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Friday, April 12, 2013

RT report: Tiny emirate, huge political ambitions: Qatari investment booms

You can read a news report, including a video & an interview with me, on Qatar's political agenda, over at RT.com
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6 comments:

Douglas said...

Qatar gets very little coverage in American media. I don't know if that is by accident or by design.

For better or for worse, America and Qatar are acting as allies, supporting the Morsi regime in Egypt, and the rebel coalition in Syria.

I hold no illusion that Qatar and America share values.

5:07 PM
Neil Clark said...

Hi Douglas, good to hear from you. Rise of Qatar and its increasing influence one of the biggest stories in IR in past decade, yet as you say, v.little coverage of it.

6:22 PM
Undergroundman said...

The rise of Qatar is founded upon it's oil wealth that it's now using to fund Syrian Sunni insurgents. Despite Cameron's declaration that he does not think military intervention is possib'e, hisuseless dimploacy has failed to reign in Qatar's involvement in inflaming the Syrian Civil War.

The reason for that is clear: British foreign policy is based on allowing proxy forces to overthrow Assad in a way that endangers the lives of Allwite Shia, Druze and Christian communities.

Another reason is that Britain, due to the long term impact of Thatcher's decimation of Britain's manufacturing, made London and The City, as well as the property boom, the engine of economic growth.

Capital from Qatar is responsible for the grotesque 'Shard" now completed in London, a building of atrocious vulgarity that produces an alienating effect upon Londoners. They own 20% of Barclay's Bank.

As Mark Almond has commented "Britain used to “protect” the Persian Gulf state. Now the Emir helps our economy out in return for backing his foreign policy.... Last year their special forces blazed a trail for democracy in Libya and they are helping rebels in Syria.

But back home, the micro-state’s security services take a close interest in any sign of dissent. Six out of seven people are Third World migrant workers — many of them women — with no real rights".

This foreign policy of tacitly suporting such a gimcrack yet rich regime ( simply because the al Thani clan sat on oil, shames Britain as such as potentially destabilises the Aran world.

Britain urgently needs to reduce its overdependence upon oil in corrupt and volatile land. The promotion of public transport and the rejection of Thatcher's "Great Car economy" are part of that solution.





2:34 PM
jack said...

@Douglas

Like Saudi Arabia another western backed Islamic dictatorship Qatar is one of the 3 leading backers of Islamic terrorism on behalf of western intelligence to support Islamic terrorism in the Balkans and Eurasia that is especially active in supporting jihadists in Russia through charity fronts like Qatar Charitable Society that funded Basayev and Khattabs invasion and massacre of Dagestan in 99 that was the spark and planned provocation for the 2nd Chechen war.

"Founded in 1991, the Qatar Charitable Society (or QCS) is a Qatari-based charity that now has offices throughout the world. Outside of its headquarters in Qatar, QCS currently has offices in Albania, Baku, Bangladesh, Bosnia, Dahgestan, Palestine, Pakistan, and Sudan. According to its website, QCS maintains the following mission:

QCS aims to offer relief and help to orphans, victims of war and disasters
by supporting them financially, socially and culturally up to the age of 18.
QCS aids widows to meet living expenses particularly those who lost all
relatives and friends.

QCS website is managed by Hashem Hussain. Hashem Hussain is a member of the Qatari Governments Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Agriculture and is both the administrative and billing contact for QCS website. In August 2001, Qatari Ambassador Ali bin Muhammad al-Usayri conveyed Qatars commitment to the rehabilitation of Sudan. Al-Usayri announced that the Qatari Government will contribute to Sudan through the efforts of the QCS.

12:54 PM
jack said...

In 1999, the Russian Interior Minister stated that QCS funneled money from
Qatar to radical Chechen al Qaeda groups. In response to this accusation, the Qatari Foreign Minister Hamad bin Jasim bin Jar al-Thani did not deny that Qatar is funding al Qaeda terrorists in Chechnia during a November 20, 1999, al-Jazeera television interview:

Q. How do you answer these accusations?
A. The second issue, that of aid, I cannot says there is no aid
Q. Why this aid?
A. First of all, we as a government cannot control the aid going abroad, some of which may go for humanitarian goals, and some may start as humanitarian but end up in another way. However, there is no monitoring because people are sympathizing with the Chechen people

In this interview with al-Jazeera, the Qatari foreign minister also betrayed his underlying sympathy in favor of Chechen terrorists:

A. We as a government may be able to control our sympathy although in the end we are only human beings and Muslims. What we see in Chechnya is painful for us as Qatari, Arab, or Muslim citizens.
Therefore we cannot restrain the people's feelings in this regard

The Qatar Charitable Societys relationship with al Qaeda is very intimate. From the sharing of senior officers to the funding of al Qaeda attacks, QCS role has clearly been to serve Osama bin Laden and further his international terrorist aims.

