Donald T chastising MBS over Jeff Bezos and civil liberties? Don't hold your breath.
2
The richest man on earth doesn’t have a phone dedicated to his girlfriend, and only his girlfriend?
A world in which MBS, Jared Kushner, Trump and Zuckerberg are in control is definitely a world we should avoid .Or is that "reverse"?
1
Sweet. Bezos should probably decline any invitation to meet with Saudi underlings to see if this problem can be worked out.
2
This could be billionaire war, not necessarily violent but very expensive embarrassments for one or both.
When elephants fight, even the grass trembles-South African saying
1
There is no pressure on Saudi Arabia because there are no consequences. Let’s see if Bezos increases the cost of misbehavior to the Saudis!
2
@GV maybe he'll curtail Amazon home delivery throughout the kingdom.
In mid 2018 Trump wanted to know what Robert Muller was up to. It was too dangerous for Trump’s team to try to hack into WaPo reporters’ systems. They’re smart and paranoid. But Bezos knows what the reporters are working on. Of course Trump can’t hack Bezo’s phone, but MBS can. So another perfect phone call: “MBS we can get you that Yemeni targeting information you need, But we have a favor to ask....”
6
Who ever organized the boycott of Israel for there policies in the west bank and Gaza, better get one together for Saudi Arabia. This murderer should have no influence in anyones future
4
The odds are great that the Current Occupant's mobile phone is a cesspool of hacks, given his love of social media, his contempt for security and his supreme belief in his own invulnerability. If Mohammed bin Salman managed to hack Bezos, he's certainly gotten to the sloppy POTUS.
8
if all 7 or so billion of us want a life where we make our own future then these oil kingdom dictators need tohave there flowsof money from all
At the same time, Jeff Bezos has people voluntarily bugging their own homes for his benefit.
Alexa is always listening. The recorded information is transcribed and searchable. Some of it is computer transcribed, and may or may not be accurate. Some of it is transcribed by humans, to train the AI.
To whom is your every conversation available?
6
The American people deserve to know if Saudi Arabia is also bugging and/or blackmailing the president and/or his family.
MBS, who ordered the brutal murder of a Washington Post journalist, hacked into the phone of and attempted blackmail on Jeff Bezos who owns the Washington Post, through messages on WhatsApp.
The president’s son-in-law, who has access to [who knows how much of] American security and intelligence information, regularly communicates with MBS on WhatsApp.
6
That picture of Bezos with MBS is like a pit viper with a timber rattlesnake. Each a rapacious man who devours what he contacts, they rather deserve each other and what they do to each other.
Mr. Bezos: how does it feel to be used as disposable as you have consumed and destroyed so many other businesses? My impression is you'll simply triple your security and double down on your enterprising monopoly. What goes around comes around.
John Rockefeller, he of the oil monopoly, handed out dimes until the age of 97 to try to rehabilitate his image, virtually by extortion, when a dime actually bought something. But people still tell of the stories of his unbridled greed and it did not work. Meet your future epitaph.
1
Smart phones need to be made smarter. There are technologies to stop this, and the current phones could do with more security and the ability to chase the impacting neural networks and less time wasting gadgets.
1
In any other situation, I would call this a rookie mistake. But for the head of Amazon; this is just plain stupid! Jeff, you need to get off Whatsapp, fire your security team and a few others in your IT Department, and stop clicking through the IT security best practices video until you reach the end. Your HR and IT department are sending those out for a reason - not simply to annoy you by taking up what you consider to be your precious time.
3
If true, the National Security implications of this are distressing and staggering. A Saudi Prince, who has speed dial access to a President who has a smartphone addiction. He also has the same access to his two closest family members/WH advisers. This is a powder keg of blackmail waiting to explode.
5
bin Salman's henchmen took an ax and gave Khashoggi 40 hacks.
When they saw what they had done, they gave Jeff Bezos 41.
3
So we have this, the massacre at Pensacola, dozens of Saudi students being spirited out of the US after being charged with rape and murder in cities throughout the country, the Khashoggi assassination, horrific war crimes in Yemen, planting the seeds for ISIS and their allied terrorists - all while Trump and his sons buddy up and look to curry personal fortune with Saudi sheiks like MBS. For most of us, the die was cast on 9/11, but for neocons and the military-industrial complex, the possibility for profit overrides all.
11
When it comes to hacking the prince cannot resist. Be it hacking of the phone of your richest friend, or hacking the bones of a perceived enemy.
2
So with the same app that was used to invade Bezos' private life by MBS, there are presumably ongoing chats between MBS and Kushner? If MBS compromised Bezos with a single message, Kushner is obviously at risk (and god knows who else within our gov't..)? Man. There are worms chewing through the corpse of our government.
4
Mr. Trump does exalt Prince Mohammed though evidence shows MbS as the driver behind Khashoggi's murder. We can expect further exaltation and defense of the Prince who's "close", a pal, to Trump son-in-law and senior advisor, Jared Kushner.
Trump exalts U.S. enemies who are thugs and murderers and demeans and punishes U.S. agencies, institutions and individuals who he, Trump, has identified as his enemies. U.S. citzens cannot count on Trump to watch out for U.S. interests. He's proven it over and over. It is appearing endlessly so. We have more to fear as we expect the Republican Senate to give Trump a pass, in effect give Trump the green light to his soliciting foreign help in order to win the 2020 election.
3
First off I do feel bad for Mr. Bezos. It seems no one is above having their electronics hacked. I have a question...what do Jeff Bezos, the Prince, and America Media all have in common? The answer is Donald Trump. If you guessed right go to the head of the class.
4
Folks, if you think MBS is dangerous on the Internet, just wait till A.I. gets loose. I am continually surprised by the naivete of the titans of the Internet like Mr. Bezos who fail to understand that they, too, are vulnerable to the reach and power of their own Frankensteinian Monster. Time to reprogram the basic protocols of TCP/IP for our own security.
The prince has US security team members next to him at all times. It’s a small world- let’s get used to it. He doesn’t have to send a text with malware, he can send malware via other people’s phones.
1
I’m waiting to hear how Trump dances around this and lets MSB off the hook.
6
Anyone curious what the video was?
The indignation of US readers is hypocritical
The US hacked Angela Merkel's private phone (not just her official one). That in spite the fact that Germany is a US ally and Nato partner
President Obama refused to admit it.
So why should MBS ?
3
Bezos should give put the WaPo for sale....if he wants to clear his name as influence-peddler, or the perception of it.
1
@Albela Shaitan Why should he sell?? What does he do to be called an influence peddler. Seems to me that if he sells then they have won and they got what it wanted. If I were Mr. Bezos last thing I would do is sell.
3
My phone isn’t this interesting. Sigh.
4
Calling the two U.N. h.r. people "experts," while at the same time stating that they "did not directly investigate the hack," or had any factual basis for the allegation, while the NYT admits it could not verify the allegation, is using innuendo for a story, tabloid style.
It's likely that what the Saudi minister said, that “The idea that the crown prince would hack Jeff Bezos’ phone is absolutely silly” and "absurd," is true. Trump and Bezos have tried to work with SA and Gulf states to invest there and defend the region from Iran. But some don't mind trading with Iran, so may prefer to prevent that.
Trump and Bezos have been developing a friendship with the Gulf states. Bezos was trying to invest there. That would help the U.S. influence the M.E. and reduce their civil conflicts.
The idea that SA hacking Amazon's founder would somehow help them, directly or even indirectly, does seem absurd. SA has mostly stayed hands off of U.S. politics and our free press. So it's more likely, IMO, that SA has been set up as a patsy to help separate and weaken U.S. connections there. They are not hi tech wizards and had nothing to gain.
It may even relate to the impeachment distraction, caused by some apparent whistleblower or stooge, to promote more divisiveness here. Then fracturing our alliances with a staged and seemingly pointless hacking of a major U.S. businessman, might be connected. Throw in the flurry of sex allegations last year, and in poker parlance, it's a royal flush!
2
“And we shall call it ‘The Alan Parsons Project.’”
You can bet that they have access to Jared's phone.
And Trump's as I am sure that Jared has forwarded him videos and Trump reportedly is lax in his phone security.
God help us.
5
There is no god. There's only us.
1
Guess Jeff regrets giving up his Blackberry (they were & still are fully encrypted - among other security features).
