“I deny any wrongdoing,” a former Israeli special forces operative, Tal Hanan responded to the Guardian after the leaking of documents that implicate Hanan and his Israeli firm in the manipulation of more than 30 elections around the world.
A new investigation revealed that Hanan and other Israelis have “manipulated more than 30 elections around the world using hacking, sabotage and automated disinformation on social media.”
Hanan is reportedly a 50-year-old former Israeli military man, who uses the pseudonym “Jorge”, and “appears to have been working under the radar in elections in various countries for more than two decades,” the Guardian reported on Wednesday.
From Pegasus to Blue Wolf: How Israel’s ‘Security’ Experiment in Palestine Became Global
The British newspaper claimed that the Israeli operative was “unmasked” by an international consortium of journalists, who documented his illegal operations using “undercover footage and documents.”
‘Team Jorge’, Hanan’s shady operation, is now under the radar due to its flagrant violations worldwide. Hanan, however, who refused to respond to the Guardian’s detailed questions, simply claimed “I deny any wrongdoing.”
These are a few excerpts from the Guardian report:
“The investigation reveals extraordinary details about how disinformation is being weaponized by Team Jorge, which runs a private service offering to covertly meddle in elections without a trace. The group also works for corporate clients.
“Hanan told the undercover reporters that his services, which others describe as ‘black ops’, were available to intelligence agencies, political campaigns and private companies that wanted to secretly manipulate public opinion. He said they had been used across Africa, South and Central America, the US and Europe.”
The latest revelations followed a major international scandal, which started in 2016, where softwares developed by an Israeli company, Pegasus, has been found to have been used in the spying on international figures, journalists, and political activists around the world.
For the full Guardian report click HERE.
For the Palestine Chronicle editorial on the Pegasus operation click HERE.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
