Read on Twitter
Really pleased to have been part of this investigation with the great @arawnsley. One of the major takeaways that I find fundamentally disturbing is the ease with which many global news outlets publish pieces without sufficient verification of contributors https://www.thedailybeast.com/right-wing-media-outlets-duped-by-a-middle-east-propaganda-campaign
2/ Interestingly, what got this whole thing going, I received a tip from a friend who had been approached by Raphael Badani ( a fake journalist), who sent this message concerning @TawakkolKarman 's appoint to the Facebook oversight committee. I asked my friend to play along
3/ So he did, & requested a Zoom meeting with Raphael. Raphael refused due to 'security' reasons (2nd red flag). Instead Raphael asked my friend to share an article in @asiatimesonline times written by Lin Nguyen. The article was about the dangers of @TawakkolKarman on FB board
4/ I read the Asia Times piece and it seemed extremely slanted. I already knew at the time a troll-led info operation against @TawakkolKarman was raging on Arabic Twitter. Another oddity was the Nguyen piece cited a report Cornerstone Global Ass., an outfit founded by @gnuseibeh
5/ The report was not very well known, and Cornerstone Global Associates are known to have UAE entities as their clients. Another of Nguyen's pieces singled-out Qatar-based news outlet @MiddleEastEye for criticism. This, in addition to Nguyen's generic bio and lack of a digital
6/ footprint seemed suspicious. It was also interesting that the Asia Times article was shared by @gnuseibeh at least twice. It was also shared by @davereaboi of Security Studies Group, who helped burnish the reputation of MBS following the Khashoggi Murder and advise WhiteHouse
7/ on the Qatar Crisis. Interestingly, Reaboi is mentioned in FARA filings from Southfive Strategies LLC - who did work for the Muslim World League through the Saudi American Public Relation Affairs Committee after Khashoggi Murder. Again, given the content and the aforementioned
8/ policy slant/cluster of sharers, it wouldn't surprise me if this was an information op done by some entity on behalf of, or directly for the UAE or possibly Saudi. That's an educated hypothesis. Anyway, that's how all this started out. The rest, as they say, is sophistry
