Recently in Qatar Category

Since the government of Qatar is the former owner and still primary funder of al-Jazeera, maybe we will soon see Al Gore making a rose-colored documentary about the virtues of the Mali jihadists: The Inconvenient Jihad Murderers.

"Mali: analyst, Qatar is funding Islamists," by Alma Safira for ANSAmed, January 25 (thanks to Insubria):

(ANSAmed) - DOHA, JANUARY 25 - Qatar supports Mali's Islamists as it believes the movement is potentially key in the country's governance, according to Michael Stephens, a researcher at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies in Qatar cited by Doha News. 'The main motivation behind Qatar's support of Mali's Islamists is to ensure its business and the growth of its influence in the Arab and Islamic world', noted the analyst. The level of involvement of Qatar in the activities of Islamist rebels in Mali will soon emerge together with the truth on who is giving them weapons, noted the expert. Qatar denies such allegations but, if evidence proved the contrary, an end of diplomatic relations with France would be a battle which Qatar cannot expect to win, according to Stevens.

The scenario in Mali is for the country to split with a North held by Islamists indebted to Qatar and a South supported by western countries. Such a situation, according to Stevens, is part of Qatar's long-term vision as the country aims to improve bilateral relations with Mali and expand its influence in the Sahel area which is rich with hydrocarbons and precious metal reserves.

'The official version is that Qatar is funding for humanitarian reasons, through non-profit organizations, the areas controlled by rebels but France believes that Qatar is supporting rebels tied to Al Qaeda who are trying to seize power in Mali in order to use the country as a jihadist platform from which to launch a global initiative. The truth is nobody knows how deep relations are between Qatar and the rebels', wrote Stevens in the article published by Doha News....

Was the Obama Administration really as naive and trusting as this article makes out? Or did the Administration not really care if the U.S. was arming jihadis? Clueless or complicit seem to be the only choices here. "U.S.-Approved Arms for Libya Rebels Fell Into Jihadis’ Hands," by James Risen, Mark Mazzetti and Michael S. Schmidt in the New York Times, December 5:

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration secretly gave its blessing to arms shipments to Libyan rebels from Qatar last year, but American officials later grew alarmed as evidence grew that Qatar was turning some of the weapons over to Islamic militants, according to United States officials and foreign diplomats.

No evidence has emerged linking the weapons provided by the Qataris during the uprising against Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi to the attack that killed four Americans at the United States diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, in September.

But in the months before, the Obama administration clearly was worried about the consequences of its hidden hand in helping arm Libyan militants, concerns that have not previously been reported. The weapons and money from Qatar strengthened militant groups in Libya, allowing them to become a destabilizing force since the fall of the Qaddafi government.

The experience in Libya has taken on new urgency as the administration considers whether to play a direct role in arming rebels in Syria, where weapons are flowing in from Qatar and other countries.

The Obama administration did not initially raise objections when Qatar began shipping arms to opposition groups in Syria, even if it did not offer encouragement, according to current and former administration officials. But they said the United States has growing concerns that, just as in Libya, the Qataris are equipping some of the wrong militants.

The United States, which had only small numbers of C.I.A. officers in Libya during the tumult of the rebellion, provided little oversight of the arms shipments. Within weeks of endorsing Qatar’s plan to send weapons there in spring 2011, the White House began receiving reports that they were going to Islamic militant groups. They were “more antidemocratic, more hard-line, closer to an extreme version of Islam” than the main rebel alliance in Libya, said a former Defense Department official....

The administration has never determined where all of the weapons, paid for by Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, went inside Libya, officials said. Qatar is believed to have shipped by air and sea small arms, including machine guns, automatic rifles, and ammunition, for which it has demanded reimbursement from Libya’s new government. Some of the arms since have been moved from Libya to militants with ties to Al Qaeda in Mali, where radical jihadi factions have imposed Shariah law in the northern part of the country, the former Defense Department official said. Others have gone to Syria, according to several American and foreign officials and arms traders....

As a result, the White House largely relied on Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, two small Persian Gulf states and frequent allies of the United States. Qatar, a tiny nation whose natural gas reserves have made it enormously wealthy, for years has tried to expand its influence in the Arab world. Since 2011, with dictatorships in the Middle East and North Africa coming under siege, Qatar has given arms and money to various opposition and militant groups, chiefly Sunni Islamists, in hopes of cementing alliances with the new governments. Officials from Qatar and the emirates would not comment.

After discussions among members of the National Security Council, the Obama administration backed the arms shipments from both countries, according to two former administration officials briefed on the talks....

