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Note: The following text is a quote: YOU ARE HERE: Home > Reports > Consular Affairs Bulletins > Report Warden Message: U.S. Embassy Doha, Qatar, Temporary Closure CONSULAR AFFAIRS BULLETINS Middle East / N. Africa - Qatar 18 May 2009 RELATED REPORTS 13 Jan 2009 WARDEN MESSAGE: DOHA, QATAR, PROTEST JANUARY 13 U.S. Embassy Doha issued the following Warden Message on May 18: At approximately 9:00 a.m, on May 18 a suspicious powder was discovered at the U.S. Embassy in Doha, Qatar. The suspicious substance is being sent to a laboratory for analysis. Until the results are received and a...

The U.S. Treasury Department fined the U.S. branch of Qatar’s largest private commercial bank $5 million Tuesday to settle charges that it failed to report transactions potentially tied to terrorism. Doha Bank failed to file regulatory suspicious activity reports (SARs) more than 500 times, and poorly audited its compliance program, according to the department’s Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). The bank also had an antiquated wire transfer system that prevented it from finding and aggregating suspicious transactions, according to a consent order.

As usual, Libyan leader raised eyebrows Monday with his incendiary but hilarious remarks at the Arab summit in Doha. As the Emir of host Qatar welcomed Saudi King Abdullah ibn Abdulaziz al Saud, Libyan President Moammar Kadafi interrupted him addressing the Saudi king, saying: "I seize the opportunity to tell my brother Abdullah, you have been evasive and scared of confrontation for six years. I want to assure you today not to be scared. I am telling you after six years it was proved that lies stand behind you and your grave awaits you. You were created by Britain and...

When Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir arrived in Cairo yesterday noon for talks with President Hosni Mubarak it was his second overseas trip since the arrest warrant indicting him for war crimes and crimes against humanity was issued on 4 March by the International Criminal Court (ICC). The message Al-Bashir is sending by making consecutive trips to Asmara and Cairo is, his aides say, one of "defiance" against the ICC warrant. Official Sudanese statements suggest Al-Bashir's defiance may well extend to the annual Arab summit in Doha on 30 March despite orchestrated appeals by the masses and an unprecedented religious edict...

Osama bin Laden's son Omar and his British wife arrived in the Qatari capital Doha yesterday after being refused entry to Egypt, Al Jazeera television reported. The Qatar-based television said Omar bin Laden arrived in the Gulf Arab state on an Egyptian passenger aircraft. It gave no further details. Omar bin Laden and his wife arrived on Saturday in Egypt from Madrid after the Spanish authorities refused his request for asylum. The couple, who lived in Egypt for several months in 2007 and 2008, have also been denied entry to Britain.

The Not-So-Omnipotent China by: Daniel Smith, August 07, 2008 As the world’s attention and conspiracy theorists turn to Beijing this August, Western nations should not forget China’s role in “The Collapse of the [World Trade Organization (WTO)] Doha Round Trade Talks” in Geneva on July 29. The facts of the failed negotiations reveal a more impotent China than Americans would expect. Frank Vargo, chief spokesman on trade issues for the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), viewed the collapse of the seven-year Doha Rounds as a “watershed.” He was one of several distinguished panelists who addressed a crowd at the American...

THE latest round of global agricultural trade negotiations that began seven years ago in Doha, Qatar, collapsed in acrimony this week in Geneva. While India and China are getting the blame for refusing to reduce import tariffs and farm subsidies, you can assume that trade officials in Europe and the United States are breathing a sigh of relief that they aren’t going to have to limit their own protectionism... --snip-- First, they are transparent election-cycle harvests for farm-state politicians, who have small constituencies but exercise outsized national political clout. Second, because such special-interest legislation wins little broad public support, its...

The demise of the Doha trade round is another blow to the struggling world economy, and there's plenty of blame to go around. But the crucial question going forward is whether this is merely a temporary setback, or if it marks the end of the post-World War II free-trade era that has done so much to spread prosperity. We tend by nature and history toward optimism, but no one should sugar-coat Doha's collapse. For the first time since the multilateral trading rounds began after World War II, a trade expansion effort has ended in failure. In 1990, trade represented about...

