Narus, Israeli wiretappers in Pakistan

An Israeli company Narus that produces mass surveillance system is involved in the monitoring and taping of citizen’s mobile phones and internet spying in Pakistan with the full cooperation of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA).

The company was founded in 1997 and even most controversial in United States of America towards their activities in tapping and monitoring the mobile and internet communications of US citizens.

In United States there is also a major objection on this company which is well-known with the name of Narus the sub-contractors of National Security Agency (NSA) who had given the task of monitoring the citizen mobiles and internet data.

In US there is a lot of criticism on these Israeli wire-tappers and there was a massive debate and concerns among the telecommunication experts and masses regarding the Narus and Verint.

According to the website www.infowars.com that states: “James Bamford has done another great deed for the public by revealing the extent of the NSA’s wiretapping on U.S. soil, and how the NSA sub-contracts the vast majority of its work to Israeli high-tech firms bristling with “former” Israeli military intelligence agents, and in the case of Verint, a company with serious corruption issues. It was Bamford who popularized the existence of Operation Northwoods in his 2001 book, Body of Secrets. In The Shadow Factory, he sheds light in the secret rooms of Verizon and AT&T, and shows the NSA to be a very poor custodian of the nation’s security.”

Narus and Verint are the backbone of the US government’s local intelligence surveillance technology. Both these companies are Israel based and are heavily funded by the Israeli government, with connections to the Israeli military and Israeli intelligence; both the companies have a long history of board memberships dominated by current and former Israeli military and intelligence officers.

Verint is also being considered the largest wire tappers companies in the world comprised on freelance spies working on the payroll of Israel and sending them the important citizen’s data.

In Pakistan Narus was active for last several years but according to the latest news they have totally achieved the control of mobile phones and internet trafficking with the assistance of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA).

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has signed several agreements with the Narus to control the grey traffic brought into the country through illegal means but under the name of gray trafficking the Israeli intelligence agencies agents and personnel’s are busy in to their missions to get access to the citizen’s communication data.

According to the sources there are strong connections of Narus agents and personnel’s with Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and there are several officers working in Pakistan Telecommunication Authority are on the payroll of Narus.

The sources told this correspondent that there is a strong lobby that is giving favor to the Narus in gaining contracts from Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to monitor the citizen’s communication in the current governing regime.

Narus is totally freehand to do what they want and they have not any kind of restriction in their working.

Riaz Asher Siddiqui is the Country Director Pakistan Narus and he is also holding the position of Executive Editor at Monthly Teletimes International.

Monthly Teletimes International is a telecommunication magazine for Middle East to set the agenda of the Israel for Middle East and Palestine.

http://teletimesinternational.com/team/executive-editor

The Narus, Monthly Teletimes International and Pakistan Telecommunication have deep business ties and involved with each other regarding the telecommunication information sharing and big business deals.

In Egypt the same company Narus was given the contract by the Hosni Mubarak regime to jam the social networking sites and the mobile communication by snoop the Egyptians but they failed due to the severe pubic aggression and successful Tehrir square revolution by the youth of Egypt.

In Pakistan there was a debate by the Member National Assembly from North-West Khyber Pukhtoonkhwa province, which is largely hit area by the terrorism that who is tapping their mobile phones?

However after the protest of these parliamentarians the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) refuted that no one is involved in the tapping of the phones of the legislators. The Pakistani spy agencies are not involved in tapping the phones of parliamentarians but this company Narus is involved in all kinds of such activities and recording the calls of the parliamentarians especially from the Khyber Pukhtoonkhwa province.

In Pakistan the telecommunication sector got a boom after 9/11, the country gets a huge development in this sector. There is a telecommunication revolution in Pakistan and the government is failed to control the internet and mobile communication and to keep a check on it.

It is really astonishing that the country like Pakistan who even has not accepted the Israel is allowing an Israeli company like Narus to monitor the mobile and internet communications of their citizens.

The interior minister Rehman Malik in his statement also threaten to block the Google, Gmail and YouTube because of the security risk as the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) is failed to monitor and detect the Internet Protocols (IPs) address of these websites during their usage by the terrorists in to the various terrorists activities.

According to the sources the statement of the interior minister is following the suggestions of the Narus management in Pakistan to block these websites because they are facing problem to tracking down the Google communication.

The Pakistani intelligence agencies have also a major objection on the current activities of Narus in Pakistan and the access of the citizen communication data to the Israeli intelligence agencies but Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) is giving the space to these anti states actors in Pakistan.

The maximum admittance to the Narus in Pakistan has been given in the tenure of former President of Pakistan General (R) Pervez Musharraf, as the then Chairman of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) Gen (R) Shahzada Alam were close buddies and also business partners and now facing corruption charges by the current regime.

Malik Ayub Sumbal is a senior investigative journalist based in Islamabad, South Asian Bureau Chief at Los Angeles Post and Country head at the ImediaEthics, one of the top US media watch dog organization.

Reporter – Malik Ayub Sumbal – Islamabad