"The most feared weapon, here, is this computer." "The man who is taking the photos and using the internet is more dangerous than those handling the guns and shooting." "But a computer or a cell phone can also turn into a deadly trap for those who use them." "Using the SIM cards, they can locate your cell phone and if they find us, they'll bomb us." "Who has an iPhone?" "Who has a Blackberry?" "Well, you're all screwed!" "Digital spying systems are as invasive as they are invisible." "Western companies have been selling them to the world's worst dictatorships." "– These companies gave us away to Gaddafi." "– No, I didn't know it wasn't a democracy" "– So it's a bit of a pact with the devil?" "– Yes, but I'm not the one who made it." "– Well, I say it clearly:" "neither the Minister of the Interior nor his entourage took part in such a transaction." "Under Surveillance Investigating digital arms dealers" "At an arms dealers' convention, you'll find pleasant salespeople offering all kinds of tools to cause compound fractures" "or massive hemorrhaging." "25v 00:02:23,914 -- 00:02:25,526 From the most sophisticated kind, 26v 00:02:28,000 -- 00:02:29,169 – A baseball bat." "to the simplest." "– What's good about this is that it doesn't jam, it never fails." "At this convention, you'll also find a brand new sector." "Discreet." "These aren't tough guys." "People in suits, behaving like scientists." "These people hide." "Shy away from the lights and cameras." "– We don't give interviews." "– We don't get approached much." "We don't say anything about our products." "– It's secret." "Why so much mystery?" "They aren't selling bioweapons or deadly viruses." "Only software applications intended to be used by cyberpolicemen against cybercriminals." "As they won't talk to us, we asked one of their worst enemies to explain what's going on." "His battle name is Kheops." "He is a hacker, one of these rebel IT workers, who get called "pirates" between these walls." "Kheops agreed to follow us in enemy territory and he does not feel at ease." "– How do you feel?" "– Well, it's quite intimidating..." "A convention with so many weapons." "– And here, what's that?" "What's written on the red line?" "On the advertisement posters, the language makes no sense to the common man." "What exactly does this mean:" ""Recording a 10 Gbps IP stream?"" "Kheops, for one, knows how to decypher these hieroglyphs" "– They highlight the fact they are able to capture IP flows that are very fast." "They don't use the word "people"." "They only use technical terms." "For example, they say things like "if there is a huge data flow we can grab it all"." "But in all honesty, who is capable of producing such a data flow ?" "It's usually countries or huge masses of people behind them." "– Scalability it starts with watching only one person, and turns into spying on a whole country." "– Exactly." "It's something installed on your phone or your computer, that you don't know about, and is monitoring you." "– A kind of invisible spy?" "– Yes, it is a spyware installed on your system." "Entire countries under surveillance?" "our hacker friend might be exaggerating a little bit." "As a matter of fact, a south-african spyware dealer will confirm what these machines are capable of." "– This technology is able to intercept every single communication, but this has to be done within a very specific legal framework." "You can see that this is just as dangerous as any other weapon." "This is not an offensive weapon, but it is still a weapon." "We also have a moral duty not to sell it to countries who could use it against their own population." "None of these companies will agree to show us how their softwares work." "We will eventually obtain a private demo video." "An animated movie promoting the capabilities of the "FinFisher" system." "The company has a nice logo, a shark fin." "The little man in blue is a police officer, and you don't have any secrets to hide from him." "He accessed your phone, he knows where you are, you don't see him but from his control center he is reading your emails while monitoring everything you do on the internet." "Without even realizing it, you're surfing among the sharks." "– Could you sell to Gaddafi's Libya?" "– I can't tell you." "Even if you asked me if I sold it to France," "I wouldn't tell you, and for very good reason." "The salesman doesn't answer our question, for very good reasons." "The South Africans of VASech are directly suspected of having sold the product straight to Gaddafi," "and they are not the only ones." "Tripoli, 2012." "Colonel Gaddafi is gone, his dictatorship as well." "Several months of revolutionary upheavals and decisive military intervention by France and the United States finally put the regime down." "The dictator's palace has been demolished, reduced to a state of ruin, and all the symbols of his power pulverized by guided missiles." "Here is what remains of the Ministry of Interior." "For a very long time, Libyans