Concerns in Washington soon rose about the groups Qatar was supporting, officials said. A debate over what to do about the weapons shipments dominated at least one meeting of the so-called Deputies Committee, the interagency panel consisting of the second-highest ranking officials in major agencies involved in national security. “There was a lot of concern that the Qatar weapons were going to Islamist groups,” one official recalled.

The Qataris provided weapons, money and training to various rebel groups in Libya. One militia that received aid was controlled by Adel Hakim Belhaj, then leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, who was held by the C.I.A. in 2004 and is now considered a moderate politician in Libya. It is unclear which other militants received the aid.

“Nobody knew exactly who they were,” said the former defense official. The Qataris, the official added, are “supposedly good allies, but the Islamists they support are not in our interest.”

No evidence has surfaced that any weapons went to Ansar al-Shariah, an extremist group blamed for the Benghazi attack....

The ultimate goal of the initiative is to make it a criminal offense to discuss the motives and goals of the jihadis, thereby rendering us mute and defenseless in the face of their advancing threat, and to compel the West to adopt Sharia blasphemy laws, and ultimately the rest of Sharia as well.

"Islam: Qatar designs a law against offending religions: Draft will be presented to the UN with aim of creating int'l law," from ANSAmed, October 19 (thanks to Block Ness):

(ANSAmed) - Rome, October 19 - The Qatari Justice Minister is designing a law that would ban attacks on or offenses to religion. The ultimate goal of the initiative is to create an international law with the help of the United Nations. News of the minister's plan was reported on Friday by the Doha Gulf Times.

"In recent years, there have been insults and offenses against religion through drawings, films and other means. Thus we have taken the initiative to create a legislative instrument on an international level to protect the sacredness of all religions. The draft will be presented at the United Nations," declared Qatari Justice Minister Hassan bin Abdullah al-Ghanem.

The Qatari minister is collaborating with the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS) on making religious offense considered a crime abroad as well as at home.

"Offenses to religion shake the foundations of stability in the world and put world peace at risk," said Yousuf Qaradawi, president of IUMS. Every religion has its sacred elements. In the case of Islam, the Koran and the Prophet Mohammed are sacred, and any attack automatically sparks undesirable consequences, Qaradawi explained. "It is impossible to contain the spontaneous rage of a mass insulted by an offense to their religion," Qaradawi added.

Qatar's initiative comes on the heels of violent protests throughout the Islamic world - particularly in the Arabic regions - against the American- made, anti-Islamic film, "Innocence of the Muslims". Even in Doha, hundreds of people demonstrated in front of the United States embassy in a peaceful protest, which nevertheless saw many wave black banners and chant for jihad, the fight for Islam.

Another initiative is also being undertaken in Doha to appease spirits. The cinematic company AlNoor Holdings recently announced that it will produce a trilogy on the history of the Prophet Mohammed with the explicit goal of showing the Occident the true image of Islam. (ANSAmed).

Oh, good. That will fix everything.

Slavery is taken for granted in the Qur'an (see 2:178, 2:221, 4:92, 5:89, and many more), so this should come as no surprise. "Migrant workers in Qatar risk forced labour, human rights group says," from AFP, June 13 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

Doha: Human Rights Watch (HRW) warned on Tuesday that migrant construction workers in Qatar, which is preparing to host the 2022 World Cup, risk serious abuse amounting to ‘forced labour’.

“The government needs to ensure that the cutting edge, high-tech stadiums it’s planning to build for World Cup fans are not built on the backs of abused and exploited workers,” said HRW Middle East director Sarah Leah Whitson in a statement released at a news conference in Doha.

The New York-based watchdog said construction workers, mostly South Asians, “risk serious exploitation and abuse, sometimes amounting to forced labour,” as it released its report: ‘Building a better World Cup: Protecting migrant workers in Qatar ahead of Fifa 2022.’

The 146-page report was based on interviews with 73 migrant construction workers, as well as meetings and correspondence with government officials, employers, contracting companies, recruitment agents, diplomats from labour-sending countries, and worker advocates, HRW said.

One bit of good news in this is that the U.S. actually demanded substantive action from the Taliban and not just words, as prior reports implied. An update on this story. "US, Taliban talks on prisoner swap falter," by Mustaf Yusufzai for NBC News January 29:

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Talks between the Afghan Taliban and the United States in Qatar almost failed as the Taliban leadership reportedly refused to accept the U.S. demand of a ceasefire before swapping prisoners.

Sources in the Afghan Taliban said the Taliban had set up an office in Qatar hoping that it would help in a prisoners' swap, especially for their five top commanders held at the Guantanamo Bay base since 2002.

