Ehud Olmert, former Prime Minister of Israel, with whom Grigoris Dimitriadis will speak on a panel, has admitted that he worked for the company Intellexa who produces the spyware Predator
There were many obvious questions about Grigoris Dimitriadis' participation in a defense conference under the auspices of the Ministry of National Defense.
Questions related to why he was invited even though he does not currently hold any position that would justify his presence, and primarily how someone who has been linked to one of the most serious wiretapping cases in Europe, with the victims of surveillance including officials at the core of national security, will speak about security.
His participation becomes even more interesting, however, considering that he will be participating at the same "table" with former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
And the reason is very simple: Ehud Olmert has worked in the past for Intellexa, the Israeli company that produces and promotes the illegal Predator spyware, which was used in Greece to intercept the phones of ministers, senior officials, judges, journalists and businessmen.
The former Israeli prime minister had taken on the role of advisor to Tal Dilian, sentenced in the first instance to a heavy sentence for wiretapping in Greece.
Specifically, Olmert's services involved assisting Intellexa in promoting the illegal Predator software to European governments, and the main mission he allegedly undertook was selling it to Germany.
According to documents first revealed by the international investigation "Predator Files" (coordinated by the EIC network with the participation of 15 international media outlets), Intellexa followed a strict sales strategy: it exclusively targeted state entities, authorities and secret services. To "unlock" these particularly demanding markets and acquire a more "institutional" profile, Tal Dilian's company enlisted the political influence of Ehud Olmert.
Correspondence from early 2022 between senior Intellexa executives and Bernd Schmidtbauer (former coordinator of the German intelligence services) reveals an attempt to arrange a meeting with the then head of Germany's Federal Information Security Agency (BSI), Arne Schönbohm. Ultimately, the official BSI-Olmert meeting did not take place, as BSI stated that it did not wish to acquire any cybersecurity product from Intellexa.
However, the former Israeli prime minister was finally spotted in April 2022 in Berlin at a dinner with Schmidbauer and members of the German Bundestag.
It is noted that, after the publication of this research, in October 2023, Olmert confirmed to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz his collaboration with Intellexa and Tal Dilian, claiming that it had ended a few months earlier.
The presence of a former prime minister in such a role was not accidental. For years, Israel had promoted spyware companies, which were even part of Benjamin Netanyahu's "cyber diplomacy." However, the situation changed when the Pegasus spyware scandal, produced by the NSO company, broke out, which resulted in NSO being included in the companies sanctioned by the United States (i.e., it was included in the infamous Entities List of the US Department of Commerce) and led the Israeli government, which had previously openly promoted it, to try to impose restrictions on companies operating in this sector. It seems that competitor Intellexa tried to gain a significant share of the spyware market, which explains why it utilized the services of someone like Olmert, who in addition to being prime minister had also served as a minister in various governments.
It is worth noting here that in July 2023, Intellexa (and its subsidiaries) were included in the list of companies sanctioned by the US authorities because they were "engaging in activities contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States."
In any case, the fact that Grigoris Dimitriadis will be on the same panel as someone who has been proven to promote Predator is certainly a very interesting coincidence. Or is it not?
Although the press releases will range from very select to rare, I said I'd pass...because sometimes the editors hide.
