Tag Archives: Qatar

Qatar – Accusations Denied – Region Opaque

24 Sunday Aug 2014

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Last week, possibly after reading posts like this one on BackChannels — and as each BackChannels post suggests, there are many sources for aggregating data, Germany’s minister for development aid accused Qatar of aiding in the funding of Abu Bakr al-Baghdaddi’s Islamic State, albeit possibly without a shred of independent state-obtained (and held) evidence or intelligence.

This week: oh, what an embarrassment!

And that any should even think such a thing!  Perhaps somebody’s feelings have been hurt.

http://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2014/08/24/qatar-denies-funding-extremist-islamic-state-group – 8/24/2014.

And yet . . .

How may any one state or defense organization of states audit another except by accepting declarations up front — while operating agents, perhaps, and again, “behind the curtains”, the same so convenient to the making of private agreements best kept private?

While often referring to the Islamic Small Wars as “wars for detectives and poets” — for intelligence sleuths and language experts — I’ve noted the same also pit the despotic against the democratic and the mendacious against those with great integrity — and at the end of a human day, not an ISIS day, integrity secures trust where power merely secures a vacuous obedience.

Qater’s royalty may well have taken a position looking westward and in the direction of peaceful cultural polyphony, but Qatar, no different than any other state featuring great wealth, may have also its outlaw elements: “Reports show that Qatar most recently seized nearly 75 percent of narcotics that traffickers were trying to smuggle here from South America” (reference published 9/17/2013).

Good for Qatar as regards that interdiction, but it brings up the question of how much criminal activity benefiting the terrorist fronts of Islam(ism) passes through the state, and, being presumably innocent of so many charges, how is it so much unwanted focus has come to rest on its name?

This post started not with Doha’s refuting Minister Mueller’s remarks but with alternative press agitprop in the form of a video.  Reference to proofs of terrorist funding from West Point, the CIA, The Washington Post?

Call them “poofs” — thin air.

Vanished.

Searching up “Qatar” via the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point: I found no specific report.

From The Washington Post three days ago:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/some-see-qatars-hand-in-collapse-of-gaza-talks/2014/08/21/7febabac-28f6-11e4-8b10-7db129976abb_story.html – 8/21/2014.

Today, the Post ran the AP’s article relaying the refutation by Qatar of any alleged Qatar-and-terrorism-funding connection.

Veteran journalist Christopher Dickey played the matter this way back in June:

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has been publicly accusing Saudi Arabia and Qatar of funding ISIS for months. Several reports have detailed how private Gulf funding to various Syrian rebel groups has splintered the Syrian opposition and paved the way for the rise of groups like ISIS and others.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/06/14/america-s-allies-are-funding-isis.html – 6/14/2014.

Accusations are not evidence, of course.

However, there remains with Qatar a certain discomfort borne of privilege, privacy, and the possession of serious money that may be getting loose  — shall I add the 😉 😉 ? — from known controls.

A Congressional Research Service report that showed up in search conveyed this note similar to the bank charge of 2009:

The U.S. State Department has characterized Qatar’s counterterrorism support since September 11, 2001, as “significant,”16 but noted in its August 2011 report on terrorism issues that U.S. officials “continued to seek improved cooperation and information sharing” with their Qatari counterparts.

The 2012 State Department report (released in May 2013) stated that “Qatar’s monitoring of private individuals’ and charitable associations’ contributions to foreign entities remained inconsistent,” (see below) and noted that the Qatari government “maintained public ties to Hamas political leaders.”17

http://fas.org/sgp/crs/mideast/RL31718.pdf – 1/30/2014.

So somebody’s holding out — ” . . . U.S. officials “continued to seek improved cooperation and information sharing” with their Qatari counterparts” — or is at least lazy about transparency involving security-related intelligence.

In light of the 2009 indictment of the Doha Bank for flubbing the record on billions of dollars of business in New York City, the fact that in 2012 Qatar’s monitoring of ” . . . contributions to foreign entities remained inconsistent” seems also telling.

We’re approaching the end of 2014 — the start of the 4th quarter is today less than a month away — and perhaps it’s time for Federal and independent research updates on Qatar’s sincerity or vigor as regards anti-terrorism and anti-money laundering policy and performance.

The Gulf state is home to exiled Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal and is a key financial patron for the Gaza Strip, which Hamas controls.