The Taliban sources said their talks with the U.S. had been going for the past few years in exchange for an American soldier, Bowe Bergdahl, captured by Taliban militants in Afghanistan's Paktika province in June 2009, bordering Pakistan's South Waziristan.

Maulvi Sangeen, a senior commander of the powerful Haqqani terror network, had initially claimed responsibility for kidnapping the U.S. soldier.

The Taliban sources said U.S. officials had earlier promised them they would exchange prisoners and later start peace talks.

However, according to the sources, the U.S. demanded that the Taliban announce a ceasefire in Afghanistan before any prisoner swap, which they said their central leadership had turned down.

"Our stance is the same. We will announce a ceasefire when the foreign forces start their withdrawal from Afghanistan," a Taliban source said.

The Afghan Taliban leadership is also worried about the reaction from their field commanders and fighters if a ceasefire were announced without getting anything to show in exchange.

Some members of the 140-strong Taliban delegation that went to Qatar had started leaving after no breakthrough was seen in talks with the U.S.

The Taliban wants them sent to Qatar so they are not detained in Afghanistan. Of course, they'll all just take up shuffleboard wherever they're released. No security issues there.

The U.S. has "agreed in principle" to release high-ranking Taliban prisoners from Guantánamo Bay in what has appeared so far to be an exchange of concrete American actions for pledges from the Taliban. "Taliban 'want US prisoners sent to Qatar'," by Joris Fioriti for Agence France-Presse, January 6:

Afghanistan's Taliban insurgents have demanded in negotiations with the US that prisoners held in Guantanamo Bay be transferred to Qatar, an Afghan government spokesman said Friday.

But President Hamid Karzai's government objects strongly to the move and wants the prisoners sent directly to Afghanistan, presidential spokesman Aimal Faizi told AFP.

The Taliban announced this week that they planned to set up a political office in Qatar, a move seen as a precursor to peace talks with Washington.

At the same time, the hardline Islamists demanded the release of prisoners from the US military detention centre at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba -- but the statement did not specify where they should be sent.

Karzai was told by the US about the demand that they should go to Qatar shortly before the Bonn conference on Afghanistan in December, Faizi said.

"Several meetings had taken place between the Americans and the Taliban. It was something discussed between the two sides.

"But that day, when the Americans talked to Karzai, it was the first time that they talked about the transfer of the prisoners to Qatar."

Faizi said his government was in favour of a release of Guantanamo prisoners, "but we don't want them to go directly to Qatar -- our government is strongly against it".

Karzai's government is concerned about being sidelined in the negotiations towards possible peace between the Taliban and the US, and Faizi stressed that it wanted "an Afghan-led transition".

"You can't send them directly to Qatar because it would be a breach of our sovereignty, of the Afghan laws or of the constitution. Afghanistan is an independent nation, you know.

"You can't do anything you want with our citizens without informing the Afghan government. The prisoners should be sent to the Afghan government first.

"We agreed on the opening of an office for the Taliban in Qatar, but never on the transfer of the prisoners to that country." [...]

Afghan analyst and former Taliban official Waheed Mujhda said that if released Taliban prisoners were repatriated to Kabul they risked being detained by the government, which is why the movement was pressing for them to be sent to Qatar....

Earlier reports suggested they would be transferred to Afghan custody. This report also speculates about a possible prisoner exchange for the abducted U.S. soldier Bowe Bergdahl, but notes there is no clear indication that this arrangement is under discussion.

Instead, "the releases would be to reciprocate for Tuesday's announcement from the Taliban that they are prepared to open a political office in Qatar to conduct peace negotiations." So, once again, by all appearances, the U.S. is trading risky American actions for pledges from the Taliban.

"Taliban leaders held at Guantánamo Bay to be released in peace talks deal," by Julian Borger and Jon Boone for the Guardian, January 3:

The US has agreed in principle to release high-ranking Taliban officials from Guantánamo Bay in return for the Afghan insurgents' agreement to open a political office for peace negotiations in Qatar, the Guardian has learned.

The Taliban are set to be the beneficiaries of "negotiations" Homer Simpson described best: "You help me, and I, in turn, am helped by you."

According to sources familiar with the talks in the US and in Afghanistan, the handful of Taliban figures will include Mullah Khair Khowa, a former interior minister, and Noorullah Noori, a former governor in northern Afghanistan.

More controversially, the Taliban are demanding the release of the former army commander Mullah Fazl Akhund. Washington is reported to be considering formally handing him over to the custody of another country, possibly Qatar.

