RUTHFULLY YOURS

Qatar, the world’s foremost terrorist state, which seems never to have met an Islamist terrorist entity it did not support — from Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood to Al Qaeda and ISIS — has gained yet another win. It is Syria, the latest country seized in a hostile Islamist takeover by the formerly Al Qaeda affiliated organization Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), led by Ahmed al-Sharaa, formerly known by his “nom de guerre,” Abu-Mohammed al-Jolani.

Throughout Sharaa’s decades-long career as a terrorist — from being a close associate of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, to founding Al Qaeda’s branch in Syria, the Jabhat al-Nusra (Nusra Front), which he led from 2012-2017, to forming HTS as a conglomerate of various jihadist groups — Qatar has been a constant factor. The Qataris have financially supported Al Qaeda wherever it went — Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria -– so the final victory of Sharaa, is an even greater victory for Qatar, proving that its “investment” paid off.

Qatar’s State Security Chief Khalfan Al-Kaabi visited Damascus on December 12, 2024, just days after President Bashar al-Assad fled the country on December 8, following HTS’s final offensive. In no time, the Qataris reopened their embassy in Syria.

According to Yigal Carmon of MEMRI:

“Qatar is a big winner in the Syrian revolution, having supported the U.S.-designated terrorist organization Hay’at Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) and its leader Abu Muhammad Al-Joulani (formerly ISIS and Al-Qaeda and now Muslim Brotherhood) who has a $10 million bounty on his head. This is Qatar’s classic game: support the Islamist terrorists and then present itself as a mediator, liaison, and even peacemaker – the arsonist playing firefighter. As in Afghanistan, as in Egypt in 2010, and as in every Muslim country.

“In every Muslim country where there is a battle between the Islamists and the secularists, Qatar supports the Islamists, as in Gaza supporting Hamas for years, building its military might and enabling October 7.”

Sharaa, who claims to have broken completely with Al Qaeda, apparently did so only because of strategic disagreements, not because he suddenly abandoned its plan to create an Islamic state in Syria. His current group, Hay’at Tahrir Al-Sham, came about when, in 2017, his Jabhat al-Nusra merged with other Syrian jihadist groups. The US State Department in 2018 added HTS to Jabhat al-Nusra’s existing 2012 designation as a foreign terrorist organization, and advertised a $10 million bounty for Sharaa’s arrest. After HTS conquered Syria, the Biden administration immediately rescinded the bounty.

What has been playing out in Syria since then can only be described as shameful and embarrassing for Western leaders. All it took was for Sharaa to sport a suit and trim his beard for them to flock to Damascus to kiss his newly “moderate” ring.

Flashback: The same international community also believed that the Taliban would become “moderate” if the US just negotiated with it seductively enough. The result is that today, women and girls have been completely erased from Afghan society, not allowed to study, work, go out of the home, seek medical care, or even be seen from the street through a window.

The entire process was funded by the Biden administration through the United Nations, according to the US Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction John Sopko:

“Since Aug 2021, UN has purchased, transported, & transferred at least $2.9 billion to Afghanistan using international donor contributions. U.S. is the largest international donor, having provided about $2.6 billion in funding for UN, other public international org. (PIOs) and NGOs operating in Afghanistan… More than $1.7 billion of that funding came from #StateDept and #USAID to support humanitarian activities implemented by PIOs and NGOs, including the UN, the World Bank, and the Colombo Plan…

That is in addition to the $7 billion worth of military equipment that the US left behind to fall into the hands of the Taliban. Sopko made it clear in November that aid cannot be provided to Afghanistan without it falling into the hands of the Taliban. The US taxpayer, in short, is funding the Taliban.

Hurrying to the next scandal, the Biden administration practically threw itself at Sharaa’s feet. It rushed to meet with the terrorist leader, then immediately removed the $10 million bounty for his arrest, without even waiting to see what he would do.

According to Assistant Secretary of State Barbara Leaf, who met with Sharaa in Damascus:

“I would characterize the discussion as quite good, very productive, detailed…. we’ve been hearing this for some time, some very pragmatic and moderate statements on various issues from women’s rights to protection of equal rights for all communities, et cetera.”

Whoa. Is the ongoing intimidation, vandalism, violence and discrimination carried out by Sharaa’s jihadist goons against Christians in Syria since taking power “equal rights for all communities”? Is the appointment of Anas Hassan Khattab, a former Al-Qaeda commander and a UN-designated terrorist, to head Syria’s General Intelligence Service “very pragmatic”?