Qatar denies financially backing Hamas, however, and has sought to play a role in brokering a truce to end fighting between the group and Israel.

http://www.jewishnews.co.uk/qatar-denies-backing-islamic-extremists-despite-hosting-hamas-leader/ – 8/24/2014.

Doha denies supporting the hardline ISIS insurgents who have overrun large parts of Syria and Iraq and who this week sparked global outrage with the release of a video showing the beheading of US journalist James Foley.

A spokeswoman for Mueller’s ministry said he had merely “referenced press reports” and had made “no concrete allegations”.

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2014/08/22/Germany-regrets-minister-s-claim-on-Qatar-ISIS-funding-.html – 8/22/2014.

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German Chancellor Angela Merkel appeared to distance herself from the allegation too on Sunday.

“The IS militias are very, very well-equipped financially without, as far as I know, being directly supported by any state,” she said in an interview with ARD television.

http://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2014/08/24/qatar-denies-funding-extremist-islamic-state-group – 8/24/2014.

Four days ago:

“This kind of conflict, this kind of a crisis always has a history … The ISIS troops, the weapons – these are lost sons, with some of them from Iraq,” Mueller told German public broadcaster ZDF.

“You have to ask who is arming, who is financing ISIS troops. The keyword there is Qatar – and how do we deal with these people and states politically?” said Mueller, a member of the Christian Social Union (CSU), the center-right Bavarian sister party of Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats.

Mueller did not elaborate and presented no evidence of a Qatari link to Islamic State.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/20/us-iraq-security-germany-qatar-idUSKBN0GK1I720140820 – 8/20/2014.

This abomination of a country has been ruled by the Al Thani family for almost 200 years (according to the CIA Worldbook). Among other things, the family owns and controls the Al Jazeera Media Network. In size it is the world’s 166th country. It has a nominal population of slightly over two million, of which 75% are between 25 to 54 years of age. In other words, it is an aging population with fertility significantly below replacement.

This is the banker to the world of terror – Muslim Brotherhood, Al Qaeda, Hamas, Boko Haram and more. They tend to pay more attention to Sunni organisations than to Shia. I say “more attention” but they have no problem funding Hezbollah and Syria, as well, just more quietly.

http://dailycaller.com/2014/08/20/the-bankers-to-the-terrorists/#ixzz3BKiuqMvB

“Hamas has been able to get away from its crimes thanks to support and sponsorship it receives from Qatar,” Prosor said on Monday as he spoke with reporters in New York outside a UN Security Council meeting on the Gaza conflict and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Prosor-Qatar-will-soon-be-second-largest-sponsor-of-terror-371475 – 8/19/2014.

Additional Reference

http://dailycaller.com/2014/08/22/weapons-banking-drugs-and-slavery-financing-terrorism-creatively/ – 8/22/2014.

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http://moneyjihad.wordpress.com/2014/08/05/ex-mi6-chief-cites-isiss-saudi-qatari-donors/ – 8/5/2014.

Related:

http://www.mrctv.org/videos/former-british-intelligence-chief-speaks-substantial-and-sustained-saudi-funding-isis – 7/9/2014.

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Saudi Arabia is furious at Qatar for its ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, and reportedly wants Qatar to expel two prestigious think tanks – Brookings Doha Center (BDC) and the RAND-Qatar Policy Institute (RQPI) – from the country.

http://www.thinktankwatch.com/2014/03/threats-to-close-brookings-rand-in-qatar.html – 3/20/2014.

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To date, only a handful of Qatari nationals have been found to participate in
extremist-inspired activities in places such as Iraq and Afghanistan, and the State Department evaluates the threat of indigenous terrorism as low in Qatar. The Embassy is aware of pockets of dissatisfied elements with extremist tendencies among Qataris and some expatriates here, but these elements do not appear linked or organized in ways that constitute a serious threat.

https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/05DOHA1657_a.html – 9/29/2005.

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The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency have fined Qatar’s Doha Bank – New York branch a $5m civil money penalty. According to FinCEN and the OCC, the bank’s branch in Manhattan – USA was engaged in high-risk services accompanied by lack of adequate anti-money laundering controls which led to the failure to report $7.4bn-worth of suspicious transactions in a timely manner. The OCC penalty order (PDF) states that the enforcement action was based on AML “deficiencies and violations” that occurred at the branch during the period between May 2004 and January 2007.

http://www.acc-co.com/content.asp?ContentId=598 – 4/23/2009.

