Le Monde has reported that French President Emmanuel #Macron, former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe and 14 French ministers were targeted for potential #surveillance on behalf of #Morocco in the #Pegasus spyware case. Morocco issued a statement denying any involvement in using Pegasus.
The French presidency said that if the revelations were true, they would be very serious.
Dr. William Lawrence, Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at the American University in Washington D.C., was surprised to learn that the French president was being targeted in the Pegasus spyware case. "We do know that it was used for political dissidents, for human rights activists, for journalists, particularly by a number of Middle Eastern and North African states. But this is the first we've heard of it being used against major heads of state."
To offer a some added perspective, Dr. Lawrence emphasized that it's "fairly routine" for national spy agencies to engage in this type of surveillance, including the infamous US surveillance of Angela #Merkels' phone spanning over a decade. "But to have a private firm making this available to governments to surveil heads of state is concerning."
Dr. Lawrence warns what's new here is "that the general public is being targeted, that private-sector companies could use these technologies, that this is sort of expanding beyond state-on-state surveillance into new realms, which raises questions of privacy for all of us."
(Dr. William Lawrence also served as a senior diplomat and is the former North Africa Project Director at International Crisis Group. During the Obama administration, Dr. Lawrence worked closely with the White House on core initiatives)
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