Trade: The collapse of the Doha round of world trade talks is more than a bureaucratic event. It's a tragedy for the global economy, both for developing nations and those already wealthy.Fact is, the world economy could use a little help. Having suffered housing meltdowns, financial crises, and soaring energy and food costs, many nations will struggle to grow over the next few years. Many will find themselves poorer by decade's end. That's why the Doha Round of trade talks, named for the city in Qatar where discussions began in 2001, was so important. It would have opened key markets...

The Doha round of world trade talks has collapsed in what one former trade chief called the biggest blow to globalisation since the end of the Cold War. An emergency World Trade Organisation summit aimed at resuscitating the seven-year long talks broke down in acrimony last night. Negotiators warned that there was now little or no chance of salvaging the talks, which promised to bring down trade tariffs, pull millions out of poverty and keep food and goods prices under control. It is the first time a major set of world trade talks has collapsed entirely, and insiders warned that...

Al-Qaeda Draws New Recruits Via Internet Al-Qaeda is using the Internet to recruit vulnerable young people to its terrorist network, according to a programme aired on Saudi Arabian TV late on Tuesday. Umm Osama, the founder of al-Qaeda's first women-only website, al-Khansa, joined several others on the programme to discuss how they renounced jihadist ideology. Among those who sought a response to this question was an imam from the Medina mosque, Saleh Ibn Awad al-Mudamsi, and the father of a young al-Qaeda suspect held in an Iraqi prison. Read More Qaeda Targets U.S. Oil Interests in North Africa U.S....

The majority coalition would never elect him if they could pick whomever they want. Suleiman is well-known as a moderate pro-Syrian. He may be an improvement over Lebanon’s last president, Emile Lahoud, who was nothing if not a tool of Syria’s tyrant Bashar Assad, but frankly no one could be worse than Lahoud outside the ranks of the blatantly fascist Syrian Social Nationalist Party. Hezbollah still gets to keep the unilaterally installed high-tech surveillance system in Lebanon’s only international airport, and of course its fighters will hold onto their illegal weapons. With freshly minted blocking minority powers, Secretary General Hassan...

DOHA (AFP) - Damage to several undersea telecom cables that caused outages across the Middle East and Asia could have been an act of sabotage, the International Telecommunication Union said on Monday. "We do not want to preempt the results of ongoing investigations, but we do not rule out that a deliberate act of sabotage caused the damage to the undersea cables over two weeks ago," the UN agency's head of development, Sami al-Murshed, told AFP.

SYDNEY, Australia - President Bush and Chinese President Hu Jintao, leaders of two of the world's worst polluting nations, called Thursday for greater international cooperation in tackling climate change without stifling economic growth. Bush also was to push for expanded trade with Pacific Rim nations and appeal for help in getting stalled global trade talks going again. He was laying out his views on the environment, energy security and the economic costs of terrorism in a speech to business leaders from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. Climate change was high on the agenda of the U.S. and Chinese presidents in...

Terrified that sectarian Muslim bloodshed could soon engulf the region, U.S. allies and adversaries in the Middle East have stepped up joint efforts to head off a religious civil war. Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia and Shi'ite Iran have held intensive talks in recent days on ways to tamp down sectarian violence in Iraq and Lebanon. Over the weekend, Saudi King Abdullah issued an unusual public call for calm. Top Islamic clerics and scholars in Egypt, Qatar and Iraq also have issued statements urging Muslim unity, often blaming the United States and other outside actors of trying to divide the faithful....

Ahmadinejad caught on video in serious breach of sharia law By: israelinsider staff Published: December 6, 2006 Iran's president and Islamic hardliner Ahmadinejad was caught on video watching a group of women dancers in Doha-- a serious violation of sharia law, a Guardian Unlimited report says. Given that much of Ahmadinejad's support comes from Islamic ultra-conservatives, the incident could prove to be injurious, if not fatal, to the Iranian president. This week, Iranian news sources announced that Iran's presidential vote would be moved forward, ending Ahmadinejad's term early. Many are wondering if the two events might be related.

