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Dhabi

AGT was responsible for installing a “unique civil surveillance network in Abu Dhabi that means ‘every person is monitored from the moment they leave their doorstep to the moment they return to it,’” according to the noted security publication MiddleEastEye.
The invasive system is dubbed “Falcon Eye”.

Kochavi also owns Israeli security and private intelligence firms 3iMind and Logic Industries. Like Vocativ, 3iMind claims to use “the deep web” to mine information, though in 3iMind’s case it provides spy services, not journalistic ones. 3iMind even advertises online that it will spy on “the planning and execution of violent civil unrest” for clients.

The website for Kochavi’s mother company, AGT, claims its current business is using “Internet of Things” technology for entertainment and “fashion” applications in partnership with the giant talent agency WME-IMG … though it’s unclear what any of these applications really are, and certainly what value they provide for entertainment. Security experts say Internet of Things type sensors could be tied together to monitor crowds for security purposes.

According to Israeli and U.S. Jewish publications, the lines within Kochavi’s companies can blur, with Vocativ employees doing work for 3iMind and Logic, and vice versa. So who was this “journalist” arrested amid the unrest on Inauguration Day? Was he actually doing journalism? Or, as some journalists around town have been asking, could he also have been doing surveillance of anti-Trump demonstrators on behalf of an Arab or Israeli client, possibly a foreign government?
[http://heatst.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/aaeaaqaaaaaaaq5aaaajdq3mjuxmgu2ltg5njmtndi1mc1hzmrhltllyjkynze5zjljmg.jpg?w=300]Kochavi employee Evan Engel (LinkedIn)

A call to Ruemmler was returned by someone identifying himself as a Vocativ spokesperson. He told Heat Street that the arrested employee, Evan Engel, was doing purely journalistic work at the time he was detained.

“The arrest, detainment and rioting charge against journalist Evan Engel who was covering the protests for Vocativ are an affront to the First Amendment and journalistic freedom,” the spokesperson said. “Vocativ will vigorously contest this unfounded and outrageous charge.”

Kochavi has taken pains to put a different face, unrelated to spying and surveillance, on his American activities. Vocativ acts like a news organization, though it’s made little splash (and gets remarkably little web traffic) for an operation so large and expensive.

Kochavi has also shown little hesitation to pay top dollar for access to the most powerful figures in America to provide legitimacy for his American activities. Last fall’s Wikipedia data dump revealed that he and his longtime business partner, New York rainmaking lawyer Mary Edelman, offered Bill Clinton millions of dollars to serve as honorary chairman of the company that would become Vocativ. Clinton turned them down, perhaps nervous about Kochavi who’s been described as “a mysterious even somewhat shady character” and the Israeli “version of the old-fashioned arms dealer with a suit and an MBA” by the progressive Jewish blog Tikkun Olam.
[http://heatst.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/akochavivivian.jpg?w=260]Matania Kochavi (C) shown with Vivian Schiller (L) chair of Vocativ’s executive committee and Danna Rabin (R) AGT’s chief operations officer.

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