Wikileaks releases Saudi Arabian diplomatic cables detailing how the Islamist despots buy influence in Australia and the West
Sunday, 21 June 2015
I think it was distasteful and unwise for Australia's foreign minister to participate in the presentation of $1,000,000 from Saudi Arabia to the Islamic Museum in Australia. Saudi money comes with strings and we should make no mistake about their barbarous intentions.
Yesterday Wikileaks released this statement along with more than 61,000 cables and other documents intercepted between Saudia Arabia and its global representative offices.
I've published a little of the Wikileaks statement below:
The Saudi Cables
Over half a million cables and other documents from the Saudi Foreign Ministry.
A total of 61195 published so far
Buying Silence: How the Saudi Foreign Ministry controls Arab media
On Monday, Saudi Arabia celebrated the beheading of its 100th prisoner this year. The story was nowhere to be seen on Arab media despite the story's circulation on wire services. Even international media was relatively mute about this milestone compared to what it might have been if it had concerned a different country. How does a story like this go unnoticed?
Today's release of the WikiLeaks "Saudi Cables" from the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs show how it's done.
The oil-rich Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its ruling family take a systematic approach to maintaining the country's positive image on the international stage. Most world governments engage in PR campaigns to fend off criticism and build relations in influential places. Saudi Arabia controls its image by monitoring media and buying loyalties from Australia to Canada and everywhere in between.
Documents reveal the extensive efforts to monitor and co-opt Arab media, making sure to correct any deviations in regional coverage of Saudi Arabia and Saudi-related matters. Saudi Arabia's strategy for co-opting Arab media takes two forms, corresponding to the "carrot and stick" approach, referred to in the documents as "neutralisation" and "containment". The approach is customised depending on the market and the media in question.
There's a lot more detail at the Wikileaks website, along with their analysis of what they think the documents mean.
Here Fairfax Media's analysis, published yesterday evening.
WikiLeaks 'Saudi Cables' reveal secret Saudi government influence in Australia
WikiLeaks has revealed secret Saudi Arabian influence in Arabic media and Islamic religious groups in Australia as well as covert monitoring of Saudi students studying at Australian universities.
More than 61,000 leaked Saudi diplomatic documents have been released by WikiLeaks in what the international transparency group says will be the first instalment of the publication of more than half a million secret papers in batches over coming weeks.
"The Saudi Cables lift the lid on an increasingly erratic and secretive dictatorship that has not only celebrated its 100th beheading this year, but which has also become a menace to its neighbours and itself," WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange said in a statement released on Saturday.
The leaked Saudi government documents include extensive correspondence between the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Kingdom's embassy in Canberra that reveals sustained Saudi efforts to influence political and religious opinion within Australia's Arabic and Islamic communities.
The Saudi embassy is also revealed to pay close attention to the political and religious beliefs of Saudi university students studying in Australia with reports sent to the Mabahith, the General Investigation Directorate of the Saudi Ministry of Interior, the Kingdom's brutal secret police that deals with domestic security and counter-intelligence. The directorate is also revealed to make recommendations in relation to Saudi government funding for building mosques and supporting Islamic community activities in Australia.
The documents show the Sunni kingdom's strong concern about efforts by Shiite Islamic leaders to engage with the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils and the kingdom's funding of visits to Australia by Sunni Islamic clerics to counter Shiite influence.
WikiLeaks said that the leaked reports of communications between the Saudi government and its embassies across the globe "provide key insights into the kingdom's operations and how it has managed its alliances and consolidated its position as a regional Middle East superpower, including through bribing and co-opting key individuals and institutions."
The documents reveal extensive Saudi efforts to influence and neutralise critical opinion in foreign media, including widespread use of monetary contributions and subsidies.
"Most world governments engage in PR campaigns to fend off criticism and build relations in influential places. Saudi Arabia controls its image by monitoring media and buying loyalties from Australia to Canada and everywhere in between," WikiLeaks said in a written statement.
WikiLeaks noted that the Saudi Foreign Ministry admitted to a breach of its computer networks last month. The security breach was attributed a group calling itself the Yemeni Cyber Army. Saudi Arabia is currently engaged in military intervention in the Yemeni civil war.
According to WikiLeaks the leaked material comprises hundreds of thousands of pages of scanned images of Arabic text, tens of thousands of text files, spreadsheets and emails which have been placed a searchable database.
The embassy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was not available for comment.
I don't think it's been a secret that Saudi Arabia pours money into advancing Saudi, Wahabbist, Islamist and other terrorist causes. Griffith University in Queensland very foolishly took money from the Saudis for its Islamic Studies Centre when I was on 4BC in Brisbane - and the community outrage was widespread. These 61,000 documents should help build the picture of where else the Saudi money goes - and what we have to do to stop it.