat in on intelligence meetings before speaking to Fox News.

Wray’s visit was his first time on the ground in Israel since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack. 

The FBI director met with his counterparts in Israel’s Shin Bet (Israeli intelligence) and others. He spoke to Fox News before boarding a plane to leave the country for Germany for the Munich Security Conference, where he’ll speak Thursday. 

“We’ve seen a rogues’ gallery of foreign terrorist organizations both express support and praise for the Hamas attacks and threaten to attack U.S. interests at home and abroad,” Wray said. “We’re working with all our partners to confront the elevated threat picture, which includes, I should add, the threats posed by Iran and Hezbollah, both in terms of the Hamas attacks on Oct. 7, and more broadly.” 

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“We have learned a lot,” Wray added of the information gathered by the FBI in the wake of Oct. 7. “The information exchange between our two countries has been terrific as well. As with a number of our other close allies who are all collaborating out of a shared commitment to combat the scourge of terrorism.”

Wray also spoke about the FBI’s role in protecting Americans in Israel and Gaza. 

“The FBI has been working side by side, really around the clock, to aid in investigative and recovery efforts to provide support and services to U.S. victims of the attack and their families, and to identify and disrupt additional threats that we’re seeing emanating from the conflict,” he said. 

Wray said he felt it was important to travel to meet with Israeli law enforcement and intelligence partners on Israeli soil “to show our unwavering support and commitment to these partners in the wake of the horrific terrorist attacks perpetrated by Hamas against innocent civilians on Oct. 7, and second, because we are closely working — again, I cannot overstate this — closely working with our partners in Israel and others around the world to investigate these attacks.”

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“Some of our FBI folks here in Israel have literally not taken a day off since Oct. 7, and I’m proud of the incredible support the team has provided to our partners during this dark time. The FBI’s partnership with our Israeli counterparts is long-standing, close and robust,” he said. “Whenever we meet and talk — which we do all the time — these are deeply substantive conversations across a whole range of common threats between countries with shared values and shared commitment to the rule of law.”

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“I’m confident the closeness of our agencies contributed to our ability to move so quickly in response to these attacks and to ensure our support is as seamless as possible,” he said. “My hope is that today’s meetings with Israeli intelligence and law enforcement partners, as well as our FBI personnel and officials at the U.S. Embassy, are demonstrative of the bureau’s continued commitment to these partners and helped identify even more ways that we can work together to keep people around the world safe from terrorism.”  

The director of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation made an unannounced trip to Israel to meet with the country’s law and intelligence agencies as it fights a bloody war in Gaza, the FBI said Wednesday.Christopher Wray also met with FBI agents based in Tel Aviv, according to a statement from the bureau, stressing the importance of their work on Palestinian militant group Hamas and Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.

For the latest updates on the Israel-Palestine conflict, visit our dedicated page.

He reiterated the FBI’s support of Israel in the wake of the October 7 attacks by Hamas.“The FBI’s partnership with our Israeli counterparts is longstanding, close, and robust, and I’m confident the closeness of our agencies contributed to our ability to move so quickly in response to these attacks, and to ensure our support is as seamless as possible,” Wray was quoted as saying in the statement.On October 7, Hamas militants infiltrated Israel from the besieged Gaza Strip and attacked several communities in southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of around 1,160 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.Militants also took around 250 people hostage, in the deadliest-ever attack in the country.Around 130 of the hostages are believed to remain in Gaza, including 29 who are believed to be dead.Israel has responded with a relentless military campaign in the Gaza Strip that has killed more than 28,500 people, mostly women, children and adolescents, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory.

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The United States, while backing Israel’s right to respond, has voiced alarm over civilian casualties in Gaza Strip and criticized Israeli settlers’ violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.

Wray’s “key focus” is the FBI’s efforts against foreign organizations praising the attacks on Israel and threatening to attack the United States, both abroad and at home, the bureau statement said.It said the FBI “has and will continue to be responsive to requests” from Israel for support.

Read more:

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas urges Hamas to agree Gaza deal ‘quickly’

Hamas heads to Egypt’s Cairo for truce talks as Rafah braces for Israeli assault

Biden to stop deportation of Palestinians in US for next 18 months amid Gaza war

The FBI has committed to not using Pegasus spyware in its operations, a source told Fox News, after FBI Director Christopher Wray told lawmakers back in March the bureau did not intend to use it against U.S. persons or “for any purpose” in the future.

