Bahrain Mirror: "USA Today" newspaper accused Saudi Arabia, Emirates and Bahrain of publishing fake news against Qatar to sway American public opinion through online and social media campaigns, in order to support their political goals.

"When Saudi Arabia and the UAE launched a boycott and blockade of the tiny peninsula state of Qatar last year, organizations with ties to Riyadh and Abu Dhabii tried something new: They worked to sway American public opinion through online and social media campaigns, bringing a complicated, distant conflict among three Washington allies to US shores," the newspaper said.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE also initiated propaganda efforts in the US aimed at weakening Washington's alliance with Qatar - which hosts the largest American military base in the Middle East.

The newspaper mentioned "The Qatar Insider" website as an example and said that it is an anti-Qatar website that went live last year, advertising itself as comprehensive source for information on Qatar Crisis. It further stated that "The Qatar Insider" pushed a steady stream of clickbait-style disinformation, often relying on catchy, misleading infographics to try to draw in an audience.

It went on to say that The Qatar Insider" wasn't an ordinary news outlet. The Saudi American Public Relation Affairs Committee (SAPRAC), a pro-Saudi lobby group not officially tied to the Saudi government, paid $2.6 million last year to the now-defunct, Washington-based lobbying firm the Podesta Group for public affairs services that included running the anti-Qatar website and its associated social media properties.

TV ads aired in the US by the Podesta Group that advertised "The Qatar Insider" were identified to viewers as "distributed by SAPRAC" and "sponsored by the embassy of Bahrain," a close Saudi ally that was involved in funding SAPRAC, according to USA Today.

But The Qatar Insider's website made no mention of the Podesta Group, SAPRAC or the Saudi or Bahraini governments. It was laid out like a news site, with its "about us" section describing it as "the comprehensive source for information on the truth about Qatar's funding, activities and support for terrorist and extreme Islamist groups."

Among The Qatar Insider's claims were that Qatar had spent a whopping $64.2 billion on supporting terrorism between 2010 and 2015 (citing the "US Treasury" as a source); that Qatar not only supports ISIS, but trained its fighters; that al-Qaeda's 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (who is imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay) is being "sheltered" by Qatar; that the Qatari state has openly threatened to carry out genocide on its people to quiet dissent; and that in preparing for the 2022 World Cup, Qatar has bankrolled Pyongyang's dictatorship and nuclear program by allowing North Korean workers to work on World Cup infrastructure projects.

In its contract with the SAPRAC, the Podesta Group wrote that their online campaign would target "low-hanging fruit," which they described as users who were actively seeking information about Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The goal was to ensure "that they see the content we want them to see at the top of their search results."

Along with painting Qatar as a terror-friendly nation, The Qatar Insider encouraged the US to remove its Al Udeid Air Base, which is home to the forward headquarters of the US Central Command, from Qatar and lobbied against Qatar hosting the 2022 World Cup.

Arabic Version