Saudi Arabia probes Wikileaks embarrassing to Egyptian politicians

Saudi Arabia has said it is continuing to investigate what it has called an “electronic attack” against it, after Wikileaks published thousands of diplomatic cables from the Gulf kingdom, including several documents concerning its relations with Egypt since 2011.

The Saudi foreign ministry has said that an investigation was underway into the “electronic attack” that targeted it, and has avoided categorically denying the authenticity of the leaked files by saying that “many” of them were “clearly fabricated.”

In a statement issued late on Saturday, the Saudi ministry added that the world-standard technology that the ministry uses has protected millions of other “highly protected” files.

Wikileaks on Friday published over 60,000 Saudi diplomatic files and said on its website that it would soon release half a million more, including confidential reports from powerful state bodies as well as email communications between the kingdom’s foreign ministry and other countries.

Many of the letters between diplomats and embassy emails so far released concerned Egypt, including one damning of a Muslim Brotherhood leader and others which may cause embarrasment to non-Islamist politicians.

Even though there was no immediate way to independently verify the authenticity of the released documents, they were seen by many observers in Egypt as revealing of relations between the two biggest Arab countries since the ouster of autocrat Hosni Mubarak in 2011

One of the files quoted an unnamed Egyptian official as saying that one of the top leaders of the once-ruling Muslim Brotherhood, Khayrat El-Shater, accepted a proposed deal to release ousted president Hosni Mubarak in return for receiving a Gulf “ransom” amounting to $10 billion.

The file, whose correspondent’s name was not clear, showed a handwritten note saying the “ransom” was not a “good idea”, and that the case might be resolved if  the former strongman spent two years in jail.

The document, apparently dated to before June 2012, when Mubarak — once a key ally of Saudi Arabia — was sentenced to life over the killing of anti-government protesters during the 2011 uprising that forced him out.

Its green letterhead reads “Kingdom of Saudi Arabia”, “Ministry of Foreign Affairs”.

Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states have showered Egypt with billions of dollars since the 2013 ouster of the Brotherhood’s Morsi, emerging as the strongest backers of Egypt’s new authorities.

The world’s biggest oil exporter considers the Brotherhood a threat to its dynastic system of rule. Just like Egypt and UAE, the kingdom has listed the group a “terrorist organisation”.

According to another similar leaked letter, an Egyptian official proposed that the kingdom and other Gulf countries spearhead an initiative to pay the sums Mubarak would be fined and offer to host him in their countries due to his failing health — a move that, according to the anonymous official, would spare the military junta that temporarily ruled Egypt after Mubarak’s overthrow embarrassment in case of a release.

Another document signed by foreign minister Saud Al-Faisal showed that Mostafa Bakry, a well-known journalist and commentator with close ties to the military, requested funds from the oil-rich monarchy to launch a political party, a daily paper, and a satellite TV channel to “confront Shias and back the kingdom’s positions.”

The leak created a buzz on social media, but was slammed by Bakry as “lies and false papers” in comments to Al-Watan newspaper.

Another file was about two reports on the second anniversary of the 2011 uprising and ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, provided by writer and former Egyptian politician Mostafa El-Fikky to the Saudi embassy in Cairo.

El-Fikky, in response, defended the move saying he used to periodically email his columns to the embassy.

Wikileaks did not say how it obtained the documents, although in its statement the website referred to a recent electronic attack on Riyadh’s computer networks by a group calling itself the Yemen Cyber Arm.

source:Ahram online