1
At a time in their youth, when teenagers learn values and grow moral fibre, MBS - his father’s favourite son - learnt that he did not have to tolerate reproach and criticism. It may - possibly - be that he is not entirely evil. He has demonstrated time and again that he has no moral compass to show him the limits of human decency. MBS gets the encouragement he needs from a father who is King in title only. More concerning is the licence he is given by Trump and Pompeo’s double standards. It is the Arming of such an unhinged man to the hilt that has lost America the Middle East.
5
Am I supposed to feel sorry for Bezos that he got hacked? I suppose I'll ask Alexa when she's finished transmitting my voice data to the cloud.
4
It is reasonable to think that Trump asked him to do hack Bezo's phone to get dirt because that's how Trump operates. OR, the prince did it on his own for the reason of currying favor with Trump.
6
I wonder if the NSA, CIA, and FBI all say Saudi’s Arabia hacked a private citizen’s, who happens to be Jeff Bezos, phone who would Donald Trump believe???
6
Given that Bezos is no friend of DT’s, it would not be a surprise if this wasn’t yet another nation coming to his aid to influence yet another election! After all, bad press for Saudi Arabia is bad press for DT.
5
Why does Jeff Bezos get to tell UN-paid experts to do work for him? If he wants to know who hacked him, why can't he hire his own experts instead of getting a free ride?
And why can't he think about someone else? Bill Browder tried to avenge his accountant's death and what has Mr. Bezos done to hold the Saudis accountable for Mr. Khashoggi's murder/dismemberment?
2
Actually the UN doesn't necessarily pay the rapporteurs. I don't know the facts here but I know some rapporteurs have to get support from foundations and other institutions. In any case there are global covenants that countries sign on to so if journalists get killed and newspaper publishers get hacked then it's everyone's business. The UN has free expression agreements and we should all want countries to comply. I'd say that's the minimum for a civilized world.
3
With all the resources Bezos has at his disposal, he opens a strange email! What an ego! Wow! I got an email from MBS! Does that make me feel darn important?
6
Well I wonder if anyone has checked the President’s* cell phone lately? He seems to exchange messages with MBS on a regular basis and isn’t known for his adherence to cyber security rules. This might explain his less than forceful response to Khashoggi’s murder.
*Impeached
9
@J W I love it * If you don't mind I am going to use it.
I’m starting to think like Trump:
OK, let’s invade Saudi Arabia and take their oil.
3
@inkspot
At least we would start to dismantle the source of Islamic fundamentalism.
3
Didn't the KSA also call the allegations that Khashoggi was killed in their embassy absurd too?
4
A favor for Trump, of course -- or another quid pro quo:
you let me kill a journalist and I'll go after your enemy. Eventually grounds for another impeachment. But who cares? The
Republicans have no grounds for power except what Trump
gives them -- none, whatsoever. So whatever Trump is giving,
no matter how bad the smell, is de facto pure gold. Power is
good; constitution is also good, as long as it produces power. Otherwise, not so good.
7
Can we ask Jared about this please?
He's most likely the connection between AMI and MBS.
6
Or at least check his phone.
5
In Trump's eyes, just because the prince ordered the slaughter of a journalist doesn't mean he's all bad.
11
Is MBS acting unilaterally? Probably not. The White House wants to get Bezos to shut up and leave Trump businesses alone - regardless of the tactics. While MBS and Saudi Arabia may be no friend of the United States, they are in bed with the Trump/Kushner gang of thieves.
White House fingerprints are all over this illegal activity. Get ready for this new normal as we continue down the rabbit hole of US politics, United Citizens, and a govt bereft of morals, compliments of the GOP and Mitch McConnell.
11
Doesn’t Kushner use WhatsApp? And aren’t Donald et al still on their personal cellphones?
9
@Jolton lock them up?
1
There are those, including the late Stephen Hawking, who believe that the answer to Fermi's Paradox — if there is other intelligent life in the universe, why hasn't it contacted us (wonderful, wonderful US!)? — is that once civilizations reach a certain point of technological advancement, they inevitably destroy themselves ... before they can achieve the kind of technology necessary to communicate with other civilizations on a galactic scale.
Don't know about you all, NYT commenters, but it seems plausible to me....
6
@CB Evans Given the math of the size of the known universe, anything's possible. Including, perhaps, a quarantine of Earth by knowledgeable, moral and wise aliens ("just look what they're doing with that beautiful planet! Stay away!").
4
Agreed.
Lots of people, including Jered Kushner, message with MBS. I think we have to assume their phones are compromised.
10
@PDB not any more than their owners.
Isn't it interesting? If you or I wanted to send a text to some big shot like Bezos, we couldn't do it because the big shot would make certain to keep his phone number secret from us. But big shots choose to give special access to themselves for certain other big shots. Then when that access is used for nefarious purpose by the other big shots, more big shots at the UN direct their underlings to investigate.....but those same UN big shots would not direct investigation of nefarious use against nobodies like us.
No sympathy for Bezos at my house. In fact, he deserves the problems since he invited and by default trusted other big shots. Bezos would neither invite nor trust me or you.
3
Just wow.
So here and today and yet so anachronistic.
Did MBS really think that he is so much smarter than anyone else and that this would never come out?
3
@Ronald Grünebaum Why would he care if it all came out? He had a guy killed and nothing happened so what is a little phone scam?
Plus he has Don in his pocket so there are no repercussions on that front. Just order a few more jets, right Pompeo?
3
Want secure messaging, don't use WhatsApp! That is what I get from this. As a closed source app, you don't really know what it is doing or what it is capable of doing or how it is capable of being exploited. Research an app that is open source for peer review and self compile rather than download from a store. I found most of this privacy activity is going on around an open source effort called chatsecure.org . They refer to some Android and iOS apps. Personally, I recommend one you compile on your own - especially if you can understand source, or at least can rely on the peer review if it a signature on the repository so that you know it hasn't been altered. Worst case, use signal.
2
"But targeting the cellphone of an American citizen who is one of the world’s richest businessmen would mark a clear escalation."
This statement should be offensive to all non-rich.
so cutting off a non-rich persons head is NOT as big a deal as hacking a rich persons phone?
I think this is the kind of writing that drives poor people (like the ones that vote for Trump) not to read the NYT. On the other hand I guess rich people like this kind of statement, which is maybe the point.
As many others have commented hacking Bezos is completely consistent with Mo's other achievements.
6
Trump wants to think that Iran's leadership is our enemy...apparently his best friend is the our enemy!
9
I cannot imagine any member of the United States government conspiring with a foreign government to blackmail a United States citizen. Speechless, speechless I am.
Just the thought causes me to retire to my fainting couch to recover, fetch me the the camphor with my smelling salts.
And a double jigger of Rye for medicinal purposes.
6
MBS - has his blood-soaked hands, now, allegedly, into Bezos's personal phone, so he could continue on his macabre mayhem, unhindered. What a piece of work! Somebody ought to make him pay for his misdeeds (alleged, again), and expose the true colors of this quacksalver. It is small wonder MBS and DJT deserve each other, unquestionably.
And now, Saudi Arabia may well have joined the elite club of the infamous hackers - China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia. Together, these baddies might even succeed trying and ruling the roost. First terrorism (9/11 and Pensacola attack) and now this stated cowardice.
His pusillanimous pursuit and killing of Khashoggi lends ample credence to the fact this cold-blooded killer, presumably, will stop at nothing to make his presence felt, by hook or by crook.
11
Hey, Jeffy, welcome to our world in which you hack into every part of our lives. It doesn't feel very good, does it? Your life and privacy is no more important to you than ours is to us. Maybe you should keep that in mind. Wait until the Saudis and other hackers get into your children's phones. Welcome to the real world.
3
What do expect from a monarchy which it's citizens attacked this country.
5
I would not be the least bit surprised if The Saudi Crown Prince hacked Bezos’ phone on Trump’s behalf. Trump has made no secret of loathing Mr. Bezos and his paper the Washington Post. Trump loves digging up dirt on his adversaries, it’s the playbook he’s been using for decades and learned from his mentor and idol Roy Cohn. I can’t wait for the entire Trump criminal enterprise to come crashing down. Let’s all vote in November and make sure it happens before he destroys our country.
