Qatar buys off Al-Qaeda attacks with oil millions

Timesonline ^ | 05/01/05 | Uzi Mahnaimi

[Andy from Beaverton]

Qatar buys off Al-Qaeda attacks with oil millions
Uzi Mahnaimi, Doha

THE government of Qatar is paying millions of pounds a year to Al-Qaeda in return for an undertaking to spare it from further terrorist attacks, official sources in the wealthy Gulf state claimed last week.

The money, paid to spiritual leaders sympathetic to Al-Qaeda, is believed to be helping to fund its activities in Iraq. In a recent message broadcast via the internet, Osama Bin Laden told followers that operations in Iraq were costing Al-Qaeda more than £500,000 a month.

The sources said a deal between Qatar and Al-Qaeda was first made before the 2003 invasion of Iraq amid fears that the oil state, a close ally of Washington, could become a terrorist target. The US Central Command for the invasion was based in Qatar.

A senior government source said that the agreement was renewed in March after an Egyptian suicide bomber — thought to be associated with Al-Qaeda — struck a theatre in Doha, Qatar’s capital, killing a British teacher during a performance of Twelfth Night.

“We’re not sure that the attack was carried out by Al-Qaeda, but we ratified our agreement just to be on the safe side,” said a Qatari official. “We are a soft target and prefer to pay to secure our national and economical interests. We are not the only ones doing so.”

Qatar is one of the richest Gulf states and many of its 840,000 inhabitants have a high standard of living. It is also an important base for business.

Al-Qaeda would not be the first terrorist organisation to take protection money in the Arab world. During the 1970s and 1980s Arab rulers paid extremist groups such as the Abu Nidal organisation.

The financial pressures on Al-Qaeda would be a great incentive for it to offer protection to anybody willing to pay. But the deal with Qatar is not purely financial. Qatar has offered a haven for a number of extremists. Federal prosecutors in Miami recently indicted Kifah Jayyousi, a former Detroit school administrator, on charges of conspiring to murder, kidnap, and maim people in other countries, and of providing financial support to Islamic jihadists overseas. He was arrested at a Detroit airport after returning from Qatar.

Security in Qatar is noticeably relaxed compared with that in many Gulf states. While patrol cars and armed men are seen throughout much of the Arab world, they are not obvious in Doha. Even around hotels there are few guards. Locals in brand-new German and Japanese cars drive freely along the city’s wide boulevards.

But it may not be advisable to be too complacent. Al-Qaeda was widely believed at one time to have an unwritten pact with Saudi Arabia. If so, the deal lasted only until it suited the organisation to renege.

[Carry_Okie]

Shades of the Barbary Pirates.

[pctech]

Good analogy!

[CasaDeQueso]

You can't make everybody happy all the time.

[Guillermo]

If true (which it probably is) why does the US tolerate this?

We kiss the feet of rulers who fund our enemies, and Qatar is home to al-Jazeera.

There is something odd, to say the least, with this Bush/Abdullah love affair.

It probably extends into Qatar as well.

[blackdog]

It's Muhamadism plain and simple. Unless the faith reforms itself, it'll go on like this forever. The best way to break this mess up is to set up competetive militant groups to AQ. Then shake down Muslem Governments to pay us instead of AQ. Then use the funding to kill AQ and any other group of hydrophobia inflicted militant muhamadists.

Paging Oliver North........

[ARCADIA]

With friends like these....

[yankeedame]

The Dane-geld
(A.D. 980-1016)

Rudyard Kipling

============================================

It is always a temptation to an armed and agile nation,
To call upon a neighbour and to say:—
“We invaded you last night—we are quite prepared to fight,
Unless you pay us cash to go away.”

And that is called asking for Dane-geld,
And the people who ask it explain
That you’ve only to pay ’em the Dane-geld
And then you’ll get rid of the Dane!

It is always a temptation to a rich and lazy nation,
To puff and look important and to say:—
“Though we know we should defeat you, we have not the time to meet you.
We will therefore pay you cash to go away.”

And that is called paying the Dane-geld;
But we’ve proved it again and again,
That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld
You never get rid of the Dane.

It is wrong to put temptation in the path of any nation,
For fear they should succumb and go astray,
So when you are requested to pay up or be molested,
You will find it better policy to says:—

“We never pay any one Dane-geld,
No matter how trifling the cost,
For the end of that game is oppression and shame,
And the nation that plays it is lost!”

[daviddennis]

I wonder if favourable coverage from Al Jazzera is part of the deal. That would concern me a great deal more than simply trying to bribe Al Queda out of the country.

The bribes might work. Al Queda went into Saudi Arabia because Osama has a grudge against the ruling families there. They might have no such reason to go into Qatar. Except, oops, they did. Was that just a reminder to pay up? Or does it signal fresh trouble?

I'd certainly be concerned - especially since a good friend of mine might be about to go there to teach in the Education City.

Anyone have information on the Education City?

D

[Carry_Okie]

“We never pay any one Dane-geld,
No matter how trifling the cost,
For the end of that game is oppression and shame,
And the nation that plays it is lost!”

As the Romans had learned the hard way with the Huns and tribes.

[FierceKulak]

Millions for defense, not one cent for tribute.

[blackdog]

Powerful prose! Thanks for that! It's a keeper!

[Danae]

To steal a line from "Lawrence of Arabia"


"Bloody Wogs..."

[Dudesdad]

It looks as though AL-Qaeda has learned a thing or two from Jesse Jacksons "modus operandi".

[onedoug]

War On Terror, eh? What a joke.

[Americanexpat]

I was working as a security contractor for the Army base in Qatar. Naturally, most of us in my line of work were worried about terrorism. The company I worked for said not to worry the terrorist were not going to mess with us because the Emir of Qatar would come down hard on them.

My thoughts at the time was, if the terrorist do`'t give a damn about the King of Saudi Arabia why would they be concerned about a stinking Emir? I have my answer.

[little jeremiah]

Thought this might interest you.

[Cindy]

THANK YOU little jeremiah.

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