Qatar Charitable Society financially supports al Qaeda. The QCS financial support for al Qaeda was demonstrated during the trial of al Qaeda operatives involved in the 1998 United States Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. In February 2001, the United States Governments lead witness and former al Qaeda member, Jamal Ahmed Mohamed al- Fadl, testified on QCS relationship with al Qaeda. al-Fadl stated that in 1993 he was both a QCS employee and an al Qaeda member. He also stated that QCS leader at that time, Dr.Abdullah Mohamed Yusef, was a member of al Qaeda as well, and a member of the Sudanese political group the National Islamic Front (or NIF) that harbored Osama bin Laden in the early 1990s. When al-Fadl testified on his role with the QCS, he described Dr. Yusefs support of al Qaeda through the QCS:

A. The guy, he runs a group, he is one of our membership, one of the al Qaeda group membership, and also he is Islamic National Front membership, and he was in Afghanistan. So he helped our people for the travel, documents, and also if some money come from the Gulf area to the organization, he gives the group some money from that
money.
Q. So the person that you knew in Afghanistan who was part of your group and part of the Islamic National Front, what was his name?
A. Dr. Abdullah Mohamed Yusef.

That two individuals, Al-Fadl and Dr. Yusef, were both members of al Qaeda and QCS indicates a high-level of coordination between the charity and the terrorist group. The complicity of QCS with al Qaedas terrorist acts is noted in Dr. Yusefs funding of an al Qaeda attack through the QCS. As al-Fadls testimony states:

Q. What did you do with him regard to the Qatar charitable organization?
A. He helped the jihad Eritrea group, and also he give $20,000 for one of the attack (sic) outside of Sudan.

Al-Fadl has also stated that QCS aided, abetted and materially supported al Qaeda through non-financial means. In his second day of testimony, Al-Fadl discussed a meeting of al Qaeda members in 1994 that took place in QCS offices:

Q. When was the second meeting?
A. Its during 94.
Q. Where was it?
A. In Jam Qatar Heira. It's Qatar organization.
Q. Is that the same organization you described yesterday or a different
one?
A. Yes, same one.
Q. Is that the Qatar Charitable Organization?
A. Yes.

QCS history and pattern of conduct is that of furthering the spread of Islamic international terrorism wherever possible. This underlying goal of the QCS is revealed through its financing of Wahhabi terrorists in the Caucasus region."

12:56 PM
jack said...

"In April, 2002, the Azerbaijan Government annulled the registration of the QCS.
This action was taken because, as stated by the Azerbaijani Justice Ministry, QCS engaged in activities that contradict Azerbaijans national interests. The Justice Ministry went on to say that QCS was targeted because it performed, damaging activities that violate our national interests, as well as cooperated with terrorist structures and conducted propaganda inciting radical sectarianism, religious hatred and fanaticism.

In 1999, a group of Wahhabi militiamen invaded and took control of three districts of Dagestan, a country neighboring Chechnya. Dagestani police have identified that, the day before the attack, $200,000 were transferred into QCS account with the Dagestan Commercial Bank. Following the invasion, these funds were distributed to the terrorists. After this event, Dagestani police have been able to identify at least an additional $1,000,000 that QCS transferred to aid the attack against Russia. During this investigation, Dagestani police have determined that there were no records of the funds flowing into and out of the QCS for a number of years.

The Government of Russias International sponsors of Chechen terrorist list, from 1991-2000, is a comprehensive list of organizations that provided aid or support for terrorist organizations in Chechnya. The Qatar Charitable Society was included on this list.

Ahmed Ali al-Bugainain and Dr. Abdullah Mohamed Yusef are aiders, abettors, agents, co-conspirators and material supporters of Qatar Charitable Society, al Qaeda, and international terrorism."


Burnett, et al. v. Al-Barakat, et al. p.369 paragrapgh 600

http://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/case_docs/1239.pdf

12:56 PM

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