Former Twitter employees charged with spying for Saudi Arabia

[Leroy N. Soetoro]

https://thehill.com/policy/international/middle-east-north-africa/469332-
former-twitter-employees-charged-with-spying

The Justice Department has charged two former Twitter employees with
spying for Saudi Arabia, The Washington Post reports.

U.S. citizen Ahmad Abouammo on Tuesday was arrested for allegedly spying
on the accounts of three users on behalf of the kingdom.

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Ali Alzabarah, a Saudi citizen, was charged on Wednesday with accessing
the personal information of more than 6,000 Twitter accounts in 2015 on
behalf of Riyadh.

One of the accounts Alzabarah allegedly hacked belonged to Omar Abdulaziz,
a known critic of Saudi Arabia, who later became friends with Jamal
Khashoggi, The Washington Post columnist that was killed by the Saudi
government last year.

Ahmed Almutairi, another Saudi citizen, who allegedly acted as middleman
between Saudi officials and the two former employees, was also charged
with spying.

Alzabarah and Almutairi are both believed to be in Saudi Arabia.

The Post reports that this is the first time that federal prosecutors have
publicly accused Saudi Arabia of spying in the U.S.

“We will not allow U.S. companies or U.S. technology to become tools of
foreign repression in violation of U.S. law," U.S. Attorney David L.
Anderson told the paper.

A spokesman for Twitter told the Post that the personal data that was
compromised is restricted "to a limited group of trained and vetted
employees."

A source confirmed to the paper that the Saudi official that the three men
were reporting to was Bader Al Asaker, whose charity – MiSK – is owned by
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom's de facto leader.

In 2015, when most of the alleged activity took place, Mohammed was
rapidly rising through the ranks of Saudi politics.

When Salman, Mohammed's father, became king in early 2015, he quickly
named Mohammed defense minister and then deputy crown prince shortly
thereafter.

It was during this time that Alzabarah was particularly active in viewing
Abdulaziz's data and contacting Asaker, according to Justice Department
officials.

Human Rights Watch researcher Adam Coogle told the Post that this case is
"incredibly significant.”

“Twitter is the de facto public space of Saudi Arabia — the place where
Saudi citizens come and discuss issues," Coogle explained.

"It’s a space in which the Saudi authorities have used various means to
curtail critical voices, including by seeking to unmask anonymous
accounts.”

Additionally, Brookings Institution senior fellow Tamara Cofman Wittes
told the paper that the case highlights "how early" pursuit of Mohammed
dissenters started as well as Saudi officials' "willingness to pursue
these people even when it involves the subversion of major American
corporations and the targeting of people in friendly countries."

Mohammed has been linked to Khashoggi's murder, which happened in the
Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October 2018.



--
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