US response to meddling in affairs depends on whether it was by ally or adversary: US media

The United States’ response to meddling in America's affairs depends on whether the blamed nation is an ally or adversary, according to US media.

According to an article published on Responsible Statecraft on Monday, the US Department of Justice issued multiple indictments and won a conviction related to “the foreign influence campaigns of America’s adversaries”, including China and Russia, in the past two weeks.

The article referred to the conviction of former Fugees rapper, Prakazrel “Pras” Michel, who was found guilty on Wednesday of attempting to extradite a Chinese government critic.

It noted that “two Chinese operatives” were detained for allegedly acting as agents of the Chinese government and running a covert police outpost in New York City on April 17. On the same day, 40 Chinese officials were charged with “running a transnational repression scheme targeting Chinese dissidents” in America.

Just a day later, the article said, four US nationals and three Russian intelligence officers were accused of conducting “an illicit foreign influence operation” in the US since 2015 that sought to “divide Americans and interfere in elections in the United States.”

On the other side of the ledger, the article said, illicit influence operations orchestrated by “America’s authoritarian ‘friends’, including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the UAE”, have faced “little punishment” for meddling in the US.

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The US allies are “meddling in America with near impunity. In some cases, former members of Congress and high-ranking members of the military are even working for them,” the article said.

“While the Pentagon was granting these high-ranking officials approval to work with the UAE, the Emiratis were hard at work repeatedly meddling in American politics and elections.”

UAE meddling in America “has risen to the level of a national security challenge”, the article said, referring to a report compiled by the National Intelligence Council and shared with members of Congress last fall that detailed the UAE’s “myriad” efforts to “meddle in US politics and steer US foreign policy in its favor”.

The article also referred to repeated attempts by the Saudi regime to “interfere in US elections, hiring agents at Twitter to spy on dissidents.”

It said, the Saudi embassy is complicit in helping Saudi nationals accused of crimes in America flee the country.

The article further said the Saudi and Egyptian regimes have also been meddling in America, and “going to extraordinary lengths to suppress dissidents on US soil.

Emphasizing its point, the article said the non-profit Freedom Initiative released a report on April 17, the same day the mainstream media was busy focusing on revelations of China’s alleged influence operations in America, documenting “appalling” Saudi and Egyptian transnational repression efforts in the US, “including threats of physical harm, surveilling activists and communities, hacking into phones of dissidents, and online harassment,” as well as dissidents’ family members being taken hostage in the two Arab countries.

According to the article, the US is not only turning a blind eye to the misdeeds committed by the UAE, Saudi, and Egypt, they have also been “rewarded with weapons of war.”

The three are some of the “very top recipients” of US foreign military sales.

“All told, the tools different foreign governments use to meddle in America are similar, but the US responses to them are not.”

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