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Two former Twitter employees accused of spying on Saudis and “thousands of others” for Saudi Arabia

Nov 9, 2019 9:30 am By Robert Spencer

“Thousands of other Twitter users”?

What were they looking for? Are the Saudis behind the Orwellian treatment of opposition to jihad terror as if it were “bigotry”?

Twitter is so resolutely opposed to foes of jihad mass murder and Sharia oppression of women, it’s no wonder that they didn’t catch these guys.

“Two former Twitter employees accused of spying for Saudi Arabia,” by David Shortell, CNN, November 7, 2019:

Washington, DC (CNN Business)Federal prosecutors accused two former Twitter employees of spying on behalf of Saudi Arabia on Wednesday.

Ali Alzabarah, a Saudi national, and Ahmad Abouammo, a US citizen, used their access at the social media giant to gather sensitive and nonpublic information on dissidents of the Saudi regime, the Justice Department alleged in a criminal complaint.

The case, unsealed in San Francisco federal court, underscores allegations the Saudi government tries to control anti-regime voices abroad. It also recalls a move reportedly directed by the country’s controversial leader to weaponize online platforms against critics.

The accusations are certain to renew scrutiny of tech companies’ abilities to protect the privacy of their users.

“The criminal complaint unsealed today alleges that Saudi agents mined Twitter’s internal systems for personal information about known Saudi critics and thousands of other Twitter users,” US Attorney David Anderson said in a statement. “U.S. law protects U.S. companies from such an unlawful foreign intrusion. We will not allow U.S. companies or U.S. technology to become tools of foreign repression in violation of U.S. law.”

A third man, Ahmed Almutairi, also from Saudi Arabia, allegedly acted as a go-between to the two Twitter employees and the Saudi government, which according to the complaint rewarded the men with hundreds of thousands of dollars and, for one man, a luxury Hublo watch.

While no Saudi government officials are named as running the spy operation in the complaint, the Washington Post, citing a person familiar with the case, reports a Saudi national who groomed the two employees is tied into the inner circle of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman….

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Filed Under: Featured, free speech, Internet jihad Tagged With: Twitter


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Comments

  1. Roland says

    Nov 9, 2019 at 11:06 am

    Did Twitter executive know and acquiesce to this spy operation?

    • mortimer says

      Nov 9, 2019 at 10:55 pm

      If Twitter executives ‘did not know’ about this covert censorship, they possible ‘did not want to know’ about it. Big tech hires many Third-World students or others on temporary visas for low wages. One out of six Muslims self-identifies as a supporter of jihad. That means in every cohort of one hundred Muslims hired by Big Tech, there will be 18 jihad-supporting Muslims. Some may be favorable to Al Qaeda, Boko Haram, the Taliban or ISIS. This is a large cohort who would voluntarily (and for free) censor counterjihadist comments. But they would do it for money as well.

      I believe that Big Tech is in fact being bribed by Muslim countries to toe the line with Islamic blasphemy law. They are smearing themselves in virtue-signalling as they do it.

      Perhaps they have even convinced themselves that by defending Islamic bigotry, misogyny and terrorism from criticism, that they are stopping Western bigotry about an alleged and benign ‘fantasy’ version of Islam.

      I think it is certain that Big Tech executives and managers are being bribed in one way or another to protect Islam from criticism. This is the only thing explanation for their abandonment of Western values concerning freedom of expression.

  2. Infidel says

    Nov 9, 2019 at 11:54 am

    MbS should just buy up a majority stake in Twitter and tell @jack that he owns him. After that, let Twitter spy on anyone

    I closed my Twitter account a couple of years ago after I was temporarily suspended for a tweet about Muslim rapefugees into Europe (yeah, I did use that word), and they insisted that I provide an actual phone number. Also factoring into my decision was that most of the people I was following or who followed me were banned as well, so I decided that it just wasn’t worth it

    So this is one US company that I don’t mind seeing swept up by Saudi Arabia. Better yet, may it go the way of Cambridge Analytica

    • gravenimage says

      Nov 9, 2019 at 11:01 pm

      Really? You want to see Muslims buy up media in the West? I can think of few things more destructive.

  3. underbed cat says

    Nov 9, 2019 at 12:58 pm

    This article does not surprise me. M.E. countries, Saudi Arabia is no exception, have sent many abroad to learn computer tech skills, work in governments, practice medicine and most western countries have “diversity” hiring, a few or most western former leaders have stated Islam is a tolerant, beautiful, peaceful religion and deny “terrorists” who claim they fight for “allah”. Unaware of the teachings from youth on, that most fighters must know for jihad thru mosques and the doctrine, will also annonce no connection. Unless they go to the source ideology no one would dare to expose Islam. I think they collect all things, personal data all the time when they can. Ignorance and being unaware can for a time be bliss but evntually it is deadly.

    • Ray Jarman says

      Nov 9, 2019 at 1:26 pm

      Underbed Cat, You make excellent points but the question of cyber security caused by the Middle East countries is nothing compared to the Chinese.