13
Ooooo. I’d see a movie about this.
1
@Dabney L Don't forget Trump* and the National Enquirer. It all fits so nicely.
If Jeff Bezos’ phone wasn’t hacked do any one has any doubt that MBS was behind the killing of Khashoggi?
2
Please. The Crown Prince doing something as brutally villainous as hacking a smart phone? Absurd.
4
Bezos should be pleased that MBS did not hack him to death like he did with Khashoggi. MBS should be arrested by the International Criminal Court for murder of Khashoogi.
10
Sounds too obvious.
You used the term “United Nations Expert” 9 times in this article. I think we got the point the investigators were UN Experts but, did they work on behalf of the UN or was this a freelance job for the Amazon founder?
@Prudence Spencer
They were working for the UN; as the articles states, the statement was released by the UN (Human Right Commission to be specific).
2
MBS has his blood-soaked hands, now, allegedly, into Bezos's personal phone, so he could continue on his macabre mayhem, unhindered. The dastardly denial of MBS and his feigned innocence are the typical hallmarks of any surreptitious supervisor of his acrimonious acolytes, literally heel-bent on committing heinous acts. What a piece of work! Somebody ought to expose the true colors of this quacksalver, masquerading as a do-gooder, behind that fake facade of a beaming face. It is small wonder MBS and DJT deserve each other, unquestionably.
And now, Saudi Arabia may well have joined the elite club of the infamous hackers - China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia. Together, these baddies might even succeed trying and ruling the roost. First terrorism (9/11 and Pensacola attack) and now this stated cowardice.
His pusillanimous pursuit and killing of Khashoggi lends ample credence to the fact this cold-blooded killer, presumably, will stop at nothing to make his presence felt, by hook or by crook.
5
This is why the NSA tells Trump to not use a personal iPhone.
9
Interesting that there is no mention of the terrorware used is Israeli. Indeed, spyware used to terrorize targets of the MBSs and Mexican governments of the world.
We have trump who hates Bezos, trump's friend and ally MBS who hates Bezos and trump's friend and ally Israel completing the circle of terroristic shenanigans. Indeed, such spyware should be labeled terrorware.
The Game of Plutocrats has begun, making the Game of Thrones pale in comparison to the devastation they will cause to every living entity on Earth - all so the winner can claim the golden throne and loo.
2
The Saudis have purchased the Pegasus software from an Israeli firm which has enabled them to spy on dissidents including Mr. Kashoggi. It is unconscionable that the Saudi heir to the throne behaves like a thug and has allowed the hacking of Mr. Besos phone with dissemination of private information to a tabloid newspaper whose owner is friendly to Mr. Trump and has helped him get elected. If the allegations are true, he should be subjected to harsh sanctions sufficient to prevent his ascent to the throne.
5
@Mireille Kang
Interesting that it's not "unconscionable" for the Israelis to sell to the Saudis spying software.
1
Gee I wonder if there'll be any defenders of the Saudi leader?
Not yet.
3
The photo of Bezos and mBS is telling; You're known by the friends you keep. If you're going to keep company with bad people, expect some of their badness to affect you. If you're going to wallow in it, expect to get some on you.
5
Has Saudi Arabia been added to Trump's travel ban list yet?
5
bezos clicked on an unknown attachment?
ummmmmmmmm?
3
The Saudis are not our friends.
I’m looking forward to hearing if there are any obvious ties to Kushner and Trump - especially with the National Enquirer (David Pecker) connection. Would anyone be surprised l? A world of powerful mobsters world a lot of power right now.
8
Maybe Jared Kushner could give his BFF a call and tell him to stop killing and dismembering people he doesn't like.
9
Imagine Trump shielding MBS because he bulk purchases rooms at Trump Hotel and attacks his political enemies. Pathetic and sad!
2
Not good. Doesn’t help either we have a traitor in the whites house that loves the prince and hates Bezos.
Voting republican for economic self interest at what cost? Maybe your life?
5
terrorists' going to terrorize.
2
If you lie down with dogs, you get fleas. Bezos got off lightly, the last person who made MBS mad was hacked up and stuffed into a suitcase.
3
If Bezos was hacked then you can be dead certain that every Trump has been, too.
...dogs?...... fleas?
3
MBS, a murderer and now a hacker. What is next on his agenda!
5
Jeff Bezos is pretty smart, and his phone was hacked. Imagine what even marginally skilled hackers are probably doing to Donald Trump’s phone. Horrifying, terrifying to consider the possibilities.
126
@SheBear To say nothing of Jared Kushner, another high profile correspondent of MBS. Who, we might note, is tasked with "peace in the middle east" among his many roles in the Trump administration.
What a complete clown show.
27
@SheBear
If that were true, wouldn't his tax returns have come out by now? Or his payments from Putin y'all are insisting exist somewhere?
3
What could possibly be useful he has on that phone?
He tweets anything and everything anyway.
Although his stormy love trysts might be of interest.
Not the one with Stormy, the one with Kim Jong Un, of course.
8
Who needs a large military force when they can hack into everyone's phones and computers with ease? At least no one dies from malware.
1
If it was "MBS" it was also "JK" as in Jared Kushner. I really hope he's investigated along with those he hired or coordinated with in Saudi Arabia.
6
The burning question is - did MBS get the nude pics of Bezos he so desperately wants?
My mother was a Marine Corps telephone operator who handled a top secret line between the Pentagon and Quantico.
When we got our first private phone back in the 60's she sat me down. "If you are not willing to go to the end of the street and shout at the top of your lungs what you are about to say on the phone, don't. There is no such thing as a private phone line. The government listens to all phone calls."
Here we are 50+ years later and people haven't learned that yet. If you don't want the world to know your business, don't post it on the internet or use your phone. Its no different than when we had a public phone line and mom would get on and say, "Mr. Johnson, get off the phone, I can still hear you breathing. Quit listening to my call!"
4
Saudi Arabia is not our friend. The Saudis regularly put on shows of short-term friendship, but over the long term I'm hard pressed to name any foreign nation that has done more to undermine American values and American interests throughout the Sunni world. Where do fundamentalism and radicalism ever boil over and the Saudi hand has not been stoking the fire for years?
(Yes, the Iranian government is its own kind of awful, but even they have not managed to undermine us so badly)
American administrations have repeatedly turned a blind eye to the Saudis' long-term enmity because of fear of short-term costs of confrontation or because of some economic deal that ultimately proves of trivial worth compared to the influence and goodwill that the Saudis' worldwide promotion of anti-Western ideology has cost us. The current administration is the latest and greatest act in this sad parade, but not the only one by far.
3
The owner of Amazon should get an iPhone.
2
Call it a hunch, but something tells me Trump won't be ordering a drone strike to take out MBS, a government official who sponsors terrorism, like he did with Soleimani. Unlike him, MBS knows that all you have to do to get carte blanche to terrorize the world is dangle a hotel deal in front of Trump's nose. But with Bezos, these criminals may have bitten off more than they can chew. Let's hope.
2
Obviously, Jared Kushner must now return from Davos to Washington via Riyadh in order to ensure that his favorite authoritarian, medieval Saudi prince is fine and not being put out by his latest brush with modernity.
3
Bezos has also been verbally attacked by Trump and Kushner, both best of friends with the Prince whom we should be designating as an enemy. I hope Bezos uses his great wealth to expose and stop any or all three of them.
3
with friends like these who needs enemies. Serves Bezos right.
1
IS MBS hungry and looking for a late-night snack of bone-sawed Bezos? Or maybe Trump ordered him to do it bc WaPo is doing too much reporting and getting at the truth and depth of Saudi and Trump corruption. Inquiring minds want an investigation.
If techie Bezos can be hacked and threatened by the Saudis, it is even more likely that key Republicans have been hacked and blackmailed by the Russians. It would explain a lot.
3
Yikes! I hope Jeff Bezos is very, very careful about where he travels and with whom because this MBS guy is an absolutely dangerous man.
2
Does this make Trump like MBS more or less? Seriously though, what more do we need to recognize that Saudi Arabia is an enemy? If trying to silence one of the US’s most prominent newspapers by hacking its owner’s phone isn’t enough, what is? Do they need to dismember one of its journalists? Oh wait...
