Petra, the Jordan News Agency, reported that Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said: “Saudi Arabia has always sponsored both Republican and Democratic Parties of America and… the kingdom also provides with full enthusiasm 20 percent of the cost of Hillary Clinton’s campaign in the U.S. presidential elections.”
They quickly took down the report, and now they’re claiming that it only went up in the first place because of hackers. This is an odd claim: we have often seen hackers destroy the contents of websites and replace them with their own messages, or make public material they have discovered in the hack. It is rare that a hacker goes into a website to plant a false story. It is possible that it could have happened in this case, but it seems more likely that the Saudi Deputy Crown Prince realized the damage he might have done to Hillary Clinton’s campaign with this revelation, and determined to quash it.
“Statement by Jordan News Agency ( Petra ),” Petra, June 13, 2016:
Amman, June 13 (Petra) In response to what has been published by some media outlets as well as the social media regarding news that were attributed to Jordan News Agency (Petra), we would like to clarify the following:
1) A technical failure on Petra ’s website occurred for a few minutes on Sunday evening, June 12, 2016. Protection systems at the agency as well as the technical department noticed that and therefore, they suspended the transmission system and the electronic site and moved to the alternative website.
2) Later, it became clear that the technical failure that occurred was and attempt to hack the agency’s transmission system and its website.
3) The Agency was surprised to see some media outlets as well as the social media publishing false news that were attributed to Petra . They said that Petra transmitted a news item related to the deputy crown prince of Saudi Arabia and later deleted this news item. This is totally false and untrue.
4) Jordan News Agency ( Petra ) affirms its full commitment to the policy of the Jordanian state, its constant national stands, its professionalism and ethical criteria.
5) Petra’s technical department, in cooperation with concerned security authorities are currently investigating attempts to hack the agency’s system.