New FDD Report Reveals Depth of Qatar’s Terror Financing

WASHINGTON – The Foundation for Defense of Democracies and its Center on Sanctions and Illicit Finance today released Part One of a three-part series revealing Qatar’s shocking record of negligence in the illicit financing of terrorism going on within its country.

It is well known that Qatar provides financial support to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization, and individuals use the Qatari territory to funnel large sums of money to terrorist groups. But this series, “Qatar and Terror Finance” by FDD Senior Fellow David Andrew Weinberg, provides new insight into the astounding depth of Qatar’s negligence, highlighting more than 20 individuals blacklisted by the United States or the United Nations on terror-finance charges that have benefitted from some degree of impunity in Qatar.

The series’ first installment, “Negligence,” focuses on Qatar’s longstanding terror finance record.  It analyzes the cozy relationship between Qatari officials and known terror financiers that provided aid to al-Qaeda’s senior leadership before 9/11, notably providing sanctuary to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the eventual mastermind behind the attacks. The report examines Qatari nationals that have been accused by Washington of terrorism or terror finance. Qatar’s lack of response to these U.S. accusations raises serious questions about whether Qatar’s royal family views terror finance by Qatari citizens as a crime worth punishing.

“Qatar’s terror finance problem is the result of weak enforcement,” the report says. “It reflects a serious lack of political will and represents a grave threat to U.S. interests.”

The full three-part report analyzes terror finance networks linked to Qatari territory and the global implications these systems have on the fight against terrorism.  The report links Qatar-based terror finance networks to the leaders of the Islamic State, the Khorasan Group, the Nusra Front (under which Khorasan operates), al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, al-Shabaab, the Taliban, Lashkar-e-Taiba, and core al-Qaeda in Pakistan.

“This report documents the Qatari government’s refusal to pursue known terror financiers within its borders” said Mark Dubowitz, FDD’s executive director and head of its Center on Sanctions and Illicit Finance. “FDD established the Center on Sanctions and Illicit Finance to expose bad money and bad people. This report is designed to hold the Qatari government accountable for its failure to combat terror finance and in its role in undermining the efforts of the campaign against the Islamic State and other jihadist groups in the region.”

“These reports will be incredibly valuable to understanding the sources of terrorist support and financing emanating from Qatar,” said Juan Zarate, a former deputy national security advisor for combatting terrorism and a CSIF senior counselor. “The U.S. government, international institutions, and even the private sector must continue to press Doha to stop any financial, material or ideological support to terrorist groups and movements.”

The second part of the report, to be released in the coming weeks, will examine how private terror finance networks linked to Qatar appear to be intact despite recent U.S. terror finance designations. Part Three will explain the global consequences of Qatar-based terror finance and explain how terrorist organizations across Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia have received significant financial support from individuals in Qatar. It will also offer recommendations on how Washington can change Qatar’s strategic calculus and entice Doha to curtail private terrorism financing within its borders.

The first part of the report can be found here.

Weinberg is a senior fellow at FDD focused on Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman. He is a former Democratic staffer for the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, where he advised the chairman on Middle East politics and U.S. policy. He also provided research support to staff at the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and the State Department’s Policy Planning staff. Weinberg is a former visiting fellow at UCLA’s Center for Middle East Development and holds a Ph.D. in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was an affiliate for five years with their Security Studies program.

About the Foundation for Defense of Democracies:
The Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) is a non-profit, non-partisan 501(c)3 policy institute focusing on foreign policy and national security. Founded in 2001, FDD combines policy research, democracy and counterterrorism education, strategic communications and investigative journalism in support of its mission to promote pluralism, defend democratic values and fight the ideologies that drive terrorism. Visit our website at www.defenddemocracy.org and connect with us on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

About FDD’s Center on Sanctions and Illicit Finance:

FDD’s Center on Sanctions and Illicit Finance is a project designed to illuminate the critical intersection between illicit finance and national security. The Center relies on regional and sanctions expertise within FDD, including a core cadre of financial, economic, and area experts and analysts, to promote a greater understanding of illicit financing and economic threats. The center also designs creative and effective strategies, doctrines, and uses of financial and economic power to attack and protect against priority threats and vulnerabilities. More information on CSIF is available at www.defenddemocracy.org/csif.

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