We keep hearing from the media about disinformation and state sponsored propaganda.
And then the media turns around and publishes Qatari propaganda. It can range from the Washington Post publishing Qatari lobbyist Jamal Khashoggi and then launching an information warfare operation against Saudi Arabia, the media outlets publishing Elliot Broidy’s emails, hacked by Qatar after communing with Qatari lobbyists, and straight policy advocacy like this non-editorial editorial from Reuters.
Why the CIA doesn’t spy on the UAE – Reuters
The United Arab Emirates finances the military leader trying to topple a United Nations-recognized government in Libya. It helps lead a coalition of nations imposing an economic blockade of Qatar, despite U.S. calls to resolve the dispute. It hired former staffers of the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) as elite hackers to spy in a program that included Americans as surveillance targets, a Reuters investigation found this year
The Reuters piece at Aram Roston neglects to mention that the targets were often Qatari..
So Roston and Reuters are arguing that the UAE is hostile to Qatar. Why exactly is that our problem considering that Reuters is a state sponsor of terror. I’m sorry, Qatar is a state sponsor of terror. But when Reuters runs pieces like this, it’s easy to get confused.
A former official in U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration said the lack of UAE intelligence is alarming because the desert monarchy now operates as a “rogue state” in strategic nations such as Libya and Qatar and further afield in Africa.
Funny how Qatar keeps coming up. It’s almost like this piece is Qatari propaganda. The article also keeps quoting unnamed sources, include this “former official”.
Also, rogue state would be a more accurate description of Qatar. But Qatar sure has managed to suborn a lot of western messaging outlets.
I’m not cheerleading for the UAE. But Qatar seems to have developed a unique ability to turn the media into an echo chamber for advancing its own political interests and keeps churning out propaganda that has the form of journalism, but is nothing more than lobbying and advocacy.
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