have walked past this building, hurrying and looking the other way." "Up a ramp, a steel door leads to a basement, formerly secret, and to a strange walk in the paranoid country that Colonel Gaddafi created." "– Are there still some documents over there?" "What is this?" "– It is for football." "Yes, they are talking about a match." "Here, it says "Very important", "Secret" and "Urgent"." "– Why would they be afraid of football?" "– Because a lot of people go to the stadium, thousands of them, and they want to control this crowd." "A crowd." "They were afraid of people demonstrating against the government." "The wiretapping center dodged the bombs." "Here, other people's lives were permanently recorded to make sure they wouldn't have bad thoughts." "The equipment was provided by western companies." "Gaddafi was a very good customer." "On a shelf, there are still some documents about commercial proposals." "Hidden microphones..." "These are wiretapping and telecommunication devices." "A wiretapping device, offered by Philips." "The date: 1990, the bloodiest period in the Libyan dictatorship." "In these now empty racks were stored hundreds of thousands of records, hundreds of thousands of alphabetically ordered lives." "A crude, but effective system." "Libyans are just recovering from a police state." " We can't forget the role played by France and President Nicolas Sarkozy who really helped us." "We were even scared of dreaming," "We were afraid that they may have found a way to monitor our dreams." "Libyans are unaware of it, but before backing their revolution" "Sarkozy's France had helped their dictator watch their every move." "But nobody was supposed to find out." "The story starts with the chaos and the fall of Tripoli." "Gaddafi's men abandoned their positions, the city is open." "A journalist from the BBC took the opportunity to sneak into a Secret Service building." "The place is well known to the Libyan people, they call it with fright "the Abdallah Senoussi center"." "The number one spy was the most dangerous man in the country after the Colonel." "The building is shrouded in darkness, but through the light of her flashlight, the journalist found posters written in English, encouraging the employees not to disclose their activities." "Also an accurate description of the operations center:" "Internet spying, and locations of cell phones." "On the posters, there is a logo, it is a French company" "Amesys." ""Amesys" merged with "Bull"" "to become an electronic war giant associated with the French defense industry." ""Bull Amesys" targets the global market :" "selling wherever men of power are willing to invest money to buy big monitoring gadgets." "– Among jamming systems, 183 00:12:09,942 -- 00:12:13,291 this is the most advanced technologic tool up to date" "for our company." ""Amesys" sold a product to Gaddafi's political police that could read emails and spy on cell phones." "The interception program has a name that all cops in the world dream of:" ""Eagle"." "It's legal, I have..." "Bruno Samtmann" " Business Manager, AMESYS" "There are good diplomatic relationships with this country, so yes," "I dealt with this country." "The Libyan revolution started in this cyber cafe." "Here, in Benghazi, internet insurgents met around a broadband connection." "Intellectuals, journalists, bloggers." "In the office of the very new Libyan government we met one of them." "El Habib was Gaddafi's prisoner." "Today, he is Secretary of State for Culture in the city of Bengazhi." "He performs his duties while keeping an eye on his Facebook page." "Habib Al Amin" " Blogger, Benghazi" "– It was our only means of escaping the regime's propaganda, to find out what was happening." "When the Libyans saw things on the internet, they were validated." "Internet has become the only source of information and truth for the people" "Gaddafi's regime is forced to tolerate the internet but it knows that it must also control the network through surveillance." "In 2008, a team of French technicians arrived in Tripoli." "They installed Amesys' Eagle program in the greatest secrecy." "These experts are very difficult to meet." "They obey a strict code of silence." "Some are linked to Defense's Ministry." "– I'm calling you for your viewpoints, or memories of this time." "– I have absolutely nothing to say about it." "I signed a confidentiality agreement with Amesys, so, I have nothing to say." "After multiple failures, we finally met a technician who spent several months in Tripoli, on behalf of Amesys." "He could face a heavy sentence by talking to us, so we must protect his identity." "His first move:" "removing the battery and SIM card in his phone, he's paid well enough to know that he can be wiretapped, even with his phone turned off." "that the operation was led by the French State." "– We were taken there and back, and we did not have our passports, so the less questions we asked, the better." "– So this operation was actually conducted covertly, right?" "– Yes, of course, these are regular operations, which are more or less controlled by French external security." "– The external intelligence agency?" "– Yes, in collaboration with local services." "The manufacturer provides the technology, but the operation is made under supervision by the external security." "– What is the Amesys system capable of?" "Exactly?" "Specifically?" " You basically catch everything that comes in and out of the country." "They were quite nervous about what was happening in the universities." "There was a very developed code of secrecy and they wanted our help, while hoping we did not know much, so when we deployed the system, they wanted us to configure it to meet their needs while keeping us as oblivious as possible." "They asked us: "for example, how could we target an university?"" "So we understood that they wanted to target universities, and identify keywords in datastreams." "Libyan universities are a source of protests." "In Benghazi, especially, a network of activists are leading a campaign." "Jalal used to work at the university of Benghazi." "He was one of the most influential bloggers." "He was arrested as the revolution was gaining power." "He was detained in this interrogation center and he never thought he would make it out alive." "Jalal Al Kwasi" " Blogger, Benghazi" " I was blindfolded, my hands were tied up very tight." "Whenever I moved, it'd hurt very badly." "I got kicked, I got beaten with a steel bar." " What did they want to know ?" " They asked me :" ""Where are the flyers?"" ""Where did you hide them?"" "I denied it, I said no, there are no flyers." "But then I discovered the complete file was in their hands." "They had everything, our exchanges, everything!" "They took off the hood, they put me against the wall and they gave me the file." "And here, when I opened, I found my last conversation on internet with Amin when we talked about flyers." "It was over, I couldn't deny it." "They watched me read the file and they told me:" ""And now, do you realize what we've got on you?"" "I said: " Yes, I see "." " We met Libyan bloggers, opponents, who were arrested." "People who have been beaten, tortured ... somewhat because of your technology." " It's a misuse of the product." " Well no, they did exactly what they had to do with it." " Listen, when I sell the product," "I follow this sales approach," "Bruno Samtmann" " Business Manager, AMESYS to help, at that time, the Libyan state fight against Al-Qaeda." " And when you realize it's not exactly what has been done" "What do you think of that ?" "Mr. Moreira, what actions could I take since I don't operate the product." "I'm not behind the screens." "I don't build queries." "I am, I am..." "Unfortunately, there was nothing I could do." " What was the atmosphere that prevailed in the Lybian listening center?" " Lots of excitement." "They were like children." "For them, it was a huge leap forward." "Executive power had put lots of money on the table in order to acquire this thing and then, they were like children." "It was Christmas, they were like children, really, sincerely." " The first day I stayed here, where you can see the stain." "It was exactly like that, there was nothing in the cell." "It was cold." "Raining like today, no light." "I was freezing, it was winter, February." " Do you know whether the system you have put in place was used to arrest people?" "We don't have any feedback." "I guess so... if they managed to use it as we showed them," "I guess so." "It can't be otherwise." "You need to be really bad to be unsuccessful with that kind of system." "Look, I wrote this." "My name, Jalal, and my son's name" "And "Movement for Justice, February 17th"." "I wrote that because I knew my destiny." "Death." "Among the bloggers we met, not one is member of Al-Qaeda." "Ataf Al Atrach, a young opposition journalist was detained for several months." "Ataf Al Atrach" " State Secretary for Culture, , Benghazi" "I was given special treatment." "They made me listen to the voice of my son, which they had recorded during a call I had made with Al-Jazeera." "My son was screaming in the background." "They isolated his voice, recorded it, and passed it to me in a continuous loop." "I had been in prison for 3 months." "That destroyed me." "Well, from an ethical point of view, we all left that aside, it's obvious." " You didnt think about it, did you ?" " No, we didn't." "Because, with hindsight, you thought," "" yes, we did something we are not proud of?"" " Yes, that's it, clearly, yes, yes." " They told me:" ""It's useless to deny it, because we are going to show you evidence and records of your friends by email."" "So it seemed strange to me." "I asked them:" "How did you manage to obtain such accurate records?" "They told me:" ""We made a pact with the devil and with ghosts for all that."" "Of course, this level of precision could only come from abroad." "And that, we were told later..." " Everybody uses this