BRITAIN has resorted to detaining as an illegal immigrant a man regarded as one of al-Qaeda’s most dangerous terrorists. Abu Doha, whose various aliases include “The Doctor”, has been in Belmarsh highsecurity jail for almost six years facing extradition to the United States on charges of running a jihad training camp in Afghanistan and plotting to blow up Los Angeles airport. But the US has been forced to drop the case against him after an informer refused to give evidence. A British judge described the extremist network created by Abu Doha as “one of the most significant groups of terrorists...

Abu Hamza, the militant, London-based Muslim cleric, maintained close contact with the leadership of al-Qa'eda during the years when it operated a worldwide terrorist network from Afghanistan, according to FBI files. Documents obtained by The Daily Telegraph state that Hamza, the former imam of Finsbury Park mosque, north London, dealt personally with Abu Zubeidah, Osama bin Laden's director of operations. Zubeidah, a Palestinian who is now in US custody, communicated bin Laden's instructions and messages from his hideout in Afghanistan to al-Qa'eda cells around the world. Hamza had the power to refer recruits to Zubeidah for "leadership training" in Afghan...

Forget the politicking on the news about tariffs and subsidies. The true advantages of free trade, toward which small political steps as the Doha trade round are vital, are to the long-term financial and social benefit of America and the world. Were free trade effectively implemented, instead of being torpedoed by the demagogic posturing of reactionary Leftists, the progress and development it inspired would improve the lives of millions of people.

[...] The current round of trade talks was launched in 2001 at Doha, Qatar, an authoritarian location conveniently off- limits to protesters. [...] The trade agenda has been set by business elites who would impose one economic model on the world -- the model of laissez-faire. This model rejects more than a century of Western history, during which democracies have relied on government regulation and social investment to temper the instability and income extremes of a pure market economy. The elite model would also coerce Third World countries to give up their successful development strategies, in which government helps local...

Insults fly in the dust of Doha By Edmund Conway, Economics Editor (Filed: 26/07/2006) Hopes that anything will be salvaged from the wreckage of the Doha Round were fading last night as Europe and the US traded bitter accusations and recriminations, with each blaming the other for the collapse of the key trade talks. US trade representative Susan Schwab accused the EU of lying after Peter Mandelson claimed it was America's intransigence that caused the failure of the globalisation talks. Peter Mandelson In turn, Mr Mandelson, the European trade commissioner, repeated his allegations about the US and appealed over Ms...

Reality finally bit. The Doha Round talks have been put off indefinitely. This is the second best result: There was no deal worth doing in the Doha Round right now. Susan Schwab, the US Special Trade Representative blames Peter Mandelson, the EU Trade Commissioner. He blames her back. And Pascal Lamy, the Director General of the EU, blames them all. Oxfam blames the rich countries and dissembles now that the WTO cannot help poor countries. There will be anxiety about how much this harms the WTO trading system. In a very important way, it won't. The foundation of the WTO...

DOHA (AFX) - US energy secretary Samuel Bodman called for more security at oil facilities around the world and said Saudi Arabia had asked Washington for help after a botched attack at a plant in the kingdom. 'It is important that we enhance the physical security of our facilities,' Bodman told reporters on the sidelines of the 10th Energy Forum in Doha. Two suicide bombers blew themselves up on Feb 24 outside the world's largest oil processing plant in Abqaiq in eastern Saudi Arabia.

WASHINGTON -- Russian diplomats passed detailed — though sometimes inaccurate — tactical information about American troop movements to senior Iraqi officials as U.S. troops closed in on Baghdad during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, according to Iraqi intelligence documents captured by the American military that raise new questions about Moscow's role in Iraq. One of the documents, which purports to be a summary of a letter sent to Saddam Hussein's office by a Russian official, claims that Moscow had "sources inside the American Central Command in Doha" — the U.S. military's headquarters during the war — which Russia used to...