Related:

Money laundering in Qatar is not a major issue. The financial sector is strictly monitored by the Central bank. In order to best protect itself from money laundering, Qatar signed the Anti Money Laundering Law on September 11, 2002.

http://www.bankersacademy.com/resources/free-tutorials/347-aml-qatar – n.d.

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Related on this blog:

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2014/08/21/qatar-terrorist-refuge-and-financial-platform/ – 8/21/2014

Update November 25, 2014

Apart from cash advances to terrorist entities, the Qatari government seems to be directly involved in other activities, notably the shipping of planeloads of arms to Libyan jihadists. These shipments include a C-17 cargo plane carrying weaponry to a militia loyal to a warlord who had fought alongside Osama bin Laden; arms supplies to the jihadist coalition that now controls Tripoli after the launch of Operation Libya Dawn, and some $3 billion and 70 planeloads of arms to rebel forces in Syria.

Private fundraisers who coordinate donations from individual or corporate donors in Qatar are never detained or subjected to restrictions in Qatar, a privilege that means the transfer of considerable sums to al-Qaeda, Islamic State, Hamas, Jabhat al-Nusra and other Syrian Islamist groups.

The U.S. Treasury has given details of terrorist financiers operating in Qatar.

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4898/qatar-terrorism – 11/22/2014.

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Qatar – Terrorist Refuge and Financial Platform

21 Thursday Aug 2014

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology

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Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal lives in Qatar, and today Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas is to meet him in Doha.

Is it even news?

What follows is about an hour’s worth of “scraping” across various searches containing the terms “Doha”, “Qatar”, “banking”, “financing”, “terror”, “terrorism”, “Hamas”, “Mashaal” – like Adolph, he’s achieved last name status — “funding”, etc.

The reportage underscores the idea that the Middle East Conflict has been sustained by an anti-Semitism that has its end the supersession of Islam, the same story that paved the way for Hitler’s adaptation of German Christian eschatology into the construction of the Nazi program of genocide that became the Holocaust.

Different talk?

Same walk.

Perhaps the question for Washington and the American public at large should be, “How did all this money and confusion get into our America the beautiful?”

Although Saudi Arabia has pledged $100 million to anti-terrorism activity, the sectarian Sunni vs Shiite competition nonetheless plays through the politics.  There’s simply an awful lot of cash in the pool, and the pool would seem as dirty as it can be.

For the day, perhaps for its long history of shady banking and association with well known promoters of Islamic terrorism, Qatar perhaps deserves greater focus and increased scrutiny as a state-sponsor of terrorism, and if not for direct financing then for allowing or enabling indirect financing of the same criminality under its (therefore incompetent) auspices.

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency have fined Qatar’s Doha Bank – New York branch a $5m civil money penalty. According to FinCEN and the OCC, the bank’s branch in Manhattan – USA was engaged in high-risk services accompanied by lack of adequate anti-money laundering controls which led to the failure to report $7.4bn-worth of suspicious transactions in a timely manner.

http://www.acc-co.com/content.asp?ContentId=598 – 4/23/2009

Related four years later:

“The core disconnect between Washington and these two countries on the issue of terrorist financing stems from their unique political dynamics and security calculations, which drive them both to allow some local fundraising channels for foreign extremist and other groups. These dynamics also determine the extent of Kuwaiti and Qatari cooperation with America’s counter-terrorist financing agenda. Accordingly, Washington should not expect substantive changes in their approach to terrorist financing unless a shift occurs in some aspect of these basic calculations.”

http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/the-terrorist-funding-disconnect-with-qatar-and-kuwait – 5/2/2014.

Though you wouldn’t know it from visiting Qatar Islamic Bank’s web site, because they choose not to disclose their Shariah advisory board there, the chairman of the bank’s Shariah Advisory Board is none other than Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a man we have referred to in the past as “Creepy Qaradawi.”

http://www.shariahfinancewatch.org/blog/2010/10/04/qatar-islamic-bank-wins-bank-of-the-year-award-at-the-arabian-business-awards/ – 10/4/2010.

Related, four year later:

“Responding to reports that the Egyptian-born Qatari cleric had been sent to Tunisia or Yemen, Al Qaradawi said on his official Twitter and Facebook accounts that he has spent over 53 years in Qatar preaching, calling and writing about Islam “without anyone telling me before what to say, what not to say or why are you saying that.”

http://dohanews.co/al-qaradawi-debunks-rumors-deported-qatar/ – 4/20/2014.

