#WTH Is wrong with Qatar

So, so much

Al Jazeera journalist with Hamas at Kibbutz Nir Oz, October 7, 2023, and after being hit in an Israeli air strike, 2024.

Let’s take it as a given that running a country in the Middle East isn’t easy. Even the least democratic of the region’s leaders face serious challenges, many of them of their own making, some not. But even in this messy part of the world, the Qataris are special.

In a country of 2.6 million, Qatar’s capital Doha the place U.S. designated terrorist organizations like to call home. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and his cronies live a plush life in Doha. He is reputedly worth billions. Is all that dough under his mattress? Or in a bank in Qatar? I don’t know, but presumably the Treasury Department does.

Qatar has funneled billions to Hamas, an organization that currently holds 120 — and five live American — hostages in Gaza.

When the U.S. was playing the good guy in Afghanistan (before Biden’s disgraceful withdrawal), where were the exiled al Qaeda-loving emirs of the Taliban swanning about? Qatar.

When the U.S. needed someone to talk to ISIS during the long years of the ISIS caliphate, whom did we call? Qatar.

When Osama bin Laden needed a friendly place to deliver his diatribes against the West, whom did he call? Qatar.

When Barack Obama and Joe Biden wanted to pay off their friends in Iran for various good deeds — slowing their nuclear weapons program, releasing American hostages — who helped transfer the money? Qatar.

Now don’t get me wrong. The Qataris are happy to do dirty business with anyone, including the Israelis. When the Israeli government wanted to tighten pressure on Gaza, they turned to Doha to relieve the pressure with a few suitcases of cash for Hamas. And, of course, the Hamas hostage negotiations are ongoing in … Qatar.

For a quick survey of Qatar’s support for America’s enemies, here’s former Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al Jubeir describing the neighboring regime:

“The Qataris, since the mid 90's, have been sponsoring radicals. They have been inciting people. They have become a base for the leadership for the Muslim Brotherhood. And the Muslim Brotherhood, you have to keep in mind, is what begot us Takfir wal-Hijra, which begot us Al-Qaeda, which begot us Al-Nusra.”

“The Qataris allow their senior religious clerics to go on television and justify suicide bombings. That's not acceptable. The Qataris harbor and shelter terrorists. That's not acceptable. [Abd Al-Rahim] Al-Nashiri, the head of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in 2000 entered Saudi Arabia on a Qatari passport. We captured Al-Qaeda types coming into Saudi Arabia with Qatari passports. The Qataris know this, the Americans know this. The world knows this. The Qataris are funding dissidents in the Emirates, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait. In order to cause problems for those governments and to create instability.”

“The Qataris pay ransom to terrorist groups including 500 million dollars to Hizbullah Iraq. Fifty million dollars to [IRGC Qods Force Commander] Qassem Soleimani, according to text messages between the Qatari Ambassador in Iraq and the Foreign Minister of Iraq. Including, I don't know how much to Hizbullah in Lebanon. Is that acceptable? If we gave one dollar to Hizbullah in Iraq, we would be sued in a court down the street. 

“And so, the Qataris use their media platforms to spread hate. The Qataris send weapons to Al-Qaeda-affiliated militias in Libya. The Qatari Emir was conniving with [Muammar] Qaddafi on how to overthrow Saudi Arabia. The Qataris connected Qaddafi with a Saudi dissident in London, whom they fund, who connected the Libyans with a group in Mecca with the objective of assassinating the then-Crown Prince, later King of Saudi Arabia.“

That’s some tough stuff. Then again, the Qataris and their lobbyists might say that Saudi Arabia isn’t exactly the purest when it comes to supporting terror. Didn’t they once support al Qaeda? Didn’t the current Crown Prince dispose of an inconvenient critic? Well, yes. Then again, that’s not denying these accusations, merely besmirching — perhaps justly — their accusers.

Then there’s al Jazeera. The words nasty and scurrilous seem too gentle to describe the rabidly antisemitic, anti-Israel, pro-terrorist network. An al Jazeera “journalist” reportedly entered Israel with Hamas on October 7. (“Ismail Abu Omar serves as a deputy company commander in Hamas’s East Khan Younis Battalion, in addition to working for the Qatari-owned station, Lt. Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, revealed.”)

During the Iraq War, the Defense Department accused al Jazeera of encouraging al Qaeda by repeatedly airing decapitation videos. Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently gave an interview to an al Jazeera anchor who in 2014 labeled Hamas (a U.S. State Department-designated terrorist organization, ahem) “the honorable resistance that defends the honor of the ummah.” (Another Qatari-owned “newspaper” in the U.K. recently headlined a piece about Blinken, “War Criminal Blinken Wages Diplomatic Campaign to Eliminate Palestinian Resistance and Buy Time for Israeli War in Gaza.”)

But. But but but… Qatar’s advocates will say, the little Gulf nation is host to the U.S. al Udeid Air Base, home to Centcom’s forward HQ, and the USAF’s 379 Expeditionary Wing. Al Udeid was a critical lynchpin in anti-ISIS operations, and goshdarnit, the Qataris paid for it. Never mind that a former Centcom Commander says the base is badly located, and won’t be helpful in the event of a conflict with Iran. Never mind that other retired senior military leaders insist that staying at al Udeid isn’t worth the price of continuing Qatari support for terror.

Then there’s Qatar’s super-cosy relationship with Iran. Qatar’s cronies in the Washington lobbying world, at the Department of State, and — perhaps most importantly — at the White House, insist that the Qataris are only acting at America’s behest. Hamas? They wouldn’t be there if the U.S. hadn’t asked. Iranian money flowing through Qatari banks? Ditto. Indeed, a well-plugged-in D friend tells me that Qatar is Joe Biden’s favorite Middle Eastern partner. I’ll bet.

Finally, because I’ve just written about this, there’s Qatar’s nefarious influence on U.S. universities. Between the numerous “Qatar campuses” and the largely unreported cash gushing to U.S. institutions of higher ed, we shouldn’t be surprised to see Jew-hatred flourishing. And yes, there’s a direct correlation between that cash and antisemitism.

So what should Qatar do about the growing sense in Washington that it is a nexus of terror and anti-Americanism? Simple:

• Shut down al Jazeera

• Expel Hamas

• Expel all other terrorist groups and individuals

• Close the banking system to terror and to Iran

• Stop funding Hamas and other terror groups

• End its support for the Iranian government

• End its support for antisemitism in U.S. universities

What should be the consequences of failing to do so?

• Designation as a state sponsor of terrorism

• Designation as a primary money laundering concern

• Sanctions against Qatari individuals funding and supporting terror

• Shutting down al Jazeera in the United States

• Asset freezes of Qatari individuals (including in the government) implicated in support for terrorism

It’s way past time for the United States to get serious about this regime. And if the White House won’t, let’s hope that Congress will.