The Investigative Project on Terrorism has a terrific new series on the influence of Qatar on the Brookings Institution think tank.

Included in their analysis are details about Qatari financial support for Jihad. Here are some excerpts and a link to the article:

Highlighting Qatar as a regional peacemaker seems strange in the light of its longstanding support for Hamas and allegations that its leaders aided al-Qaida in the past. Cables released by Wikileaks and other U.S. government documents demonstrate these connections proved disturbing to American policymakers.

“Qatar’s overall level of [counter-terrorism] cooperation with the U.S. is considered the worst in the region,” a top level U.S. State Department official wrote in a secret Dec. 30, 2009 State Department cable. “Al-Qaida, the Taliban, UN-1267 listed LeT (Pakistan’s Lakshar- e-Taiba), and other terrorist groups exploit Qatar as a fundraising locale.”

The official also noted that Qatar’s security services fail to act against known terrorists because the Gulf state feared terrorist reprisals “out of concern for appearing to be aligned with the U.S.” Another 2008 State Department cable noted that Qatar’s government “has often been unwilling to cooperate on designations of certain terrorist financiers.”

//////////

Qatar Charity, formerly the Qatar Charitable Society and currently headed by Hamad bin Nasser al-Thani, a member of Qatari royal family, demonstrates a lingering link between Qatar and terror financing.

Russia’s interior minister accused Qatar Charitable Society of funneling money to Chechen jihadist groups in 1999. Al-Thani responded to the accusation in a 1999 interview with Al-Jazeera, saying his government would not interfere with the funding because the Russian actions in Chechnya were “painful for us as Qatari, Arab, or Muslim citizens.”

Qatar Charitable Society played a key role in financing the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, according to the U.S. government.

Recent reports suggest the charity’s connection with al-Qaida persists. Maliweb, a U.S.-based independent news source, accused Qatar Charity of significantly financing “the terrorists in northern Mali operations.” French military intelligence reports accused Qatar of funding Ansar Dine – a group that works closely with al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb – and MUJAO in Mali at the time of France’s January 2013 intervention.

U.S. court documents note additional ties between Qatar Charity and al-Qaida dating back to the 1990s. Osama bin Laden complained to an al-Qaida member following a failed 1995 assassination attempt against former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak that the then-Qatar Charitable Society funds had been spent in the operation. Consequently, the terror mastermind became concerned that his ability to exploit charities for al-Qaida’s ends would be compromised.

Qatar also funded the Ahfad al-Rasoul Brigade in Syria, which engaged in joint operations with Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaida’s Syrian affiliate.

Qatar played a similar role in Libya where it has openly funded and armed jihadists. IHS Jane’s Defence Weekly found that Qatar sent a C-17 cargo plane to provide arms to a militia loyal to Abdelhakim Belhadj, a Libyan warlord who fought alongside Osama bin Laden in Tora Bora in 2001 and was in touch with the leader of the 2004 Madrid train bombing.

http://www.investigativeproject.org/4630/ipt-exclusive-qatar-insidious-influence-on#

 

 

Comments are closed.

Looking for something?

Use the form below to search the site:


Still not finding what you're looking for? Drop a comment on a post or contact us so we can take care of it!