Recently, a group called the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS) raised about $6.5 million in Qatar. The group is led by Sheikh Yousef al-Qaradawi, a top Muslim Brotherhood cleric who calls himself the “Mufti of Martyrdom Operations.” He never shies from supporting Hamas and suicide bombings and got into a bit of hot water in 2009 when he said that the Holocaust was a judgment upon the Jews from Allah. He prays that the Muslims will deliver the next judgment. In November, the IUMS declared that Muslims must “revive the duty of jihad in all its forms” and prepare for the destruction of Israel.

http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/americas-friend-terror-funding-qatar – 5/20/2014.

In the 1990s, Doha was among the most active “financiers” behind the separatist rebellion in Chechnya. It sent money to local militants and trained Arab terrorists who participated in attacks on the Russian Army in the North Caucasus. When the rebellion was put down and peace began returning to Chechnya and the Arab “mujahedin” were almost completely destroyed, Qatar’s Emir provided a refuge for Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, “president” of the self-proclaimed Republic of Ichkeria and his many supporters, providing them with benefits and even government jobs.

http://moneyjihad.wordpress.com/2013/06/04/qatar-state-sponsor-of-terrorism/ – 6/4/2013.

Cited Source:

http://orientalreview.org/2013/05/23/qatar-is-funding-international-terrorism/comment-page-1/ – 5/23/2013.

Most notably, Qatar, a longtime U.S. ally, has for many years openly financed Hamas, a group that continues to undermine regional stability. Press reports indicate that the Qatari government is also supporting extremist groups operating in Syria. To say the least, this threatens to aggravate an already volatile situation in a particularly dangerous and unwelcome manner.

With new leadership in Doha, we remain hopeful that Qatar – a country that in other respects has been a constructive partner in countering terrorism – will continue to work closely with us to oppose and combat those who adhere to the warped and murderous ideology of Hamas and al-Qa’ida.

http://www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Pages/jl2308.aspx – 3/4/2014.

Qatar, no less than any other person or state, cannot have it both ways, and the remarks by the Treasury Department’s Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, David Cohen, do little to inspire confidence in change.  In fact the excerpt from his speech fits well within this collection of cited material in that even a subjective researcher’s haul actually reflects what is immediately available through the search engines: the headlines are simply NOT screaming, “Qatar cleans up banking, expels Khaled Mashaal, exiles Quaradawi” or some such.  The drift appears quite opposite of that.

While Hamas tactics directly orchestrate the murder of children in Gaza and in Israel (it’s certainly attempted by the hour), the bankers and royals of Qatar comfortably keep company with fellow billionaire Mashaal.  They’re living large, and Gazans have been made to live very small because of them.

The Clinton Foundation and the terror group Hamas share a key donor: The government of Qatar, a leading backer of terror groups that has emerged in recent years as Hamas’ chief financial lifeline.

Qatar, which has been designated by the State Department as a “significant terrorist financing risk,” has pledged more than $400 million to Hamas since 2012 and has long harbored one of the terror group’s senior leaders, Khaled Mashaal.

At the same time, Qatar has sought to curry favor with elite Westerners, donating between $1 million and $5 million through 2013 to the Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea Clinton Foundation.

http://freebeacon.com/politics/clinton-foundation-hamas-share-major-donor/ – 7/11/2014.

Apaches and Javelin defense systems are heading off to Qatar as part of our wonderful relationship with the terror-sponsoring nation that also happens to share close ties with Hamas and Al Qaeda. The weapons are valued at $11 billion.

http://www.independentsentinel.com/obamas-11-billion-arms-deal-with-terror-sponsoring-nation-of-qatar/ – 7/22/2014.

“Qatar is a very strange place. They rely on the U.S. for protection and invest heavily in the U.S.,” said Jonathan Schanzer, vice president for research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), noting that the U.S. has its largest Mideast airbase—Al-Udeid Air Base—in Qatar.

“[But] at the same time, just miles away from [the airbase], you can find the head of Hamas (Khaled Mashal), and there was even a Taliban embassy there for a while too. All of these things make for a foreign-policy anomaly,” Schanzer told JNS.org.

http://www.jns.org/latest-articles/2014/7/25/gaza-conflict-spotlights-role-of-qatar-the-hamas-funding-us-ally#.U_XzEsVdV8E= – 7/25/2014.

It’s getting harder and harder to deny that Doha and Ankara, two long-standing allies of the United States, are full Hamas partners.