93
@John I wonder if MBS did this at the behest of Jared or our fearless leader? (really a rhetorical question)
With that question out there in the universe, it makes you wonder who the enemy really is?
3
@John They've been pretending friendship and promulgating extremist violence worldwide for decades.
4
Bezos should buy an iPhone. His Amazon Google phone allows malware to be installed.
7
The message, apparently lifted from a 1920's gangster saga, is loud and clear.
"Don't mess with MBS"
3
A phone hack or a hack saw. MBS, Donald, and Jared - in the business of silencing voices of truth and democratic values.
16
So, what’s the difference between Mo and Trump? The systems. The Saudi’s are forever stuck with Mo. We, at least for the moment, have the opportunity to rid of Trump.
10
Time to delete FB WhatsApp and delete your FB accounts also because FB is doing nothing to protect Americans. In fact, I think Zuckerberg ia siding with our enemies against America. Time to sell all FB stock. Our country and national security is more important than FB. Find another medium that guarantees security and has some allegiance to our country.
11
@kay
I agree! I am shocked and disheartened that my well -meaning friends and family - and more broadly, well meaning citizens of the world - cannot turn their backs on Facebook and Twitter. The Greatest Generation defeated Hitler, and my generation cannot give up a social media app that spreads lies and fosters divisiveness.
Simply pathetic.
Not me. No way I will ever put a penny in Zuckerberg's pocket.
2
I guess it is karma that his devices have been listening to us. Not me I would never get one but to those people that have an Alexa I would assume that it is listening to you and I hope Bezos can get his Prime people on this in a hurry.
1
Our nation has a constitution that grants us a free press and freedom of political expression and speech.
A king or monarch of another nation trying to sabotage that right is truly an enemy of this nation.
Our congress and businesses need to sever ties with the Saudis.
9
Doesn't Trump use his unsecured iphones all the time? And isn't he friends with MBS? When is his phone going to get hacked? Or has it already been hacked?
10
lol...we could hack trump's rear end and we wouldn't learn anything we don't already know. We recognize him as one of the lowest life forms in the Universe.
1
The Saudis were not our friends in 9/11 and they are not our friends now. If they did not have oil and we were not dependent on fossil fuels, nobody would associate with one of the most repressive countries in the world. George W. started making excuses for them right away, as he flew the Bin Ladens out of the country when nobody else could fly. He wined and dined Saudis at his ranch while the thugs hold the world hostage with high oil prices. They still do. It took Bush months to decide to bomb Iraq when it is Saudi Arabia which is the financier for Muslim extremists around the world while they deny civil rights to half their population. I don't know why Jeff Bezos was communicating with the low life prince, but he definitely surprised everyone by standing up to the blackmail by saying he would rather be embarrassed than back down on publishing the truth.
11
People said how Bezos, the richest man, whose company, Amazon, a tech behemoth, could be hacked so easily, even if it is by MBS, the future king of Saudi Arabia. The thing is hacking is not just about technologies. In this case, it is about social engineering.
If indeed it is the case, it is because Bezos has accepted a file from a supposed to be trusted source. It is like your boss or spouse send you something saying s/he has seen it and it may be of interest to you.
This is the proverbial "trust no one!" Alas, one would go insane not to trust anyone. Perhaps the real lesson is this: don't trust anyone who has tied to your employee's death and who authorized killing innocents simply because he has a grudge with the other government
5
Of course the kingdom hacked his phone. For them to deny it is laughable.
6
Bezos has been critical of Trump. Did MBS do this in order to collect dirt on Bezos on behalf of Trump?
6
@Brian H.
Since AMI is involved, it's logical that 45 and Jared are involved.
AMI has a stash of dirt on 45.
Wow! What a surprise that MBS (Jared K's biffle) would do such a thing! ...especially when he knew that the United States would act with immediate condemnation, severe economic sanctions, and a restrictive curtailment of military procurement by the kingdom. Unless MBS remembered that the President of MAGA made his first international trip to Saudi Arabia (Jared's idea) and was treated (flattered) according to his perception of his new position... plus he got to take a cool sword home as a souvenir.
3
January 22, 2020
Important persons that can not protect their security have only themselves to blame should their cyber communications be invaded and cause harm to their agendas.
1
So true that Trump’s hate of the Washington Post runs as deep as that harbored by the Saudi prince. Killing and hacking (both kinds) - Trump turns a blind eye to it all. In Bezo’s case, Trump no doubt welcomes the hack. Russian agents hack Burisma searching for anything to benefit Trump. Trump didn’t ask for that? He’s grateful.
He called for China’s help. Soon the Republican controlled Senate will acquit and thereby, condone Trump’s solicitation of foreign political assistance. May they all go down in history as shameless saboteurs of lawful process and democratic governance.
6
Trump did MBS a favor in not blaming him for murdering the journalist.
MBS is presumably just paying Trump back by this hacking episode into into the owner of one of the few newspapers left that tells the truth about the mentally ill individual playing at being President. The person MBS had killed might have written for the Washington Post—can’t remember for sure.
The bigger problem may be the fascistic attack on honest journalism across the country being perpetrated by Trump, his family, his supporters, and now by foreign governments that clearly have enough on Trump to engage in this kind of tit-for-tat blackmail and favors.
6
Despite being an American, Trump will say nothing to the Saudi Prince over this because he hates Bezo and the Washington post. Just like Trump doesn't think our soldiers injured with possible brain damage in Iraq by Iran's missiles a couple weeks ago is a big deal. That statement should say a great deal to all Americans regardless of political party preferences! Trump is unfit to be POTUS!
8
Let’s not forget that the murderous MBS is a dear friend of Trump and Kushner. A coincidence? Not a chance. This is a president who promised to drain the swamp but instead associates and conspires with the lowest of the low. He disgraces his office with every breath.
6
Come on, the Saudis hacked a phone? You mean the foreign contractors the Saudis hired to hack the phone.
3
Trump is in tight with the Saudi King, and still hasn’t condemned him or sanctioned him or the country for its assassination of an American. Now Bin Salman is returning the favour and hacking Bezos for information Trump can use to attack the Washington Post and silence revelations about Trump’s malfeasance and evil deeds. Again, as with the Ukraine bribery attempt, and Putin’s help in getting him elected, Trump’s every single move is designed to keep him in power for another 4 years and continue to enrich himself even more. There’s more to this Saudi relationship than we know. But Trumps obsession to enrich himself dealing with a man who controls billions at his sole discretion and who can make Trump obscenely wealthy beyond his wildest dreams, is no doubt the key. Trump is behind this hacking, for sure.
4
This is the new warfare via cyber hacking. If they can tamper with Bezos's WaPo holdings imagine the havoc they could cause in this country by infiltrating Amazon!
30
@Exile: Or our elections.
1
The lessons for the general public are clear:
You cannot trust electronic device security in a general sense. Devices that we calmly assume to be secure may well not be, such as a phone in this case. For a long time, there was an assumption that Mac's were not subject to hacking and malware, but it turns out that they, too, have vulnerabilities. The Times Privacy Project has demonstrated how innocent we are about our privacy.
A simple approach to guarantee some privacy would be to be certain that compromising photos or documents are stored only on a computer that has good virus protection and is not continuously connected to the internet. There is external memory storage for smartphones, so using that for selective materials might isolate them from disclosure. We do not know precisely what the vehicle was for malware in the case of Mr. Bezos, but we all need to be careful about attachments and downloads as a general rule. Another option is to use a separate phone (in this case, one might have called it the love-phone) for special documents and photos, and to be careful about email traffic for that phone, especially incoming.
4
@Jeff Apparently many people learned NOTHING from Snowden. He told us the NSA was "bulk collecting" ALL our digital communications. ALL. That's why they built that YUGE mass storage facility in Utah. There is one very important rub: the traitor in the WH cannot gain access to that data. The NSA does NOT work for him, nor any branch of government.
And "that call", the complete audio file, is there, on the NSA "cloud" for anyone to listen to, providing they have the right clearance. Seriously, WHY would anyone be so naive as to think a phone call, FROM THE WH, would need to be "transcribed" in 2019?!?
Absurd!
1
When can we quit making excuses for the Saudis and start backing far away from them? As for Bezos, I hardly feel sorry. When you lie down with that lot, you wake up with fleas.