“We will judge by deeds,” Leaf added, “not just by words. Deeds are the critical thing,”

The Biden administration has had over 20 years’ worth of deeds by Sharaa during his service for Al Qaeda from which to judge. Sharaa and his cohorts effectively ruled Idlib Province in northwest Syria from 2017 to December 2024. Here is what they did there, according to author and journalist Jonathan Spyer:

“[W]hat was established was a repressive, authoritarian statelet ruled in accordance with Islamic Sharia law. Women were required to wear the hijab, music and alcohol was banned. No opposition was permitted to the edicts of HTS. Non Muslims and women were not allowed to be present in the representative bodies established. Al-Jolani, the organisation’s leader, was essentially the de facto dictator of the province. In his prisons, incarceration without trial and the practice of torture were routine.

“There is every reason to believe that the system developed by al-Jolani’s ‘Syrian Salvation Government’ in Idleb will now be installed throughout the country, or at least in those parts of the country he controls (30 per cent of Syria remains in the hands of the Syrian Kurdish forces). This week he even appointed his ‘prime minister’ from those days, Mohammed al-Bashir, as the interim prime minister in Damascus.”

The Biden administration was not stupid, nor are other Western governments that rushing to ingratiate themselves with the Syrian jihadist leader. All of that history is well-known. It is just that they made it a matter of policy to support Islamist terrorists over the rights of women, Christians, Kurds, Druze and other Syrians.

On the other hand, what could anyone expect from the Biden administration, which again and again rewarded Qatar for its terrorist role in supporting virtually every Islamist organization that promotes the Muslim Brotherhood doctrine throughout the world? In January 2022, then President Joe Biden even designated Qatar a “major non-NATO ally,” and elevated them to “Strategic Partners” of the US later that year. In January 2024, just months after the Qatari-sponsored Hamas atrocities in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, Biden “quietly” entered into an agreement with Qatar that extended the US military presence in the Gulf state for another 10 years.

Qatar is also the largest foreign funder of American universities — nearly $5 billion, which could possibly be used to “suggest” a sizeable gold mine of questionable information.

In the spring of 2024, then Secretary of State Antony Blinken offered Qatar oversight of the ill-fated US-built floating pier in Gaza. Before the pier swiftly disintegrated in rough seas, journalist Daniel Greenfield wrote:

“The Trojan pier is not only about bypassing Israel, but also Egypt. The administration’s vision is that the new arrangement will allow it to directly move materials into Gaza without having to get permission from either Israel or Egypt. And that’s a major victory for the terrorists.”

In the summer of 2024, the Biden administration reached a plea deal with the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, Khaled Sheikh Mohammed (KSM), a terrorist who received a safe haven and a government job in Qatar. He used it as a base for his global terrorist undertakings, including the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the plot to assassinate Pope John Paul II, the 2002 murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl and assorted other crimes. When the CIA tracked KSM down to Doha, Qatar in the mid-1990s, the Qatari ruling family made sure that he was quickly bundled to safety. According to the plea deal, KSM, and two other 9/11 terrorists, agreed to plead guilty on condition that the US government would not seek the death penalty.

The US cannot continue to reward terrorism. President Donald J. Trump would do well to declare as a Foreign Terrorist Organization the Muslim Brotherhood, which is the font of all Sunni Islamist terrorism and is effectively promoted worldwide by Qatar’s television bullhorn, Al-Jazeera. Trump would also be well-advised to move American forces completely out of Qatar’s enormous Al-Udeid Air Base, headquarters of the US Central Command, move them to the United Arab Emirates, and effectively cut ties with Qatar, a country “pretending to be an ally.”

As MEMRI’s Yigal Carmon explained on January 9:

“Biden failed miserably. Trump should not recycle Biden’s approach, and should recognize that Qatar and Erdogan are enemies despite their incredible skill in presenting themselves as friends, and as firefighters when they are actually arsonists. Trump would achieve the release of all the hostages if he were only to hint that it is conceivable that the CENTCOM base could be relocated out of Qatar. In fact, he owes this to the Saudis and the Emiratis, who are his true allies.

“If Trump clings to Qatar and Erdogan against these allies, he should not then wonder why his true allies, the Saudis and the Emiratis, are drifting towards America’s adversaries, China and Russia.”

Robert Williams is based in the United States.