Qatar’s gestures to Trump raise suspicions on both – Latest News
The authorities of Qatar had a shock for President Trump on his latest go to to the Middle East.
That was the release of the final American-born hostage being held in Gaza.
Edan Alexander, 21, was freed by the Qatari-funded group Hamas as a gesture to Trump.
Two questions clearly come up from that “gesture.”
The first: If Hamas can simply release hostages like this why gained’t they release all of them, whether or not they have been born in America or not?
The reply to that’s clear: It is as a result of the Qataris and Hamas don’t need to release all of the hostages.
They need to keep maintain of them for as long as doable to exert as a lot leverage as doable.
The second query is much less straightforward to reply.
If Qatar is so close with Hamas, how on earth can they be thought to be an ally of the United States?
It is that second query that has hovered over the president’s journey this week.
Jet ‘gift’ questions
In the principle, the go to to the area has been a large success.
The enormous, a whole lot of billions of {dollars} investment deal that President Trump introduced in Saudi Arabia is one thing everybody can have fun.
As is the president’s pushing of Saudi Arabia and maybe even Syria to be a part of the Abraham Accords.
These are important steps towards peace in a area that badly wants it.
But the smells emanating from Qatar give off a far nastier aroma.
Much of the media has tried to overshadow the journey by focusing on the Qatari “gift” to Trump of a new $400 billion jet to substitute the allegedly jaded Air Force One.
But it’s not simply Democrats and the media who’re questioning Trump accepting such a reward.
Republican Senator Susan Collins criticized Trump’s determination to settle for the reward, stating that the reward appears “rife with political espionage.”
That is to critically understate issues.
Because because the New York Post reported yesterday the Qatari jet really belonged to the previous Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hama bin Jassim bin Jaber al-Thani.
His initials — HBJ — are even within the aircraft’s tail quantity.
And a very totally different kind of story lies below that.
HBJ is one of the chiefest villains within the Middle East.
Before, during and since being the prime minister of Qatar, he has been one of the chief funders of Hamas.
He was the particular person behind the $30 million month-to-month funds that the Qataris gave to Hamas in Gaza.
It can also be thanks to HBJ that a lot of the management of Hamas nonetheless get to nonetheless reside in luxurious in Qatar’s best 5-star resorts.
And HBJ’s love of terrorists doesn’t stop with Hamas.
The former Qatari prime minister has additionally been accused of sheltering and supporting Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM) — the person who masterminded the 9/11 assaults on this nation.
In the years earlier than 9/11, the FBI realized of a plot to blow up a number of planes and traced it to KSM — who was on the time residing in Qatar.
Although the FBI wished to arrest KSM, it appears to have been determined that it was too delicate to arrest someone who was being hosted by the Qataris.
The 9/11 Commission report discovered that KSM had wired money to one of the perpetrators of the unique World Trade Center bombing.
And because the Commission additionally stated, “The U.S. Attorney obtained an indictment against KSM in January 1996, but an official in the government of Qatar probably warned him about it.”
And so KSM fled to Afghanistan.
Much of this was all thanks to that different three-lettered man: HMBJ.
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Past foe, now pal?
How may a jet owned by such a man finish up flying the president of the United States round?
I hope the CIA sweeps it for bugs at the very least.
But in actuality that is precisely how the Qataris at all times operate.
Because of their huge oil wealth, this small state punches far above its weight.
The nation has solely a few hundred thousand residents, who’re waited on by overseas nationals who successfully work as slave labor.
At the identical time that it has poured money into Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.
In the US, they’ve put billions of {dollars} into our establishments — together with our universities.
And, of course, their overseas influence-peddling has fixated on Washington, DC, for years.
People who would usually be the primary to kick off about overseas money influencing our politics are unusually silent in regards to the problem of Qatar.
Often as a result of they’ve been purchased off themselves, or hope to give you the option to drink from the Qatari money hose in some unspecified time in the future sooner or later.
As even a Trump loyalist like Steve Bannon stated this week in an interview with podcaster Winston Marshall in Washington, DC, “Let’s be blunt, Qatari money’s flowing through here like crazy.”
Yet, as Bannon additionally recalled, during Trump’s first time period, it was the Qataris who have been the people within the area who refused to do what Trump wished.
Back then the president was making an attempt to put collectively a powerful settlement which might stop terrorist financing from the Middle East.
In explicit he wished to stop Qatar and different international locations within the area from funding the Muslim Brotherhood and its offshoots like Hamas.
Other international locations performed ball.
And we have now seen lately the wonderful progress that a nation like Saudi Arabia has been in a position to make — partly as a outcome of this.
But it was the Qataris who completely refused to do what Trump wished.
As Bannon recalled, “We show up in the Middle East and we understand that Qatar’s not prepared to sign it. Hey — they’re not shy about getting up in your face. To me Qatar is the railhead of the problem because of their money.”
That’s completely proper.
So how can a nation that’s so opposed to America’s pursuits and has so blatantly refused to do what Trump has requested previously be thought to be an ally?
And such a good ally that the president of the USA can safely settle for the reward of a aircraft from them?
At some level that’s a query that wants an reply.
