An inquiry by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) into a government contractor using Israeli spy software to monitor U.S. citizens has discovered it was doing so on behalf of the FBI itself.
Reporters discovered that Landmark spy software developed by Israel’s NSO Group, blacklisted by the Joe Biden government as a national security threat in 2021, had been purchased and deployed by government contractor Riva Networks later the same year.
It now transpires that one of Riva Networks’ clients was the FBI.
Like the White House, the FBI claims it had no clue the contractor was using Landmark to geolocate U.S. citizens in Mexico without their consent, and Director Christopher Wray has cancelled the contract. Yet reporters seeking more information about the secretive nature of the bureau’s dealings with Riva Networks are now being stonewalled.
Government lawyers responding to efforts by The New York Times to sue to the FBI for “documents related to the bureau’s purchase of NSO tools and… documents about the bureau’s relationship with Riva Networks” have told the courts the FBI’s relationship with the contractor should be protected from scrutiny, because they “either already do, or may in the future, offer other products… used for investigative purposes.”