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/08/04/hamas_s_bffs_turkey_qatar_israel_gaza – 8/4/2014.

HAIFA, Israel – The latest ceasefire between Israel and Hamas ended Friday morning when Hamas resumed its costly campaign of rocket attacks on Israel even as its 2 million constituents suffer from wrenching poverty.

Although the millions of Palestinians packed into the small strip suffer from chronic unemployment, and lack of electricity and running water, Hamas and its backers such as Qatar have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on tunnels and rockets with one goal in mind: killing Israelis.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/08/08/hamas-backers-spend-fortunes-on-rockets-and-tunnels-while-gazans-live-in-misery/ – 8/8/2014.

“Qatar has three Knesset seats for terrorism,” Kariv said, according to Israel Hayom.

http://www.algemeiner.com/2014/08/18/israeli-arab-knesset-members-visit-hamas-funding-qatar/ – 8/18/2014.

“There will be no return to negotiations in Cairo before we have ensured favorable circumstances that will force the enemy to meet the demands of the Palestinians.”

Mashaal said that the Palestinians’ top demand was the lifting of the blockade on Gaza

http://www.timesofisrael.com/mashaal-hamas-defiant-after-assassinations/#ixzz3B2DFDgVG – 8/21/2014.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will meet Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal and the emir of Qatar, in Doha Thursday, according to sources in Ramallah.

http://www.jpost.com/Breaking-News/Abbas-to-meet-Mashaal-Qatar-emir-in-Doha-371720 – 8/21/2014.

Related Reference

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2014/08/20/German-minister-accuses-Qatar-of-financing-ISIS-.html – 8/20/2014.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/06/14/america-s-allies-are-funding-isis.html – 6/14/2014.

http://cnsnews.com/video/cnsnews/former-british-intelligence-chief-speaks-substantial-and-sustained-saudi-funding-isis – 7/9/2014.

Dickinson, Elizabeth.  Playing with Fire: Why Private Gulf Financing for Syria’s Extremist Rebels Risks Igniting Sectarian Conflict at Home. Saban Center, Brookings, December 2013.

Addendum – 8/24/2014.

Qatar – Accusations Denied – Region Opaque

Either the state has been maligned, the state is lying in some part, or the state hasn’t control of its wealth or revenue throughput.

Every time out on this perilous blog brings insight into the fast mediated conflict environment.  How would one report news from the “left” without compromising with the demands of an Hamas or PLO/PA  . . . or an ISIS?  Is there time to ask a question when a camera hog tells you, more or less, that “proof is irrefutable” and the news has been reported already by the CIA, West Point, The Washington Post?  Do you says “Wait a minute” at the first assertion or do you give the talker his rope?

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All Eyes on Qatar, Its Money, Influence, and Role in Arming Syria’s Rebels

16 Friday Aug 2013

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Middle East, Politics, Qatar, Regions, Saudi Arabia, Syria

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With Morsi gone, Qatar suddenly became “persona non grata” in Egypt.

Alster, Paul.  “Qatar’s Risky Overreach.”  The Investigative Project on Terrorism, August 15, 2013.

Only last week the Taliban opened an office in Doha in expectation of negotiations with the US and Afghan governments. Qatar reportedly bankrolled it to the tune of $100m.

Popham, Peter.  “Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani; The Emir from Sandhurst who’s been given the keys to the kingdom.”  The Independent, June 25, 2013.

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Among the persistent questions coming out of the range of the Islamic Small Wars has been something along the lines of, “How come the USA is drone bombing the Taliban in Pakistan but supporting similar Al Qaeda-type elements on the field in Syria?”

Of course, the details count, and in Syria General Idris’s Free Syrian Army — or perhaps portions of it along the archipelago of revolutionary bands — has been fighting al-Nusra and such, but still the arms reach extremists and those bands get around the country that has become a theater of war.

The answer may reside with what economist Adam Smith referred to as “the invisible hand of the market”.

According to the Popham piece cited above and a story by Paul Waldie cited in reference, Qatar’s new minted emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani has taken control of an empire that includes the following (I’ve put in associated URLs, easier to do for a blog than for print):

The strength of the money perhaps should not be underestimated, nor should the locks provided by the wildness and strength of western societies in their most popular enthusiasms.

Now on to Syria.

