Cybersecurity Citizen Lab Traces Pegasus Software on Jamal Kashoggi's Wife's Phone
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D.C.’s Jamal Khashoggi Way Designation
Washington, D.C. local officials have renamed a portion of the street outside the Saudi embassy after slain Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. D.C. councilmember Brooke Pinto said that the 'Jamal Khashoggi Way Designation Act,' passed unanimously by the city council in early December, “will serve as a reminder of the dangers faced by journalists across the world.” Pinto further stated that a free press is “fundamental to our democracy.”
The ceremony to rename the 600 block of D.C.’s New Hampshire Avenue will happen in a public ceremony in January.
"Jamal Khashoggi knew that by shining a light on Saudi Arabia and seeking truth, he risked his freedom and, indeed, his life," Pinto continued. "This name change demonstrates the values of District residents of a free and independent press."
Citizen Lab Cites Pegasus Corruption of Elatr’s Phone
Denials abound this morning, December 22, concerning reports by the Washington Post, Kashoggi’s former employer, that a UAE agency placed powerful Pegasus spyware on the phone of Hanan Elatr, Kashoggi’s Egyptian, Islamic-ceremony wife, months before his murder by Saudi agents in October 2018. Hanan Elatr was a flight attendant for Emirates Airlines and not politically active.
Officials of the Israeli company NSO Group have denied earlier charges that Elatr’s phone was compromised.
WaPo and PBS FRONTLINE, who are collaborating with journalism nonprofit Forbidden Stories, on a new report on Kashoggi’s murder, say that “a forensic analysis of her phone by Bill Marczak, from the cybersecurity research group Citizen Lab, found evidence that Pegasus had been manually put on Elatr’s phone while she was being held by UAE authorities in April 2018.”
Khashoggi’s Complex Personal Life
Readers should not confuse Elatr with the more well-known Hatice Cengiz, who was Khashoggi’s fiancée at the time of his death and his public spokesperson after the murder.
The very private Khashoggi had divorced his prior three wives — but not Elatr — and was visiting the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to get a document declaring he was divorced. Turkish law required the document, since he planned to marry Cengiz, a Turkish citizen.
At the time of his death, neither woman knew about the other, and Khashoggi was romantically involved with both of them. In a June 28, 2021 article, the Washington Post detailed the complexities of Khashoggi’s personal life and also presented a straightforward discussion of the journalist’s beliefs and growing fears among royal families in the Arab world about his future media intentions.
“The UAE interrogators, she [Elatr] said, were convinced that the columnist was putting together a secret network of activists for a new media outlet that would highlight the lack of freedoms in the Middle East and threaten the stability of the region’s royal families.”
