Shoebat.com is honored to join a coalition of signatories that wish to shatter the perception that the nation of Qatar is an ‘ally’ of the United States. In reality, it’s a state sponsor of terrorism.
The organization, known as the Qatar Awareness Campaign, seeks to:
…raise awareness of Qatar and their activities around terror, genocide, and transnational organized crime – including slavery and narcotics.
Signatories include Lt. Col. Allen B. West, Robert Spencer, Pamela Geller, among many others.
Why Qatar is SO BAD
It often takes a long time for perception to catch up with reality. There is no better example than the post-9/11 era. One perception is that the tiny nation of Qatar – a peninsula that juts out off the east coast of Saudi Arabia as if it were a digit of the larger Arabian peninsula – is a friend to America; it is not; it is an enemy.
There are several reasons why, many of which are enumerated by Stop Qatar Now, but one of the overriding reasons is that the U.S. decided to slip into bed with Qatar one year after 9/11 as part of a fatally flawed strategy to respond to the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil. In 2002, the Brookings Institute – a large U.S. think tank based in Washington, DC – founded the U.S.-Islamic World Forum (US-IWF) with the nation of Qatar. The stated purpose of this political copulation is excerpted from the Brookings website:
The forum was launched in the wake of the September 11th attacks. Its goal was the development of research and outreach programs designed to improve U.S. relations with Muslim states and communities. A particular challenge in that moment of tension and frustration was the virtual absence of dialogue between leaders of the United States and the Muslim world.
In hindsight, that’s verifiable hogwash.
In 2004, two years after the courting began, the relationship between this terror state and the U.S. was officially consummated at the inaugural US-IWF in Doha, Qatar. None other than former President Bill Clinton gave the closing remarks, which served to solidify the partnership and elevate Qatar’s legitimacy as an ‘ally’ of the U.S.
Here is a small excerpt of Clinton’s speech:
I thought the best thing President Bush did in the immediate aftermath of September the 11th was to go to a mosque and meet with American Muslim leaders and say to the world, “Our fight is not and never has been with Islam. It is with terror.”
…I was the first President to observe every year the feast of ‘Id al-Fitr at the end of Ramadan; to bring large numbers of Muslims into the White House on a wide range of issues…
Clinton in Qatar in 2004.
Again, in hindsight, that’s nothing to boast about.
During his trip, Clinton visited and spoke at the Weill Cornell Medical College (WCMC) in Qatar. His former Vice-President Al Gore would do the same one month later.
Qatar was on the road to legitimacy, prominence and further copulation with the U.S. After all, when a former President and Vice-President of the U.S. inaugurate the partnership, it’s a green light for all others of lesser stature who see opportunity. It also began the process of neutering politicians and leaders who would otherwise identify America’s true enemies.
2006 US-IWF: Close George W. Bush adviser Karen Hughes a featured speaker.
For example, consider some of the attendees at the 2006 US-IWF. They include figures that hindsight has shown are people who should be outed, not elevated as well as people who probably regret being a part of it based on what is now known. As Shoebat.com reported, people who traveled to Qatar and participated in that year’s forum include:
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Karen Hughes: Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. Also a close adviser to George W. Bush.
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Saleha Abedin: Muslim Sisterhood leader and mother of close Hillary Clinton adviser Huma Abedin. At US-IWF, she was identified as Vice-Dean of Academic Affairs at Dar Al-Hekma College in Saudi Arabia.
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Elizabeth Cheney: Daughter of then Vice-President Dick Cheney and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs at the State Department.
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Feisal Abdul Rauf: The notorious Ground Zero Mosque imam that would burst onto the national stage just four years later. To say establishment Republican figures went easy on him would be an understatement. Elevating him at a place like US-IWF appears to have provided him with some cover.
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Mahdi Bray: Executive Director with Muslim American Society (MAS), a group founded by Shaker Esayed, who currently serves as the imam at the Dar al-Hijrah mosque visited by three 9/11 hijackers. Anwar al-Awlaki was the imam at Dar al-Hijrah at the time of 9/11 attacks.
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Salam al-Marayati: Founder and Executive Director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC). Currently an adviser to the U.S. State Department who has been identified as a Muslim Brotherhood infiltrator of the Obama administration.
In 2007, as Shoebat.com reported, none other than Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader Yusuf al-Qaradawi spoke at the US-IWF and actually shared a stage with Philip Zelikow, the man who less than three years earlier served as Executive Director for the 9/11 Commission. There is simply no way that after serving in that capacity, Zelikow could not have known of al-Qaradawi’s connection to 9/11 or the inaptly named war on terror.
At the 2008 forum, Susan Rice, the woman who would later blame the 2012 attacks on Benghazi on a video was in attendance with then Senator Evan Bayh (D-IN), former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, and Sandy Berger. Berger, who was National Security Advisor to Bill Clinton, was caught stealing documents from the national archives just three years earlier.
Laughably, the following quote is attributed to Berger in the 2008 US-IWF program:
“We cannot be a nation of laws if we believe that we are above the law.” – Sandy
BergerBurglar
You just can’t make this stuff up.