kind of sales approach and openness" "Bruno Samtmann" " Sales Manager, AMESYS and, once again, within a very diplomatic and legal framework with Libya, which had changed, not overnight, it was a long process, into a respectable country." "How was Libya changed into one of these respectable countries and by whom?" "What role did the French government play?" "The rehabilitation of Qadaffi seemed quite improbable when Nicolas Sarkozy was elected as President of the Republic, in 2007." "Palais Omnisports de Bercy 29 avril 2007" " I want to be the president of France, as a country fighting for Freedom." "Freedom at home, but also freedom in the world because fighting for freedom is the vocation of France." "I want to be the human rights' French President." "I don't believe in "realpolitik"" "which waives these values without obtaining contracts." "How did the french leaders go from Gaddafi, the pest, to Gaddafi, friend of France, in 5 years?" "A man of the shadows will be the key player in this situation." "He is a French-Lebanese millionaire who lives in a luxury mansion in the heart of Paris." "Ziad Takieddine is a network specialist." "He has a great talent for cultivating friendships with people who matter." "Sincere friendships, of course..." "In his splendid villa on the Côte d'Azur or on his inviting Yacht, he entertains government figures:" "Hortefeux, adviser to the Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy and Jean-Francois Copé, Budget Minister." "The photos and other documents revealed by the site Médiapart arose from a criminal investigation on a lucrative arms deal in which Takieddine Ziad was intermediate." "But please, do not call him 'arms dealer'." "Do not call me an arms dealer, I do not make guns." "Ziad Takieddine" " Business man" "Call France the arms dealer." "France is the arms dealer." "Who can not sell its product." "Who needs to be helped by someone who understands things that you don't." "As an arms broker, how do you do, or how do you try to convince them that your product is much better than those from other countries ?" "Ziad Takieddine denies having recieved money from the sale of the surveillance equipment in Libya." "However, court proceedings have revealed proof of multiple payments from Amesys to three of his companies in "tax haven" locations, in the amount of 4 millions of Euros." "Everything I did, and am proud of, when someone in France was in need of anything to help the Libyan approach" "I did it willingly, and wholeheartedly." " But you know the criticism made to these societies, they have used this equipment to monitor the opponents..." " Forget it, the aim of selling this equipment was altruistic." "Altruistic !" "But this business deal is possible only after a political reconciliation between France and Libya." "Yet again, Takieddine appears to play a leading role." "An all-out parallel diplomacy operation that goes exclusively through the Ministry of Interior." "In 2005, it was Claude Gueant, the chief of staff to Nicolas Sarkozy," "Interior Minister at the time, who went to Tripoli to speak with the colonel." "And I've contributed to creating this set of serious relationships in order to help both countries." "Ziad Takieddine admits to have organized each detail of Claude Geant's trips to Libya." "In a note sent from Takieddine's personal computer to the Homeland Ministry these preparations are qualified as "Secret Defense"." "The visit, he said, had a commercial goal." "But Takieddine advised that it stays under the radar." "It is essential that any "business" components of the visit are not highlighted by the official preparations, only as an important part of the exchanges' in the fight against terrorism." "So, it's officially to help Libya to fight against terrorism that Amesys installs an Internet monitoring center in Tripoli." "the irony is that this French spying center will be given to a terrorist:" "Abdallah Senoussi, an old acquaintance of the French Justice." " Did you meet any officials?" " Yes, Mr. Abdallah, we met him a lot." " "Abdallah", this is Abdallah Senoussi?" " Yes, we saw him regularly He was the one pounding his fists on the tables when he wasn't satisfied of the products, or those kind of things." "He got involved very personally in the project." " He was the client in a sense?" "Yes, he was the customer, clearly." "Abdallah Senoussi is still in the shadow of Gaddafi it's his intelligence chief." "In 1989, Senoussi puts a bomb in an UTA DC10 which explodes over Nigeria." "170 dead, including 54 French" "In France, the court sentenced Senoussi to life imprisonment" "In Libya, on the other hand, he is the main policemen of the land, and he give orders to technicians accredited by the French Ministry of Defense." " Your client was Abdallah Senoussi." " My client ?" " Yes, the man who was saying:" ""I want you to install this and this ", it was a man named Abdallah Senoussi" "Abdallah Senoussi was sentenced to life imprisonment by the French court