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This sounded plausible until I read the first sentence. Why would MBS be the one executing the attack, and using his personal account to do it?
by lawnchair_larry 7y ago
This sounded plausible until I read the first sentence. Why would MBS be the one executing the attack, and using his personal account to do it?
- notadoc 7y agoPresumably because the attacker(s) assumption was that Bezos would open a message coming directly from someone he trusted and had direct communication with, in this case being MBS? That brings a lot more questions though; who actually sent the message? Was it a man-in-the-middle situation? Was MBS's WhatsApp account compromised? Did someone else use MBS physical phone to do this? Was it a third party? Interesting and strange story all around.
- caf 7y agoIt seems unlikely it would be MBS himself pressing the button, but a reason why Saudi intelligence might use his personal account is because Bezos would be far more likely to open a video sent from MBS than from some random account.
- lawnchair_larry 7y agoBut the obvious thing to do would be to pick anybody else that Jeff would also talk to and send it from their account instead. Only the most incompetent intelligence agency imaginable would do an op and intentionally attribute it to their own head of state.
- ceejayoz 7y agoIs there reason to believe Bezos regularly corresponds on WhatsApp with other Saudis?
- lawnchair_larry 7y agoWhy would it have to come from another Saudi?
- ceejayoz 7y agoIt has to come from an account a) Bezos trusts enough to read and open attachments from, b) an account Saudi intel has access to, and c) an account that's not gonna go "hey ignore that, I got hacked". That’s likely to be a small set.
- angry_octet 7y agoBingo. They really are the most inept.
- mirimir 7y agoTFA rather implies that MBS is totally full of himself: > One observer said the alleged targeting of Bezos reflected the ‘personality-based’ environment in which the crown prince operates. So it seems plausible that he and his advisers just assumed that they were technical enough to avoid attribution. It does seem that there's more known than suspicious timing: > The Guardian understands a forensic analysis of Bezos’s phone, and the indications that the “hack” began within an infected file from the crown prince’s account, has been reviewed by Agnès Callamard, the UN special rapporteur who investigates extrajudicial killings. It is understood that it is considered credible enough for investigators to be considering a formal approach to Saudi Arabia to ask for an explanation. But then, even if they have conclusive evidence that said file is malware, some third party might have compromised MBS' account.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- p0rkbelly 7y agoThe Saudi Royal Family simply do not care and walk around with impunity. They thumb their nose at the law and the world order and think they deserve to do whatever they want. This is exactly the same as the Khagoshi execution where overwhelming evidence and implication, but, play naive and put on a big sham investigation. Just how when Russian agents poisoned the Skripals and said they were their to view a church steeple.
- markdown 7y ago> The Saudi Royal Family simply do not care and walk around with impunity. They thumb their nose at the law and the world order and think they deserve to do whatever they want. You could be talking about the Trump and you'd still be correct. In fact Trump is worse, he didn't even try to cover up his assassination of Soleimani.
- lawnchair_larry 7y agoThis does seem the most likely, as hard as it is to believe. I guess when you have hierarchies based on blood rather than competency, this is what you end up with.
- p0rkbelly 7y agoThat and no outside government has every held them accountable for anything. Or him accountable for anything.
- plumednom 7y agoThis is so true. Remember when his family crashed 4 jets in the USA while they were hanging out with Bush? (Really, this is all factual). Somehow they convinced us to invade Afghanistan and Iraq when it was a Saudi billionaire and a legion of Saudis who perpetrated the attack.
- TomMckenny 7y agoOf course, the nation that the Saudi's rely on for aid and military hardware could pressure them. But that would require some minimal commitment to human rights and a free press. And no personal desire to silence criticism from the WaPo by it's president.
- hbosch 7y agoThe article states that Bezos and MBS had been having a casual conversation previously.