{"id":357083,"date":"2021-10-21T11:00:36","date_gmt":"2021-10-21T11:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/?p=371378"},"modified":"2021-10-21T11:00:36","modified_gmt":"2021-10-21T11:00:36","slug":"the-kingdoms-intelligence-apparatus-fuels-a-crackdown-on-dissent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/10\/21\/the-kingdoms-intelligence-apparatus-fuels-a-crackdown-on-dissent\/","title":{"rendered":"The Kingdom’s Intelligence Apparatus Fuels a Crackdown on Dissent"},"content":{"rendered":"
RABAT, MOROCCO \u2014 In February 2020,<\/u> Moroccan human rights activist Fouad Abdelmoumni received some bone-chilling news: He and his partner had been filmed having sex inside their own home, and videos of their intimate moments were circulating on WhatsApp.<\/p>\n
Friends and family members told Abdelmoumni they\u2019d received a sequence of seven videos from an unknown number, apparently filmed from air conditioning vents that provided a view inside the bedroom and living room. When Abdelmoumni went to check the vents himself, he found no cameras. \u201cI felt violated,\u201d he told The Intercept in an interview, \u201cand sad for my country.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 63-year-old economist and frequent critic of the corruption and abuses of the makhzen<\/em>, a broad term used to describe Morocco\u2019s ruling elites and their allies, says he has no doubt that the videos were meant as retaliation for his outspokenness. Just months earlier, the activist, who is close to the Moroccan Association for Human Rights<\/a> and a board member of the country\u2019s affiliate of Transparency International<\/a>, had publicly denounced a separate brush-up with surveillance.<\/p>\n In October 2019, Abdelmoumni had been informed by the Citizen Lab, a group based out of the University of Toronto that tracks digital surveillance worldwide, that he had appeared, alongside<\/a> seven other Moroccan activists and journalists, on a list of potential targets of a then little-known software called Pegasus. Developed by the Israel-based NSO Group, the spyware could enable attackers to monitor communications and other data on Abdelmoumni\u2019s cellphone. He responded by signing a letter, joined by the rest of the group, to Morocco’s data protection authorities denouncing the surveillance and demanding that the government open an investigation. (Full disclosure: One of this story\u2019s co-authors, Abdellatif El Hamamouchi, was also informed at the time that he had appeared on the list and co-signed that letter.)<\/p>\n The video surveillance of Abdelmoumni\u2019s home wasn\u2019t the product of the Pegasus spyware. Instead, he believes, the intrusion into his private life was a form of extortion meant to discourage him from speaking out about corruption. He has publicly alleged that the surveillance was conducted at the behest of the king. \u201cMr Abdelmoumni says dozens of the king\u2019s critics … have faced similar smear campaigns,\u201d The Economist reported<\/a> in January.<\/p>\n \u201cI was filmed having sexual relations with my partner as a way to silence me,\u201d Abdelmoumni told The Intercept. \u201cI\u2019m facing immense pressure, but I did not and I will not submit to the political police attempting to blackmail me.\u201d<\/p>\n A<\/span>bdelmoumni is just<\/u> one of the many activists, journalists, and government critics caught up in Morocco\u2019s sweeping surveillance apparatus. Though the Moroccan state is often regarded as less repressive<\/a> than many of its neighbors in the Middle East and North Africa, critics at home feel that it is in the midst of a dangerous authoritarian drift. The recent Pegasus spyware revelations have helped shine a light on just one part of that far-reaching and sophisticated surveillance machine.<\/p>\n