Twitter Account Spreads Pro-Saudi Propaganda After Critical TV Documentary

The truth about Saudi Arabia is often shrouded in mystery.

While the regime remains an ally of the U.K. and U.S., its human rights abuses and (intentional or otherwise) funding of terrorism have caused controversy. The Saudi government aims to keep these issues covered up. However, the ITV documentary “Exposure: Saudi Arabia Uncovered” attempted to shed light on what it is like to live in the secretive Kingdom.

This attempt was immediately countered by a pro-Saudi Twitter account which could possibly be connected to the Saudi regime.

“Exposure: Saudi Arabia Uncovered” aired at 10:50 on 22nd February. By 2:00am on February 23rd, a Twitter account had appeared — @Basics-of-Saudi — which describes itself as a “not-for-profit charitable-organisation.”

A scroll-down reveals the account was created on 22nd February — the same day “Exposure: Saudi Arabia Uncovered” first aired. Its stated aim is “countering malicious propaganda and developing a greater understanding between Saudi-Arabia & Western-world.”

Twitter accounts usually display the year in which the account was created; this one takes 1932, the year of the Kingdom’s unification, as its date. At 2:00am the account had just nine followers and was following eleven, numbers, consistent with an account which had just been created. The Twitter account is accompanied by a Medium account of which one post dates to 23rd February 2016 — a couple of hours after the documentary’s release. The only two other posts both date to “14 hours ago” as viewed at 02:00, 23rd February. The trailer for the documentary was released on March 17th.

Covering up Saudi Arabia’s funding of terrorism

Basics of Saudi’s tweets, Medium posts and engagement with other Twitter uses are focused on denying that the Kingdom has funded extremist groups — despite significant amounts of evidence.

@TherealNihal @abrownlad This popular narrative that the Kingdom somehow clandestinely supports extremism and terrorism is completely absurd

— Basics-of-Saudi (@Basics_Of_Saudi) March 29, 2016

However, grants to fund Islamic Studies at Western universities tell a different story. Former Islamist Ed Husain claims in his autobiography that he met a Saudi agent who attempted to contribute to his radicalization.

The EU has also expressed concerns about Saudi government-funded charities, NGOs and front companies funding terrorists. The latest development in Saudi’s long history of funding extremism is the funding of the Islamist Syrian rebel groups which became Daesh (an Arabic acronym for the terrorist group commonly known as ISIS or ISIL in the West) and Al-Nusra. Saudi Arabia’s funding of extremist groups has of course backfired on them, necessitating the kingdom’s airstrikes against ISIS and a costly deradicalization program.

The Saudi government’s miscalculation in thinking they could control the terrorists or keep them aligned with Wahhabism does not negate the fact that, intentionally or not, they funded acts of terrorism and repeatedly turned a blind eye to Saudi donors’ funding of terrorists — even when the fact that these groups were terrorists had become apparent. The U.K. and U.S. funded rebel groups in Syria which became Daesh, and they must take responsibility for that.

However it is worth noting that in contrast to Saudi Arabia, they have never promoted Islamic extremism. The U.K. has never funded such groups to the same extent as Saudi Arabia; in fact their only known large-scale mistake was unintentionally aiding Islamist as well as moderate rebels in Syria, which they stopped doing once the nature of the beast was known. Whereas Saudi Arabia’s funding of terrorist groups and promotion of Wahhabism (which is itself fundamentalist Islam and built upon by the recipients to become radical Islamism) go back many years.

@Reuters Nonsense. Bakwaas. Click-bait propaganda. Please desist in future, so-called "neutral" news agency perpetuating Iranian slanders.

— Basics-of-Saudi (@Basics_Of_Saudi) April 9, 2016

Echoing the Saudi government’s statement to ITV (read out towards the end of the documentary), Basics of Saudi pretends as if ITV’s assertion is that Saudi is deliberately radicalising people to become terrorists and perpetrate terrorist attacks. In fact, ITV alleges that Saudi Arabia’s Wahhabism/Salafism, due to its fundamentalist and violent nature, unintentionally provides a basis for the more extreme interpretations of Islam used by terrorists. ITV clearly states that the Kingdom has carried out airstrikes against Daesh and is considering sending in the troops, and shows footage of these events. The documentary also reported that Saudi Arabia has suffered terrorist attacks.

The account also rejects the claim that the regime promotes the fundamentalist interpretation of Islam known as Wahhabism or Salafism (which the Saud family has used for decades to legitimise their rule) worldwide. Instead, they admit the Saudi government has promoted “Madkhalism.”

 

‘Unnecessary’ to be concerned about Saudi beheadings and torture

The Medium posts frequently refer to all of those who are sickened by the human rights situation as “Saudi haters.” Both the Twitter and Medium accounts adopt a very pro-Saudi government stance, praising the “noble kings” and repeatedly hammering home the message that Saudi Arabia does not fund terrorism and is intent on having a close relationship with the West. The Medium account sounds more like a diplomat’s speech than the voice of a charity. Despite occasional admissions of the truth of the documentary’s revelations, the rhetoric always ends by denying the importance of human rights issues:

One Medium post reads:

Thankfully though, the links between our two Kingdoms remain as unbreakable as ever. It is a partnership that has continually born [sic] fruit and one that must not be jeopardised by sanctimonious, self-gratifying posturing which masquerades as concern for human-rights; the kind exhibited by the likes of Sunny Hundal

… Fulminating against Saudi’s despicable human-rights’ record is unnecessary and drawing comparisons to the Islamic-State even more so

… So why are some so determined to sever ties? Can we not see how this is such an unbelievably short-sighted approach and one that, if taken, will inevitably lead to disaster and ruin? Think about it. Long-Live Saudi-Arabia! Saudi-Arabia Zindabad! Long-Live Saudi-Arabia!