Pace Visits Qatar to Thank Troops for Terror War Support By Donna Miles American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Dec. 29, 2005 – The top-ranking U.S. military officer visited U.S. and coalition troops at an air base in Qatar yesterday to thank them for their contributions to the war on terror, treat them to a USO show and re-enlist three members. Marine Gen. Peter Pace kicked off a week-long trip at an air base near Doha, where he thanked hundreds of troops gathered under a tent at the base's Memorial Plaza, Air Force Capt. Eric Badger, public affairs officer for the...

IN THE next six months or so, the world has to agree on a new set of rules to reform global trade. Yet as trade ministers prepare for a critical meeting in Hong Kong next week, their ultimate choices could be between no reform at all, or reform that barely moves the goalposts.That prospect might seem odd to Australians, who are used to governments promoting free trade regardless of public opinion.But that is not the attitude of governments in most of the World Trade Organisation's 150 member countries. They approach trade negotiations as opportunities to gain market access, not to...

BUSAN, South Korea — The leaders of 21 Pacific Rim economies gathered today to develop joint action to fight bird flu and shore up flagging talks on a global free-trade pact, but regional tensions hung over their talks. Security was tight before the opening of the two-day summit in the port city of Busan, where activists promised protests by 100,000 people opposed variously to U.S. forces in South Korea, globalization, North Korea and trade liberalization. Although dismissed by some as toothless, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum is determined to make its voice heard on global concerns including corruption,...

The US turned up pressure on the European Union yesterday to go further in cutting farm tariffs, saying its latest proposal fell far short of what was needed for World Trade Organisation talks to succeed. Rob Portman, the US trade representative, expressed disappointment that the EU and others had not maintained the negotiating momentum generated by Washington's offer this week of deep cuts in domestic agricultural supports, by coming up with ambitious tariff-cutting proposals. "I'm disappointed there have been no significant moves on farm market access," he said after three days of talks between trade ministers in Zurich and Geneva....

Homeowners and home buyers scored a rare... victory... when a three-person arbitration panel ruled unanimously that U.S. tariffs against imported Canadian softwood lumber violate the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta).... [R]escinding the tariffs will reduce the average construction cost of a new home by about $1,000 and make about 300,000 more moderate-income Americans eligible for mortgages. Instead of hailing the move as a welcome step toward more affordable housing, the Bush administration insists that it won't lift the tariffs, which can reach as high as 27%. It further plans to engage in more stalling tactics by appealing the decision...

The House pulled out a victory on the Central American Free Trade Agreement late Wednesday, though so narrowly that the White House may need to rethink its "bilateral" trade strategy. Protectionists have all the intensity on these smallish trade deals, while supporters tend to be less passionate than they would be on larger, multilateral agreements such as the ongoing Doha global trade round. Another negative political note is the declining support among Democrats for open trade. The White House had to deliver 202 House Republicans to pass Cafta, 217-215, because only 15 Democrats bucked their party leadership to vote yes....

The Islamic organization poised to build the largest mosque in the Northeast on a site in Roxbury has long-standing ties to an Egyptian cleric who praises suicide bombings and a Muslim activist indicted last week in a terrorism financing probe. The Islamic Society of Boston, which has city approval to build a sprawling $22 million Islamic cultural center and mosque on Malcolm X Boulevard, has had a long association with Dr. Yusuf Abdullah al-Qaradawi, whose vocal support of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas prompted the State Department to bar him from entering the U.S. four years ago. The local religious...

...Even after nearly two decades in the Senate, John Kerry is uncertain whether he is for or against TPA, even though it must be renewed early next year. Instead, Mr. Kerry wants a long study that would conveniently extend months beyond when this hard-fought authority is due to expire.... Mr. Kerry's vacillation on trade extends further. His campaign has signaled the abandonment of America's successful drive for Free Trade Agreements. The Bush administration has completed FTAs... that also include enforceable commitments on labor and environmental laws, combined with aid programs that help developing countries improve conditions cooperatively -- contradicting Mr....

