An Erratic and Dangerous State: Saudi Arabia, Propaganda and Control
Wikileaks Cables
“The Saudi Cables lift the lid on an increasingly erratic and secretive dictatorship that has not only celebrated its 100thbeheading this year but which has also become a menace to its neighbours and itself.” Julian Assange, Press statement, Jun 19, 2015
It is fitting that a state such as Saudi Arabia, deeply influential and ultimately destabilising, should be the subject of the latest WikiLeaks exploits. The transparency site is currently in the process of releasing upwards of 500,000 cables, the first batch of which were released on Friday. At this writing, some 61,000 are available.The usual questions have been asked. How were the documents obtained to begin with?
A floated suggestion is that they were gathered from a cyber attack on the Saudi Foreign Ministry initiated by the Yemen Cyber Army. (Yemen has a genuine gripe here, being the subject of Saudi military attack and blockade.)
