Comment by exceptione

  > Graphite belongs to the same category of commercial surveillance technology as Pegasus, the better-known spyware developed by NSO Group. Both are classified as mercenary spyware, meaning private companies develop and sell them to government intelligence and law enforcement agencies.

This buries the lede a bit. These companies play their part in trans-national organized crime networks, spanning countries like the USA, Russia and Israel. In Russia, it is often hard to delineate between organized crime and the FSB, because these networks overlap and they are often well established within the structures of the state. The same increasingly applies to the USA. ICE is becoming a paramilitary force, "immigration control" is clearly not its only purpose. I cannot unsee this from the massive purges in the military, rooting out the most competent leadership. The parallels with Russia can't be ignored.