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From The Long War Journal:

Three groups, identified as the Ahrar al Sham (a known Syrian Islamist group that is sympathetic to al Qaeda and has fought alongside them in the past), the Ahfad al Rasoul Brigade, and the Islamic Kurdish Front, banded together and announced they would fight together with the Al Nusrah Front against the Kurdish group in northern Syria. One of those groups, the Ahfad al Rasoul Brigade, is funded by the Qatari government.

Roggio, Bill.  “Qatar-funded Syrian rebel brigade backs Al Qaeda groups in Syria.  The Long War Journal, July 26, 2013.

Posted in The New York Times:

In deals that have not been publicly acknowledged, Western officials and Syrian rebels say, Sudan’s government sold Sudanese- and Chinese-made arms to Qatar, which arranged delivery through Turkey to the rebels.

Chivers, C. J. and Eric Schmitt.  “Arms Shipments Seen From Sudan to Syria Rebels.”  The New York Times, August 12, 2013.

I’m wary about “deals that have not been publicly acknowledged” but a glance down the roster on the Syrian side of the issue — the anti-west propaganda machinery has been playing this theme hard — may suggest that the most legitimate of papers — The Gray Lady, no less — and the conservative Bill Roggio who has been on the Islamic Small Wars beat for years and others I trust (e.g., Daniel Greenfield at FrontPage) have mighty cause not to print this news: that they have nonetheless done so may lend credence to the suggestion in news that Qatar’s money has been purchasing more than pleasant residences in London.

Qatar’s participation in Syria, however it may be shaped, has had “I and my brother” repercussions:

“Saudi Arabia is now formally in charge of the Syria issue,” said a senior rebel military commander in one of northern Syria’s border provinces where Qatar has until now been the main supplier of arms to those fighting President Bashar al-Assad.

The outcome, many Syrian opposition leaders hope, could strengthen them in both negotiations and on the battlefield – while hampering some of the anti-Western Islamist hardliners in their ranks whom they say Qatar has been helping with weaponry.

Karouny, Mariam.  “Saudi edges Qatar to control Syrian rebel support.” Chicago Tribune, May 31, 2013.

I recommend reading Mariam Karouny’s article for a wrap that perfectly captures the absurd contradictions involved in maintaining the deepest and most closed of Islamic autocracies while investing in and reaching through to the world’s most liberal quarters, which I in turn interpret, in essence, as sweet talking through an expansion of cultural influence and economic power.

If one, whether as winner of a strong-armed election or a more fairly produced one, wishes to weigh potential for the redevelopment of a good state or, perhaps, a geographic defense asset in Syria, does one either trust or validate Qatari or Iranian values — or does one just put off that day of reckoning?

In its iteration of this news, Voice of Russia has gone on to note denials all around of participation by all parties mentioned in a Qatari-funded, Chinese-benefiting, Sudan-to-Turkey-to-Syria rebel-arming system.

Additional Reference

AFP.  “Qatar’s new emir in Saudi for first foreign trip.”  Fox News, August 2, 2013.

Bergin, Tom.  “UPDATE 4-Qatar buys ‘major’ stake in oild giant Shell.”  Reuters, May 11, 2012.

Eaton, George.  “How Qatar bought London: The Shard, Harrods, Barclays, the Olympics Village — Qatar owns them all.”  New Statesman, July 4, 2012.

Gower, Patrick.  “Canary Wharf Gets Nod for Eight Buildings Near London Eye.”  Bloomberg, May 22, 2013.

Gray, Melissa.  “Qatari firm buys U.S. Embassy building in London.”  CNN, November 3, 2009:

The signing of the deal is another major step in the embassy’s plans to relocate from its longtime headquarters in central London to a new site in Wandsworth, on the south bank of the River Thames.

Hobson, Sophie.  “How much of London Qatar REALLY own – pictures.”  London Loves Business, May 7, 2013.

J. Sainsbury plc.  “Major shareholders”.

Khalaf, Roula and Abigail Fielding Smith.  “Qatar bankrolls Syrian revolt with cash and arms.”  Financial Times, May 16, 2013.

Kollewe, Julia.  “Olympic Village snapped up by Qatari ruling family for £557m: UK taxpayers left £275m out of pocket after deal is reached by Olympic Delivery Authority.”  The Guardian, August 12, 2013.

Neate, Rupert.  “Qatar’s London assets.”  Dawn, June 28, 2012:

“It’s not all about luxury, however. The Qatar Investment Authority also owns 20 per cent of Camden market in north London, via its holding in the property group Chelsfield.”