The releases would be to reciprocate for Tuesday's announcement from the Taliban that they are prepared to open a political office in Qatar to conduct peace negotiations "with the international community" – the most significant political breakthrough in ten years of the Afghan conflict.

The Taliban are holding just one American soldier, Bowe Bergdahl, a 25-year-old sergeant captured in June 2009, but it is not clear whether he would be freed as part of the deal.

"To take this step, the [Obama] administration have to have sufficient confidence that the Taliban are going to reciprocate," said Vali Nasr, who was an Obama administration adviser on the Afghan peace process until last year. "It is going to be really risky. Guantánamo is a very sensitive issue politically."

Nasr, now a professor at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, said the Taliban announcement on the opening of an office in Qatar was a dramatic breakthrough.

"If it had not happened then the idea of reconciliation would have been completely finished. The Qatar office is akin to the Taliban forming a Sinn Féin, a political wing to conduct negotiations," Nasr said, but added: "The next phase will need concessions on both sides. This doesn't mean we are now on autopilot to peace."....

No kidding!

The U.S. agreed to the idea earlier last year. The third-country presence carries the risk of giving the Taliban an undeserved veneer of legitimacy, giving it the opportunity to buy time on the battlefield by going through the motions, and engage in blackmail over quitting negotiations. It also threatens the evolution of a Hizballah-like Taliban that joins the political process, but will not disarm.

Note also the continued talk of "trust-building" that involves "assurances" from the Taliban in exchange for concrete, risky concessions from the U.S. This is the first mention of a possible prisoner exchange for the abducted soldier Bowe Bergdahl, though it is not clear how seriously that is under discussion.

"Taliban strike deal with Qatar on office there," by Patrick Quinn and Rahim Faiez for the Associated Press, January 3:

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Afghan Taliban said Tuesday that they have reached a preliminary deal with the Gulf state of Qatar to open a liaison office there, in what could be a step toward formal, substantive peace talks to end more than a decade of war.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid indicated the liaison office will conduct negotiations with the international community but not with the Afghan government — a condition that President Hamid Karzai has indicated he would reject. Mujahid did not say when it would open.

The reported progress came as three bomb blasts hit Kandahar in southern Afghanistan, killing 13.

For the United States and its allies, the idea of a Taliban political office in the Qatari capital of Doha has become the central element in efforts to draw the insurgents into peace talks.

"Right now, having a strong presence in Afghanistan, we still want to have a political office for negotiations," said Mujahid. "In this regard, we have started preliminary talks and we have reached a preliminary understanding with relevant sides, including the government of Qatar, to have a political office for negotiations with the international community."

Mujahid's emailed statement also said the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan — the name of Afghanistan under Taliban rule — has "requested for the exchange of prisoners from Guantanamo."

He was referring to a Taliban demand that the U.S. military release about five Afghan prisoners believed to be affiliated with the Taliban from the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The Taliban are holding Bowe Bergdahl, a 25-year-old U.S. Army sergeant from Hailey, Idaho, who is the only U.S. soldier held by the insurgents. He was taken prisoner June 30, 2009, in Afghanistan.

From the American perspective, other trust-building measures would involve assurances that the insurgents cut ties with al-Qaida, accept the elected civilian government of Afghanistan and bargain in good faith...

Of course they'll promise to bargain in good faith.

Qatar was part of the coalition to support the NTC in ousting Gaddafi, sending six fighter jets. They seem to have to missed the memo that this is all about "democracy." "Libya UN envoy says Qatar arming Islamists," from Reuters, November 18 (thanks to Twostellas):

TANGIER, Morocco Nov 18 (Reuters) - Libya's U.N. envoy Mohammed Abdel Rahman Shalgam on Friday urged Qatar to stop meddling in his country's domestic affairs, accusing the fellow Arab nation of providing funds and weapons to Libyan Islamists.

"There are facts on the ground, they (Qatar) give money to some parties, the Islamist parties. They give money and weapons and they try to meddle in issues that do not concern them and we reject that," Shalgam told Reuters on the sidelines of a conference in the Moroccan city Tangier.

"The Qatari state is still providing assistance to some (Libyan) parties and they are giving them money and we reject this totally," he added.

Samer Allawi "offered to use his position as a reporter to promote Hamas interests," and "traveled to Qatar and met with additional Al Jazeera reporters, who the Shin Bet said were Hamas operatives, and discussed the possibility of using their position to advance Hamas by criticizing the US military in Afghanistan."

