We're discussing Saudi Arabia over on the
Golf (yeah, golf) thread
viewtopic.php?p=171999#p171999
but kinda moved away from just golf.
Arrest of Saudi for lying to FBI shows kingdom’s reach in US
... U.S. federal prosecutors have arrested the man behind the messages, 42-year-old Ibrahim Alhussayen, on charges of lying to federal officials about using the fake account to harass and threaten Saudi critics — mostly women — living in the U.S. and Canada....
A complaint unsealed last month in federal court in Brooklyn points to a wider investigation into online harassment campaigns targeting Saudi dissidents in the U.S. and their relatives — part of a trend of transnational repression that has alarmed American authorities in recent years as various autocratic governments seek to punish critics overseas.
Earlier this year, for instance, the Justice Department revealed a plot by operatives acting on behalf of the Chinese government to stalk, harass and surveil dissidents in the U.S.
Bastards.
The complaint comes as Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman continues to clamp down on opposition, both in the kingdom and abroad, while working to burnish an image as a liberal reformer. The Saudi government has maintained in the past that its critics incite violence, broadly defined, and pose a threat to the kingdom's security.
Nonetheless, President Joe Biden met — and shared a cordial fist-bump with — Prince Mohammed at a diplomatic summit last week in Saudi Arabia.
The scenes drew scathing criticism from fellow Democrats and rights groups after Biden had vowed to treat the kingdom like a “pariah" and deemed Prince Mohammed responsible for Khashoggi’s killing.
I agree.
... While some accuse Biden of abandoning his promise to put human rights at the heart of his foreign policy with his trip to the kingdom, the arrest of Alhussayen in New York underscores that federal officials are increasingly scrambling to prevent those rights abuses from occurring on U.S. soil.
Good.
The kingdom's campaign to silence criticism has played out in America for some time. In 2019, U.S. prosecutors alleged Saudi Arabia recruited two Twitter employees to spy on thousands of accounts including those of American citizens and Saudi dissidents.
Bastards.
... Alhussayen’s victims routinely checked their phones to discover new waves of vitriolic attacks. As women critical of the Saudi government, they said Alhussayen’s warnings were part of a powerful campaign unleashed by legions of social media trolls.
“MBS will wipe you off the face of the earth, you will see,” Alhussayen reportedly told al-Mayouf, the Saudi activist, referring to the crown prince by his initials....
“I do believe some of them are here, in the U.S.,” she said of online bullies who flood her and her American fiancé with death threats each day. “I’m afraid something might happen to me.”
She and her fiancé moved after pro-government accounts posted their home address on Twitter....
“The Saudis are paying big money to fix their image and the way they see it, we’re ruining it for them,” Aljohani said. “I feel like there’s no place that’s safe.”
Assholes working for and on behalf of an asshole.
:angel4:
Feel free to CC us.
