Following Al Qaeda’s September 11, 2001 attack against the United States, Qatar’s state-owned Al Jazeera was introduced to the U.S. public as the channel that received the tape where Osama Bin Laden claimed responsibility for the worst terrorist attack on American soil in U.S. history.
After a spike in interest for the then-mysterious television channel, which at the time only spoke a foreign language that not many Americans had ever heard in person, The New York Times responded by sending a journalist to Qatar, who would travel to Doha to visit the Al Jazeera Arabic headquarters.
The Qatari ruling family owns Al Jazeera Media Network, which has now infiltrated the United States after it recently secured the purchase of Al Gore’s failed Current TV. The Emirs’ Al Jazeera America now has 12 bureaus installed within the United States, including Washington, D.C., and its headquarters in New York City.
NYT reporter Fouad Ajami said of his findings at the Doha AJA studio: “The channel’s graphics assign him [OBL] a lead role: There is bin Laden seated on a mat, his submachine gun on his lap; there is bin Laden on horseback in Afghanistan, the brave knight of the Arab world. A huge, glamorous poster of bin Laden’s silhouette hangs in the background of the main studio set.”
Fast-forward to present day, and figures from all continents and political stripes still point to Qatar’s role in propagating and abetting terror, not just through its media networks but through state-sponsored actions. The small but powerful oil-rich nation-state of Qatar has been in the news lately for all the wrong reasons.
Some international leaders have implicated Qatari officials–accusing them of financing the Islamic State (IS) terror group that is rampaging through Syria and Iraq and continuing to expand its self-proclaimed Sunni caliphate.
In late August, German aid development minister Gerd Mueller openly commented on IS’s funding: “Who is financing these troops? Hint: Qatar,” he said, after being forced to walk back the comments due to their lack of political correctness.
Even former Israeli President Shimon Peres–a 91-year-old left-wing dove–took notice of the Qataris, recently warning that they were becoming “the world’s largest funder of terror.”
In June, The Long War Journal’s Thomas Joscelyn said in an exclusive interview with Breitbart News:
Look no further than a series of official documents from the Obama administration about Qatar, and you will see that it is a major financial hub, fundraising for jihadist groups including the Taliban, al-Qaeda, and others. In April, in the State Department’s country reports on terrorism, they specifically worried about Qatar’s relationship with Islamist groups. They worried Qatar had enabled a very permissive environment for fundraising for jihadist groups. It’s obvious why the Taliban set up its political office in Doha and why the Taliban wanted these five to send off to Qatar. They know it’s a very permissive environment with Islamist sympathies.
Qatar is also unapologetically supportive of the Muslim Brotherhood, a global organization founded by a stout Hitler admirer that seeks the same endgame as Al Qaeda and the Islamic State: a worldwide Sunni caliphate.
Last week, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi said that Qatar has been unloading millions to create chaos in the Middle East. Sisi said: “Qatar, Turkey and the international organization of the Brotherhood are currently establishing many companies, newspapers, and websites. They allocated hundreds of millions of dollars to spread chaos among the Arab nation, destabilizing Egypt and destroying the Egyptians.”
But if we listen to the political left, the allegations that Qatar is funding the Islamic State and collaborating with the Muslim Brotherhood to overthrow governments are simply “myths.” According to a recent article released by the left-wing Brookings Institute, author William McCants frames Qatar as a victim, calling Doha “everyone’s favorite boogeyman… criticism of Qatar for funding Islamists should exclude the Islamic State.” However, nowhere does the article mention that Brookings has allowed for a steady cash stream from Qatar to flow into their coffers, estimated at the tune of 2.5 to 5 million dollars per year.
Qatar is also home to a political system that permits widespread domestic human rights abuses.
This week, two UK nationals have “disappeared” in Qatar after investigating its treatment of migrant workers. Female migrant workers in Qatar recently told reporters that they have been “slapped, pulled by the hair, poked in the eyes… kicked down the stairs,” and raped.
Evgenia Kondrakhina, chief executive of Norway-based NGO the Global Network for Rights and Development (GNRD), placed blame directly on the Qatari government for facilitating her employees’ disappearance. “GNRD holds the Qatari authorities responsible for their safety,” she said. “In the event that its employees are subject to any kind of physical or psychological harm, GNRD is prepared to take all necessary legal action.”
In May, Qatar tried to explain away a report that revealed almost 1,000 of its migrant workers had been killed on the job from 2012 to 2013. The government attributed most of its casualties to “sudden death.”
Meanwhile, the United States continues its confusingly close relationship with the ruthless Emirs.
The United States signed in July a massive $11 billion dollar arms deal with Qatar that included Apache Helicopters, Patriot missile defense systems, and Javelin MANPADS (Man-portable air-defense systems), capable of bringing down a commercial airliner.
In June, the United States negotiated an agreement with Qatar as an intermediary that freed five top Taliban commanders in exchange for Army deserter Bowe Bergdahl. When the Taliban officials touched down in Qatar, they were met with open arms and given heroes’ welcomes.
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