In this special edition of Firebrand, we focus on three types of spies: Chinese, Chinese spies, independent brokers, and the "free agent" spy. In this episode, we discuss the differences between each type of spy, how they differ from each other, and how to protect yourself and your family from spying. We also discuss the use of spy software, including the Israeli company Pegasus, which can be used to spy on your phone, computer, and other devices. Firebrand is produced by Alex Blumberg and edited by Annie-Rose Strasser. Our theme song is Come Alone by Suneaters, courtesy of Lotuspool Records, and our ad music is by Build Buildings. This episode was produced by Riley Bray. Additional music written and performed by Ian Dorsch. If you like what you hear here, please HIT SUBSCRIBE and Subscribe to our new podcast, Firebrand! Subscribe on iTunes and leave us a five star rating and review on Apple Podcasts. Thanks for listening and share the podcast with your friends! Subscribe, review, and tell a friend about what you think of this episode. It helps us spread the word to your friends about what we're doing! and we'll keep spreading the word about it everywhere else! Thank you! Timestamps: 5:00 - What's your favorite spy software? 6:30 - What kind of spying software are you using? 7:00 8: Which spy software do you use? 9: What type of spying tool do you like? 10: What do you trust? 11: What's the most dangerous spy software you're looking for? 13:00 | Which spy agency do you need? 15:00 -- What's a good spy tool? 16:30 -- what kind of spy tool are you most likely to be most effective? 17:30 18:30 | Which type of spied on me? 19:40 -- what do you want? 21:40 22:10 -- what are you paying me the most effective spy? 27:30 What do I want to know? 24:30 Should I spy on you? 26: What are you spying on me, what do I spy for me? or am I need to be spying for me in my job? 25:30 Do you spy for my own country?
00:04:56.000Matt Gaetz was one of the very few members in the entire Congress who bothered to stand up against permanent Washington on behalf of his constituents.
00:05:04.000Matt Gaetz right now, he's a problem for the Democratic Party.
00:05:07.000He can cause a lot of hiccups in passing the laws.
00:05:10.000So we're going to keep running those stories to get hurt again.
00:05:13.000If you stand for the flag and kneel in prayer, if you want to build America up and not burn her to the ground, then welcome, my fellow patriots!
00:05:48.000Thank you for joining us for this special edition of Firebrand, where we focus on the issue of espionage, spying.
00:05:58.000Now, there are plenty of hybridizations and permutations of this model, but here's how you should think about three different categories of spies.
00:06:08.000The first are those who work for a foreign government exclusively for the benefit of that foreign government.
00:06:15.000Frequently, this model is used by the Chinese, where the spies are captive.
00:06:21.000They don't sell information to other countries.
00:06:23.000They have it for the benefit of their government.
00:06:27.000They're well paid, well resourced, they have tradecraft, and they are there to subvert the interests of Americans in favor of the dominance of some foreign entity.
00:06:42.000The second major category are those who work for foreign governments for the sake of marketing their particular espionage elsewhere.
00:06:53.000This is something done frequently by the Cubans.
00:06:55.000The Cubans spy on the United States a great deal, but not always just for the benefit of Cuba.
00:07:00.000Frankly, it's a small island Caribbean nation that doesn't have the influence even in Latin America that they once did.
00:07:07.000So, they use their tradecraft, they spy on America, And then they sell that information to our adversaries, to state actors, non-state actors, terrorists, cartels.
00:07:22.000Now, these types of spies aren't just worried about information regarding the country that employs them.
00:07:27.000They have a far wider breadth than the model that I previously described more frequently used by China.
00:07:33.000So they're looking for everything and they're there to transmit that information in a way that frequently has the maximum amount of pain for our country and our interests.
00:07:44.000The third The independent broker, the free agent.
00:07:48.000This is probably the most dangerous type of espionage, but these are the folks who collect intelligence and information and simply work for no one.
00:07:59.000Sometimes they get contracted for a specific project.
00:08:02.000Sometimes for a specific piece of information.
00:08:04.000Sometimes they go and acquire the information on their own and then try to use that in concert with other interests in order to build a narrative, build cases, bring people down.
00:08:16.000This is the model we saw from Christopher Steele in the Russia hoax.
00:08:20.000Now, in all of these circumstances, you see a common thread.
00:08:26.000They have to have the ability to get information so that they can build up those who are paying them and so they can take us down.
00:08:35.000So I'm always very interested in the different tools that allow spies to be able to engage in their profession.
00:08:43.000I want to make sure that we're protected against the worst kind.
00:08:48.000And in that light, I have an important update regarding the Pegasus software frequently used by all three types of spies that I've just described.
00:08:58.000Recently, I had the opportunity to question the Assistant Attorney General for National Security in the House Judiciary Committee.
00:09:08.000He did not want to answer questions, particularly regarding tools of espionage.
00:09:14.000I pushed hard On a few serious issues, and one of those was Pegasus.
00:09:19.000Now, if you've been keeping up with this podcast, the name Pegasus may ring a bell.
00:09:24.000To give you a quick recap, Pegasus is a Trojan horse spyware program created by the Israeli cyber arms company NSO Group.
00:09:34.000Pegasus works by exploiting flaws in a device's code through what is called zero-day exploits.
00:09:42.000These exploits are flaws in the target device's code that are unknown by its producer, like Apple or Samsung.