27
The House of Saud is the enemy of all civilized people, and should be shunned by the world until they actually choose to become civilized.
67
People seemed to be so excited when Mohammed bin Salman came to power in Saudi Arabia.
He came to America for a tour with hundreds of fellow Saudi Arabian men. He even met with Oprah!
So modern! He'll change things! It will be a new day for Saudi Arabian for women!
This was all false. He is just another medieval, dominating, spoiled sheikh. He lies. He hacked a journalist up, he oppresses and jails women, there are no freedoms in Saudi Arabia for anyone except very wealthy men of the House of Saud who do what they want.
He does not care about the sufferings of those he has jailed/killed for opposing him.
But he has picked the wrong man - Jeff Bezos - to mess with. It doesn't matter what you think of Jeff Bezos, we only have to acknowledge the danger here of hacking into Jeff's account to silence him, the owner of a newspaper.
The Saudis tweet is absurd. It's laughable. The What's App account was traced to their leader. They want an investigation. Sheikhs, there has ALREADY been an investigation. Your man is guilty.
What will Trump do?
Nothing. Why?
Let's see Trump's phone. What does Mohammad have on Trump? You think his phone isn't hacked? You think his phone wasn't hacked by Russia and the Saudis BEFORE the election?
It's awful what happened to Bezos. But what is Trump doing to appease the Saudis and Russians? What do they have on HIM? How is the safety of our country being compromised RIGHT NOW? What are they threatening Trump with?
68
Setting Bezos aside for a separate consideration or opinion, I think Saudi Arabia is a repressive criminal regime and its leader MBS, an international criminal. His vast wealth, as usual, shields him from justice. How I loathe this type of character, whether foreign or DOMESTIC!
41
Cool, cool, just an American billionaire in direct contact with the foreign dictator who was responsible for the murder of one of the journalists who worked for the paper he “owns.”
Nothing wrong with that at all... absolutely totally perfect and nothing at all wrong with that at all *said with extreme sarcasm*
Why was Bezos EVER in direct contact with MBS? How many exchanges did they have before this latest contact? What was the content of those exchanges? There is a LOT more to this story.
15
@Austin Ouellette
Not to spend too much time defending a bazillionaire who can defend himself, but Mr. Bezos seems to have exchanged phone numbers with MBS before MBS made it personal by hacking up a columnist at Mr. Bezos’ newspaper. Both are wealthy and contact between them is not extraordinary. I doubt Mr. Bezos will agree to another lunch with MBS.
3
@Austin Ouellette
Actually, this occurred prior to the Kashhoggi killing, so these particular criticisms and implied allegations are completely unfounded.
2
@Austin Ouellette My first thought was that no matter who you are if you are targeted by a determined hacker you will be got to. I guess whoever did the hack and placed the spyware did not cover the tracks back to the Saudi prince, maybe he thought the Prince was going to kill him anyway.
2
MBS has the same "L'etat, c'est moi" attitude as Trump and, apparently, one is as dumb as the other. They are people who have never lived in the real world among everyday people and really do believe that they can pull all this off because we will all accept it.
20
@Chris P. We do accept it. Trump and the Congress will do nothing except more than likely start a war with Iran since that is what the Saudis, and Israel want. Corrupt toads that like Trump divert attention and get away with it. Forgotten all these years the majority of 9/11 were Saudis and while Bush was rounding up other innocent people let them get out of the country. The killer at the military base was a Saudi and so others of his group were expelled. Like Trump, Putin, there are no real action taken. The media has forgotten to follow up on the crimes against humanity that the Saudis have undertaken in Yemen. Gee, remember that busload of innocent children that were killed, what ever happened with that ZERO. Kushner is in bed with them making lots of money and should never have been given a security clearance. As for hacking phones, with Trump they don't have to since how many times has it been reported he does not use a secure line when talking to others. As a historian I thought the 1930's were bad, but nothing like the 21st Century. Jim Trautman
4
I wonder how many others he has done this to.
18
@Mine2
Every Trump and every Republican Senator.
6
@Mine2
No doubt.. a LOT of others.
3
I’m sick of MBS and of the Saudi government. It’s time we stopped giving them our weapons systems and military advice. We are now the largest petroleum exporting nation in the world. We no longer need their oil but they still need our petroleum dollars. We should impose economic sanctions on Saudi Arabia along the lines of the sanctions imposed on N Korea and Iran not just for this but also because of their war in Yemen and the restrictions they impose on Saudi Women, and the death of Kasoggi. Just another reason to dump trump
23
@R.F.
American corporations are way too greedy to stop dealing with the Saudis. We will sell them almost anything they want. Also the current presidential administration sees them as a counter-force against Iranian influence in the region.
Remember America has a long history of supporting dictators and autocrats if their regimes support wider American foreign policy and corporate interests.
2
Not to mention 17 Saudis were on those 9/11 airplanes. ( out of 19).
2
Looking forward to our next (Democratic) president who will, presumably, hold MBS accountable. Vote Nov 3.
16
@fact or friction
I don't think the Democrats, except possibly Bernie and/or Warren, will do anything until the flow of money to politicians via Citizen's United is cut off. And buying a politician is OK according to several SCOTUS rulings.
The Saudis invest huge amounts of money into the US and with Trump they've found a willing ally but the Bush family has an even closer relationship with them.
The Democrats may speak out about the actions of the Saudis but as long as money controls our politicians then the Saudis speak loudly and discretely with their donations, investments, and payoffs.
2
Here we go again. "I will take full responsibility for the hack" the Prince will say...knowing nothing will be done because we have a broken intelligence network, a broken DOJ, a divided Congress and a very manipulatable President. These things may not seem much now, but they are warning signs of very bad things to come...for some. Who is paying attention?
159
@Ira I would think Jared Kushner might think twice about his new BFF.
7
@Jacquie No way...he's in over his head, as if that matters to him. It's ALWAYS been ALL about MONEY (and Jar Jar's DEBT).
4
This needs to be very public to set a precedent with other countries, including Allies, that they cannot harass Americans. This should not be seeped under the rug...
Perhaps it is time for another McCarthy hearing to understand all of the Foreign intelligence activity in the USA.
Let's identify it all and I would vote for a leader that promises to conduct this review publicly.
7
@Pixle Dot
I suspect our former allies are looking this and saying “the company America keeps stinks, and therefor so does America.”
1
Imagine, the leader of a country taking whatever extraordinary actions he deems necessary to gain political advantage.
Good thing that doesn't happen here in the USA.
15
@Know/Comment not in US? Ins’t this similar to trump’s withholding Ukraine aid. Both are dirty deeds by unethical leaders in different tactics.
3
Re: "...Good thing that doesn't happen here in the USA..." {@Know/Comment}
Timely sarcasm...if that's what it is...appreciated!
1
@jnl
Sarcasm intended.
If the best security that money can buy can't prevent the richest oligarchs in the world from hacking each other then where the heck does that leave privacy and security for the rest of us?
12
Relax. Nobody cares about the rest of us.
Trump has expressed publicly his hate of Bezos separately from his hate for the Washington Post. Trump and the Crown Prince became buddies over the sword dance performed for Trump when he visited Saudi Arabia. Hard to believe that Trump was not aware of this, may have promoted it.
26
@blgreenie I thought about the same thing. Crown Prince, trump, Putin lock in steps to retain their power.
15
So long as Saudi Arabia agrees to publicly announce every time they make a large purchase of American goods and praise Trump while doing so they can literally get away with murder.
23
@alan I don’t think trump only got praise from Crown Prince. There are much more behind. Think Jared krusher. The crime family.
14
"The United Nations experts called on the United States and “other relevant authorities” to immediately open an investigation into the hack of Mr. Bezos’s phone, citing a pattern of similar surveillance of perceived critics of the Saudi government."
I'm sure this administration will get right on that.
It's almost frightening how much the world at large relies on us...not to do the right thing, necessarily, but at least the decent thing.
We are going to see a new world order before Donald vacates the White House.
27
@Halboro
I think it's the OBVIOUS thing, rather than the right one.
It sounds like the UN stumbled across the Bezos connection whilst investigating Kashhoggi's assassination. The former is a highly technical matter, not normally within the UN's remit, and Mr Bezos is an American citizen, resident in the US.
