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According to the newspaper Le Monde, one of President Emmanuel Macron's phone numbers, as well as that of former Prime Minister Édouard Philippe and 14 government members, appear "on the list of numbers selected by a Moroccan state security service, user of the Pegasus spyware, for potential hacking". Among them are Foreign Minister Jean-Yves le Drian, former Interior Minister Christophe Castaner and Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire. Several French parliamentarians and political figures are also targeted.
The French president's phone number would have been regularly used by Emmanuel Macron since at least 2017 and until recently, according to the daily newspaper.
"We found these phone numbers, but obviously we were not able to conduct a technical investigation on Emmanuel Macron's phone" to verify whether it was infected by this software and therefore "this does not tell us if the president was actually spied on", explained the director of Forbidden Stories, on the news channel LCI. But according to him, whether the president was spied on or not, it "at least shows that there was an interest in doing so".
► Read also: Pegasus: In France, the Paris prosecutor announces opening an investigation into spying on behalf of Morocco
"If the facts are confirmed, they are obviously very serious. All light will be shed on these press revelations", responded the presidency when questioned by AFP about whether the head of state had been "potentially spied on" via Pegasus.
For its part, the Israeli company NSO – which markets Pegasus – assures that the French president could never have been targeted, but again it is impossible to verify their claims, since the firm does not have access to its customers' data.
In a statement sent to the "Pegasus Project", NSO states that: "Emmanuel Macron has not, and has never been, a target or selected as such by clients". But NSO does not specify what this assertion is based on.
According to investigators from various media outlets who worked on this Pegasus case, let us recall, the Moroccan state is a user of this spyware. This is what Rabat denied on Monday. Morocco is said to have tapped approximately 10,000 numbers, 10% of which are in France.
Other information concerning Morocco, this time coming from the investigation unit of Radio France, partner of the international media consortium, King Mohammed VI himself and his entourage would be on the list.
Forbidden Stories and the Amnesty International association obtained a list of 50,000 phone numbers selected by NSO clients since 2016 for potential surveillance and shared it with a consortium of 17 media outlets that revealed its existence on Sunday.
► Read also: Pegasus, Israeli spyware used to spy on journalists and activists worldwide
Espionage between states, a practice that is not new
After German Chancellor Angela Merkel and former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, NSA documents released online in 2015 by Wikileaks reveal the extent of American intelligence surveillance in France. Paris, the oldest ally of the United States as the former President Barack Obama liked to point out at the time. For at least six years, three presidents, Jacques Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande were wiretapped. But also all levels of the French administration: from ministers to advisors, including diplomats.
Following these revelations, the White House was forced to clarify to the French presidency that it is no longer being monitored. Barack Obama even promised to end these practices.
The affair caused a stir, it sparked diplomatic embarrassment, discussions described as "frank" between the two leaders, but no real rift. In Berlin too, the investigation was quickly closed.
"You don't spy on friends", the chancellor had said at the time. Yet this intelligence has always existed and all the countries that were spied on chose to keep a low profile.
