Is Government Interfering with Investigation into Iguala Massacre?

Report: Spyware targeted experts investigating

Mexico's missing students

By Andrew V. Pestano  

UPI -- Canada's Citizen Lab Internet watchdog said government-exclusive spyware targeted international experts investigating the abduction and murder of 43 college students in Mexico.

Citizen Lab said the Pegasus spyware product sold exclusively to governments was created by the NSO Group Israeli company, which is majority owned by the Francisco Partners U.S. private equity firm. Pegasus was designed to track criminals and terrorists.

Mexican journalists, human rights activists and opposition politicians have previously made allegations that Mexican authorities spied on them using Pegasus. Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto's government has denied using Pegasus to spy on opponents.

Citizen Lab said it collaborated with Mexican organizations to determine that the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which investigated the disappearance of the missing students, was targeted by Pegasus.

"The international investigation into the 2014 Iguala mass disappearance was targeted with infection attempts using spyware developed by the NSO group, an Israeli 'cyber warfare' company," Citizen Lab said in a statement. "A phone belonging to the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts, a group of investigators from several countries, was sent text messages with links to NSO's exploit infrastructure. The infection attempts took place in early March of 2016, shortly after the GIEI had criticized the Mexican government for interference in their investigation, and as they were preparing their final report."

In September 2014, 43 students from Ayotzinapa traveled to the town of Iguala in Mexico's Guerrero state and clashed with police, who opened fire, investigations revealed. Police then handed the students over to drug gangs. Soldiers were at the scene of the clash and relatives of the missing students believe the soldiers played a role in the disappearances by failing to act.

The students were declared dead and most bodies have not yet been recovered or identified. The investigation into the kidnapping by Mexico's government generated mass criticism as allegations of a coverup permeated.

Citizen Lab said it does not conclusively attribute the infection attempts to the Mexican government but added that "each new case contributes to the already-strong circumstantial evidence that entities within the Mexican government are the responsible party."

"Our published investigations have now confirmed at least 19 individuals targeted with NSO in Mexico, including lawyers, politicians, journalists, anti-corruption activists, scientists, public health campaigners, government officials, and their family members," Citizen Lab added.

North Korea Murders Christian Pastor in China

Christian pastor aiding North Koreans killed

in 'retaliation,' source says

A North Korean source said state security is trying to dodge blame for the group defection of restaurant workers.

By Elizabeth Shim


A North Korean woman and hostess stands outside a North Korean restaurant waiting for customers in Dandong, China's largest border city with North Korea. North Korea could be targeting individuals in China helping defectors in the border region, according to a source in North Korea. Photo by Stephen Shaver/UPI | License Photo

SEOUL, May 17 (UPI) -- A band of "gangsters" killed a Christian pastor who assisted North Korean defectors in China, according to a source in North Korea.

The incident was an act of "retaliation" for the defection of 13 North Korean restaurant workers in China, the source told South Korean news service Daily NK.

North Korea has claimed the defectors were "dragged" against their will to the South, and that they were "kidnapped" by South Korean intelligence agents.

That's right! Because if you were going to risk your life to abduct someone from North Korea, it would certainly be a bunch of waitresses. 

There's something seriously wrong with a government that has to lie so blatantly to their own people.

A South Korean activist group has also said North Korean agents cross into China to track down defectors and their helpers.

The Korean-Chinese pastor Han Chungryeol was the founder of Jangbaek Church in Jilin in 1993. As part of his work, he provided assistance to North Koreans in China.

Activists in the South have said Han was murdered on April 30, less than a month after 12 North Korean waitresses and their manager fled a state-run restaurant in Ningbo.

According to Daily NK's source, North Korea state security is trying to skirt blame for the group defection, and is recruiting thugs and deploying undercover agents posing as defector's relatives and border traders in order to penetrate the activities of human rights activists and missionaries in the region.

There's only one band of gangsters in North Korea and that is the entire government and military.

North Korea's Reconnaissance General Bureau is deploying young agents overseas, the source added.

Pyongyang is probably planning to abduct South Korean nationals, particularly those affiliated with the military and the government, as well as human rights activists, so that an exchange could be made for the 13 defectors, the source said.

Why not waitresses?

A South Korean Christian minister has gone missing, and according to a South Korean report, the minister, who was also a defector, could have been kidnapped to North Korea.