for bombing a plane and killing hundreds of people" "Don't you know it ?" "Do you ignore it ?" "It doesn't interest you...?" " I remember the plane explosion." "I don't know all the history, I repeat," "Politics and I don't see eye to eye" " No, but you worked for him, he is your customer" "You weren't aware that it was Abdallah Senoussi who was giving the instructions?" " Me, personally, no." " You really didn't know it?" " Indeed." " So, I'm informing you about it ?" " Yes, absolutely." "So one of the most dangerous men of the country with a sophisticated tool to listen to the dissidence" "Claude Gueant denies having been aware ofl this" "To Parliament, he explains himself twice." "He is particularly questioned by the parliamentary opposition about Abdallah Senoussi." " What exactly were" "Daniel Goldberg" " PS Deputy your relations with the last regime in Libya and especially with Abdallah Senoussi ?" "Mr. Minister, were you aware of the reality of these transactions ... which would be serious ..." " Thank you, The next speaker is" "Mr. The Minister of the Interior...." " Well, I say very clearly," "Claude Guéant" " Minister of the Interior taking my responsibilities, Mr. Paul, that neither the Minister of the Interior nor his entourage worked on such a transaction." "We have asked several times to collect the views Claude Gueant," "But this is a case that he does not wish to comment on." "Ziad Takieddine says he have been in contact with him during the whole Libyan operation" "That way, he could have understood his state of mind" " You, who has been by Claude Gueant's side for each of the visits in Libya, as you mentioned, on many occasions, wasn't there any moment where doubt crossed your mind ?" "He is still a prominent politician, didn't he ask, " Doesn't this kind of technology we are about to sell to Libya, monitoring technology, isn't there a risk it will go against against democratic forces?" "You have spent time with him, at no time did this cross your mind?" " Everybody did." "Ziad Takieddine" " Businessman" "I think it's in really bad taste to say anything about Claude Gueant, because he did it for his country" "Me, in that regard, from that point of view, I am a strong supporter of Claude Guéant" "However, before Parliament," "Claude Guéant minimized his contact with the intermediary Ziad Takieddine along with important commissions, so, Sir, are you ready to explain us why Ziad Takieddine has established himself as your intermediary in your exchanges with Libya?" "While his accountability was pointed out in other investigations?" " I sometimes had Mr. Takieddine on the phone." "I will not let it be said that I lie, I know the truth." "I had Mr. Takieddine on the phone several times because he gave me an overview of the situation of what was happening in Tripoli." "But the negotiations took place directly with Colonel Gaddafi" "In this case, there have been no negotiations nor contacts, on any market." "There is nothing that can be said on any press media that would make it more reliable than the word of a Republic's Minister" "And I repeat that there was no negotiation nor commercial agreement with the person you mentioned" "Two months after being elected, brand new President Sarkozy goes to Tripoli, to visit Colonel Gaddafi" "The day before, as token of goodwill," "Gaddafi released Bulgarian nurses wrongfully detained in Libyan prisons." "A new chapter is opened." "And everything starts before the cameras, with the signing of a cooperation agreement between France and Libya." "There is mentioned, amongst other things partnerships in the field of security and communications." "That's where Amesys comes into play." " There is a French technology that meets those needs called, as you say "wiretapping", formed part of this cooperation." "Cooperation means cooperation at every level." "We must see where the criminals are, see how they are able to listen to the phones." "The fact we managed to sell it to Libya is great." "Four months later, in December, the Lybian leader arrived in Paris" "He pitched his tent on the Republic's lawn." "Gaddafi implied he will sign" "€10 billion Euros worth of contracts with France, a godsend for the French economy." "Gaddafi also claims that he will buy Rafale fighter jets, an overpriced airplane that France cannot sell." "In the opposition, critics point out that President Sarkozy is reneging on his commitments and forgetting human rights in favor of commercial contracts" "It is a great lesson in human rights and posturing" "and postures between "Le cafe Flore" and the "Zenith" [Parisian Hype]" "I told President Gaddafi how important it was to continue to advance on the path of human rights" "" " First of all, we didn't discuss those topics, President Sarkozy and myself." "We are friends and close associates." "" " It hasn't been discussed?" "" " No, absolutely not." "We discussed cooperations issues between both countries we discussed all these contracts in differents areas