The only award Qatar deserves: Supporting Islamic terror

Instead of showering yet more money and awards on countries that seem to be plotting to bring America down, the US love-fest with Qatar and Iran should immediately be ended.

By Bassam Tawil, Gatestone Institute

CIA Director William Burns has awarded the head of the Qatari State Security Agency, Abdullah bin Mohammed Al-Khulaifi, the George Tenet Medal for his work on strengthening intelligence cooperation between the US and Qatar.

The ceremony took place amid diplomatic efforts by the US and Qatar to reach a hostage and ceasefire deal between Israel and the Iran-backed Palestinian terrorist group Hamas. Burns and Al-Khulaifi are reportedly playing key roles in these efforts.

One of the main reasons for the award is Qatar’s “efforts to release the [Israeli] hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, sources told the American Axios website.

The source said Burns gave the award to his Qatari counterpart in “appreciation of his role in maintaining national and regional security, and the exceptional support he provided to the CIA in preserving the interests and security of the US and Qatar.”

Another main reason for the award was “the cooperation between the CIA and Qatari intelligence in counterterrorism and the ability of the Qatari State Security Agency to prevent and foil threats and attacks in the Middle East, the sources added.

It is grotesque that Qatar should be recognized for its contributions to “maintaining national and regional security” in the Middle East given that it has long been openly supporting Islamist terrorist organizations and serving as a home and haven for the Hamas leadership.

In 2017, several Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Egypt, Yemen, Libya and Maldives cut ties with Qatar over concerns that the Gulf state supported Islamist extremism and terrorism.

The Arab states were also worried about Qatar’s close ties with Iran.

Saudi Arabia accused Qatar of financing extremists and “supporting the activities of Iranian-backed terrorist groups in the governorate of Qatif of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Kingdom of Bahrain.”

Saudi Arabia said it severed diplomatic relations with Qatar and closed their shared borders “to protect its national security from the dangers of terrorism and extremism.”

The “decisive” measure was due to “gross violations committed by authorities in Qatar over the past years,” a Saudi statement said.

Egypt accused Qatar of supporting “terrorism” and said all Egyptian ports and airports would be closed to Qatari vessels and planes.

Bahrain said it was cutting ties with Qatar over its insistence in “undermining the security and stability of Bahrain and meddling in its affairs.”

Yemen’s internationally recognized government accused Qatar of working with its enemies in the Iran-aligned Houthi militia. “Qatar’s practices of dealing with the [Houthi] coup militia and supporting extremist groups became clear,” the Yemeni government said. (In 2021, some of these Arab countries restored ties with Qatar thanks to mediation efforts by Kuwait).

The Arab states also expressed concern over the role of Qatar’s Al-Jazeera TV network, which has long been serving as a mouthpiece for the Muslim Brotherhood organization and other Islamist terror groups, including Hamas.

In 2017, the Saudis closed Al-Jazeera’s bureau in Riyadh and revoked its operating license. Jordan followed suit and closed the network’s bureau in Amman.

Egypt, which shut down Al-Jazeera in 2013, blocked access to the network’s website in 2017, after accusing it of “terrorism” and “fake news.”

The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain also blocked Al-Jazeera’s websites.

In 2018, the General Secretariat of the Council of Senior [Islamic] Scholars in Saudi Arabia said:

“[H]istory will not forget that the Qatari Al-Jazeera was and still is a platform for leaders of terrorism, as it used to exclusively broadcast speeches of Osama bin Laden, the leader of the terrorist Al-Qaeda and his successors, in addition to the speeches of terrorists who took up arms in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Al-Jazeera is now playing the same tole in spreading speeches of the leader of the Al-Houthi terrorist militia.”

Not much has changed in Qatar since then. The Gulf state continues to host and support the leaders of Hamas, the group that carried out the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

At least 1,200 Israelis were murdered, with many tortured, raped and burned alive during the attack, the worst crime against Jews since the Holocaust.

Al-Jazeera, meanwhile, continues to serve as a mouthpiece of terrorist organizations, especially Hamas, whose leaders are frequently given a platform to promote terrorism.

Saudi social media pundit Mesha’al Al-Khalid wrote:

“The Al-Jazeera channel burnishes [the image] of the militias and terrorist organizations that have waded in Arab blood, describing them as ‘Islamic resistance.’ We seem to be facing a planned and organized project to burnish the image of Iran’s agents and use the Palestinian issue as an excuse to direct accusations of heresy at anyone who exposes the proxies and agents loyal [to Iran].”

