Secret Report: UAE-based intelligence firm said recruiting IDF veterans from elite cyber unit | Jan. 11, 2019 |

Project Raven

Inside the UAE's Secret Hacking Team of American Mercenaries | Reuters - Jan. 30, 2019

Ex-NSA operatives reveal how they helped spy on targets for the Arab monarchy -- dissidents, rival leaders and journalists.

Two weeks after leaving her position as an intelligence analyst for the U.S. National Security Agency in 2014, Lori Stroud was in the Middle East working as a hacker for an Arab monarchy.

She had joined Project Raven, a clandestine team that included more than a dozen former U.S. intelligence operatives recruited to help the United Arab Emirates engage in surveillance of other governments, militants and human rights activists critical of the monarchy.

Stroud had been recruited by a Maryland cybersecurity contractor to help the Emiratis launch hacking operations, and for three years, she thrived in the job. But in 2016, the Emiratis moved Project Raven to a UAE cybersecurity firm named DarkMatter. Before long, Stroud and other Americans involved in the effort say they saw the mission cross a red line: targeting fellow Americans for surveillance.

Follow-up:

US charges American mercenary hackers over their work in UAE | The Guardian - Sept. 14, 2021 |

Key words here @EuroTrib #ProjectRaven #DarkMatter #mercenariesofdeath #BlackCube #HarryWeinstein

The willingness of some former US (and, presumably, other FVEY) intelligence personnel to train up intelligence bureaus in repressive governments is abhorrent. I'm glad that this is a first (hopefully not last) attempt to showcase there are consequences for such activities.

— Christopher Parsons (@caparsons) September 14, 2021

Black-Ops Mercenaries On the Internet | Jan. 30, 2019 |

‎"We use Facebook to schedule the protests, Twitter to coordinate, and YouTube to tell the world." #egypt #jan25

— Fawaz Rashed (@FawazRashed) March 18, 2011

#ArabSpring #SyriaUprising

'Sapere aude'