Parallax Views w/ J.G. Michael Supply Chain Crisis & Global Capitalism w/ William I. Robinson/Pegasus Spyware Used to Target Palestinian Activists w/ Kevin Gosztola
On this edition of Parallax Views, we have a double feature. First up, returning guest William I. Robinson, a noted sociologist and author of such books as The Global Police State and the upcoming Global Civil War: Capitalism Post-Pandemic, joins us to discuss his Truthout article "The COVID Supply Chain Breakdown Can Be Traced to Capitalist Globalization". We also discuss "The Fourth Industrial Revolution", the transnational capitalist class, crisis as endemic to capitalism, the origins of global capitalism, skyrocketing rates of inequality globally, surveillance technology and the transnational capitalist class, and more in this short-but-informative conversation with a leading theorist of global capitalism and its crises.
Then...
the private Israeli firm NSO Group became the subject of much public scrutiny in the past year after 17 media outlets came together to expose how its spyware, Pegasus, was being used around the world by the highest bidders to target activists, journalists, and dissidents. Now, it appears that the software has been used to target Palestinian human rights organizers. Additionally, it seems that these human rights defenders were declared "terrorists" after the discovery of their being targeted with the Pegasus spyware in what appears to be an "attempt at preemptively withholding evidence of surveillance and covering up surreptitious spyware actions." Kevin Gosztola of Shadowproof and The Dissenter joined Parallax Views to unpack this chilling story of surveillance capitalism and a "hacker-for-hire" company that's straight out of a cyberpunk dystopian nightmare wherein privacy rights are threatened in a massive way. Kevin also gives us an update on the case of Julian Assange and Wikileaks at the top of the conversation.
Also discussed:
- The chilling potential of Pegasus spyware to hack a phone's emails, microphone, camera, passwords, contacts, location data, and more
- An Obama administration official's connection to the NSO Group/Pegasus spyware story
- The BlueWolf app, facial recognition tech, and the targeting of Palestinians
- Front Line Defenders, Amnesty International's Security Lab, Citizen Lab, and the use of Pegasus against Palestinian human rights activists
- The Israeli government and NSO Group
- Facebook/Meta's lawsuit against NSO Group; NSO Group and WhatsApp
- Benny Gantz and the labelling of the Pegasus-targeted Palestinian human rights organizations as "terrorists"