Qatar

On 8 May 2010, Qatar Holding, an indirect subsidiary of QIA, purchased the Harrods Group from Mohammed Al-Fayed.

ex BBC Arabia, now Al Jazeera, is based out of Qatar. Al Jazeera has many connections to al Qaeda. The Al Jazeera Arabic satellite television news channel began broadcasting from Doha in 1996

no. 345. Sami al-Hajj was a cameraman for Al Jazeera when he was arrested on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. see also Televisia drug scandal for tv networks being used as fronts for organised crime

Al Jazeera's website was hosted by InfoCom Corporation, linked to Hamas

01 Feb 2011 - The FBI has launched a manhunt for a previously unknown team of men suspected to be part of the 9/11 attacks, the Daily Telegraph can disclose. Secret documents reveal that the three Qatari men conducted surveillance on the targets, provided “support” to the plotters and had tickets for a flight to Washington on the eve of the atrocities.

The Qatari suspects – named as Meshal Alhajri, Fahad Abdulla and Ali Alfehaid - flew back to London on a British Airways flight before returning to Qatar.

The cable will state, “A subsequent FBI investigation revealed that the men’s plane tickets were paid for and their hotel reservations in Los Angeles, CA, were made by a convicted terrorist.” This may be to Fahed Alhajri, a Qatari who lived in Chesapeake, Virginia. According to these news reports, he paid for the Los Angeles hotel room and plane fare of his brother Meshal Alhajri and two friends. Alhajri is one of the three Qatari men, and the friends presumably are the other two.

But Fahed Alhajri cannot be called a “convicted terrorist,” because in 2003 he is convicted of visa fraud, not terrorism, and then he is deported. News reports in 2002 will call Alhajri a suspected terrorist because of some items found in his possession when he is arrested as part of a visa fraud scheme that same year. For instance, he has photos of Osama bin Laden and the World Trade Center in his apartment, as well as a datebook with only one entry, written on 9/11 with the cryptic words, “Trackd the World Trade Center or the Pentagon Trackd for the Plane.”

A background check revealed associations wth American University in DC, as well as Falls Church addresses such as 5501 Seminary and an address at Riverside in NYC.

Over 60% of the nation's population reside in Doha, the capital city. The city was made capital of the British protectorate of Qatar in 1916, and became the nation's capital following the independence of Qatar in 1971.

Most of the arms shipped at the behest of Saudi Arabia and Qatar to supply Syrian rebel groups fighting the government of Bashar al-Assad are going to hard-line Islamic jihadists, and not the more secular opposition groups that the West wants to bolster, according to American officials and Middle Eastern diplomats. - NY Times October 14th 2012

March 28, 2003: Al-Qaeda Supporter Now In Charge of Security of Nation Closely Allied with US   The Los Angeles Times reports that, ironically, the man in charge of security for the nation where the US bases its headquarters for the Iraq war is a supporter of al-Qaeda. Sheik Abdullah bin Khalid al-Thani is the Interior Minister of Qatar. US Central Command and thousands of US troops are stationed in that country. In 1996, al-Thani was Religious Minister and he apparently let 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed (KSM) live on his farm. Mohammed was tipped off that the US was after him. Some US officials believe al-Thani was the one who helped KSM escape, just as he had assisted other al-Qaeda leaders on other occasions. Another royal family member has sheltered al-Qaeda leaders and given over $1 million to al-Qaeda. KSM was even sheltered by Qatari royalty for two weeks after 9/11. Ahmad Hikmat Shakir, who has ties to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the Bojinka plot, and also attended the January 2000 al-Qaeda summit in Malaysia, was sheltered by al-Thani’s religious ministry in 2000. Former counterterrorism “tsar” Richard Clarke says al-Thani “had great sympathy for Osama bin Laden, great sympathy for terrorist groups, was using his personal money and ministry money to transfer to al-Qaeda front groups that were allegedly charities.” However, the US has not attempted to apprehend al-Thani or take any other action against him.

On November 29, 2012, Qatari poet Muhammad al-Ajami was handed a life sentence for “insulting” the Emir, Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, and “inciting to overthrow the ruling system.” These claims came after a video was posted on the internet of Ajami reciting his poetic tribute to the Arab Spring, "Tunisian Jasmine."

Qatar, a major US ally in the Middle East, considers itself to be a defender of human rights. Deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, Joe Stork, said, “Qatar, after all its posturing as a supporter of freedom, turns out to be determined to keep its citizens quiet.”

When Qatar’s royal family was looking for advice on charitable giving, it turned to a well-regarded professor named Abd al-Rahman al-Nu’aymi. The 59-year-old educator had a stellar résumé that included extensive fundraising experience and years of work with international human rights groups.

But one apparent accomplishment was omitted from the list: According to U.S. officials, Nu’aymi also was working secretly as a financier for al-Qaeda, funneling millions of dollars to the terrorist group’s affiliates in Syria and Iraq even as he led campaigns in Europe for greater freedoms for Muslims. - An extreme Islamist cleric, Sheik Yusuf al-Qaradawi, has his sermons regularly broadcast on state television - Since the early 1990s, the government of Qatar, senior leaders and royal family members have provided material support and safe haven to known members of Al-Qaeda, affiliated groups and other violent extremists.

Khalid Sheik Mohammed, regarded as ‘the principal architect of the 9/11 attacks’ according to the United States Commission Report, worked as a project engineer at the Qatari Ministry of Electricity and Water between 1992 and 1996, and lived for some of that time on a farm belonging to government official Abdullah bin Khaled al Thani, who had invited him in from Pakistan.

Abdullah bin Khaled al Thani was described by former CIA agent Robert Baer as an Al- Qaeda ‘sympathiser and fellow traveller’. Former US Counterterrorism Director Richard Clarke thought him to have ‘great sympathy for Osama Bin Laden and great sympathy for terrorist groups’. He alleged the minister was ‘using his personal money and ministry money to transfer to Al-Qaeda front groups that were allegedly charities’.

A United Nations website, ReliefWeb, which provides information on humanitarian relief efforts, revealed that Qatar Charity collaborated with the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Education in Gaza in 2009 to build Hamas-run schools.

In 2003, a court hearing the case against Enaam Arnaout, a Syrian American who used charitable donations to fund fighters in Bosnia, was told by a former Al-Qaeda operative that the Qatar Charitable Society, funded in part by the Qatar government, provided funding for early Al-Qaeda operations.