Wednesday, April 12, 2017

12-Apr-17: Qatar is "behind state sponsorship of terrorism". So what?

Current Emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani [Image Source]
Here's an excerpt from a sharp and uncommonly plain-spoken take-down of Qatar and its brazen self-promotion that was published yesterday in the Toronto Star.

It's penned by Mohamed Fahmy whose Wikipedia page describes him as an Egyptian-born, award-winning Canadian journalist, war correspondent and author who has worked extensively in the Middle East and North Africa for CNN, BBC and Al Jazeera English.

Fahmy became head of Al Jazeera English's International Bureau in Egypt in September 2013 and was arrested and imprisoned soon afterwards by the Egyptian authorities on terrorism charges. Arising from this, he is now said to be suing Al Jazeera which, it ought to be pointed out, is "owned by the Qatari state".

So a couple of paragraphs from "Qatar behind state-sponsorship of terrorism", [Toronto Star, April 11, 2017]
It may be time to include the little oil-rich Arab state of Qatar on the top of the [state sponsors of terror] list since it continues to house and protect wanted financiers of Al Qaeda, Daesh, Al Nusra Front, Taliban, Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood and other groups designated as terrorists by many countries and the United Nations... At one point in 2013 Qatar opened an office for Taliban... Right then and there the Al Thani ruling family of Qatar gave legitimacy to murderers who committed horrific massacres in Afghanistan for decades, staged targeted killings and kidnappings of diplomats and civilians... [T]he Qatari leadership maintains policies of duplicity, using an unprecedented flaunting of cash to keep the international community from taking a tougher stance against it. You will not see the United Kingdom, for example, taking a punitive position against Qatar. Why? The Telegraph newspaper summed it up recently: “Qatari investors own more property in the capital than the Mayor of London’s office and three times more than the Queen.”
“You have to ask, who is arming, who is financing ISIS troops?,” German Development minister Gerd Muller ‎asked during an interview with the German public broadcaster. “The keyword there is Qatar — and how ‎do we deal with these people and states politically?” [More]
Fahmy goes on to point out that
  • The Al Thani clan, who own the family business called Qatar (that's our description, not his) are known for generously donating $100 million to the victims of Hurricane Katrina one day, and then giving $31 million to pay Hamas terrorist salaries the next. They also provide safe haven - have done for years - for the senior leadership team of the Hamas terror group. Note how a tremendous proportion of the senior public officials in Qatar share the same surname: Al Thani. 
  • Hillary Clinton, quoted on a leaked Podesta email last year, said Qatar finances the Islamist savages of ISIS. He then notes laconically how Qatar donated $1 million to the Clinton Foundation. 
  • Hamza, the youngest son of Osama bin Laden and a designated terrorist in his own right whom the United States is pursuing, currently lives safe, sound and unmolested in Qatar.
Several million dollars worth of illegally-parked super-luxury cars are
clamped by British traffic wardens outside Harrods (also owned by
the Qataris) in London [Image Source] [Video]
Five years from now, Qatar is set to host the FIFA Soccer World Cup. That decision has been under a cloud for years, having come with a laundry list of allegations focusing principally (but not only) on bribery and corruption. 

 Nonetheless, with Qatar reliably reported [here, here, here and in many other places] to be spending upwards of two hundred billion dollars to ensure it achieves its goals, the show evidently will go on.

Still, almost everything we read about Qatar - by far the highest per capita income in the world according to a February 2017 ranking - and the things its owners do convinces us that Qatar's goals ought to be getting more attention than they currently do.

Here's some additional background on Qatar from some of our previous posts:

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