{"id":15973,"date":"2016-01-04T20:49:16","date_gmt":"2016-01-05T01:49:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=15973"},"modified":"2016-01-04T20:49:52","modified_gmt":"2016-01-05T01:49:52","slug":"after-executing-regime-critic-saudi-arabia-fires-up-american-pr-machine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=15973","title":{"rendered":"After Executing Regime Critic, Saudi Arabia Fires Up American PR Machine"},"content":{"rendered":"
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After Executing Regime Critic, Saudi Arabia Fires Up American PR Machine<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Saudi Arabia\u2019s well-funded public relations apparatus moved quickly after Saturday\u2019s explosive execution of Shiite political dissident Nimr al-Nimr to shape how the news is covered\u00a0in the United States.<\/p>\n

The execution\u00a0led protestors in Shiite-run Iran to\u00a0set fire<\/a>\u00a0to the Saudi Embassy in Tehran, precipitating a major diplomatic crisis between the two major powers already fighting proxy wars across the Middle East.<\/p>\n

The Saudi side of the story is getting a particularly effective boost in the American media through pundits who are quoted justifying the execution, in many cases without mention of their funding or close affiliation with the Saudi Arabian government.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, social media accounts affiliated with Saudi Arabia\u2019s American lobbyists\u00a0have pushed English-language infographics, tweets, and online videos to promote a narrative that reflects the interests of\u00a0the Saudi regime.<\/p>\n

A\u00a0Politico<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>article<\/a>\u00a0about the rising tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran by Nahal Toosi, for instance, quoted only three sources: the State Department, which provided a muted response to the executions; the Saudi government; and Fahad Nazer, identified as a \u201cpolitical analyst with JTG Inc.\u201d Nazer defended the executions, saying that they served as a \u201cmessage \u2026 aimed at Saudi Arabia\u2019s own militants regardless of their sect.\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u00a0Politico<\/em>\u00a0did not reveal was that Nazer is himself a\u00a0former political analyst<\/a>\u00a0at the Saudi Embassy in Washington. He is currently a non-resident fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, a think tank formed last year\u00a0that discloses<\/a>\u00a0that it is fully funded by the Saudi Embassy and the United Arab Emirates.<\/p>\n

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After Executing Regime Critic, Saudi Arabia Fires Up American PR Machine Saudi Arabia\u2019s well-funded public relations apparatus moved quickly after Saturday\u2019s explosive execution of Shiite political dissident Nimr al-Nimr to shape how the news is covered\u00a0in the United States. The execution\u00a0led protestors in Shiite-run Iran to\u00a0set fire\u00a0to the Saudi Embassy in Tehran, precipitating a major […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[4418,441,522,11445,701,11410,1633,1634,1899,2428,865],"class_list":["post-15973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geopolitics","tag-arab-gulf-states","tag-iran","tag-middle-east","tag-nimr-al-nimr","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-saudi-embassy","tag-shia","tag-shiite","tag-sunni","tag-united-arab-emirates","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15973"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15973\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15975,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15973\/revisions\/15975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}