      • underbed cat says

        Nov 9, 2019 at 7:04 pm

        Years ago while listening to AM talk radio in my car, an annoucement of a transfer of patents and technology was being broadcast, I only heard it once,technology, patents, and designs allowed to go to China according to the irate host it had been done by the Clinton administration. Don’ t recall but the information was not well known, and the host was livid. I don’t know if money was exchange but it was done to advance China to a more modern country, to be seen as a humanitartian gesture but would allow products to be produced and have a low cost in the United States by passing high labor costs for cheaper purchases. Prior to this time, I had in the seventies visited the China exposition in Chicago. The tables were displays of beautiful fibers, fabrics, very little technology although in the sixties Japan had made my first not so good transistor radios, they improved. it was very interesting to see inside photos of China, photo’s of children smiling faces, emphasis on education, and some food production techniques but it seemed low tech. It was a breakthru at that time to see any thing from China. I purchased a down coat. As a teenager I had worked in a resturant /hotel chain as a watitress in the summer before college, a large bus arrived. Twenty of so male Japenese ( not sure if from China) businesmen, each carrying a camera. They did not speak English, they were on a trip to explore American companies, this was in the late sixties, or 1970. By 1973 I owned a Celica. Today I think nearly every product in my house is labeled made in China, from this computer, to my phone, to my internet connection, sheets, plastic goods, towels, blankets, rugs, silver ware, Japenese car, T.V. car, hair dyer, tools, some food items, all electronics so yes I see it. They have progressed, they did it with transferred intellectual property of the our engineers, affordable price and good design their advantage is the labor force,……but now we are in a dilemma. A great amount of respect developed with the quality that was advanced in Japan, and now taken over by China now a major economy…and trade deals are good if they can work.
        I assume they could also be a silent enemy.They are now highly educated, with disciplined culture and no lack of intelligence. The government didn’t acknowledge the effect on Americans, used political parties for support but didn’t see this or couldn’t stop it, there have been dark years of hoping totalitarian China was no different than the U.S. a familiar feel of products, but they have leaped forward knowing our culture, power or economy could be displaced. I think they have now aligned with Saudi Arabia, and wonder if they will spread political Islam into China that would be a more deadly combination than Russia in my mind. I view the problems of Japan as a China takeover….as we see Japan will be under their control and will have more access to high end tech but they will loose much of their freedom of speech, thought and movement and it is very sad and a big threat to our security and economy. Islamic influence is viewed as benign but I guess if the association of terror is hidden away, but the doctrine money continues to universities we are in trouble. I truly hope I am wrong.

        • Ray Jarman says

          Nov 11, 2019 at 3:38 pm

          I agree with your assessment and I still wonder why American leaders were so eager to displace the American worker in the factories. Most people don’t understand that a conflict between Sears and RCA brought on the onslaught of Japanese electronics when RCA’s Chief Executive, David Sarnoff, told Sears that if they did not want the RCA label on products sold by Sears, they could find another company that would permit the Sears label on their products. Sears then went to Japan and found that Sharp Electronics was more than happy to comply with the request that Sears place its own label on the products. Since then, the Japanese have driven some of the most innovative companies like Magnavox, Motorola (except wireless technologies), and others into oblivion and now the Chinese have endeavored to replace American products with cheap knockoffs while the elites look the other way until now with a president not afraid to stand up for the American worker and American intellectual rights. With Clinton’s give away of American missile and other very high technologies to the Chinese, they have become a threat to the world.

  4. Ray Jarman says

    Nov 9, 2019 at 1:23 pm

    I hate to say but how can anything written by the Washington Post much less CNN be trusted. We have many reasons many of us have complete disdain for the Saudis but until a reputable news organization verifies these allegations such as the Hill, Gatestone institute or maybe Washington Free Press, I will hold judgement on the source of the information. If the story becomes verified, the culprits should be tried and put into prison for years and Saudi (I employ the word very loosely) diplomats should be held to the same rules of travel restrictions and access as Americans working at the US Embassy in Riyadh and elsewhere in the Kingdom. By the way, Twitter is not the most trustworthy organization either.

    • Flavius Claudius Iulianus says

      Nov 9, 2019 at 3:36 pm

      The story was released by Associated Press and run by several other news orgs. The AP story reads, “The complaint unsealed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco …” This is verified by the public court records.

      Run by two other news orgs.:
      https://www.jihadwatch.org/2019/11/zoas-morton-klein-robert-spencers-book-teaches-you-how-to-answer-virtually-every-propaganda-lie-about-israel#comment-2169025

      • gravenimage says

        Nov 10, 2019 at 12:07 am

        True, Flavius.

  5. gravenimage says

    Nov 10, 2019 at 12:13 am

    Two former Twitter employees accused of spying on Saudis and “thousands of others” for Saudi Arabia
    ………………..

    Did Twitter itself know anything about this? That’s the real question.

  6. Angemon says

    Nov 10, 2019 at 4:09 am

    Shouldn’t come as a surprise – there were hundreds of millions of Saudi dollars poured on Twitter 10 or so years ago. That sort of money is bound to come with caveats…

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