Gay dating sites being used to entrap men across Middle East

[Fearless]

The (Electronic Frontier Foundation) states that cases of entrapment have been reported in several countries where homosexuality is illegal, and that police are frequently using apps to convince men to meet them, before arresting them.

A 30-year-old man was arrested in Saudi Arabia in 2012, after asking men out for dates over Facebook.

The group wrote: “In countries where homosexuality remains taboo or punishable by law, it makes sense for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans*, and other queer-identifying people to explore their sexual identity online. But the Internet is increasingly becoming a risky place for exploration.

“More and more governments in the region are using digital surveillance to entrap, arrest, detain, and harass individuals who visit LGBTQ websites or chat rooms, or who use social media to protest homophobic laws and social stigmas.

http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2014/04/27/eff-gay-dating-sites-being-used-to-entrap-men-across-middle-east/

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[Jesus Malverde]

1. It's also likely being used for blackmail.

Part of the Abu ghraib scandal photos document soldiers putting men in compromising positions. They would then be subject to blackmail that the photos would be sent to their family and friends if they failed to cooperate.





In these pictures, naked handcuffed detainees are being manipulated into position while an intelligence officer takes photos.

The Bush administration quickly portrayed the leaked photos as aberrations resulting from a handful of deviant National Guard members. However, a government consultant informed Hersh that the Abu Ghraib photos were specifically intended to be used to blackmail the prisoners abused, “to create an army of informants, people you could insert back in the population.” Hersh noted that “the notion that Arabs are particularly vulnerable to sexual humiliation became a talking point among pro-war Washington conservatives in the months before the March, 2003, invasion of Iraq.”

http://fff.org/explore-freedom/article/abu-ghraib-politically-defused-part-1/

There is little doubt that some – though by no means all – gay Palestinians are forced by their precarious existence to work for Israeli intelligence in exchange for money or administrative favours such as the right of residence; both Eid and Gonen said they knew of several. Others, meanwhile, are coerced into undercover work for the Palestinian authorities; one 19-year-old runaway stated in an interview with Israeli television that he had been pressurized by the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade to become a suicide bomber in order to ‘purge his moral guilt’, though he had refused (‘Palestinian Gay Runaways’, Reuters, 17 September 2003).

Estimates of the number of gay Palestinians who have quietly – and usually illegally – taken refuge in Israel range from 300 to 600. Although Israel is a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention and recognizes same-sex partnerships for immigration purposes, it does not welcome gay Palestinians – mainly because of security fears. This often leaves them trapped in an administrative no-man’s-land with little hope of finding a proper job and constantly at risk of being arrested and deported. Some try to disguise themselves by wearing fake military dog-tags and even Star of David medallions.

‘The Palestinians say if you are gay, you must be a collaborator, while the Israelis treat you as a security threat,’ Gonen told a news programme (‘Palestinian Gays Flee to Israel’, BBC, 22 October 2003). But even if they are neither collaborators nor a security threat, they can easily become targets for exploitation by Israeli men. ‘They work as prostitutes, selling their bodies unwillingly because they have to survive,’ Gonen said:

Sometimes the Israeli secret police try to recruit them, sometimes the Palestinian police try to recruit them. In the end they find themselves falling between all chairs. Nobody wants to help them, everybody wants to use them.

http://www.jewishquarterly.org/issuearchive/articled87d.html?articleid=218

[Behind the Aegis]

6. Perhaps the will just execute them like they do in Iran and other nations.

[Jesus Malverde]

7. I think the goal is as Hersh puts it.

“to create an army of informants, people you could insert back in the population."

Dead informants are useless to those in power. Most of these governments rule not out of moral directive but one of power and fear. They cynically use religion to achieve their goals.

[Behind the Aegis]

8. Unless they serve no real purpose...

...then they can execute them or let their families do it.

[Behind the Aegis]

2. Did they take a clue from Russia?!

It is a nasty shame this is happening. I hope it doesn't lead to something much worse.

[JoeyT]

3. Probably more likely Russia took a clue from them.

Since they've been doing it longer.

Or even more likely it's kinda like convergent evolution: Two groups of assholes, separated by huge distances arrived at very similar tactics. We just avoid criticizing Saudi Arabia no matter what they do. It's been at worse for a while now there, they're just updating their dragnets to modern technology.

[Jesus Malverde]

4. Sexual blackmail in it's various forms is famously known as a honey trap...

Oh, they're real. Honey traps, also called "honey pots," have been a favorite spying tactic as long as sex and espionage have existed—in other words, forever. Perhaps the earliest honey trap on record was the betrayal of Samson by Delilah, who revealed Samson's weakness (his hair) to the Philistines in exchange for 1,100 pieces of silver, as described in the Book of Judges. The practice continued into the 20th century and became a staple of Cold War spy craft. Governments around the world set up honey traps to this day, but it's an especially common practice in Russia and China. The Central Intelligence Agency doesn't comment on whether its agents use their sexuality to obtain information, but current and former intelligence officials say it does happen occasionally.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2010/12/the_spy_who_said_she_loved_me.html

[Behind the Aegis]

5. Chicken and egg, possibly.

I haven't heard of SA (or others) doing this, at least not at this level. I know they, and other Arab countries have been cracking down on GLBT, especially gay men with raids and the such, similar to those in the 50's and 60's here in the US. Just recently, Lebanon made progress and has refused to continue prosecuting gay cases.