Is it feasible that the CIA is ignorant of the fact that all these Arabs see Qatar and its Al-Jazeera network as a danger to Middle East security and stability? Or are the CIA and the Biden administration knowingly ignoring Qatar’s damaging role and its alliance with Iran’s mullahs as part of an ongoing effort to appease the regime in Tehran? The second option appears to be more realistic.

It is also grotesque that Qatar should be awarded for its “intelligence cooperation in counterterrorism and its ability to prevent and foil threats and attacks in the Middle East.” If that were true, what did Qatar do to prevent the Hamas-led October 7 atrocities? Nothing.

As Middle East expert Seth Frantzman pointed out:

“Couldn’t October 7 have been prevented since Hamas leaders lived in Doha? Shouldn’t one of the pre-requisites with having them hosted by a US ally be that Hamas not carry out a genocidal massacre and lead to a massive regional war? Shouldn’t the goal of having an ally host a terror grouping be having that group not create massive wars and massacres? Shouldn’t Qatar have wanted Hamas not to create a massive war? Instead, after October 7 Qatar did not condemn the attack, and there were no repercussions for Hamas. It has the same status in Doha today as on October 6. There is not even one repercussion for what it [Hamas] did. Imagine all the suffering that could have been prevented over the past year.

“I wonder if anyone will learn from this and predicate these relationships on things like ‘make sure the terror groups you host don’t create massive wars that cause unprecedented suffering…’

“As far as I can tell, not even one in-depth report has been done on why wasn’t October 7 prevented, focusing on the wider Middle East intel-sharing space. Maybe it’s time to focus on it.”

It is hard to believe that a police state such as Qatar did not know in advance of Hamas’s intention to launch the October 7 attack on Israel. If Qatar’s security agencies were not aware of the October 7 assault beforehand, it would have been a serious intelligence failure. For that alone, the Qataris most definitely do not deserve any special recognition. The only award Qatar is due is for encouraging Islamist terrorism and jeopardizing security and stability in the Middle East.

In 2017, Qatar and the US signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on combatting the financing of terrorism. The MoU ensures increased collaboration between US and Qatari military and intelligence forces, and even provides the ability for the U.S. Treasury Department to work closely with the Qatari Government to help monitor suspected terror-financing activities. Evidently, this agreement did not apply to Qatar’s ties with Hamas. Nor did it prevent the October 7 massacres.

It is also grotesque to claim that Qatar has been supporting efforts to free the Israeli hostages held in the Gaza Strip. All Qatar would need to do to ensure the release of the hostages is to threaten to expel the Hamas leaders based in Doha. That has not happened.

The US, for its part, could threaten to leave Qatar’s the Al-Udeid Air Base, the largest US military base in the Middle East, if Qatar does not exert pressure on the Hamas leadership to free the hostages.

That, too, has not happened. In fact, on January 2, 2024, CNN disclosed that “The United States has quietly reached an agreement that extends its military presence at a sprawling base in Qatar for another 10 years.”

Why “quietly”? That is why the negotiations to end the war in the Gaza Strip have so far been unsuccessful. The rulers of Qatar apparently believe that they would never be safe if the US military were removed from their country. The emirate could be gone in a week.

Based on the data compiled from multiple English, Arabic and French sources within the Middle East, Europe and the US, a team of American and Israeli investigators concluded in April that Qatar “operates not as an independent mediator as it claims, but benefits directly from the bloodshed and geopolitical fallout and unrest that result from its policies.”

Qatar is also evidently dedicated to supporting Islamic terror organizations and was most likely using its spoof of a position as a “mediator” to make sure that its client, Hamas, would be allowed to rearm, regroup and attack Israel again.

The “Doha-Gaza Alliance at all levels — financial, political, and military — has resulted in the current regional upheaval, the impact of which is being felt worldwide,” the same investigators said in a confidential report, adding that Qatari funding and policies led directly to October 7.

They noted that although the US has known about Qatar’s malign activities for years, it has failed to strategically act on them. This has allowed Qatar to advance policies that are harmful to the interests of the US and its allies in the Middle East and beyond.

According to the report, Qatar has been fully aware and supportive of Hamas military activities and strategy for more than a decade and revealed that most of the funding sent to Gaza by Qatar was assisting in “Hamas’s terror infrastructure, weapons, and training.”

“The negative impact of the Qatari-Muslim Brotherhood nexus to US policy interests,” the report stated, “includes bloodshed, unrest, and instability in a wide range of locations, most immediately in the Middle East and Africa.”

Instead of showering yet more money and awards on countries that seem to be plotting to bring America down, the US love-fest with Qatar and Iran should immediately be ended.

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