in the interest of both countries." "Gaddafi didn't keep his word" "He didn't buy the Rafale fighter jets, only some anti-tanks missiles, - which can be used - and most of all ... a €26 million wonderful electronic system for cyberwarfare." "" " Telecomunications surveillance material" "Do you think that it is the best tool to help a country to become a democracy ?" "" " No." "It is the best way to help the country and show" "that we are ready to help, provided" "Libya shows they can go through a democratic process in this country whether they do it or not, only time will show and if it hasn't been done the country will be punished" "Thanks especially to French bombs, Libya has been cleared of Gaddafi." "And for a lot of Libyans, Sarkozy became a hero." " Long live the friendship between France and Libya." "Only some democracy activists keep another image of France." " Why are these companies selling him these machines?" "Companies that aren't come from a facist country, a dictatorship," "but from a constitutional state, a democracy, the country of the French Revolution," "Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Voltaire, and against whom?" "Against freedom fighters?" "People which were fighting for democracy?" " This picture of you, here, it was one year ago ?" " Yes." " You changed a lot physically." " My hair has become salt and pepper." "Before that, it was black." " You are young!" " Yes, I am only 33 years old." "Did prison whiten your hair ?" "Yes." "Each month aged me 10 years." " It is sad, sad indeed" "I'm personally, sorry" "Obviously, who wouldn't be ?" "Put yourself in that situation..." "there was..." "There was an economic context, there was political context." "at that time." " Is it like a pact with the devil?" " Yes, but it is not me who made the pact with the devil." " You sell him a trident or two" " one?" " A trident or two!" " A trident or two..." "I don't know if... if we successfully track, or stop a bomb from blowing up on a convoy," "I am really proud" "A few weeks after this interview, Bull" " Amesys officially announce they have given up their spying activity on Internet" "Dissidents in dictatorships will have to learn to survive in this new environment." "Spied, geolocalised, under surveillance they have to zigzag between the stitches of the digital net." "Matter of life or death." "In Syria, the revolution is not over." "Every day the rebels use digital channels to send the world images of the repression." "To the government, the cyber-activists are targets." "The Syrian army systematically bombs the internet transmission centers." "More than a hundred Syrian cyber-reporters have already been killed" "if the words and images flow dries, thousands of men and women will die." "On a winter evening, we crossed the border illegally between Turkey and Syria." "We follow a rebel group" "We want to know how they fight with the new numerical arms." "First hint, in this big plastic bag, they carry some satellite phones" "Impossible to get in Syria." "Behind the barbed wire, Syria begins." "Here, if they see us, the soldiers will open fire." "We are gathered in a resistance group's hideout ." "All deserters from the Syrian army." "There is a dozen of them living here, hidden, few hundred meters away from the Syrian army positions with basic security means." " We blocked up the windows so the soldiers cannot see the light from outside." "If they find out the house is inhabited they will send the tanks." "Ali is the only one of them who will be allowed to show his face." "He was identified a long time ago and has nothing to lose." "His only fear?" "That the army manages to locate our hideout." "The first thing he does is examine our phones." "He seems to have acquired basic knowledge in cyberwarfare." " They have machines able to track your phone, because of this code." "If you put your SIM card in, they can locate you... and bomb you..." "Our hideout is located just in the middle of the olive trees." "On the first morning we leave with extreme caution." "In the car, Ali discovers the precious satellite phones from Turkey." "They are even more important than AK-47s." "Ali keeps changing the SIM cards in his phones, so he never keeps the same number very long." "The area is under the surveillance of the Syrian army." "At each village's entrance, the tanks point their guns on the main street" "On some rooftops, snipers are in position ready to open fire." "Checkpoints control town entrances." "Checkpoints which we pass trembling with fear." "When discovered, all of the satellite and electronic devices are systematically destroyed by the army." "Ali takes us into a blogger's house, destroyed by the governement militia." "Look, the army broke or took all computer devices." "Those devices belonged to the blogger." "They were looking for Internet related stuff." "Ali is taking us to the heart of an Internet resistance cell" "The movement is counting dozens of them in the country." "In this area of