Emirati Trend Center Resumes Activities Supported by Jewish Organizations
The UAE’s ‘Trend Center for Research and Consultation,’ known for its provocative activities in Europe, has resumed operations strongly in recent weeks with backing from Jewish organizations, following a scandal exposing its involvement in significant hacking and espionage activities.
According to Emirates Leaks and reliable sources, based in Abu Dhabi, the Trend Center has reengaged actively, focusing on organizing events in France and UNESCO, in collaboration with European research centers closely tied to intelligence services and Jewish groups.
Sources affirm the Center’s intensified cooperation over weeks with Jewish organizations to escalate campaigns of incitement and defamation against Muslim communities in Europe and political Islamic movements.”
According to the sources, the Trend Center’s provocative goals involve advocating and promoting public acceptance of relations with Israel, while also targeting resistance groups in Palestine, Lebanon, and Iraq.
Additionally, the sources noted that beyond serving as a tool for Emirati intelligence to incite, the Trend Center has become a platform utilized by Jewish organizations to criticize Muslim communities and rehabilitate Israel’s reputation.
The intensification of the Trend Center’s activities follows its media blackout subsequent to international websites and newspapers exposing its direct participation in an espionage and cyber-attack scandal financed by the UAE. The operations were conducted through a Swiss economic intelligence firm named “Alp Services,” which undertook specialized intelligence operations on behalf of its Emirati patrons.
At that time, an inquiry conducted by the French website “Media Part,” in collaboration with European media outlets, uncovered the actions of a UAE intelligence operative working alongside Swiss investigators, researchers, and prominent French journalists. Their activities involved cyber-attacks and espionage aimed at Islamic organizations.
The investigation disclosed the participation of French-Algerian journalist Othman Tazaghart in these intelligence operations, including his correspondence with Abu Dhabi agents via the email address 842943@protonmail.com.
Othman subsequently acknowledged using this email address as a contact for the Trends Center for Research and Consulting, with whom he has collaborated for financial compensation since 2019.
But the aforementioned journalist’s justifications raise questions. His name does not appear anywhere on the Trends Center’s web page, where “Trends” lists a long list of foreign experts who have cooperated with the Center.
There is Lorenzo Vidino, the Italian-American academic who was paid by Alpe Services, but there are also several Frenchmen, including the geopolitician Pascal Boniface, director of the Institute for International and Strategic Relations (IRIS).
Muhammad Abdullah Al-Ali runs the Trends Centre, a communications specialist close to the Emirati intelligence service and the Abu Dhabi authorities. He designed for them “an advanced system to monitor, evaluate and analyze all information related to the Emirates, which is published by local and international media.”
Based on its intelligence and provocative activities, it is not surprising that the Trends Center devotes a large portion of its publications to the Muslim Brotherhood.
The “Abu Dhabi Spies” investigation revealed the UAE’s reliance on the Swiss intelligence and influence company, Alp Services, which was founded by Mario Brero, who is known for his controversial methods.
The investigation showed that the UAE, through its inflammatory platforms, including the Trend Center, created a large number of false newspaper articles, and resorted to extensive hacking operations of Arab and Islamic figures with the help of former electronic spies.
Additionally, it is important to mention that Ahmed Al Hameli, an Emirati security official and a longstanding figure in Emirati provocations, previously led the Trends Center for Research and Consultation. He assumed this role following the exposure of his former organization, the Arab Federation for Human Rights, and its direct affiliation with Emirati intelligence.
