<https://youtu.be/wuK1r7IWwzE>
Three takeaways: I. From the Israeli side the clinching of the contact (for sale of Pegasus) requires direct involvement of the Prime Minister. That's a strong clue as to what is the level of representation on the Indian side. II. A The system sold to India enables it to monitor a number of phones - the maximum number lies somewhere between 10 and 50, concurrently. B. The capacity is determined/fixed at the time of initial purchase itself and cannot be scaled up later. C The contact is renewable (every year or at the end of the term). D. In the Indian case, it's a multi-year contact. III. The system has to be installed (onsite) by the NSO engineers. They're to provide periodic maintenance services (onsite). Maybe also assistance to operate in some selected cases. That appears to be the long and short of it. <<Some of the details that are specified, this comes from a very sensitive, a long-time dealing with sources, and therefore I’ll be a little bit cagey in some of the details, but as you said, we have been working for a year in 12 different countries, speaking with intelligence officials, with leaders of law enforcement agencies, politicians, leaders, cyber experts, human rights activists, etc. and I think we got as close as possible to the full picture – if not the whole picture. Now per your questions, I would say, without – I need to check with uh how sensitive is the actual number, but I would say it’s a few dozens of millions… of the $2 billion, the [cost of purchasing] Pegasus in terms of [the] real number is not the majority whatsoever, this is, they were like missiles that are far, far more expensive. ... Yes, but again I need to be a little bit cagey here and I’m sorry for that because this, the content of those talks, or the disclosure of those – the content of those talks – can jeopardise or potentially risk sources. I can just say that in order for an intelligence agency to buy and then install Pegasus and have an online activation of the system, it needs to be handled by the top authorities in Israel. So the top authorities of the Ministry of Defence are to sign the license, and it can be done only with permission, without exercising [the] veto of the foreign ministry, and it’s usually done with the direct involvement of the Israeli prime minister and the national security advisor. Afterwards, when, and we’re talking about the private company, afterwards, when the system is delivered, it has to be delivered – it’s not a software to be given with you know some kind of dropbox or a discord key, a flash drive. The NSO engineers need to be physically present on-site to install the system, test it, and then from time to time come and do the maintenance. And it needs to be, I would say in sensitive cases –while the ongoing technical maintenance is done by NSO vis-a-vis, in this case, Indian intelligence service, which was the entity that purchased the Pegasus – the overall connection is also with the involvement of the agency in Israel that is in charge of running secret intelligence and political relationships, which is the Mossad. So this is a long comment to your question but basically saying that all the different components of [the] Israeli defence establishment and the Indian highest authority, the Indian intelligence service – have to be involved in the process. ... Let me just say that the way the pricing of the machine that was sold to India works, it has a certain capacity, it has a bandwidth, that is determined in advance. ... Yes, and this is called a license. It’s not [a] license given by the ministry of defence. The MOD is giving a license to sell Pegasus according to some kind of a breakdown of details and capabilities. But besides that, in the commercial negotiation between NSO and Indian entities or Indian agencies, it’s very important to, and this has a significant impact on the pricing, different kinds of capabilities of the Pegasus, one of them – and most important per bandwidth capability, power and price – is how many licenses are sold. License is the ability to monitor one phone at the concurrent time. And this is … as far as I know, those [which] were sold to India, were I think between – I don’t remember what was the exact number – but it’s between 10 and 50. So each one can, it depends on what was decided, can monitor between 10 phones up to 50 phones. ... Simultaneously. But this is not a billing done in retrospect. So this is like a license that was given in advance, paid in advance for one year contract and then once you go above the quota, then the operator needs to stop monitoring another phone then, so to be within the quota. ... As far as I understand, this is can’t be changed. It’s something that is paid in advance and not built in after the contract is done. ... I think it was [a multi-year contract], but again I need – this is something those details I need to check – I think it was for multi-year with some kind of a renewal option every year and cancellation option.>> (Excerpted from: < https://thewire.in/rights/transcript-india-israel-2017-pegasus-deal-siddharth-varadarajan-ronen-bergman-interview >.) -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/greenyouth/CACEsOZjRWSKAJqvR5z%3D78X4AXX39_vs7JJKH5UmvC2VibGN5XQ%40mail.gmail.com.
