A new report from research analyst Natalie Ecanow has meticulously mapped $400 billion in Qatari investment in the United States. And that is a conservative estimate, as the true amount could be over $1 trillion. And when a dictatorial government that persecutes Christians, kills Jews, sponsors and funds terrorists, and imposes harsh sharia invests that much money in a Western nation, it is to undermine our culture and political system, not to support it.
The report, published on the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ (FDD) website on June 3, notes that despite being about the size of Connecticut and having only 330,000 citizens, Qatar packs a powerful punch financially and terroristically on the world stage. The sharia autocracy spent the equivalent of $1.2 million per citizen in the U.S. If you wonder why university students and staff, not to mention politicians from both major political parties, are increasingly antisemitic, Qatari money plays a big role. And there are jihadis connected to Qatar's terror proxies who've committed terror attacks in the USA. Furthermore, jihad-loving Qatar is far more enmeshed in U.S. defense and military than is wise.
As the “leading patron of the Muslim Brotherhood” with a consistently awful freedom score from Freedom House, it should alarm us that regulatory filings, business databases, and lobbying disclosures exposed at least $400 billion in Qatar's investment in the United States since 2000. And based on recent White House claims and the reality of shady private deals, the number is actually likely a great deal higher.
From the FDD report:
Qatari money touches nearly every industry in America, from defense and energy to real estate, media, and sports. Doha’s ventures have entailed a cornucopia of transactions, including investments, grants, purchases, and pledges. Thus, there is no single word or term that captures the ways in which Qatar deploys its wealth. Some of these transactions are straightforward investments that yield returns. Others, like employing lobbyists, amount to direct spending on influence. Many fall somewhere in between. Yet even a profit-driven business venture can double as a source of influence. When Doha brings capital and jobs to an American city or state, its leaders will naturally become more concerned about Qatari interests.
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It is incredibly important to understand that, just as in Communist China, Qatar does not have fully independent private entities that are investing in the United States. Escanow explains:
In each case here, the investment vehicle or grantor is either government-controlled or run by members of Qatar’s ruling family. None are independent commercial actors…The nexus between wealth and influence also takes on special importance because Qatar has persuaded many in Washington that it is a trustworthy partner despite its patronage of Hamas, the Taliban, and the Muslim Brotherhood. Similarly, Doha’s state-owned Al Jazeera Media Network amplifies Islamist propaganda for an audience of hundreds of millions of viewers worldwide. The country is also at the center of corruption probes in Europe, Israel, and Washington, and made headlines for allegedly buying hosting rights for the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
For too many years, simply because we have a base in Qatar and a lot of high-cost projects funded by them, we Americans have ignored the threat that this small but powerful autocracy poses. Even President Donald Trump fell for flattery, a snazzy jet, and new investment promises on a trip there. But the Qatar government is quite literally one of the biggest state sponsors of terrorism in the world, and it's fully committed to spreading fundamentalist Islam around the globe. That $400 billion, particularly when donated to increasingly Islamist U.S. universities, is much more harmful in the long term than it is helpful in the short term.
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