Free Republic

Amid financial hardship, Erdogan looks to Qatar as 'rich daddy' Zülfikar Doğan Posted December 29, 2015 A series of controversial steps in the region has left Turkey increasingly isolated in its neighborhood. As a result, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government has gone on a hunt for new "friends." Normalizing ties with Israel is now back on the agenda. The second door the government has knocked on is Qatar's. Yet, even Qatar's friendship could not stop the Arab League from adopting a joint statement last week condemning the Turkish troop deployment in Bashiqa, near Mosul, and urging Ankara to...

Qatari royals rush to Switzerland in nine planes after emir breaks leg A fleet of jets, including an Airbus, made emergency landings at Zurich-Kloten airport after Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani suffered a fracture Agence France-Presse Tuesday 29 December 2015 07.05 GMT Unidentified individuals travelling in as many as nine planes belonging to Qatar's royal family made an emergency trip to Switzerland over the weekend for medical reasons, according to a Swiss official. A spokesman for Switzerland's federal office of civil aviation confirmed local media reports that multiple aircraft made unscheduled landings at the Zurich-Kloten airport overnight from 25...

Man, Boeing (NYSE:BA) just cannot catch a break. For a while there, 2015 was starting to look like the year Boeing defense got its wings back. In February, opining that "stealth may be overrated," U.S. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jon Greenert began laying the groundwork for the U.S. Navy breaking up with Lockheed Martin's F-35C fighter jet, and buying a bunch of Boeing F/A-18s for its carriers instead. Earlier this month, the Air Force floated a trial balloon of its own. In a controversial revelation, the Air Force suggested it was considering buying as many as six dozen cheaper...

Nine of the Qataris kidnapped from Iraq's Samawa desert are members of the ruling family: sources Published December 19th, 2015 - 20:00 GMT via SyndiGate.info As the mystery surrounding the abduction last week of a Qatari hunting party in Iraq deepened, a report in Kuwait said that nine of its members were from the Al Thani Ruling family. The Al Thani hunters abducted are Shaikh Khalid Bin Ahmad Mohammad Al Thani, Shaikh Nayed Bin Eid Mohammad Al Thani, Shaikh Abdul Rahman Bin Jasem Abdul Aziz Jassem Al Thani, Shaikh Jassem Bin Fahad Mohammad Thani Al Thani, Shaikh Khalid Bin Jassem...

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has lifted the visa ban on the European theoretician of radical Islam and virtuoso Jew-baiter, Tariq Ramadan, allowing him to take up a position similar to that he was offered at Notre Dame University, but which was filled because of his unavailability. At the same time, a U.S. entry prohibition against a South African leftist, Adam Habib of Johannesburg University, was voided. The decision to admit Tariq Ramadan is profoundly wrong. Adam Habib is an innocuous figure. Tariq Ramadan is not. Ramadan was first barred from the U.S. in 2004 ... the denial of...

At some point between 2006 and 2008, the American people decided to turn their backs on the world. Between the seeming futility of the war in Iraq and the financial collapse of 2008, Americans decided they'd had enough. In Barack Obama, they found a leader who could channel their frustration. Obama's foreign policy, based on denying the existence of radical Islam and projecting the responsibility for Islamic aggression on the US and its allies, suited their mood just fine. If America is responsible, then America can walk away. Once it is gone, so the thinking has gone, the Muslims will...

Gunmen kidnap 26 from Qatari hunting group in Iraq Gunmen kidnapped 26 members of a Qatari hunting party in southern Iraq, officials said on Wednesday, the second high-profile seizure of foreign nationals in the country in three months. Posted December 16, 2015 12:35 GMT "Twenty-six Qatari hunters were kidnapped at about 3:00 am (0000 GMT) by unknown gunmen," according to a police major from Muthanna province, where the kidnappings took place. A local council member from the province confirmed the number of people kidnapped but did not specify their nationality. "Unknown gunmen in dozens of pick-up trucks attacked a place...

Charges of unlawful assembly and use of uniform in public were brought against 11 members of a group trying to enforce aspects of strict Islamic Sharia law in the North Rhine-Westphalia city, a spokeswoman for the Wuppertal police told The Local. Officers stopped the 11-man group on the street on Wednesday. Some were wearing orange vests bearing the words 'Shariah Police', in violation of federal German law, the spokeswoman said. The group has been stopping young people at local drinking and gambling establishments and urging them to abstain from activities deemed to be ungodly according to Islam. The Wednesday incident...

Despite Hillary Rodham Clinton’s promise that she had scrubbed illegal cash contributions from her 2008 presidential campaign, prosecutors revealed Monday that the mastermind of Mayor Vincent C. Gray’s “shadow campaign” also funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars to aid Mrs. Clinton’s bid for the White House.