Syria, the governement has shutdown all internet access." " Do you have Internet ?" " Yes, through the Thuraya." " You have Internet on the Thuraya ?" "Thuraya are satellite phones that can transmit data without using the Syrian government network." " In the region where there is no Internet ?" " Yes, zero internet." " Completely cut off?" " It is cut off because the government does not want us to share photos, videos, and our declarations to the world." "We put videos on Youtube, Twitter or Facebook" "To communicate on the Internet ingenuity and optimism are needed." "While we're filming, electricity is suddenly cut off." " The generator ?" " Yes, the generator produces electricity." "But the electricity of the entire village is cut off." "This is something that we endure all the time." "Hacktivists with enough technical knowledge to upload images are not very numerous." "They must not only cover every event, but also protect themselves." "Tonight, we're going to Edlib a large city in northern Syria." "Perched on motorbikes, we avoid Syrian army's checkpoints" "To enter the city." "A man has been less lucky than us, he has just been shot dead at an army checkpoint." "His body was transported to the hospital and already men with cameras or mobile phones are rushing up." "Each incident is documented and filmed." " His name was Akram Sawa." "He just has been killed near a bridge." "The body of the martyr will be shown around the city." "A spontaneous protest is formed." "In each protest "Internet fighters" are there." "They try to stream live." "They also know they are prime targets for the regime." "Today the hackers of the revolution have difficulty finding an operational network." " It doesn't work." " The network doesn't work?" " It doesn't work." " The man who takes pictures and put them on the internet, is more dangerous than the one who owns a gun." "Tonight cyber resistants from Edlib meet a group of Syrian militaries who have just defected because they refused to shoot the civilian population." "Somewhere in a village we meet them." "It is essential for deserters that their actions are made public on the Internet." "They have set an example and encourages other soldiers to break ranks, too." "With a simple phone their declaration is filmed" "It will be broadcast on YouTube in the following hours." " They are terrorists" "I could no longer be complicit in these atrocities" "Despite the dangers," "Internet activists are trying to stay connected to the outside world." "They know it is their only salvation." "Do you know people who were arrested because of their Internet activities?" " All my friends, everyone." "A friend has lost three teeth for surfing on the internet." "It scares them that we communicate with the outside world" "We have nothing, Internet is our only link." "They punish you severely if they catch you." "They attack your family." " They try to monitor everything." " How?" "Have you heard of BlueCoat machines imported from Iraq ?" " How did you hear about BlueCoat machines?" " This is the group of Anonymous, the hackers of freedom." "They have entered into the Syrian government computers" "And have released thousands of connections which showed that all our online activity was monitored." "Who could penetrate at a distance into the central computers of a dictatorship?" "we can imagine that it takes enormous resources to accomplish such a feat." "In fact, not that much..." "We know the two responsible" "One of them, Kheops, our guide through the convention of digital arms dealers." "This master move, was done with their PCs at night, at home" "Their biggest weapons :" "patience ... and coffee" " We have atlases ..." "directories in fact." "Okhin" " Hacker" "With the map, in fact, we can say" ""Well , what are the IP addresses that correspond to Syria?"" "We see that there are 200,000." "So we just have 200,000 computers to analyze and we can avoid analysing all the machines randomly." " You have a directory of Syrian computers," "You open the door each time to see who is behind." " We also look at windows ..." " Computers are extremely polite things if we ask "Hello, who are you?" They reply." "Because without it, we don't have Internet, We could not communicate." "Well after such a lack of sleep." " This summer has been hard for me" "Kheops" " Hacker" "Some sleepless nights in a row." "And what did they discover inside the system?" "That the Syrian population is monitored." "It is written in red: "Observed"" "Whatever site you visit, the software spies on you." "And by luck, the name of the spy machine is in the line of codes under our eyes." " It's written "BlueCoat" here?" " Well, underneath it is written in whole letters "Blue Coat SG 9000 Series"" "This is the machine that spies on Syrian internet users." "Though harmless," "Simply a large hard drive, do not be fooled:" "this iron box can land you in jail." "It is made in the smiling Silicon Valley, in California." " These machines were used to