...There seem to be three arguments by Sen. Kerry's advisers that have prompted this sorry situation for the Democrats: First, that the Bush trade policy is no better; second, that electoral strategy requires that Sen. Kerry act like a protectionist, while indicating subtly... a likelihood of freer trade in the White House; and third, at odds with the previous argument, that the U.S. does indeed have to turn trade policy around toward some sort of protectionism (and restraints on direct investment abroad) if it is going to assist workers and reward the unions. Each argument is flawed. - Mr. Bush...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. The business press has been hailing the World Trade Organization framework agreement that emerged from around-the-clock, last-minute meetings in Geneva on July 31.  The hope expressed is that the deal saved the Doha Round trade talks, and perhaps the WTO itself.  Yet, there is little ground for optimism about the future of “free trade.” The turmoil that has wracked the WTO since the collapse of the Seattle ministerial conference in 1999 continues because it reflects the crisis in the global economy which erupted in 1997.  The Seattle meeting was supposed to...

Staff Sgt. Matt Hayden was reasonably sure in early March that he could be home in Rhode Island instead of pulling military police duties here, near the capital city of Doha, where he was completing his year of active duty as a National Guard soldier helping to fight the global war against terrorism. Hayden figured the three wounds he received when a rocket-propelled grenade exploded about 10 feet from him Aug. 5, 2003, in Iraq probably were severe enough so he would not have had to spend the winter in this small country beside the Persian Gulf. But that is...

"The Journey Continues--Week 2" Posted by Doc Farmer Wednesday, August 20, 2003 As most of you know, I lost my job in Doha, Qatar. It’s been two weeks now, and I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the many of you who sent me e-mail messages of encouragement. They were greatly appreciated. What’s it like, being unemployed? Most of us have experienced it at least once in our careers, but it’s rare that we really examine it or talk about it. But there are things that I need to really get off my chest. Partly, this is a simple...

When You Run Out of Ideas... by Doc Farmer I've been racking my brain for the past hour, trying to come up with ideas for my next column. I know I'll have to create something funny, pithy, humorous, and witty because that's what my editor wants. And from what I've been able to gather, that seems to be what the readers want as well. Man, the pressure! It's hard to come up with new stuff all the time, so those of you who think that writing is an easy gig can think again. Sometimes it's really simple--something interesting (or annoying)...

"Explosions in Riyadh, So Let's Blame Dubya!" Posted by Doc Farmer Sunday, May 18, 2003 I lived in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, for about four-and-a-half years before I moved to Doha, Qatar, last July. And other than the way they drive in Riyadh, I really liked it there. I've still got friends there. I've even got family there--my cousin and her hubby. So you can imagine my concern when I heard about the terrorist bombings of three residential compounds and a joint Saudi/American business there. I sent an e-mail to my friends and colleagues there, and thank God, they're all fine....

"Representative Government in the Middle East" Posted by Doc Farmer Saturday, May 03, 2003 Let me start by saying that "democracy" is a bad concept for any form of government that involves more than 20 people or so. And even then, it should be limited to the choice of movie or restaurant. And yet, you'll hear folks hoping for "democracy" in the Middle East. No thanks. They've got enough problems here, thank you. Face it, "democracy" is a fancy Greek word for "mob rule." And yet, in most "democratic" organizations, it's not the mob who rules, but who is ruled....

"What's Wrong With Being a "Minority"?" Posted by Doc Farmer Saturday, April 19, 2003 I've lived in the Middle East now for a bit more than five years. I'm not a Muslim, I'm not a Semite or Nilotic or "Palestinian" (if there IS such a "race"). I'm an American. More accurately, I'm a fat, bald, ugly, middle-aged white guy. In America, I'd barely get a second glance. Here, people stare. Not unlike when you drive by a really bad car wreck slowly--you just can't believe it's THAT bad... Okay, I'm kidding. A bit. But after living in Saudi Arabia for...

