Saudi Arabia warns citizens against sharing "faked" documents after Wikileaks release

[Purveyor]

Source: Reuters

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia on Saturday urged its citizens not to distribute “documents that might be faked” in an apparent response to WikiLeaks' publication on Friday of more than 60,000 documents it says are secret Saudi diplomatic communications.

The statement, made by the Foreign Ministry on its Twitter account, did not directly deny the documents' authenticity.

But on Sunday, foreign ministry spokesperson Osama Naqli warned the country not to “allow enemies of the state to achieve their intentions in regards to exchanging or publishing any documents” and said “many of them had been fabricated in a very obvious manner”.

--clip
The released documents, which WikiLeaks said were embassy communications, emails between diplomats and reports from other state bodies, include discussions of Saudi Arabia's position regarding regional issues and efforts to influence media.

Read more: http://www.dawn.com/news/1189542/saudi-arabia-warns-citizens-against-sharing-faked-documents-after-wikileaks-release

[Purveyor]

1. Related: WikiLeaks Begins Releasing Leaked Saudi Arabia Cables

http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/30834-wikileaks-begins-releasing-leaked-saudi-arabia-cables

A press release on WikiLeaks asserted that the 61,205 documents and cables leaked Friday would be the first publication of many for “The Saudi Cables.” The group, led by Julian Assange, says it will release over half a million documents in batches over the upcoming weeks.

“The Saudi Cables lift the lid on a increasingly erratic and secretive dictatorship that has not only celebrated its 100th beheading this year, but which has also become a menace to its neighbours and itself,” said Assange in the press release.

WikiLeaks announced that internal reports from Saudi government organizations and communications between Saudi embassies across the globe will be included in the documents. The press release states the Saudi Cables “provide key insights into the Kingdom’s operations and how it has managed its alliances and consolidated its position as a regional Middle East superpower, including through bribing and co-opting key individuals and institutions.”

The group did not attribute the documents to a source directly. The press release did note that the Saudi Foreign Ministry acknowledged a computer network breach in May, and a group called the Yemeni Cyber Army afterward began releasing “sample” classified material to various websites.

[JDPriestly]

2. Is the Saudi government suggesting that some very creative people wrote 60,000 phony

diplomatic cables.

Anyone who wanted to do that much creative writing could, probably, simply at random, statistically speaking turn out a best seller and make some money.

What an absurd warning. No person or group of people on this planet would compose 60,000 fraudulent diplomatic cables. How boring.

And for no pay? Absurd.

We on DU do a lot of silly writing that brings us no benefit other than hopefully political change. But that is at least some hope of improvement in the world.

Turning out 60,000 phony documents? Never.

Saudi Arabia must be very worried about how embarrassing these documents will be.

The cyber-century is not turning out as the century's dictators hoped.

Very interesting. .

When I see this, I think there may be reason to hope for a better world.

Cheaters cheated.

Deceivers deceived.

A tiny bit of justice.

[Wilms]

3. There are references to someone obtaining "yellow cake"?

That could start a war.

[jtuck004]

4. These idiot Saudis related to the Bush family? They seem just as inept and crooked. n/t

[nc4bo]

5. If they're fake, why so much damage control?

All that does is make people even more curious.

I hope the documents can get translated by someone.

[hobbit709]

6. Exactly.

[Diclotican]

7. Purveyor

Purveyor

Things is starting to go home to roost, as americans would say it - Good - Saudi-Arabians need the truth, even as umpleasent it is for the saudi-arabian government...

Diclotican

[OnyxCollie]

8. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. nt

[geek tragedy]

9. I'm guessing a lot of dealings with

ISIS and/or Israel.

[Enthusiast]

10. Damage control.

[Helen Borg]

11. Yeah sure, all fake...