block certain sites, were they also eventually used to identify people who visited them?" " Yes, in fact, once you saw in the logs which IP address has accessed which site, you can find the person." "So it helps." "It helps a lot to find people, yeah." " What were they trying to monitor?" " Opposition websites, like syrianchange." "Or, social networks where you can post pictures." "The two hackers then decided to alert all Syrian users of their discovery." "For this, they will hijack all Internet traffic to a site that they created." "Each time a Syrian connects," "The first page that loads shows him he is being spied on." " "Your Internet activity is being monitored"" "A small message of peace." "And there, the page just disappeared." "After one minute, in fact, if people did nothing, a second page was displayed." "It contains all the explanations with links to software and all the details a little more technically." "So that when the Syrians connect to the Internet, they get on it." " So, in a way, you have hijacked the flow of internet." " Yes." " It's a sort of deviation, yes." "U.S. authorities have opened legal proceedings against BlueCoat." "The U.S. government has imposed an embargo against the Syrian dictatorship." "To deliver such material is strictly prohibited." "The Executive Officer of Blue Coat defends himself by saying that they had sold these machines to an intermediate from Dubai without knowing that he would sell it to Syria." "Digital surveillance firms maintain a total opacity on the countries for which they provide materials" "Without the intrusion of hackers, no one would have ever known that Blue Coat machines were in the hands of the Syrian secret police." "without the fall of Tripoli nobody would have heard about the AMESYS spyware." "According to the international rights, the interception deployments, are not officially considered weapons." "So they can be sold to anybody without authorization" "Although we remain discreet, even, invisible." "End of 2011, in London." "For the first time a group of journalists and hackers will reveal the extent of this new global industry" "Consisting of hundreds of companies unknown to the large public" "Conclusions presented by the most famous hacker," "Julian Assange." "– Who has an iPhone here?" "Who has a blackberry?" "Who uses Gmail?" "Well..." "You are all screwed!" "– Ask yourself:" "Jacob Appelbaum" " American Hacker" ""Do I possess a mobile phone?" "Ou un mouchard électronique or an electronic device with which can I take phone calls?" "The answer is: you have both." "For hackers, George Orwell's prophetic 1984 becoming a reality today." "There are no more blind spots in which to escape the eyes and ears of Big Brother." "Julian Assange" " WikiLeaks" "Surveillance companies aren't independent of governments." "We should never believe that." "Big companies like Siemens or Amesys are the secret services providers." "Amesys, the French service, and Seimens, the German." "they are "like that" ..." "A journalist from the French website Owni has just posted the results of survey which was shown to the world, without ever leaving his computer" "Jean-Marc Manach" " OWNI" "– Amesys' system was not only used to spy on Libyans, who lived in Libya, but also to spy those living in London, in England, and in the USA and on a British lawyer and 2 people funded by the US Congress" "The digital interception is important in order to identify criminals, terrorists and pedophiles" "Everyone agrees on this but on that day a confidential document of a German company is submitted" "Without pretense, it is written in black on white that this technology is also useful for monitoring political opponents." "Bahrain is an island in the Persian Gulf of which no one ever talks about." "Journalists are banned and protests crushed." "And a German firm has provided the government an excellent digital surveillance equipment." "Because of this material an English teacher and leader of the democratic movement has been captured and tortured for a month." "He was released from the government incarceration but since he was sentenced in absentia to 15 years in prison." "He's hiding somewhere in Bahrain" "via Skype" "Al Khansar - political opponent, Barhain" "– If they catch you will you go to jail for 15 years?" "– I hope it will only be jail." "I'm afraid of torture." "I don't care about prison," "I'm afraid of torture" "– Do you still use a cell phone or is it too dangerous?" "– It has been one year since I have used my mobile phone." "I can't talk freely." "Right now I'm talking to you, but I'm scared." "Each time I contact someone, using Skype or Internet," "I can't sleep until the next morning." "I keep staring at the windows to see if they are coming to get me." "The torture is unforgettable." "Even when I hear weird people voices outside," "I get up to look through the windows." "You know what happened to me ..." "They must stop selling these machines and techniques all over the world"