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Saudis gained access to Amazon CEO Bezos' phone: Bezos' security chief
The security chief for Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos said on Saturday that the Saudi government had access to Bezos' phone and gained private information from it.
Gavin De Becker, a longtime security consultant, said he had concluded his investigation into the publication in January of leaked text messages between Bezos and Lauren Sanchez, a former television anchor who the National Enquirer tabloid newspaper [had] said Bezos was dating.
Last month, Bezos accused the newspaper's owner of trying to blackmail him with the threat of publishing "intimate photos" he allegedly sent to Sanchez unless he said in public that the tabloid's reporting on him was not politically motivated.
Also at The Daily Beast.
Previously: Jeff Bezos Accuses National Enquirer of Blackmail
The Story Behind the Instant Classic “Bezos Exposes Pecker” Headline
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 01 2019, @05:00AM (15 children)
Another story with scant details. Let me see what the constellation here is:
Saudi Arabia is an authoritarian theocratic monarchy, who may object to some of the shit Bezos sells on his website, but no obvious motive to send their secret agents after him.
Saudi Arabia is currently allied with Israel, and the two have an inside track to the US administration.
While the Democrats are currently distracting everybody with the Russia story, pretty much everything that Israel wants, Israel gets. Under Trump, to a far greater degree than is expected from AIPAC lobbying Congress, and greater than can be expected from general favour due to having Jews in the family.
Bezos has bought the Washington Post, and why would somebody buy a newspaper today if not to distribute the purchaser's opinions.
The Washington Post is part of the US media front producing a constant stream of Trump hit pieces.
The ownership of the National Enquirer conversely takes a positive attitude toward Trump.
Trump doesn't much like Bezos, and the feeling is probably mutual.
The strongest path here seems to be Bezos > Trump > Israel > Saudi Arabia. Did Israel hack Bezos' phone and give the data to the National Enquirer, to take some of the wind out of his assailing of Trump, and had Saudi Arabia agree to assume the blame? And did Trump then give the Golan Heights to Israel in gratitude?
Enquiring minds want to know. :)
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Monday April 01 2019, @05:05AM
National Enquirer ran what was essentially a propaganda magazine issue for the Saudi government:
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/02/national-enquirer-saudi-propaganda [vanityfair.com]
https://nypost.com/2018/04/24/the-strange-saga-of-a-pro-saudi-tabloid-in-americas-heartland/ [nypost.com]
https://nypost.com/2018/03/27/special-interest-mag-praising-saudi-prince-raises-eyebrows/ [nypost.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Monday April 01 2019, @05:20AM (5 children)
The (Bezos) Washington Post has been fiercely critical of Saudi Arabia, particularly since the death of Jamal Khashoggi [wikipedia.org], a columnist for The Washington Post. Media outlets reported on Nov. 16, 2018 that the CIA had concluded that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman (MBS) ordered Khashoggi's death, although President Trump disputed that.
The Bezos affair story went live around Jan. 9, 2019.
https://www.townandcountrymag.com/society/money-and-power/a26251113/jeff-bezos-lauren-sanchez-relationship-timeline/ [townandcountrymag.com]
From the Daily Beast article:
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by Runaway1956 on Monday April 01 2019, @09:33AM (3 children)
Khashoggi, IMO, is a poster child for the Darwin Awards. Sorry if you don't like that attitude, but that's how I see it.
The man KNEW that his government and the despotic assholes that run it have no respect for "freedom of the press". If Khashoggi were a competent journalist, then at some time he had to opportunity to attend the University of Hard Knocks. There he should have taken International Intrigue 101, 102, 103, 201 thru 210, and 301. Before he finished II 102, he should have known "Always Cover Your Ass". Before he completed 103, he should have known "Everyone is an enemy, and potential murderer."
Khashoggi did enter into enemy territory, alone, without backup, and without an escape plan. What - he thought that leaving some chick outside the embassy, without weapons, and without clear instructions on any rescue attempt was sufficient to "Always Cover Your ASS"??
Unless he intended to become a martyr, then he was just another dumbass who thought that he could play with the big boys. The big boys would have handed him his ass, if there were any ass left to hand to him.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 01 2019, @01:09PM
So now you blame the victim for the crime? Classy.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday April 01 2019, @01:42PM (1 child)
People aren't supposed to just get murdered in embassies. And indeed, he probably would have been fine if his phone hadn't been hacked and his planned movements were not known. The killers were flown in after all.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday April 01 2019, @01:50PM
When you have powerful enemies, you don't blithely answer the beck and call of a representative of those enemies. He most probably didn't need any paperwork, it was some bogus, made-up necessity.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 01 2019, @12:26PM
Bezos got off easy. I hear the Saudis hacked into Khashoggi's phone too -- unfortunately it was still in his shirt pocket at the time.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by c0lo on Monday April 01 2019, @06:14AM (3 children)
Same not obvious motives for the case of the... ummm... hospitality offered to Jamal Khashoggi at their Turkish consulate.
And, if you remember, WaPo pushed that quite hard. Hard enough to be the reason for the hunt: as a theocratic authoritarian, you don't maintain authority for long if there are voices challenging you.
But doesn't stop SA internal propaganda tweeting “We as Saudis will never accept to be attacked by The Washington Post in the morning, only to buy products from Amazon and Souq.com by night! Strange that all three companies are owned by the same Jew [sic] who attacks us by day, and sells us products by night!”
You forgot Khashoggi from the picture.
here they are [thedailybeast.com]. A... ummm... lengthy skimming (from an even lengthier FA, with heaps of corroborating links - believe them or not, the story sounds plausible)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday April 01 2019, @06:37AM (2 children)
If it had been someone else that the WaPost hadn't been involved with, maybe it would have been completely swept under the rug or gone unnoticed for days or weeks. Instead, it became the top news story globally (IIRC).
The nature of the Khashoggi murder makes it seem even more likely that Saudis would go after Bezos. Mr. Bone Saw is developing a reputation for ordering brazen actions for petty reasons. I can't imagine that hacking Bezos and leaking his affair in order to embarrass him would be worth much strategically in comparison to the backlash. I wonder if NEOM [soylentnews.org] and all those other big plans will see the light of day in Saudi Pariah.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday April 01 2019, @07:27AM (1 child)
I feel that Mr Bone Saw suffers from an imagination deficit.
Specifically, he cannot imagine he could fail or be discovered. That, I reckon, is a common syndrome in young males, particularly in sociopathic autocrats that had a sheltered upbringing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday April 01 2019, @07:43AM
MBS also couldn't imagine that there would be idiocy at an American tabloid publication.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 01 2019, @12:35PM
So the Beez is banging someone who used to make a living as a professional gossip, and it became public because of... a state actor? Riiiiight.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday April 02 2019, @01:20AM (2 children)
The idea that Israel and Saudi Arabia are allied makes my brain hurt. Yes, even though there are no nociceptors in the brain proper. Yet it seems this is the case. I can only conjecture that birds of a theocratic feather flock together.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 13 2019, @06:03AM (1 child)
Jews, (Evangelical) Christians, Muslims.
It is quite ironic that they are conspiring to create each religion's End of Days so collaboratively.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday April 13 2019, @06:37AM
Isn't it? I'd be fine with the idea if it wouldn't take all the rest of us down with them...
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...