While President Trump has personally claimed credit for the split between Qatar and the other Gulf Arab states, some US investigators are engaged in particularly wild speculation today, aiming to make the whole situation a plot carried out by Russian hackers.
A little over a week into the latest row, tensions between Qatar and other Gulf states is a hugely complicating factor for US foreign policy in the region, particularly since Qatar hosts the largest US military base in the Middle East. Qatar’s split is something that’s been an ongoing issue for years, based around differing views on the Arab Spring.
Fake news helped though, too, as while that row between Qatar and the Saudis has been a thing for years, this latest escalation centered around a report in the Qatar state media, right after President Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia to make hawkish speeches about Iran, quoted the Qatari Emir warning against seeking military confrontation toward Iran.
This led to some public condemnations, and eventually Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirate, and Maldives all severed ties with Qatar outright, closing the border and blocking all ships and planes from Qatar going to their countries. Officials from those countries are accusing Qatar of being in league with Iran, and on top of that some are also claiming them to be supporting ISIS.
In the course of trying to defuse tensions, Qatari officials insisted the quote was incorrect, and later suggested that news outlet was hacked. They even brought the FBI in to investigate the hack, and if you get US officials and something hacking related in the same room together, someone’s going to bring up Russia.
So unsurprisingly, while Qatar’s Interior Ministry is focusing on investigating the putative hack, US investigators are going around telling US media outlets that they believe the Russian government hacked the Qatari news site, and planted the fake news report specifically to sew disconnect among key US allies.
There is no evidence of Russian involvement, of course, or even a plausible reason why Russia would hack the Qatari state media just to plant a misquote from the emir. Indeed, while Qatari officials say a hack took place, it’s entirely possible that the whole hacking narrative is just a way to distance the emir from the quote about not starting a war with Iran, which outraged the Saudis so much.
Is there anything the “intelligence” community won’t try to pin on Russian hackers?
Apparently not
Next time you smell a fart in the air, blame it on Russian hackers.
Two things we do know…. That Saudi Arabia has lots of money with which to fund hackers. And that the Saudis regularly use that money to buy favorable media coverage. Does anyone still trust CNN to tell the truth?
https://wikileaks.org/saudi-cables/buying-silence
never did…
Empire USA — If all are selfish
If our land of golden opportunity has for hundreds of years attracted those of a superiority complex, this would explain why 99% of native Americans were wasted by a genocide, why millions of the black community suffered chain slavery to expand our frontiers and why all were so selfish as to express no objection to Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence were it states,
“the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages,
whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction,
of all ages, sexes and conditions.”
Then of course, the rich ruling-class, the 25% most wealthy, they would conspire to keep the lower-half of society so enslaved by poverty that they would refuse to vote for their next set of dictators. Which would allow the 26% most wealthy to be the voting majority and the end result would be President Trump giving the rich absolute control over our Empire.
If you’re not with us, you’re against us. Those who insist on absolute compliance and are willing to use any means to get it will soon be shocked to discover that they have no friends.
The Russians would have a zero percent chance of getting away with it and watching their press releases on Syria, I don’t think they are clever enough to fabricate a false news release for Al Jazeera that looks real.
Israel has a motive for doing this because Qatar supports Hamas and there is a low risk of getting caught but huge blow back if they did.
Qatar has motive for lying about it and would U.S. Intel agencies lie to cover up for an ally? I wouldn’t bet my life denying the possibility.
This is beyond asinine.
Since Trump is now claiming credit for this split, shouldn’t we consider the possibility that the world’s most advance cyberwarfare force might be responsible for this?
The world’s most advanced cyberwarfare force is of course controlled by the US military and intelligence agencies. And having the ‘media’ controlled by the same groups (aka CNN) run a cover story would be a logical part of such an operation.
Breaking news is that Trump just called the Qatari emir and offered to mediate the dispute within the GCC. I did not make this up! See:
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/06/trump-offers-resolve-gulf-crisis-170607180101012.html
Now that Donald’s own State Dept is spinning the line that it was the Russians, not Donald, who caused the split, Donald desperately needs to do something else to be the center of attention. Because Donald knows it always is all about him.
So Donald offered to mediate between the parties less then 48 hours after calling the Qataris out for supporting terrorists and basking in the illusion that he caused the rift. Anyone like to give odds on the Qataris taking Donald up on his generous offer to broker a deal among the Gulf states?