THE QATARI MONEY BEHIND ADVISERS TO FAMILIES OF GAZA HOSTAGES: BARBARA LEDEEN
Some of the families trying to free their loved ones held hostage by Hamas in Gaza are getting advice from individuals and entities that have received funding from Qatar, Daniel reports — an unusual arrangement given Qatar’s role as one of the chief mediators between Hamas and Israel and that the country is home to Hamas’ political leadership.
— As hostage families work to keep their relatives in the news and urge the Qataris to get Hamas to release them, a consultant working for the Qataris, Jay Footlik, has also met with the families in both Washington and Israel to prep them for their meetings with Qatari officials and also help organize them, according to two people familiar with the matter.
— Footlik’s consulting firm ThirdCircle Inc. has been registered under FARA since 2019 to help arrange trips to Qatar for American elected officials on behalf of the Qatari Embassy, which pays the firm $40,000 per month, according to filings with the Justice Department.
— Footlik, a former special assistant to former President Bill Clinton and liaison to the American Jewish community, told PI his work with the hostage families began because he had a long-standing relationship with Israeli businessperson Eytan Stibbe, who asked for his assistance since Footlik had relationships with Qatar.
— He said that he then contacted Qatari ambassador Meshal Al-Thani and asked if he would meet a relative of several of the Israeli hostages, Avichai Brodutch. Al-Thani immediately agreed and soon asked Footlik to help facilitate direct communication with hostage family members who wanted to meet with Qatari officials, he said.
— “Since that initial meeting with Avichai Brodutch, we have been working tirelessly, really around the clock, at the request of Israeli families being held to meet with Qatari officials, and I’m proud of the work that I’m doing. If it saves even one life, it’s all worth it,” he said in an interview. “The Qataris have been instrumental in working with the U.S., the Israelis and others to secure the release of the first 109 to come out, and I think it’s natural to come back to ask them to continue to use their relationships to try to bring everybody home.”
— The hostage negotiating group Richardson Center for Global Engagement, which the late New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson founded, has also received significant amounts of money from Qatar. Mickey Bergman, the vice president of the center, has also been a frequent adviser to many of the families and has reportedly advised them to not criticize Qatar.
— The Richardson Center said the partnership began in Qatar with an initial contribution in 2019 of $900,000 that helped the organization increase its capacity and get more hostages home. That same level continued for 2020 before declining; the last donation was $250,000 in early 2023.
— “The Richardson Center is a nonprofit organization and works on behalf of families at their request and at no cost to them. Beginning Oct. 8, we’ve been approached by dozens of families to assist them in getting their loved ones,” Bergman said in an interview, adding that its relationship with Qatar had been disclosed and is “one of the pillars of our strategy about why we can help them.”
— One family member of a hostage said they’ve found Bergman — who is close to State Department hostage envoy Roger Carstens — to be very useful in working hard to advocate for their relatives’ release. The person also said that he’s been transparent about the center’s funding.
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