Agency had begun its U.S. election interference, but well before the American public knew about it.”406 A third 2015 Wikistrat employee was even more direct, referencing Zamel’s work with Nader, and Nader’s subsequent attendance at a UAE-Russia summit with Erik Prince in January 2017, and adding, “The problem is when you combine that [information] with the fact of all the other allegations against Mr. Zamel, including the allegations that he received payment from George Nader, that Psy-Group was allegedly involved with a social media manipulation campaign first during the primary and then during the general [election in the United States]—you combine all of that with the fact that at another company he owns, Wikistrat, his analysts came up with a scenario that’s eerily similar to what wound up happening [with Russian election interference] … it is very concerning.”407
When one considers that Joel Zamel began working with the UAE just as the Emirati government was initiating a massive cyberhacking initiative called Project Raven, the level of concern required by Zamel’s 2015 and 2016 actions deepens. As one Project Raven employee will put it to Reuters, “I am working for a foreign intelligence agency who is targeting U.S. persons. I am officially the bad kind of spy.”408 A recent New York Times report reveals that, whether this practice is connected to Project Raven or not, the UAE “use[s] Israeli phone-hacking technology to spy on political and regional rivals as well as members of the media,” noting that at least one Israeli company, NSO, directly “participat[es] in the cyberattacks”—an observation suggesting that NSO and Zamel’s Psy-Group, the two Israeli business intelligence companies with which Michael Flynn has been linked, simultaneously were working with the Emirati government on related projects in 2014.409 The Times of Israel adds to this report by reminding its readers that for the UAE to access certain Israeli technologies from an Israeli intelligence company in the first instance, the company must “receive the express permission of Israeli’s Defense Ministry”—raising the question of whether Wikistrat or Psy-Group ever sought or received express permission from the Israeli Defense Ministry or the Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs to do business with the Emirati government, especially if that work could have influenced the 2016 U.S. presidential election.410 Moreover, since the Saudis have been using NSO’s Israeli Defense Ministry–approved Pegasus 3 hacking software since 2013, if any Wikistrat or Psy-Group work with the UAE in 2014 or thereafter used Pegasus as part of a Saudi-UAE joint venture, it would lay at the doorstep of the Israeli government a good deal of the responsibility for any illegal intrusion into America’s electoral processes that may have resulted.411
Given that Pegasus has been called “one of the most sophisticated pieces of cyberespionage software” ever created, it is difficult to imagine the UAE declining to use it in conjunction with any business it did with Zamel, especially if Nader’s entreaty to Trump Jr. in August 2016 indeed imported that the Saudis and Emiratis were working together to advance Trump’s cause. The Times of Israel confirms that the UAE has used Pegasus to “spy on foreign government officials” many times in the past, including during the period of the U.S. election—and confirms, too, that Pegasus has been used to spy on North American officials, for instance in Mexico—leaving only the question of whether any U.S. political figures were targeted by the Emiratis, the Saudis, or any of their Israeli contractors.412 As to this question, it must be noted that in November 2018 ex-CIA contractor and NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden alleged that Pegasus had been used by Saudi Arabia and the UAE to track Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi—an allegation that NSO has denied.413 The Times of Israel confirms, however, that NSO’s Pegasus technology had been sold to the Saudis by the time Riyadh was using the surveillance tools available to the royal family to track, ensnare, and ultimately assassinate Khashoggi (see chapter 9).414 As for whether Psy-Group was in 2015 and 2016 willing to work in the United States, the answer is yes. The New Yorker reports, for instance, that in 2016 and 2017 Psy-Group “mounted a campaign [Project Butterfly] on behalf of wealthy Jewish-American donors to embarrass and intimidate activists on American college campuses who support a movement to put economic pressure on Israel because of its treatment of the Palestinians.”415 Per the New Yorker, Project Butterfly demonstrated Psy-Group’s closeness to the Israeli government: one of the operators involved in the project was Ram Ben-Barak, who not only was one