OPINION:
Qatar is a symbol of Islamists and influence buying. It is a bed-and-breakfast for terrorist groups such as Hamas and its savage leaders who grew grotesquely wealthy in Doha as the Gaza Strip sank year after year into Jew killing, tunnels and poverty.
Qatar’s ruling Al-Thani family runs a global news and propaganda platform called Al Jazeera Media Network. It reaches millions globally to shed a kind light on Hamas, Hezbollah, the Muslim Brotherhood, and other destructive forces bent on destroying Israel and imposing Islamic dictatorships. That alone is reason not to give Qatar the Air Force One aura to further burnish Doha’s global image and influence.
President Trump realized Al Jazeera’s danger in his waning days of Trump 1.0. His Justice Department ordered Al Jazeera to fill out paperwork to declare itself a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
The order was backed by two House members who today hold senior administration jobs: CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin. In March 2018, they and 16 other Republican members of Congress signed a letter asking Attorney General Jeff Sessions to investigate Al Jazeera as a state-sponsored media outlet.
They used blunt language.
The Republicans wrote: “We find it troubling that the content produced by this network often directly undermines American interests with favorable coverage of U.S. State Department-designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations, including Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Jabhat al Nusra, al Qaeda’s branch in Syria. Furthermore, Al Jazeera’s record of radical anti-American, anti-Semitic, and anti-Israel broadcasts warrants scrutiny from regulators to determine whether this network is in violation of U.S. law. Such an investigation should cover the full range of activities undertaken by Al Jazeera in the United States, including reports that it infiltrated American … non-profit organizations.”
History: Al Jazeera gained a brief cable TV foothold in America thanks to Al Gore. He sold his crummy, little-watched cable channel, Current TV, to Qatar’s Al Jazeera for millions of dollars. The Al-Thani family quickly launched an Al Jazeera invasion to spew anti-American stories. That’s how little Mr. Gore thinks of America.
The channel, Al Jazeera America, shut down in 2016. What remains is Al Jazeera Plus, or AJ+, a social media/news platform headquartered in Washington. Republicans pressed President Biden to force registration under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, but he ignored them.
It wasn’t just Trump Republicans who pressured the Justice Department. The United Arab Emirates, angered over Qatari support for its Islamic enemies, submitted a damning 124-page report to the Department of Justice through Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida and the law firm Akin Gump. Ms. Ros-Lehtinen, a Republican from Miami, is a former head of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and is Akin Gump’s senior policy director.
Her July 8, 2020, report contained chapters such as “Qatar Funds, Directs and Controls Al Jazeera” and sections including “Qatar Uses Al Jazeera to Support Iran” and “Qatar Uses Al Jazeera to Promote Hamas.”
Ms. Ros-Lehtinen’s report details the deep ties of the Qatari royal family, Hamas and its in-country leader, Ismail Haniyeh.
“Al Jazeera’s coverage of Hamas continues to align with and advance Qatar’s foreign policy,” Ms. Ros-Lehtinen wrote. “Al Jazeera regularly features Hamas officials and gives credence to the group’s objectives. For example, Al Jazeera has provided Khalid Meshaal, a former Hamas leader, a platform to support Hamas’ calls for jihad and martyrdom and to oppose peace between Israel and Palestine.
“Additionally, as recent as last year, a blog on Al Jazeera’s website praised Hamas’s military camps for youth. The blog post explains that the aim of these camps is to raise a ‘generation that believes in the duty of jihad.’
“The highest levels of Qatar’s leadership have openly supported leaders of terrorist and extremist groups,” she added.
On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas, Qatar’s favorite terrorist group, surged terrorists from Gaza into southern Israel to kill 1,200 Israelis, including babies and children. Palestinians celebrated in Gaza by parading dead Jews. Mr. Haniyeh watched comfortably from Doha. In July 2024, Israel orchestrated his assassination by bomb in an Iranian guesthouse. Qatar mourned.
In September 2020, the Trump Justice Department ordered AJ+ to register as a foreign agent, which would require Qatar to report publicly on its U.S. activities.
“AJ+’s obligation arises because it has engaged and is still engaged in political activities within the United States and has acted and continues to act as a publicity agent within the United States, on behalf of the Government of Qatar and Al Jazeera Media Network,” read the letter from Jay I. Bratt, who led the counterintelligence and export control section of the Justice Department.
Ironically, Mr. Bratt, who resigned in January, found himself on May 14 sitting for a closed deposition by House Judiciary Committee Republicans. They planned to ask him about spearheading the classified documents investigation and the 2023 indictment of Mr. Trump. Mr. Bratt asserted his Fifth Amendment constitutional right to remain silent, according to press reports.
Over four years, Mr. Biden never required Al Jazeera to file as a foreign agent. Trump 2.0 is now in a Qatar lovefest and giddy about its gift to America of a luxurious Air Force One.
By the letters submitted to the Justice Department, it’s obvious that Qatar’s Al Jazeera media operation is essential to its pro-Islamic stance and terrorist influence. This is all the reason Mr. Trump needs not to turn Air Force One into a flying Qatari advertisement banner.
• Rowan Scarborough is a columnist with The Washington Times.
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