How many more operatives are there? Does al-Jazeera care to find out? "Al Jazeera journalist admits to being Hamas operative," by Yaakov Katz for the Jerusalem Post, September 26:

During a Shin Bet (Israeli Security Agency) interrogation, former Al Jazeera Afghanistan bureau chief Samer Allawi said he traveled to Syria to help a terror group.

Allawi reached a deal with the Israel State Prosecutor’s Office on Sunday, under which he will receive a suspended sentence of three years, after he confessed to conspiring in Hamas operations.

Allawi, a Palestinian, was arrested in August on the border between the West Bank and Jordan.

He said he was recruited into Hamas in 1993 and served there until 2004 in a senior committee that oversees Hamas operations abroad, and is responsible for fundraising.

In 2001 and 2003 he traveled to Syria where he reported on his activities to Mousa Aba Marzook, deputy to Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, in Damascus.

Aba Marzook offered Allawi to become an official Hamas representative in Iran, but he rejected the offer.

During the interrogation with the Shin Bet, Allawi said he attended a meeting in 2000 in Saudi Arabia in which he said he would be part of a terror operation on behalf of Hamas. He also offered to use his position as a reporter to promote Hamas interests.

In 2006, Allawi traveled to Qatar and met with additional Al Jazeera reporters, who the Shin Bet said were Hamas operatives, and discussed the possibility of using their position to advance Hamas by criticizing the US military in Afghanistan.

During his interrogation, the Shin Bet said he also discussed his activities as a member of the mujahideen in Afghanistan from 1988 to 1992, during which he said that he participated in a rebel raid on an Afghan military base and participated in guerrilla operations against Soviet forces.

This concept is not new; earlier, there were discussions about allowing the Taliban to open a "political" office in Turkey.

Only the Taliban would benefit from the opportunity to gain legitimacy, and to transform itself into Hizballah-like "political party" that also happens to function as a state-within-a-state with its own armed forces. Indeed, the office to open in Qatar is reportedly to bear the name of the "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan," signaling that it does not recognize the current government in Kabul.

They will benefit the most from the ability to buy time through going through the motions of dialogue, while business as usual continues on the battlefield.

"U.S. backs move to let Taliban open headquarters in Qatar in the hope of ending war in Afghanistan," from the Daily Mail, September 12:

Talks to end the 10-year war in Afghanistan could be on the horizon after the U.S. backed a plan to let the Taliban open political headquarters in the Middle East.

The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is likely to open a base in Qatar before Christmas, The Times said.

We'll get it for Christmas? Coal in the stocking sounds pretty good right about now.

It is hoped this will help facilitate peace talks which could lead to a truce with the Taliban.

The hudna is never intended to last.

A senior member of the Taliban - Tayyab Agha - has been talking on and off with western diplomats for the past year but it is hoped this move will accelerate the process.

Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammed Omar is understood to be backing the negotiations.

They must be sure they have the right guy this time.

When the HQ is opened in the Qatari capital Doha, it will be the first time the Islamist group has been treated like a political party since it fell from power in 2001.

The Times said the Taliban wants to make sure its members are free from harassment and arrest whilst based in the city.

This, from the group that was filmed beating women in the street when it was in power.

The Gulf state is believed to have agreed to let the group have a base after Washington decided that it should be located away from the influence of Pakistan.

One diplomat told the Times: 'It will be an address where they have a political office.'

He said it would not be an embassy or consulate but 'like a residence where they can be treated like a political party'....

FIFA's has chosen Qatar over the United States to host the 2022 World Cup, and the internationally renowned "reformist" Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi is crowing that it represents a victory for Muslims over America. Interestingly enough, the English-language stories on Qaradawi's Friday sermon say nothing about Muslims; in the Arabic, however, it's a different story. Here is my rough translation of a piece on this from Elaph.com:

"Qaradawi: Qatar's grab of the first World Cup victory for the Muslims for America," from Elaph.com, December 4 (thanks to Emad):

The scholar Dr Yusuf Qaradawi, head of the International Union for Muslim Scholars, said that Qatar's success in hosting the 2022 World Cup competition is the first made by Muslim countries over the United States of America.

He said Sheikh Al-Qaradawi, in his Friday sermon in the Mosque of Omar bin al-Khattab, said yesterday that the country's insistence on success and excellence led him to follow the developments on the issue, and that he "and sat in front of the screen watching the results of the vote like the rest of the country."

Al-Qaradawi said that Qatar's victory was a slap in the face of the United States, and criticized President Barack Obama on the results of the free vote, and described his comments as "very bad."

Qaradawi said that Obama's resentment of Qatar's victory reveals that America wants to monopolize everything about Arabs and Muslims in all walks of life: military, economic and even sports....