Milmo, Dan.  “Qatar buys 20% stake in Heathrow operator.”  The Guardian, August 17, 2012.

Ormsby, Avril.  “Qatar investor buys UK department store Harrods.”  Reuters, May 8, 2010.

Pipes, Daniel.  “The Scandal of U.S.-Saudi Relations.”  National Interest via Daniel Pipes Middle East Forum, Winter 2002/03.  This piece is now about 10 years, a little more: it may be worth a look-see into how much has changed or not changed.

Reuters.  “Dubai, Qatar hold key to LSE’s future: Holding 36.1% stake, the two emirates become the largest shareholders in London exchange.”  Emirate 24/7,  July 1, 2011.

Ridley, Kirstin and Steve Slater.  “Barclays fights UK watchdog findings on Qatar deal.”  Reuters, July 30, 2013.  Excerpt:

Qatar Holding invested 5.3 billion pounds ($8 billion) in Barclays in June and October 2008, helping it avoid a government bailout and associated stringent re-payment terms and conditions imposed on bailed-out rivals Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland.

Smith, James B.  “US-Saudi relations: Eighty years as partners.”  Arab News, August 16, 2013.

Thesing, Gabi.  “Sainbury Reports 3.6% Increase in Fourth-Quarter Sales.”  Bloomberg, March 19, 2013:

Sainsbury rose to 376.4 pence, the highest since March 4, 2011, and was up 2.2 percent at 373.2 pence as of 10:10 a.m.

The shares have gained 23 percent in the past year. Speculation of a bid by Sainsbury’s largest individual shareholder, the Qatar Investment Authority, for Marks & Spencer Group Plc (MKS), may revive takeover speculation for Sainsbury and boost the stock further, according to Exane’s Gwynn.

Waldie, Paul.  “From the Shard to Heathrow, Qatar stakes a claim on London.”  The Globe and Mail, March 11, 2013.

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Qatar – Syria – Keep Watch

30 Sunday Jun 2013

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Islamic Small Wars, Journalism, Middle East, Politics, Qatar, Regions, Syria

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The missiles, American officials warned, could one day be used by terrorist groups, some of them affiliated with Al Qaeda, to shoot down civilian aircraft.

But one country ignored this admonition: Qatar, the tiny, oil- and gas-rich emirate that has made itself the indispensable nation to rebel forces battling calcified Arab governments and that has been shipping arms to the Syrian rebels fighting the government of President Bashar al-Assad since 2011.

Mazzetti, Mark, C. J. Chivers, and Eric Schmitt.  “Taking Outside Role in Syria, Qatar Funnels Arms to Rebels.”  The New York Times, June 29, 2013.

It’s mighty social of President Obama to allow others to strut their hour upon the global stage, which it appears Qatar may be doing as promotes a Sunni front in Syria by proxy.

As modern and shiny as Qatari money has made Qatar, onlookers may not be so certain about its mercenaries and their ability to restrain themselves.  The alleged murder of Roula Adnan last week adds its bit of opprobrious behavior to the eating-the-heart video that went viral earlier in the month.  I’ve hedged with “alleged” as the news reached me by way of Pakistan and involved as source a Syrian nationalist outlet given to headers like, “US Citizens Kill Deputy Head of Ministry of Education in Aleppo.”

We’re not going to have two essential empirical truths in a world integrating within the communal mind of the World Wide Web: whatever Qatar has enabled, even if spun over-the-top with canards out of the political playbooks of bomb throwers of the 1970s, what happened to Roula Adnan (and her neighbors) will come out.

And just before coming after Roula, the same “rebels”, the ones that the MSM is romanticizing broke into another home. They carried a man from Khalil family to the street and shot his hands and feet. Then they beaten up his wife and daughter, right in front of the neighbors. The terrorists wanted Syrians to witness the crime; they wanna scare us into submission.

As it does always, the fog of war will lift — but these days, it’s likely the curtains masking behind-the-scenes deals, wherever they have taken place, will be drawn back too.

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A Glimpse of Qatar’s Generational Transition and Portent for The Middle East Conflict

27 Thursday Jun 2013

Posted by in Anti-Semitism, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Fast News Share, Islamic Small Wars, Israel, Middle East, Qatar, Regions, Religion

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http://youtu.be/k6IC3IZJCqw

These days, the term “middle east conflict” would seem to refer to conflict and unrest in every state in the region but Israel.

