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Controversy about Qatar hosting football's World Cup has mostly focused on LGBT rights in the country and around same-sex relationships being criminalised. Transgender Qataris can be detained for "violating public morality", which requires no trial or official charge. BBC News has spoken to two trans Qataris about their lives. "I am very afraid, but I just want people to know that we do exist," Shahd says about her decision to speak out about life as a transgender woman. Like the other person in this article, we have changed Shahd's name to protect her. We have been messaging her over an...

Looks like Javanka have gotten a case of World Cup fever. Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner rubbed shoulders with Qatari Prime Minister Khalid bin Khalifa bin Abdulaziz Al Thani on Thursday as they soaked up the international soccer madness. The former first daughter joined her husband and their three children — Arabella, 11, Joseph, 9, and Theodore, 6 — at the Lusail Stadium to watch Brazil take down Serbia in the early stages of the World Cup tournament. Ivanka and Jared, who both served as senior advisors to former President Trump, were spotted mingling with politicians and Middle...

Mohamed Ahmed E A Al-Hashemi, a Qatari national in the United States on a student visa, is dead after he attacked an Arizona State Trooper on patrol in the area of Rural Road just south of the Loop 202 in Tempe.

Eight Republican members of Congress sent a letter to the Department of Justice (DOJ) on June 18 urging for Al Jazeera to be designated as a foreign agent, the Washington Examiner reports. Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), John Cornyn (R-Tex.), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Todd Young (R-Ind.) as well as Reps. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) and Mike Johnson (R-La.) argued to Attorney General William Barr that “Al Jazeera is not only a foreign principal but it is also owned by a foreign principal – the government of Qatar. Several members of the ruling family of Qatar...

Senior Saudi, Emirati and Qatari leaders will meet with US President Donald Trump in the next couple of months, Reuters reports US officials as saying, amid efforts by Washington to try to resolve a dispute between the Gulf neighbors. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates and Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani are all planning to have bilateral visits with Trump in March and April, a senior US official said. The agenda will include setting up a Gulf Cooperation Council summit, the official said, which...

A YouTube video that went viral — showing a Ferrari LaFerrari and Porsche 911 GT3 tearing through residential streets of Beverly Hills; flying though stop signs while pedestrians waited to cross, narrowly avoiding other motorists — has caused outrage, with neighbors pleading with police to take action before someone gets hurt. According to NBC4, the owner of said vehicles is claiming “diplomatic immunity,” telling a video journalist who asked for comment, “I could have you killed and get away with it.” The name of the car’s owner has not been released, but he is rumored to be part of the...

The Obama administration reportedly has launched talks with Qatari officials about potentially extending security measures for the five Taliban leaders who were traded a year ago for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, with the agreement governing their supervised release soon set to expire. The Washington Post reported that talks began Thursday, and could lead to some aspects of the security arrangement being extended. That pact -- which keeps the former Guantanamo inmates under supervision in Qatar and prohibits them from leaving the country -- is set to expire at the end of May, raising concerns in Washington that they could soon return...

Last night President Obama hosted a dinner of "foreign policy experts" to get advice about his ISIS plans. Among the guests were Sandy Berger, a man who got caught stealing federal documents; Strobe Talbott a man whose employer receives major funding from the terrorist-funding government of Qatar, and Zbigniew Brzezinski a man who was involved in creating both the Islamist state of Iran and the Taliban....Samuel R. Berger and Zbigniew Brzezinski, advised Democratic presidents during foreign crises: Mr. Berger, while Bill Clinton was weighing airstrikes in Bosnia and Kosovo; Mr. Brzezinski, while Jimmy Carter was dealing with the Iran hostage...

9:40 PM: An unidentified male reportedly flying on a domestic flight from Washington, DC to Denver attempted to ignite some type of explosive smuggled aboard. Warnings have been issued to all domestic airlines. This incident was reported to this agency by an air traffic controller who was purportedly involved in the incident. We are attempting to secure more detailed information at this time. BREAKING – More details to follow. Update 1: 10:38 PM: The Northeast Intelligence Network has confirmed that Mohammed al MODADI, a diplomat from Qatar stationed at the Washington, DC embassy, attempted to ignite explosives smuggled inside his...

Last month, Senator Dianne Feinstein and other Democrats on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence released the executive summary of their final report investigating the CIA's controversial detention and interrogation program. As part of their study, the Democrats compiled twenty case studies, which were intended to address claims made by the CIA regarding the efficacy of its interrogations. One of those case studies focused on the identification and arrest of Ali Saleh Kahlah al Marri, who was freed from a US prison just days ago. Al Marri served as a "sleeper" operative for al Qaeda inside the US in 2001....

Sunday, June 02, 2013 Islam is the Problem Posted by Daniel Greenfield @ the Sultan Knish blog On a mild London afternoon, two Muslims rammed a car into a British soldier returning to the barracks after working at the Tower of London. They shouted Allah Akbar and hacked and slashed at his body in an attempt to behead him. By the time they were done, his body could only be identified through dental records. Shortly afterward, British Prime Minister David Cameron said that “there is nothing in Islam that justifies this truly dreadful act”. London Mayor Boris Johnson added, “It...

An embattled former Obama administration appointee -- who was part of a group of attorneys accused of being terrorist sympathizers for defending "enemy combatants" -- has been hired for a post at the US Attorney's Office in Brooklyn, officials confirmed today. Tali Farhadian was one of several private attorneys who created a rift between Republicans last spring when the Obama Administration assigned them to posts within the Justice Department. Although Farhadian was handling unrelated matters in Attorney General Eric Holder's office, a political watchdog group accused Obama of overloading the agency with officials sympathetic to enemy combatants. Their appointments even...

Janet Jackson and her fiancé Wissam Al Mana are reportedly planning to get married in Doha, Qatar in 2013. The couple hope to tie the knot in Doha where the billionaire was born and are making arrangements for the ceremony to take place in 2013. Janet and Wissam will be wedded in a Muslim ceremony. A renown Turkish author, Adnan Oktar (aka Harun Yahya), is also making the claim that the 46-year-old Janet Jackson has converted to Islam — as did her brother, Michael Jackson — and is choosing to keep her new religion a secret from her fans. According...

Posted: Nov 13, 2009 3:14 PM Updated: Nov 13, 2009 3:15 PM MARION, IL (KFVS) - SNIPPET: "Ali Al-Marri, 43, is serving an eight year sentence for being a so called "sleeper agent." He has admitted to training in Al-Qaeda camps and having contact with the alleged planner of the September 11th attacks."

If Barack Obama had any guts, he’d have expelled this guy–this Muslim diplomat who thinks threatening shoe bombs and lighting fires is funny (and a way to test our response and out the Federal Air Marshals on the plane). But he doesn’t have the guts. And don’t think that President Bush–whose Islamo-pandering was not as overt but just as deep, nauseating, and harmful–would have the guts either. Bush’s inept, Muslim butt-kissing National Security Advisor Fran Townsend joined the chorus of the stupid and described last night’s incident as a “misunderstanding.” She sounded like Janet Napolitano when she said, “The system...

"A Qatari diplomat who caused a bomb scare after sneaking a smoke in an airplane bathroom was traveling for a consular visit to see an imprisoned al-Qaida agent. A State Department official and another person close to the matter say Mohammed Al-Madadi was going to meet Ali Al-Marri for an official visit. Consular officials frequently visit foreigners held in the United States to make sure they are being treated well."

Federal air marshals subdued a man who authorities say attempted to "light his shoes on fire" on a United flight from Washington Reagan to Denver Wednesday night, federal law enforcement officials told ABC News. SNIP The suspect was identified by authorities as a diplomat in the Qatar embassy in Washington, Mohammed al Modadi. The FBI said the man had full diplomat immunity as the 3rd secretary and vice-consul.

Peoria, Ill. - A federal judge sentenced an Al Qaeda "sleeper" agent to eight years in prison Thursday -- about half the time prosecutors had requested -- because the agent received what the judge called "unacceptable" treatment in a U.S. Navy brig. U.S. District Judge Michael Mihm could have sentenced Ali Marri to as much as 15 years. Prosecutors had endorsed that, presenting testimony that he remained a threat. But Mihm handed down the lighter sentence of eight years and four months in consideration of what he called "very severe" conditions under which Marri was kept during the almost six...

Note: The following text is a quote: Ali Al-Marri Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy to Provide Material Support to Al-Qaeda Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, 43, a dual national of Saudi Arabia and Qatar, has pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to provide material support to al-Qaeda. Al-Marri entered his guilty plea at a hearing this afternoon before Judge Michael M. Mihm in U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois. In so doing, al-Marri admitted that he agreed with others to provide material support or resources to al-Qaeda in the form of personnel, including himself, to work under al-Qaeda’s...

The brother of a man accused of plotting terrorist attacks in the U.S. says the wall the government built around him for years has eased with officials allowing him to make phone calls from prison. But Naji al-Marri (NAH'-jee ahl-MAR'-ee) says federal authorities have robbed 43-year-old Ali al-Marri (AH'-lee ahl-MAR'-ee) of more than seven years of his life.