OPINION:
Post-Oct. 7, as the world expressed shock at Hamas’ dismembering of Jews and their babies, the fossil-fuel monarchy Qatar hosted a rushed Middle East summit. The attendees: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and his financial and military sponsor, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.
Mr. Haniyeh did not have to travel for Qatar’s in-your-face rebuke to the West. Qatar gives him a home office and haven in Doha from which to direct Hamas, whose war plan is simple: Kill Jews and erase Israel. Ditto Iran’s. It’s the “river to the sea” deal now chanted on American college campuses. Qatar says shielding Mr. Haniyeh from Israeli bombs is a way to bring peace.
In Washington over the summer, sports powerhouse Ted Leonsis and his Monumental Sports & Entertainment group announced that Qatar was joining his Washington Capitals/Wizards empire as a minority investor.
In October, the Breeders Cup, thoroughbred racing’s championship day at Santa Anita Park, announced entries and race schedules. The 11th race on Nov. 4 is the $2 million “Qatar Racing Breeders’ Cup Sprint.”
Such is the charmed life of Qatar and the ruling Al-Thani family. Qatar is flooding us with huge amounts of money to influence policy. Yet Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani hosts and protects the leader behind one of the worst atrocities in Jewish history. The Al-Thani family has also backed the violent Muslim Brotherhood and the overseas mosques that promote it, according to press reports.
These links do not prevent Qatar from exercising significant influence abroad through vast oil and natural gas riches. Doha not only buys into the sports world. It mixes in Washington power circles, throws huge sums into investment houses run by the moneyed glitterati, and endows American colleges with billions of dollars.
Qatar also hires an army of lobbyists, consultants and lawyers to sell and defend its influence operations.
Even more remarkable, Qatar protects the Hamas leader as the Persian Gulf economic power also hosts the largest U.S. military presence in the Middle East. The Pentagon calls Qatar a strategic partner.
Hamas is funded and controlled by Iran. Iran has been attacking American troops in Syria and Iraq. It makes total sense.
Here are some of the places Qatar parks chunks of its $445 billion Qatari Investment Authority sovereign wealth fund.
• Steven Mnuchin. Donald Trump’s Treasury secretary quickly pivoted from Cabinet member to resume his role of finding billionaire clients, this time through his new firm, Liberty Capital. He spoke in May at Qatar’s Economic Forum in Doha.
• Jared Kushner. Mr. Trump’s Middle East adviser and the former president’s son-in-law quickly returned to investing. His Affinity Partners private equity fund snared $200 million from a Qatari source, The New York Times reported.
• Paul Singer. His Elliott Management and Qatar jointly acquired IT firm Gigamon for $1.6 billion.
• KKR & Co. The private equity firm sold a 5% stake in its Tokyo-based Kokusai Electric to Qatar. Former CIA Director and retired Army Gen. David Petraeus, a KKR partner who commanded all Middle East American troops, spoke at Qatar’s Economic Forum.
• Bill Ackman. The superstar hedge fund manager received $141 million from Qatar for his Pershing Square Capital Management startup.
Qatar realized years ago that the tickets to controlling America are its greedy colleges and an expanding mass of left-wing professors who indoctrinate pliable young minds in the science of recognizing Arab victimhood.
One counter to Qatar is the National Association of Scholars. It’s a network of academics devoted to a truly liberal education, which means no promoting “woke” ideology and no suffocating free speech.
Last year, the association issued a comprehensive report on Qatar’s generosity to American colleges titled “Outsourced to Qatar.”
“Qatar recently became the top foreign funder of American universities, donating at least $4.7 billion between 2001 and 2021,” the report said.
The top recipients all have something in common: They opened branches in Qatar.
Northwestern’s Qatari campus focuses on teaching future journalists who are then deployed by the monarchy overseas to write the Doha story. At home, Doha permits no free press.
Qatar owns its own TV network, Al Jazeera, which promotes Islamic militants. The Trump Justice Department in 2020 ordered Al Jazeera’s digital platform to register as a foreign agent. The Washington Times searched the Justice Department’s list of foreign agents and found no registration for Al Jazeera.
In 2013, former Vice President turned fossil fuels alarmist Al Gore sold his crummy TV channel to Al Jazeera. Mr. Gore was reported to have netted as much as $100 million in Qatar’s oil and natural gas money. Al Jazeera shut down the cable channel in 2016.
Qatar has also provided millions to Washington’s premier liberal think tank, the Brookings Institution.
As Israeli towns smoldered, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani held a joint news conference on Oct. 13 in Doha with Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
It was striking. He had no criticism of Hamas for butchering babies and had no intention of kicking out Hamas from what he called its “political office in Doha.”
“This was started to be used as a way of communicating and bringing peace and calm into the region, not to instigate any war,” he said.
In Washington, there is one person willing to take on Qatar and its methods.
His name is Elliott Broidy. He is a former senior Republican National Committee official, megadonor and friend of Donald Trump. He filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Washington, accusing Qatar of assembling a team of political operatives and a cybersecurity firm to hack his emails and spread them to Washington reporters. Mr. Broidy says it is Qatar’s retaliation for his criticism of its support for terrorism.
As first reported by The Washington Times, the ongoing case got a jolt over the summer when a former Qatar American operative switched sides and accused Qatar of illegally withholding incriminating documents for the judge to review.
On Oct. 13, Judge Dabney L. Friedrich sided with Mr. Broidy and ordered Qatar’s U.S. operatives to turn over documents, texts and emails that Qatar said were protected by diplomatic status. Doha is represented by the politically connected Washington firm Covington & Burling.
Qatar’s wealth did not prevent Judge Friedrich from rebuking Qatar and its law firm. “Qatar’s arguments against production are entirely devoid of merit,” the judge’s order said.
• Rowan Scarborough is a columnist with The Washington Times.
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