00:09:51.000Pegasus takes advantage of these exploits through zero-click technology, meaning the operators of Pegasus can get into your device without you even knowing, without you even making a mistake on your end, like clicking a bad link.
00:10:07.000Remember, we used to be told that good digital hygiene meant that you didn't fall for spear phishing or anything to get you to click on something if it's not coming from a known source.
00:10:18.000But with Pegasus, After infiltrating your advice, the software is capable of reading texts, tracking calls, collecting passwords, location tracking.
00:10:30.000They can even turn on the target device's microphone and video camera, harvesting information from all apps, including peer-to-peer apps like WhatsApp and Signal.
00:10:43.000Once they're in, they have total control of your phone, And a lot of control over you.
00:10:50.000Certainly they'll see all the data and information that you are reviewing or passing or analyzing.
00:10:56.000So everyone from Israeli and Arab intelligence agencies to Mexican cartels and even our own FBI and CIA have been using Pegasus.
00:11:08.000You can bet it isn't being sold and used that responsibly.
00:11:14.000Today we have new developments that you need to know about.
00:11:18.000In a rare show of good judgment, and due to the NSO groups, just like obviously shady practices, they've been blacklisted by the United States government for acting contrary to the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States.
00:12:11.000The New York Times has very recently reported that an American defense contractor called L3 Harris has been caught trying to purchase Pegasus.
00:12:21.000Now, how would that happen when the makers of Pegasus, the NSO Group, have been blacklisted?
00:12:31.000They have said, according to the New York Times reporting, that they were being encouraged and supported by American intelligence officials to go buy this product that had been blacklisted and was illegal.
00:12:44.000Allegedly, these officials told L3Harris that they would support a deal if certain conditions were met.
00:12:50.000And among these conditions was a demand that NSO Group's stash of zero-day exploits be made available and sold to Five Eyes intelligence members.
00:13:00.000If you haven't heard of Five Eyes, that's the intelligence-sharing agreement between the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Australia, and New Zealand.
00:14:37.000Whether or not our own government used a private company as a cutout to go buy spying software that deprives people's rights, and what you're saying is, I'm not going to get a yes out of you, and I'm not going to get a no out of you, because you're just not going to tell...
00:14:50.000You don't think the American people deserve to know that?
00:14:58.000Yes, I definitely have heard of Pegasus.
00:15:00.000Okay, so you should be able to tell me whether or not anyone who works at the National Security Division was out there trying to goose some private company to go buy it for you guys to use.
00:15:18.000One of the tools also used by the intelligence community is FISA, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
00:15:26.000And some authorities there allow our spies, our government officials, to gather data, to listen in on calls, to intercept signal intelligence if they're looking into someone who's a foreigner on foreign soil.
00:15:41.000But the Americans that get caught up in that, they're seeing their civil liberties, their constitutional rights deprived.
00:15:48.000Now, there have been a number of reviews regarding how the FBI and the Department of Justice are using FISA.
00:15:54.000And it turns out they're breaking a lot of their own rules.
00:15:57.000The most recent Inspector General report showed that every file that was looked at had problems with it.
00:16:04.000In some cases, the backup materials that are required under the Woods procedures were entirely missing.
00:16:09.000And in four cases, the errors were so egregious that it was easy to see how the judge evaluating whether or not to grant the surveillance request could have made a different decision.
00:16:24.000My colleague, Congressman Louie Gohmert, asked questions about this to a senior National Security Division official at the Department of Justice.
00:16:35.000It's a fair question to know, in general, not specific cases, is the FISA court, has it been used to get orders to investigate January 6th?
00:16:49.000Again, I'm not familiar with the order that you referred to a moment ago.
00:17:50.000And then they threatened her boss that he could go to prison for covering for her.
00:17:55.000Is there any order from any court that allows the DOJ or the NSA to monitor text messages of American citizens?
00:18:10.000Obviously, there are court orders, whether they come from federal courts, not the FISA court, or the federal FISA court, that authorize, pursuant to law, Yes, but search warrants under the Fourth Amendment have to describe with particularity the things to be searched or seized and That's not happening.
00:18:39.000And so when you have no probable cause to go after somebody in Kilgore, Texas, then, you know, we'd heard about, oh, gee, there's software to look for specific words that allow you to go after anybody that hasn't committed crimes.
00:18:57.000We really need to know how widespread that is.
00:19:03.000It's just really important to point out, sir, that the way the law works is that the federal judge, a federal FISA court judge, will only approve an order based on probable cause that an individual is an agent of a foreign power.
00:19:18.000Mr. Olsen, we have proof that's a lie.
00:19:23.000Mr. Raskin is recognized for five minutes.
00:19:28.000It is deeply troubling to me to see these exquisite powers and authorities and technologies that normally we would intend to keep America safe, to be directed at our adversaries, being slyly acquired against American law by some of the people that a lot of Americans are concerned about most, the people in our own government using politics to weaponize the national security apparatus against our fellow Americans.
00:19:57.000I will get answers on this Pegasus issue.
00:20:00.000And if they won't provide them to us, well, we're going to subpoena records.
00:20:33.000It will absolutely help us get our content to more people.
00:20:36.000And always know that you can leave us comments in the comments section on your listening platform, on Rumble, on YouTube, on Getter, on Twitter.
00:20:44.000We take a look at those and it helps inform what topics we choose to cover and what secrets of the swamp we expose for your benefit.