Alwaght- Saudi regime used a US based lobby firm to launch cyber-warfare against neighboring Qatar amid a worsening Persian Gulf crisis.
According to reports, US lobbying firm Podesta Group and Saudi American Public Relation Affairs Committee (SAPRAC) were behind an anti-Qatar website and twitter handle, which has been publishing fake and malicious news against Doha.
Al Jazeera Arabic reporter Wjad Waqfi reported on her Twitter account that an official document sent to the US Department of Justice stated that Podesta Group had established an anti-Qatar website and a Twitter account during the Persian Gulf crisis for Saudi American Public Relation Affairs Committee (SAPRAC) and the same was managed by Salman Al-Ansari.
The website The Qatar Insider and twitter account @theqatarinsider have been established by Podesta Group for SAPRAC to publish fake news and spread malicious stories about Qatar.
It is a known fact that Saudi and UAE have been paying lobbying firms in US to promote fake campaigns against Qatar. Even the media in the blockading countries have been spreading lies about the crisis and have been called out many times.
Earlier a US data firm had admitted that it was paid money by the UAE to spread negative information about Qatar. NBC News reported that the parent company of Cambridge Analytica, SCL Social Limited, filed documents with the US Justice Department's Foreign Agents Registration Unit disclosing $333,000 in payments by the UAE for a 2017 social media campaign linking Qatar to terrorism.
From the beginning of the Persian Gulf crisis in June 2017, SAPRAC had launched television advertisement campaign against Qatar with $138,000 spent on seven, 30-second TV spots.
Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Egypt severed diplomatic and trade relations with Qatar on June 5 last year. The Saudi-led regime severed the ties due to what they claimed is Qatar’s support for terrorist groups in the region.
Qatar, for its part, vehemently denies the allegations, describing attempts to isolate it by its fellow Arab states as a violation of international law.
On June 22, the block, issued a 13-point list of demands, including the shutdown of Al Jazeera TV, limiting ties with Iran, and expelling Turkish troops stationed in the country as a prerequisite to lifting the blockade. Qatar rejected all the demands, denouncing them as attempts to violate its sovereignty.
