Israeli private intelligence firm involved in campaign to discredit NGOs, favour Orban ahead of April’s Hungary election
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Politico: The Israeli private intelligence firm Black Cube was involved in a campaign to discredit NGOs ahead of Hungary’s April election, according to a former Black Cube employee and a person with knowledge of the company’s inner workings.
Between December 2017 and March 2018, Hungarian NGOs and individuals connected to American-Hungarian businessman George Soros were contacted by agents using false identities who secretly recorded them. The recordings, which began appearing in the Jerusalem Post and Hungarian government-controlled daily paper Magyar Idők three weeks before Hungary’s election, were used by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to attack independent civil society organizations during the last days of the campaign.
Orbán’s right-wing Fidesz party went on to win in a landslide.
A spokesperson for the Hungarian government did not respond to a request for comment.
The people who met and recorded the NGO officials used European and Arab cover names, but at least two of them spoke with discernible Israeli accents, according to people at the organizations who met with them.