2008 US-IWF: Susan Rice (L), Sandy Berger (C), and Evan Bayh (R)
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Petraeus at US-IWF in 2009.The next year, in 2009, Secretary Albright and future CIA Director David Petraeus were featured speakers. As Shoebat.com reported – and you are encouraged to read – an Imam named Suhaib Webb was in attendance. Webb is connected to Anwar al-Awlaki, as well as the mosques attended by the Boston Marathon bombers and Alton Nolen, the Muslim man who beheaded an innocent woman in Oklahoma on September 25th of this year. Within a year, a jihadist inspired by al-Awlaki named Nidal Malik Hasan would murder 14 and injure 32 at Fort Hood, TX near Killeen, TX. In the case of both Hasan and Nolen – who was raised in Killeen – their jihads were identified as ‘workplace violence’.
In 2010, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce sent its COO and Executive Vice-President David Chavern to that year’s US-IWF to formally usher in the American Chamber of Commerce there (AmCham Qatar), as Shoebat.com reported. As a 501(c)(6), the U.S. Chamber can accept both anonymous and foreign contributions; it is also the biggest lobbying outfit in the U.S.
Hillary Clinton (Center, right) and Huma Abedin (Far right) at 2011 US-IWF.In 2011, the US-IWF was held in Washington, DC. On hand were Senators John McCain (R-AZ), John Kerry (D-MA), and then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was accompanied by Huma Abedin, the daughter of Muslim Sisterhood leader Saleha Abedin as Shoebat.com reported. Also in attendance was al-Qaradawi’s deputy Abdallah bin Bayyah.
In 2012, then White House Deputy National Security Advisor and future Chief of Staff to Barack Obama, Denis McDonough was on hand and gave the keynote speech to the US-IWF. At the beginning of his speech, McDonough acknowledged and championed the work of Rashad Hussain and Mohammed Magid, who were in the audience. Both men – like al-Marayati – have been identified as Muslim Brotherhood infiltrators of the Obama administration.
Also in attendance was again, al-Qaradawi deputy Sheikh Abdallah bin Bayyah. Here is a screen shot of McDonough shaking hands with bin Bayyah. Standing directly behind McDonough is Magid.
Denis McDonough shakes hands
with Sheikh Abdallah bin Bayyah.Here is a screen shot of the audience as McDonough is being introduced to the podium…
On the far left of the front row is Farah Pandith, a State Department adviser with connections to the Muslim Brotherhood and who was sworn in by Hillary Clinton, using a Qur’an.
Abdallah bin Bayyah can be seen seated four seats from the left.
Next to him is Rashad Hussain and next to him is Magid of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA).
The man seated in the second row is Nihad Awad, who heads a Muslim Brotherhood front group.
Front: Farah Pandith, unknown, empty chair (McDonough’s?), Yusuf al-Qaradawi Deputy Abdallah bin Bayyah, Rashad Hussain, Mohammed Magid, Nihad awad (back, right)
Question: Does the empty chair next to bin Bayyah belong to McDonough, who was at the podium during this screen shot?
The video is cued up. Listen to McDonough praise Hussain and Magid. Also note the blue folder in McDonough’s left hand that matches the one he’s holding while shaking bin Bayyah’s hand in the previous photo:
Within a few months of the 2012 US-IWF, the U.S. Special Mission Compound in Benghazi was attacked. As the months passed, it became clearer that there was a Qatari angle to the attack as that country was assisting in the trafficking of weapons out of Benghazi and on to Syria.
Shockingly, at the 2013 US-IWF, none other than Benghazi Accountability Review Board (ARB) Chairman Thomas Pickering was in attendance, as were many of the usual cast of characters, to include Awad, Magid, and Hussain.
ARB Chairman Pickering listed as Participant at Muslim Brotherhood-friendly conference
As Shoebat.com reported, the 2014 installment of the US-IWF featured former U.S. Ambassador to Egypt Anne Patterson, who gave the keynote speech. During that speech, the Muslim Brotherhood friendly ambassador cheered Qatar for taking five Taliban commanders in exchange for U.S. Army deserter Bowe Bergdahl; she called for better relations between the U.S. and Iran; and she appealed for more Qatari investment in the U.S.
The nation of Qatar harbors Muslim Brotherhood leader Yusuf al-Qaradawi and Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal. Al-Jazeera is headquartered there. Despite attempts to get House Homeland Security Chairman Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) to hold hearings to investigate the sale of Al Gore’s CURRENT TV to AL-Jazeera last year, his office declined.
It is not known if the legitimacy granted to Qatar thanks to joint ventures like the US-IWF had anything to do with McCaul’s unwillingness to purse the problematic sale.
As to the mindset that would allow the U.S. to get to this point, its important to remember that when push comes to shove, the Muslim Brotherhood and Saudi Arabia are enemies. At this point in time, the relations between Qatar and Saudi Arabia is increasingly strained as Qatar has lurched hard toward supporting the Brotherhood in the last decade.
Take a look at this 2006 video of former CIA Director James Woolsey. After watching it, you might better understand the thinking, incredibly flawed though it may be. Leveraging the Muslim Brotherhood to deal with Saudi Arabia has only made the Muslim Brotherhood dangerously more powerful, which makes Turkey very happy: