UAE Hacking Allegation Roils Regional Crisis

More mixed signals have emerged on the rift between Qatar and some of its Arab neighbors, as a new report citing U.S. intelligence officials says the United Arab Emirates orchestrated the hacking of Qatari websites to post false information that spurred the region’s diplomatic crisis.

Qatar has said its state news and social media websites were hacked and that fabricated quotes attributed to Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad al-Thani, were posted that helped lead to the dispute and the diplomatic and economic blockade of the country by Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Egypt and others. The Washington Post reported on Sunday that “officials became aware last week that newly analyzed information gathered by U.S. intelligence agencies confirmed that on May 23, senior members of the UAE government discussed the plan and its implementation.”