Caliphate dreams from Misunderstanders of Islam. "Extremists see 'Islamic Caliphate' for 2022 World Cup," from AFP, December 2:

WASHINGTON -- Extremists welcomed FIFA's decision Thursday to have Qatar host the 2022 World Cup, predicting Al-Qaeda will establish an "Islamic State" in the Gulf region in the coming years, monitors said.

"You fools, know that Al-Qaeda is on the threshold of establishing the shariah (Islamic law) of Allah the Almighty," a user who went by the name Hafeed al-Hussein posted on the Shumukh al-Islam online forum, according to the US-based SITE Intelligence Group.

"And who knows, Allah may empower al-Qaeda so that it takes control of matters after a year or two, or five years at most.

"In 2022, there is no country with the name Qatar, and there is no province called Kuwait and there is no Saudi (Arabia). Instead, there is an emirate called the Islamic State," the post added....

Another user predicted Qatar's demise would come within seven years.

"By 2022, Qatar will not exist with permission from Allah. Instead, there will be the Islamic State of Qatar under the Islamic Caliphate established by Sheikh Osama bin Laden in 2017," Juleibib al-Irhabi wrote.

One of his colleagues, Abu Yassin, predicted that insurgents in the Russian Caucasus -- where attacks on officials have become daily occurrences as Russian authorities battle the fighters -- would help spell Qatar's downfall.

"In 2018, Russia will organize (the games) and the brothers in the emirate of the Caucasus, with permission from Allah, will make a case to cancel Qatar's" games, he wrote.

A forum user who went by the name Huna al-Qaeda predicted 2022 "will be the first World Cup for the mujahideen, with permission from Allah."

"We will win the cup and medals, and we will seize some heads of the cross and apostates. Maybe there will be captives," the post added.

Another who called himself Abu Khubeib al-Khorasani said 2022 will be the "most exciting" World Cup final, predicting that Portuguese player Cristiano Ronaldo would be kidnapped and Al-Qaeda would win the tournament.

Just a coincidence. Just a coincidence. Just a coincidence. Just a joke. Just a joke. Just a joke. "Qatar diplomat was to meet jailed terrorist," by Matthew Lee and P. Solomon Banda for The Associated Press, April 8 (thanks to all who sent this in):

WASHINGTON -- A Qatari diplomat was on his way to an official visit with an imprisoned al-Qaida sleeper agent when he touched off a bomb scare by slipping into an airline bathroom for a smoke, officials said Thursday as the diplomat prepared to leave the U.S.

The diplomat, Mohammed Al-Madadi was going to meet Ali Al-Marri in prison, according to a State Department official and another person close to the matter. Al-Marri, a citizen of Qatar, is serving eight years in prison after pleading guilty last year to conspiring to support terrorism.

Al-Marri was arrested after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, accused of being a sleeper agent researching poisonous gasses and plotting a cyberattack.

Consular officials frequently visit foreigners held in the United States to make sure they are being treated well.

The purpose of his visit raises further questions about Al-Madadi's behavior, such as why someone familiar with terrorism cases would apparently flaunt [sic] airline security rules. Law enforcement officials said Al-Madadi later joked that he had been trying to light his shoe -- an apparent reference to the 2001 so-called shoe bomber, Richard Reid....

Some air travelers at Denver International Airport Thursday were amazed that Al-Madadi would not be charged with anything.

"I think it's wrong. I'd get busted. I don't think that (immunity) should be a factor," said one of them, Hank DePetro, a retired psychologist from Greeley, Colo....

But even without charges being pressed against him and without such a waiver, the U.S. could have moved to declare Al-Madadi "persona non grata" and expel him from the country. However, officials said they would not pursue this, given the close nature of U.S.-Qatari ties and the importance the country plays in the Middle East....

"I'm a joker, I'm a smoker, I'm a midnight toker..."

It was all just a joke, you see. Apparently Mohammed Al-Madadi missed all the signs at airport security checkpoints warning against joking, as it could be misunderstood. It was all just a joke. Nothing to see here. "Qatari Diplomat Released after Bomb Scare: Passenger Identified as Mohammed Al-Madadi Sneaked Smoke in Plane's Bathroom, Allegedly Joked About Lighting Shoe on Fire," from CBS, April 8:

An envoy from Qatar was released from custody Thursday, one day after authorities said he grabbed a surreptitious smoke in a jetliner's bathroom, sparking a bomb scare and widespread alert that sent jet fighters scrambling to intercept the Denver-bound flight.

No explosives were found and authorities speaking on condition of anonymity said they don't think he was trying to hurt anyone during Wednesday's scare and he will not be criminally charged.