This doesn't sound like a big UN ask - or one that appears 'frightening'.
1
@Halboro The 45 administration will be only too happy to do so, as long as they can randomly add names of any of their innumerable enemies into it. Evidence is unnecessary. Unless the investigation points toward His Stablegeniusness, in which case no evidence counts at all.
7
@nolongeradoc It is frightening because our government can no longer be relied upon to do the right, or decent, or "obvious" thing. Not if it's not in the best political and financial interest of Trump and his cohorts.
1
For all the commenters somehow blaming Trump (?) even though that is a very long stroll down a very crooked path: understand this -- the US has admitted openly that 9/11 was backed and financed by Saudi Arabia and not even a wrist slap. It is believed and always has been that SA is a critical ally for the US in the middle east and one would have to look at SA's relationships with other middle east countries and look at the lack of stability in many of those countries to even begin to see the picture. However there are many scholarly books which could explain things if anyone is interested and it looks like no one is since no one already understands. No, I am not a Trump supporter. I support a high-information American population.
11
@ck
I think your comment refers to the need for a well informed electorate - which I agree with. Yes, Saudi Arabia controls much oil, wealth and thus potentially military mite in the region. The leadership is also clearly guilty of assassinating and dismembering the WPO journalist Koshoggi, murdering our military officers while on bases here in the states, and of course 9/11. This and sadly, other less headline grabbing butchery.
Isnt it time we start to chose our friends a bit more based on morality and respect rather than on how much oil they possess. Of course we need to develop and maintain relationship with SA, but Trump, and Kushner, falling over themselves to enhance greed and wealth at whatever cost is not something to be advocated.
9
CK. This is the first reference to 9/11 I’ve seen. How can that be? Also, high information voters are rare. Witness these groups pulled out by pollsters. Scary!
This is a strange story. The UN experts, who made no conclusive statement of fact, are human rights experts- not technology experts. They relied upon the expertise of others hired by Mr Bezos. Mr Bezos is a private citizen. Unsure what role the UN serves here.
1
@Philip Schneider
This is just Bezos flexing that he has power over the UN. The story makes no sense. Embarrassing intimate pictures of him are supposed to influence/silence WaPo journalists? Please. Bezos already has no shame.
No one would care unless it was revealed that he was doing something illegal/underhanded - in which case, nobody would be surprised, given his history.
2
Mr. Bezoes is a private citizen but owner of one of the world’s biggest companies. If something were to happen to him, many humans would feel the impact.
4
@Philip Schneider
They're involved because of Kashhoggi's murder. His extrajudicial execution. It looks like they became suspicious of the Bezos connection during their own investigations.
4
This article fails to mention that Whatsapp is a Facebook company. How secure is anyone's info. with any Facebook entity? It's a question we need to never stop asking.
40
There are villains galore in this story but the absence of any obvious Trump acolyte is interesting. Perhaps Jared Kushner should be interviewed in this investigation; as a confidant of both Trump and MBS he sufficient motivation to help silence the Post. The brutal murder of Kashoggi was a unambiguous message to anyone who dares criticize the Kingdom.
23
Is it fair to think that the instigators of this espionage, if it is finally recognized, will be condemned to death for “going rogue”? If so, the regime may soon find no one left to do its base works.
5
The successful hack of Bezos' phone doesn't help inspire confidence in AWS.
Caveat emptor.
9
The crown prince can get away with anything, including the nauseating dismemberment of a newspaper reporter. We're still horrified by the details of the murder, but like so many outrageous acts by the rich and famous, we have gotten used to it and the edges have worn off. It's just part of who he is, like the details of so many in the headlines these days..
16
Why didn't Donald Trump, the global corruption fighter, stop arms sales to Saudi Arabia?
I mean, he and his supporters have been trying to sell this idea that he held up arms sales to the Ukraine because he was so concerned about corruption there. But almost at exactly the same time Trump was holding up arm sales to the Ukraine, he was vetoing bi-partisan legislation passed by Congress to halt an $8 billion arms sale to the Saudis.
I guess President Trump doesn't consider murder corruption.
31
First, what's this got to do with UN, United Nations? Why are they raising alarms here, what's in it for them? Just curious.
Second, isn't that Bezos's problem? In what capacity is he the person of national interest? He is 'merely' enormously rich.
1
@ss
When a foreign government breaks into the devices of a private citizen, for the purpose of coercing a national news outlet into favorable coverage of it and hiding its crimes -- it isn't just Bezos's problem. It's an attack on our free press.
16
The Saudi’s killed an American journalist who worked for Bezos - that’s why the UN is involved. Humans rights include the right to live...
6
@ss, because the Saudis were attacking the Washington Post, not just Bezos, and killed an international journalist to silence reporting of their murderous regime. The regime that the US sells a lot of weapons to - you know, to kill everyone walking around in Yemen.
10
Still trying to find out what phone Bezos used.
Was it an Iphone, that can''t be hacked according to the FBI? Was it an Android based phone ?
Even more interesting: The Washington Post reports
"he infecting technology did not require Bezos to click on the video, but rather instantly created a channel for remote extraction of data from the phone, according to the person familiar with the investigation."
This is rather frightening
I would appreciate a more technical article with information how owners can avoid such hacking
170
@Carla When they say "can't be hacked", I don't think they include user-accepted malware. "Social engineering"
8
I suspect that he had WhatsApp set to download videos automatically. This is why I keep auto-download off.
14
@Carla, WhatsApp should not be used because it is too easily hacked. Wasn't this already proved in the 2016 election?
5
Think there might be a connection to Donald trump here, perhaps even that trump suggested that mbs do it? I think it would be very nieave to think otherwise.
62
@Steve The National Enquirer ("The New Kingdom") is a pretty good link to Trump.
3
Some kind of poetic justice that a purveyor of universal global surveillance has his phone hacked. My heart is sick that Mr. Kashoggi died a terrifying death as a result. Evil all around.
25
@Dennis "universal global surveillance"? How so? You mean they track your purchases to suggest more options? If you don't want that, go somewhere else. They're not surveilling any non-customers, as far as I know.
9
@ryurick i think the comment was referring to Amazon's involvement in applying various law enforcement and intelligence agencies with facial recognition software, thus enabling the rise of police-state type surveillance practices.
2
@ryurick — “Hey Alexa, please send all
my data to marketing companies, human research facilities and the NSA without my knowing it!”
Naw, you’re right, Rick, they wouldn’t do that.
1
The chances that Trump wasn't involved? I wouldn't take that bet.
56
Why is this particular country considered an "ally" and why does our foreign policy encourage and empower them?
105
@M. McGuire
Oil, Oil, Oil
VOTE DEMOCRAT - much more support for non-oil technology.
19
@M. McGuire That's very complicated . . .however there are many scholarly books about middle east politics. Let's just say they are so important to the US that even though the US declared they were behind and financed the 9/11 attacks nothing changed between US and SA so that tells you something right there . . . . .
9
Excellent question. Saudi is much more dangerous than Iran, but we favor the dictatorship that gives us easy oil over the democracy that doesn't.
28
Am I missing something? Why give a known murderer access to your personal phone number? Can’t he afford a secondary phone? With all the accompanying attempted blackmail/salacious details, it sounds like an episode of Mr. Robot.
20
@MHF If, by "known murderer," you mean his killing of Khashoggi (arguably likely not the only murder), that didn't happen for seven more months.
4
@MHF Nobody's perfect. Bezos just made a mistake. Even the super-rich need to have contact with other people.
1
@MHF Well Kashoggi hadn't been killed yet. I assume that it didn't occur to Mr. Bezos that the Saudi leader would do things like hack Bezos' phone and have Kashoggi killed. Not so much from any morality as from normal prudence. But the young Saudi ruler is reckless. And he has this administration on speed dial.
You don't suppose he hacked Kushner's phone do you? Or Trump's?
4
Everyone in Congress must be shaking in their boots. They thought it was only Russia that has a knife to their throats, now Saudi Arabia does as well. I also just read that Trump has secretly delivered nuclear weapons technology to SA. I'm wondering what that is all about.
40
@julia Where did you read that? You need to cite sources. Otherwise you sound like Trump.
Do not descend to his level. You don't fight misinformation with more of the same.
We need information.
2
@julia
yeah, can you imagine how they'd feel if they knew the Saudis had targeted them by funding a primary opponent?
On 9/11 W Bush shut down all flights except for the ones getting the Saudis out of the US.
It's almost like watching the old kid's TV show The Thunderbirds. I could see the string used to control the puppets but ignored them anyway.
1
@julia
tump's interest is only his purse. He is setting his family up for future profits with Russia, Saudi Arabia.
...ooohhhhh such beeeeeautiful hotels can be built there....
Repubs are so insanely blind. The whole world is aghast.
3
This is all part of divide-and-conquer. Classic!
Trump scratches the Saudi's back, the Saudi reciprocate.
Weaken the press wherever possible, blackmail, disrupt, create chaos.
Probably a few hotels in the Middle East involved, too. And quite a bit of money to be made for Trump, the most corrupt public predator who ever held office in the US. No wonder he admires dictators.
The only good news for the Democrats is that Trump is an Impeachment gift that keeps on giving. After the current farce in the Senate is concluded, they already should have plenty of material again to start the next impeachment process.
Keep it coming!
Someone has to remove that grifter from office!
Because, if not, what's next? You think Trump would draw the line at using the Saudis to kill his enemies wherever encountered? Including here in the US?
Think again. There is NO barrier Trump will not pass.
72
@Captain Nemo
Excellent points. Which raises the question: maybe Republicans are genuinely afraid for their and their families' lives, if they try to bring Trump to justice? Trump ALWAYS gets even, and there is no limit to his reach, now he has muderers on his side.
17
@Captain Nemo
Nemo, alas, I believe it will be up to the American voting public to remove cancer trump from the body politic in November.
6
In 2018 as the Washington Post investigated the suspected involvement of Prince bin Salman in the murder of Khashoggi, what other world leaders were really, really angry about the Post investigating them and blaming Bezos?
I can think of one leader in particular who would have been delighted to see Bezos publicly shamed by revealing the intimate contents of of his phone. Curiously, that same leader had been done favors during a campaign by that same National Enquirer, which pulled one or more 'catch and kill' on stories that would have embarrassed that leader. And that leader is bin Salman's pal.
Coincidence???
41
@SpeakinForMyself
Coincidence, or was there in fact a phone call where one said to the other "I need a favor, though ..."
3
Now, without in any way trying to exculpate MBS, why did Jeff Bezos allow him to be in direct contact via WhatsApp or any other electronic means?
The non-journalist owner of a newspaper, whether or not he is rich enough to make Croesus look like a welfare cheat, should have enough sense to know that it is the job of journalists to be in contact with public figures--not he himself. All he could possibly do by being in contact with MBS directly is cause problems for the Washington Post.
Is this another case of billionaire arrogance?
Does it call to mind the book/novie Remains of the Day?
51
@Just Ben "should have enough sense to know that it is the job of journalists to be in contact with public figures--not he himself."
Nonsense, of the many valid criticisms of Bezos, this is not one of them.
MBS met, and exchanged contact information, with Bezos in April of 2018, when he did his American press tour, trying to convince the world that he would beckon in a new, modern age for Saudi Arabia.
That was a full 6 months before the Khashoggi murder.
Public figures exchange contact information all the time, be it for business or social purposes. I see nothing wrong with that.
23
@Just Ben
who knows for sure if Bezos gave his number to MBS?? - he did not have to, to be hacked.
US intelligence, many there, are in cahoots with trump.
5
Why are crime victims always blamed for their victimization?
13
The thought that this country is trying to encourage tourism would be laughable, if were not so tragic.
34
@A reader
It's a tough choice for people who want to broaden their travel horizons. Viking is planning cruises of Antarctica and North America’s Great Lakes. Let's see. Should tourists choose our northern natural wonders or the delights of Petro-dollar Land ruled by an absolute monarch?
6
@A reader
I wonder how many of our citizens would like to see a beheading in person instead of just watching ISIL on their screens?
I suspect that there are quite of few.
Well, turns out there is more than one way that the Saudi Crown Prince has tried to silence the Washington Post.
So now here's the test for the American public and our morally upright leaders: do we care more about a billionaire's phone or that a Washington Post report was murdered and cut into pieces?
93
@ML trumps says the crown prince, like rocket man and putin, is a good guy, backed hard.
2
Me, the latter: for the creepy billionaire, it's karma for his other things like Alexa, Ring, and the numerous other evils of his store. He doesn't need to own the Post, which would be better off in the hands of the People instead of wealthy anti-union private hands anyway.
you'd think a guy that rich would have a separate phone for personal matters. As for the murderous Saudis nothing surprises. I am a little shocked that it took Bezos so long to figure out he was hacked.
52
@hazel18
who knows for sure if Bezos gave his number to MBS?? - he did not have to, to be hacked.
US intelligence, many there, are in cahoots with trump.
1
@hazel18
A grown 50-something man should know better than to let anyone take nude photos of him on their phone or receive such material from his girlfriend.
His ex wife must be breathing a sigh or relief to have gotten rid of such an embarrassing spouse.
Regardless, the fact remains that WaPo hasn't published many damning articles on Saudi Arabia. Khasoggi episode aside, they treat the Saudis with the same kid gloves as any other major media.
It strains credulity that the UN would get involved in this personal matter on "journalistic integrity" grounds. I can see journalism organizations speaking out, but the UN? Please.
This should not come as a surprise after the Saudi involvement in 9-11 or Khashoggi’s murder.
198
@Steve I do not doubt that the hack happened. The question is why are we learning about it now, months later?
1
MBS, AMI, Trump, McConnell--heck, the whole GOP. What is the connection? I hope the UN digs deeply into this. We can't seem to trust our own DOJ to independently investigate this sleezy network.
149
Money. Money is the connection.
23
One could even call it a vast wrong-wing conspiracy.
2
I just received two breaking news emails at once. The first says (paraphrased), Seattle-area voters to vote via smartphone for the first time in U.S., & the second says, Jeff Bezos smartphone hacked by . . .. Presumably, Bezos can afford the best electronic device security money can buy; also presumably, a municipality (even one as high-tech & wealthy as Seattle) cannot. Why are we so stupid? We just seem to be begging for a hacking free-for-all & even further corruption of our already tainted election system. I repeat, why are we so stupid?
302
@Robin
Robin, I TOTALLY agree, and have supported a universal return to paper ballots and hand counting only for years!
27
@Robin - this Seattle voter will be voting by mail as I always do. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out.
8
@Robin Unfettered population growth with no natural pressure downward. Our technology means that even really really dumb people can procreate successfully.
4
I bet Trump would do like he did with Putin, he'll side with MBS. Probably say that Bezzo deserved it or the UN lied and it is all fake news and he'll keep sending troops to the "enemy" and make deals under the table with MBS.. The sad part is Senators are still defending this madman.
129
@GP Let's be a bit more accurate: not Senators, REPUBLICAN Senators.
56
@GP you are so right.
1
Trump hates Bezos and it does not surprise me that he would use the Saudi Prince to spy on him.
What is going to happen when Trump is emboldened by not getting impeached by the Senate? Remember what he said about his 2nd Amendment "friends." He will have his own private militia of 22,000 AR-15 mercenaries to protect him. He always wanted to be a "Strongman."
Good-Bye Amendment #1.
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...and all the rest.
What the heck, I wasn’t using my civil liberties anyway.
Saudi Arabia... a culture made up of equal parts stone-aged barbarism, and 21st century nuclear and surveillance technology.
What could possibly go wrong?
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We are lucky that US and UK media were not controlled by a few 1%ers in the late 1930s thus subject to the influence of powerful dictators or WWII might have turned out differently. A lesson of history.
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Could this be Trump transactional "diplomacy"? "You mess with Bezos and I won't mess with you?"
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@Richard Considering Trump's conduct and malfeasance, which he defends as being a part of his job, such a thought is no longer so much a conspiracy theory as it is a valid possibility.
America is demeaned by its leadership or lack of.
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I really wonder what the mp4 movie was that a prince would send to the richest man in the world.
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@Tessa Bell
Probably a funny cat.
Anyway, I am even sceptical of links sent to me by my wife.
Bad stuff in everywhere in digital media. Bezos learned an expensive but extremely useful lesson.