GOTTA SEE THIS - War for Enduring Freedom 03/25/03 - Tikrit, Baghdad, Fayda,Al Faw,Najaf,Nasiriyah,HMAS Kinimbla,captured mines, Basra, Az Bayr, Az Zubayara, Umm Qasr BREAKING Tikrit - Mailbox for the Baath Party Baghdad - Mutisystem Organ Failure for Saddam? Tense and Post-surrender Errors in Speech Fayda, north of Mosul - new attacks on Iraq Southern Iraq - oil wells burn Southern Iraq - Iraqis freed by the USA Southern Iraq - headquarters of the 51st Iraqi Mechanized Infantry Division Al Faw -British Royal Marines bring justice to the Baath party Najaf - Weapons hot Nasiriyah - Battle at the Euphrates River...

Key developments concerning Iraq 38 minutes ago By The Associated Press DOHA, Qatar - Latest developments in the Iraq (news - web sites) crisis: _Columns of U.S. tanks, Bradley fighting vehicles and fuel trucks fought sandstorms as they snaked through the Kuwaiti desert toward the Iraqi border. About 300,000 U.S. and British troops were within striking distance of Iraq, backed by more than 1,000 warplanes. _Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) showed no sign he would submit to the 0100 GMT Thursday deadline to resign. Iraq's parliament reaffirmed support for Saddam, while armed members of his Baath Party...

DOHA, Qatar -- Saddam Hussein has opened a training camp for Arab volunteers willing to carry out suicide bombings against U.S. forces in case they invade Iraq, Arab media and Iraqi dissidents said Tuesday. The dissidents, speaking by telephone from Jordan, said scores of Arab volunteers have gone to a special camp run by the Iraqi intelligence service near the town of al-Khalis, 40 miles northeast of Baghdad. Most of the volunteers are Islamic activists who belong to pan-Arab groups that maintain close ties with Saddam's regime, the dissidents said on condition of anonymity. The Qatar-based Al-Jazeera satellite television...

Tue Feb 18,12:28 PM ET An unidentified member of the US military's Central Command (CENTCOM) personnel sit behind rows of networking computers in the Joint Operations Center (JOC) as they process information relating to regional operations, Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2003, at Camp As-Sayliyah on the outskirts of Doha, Qatar. Camp As-Sayliyah supports the largest CENTCOM pre-positioning facilities outside of the US with senior U.S. military planners in place for the looming war with Iraq. U.S. Navy (news - web sites) Seabees as well as Army engineers have recently expanded the base which now supports over 1,000 personnel. (AP Photo/Wally...

GOTTA SEE THIS - War for Enduring Freedom 9/17/02 BREAKING: Messages from Saddam and the USS Abraham Lincoln Incirlik, USS Abraham Lincoln, Hussein's letter, Baghdad, Bagram, Uddin, Jeza, brick factory, Kabul, market, potter, Mazar-e-Sharif, Mazar Hotel, Jalalabad garrison, Terrorits in Ramallah, Beit Lahia, Arafat's Al Aqsa, American flag burning, Lebanon, Wazzani river, Cairo, Egypt, Great Pyramid's door, Doha, Qatar, Al Udeid Air Base, Lukman, Usama Matar, Hizb ut-Tahrir (The Liberation Party), Kamal Derwish sought ===================== Turkey =================== In Turkey, at the Incirlik air base, heroes check missiles on F-16 fighters as other heroes patrol the No-Fly Zone in Northern Iraq...

Last week China became the latest country to impose safeguard tariffs on steel imports, claiming this was necessary to prevent a surge of imports diverted from the American market. Beijing also demanded a World Trade Organization dispute panel be formed to rule on the legality of the safeguard tariffs imposed by the United States in March. Beijing has thus chosen to engage the United States in its first formal dispute since joining the WTO last December. Gordon Moffat, director of the Brussels-based European Confederation of Iron and Steel Industries, declined to blame Beijing for its decision to impose tariffs. He...