Qatar's U.S. ambassador, Ali Bin Fahad Al-Hajri, cautioned against a rush to judgment.

"This diplomat was traveling to Denver on official embassy business on my instructions, and he was certainly not engaged in any threatening activity," he said in a statement on his Washington embassy's Web site. "The facts will reveal that this was a mistake."

The ambassador did not mention the diplomat by name, but an Arab envoy briefed on the matter identified him as Mohammed Al-Madadi of Qatar, an oil-rich Middle East nation and close U.S. ally.

Brown Lloyd James, a law firm representing the Qatar embassy, said Thursday morning that the diplomat had been released by authorities after questioning and was on his way back to Washington....

Two law enforcement officials said investigators were told the man was asked about the smell of smoke in the bathroom and he made a joke that he had been trying to light his shoes - an apparent reference to the 2001 so-called "shoe bomber" Richard Reid....

Officials said air marshals aboard the flight restrained the man and he was questioned. The plane landed safely as military jets were scrambled....

Turning allies into enemies and enemies into allies. It's all explained in my forthcoming book, The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration's War On America. "US 'may not veto UN resolution on Jerusalem,'" from the BBC, March 28 (thanks to Weasel Zippers):

The US is considering abstaining from a possible UN Security Council resolution against Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem, sources suggest to the BBC.

The possibility surfaced at talks in Paris last week between a senior US official and Qatar's foreign minister.

The official said the US would "seriously consider abstaining" if the issue of Israeli settlements was put to the vote, a diplomat told the BBC.

US officials in Washington have not confirmed the report. [...]

The US usually blocks Security Council resolutions criticising Israel. [...]

The reported exchange between the US official and Qatar's foreign minister came to light during a meeting at an Arab League summit in the Libyan town of Sirte.

A diplomatic source told the BBC that Qatar's Foreign Minister, Sheikh Hamad Bin Jasim Al Thani - who is also the prime minister - had recently met an official high up in the Obama administration during a visit to France.

During their talks, Sheikh Hamad asked the US official whether Washington would guarantee not to veto a UN Security Council resolution that was critical of Israel's ongoing settlement construction in East Jerusalem.

The diplomat said the US official had replied that the current feeling in Washington was that they would "seriously consider abstention".

An Egyptian official is said to have confirmed his knowledge of the US position during a meeting at the Arab League summit, which was held behind closed doors. [...]

The BBC's Rana Jawad, in Sirte, says that many people will see the comments as yet another sign of Washington's recent dispute with Israel....

No kidding, really?

I Know Nothing! An update on this story, from Reuters.

DOHA - Qatar insisted its laws prohibited human trafficking and said it was not aware of any such rights violations on Sunday after the Gulf state was criticized in a U.S. report.

"These claims are totally unexpected and are something we disagree with completely," a senior Qatari official said.

"The laws of Qatar are strong and we have taken many steps to ensure equal rights for all. We are not aware of any human trafficking."

The State Department downgraded regional allies Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates in an annual report on Friday, making them subject to sanctions if they do not improve their records in three months.

Such sanctions have rarely been applied and would have little effect on the wealthy Gulf Arab oil producers.

The report said boys are trafficked to be used as camel jockeys in Qatar, while male and female domestic servants can fall victim to "involuntary servitude" through excessive work hours and the withholding of wages and passports.

Expatriates, mostly workers from Asian and Arab countries, make up more than 75 percent of Qatar's population of 800,000...

From Reuters via CNN with thanks to Two Stellas.

WASHINGTON -- The United States criticized four Gulf Arab allies as some of the world's worst offenders in permitting human trafficking Friday in a rebuke Washington hopes will promote improved human rights in the Middle East.

The State Department downgraded Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates to the lowest level of compliance in the report, which evaluates countries' efforts in fighting the trafficking of thousands of people forced into servitude or the sex trade every year.

Victims in the region were mainly domestic servants and laborers but also included boy camel jockeys, according to the report.

It cited the case of a 17-year-old orphan, Lusa, kidnapped from Uzbekistan and was sold into a slavery ring in UAE. She was eventually "no longer usable" as a prostitute and the emirates' immigration service said she should serve a two-year prison sentence for entering the country illegally.

Officials from the Gulf countries were not immediately available to comment on the one-step downgrade, which ranks them with such countries as Burma, North Korea and Sudan.

"This report shows that in this administration we will not pull our punches even with our friends. We appreciate their cooperation in other areas but they just don't have a good track record fighting this," a State Department official said on condition of anonymity...

