*US had overheard UAE officials discussing the hack plan on May 23
*American officials confirm Washington Post report that someone working for the UAE government hacked into Qatari news sites and social media on May 24
*US authorities see the UAE as ultimately responsible for the cyber attack
*NBC News finds Qatar was the target of another fake story regarding the ransom paid to terrorists in April to secure the release of Qatari nationals


"Fake news" designed to harm Qatar's relations with the US played a major role in the diplomatic split between the Gulf nation and its neighbours, say both US officials and the Qatari government, according to an NBC News report.
A US intelligence official said that the quotes attributed to His Highness the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani were phoney and part of a campaign to hurt Qatar. Several officials confirmed the report in the Washington Post that someone working for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) government hacked into Qatari news sites and social media on May 24 to plant the false comments attributed to His Highness the Emir.
The intelligence official said the operatives who carried out the hack may have been private contractors, but US authorities see the UAE as ultimately responsible.
The Post reported that the US had overheard UAE officials discussing the plan on May 23. The next day, His Highness the Emir's purported remarks spread via social media after the hacking of Qatar News Agency's website, leading the UAE and three other countries to break relations with Qatar, and then block air, truck and ship traffic to the country. The siege has now been in place for more than a month.
NBC News quoted Qatari officials as saying that the Qatari government sent notices to all regional broadcasters and media outlets within 45 minutes saying that the news agency's site had been hacked. "These corrections were promptly acknowledged everywhere except the UAE and Saudi Arabia, where media outlets continued to cite the fake quotes."
"The fake quotes and tweets were then used as a pretext for the launching of an economic, political and social blockade of Qatar on June 5, and the contents of the fabricated quotes provided the source material for the 13 'non-negotiable' demands that were lodged against Qatar on June 23."
The Qatari officials also said that prior to the hack, Qatar had received little coverage in the US. "That changed in late April when a series of 13 anti-Qatar op-eds appeared over a six-week period in a variety of mainstream and online print publications."
Separately, NBC News has found, Qatar was the target of another fake news story a week after the May hack. In this case, there were reports that the Qatari government had paid a ransom, perhaps as much as $1bn, to al Qaeda-linked terrorists and an Iranian-linked militia in April to gain the release of a group of royals who had been kidnapped on a hunting trip to southern Iraq in late 2015.
The purported ransom, according to regional news media, was highlighted as another example of how Qatar was supporting and financing terrorism. The media cited "militant groups" and "government officials in the region" as sources for the ransom tale. At least one major international publication picked up the story.
According to three US intelligence officials, the ransom story is simply not true. In the words of one, "Hardly anything about the Qatari (ransom) story in the news media is correct."
Two other US officials told NBC News that they would "steer you away" from the idea that Al Qaeda received any money. Instead, the ransom was given to the Iraqi government, which had secured the captives' release. The Iraqis kept the money instead of giving it to the kidnappers, according to one of the officials.
None of the three officials were willing to portray the fake ransom story as the work of the UAE or any of the other countries besieging Qatar, but didn't dispute it could be part of a broader effort to discredit the country. 
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