The FBI has come under scrutiny in recent months after it purchased a license to use the highly effective spyware program. FBI officials have insisted they did not end up using the program and had intended to only use it for research. Nevertheless, internal documents suggest they had plans to expand its use–including for tracking Americans. The FBI now tells Fox News it will drop the program.

Director Wray faced a grilling from members of Congress on the issue in hearings earlier this year, when he stated that his organization had never used to program.

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“The Director’s testimony was accurate when given and remains true today – there has been no operational use of the NSO product to support any FBI investigation,” the FBI told Fox.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-OR, accused Wray of essentially lying – or at least fudging the truth – in testimony earlier this year. Wray was asked about the FBI’s purchase of the spyware and bureau plans to use it in criminal investigations, including tracking Americans. Wray insisted the FBI would only use Pegasus for “research,” but the New York Times soon obtained internal FBI documents indicating this was not accurate – the FBI had hoped to use Pegasus more broadly.

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Pegasus has already proven capable of infiltrating the phones of U.S. officials working overseas, something Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., highlighted in a spyware hearing this summer.

“Late last year, multiple news organizations reported that mobile phones used by U.S. diplomats in Uganda had been compromised by NASA’s Pegasus tool,” Schiff said at the time. “It is my belief that we are very likely looking at the tip of the iceberg and that other U.S. government personnel have had their devices compromised, whether by a nation state using NSA services or tools offered by one of its lesser known but equally potent competitors.”

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Experts say the spyware has legitimate uses but is also a powerful tool for authoritarian governments. Mexico used Pegasus in its effort to track down El Chapo, and Saudi Arabia also used it to track journalist Jamal Khashoggi prior to orchestrating his murder, according to cyber defense expert Jason Blessing.

• Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk claimed to have documentation that proves previous government authorities unlawfully used Pegasus spyware to target numerous hacking victims.
• Tusk made the comment during a news briefing alongside President Andrzej Duda, a political opponent.
• The University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab uncovered that several Polish opponents of the previous government were subjected to Pegasus surveillance.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Tuesday that he has documentation proving that state authorities under the previous government used the powerful Pegasus spyware illegally and targeted a “very long” list of hacking victims.

Tusk made the comment during a news briefing alongside President Andrzej Duda, a political opponent. The use of Pegasus was alleged to have occurred under a government led by Law and Justice, a right-wing party with which Duda is aligned.

Tusk said he was sharing information with Duda that showed wide use of the aggressive spyware in Poland. He said he would provide Duda with a full set of documents, if he were interested.

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“I have a disclosed document at the moment, but this is only a sample of the documents that are at your disposal, Mr. President,” Tusk told Duda at the start of a meeting of the Cabinet Council, a consultation format between the president and the government.

Duda had called the meeting to discuss other matters.

Tusk took power in December following an October election which he won as the head of a broad centrist alliance. It marked the end of eight years of rule by Law and Justice, a populist party that the European Union accused of eroding democratic norms.

Duda, who holds presidential veto power and served during Law and Justice’s years in power, has at times opposed Tusk’s efforts to implement his agenda. The new parliament has set up a special commission to investigate who used Pegasus and against whom during Law and Justice’s years in government.

“The list of victims of these practices is unfortunately very long,” Tusk said.

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The prime minister said he asked the justice minister and prosecutor general to provide Duda with a set of documents which “confirm 100% the purchase and use of Pegasus in a legal and illegal manner.”

Several Polish opponents of the previous government were targeted with Pegasus, a spyware program made by Israel’s NSO Group, according to findings by the University of Toronto’s nonprofit Citizen Lab that were exclusively reported by The Associated Press.

Pegasus gives its operators complete access to a mobile device, allowing them to extract passwords, photos, messages, contacts and browsing histories, and to activate the microphone and camera for real-time eavesdropping.

NSO has said that it only sells its spyware to legitimate government law enforcement and intelligence agencies vetted by Israel’s Defense Ministry for use against terrorists and criminals. But evidence has emerged of human rights activists and politicians being targeted by governments worldwide.

The Alaskapox virus is normally found in small mammals, including red-backed voles like the one above.Credit…Michael Penn/The Juneau Empire, via Associated Press