Nonetheless, while Egypt roils and Syria burns and the King of Jordan fends off the seeding of perhaps a new class of secular Palestinian politico*, Qatar’s new head of state, Sheikh Tamim has this to say of the refugees of numerous Arab-led wars since 1948:

One day when our “Blue Dot” of a planet is a little more gathered together — that as opposed to riven with war — we may find common ground in five language principles:

Compassion

Humility

Integrity

Justice

Security

Of the four, the most difficult term and the one most relevant to autocracies seems to me to be “integrity” — just the power to be honest about ourselves and with others.

This is not as easy as it may sound.  If it were, we would not have the fairy tale that is “The Emperor’s New Clothes”, which is in essence and for the ages a story about lying and power.

*****

It may be noted that God placed two trees in the Garden of Eden: the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  When the snake entices Eve to eat of the forbidden tree, only mention is made of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, effectively hiding the other tree through omission.

You know the rest of the story: Eve eats the apple, becomes conscious or comprehending, also self-conscious, and, with Adam joining her, possessed of conscience, out of which reaction, perhaps, come the fig leaves, a courtesy, each to the other, and practical too (God, a few sentences later, provides clothing made of skins — one imagines chamois — lending perhaps dignity and protection to their introduction to life as men and women would experience it forever after).

The “Middle East Conflict” — which is never about conflicts in the middle east but only about the creation of the Jews and Israel (or, lost in the Pharaohnic dawn, the gathering together beneath the unrestrained ego and violence of a tyrant)l — seems to me to be always about two things not at ease with one another: 1) the possession of good conscience in light of the knowledge of good and evil; 2) the testing of God for favor when the relationship needs to be the other way around.

*****

Where kings are concerned, I suspect there may be more to the story than meets either eyes or ears.

When God, being God, and with Torah received as divine message, hides the second tree — the Tree of Life that we are told is there but when it counts is not mentioned by the snake and, later, will be barred from access (by cherubim and an eternally revolving sword guarding the Garden left behind) — the sin of omission becomes a virtue: to have eaten of the Tree of Life also would have been too much, for God forbids it, and so protects His children.

*****

To be as gods, lower case that term, with nuclear capabilities, among other extraordinary but still human capacities, one might counsel also a prudent humility.

Carl Sagan’s clip about the “Pale Blue Dot” that is our planet viewed from space, has many renditions on the web — and there’s an entire film available too (somewhere — I’m going to be lazy here) — but this may do for essence.

http://youtu.be/p86BPM1GV8M

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Syria – Qatar – Absurdity

30 Thursday May 2013

Posted by in Islamic Small Wars, Middle East, Politics, Qatar, Regions, Syria

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“At the moment, several conflicts are being fought simultaneously in Syria. The civil war began more than two years ago as a power struggle between the government and opposition forces. But it didn’t take long for other states to get into the mix, turning the internal fight into a regional and international struggle for influence.”

http://www.dw.de/middle-east-countries-fighting-proxy-war-in-syria/a-16848708

I’ve compared violent Sunni vs. Shiite rivalry to watching two wasps fight inside a bell jar, an absurd condition driven by “content of mind” (self-concept, social grammar, etc.) and vanity, or an aspect of it I refer to as “Facsimile Bipolar Political Sociopathy”.

Russia may be the bad boy backing a brutal dictatorship, but what is NATO doing trying to sanitize the opposition?

“In response, the FSA has been acting more like a force opposed to the citizens of Syria than a force intended to secure their freedom. For example, it has in the recent past stolen wheat reserves intended for the residents of Aleppo and sold it to private Turkish grain traders, expropriated stocks of pharmaceuticals and forcibly resold them back to its owners, and ransacked schools. These are hardly the actions of a ‘liberation force.'”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel-wagner/dark-side-free-syrian_b_2380399.html

Daniel Wagner reported that “news” back in December.

“The following video, circulated by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, shows jihadists lining up and executing supporters of President Bashar al-Assad. A man in a mask reads a statement behind the line of blindfolded men, reading off the reason for their punishment, before walking down the line and shooting each one in the back of the head.”

http://www.policymic.com/articles/42503/syrian-execution-youtube-video-graphic-footage-shows-rebel-atrocities

Qatar itself, rolling in money, stands clean and progressive in the background, and yet, should you click on the above link and witness the Al-Nusra execution of Assad’s forces, kneeling and bound, you know the money for that has got to be coming from somewhere.

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