Rightists illegally spy on their opponents -Polish Watergate

[Bonobo]

Incredible scandal in Poland - rightist PiS rulers used Pegasus spying system to know what their political opponents say on their phones. So far, three cases of targeted people (one senator, one prosecutor and one solicitor) have been revealed but there may be more.

balkaninsight.com/2021/12/21/pegasus-phone-hacking-spyware-victims-named-in-poland/

Pegasus Phone-Hacking Spyware Victims Named in Poland
Claudia Ciobanu
Warsaw
BIRN
December 21, 202114:25
An independent prosecutor and a lawyer defending high-profile opposition politicians are the first two targets of phone-hacking using Israeli-made Pegasus spyware to be identified in Poland.

The University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab, an internet watchdog that has been investigating the use of military-grade spyware from Israeli company NSO Group by authoritarian governments, said on Tuesday that the first two confirmed victims of phone-hacking using the Pegasus software in Poland are prosecutor Ewa Wrzosek and lawyer Roman Giertych.

Pegasus essentially turns infected phones into spying devices, making those who deploy the spyware able to access all data on the target’s phone, including messages and contacts.

The Associated Press, which first reported the new Citizen Lab findings on Tuesday, said that it cannot be confirmed who ordered the targeting of the two Poles.

Both targets have indicated that they suspect the Polish government.

In response to an inquiry from the AP, Polish state security spokesman Stanislaw Zaryn neither confirmed nor denied whether the government ordered the hacks.

Wrzosek is a well-known independent prosecutor who opposes the Polish government’s controversial justice reforms.

She also ordered an investigation into whether the 2020 presidential elections, which were organised during the pandemic, should have been postponed because they were too risky. Two days after she launched the case, she was transferred to a distant provincial town.

Giertych has been acting as lawyer for high-profile opposition politicians, including former Prime Minister Donald Tusk and former Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski.

He also defended an Austrian developer who revealed the involvement of ruling Law and Justice Party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski in a huge real estate deal to build to skyscrapers in the centre of Warsaw, which caused a major scandal.

Earlier this year, an international investigation by 17 media organisations found that the Hungarian government was among those that acquired the controversial Pegasus software from Israeli surveillance company NSO and used it to target a range of journalists, businessmen and activists.

No targets in Poland or other central European countries were identified at the time, but Citizen Lab warned that it had detected spyware infections in Poland dating back to November 2017.

[Bonobo]

In this way, we got another proof that PiS are neobolsheviks coz they copy abundantly from communist secret services` heritage.

sparkchronicles.com/this-is-the-polish-watergate-the-polish-state-must-clarify-this-matter/

This is the Polish Watergate. The Polish state must clarify this matter

Pegasus, as a total surveillance program, was intended to be used in the most complex criminal cases – against spies, mafias or drug cartels. Even if the prosecutor’s office is right in the cases against Giertych and Brejza, these cases are of a completely different caliber (Senator Brejza was accused by TVP of running a troll farm in Inowrocław just after Onet described the troll farm in the Ministry of Justice, the authority of which until today cannot explain), and Mrs. Wrzosek is not accused of anything.

All these three people are seen as a huge threat to the current government. Roman Giertych is actually public enemy number two (however, no one will take away from Donald Tusk). There is no other, other than political, motive for using Pegasus against these people.

The use of Pegasus against Brejza explains where the texts from different years written by the senator ended up on TVP. Completely rooted in power, television was used as a transmission belt for secret services operations against the political enemy of the government. A disgrace for TVP employees, but above all a topic to be explained to the prosecutor’s office.

These three people found out about the wiretaps because they handed their phones over to a Canadian research company – detecting Pegasus on a phone is not a simple undertaking. However, we will not all do it, and the truth about how Pegasus was used in Poland must see the light a day.

Anyone who is perceived by the authorities as a threat – opposition politicians, independent judges and prosecutors, journalists, NGO activists – will not be able to have their phone calls checked. This is where the state must make the move.

This is the Polish Watergate. The Americans understood that only a full explanation of the wiretapping scandal would save US democracy. They understood and conducted a full investigation, revealing all connections of the authors of the scandal and eventually led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon.

Unfortunately, we are in the same situation. Democracy does not eavesdrop on critics of power. Or, for the first time since PiS took power, the Polish state will take seriously the right of public opinion to know the truth about this gigantic scandal, explain all the circumstances of using Pegasus in Poland and pass them on to the public, after which it will take political and legal consequences against people using public money to there will be no tracking of critics of power or democracy in Poland.

It is not enough not to steal, you also need to be able to account for abuses.

[Bonobo]

Funny that the purchase of the Pegasus spying system was attained through a company affiliated in Moscow and rooted in old communist secret service. PiS only speaks about removing communist leftovers from Poland but it gladly uses them when in need.

wiadomosci.radiozet.pl/Polska/Kto-kupil-Pegasusa-dla-CBA-Wyborcza-ujawnia-sojusz-PiS-i-dawnej-bezpieki

Who Bought Pegasus for CBA? "Wyborcza" reveals "the alliance between PiS and the former security service"

DOMINIK GOŁDYN
January 17, 2022 07:29

The company Matic, which bought the Pegasus spy system for the CBA, was founded by people working in the People's Republic of Poland for the militia and the Security Service, writes "Gazeta Wyborcza" on Monday.

According to "Wyborcza", in Matic and 2CH, which is the sole shareholder of Matica, siblings play a key role: Ewa Chabros-Chromińska and Jerzy Chabros. "In the archives of the Institute of National Remembrance we read that Chabros-Chromińska was an officer of the Citizens' Militia in the People's Republic of Poland, and then of the Security Service," writes "GW".

On the other hand, Jacek Chabros - according to the daily - is listed in the files of the Institute of National Remembrance as a MO officer. Matic did not answer "GW" questions about the nature of the work of these people for these services.

How did PiS buy Pegasus for the CBA? "Wyborcza" reveals new facts
"Gazeta Wyborcza" reports that in November 2017, right after the purchase of Pegasus , the owners transformed Matic sp. Z oo into a joint stock company Matic SA. "Witold Laskowski sits on its supervisory board. He also has a file at the Institute of National Remembrance (reference number BU 00191/664). He is listed as a candidate for a counterintelligence agent" - the newspaper informs.

The Senate established a Pegasus committee. One senator from PiS voted "for"

Adam Chromiński is to play a key role in Matic. "In the case of Adam Chromiński, we did not find direct ties to the secret police. However, according to our sources, people associated with the military special services and Russia are also present around Chromiński," writes the daily.

According to "GW", the number of orders from state institutions and assistance in the fight against COVID-19 prove that Matic is a valued and trusted entity. According to the newspaper, Matic has been operating since 2001 and has a license from the Ministry of the Interior to trade in technologies for services and the police, and to trade in weapons.

The Pegasus Affair
In December, the Associated Press reported that, according to Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto, Pegasus spy software was used to spy on KO Senator Krzysztof Brejza , Roman Giertych's attorney and prosecutor Ewa Wrzosek, member of the Lex Super Omnia association.


Jarosław Kaczyński confirmed in an interview with the weekly "Sieci" that the Polish services have the Pegasus program at their disposal. "Its creation and use is the result of a technological change, the development of encrypted communicators, which cannot be read with the old monitoring systems. It would be bad if the Polish services did not have this type of tool" - said the president of PiS. However, he assured that the system was not used against the opposition.

RadioZET.pl/PAP