Another makes this claim: “Fulminating against Saudi’s despicable human-rights’ record is unnecessary.”

Minors are also subject to the death penalty. Saudi Arabia beheaded more people than Daesh in 2014 — several of them (mostly immigrant and poor women) for “sorcery.”

 

Talking to Basics of Saudi

An operator of the account sent us tweets stating “We will hopefully one day open offices in London, Birmingham, Mumbai, Chennai, Doh, Jeddah, Riyadh, and Khobar,” then claiming to be a one-member operation and asking if I wanted to join.

They claimed to be a Western-born and bred teenage student of Indian extraction, though — surprisingly for a Westerner — also apologized for any poor English; while the English was flawless it was clearly from a non-native speaker, indicating that if he/she was a Westerner, they may have been from Europe or French Canada.

@Slutocrat *Sigh* our solitary member is a Western-born & bred teenager of South-Asian extraction. No racial/political ties to Saudi-Arabia

— Basics-of-Saudi (@Basics_Of_Saudi) March 23, 2016

The person claimed to be in a timezone which was 15 minutes behind GMT but would not reveal their location for fear of “reprisals”:

We feel there could be reprisals from people opposed to our aims. We also feel that we are entitled to a certain degree of privacy. As our activities are somewhat controversial, we feel it’s not too judicious to give any indicators as to our current whereabouts.

They requested article contributions and graphic design; the latter is consistent with a teenager being the sole operative, while the language used and the reference to current “offices” is not. While an agreement to contribute articles to Basics of Saudi was welcomed, an offer to write an article about Basics of Saudi resulted in the account terminating contact and ceasing all activity for some time.

The last couple of tweets read “We hope to have more people join us when they feel more comfortable and safe in expressing their admiration of the Kingdom …Would also like to emphasise that, like the British-Government, we support incremental liberalisation in #KSA [Kingdom of Saudi Arabia] whilst maintaining cordial relations … our solitary member is a Western-born & bred teenager of South-Asian extraction. No racial/political ties to Saudi-Arabia.”

Later, Basics of Saudi resumed contact and told us:

We believe the Western public (not the politicans and the establishment) are often exposed to negative stories about Saudi-Arabia and this shapes their thinking about the country as a whole.

We therefore feel it is important to emphasise why Britain’s relationship with Saudi-Arabia is so strategically important and financially beneficial, especially amidst the pervasive anti-Saudi propaganda.

We have set up an organisation for this express purpose – to help Britons develop an understanding of a different culture, and to help them appreciate differences instead of misunderstanding them or judging them unfairly.

There is no doubt that Saudi Arabia is a very controversial and much-maligned nation; however, we hope that this will mark the first step of the fight back against this widespread slander. Hopefully others will feel similarly emboldened and encouraged to join us in our defense of a magnificent nation and a friendly, loyal government.

Basics of Saudi gives the impression that it sells Saudi Arabia-themed merchandise. However, its merchandise page contains no actual merchandise for sale. Instead, there are a few links to sites such as Cafepress, Zazzle and Starbucks. This approach seems unusual for an NGO; sales of the merchandise they’ve linked to would not benefit them or even — as far as we can tell — support Saudi Arabian businesses.

Stay tuned for some magnificent KSA-themed merchandise: including fridge-magnets, clothes, mugs/ cups and many more: https://t.co/F9yMWVbjf5

— Basics-of-Saudi (@Basics_Of_Saudi) February 23, 2016

Saudi Arabia is far from the only government to globalize its propaganda output. The CIA used Radio Liberty and Voice of America to counter Soviet propaganda. The Soviets themselves spent $7 billion on spreading their ideology. Today, China uses U.S.-based media outlets to influence opinion, while Russian internet shills have been well documented.

Both the Saudi Arabian regime and Basics of Saudi used the term “slurs” to describe the content of “Saudi Arabia Exposed,” without addressing the issues revealed (poverty, human rights, gender equality, the rights of Shia Muslims and Christians). The similarity between the arguments used by both entities are striking, as is the language used. Both also display a very professional and educated writing style.

Basics of Saudi may be run, as it claims, by an independent citizen sympathetic to the regime. It may be run by shill bloggers or an NGO supported by the Saudi government. It may be run by the regime more directly, for example from a government building (most likely the Saudi regime’s embassy in London if the operator was telling the truth about their time zone.)

We’ll most likely never find out.

All of this is not, by itself, proof that the Saudi government created, encouraged or funded Basics of Saudi to counteract the documentary’s negative PR. But the fact that Saudi Arabia has spent $100 billion so far on spreading its propaganda. Combined with Basics of Saudi’s timing and content, this is bound to raise a few eyebrows.

Content posted to MyMPN open blogs is the opinion of the author alone, and should not be attributed to MintPress News.