On Friday Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal slammed Donald Trump for proposing a ban on Muslim immigrants in the US until the government could alleviate security concerns. Prince Alwaleed called Donald Trump a "disgrace" for his popular plan. @realDonaldTrump You are a disgrace not only to the GOP but to all America. Withdraw from the U.S presidential race as you will never win. @Alwaleed_Talal) December 11, 2015 On Sunday Donald Trump responded to the Saudi Prince in epic fashion. "@Michael2014abc: @Alwaleed_Talal @realDonaldTrump Has your country, Saudi Arabia, taken ANY of the Syrian refugees? If not, why not?" Donald J. Trump...

While NATO sees no danger of Islamic State (ISIS) gaining a strong enough foothold in Afghanistan to represent a serious threat to regional security, Russia is concerned that the jihadist organization is growing in strength and may soon supplant the Taliban - and Moscow fears that ISIS has ultimate plans to make Central Asia part of its caliphate. Russia and the West diverge in their assessments of whether Islamic State (ISIS) is expanding geographically and constitutes a disaster waiting to happen in Afghanistan. Lack of understanding and cooperation on the ground might once again, as in Syria, only be a...

Police have named a second suspect in the San Bernardino shootings, a 28-year-old Qatari citizen named Tayyeep bin Ardogan, according to Fox News. Fox News Middle East analyst Lisa Daftari tweeted the account late Wednesday night.

Within days of demanding a total of $15 million from the City of Irving and the Irving Independent School District, “Clock Boy” Ahmed Mohamed announced in a long distance phone interview from Qatar, he is homesick and wants to come home to Texas now. In October, Ahmed accepted a fully-funded education scholarship from the Qatar Foundation, an organization with reputed ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, over an invitation to MIT, which is among the most prestigious institutions of higher learning in the world. The family announced they would relocate to Qatar to accommodate his education, which they did. Dallas’ KTVT...

Attorneys representing the family of Ahmed “clock kid” Mohamed sent a letter to Irving, Texas, officials demanding $10 million in compensation for “damages” and written apologies from the city’s mayor and police chief. snip After making appearances at a number of high-profile locations, including the White House, Mohamed and his family moved to Qatar. “For personal security reasons, Ahmed and family are in Doha, Qatar. However, when they feel safe again, all of them want more than anything to come home, to Irving, Texas,” the letter states.

On October 31, Russian Metrojet Flight 9268 crashed over Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, killing all 224 passengers and crew on board. Two weeks have since passed, and some Russian experts are now coming to suspect that the crash may indeed have been an act of terror, and that the trace leads to the Gulf. Commenting on the theory that the plane may have been downed by terrorists, Russian business and analysis magazine Expert noted that such a theory "poses serious foreign policy implications. SNIP--- In his own analysis of the crash, published in online analysis resource Svobodnaya Pressa, Yevgeny Satanovsky, a...

Doha, November 14 (QNA) - The State of Qatar strongly condemned the armed attacks and bombings in the French capital Paris, resulting in a number of deaths and further injuries. The Foreign Ministry said in a statement that such acts aimed at destabilizing security contradict with all moral and humanitarian principles and values. The statement also reiterated Qatar's firm stance which rejects violence in all its forms and manifestations, whatever its motives and causes. The Foreign Ministry expressed condolences of the State of Qatar to the families of the victims killed by these attacks, wishing a speedy recovery to the...

The United States spent a total of $5.9 billion to fund militaries around the world in 2014, according to the government’s 2015 Foreign Assistance report. Of that total, some 75%, or about $4.4 billion, was divided between Israel and Egypt. Clearly, the Middle East, at 64% of the pie, is the theme here, with Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon also found among the top 10 recipients. Closer to home, Colombia led the Americas with a relatively scant $29 million. Still, that’s enough to place it ninth overall on the list.

Michelle Obama went to Qatar to give a speech on girls education. There, the first lady of the United States complained about growing up as a girl in America."[B]ack when I was a girl, even though I was bright and curious and I had plenty of opinions of my own, people were often more interested in hearing what my brother had to say. And my parents didn’t have much money; neither of them had a university degree. So when I got to school, I sometimes encountered teachers who assumed that a girl like me wouldn’t be a good student. I...

First Lady Michelle Obama arrives at the Hamad Airport in Doha, Qatar, Nov. 2, 2015. U.S. first lady Michelle Obama arrived in Qatar on Monday as part of a two-country Mideast tour, with plans to visit a crucial air base in America's war against the Islamic State group and give a speech on the importance of girl's education. Obama touched down in Doha, the Qatari capital, on Monday night, the state-run Qatar News Agency reported, without elaborating. While in Doha, she'll visit the al-Udeid air base with comedian and late-night talk show host Conan O'Brien. The base hosts the forward...

Michelle Obama has announced her latest vacation, and this time she is heading to two Muslim countries ... The White House revealed today that Michelle will be traveling to Doha, Qatar, and Amman, Jordan from November 1-7. She will be going to the Muslim nations to promote her Let Girls Learn campaign, and to spend as much of our tax dollars as she can! While in Doha, Michelle will be speaking at the 2015 World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE), where she will address an audience of world leaders from the Middle East. Judging from some of her other vacations,...