From ABC News, with thanks to Nicolei:

However big a shock a recent suicide bombing in Doha was to the Qataris, it was far from unexpected in Western capitals, where intelligence agencies had discreetly put out a travel warning through their respective embassies.

The emirate, a key ally in the Bush administration's war on terror, has been high on the terrorist target list ever since it became home to the U.S. Central Command's operational headquarters in early 2003. Just five days before the March 19 blast, which killed a British teacher and wounded 12 others, the State Department issued a general warning to all Americans travelling in the Gulf that "extremists may be planning to carry out attacks against Westerners and oil workers" in the region. What did surprise intelligence officials was the name of the group which claimed responsibility for the bombing: Jund al-Sham ("Soldiers of the Levant").

Although the group said that this was its first statement, Jund al-Sham is the same name as a group started by the Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Intelligence officials believe it may be a sign that Zarqawi is beginning to attack targets outside Iraq, and may, in fact, be emerging as a replacement to Osama bin Laden as the operational leader of the global jihad. Analysts are concerned that Zarqawi may now begin to redeploy his cadre of militants who, having gained important combat experience in Iraq, are capable of carrying out deadly missions elsewhere.

According to Jordanian government sources and European intelligence documents, Zarqawi first set up Jund al-Sham in Afghanistan in late 1999 with $200,000 in startup money from bin Laden. The group's objective was to operate in a geographical area known as the "Levant," which encompasses Egypt, Israel and the Palestinian territories, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan where al Qaeda's presence was deemed too weak. Headed by Zarqawi, Jund al-Sham federated about 150 jihadis, including Jordanian Islamic militants exiled by the Jordanian government earlier that year, as well as various recruits from Syria (some holdouts of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood), and Lebanon (mostly Palestinian refugees of the movement "Asbat al Ansar"). These militants were trained in explosive, guerrilla warfare and chemical weapons techniques at a training facility ("Al Matar Training Camp") operated by Zarqawi near the Afghan city of Herat, close to the Iranian border.

The group's stated objective, according to Jordanian intelligence documents, was a compromise between Zarqawi's obsession to destabilize the Jordanian monarchy and bin Laden's desire to conduct major terrorist operations in Israel. From Herat and Kabul, where the organization had its headquarters, its members started planning several terrorist operations, including the "Millennium Bombings" in Jordan in December 1999. Most of these plots were fortunately uncovered by the Jordanian intelligence which had sent its own recruits to "join" Jund al-Sham in Afghanistan in 1999. After 9/11 and the U.S. intervention in Afghanistan, the organization was visibly disbanded and most of its members, including Zarqawi himself, fled back to their home countries through Pakistan or Iran....

Read it all.

I have spoken many times of how moderate Muslims can be turned into jihadists by appeals to the Qur'an and Sunnah. This is most likely what happened to this man. From ArabNews, with thanks to Nicolei:

CAIRO, 25 March 2005 - Visibly distressed, Muhammad tossed his head in disbelief as he talked of how his friend's promising life ended in disaster. His friend was identified as the perpetrator of last Saturday's car bombing that killed a Briton outside a theater near a British school in Doha.

"This is unbelievable," Muhammad said. "He was an ordinary person and never sounded like an extremist or someone who has a different religious or political ideology."

Maybe that's because he really didn't have a "different" ideology.

Muhammad added that his 39-year old friend, Omar Ahmad Abdullah Ali, had only interests related to his computer studies and his work and always planned for having a potential career....

Ali had worked in the information technology department of the energy firm since 1990, his mother said. "He had everything he wished for: A nice Palestinian wife born in Qatar, three cute kids and a job with a very good salary.

"He was also very happy when he got a baby last month and he was planning to visit Egypt this summer so that I will be able to see the baby," the mother told Arab News.

The mother said her son called last week to tell her he was fine and confirmed his summer visit. "My son sounded very normal in the phone call and was giving me details of his next trip," said the mother.

"If he had any intentions of carrying out the attack I would have noticed something and he would have tried to say goodbye indirectly. But it was just a normal call like all the calls he made during the past 18 years."

Ali's family, friends and neighbours in Cairo agreed on one thing. He was a decent man and a moderate pious Muslim who never talked about politics or even thought about having a beard.

The wife of the computer programmer, Umm Abdullah, in Doha was quoted by AFP as saying he was a devout Muslim and a man of integrity. "I am shocked," the mother of three said. "It is impossible that he could have done that because he had no motivations and his history is as clean as snow," said another friend....

Except for the fact that he undoubtedly read the Qur'an, and most likely came across the verse promising Paradise to those who "slay and are slain" for Allah (9:111).