The Republicans support this. They support silencing a free press and they support Saudi malfeasance because the royal family buys guns and real estate in exchange for oil. Ask them about it for once.
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@Io
we're going to have to go for their base's financial interests to remove them from the overs of power
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Why ask - so they can deny it like Putin? Trump will believe whatever MBS says.
Sorry, Benjamin Franklin, looks like we can’t keep this Republic any more.
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Well, am certainly comfortable that we sell them our best weapon technology for their proxy wars and eventually, us.
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We simply have to end the use of fossil fuels. Saudi power will suddenly vanish from the global stage. And perhaps by limiting climate change, well avoid a mass extinction?
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@Larry D - I have not bought a gallon of gas in 10 years or been on a plane since 1991. Everyone can join me but everyone will come up with excuses of why they need that huge truck or SUV so they can drive to the gym to ride the bike.
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@tom harrison
I'm not able to do what you do, Tom, but I ADMIRE your grit!
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@Larry D
I agree, just installed solar to provide 100% of my electricity, with a 6 year payback. Next up an electric car.
It is time for the US to lead world instead of these backwards, childish "leaders" currently in the WH.
Tell the Mideast to pound sand.
2
What does “hacking” mean in this context?
Was someone able to read Mr Bezos, emails, texts, monitor his calls? How was the “hack” discovered.
How would the Saudi Prince have Mr Bezos personal number. How do we know that the Crown Prince uses this phone account? Was Mr Bezos in regular contact with the prince if not why didn’t he block this phone account. It all sounds questionable to me!
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@Bernard Bezos gave him his phone number when they met in 2018. It is in the article.
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@Bernard Let me educate you a bit.
Most hacks are done by trickery not technology. Why should thieves break into your house when you gave them the keys?
Get the mark to give up their password via phishing. Or exchange WhatsApp numbers. It is likely the number MBS gave Bezos was only given to Bezos. The phone was then turned over to Saudi intelligence. This was a planned attack.
Rich people communicate with other rich people. They run the world for their benefit, not yours or mine. There is a lot of status among rich people based on whom they know. For one thing, there's lots of money to be made.
Think of the status among your rich friends at the country club, on the private jet or at an international conference if you have Trump, Epstein or the Crown Prince on speed dial.
So of course Bezos would want to have the crown prince's cell phone number in his contacts. Easy as pie for MBS. "Hey Jeff. Let's stay in touch." It never occurred to Jeff that he just gave MBS to keys to his "house".
So, soon after meeting the crown prince (or Saudi intelligence) sends Bezos a funny video with a nice message. "Hey Jeff. Great to meet you. Watch this, you'll like it". He watches it, and in the blink of an eye the Saudis are into Bezos' phone, reading his mail and messages.
Now they can blackmail him & they tried. But Bezos went public & called their bluff.
If you are married and going to have an affair, get a separate phone number that you give to no one else but your paramour.
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@Bernard Read the article for you answers.
Your questions are not good ones.
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And this Prince glad-hands with Trump - no fan of the Washington Post himself - right?
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Interesting article. Who else did MBS hack? The feds need to check phones on any current or former U.S. government official who MBS may have contacted. Recommend starting with Jared Kushner.
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@BG He doesn't need to hack Jared. He has Jared in his pocket.
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@Joan. Maybe Jared has been spreading malware on behalf of his BFF. The Feds need to check the phones of any U.S. government official Jared may have contacted. Er...
Let's see. Saudi nationals allegedly with the support of the royal family planned and executed the attacks on 9/11. They brutally murdered and dismembered a US resident, Khashoggi. And now they stand accused of hacking into a Bezos' phone in an attempt to intimidate him and influence the reporting of a major US news organization.
All this while the Trump family considers the riches of the royal family far more important than its murderous bent in attempting to become a respected world leader. Birds of a feather.
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@Rick Spanier
Rick, while I loathe trump, it's also true that we've been coddling the Saudis for generations, administration after administration. We'd need a 100% cut off from them and that's unlikely.
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Right move .Hopefully something about internationally acceptable norm of behaviors will come out of it. At the end of the day ,this is about silencing certain facts,suppressing certain information,gaining certain advantages over other and over the adversaries.
Embedded virus or backdoor to Whats app and hacking of the medium provided India's Modi advantages that were denied to other in last election.
Facebook is adamant about selective silencing ,selective propagandizing and offering platform for lies. which have influenced , can and will influence information affecting elections . No one needs to hack them They are doing the job for a person who otherwise would be forced to hack of a more responsible and trustworthy medium to collect, change or damage the information.
Unfortunately planing information in the media is as bad as removing the information from the media. Showing up at the editorial offices and asking them to write favorably about foreign political activities ,foreign intervention , or trying to arm-twist the media to amplify the lies and falsehoods are much more common , heinous and dangerous which UN has never bothered to look into .
1
the internet/iPhones/data storage in "the cloud" make hacking into these ethereal networks of nodes and interconnecting nodes pretty easy for those that know how. It seems that tracing these hackers is impossible to do but their ability to just about go anywhere is not. I don't understand why their actions can't be traced back to their origin. why is that? or I'm I ill informed?
9
Doesn't surprise me in the least. How brazen can you get? Just like murdering and dismembering Mr. Khashoggi. The U.S. needs to keep MBS and the Saudi monarchy at arms length. The Saudis are not our friends, only friends of convenience as long as the U.S. does whatever they want.
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It does seem that leaders of Russia, Saudi Arabia and the US are much more brazen in their use of illegal methods to try an get their way.
Whatever happened to covert operations. Putin, Trump and the Prince do do nasty things out in the open.
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@Mark McIntyre Keep them at arms length?
I will be happy if we stop making excuses and covering for them when they torture our journalists to death.
Or, at least, stop aiding and abetting their genocidal war in Yemen.
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@Mark McIntyre Iran is far more civilized than Saudi Arabia. So why do we pick a fight with Iran? Why did we engineer the installation of the straw "Shah" in 1953, except to get our hands on Iranian oil at a bargain price? We should simply reduce our relationship to those two countries to the bare minimum until they embrace real democracy.
3
Why do we trust MBS with anything again?
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@Al Because he pays billions in cash to the US.
7
this world is increasingly like a reality tv show
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@gabriel
...with a component of horror...
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Except no would believe these events on reality tv.
3
I watched the KU-KSU end of game brawl last night. It looked like a well performed ballet compared to the chaos surrounding the activities of MBS, Trump, Barr, the GOP and McConnell in particular. My God, has there ever been a more odious group of vandals acting in concert to defile the whole wide world.
" The pump don't work 'cause the vandals took the handles." -Bob Dylan
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MBS is a poor excuse for an authoritarian “strong man.” (If he we’re actually competent he wouldn’t be so easily caught!). There should be international consequences for MBS’s actions. Saudi Arabia might be an ally, but that does not absolve the kingdom of responsibility.
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@Awells
Under any other administration, this thug's actions would have had consequences.
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@Chris Hill Really? Under w., bin Laden's whole family was allowed to fly out of the U.S. (multiple planes) on 9/12! There was NO air traffic allowed in the entire country on 9/12, EXCEPT THE SAUDI BIN LADENS! The bushes have long been corrupted by the Saudis.
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MBS has proven himself to be a ruthless and dangerous foe with no scruples. He should be treated as such by every government on Earth. Too bad the operative word here is "should." Until we become a world where money/economy matters less than the well-being of all individuals, this will mean nothing.
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@Mike I think he is ruthless, but only dangerous because US leadership are sniveling weaklings who care only about money and power. So, let us not make MBS out to be an evil genius, he is an average despot characterized only by his willingness to kill, not any kind of particular intelligence. It's just that the rest of humanity and humanities leaders are as dumb as stumps.
Anyway, a great percentage of people including Americans are bored and want to see more death. In that regard MBS is a man of the people, providing the same entertainment as Trump and Putin.
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@Mike If money and economy weren't everything, why would anyone bother dealing with the Trump administration?
Wow! What a sensational story of intrigue. Having been involved some heinous crimes, including the brutal killing of Jamal Khashoggi, who reported for the Washington Post - owned by Bezos, the Saudi Prince may well have used modern technology to snare Bezos into a lurid trap. If proven, this could be one of the best scandals we have witnessed.
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@PT
Is that all?
6