Free Republic

The Slave State Qatar exploits migrant workers to the point where they are considered modern day slaves. Despite having the highest per capita income in the entire world for its citizens, while construction booms in Doha, workers from countries such as Nepal and India work in awful conditions for less than $1 per hour. There are an estimated 1.4 million migrant workers – non-citizens – in Qatar, from countries including India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. Under the Kalafa (sponsorship) system, foreign workers cannot change jobs and are often denied the right to leave the country. Workers’ passports are regularly seized...

US President Barack Obama’s authorization of airstrikes on ISIS targets in Iraq serves as an opportunity to remind ourselves which countries are bankrolling the deadly terror group. The answer: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Turkey and Qatar – three of the United States’ biggest allies in the region. Last night Obama announced limited airstrikes to slow the advance of ISIS fighters and help members of the Yazidi religious minority group who were forced to flee into a mountainous region in the north of Iraq to avoid slaughter. However, the administration has failed to put pressure on several (Persian) Gulf states that are...

They DO have a strategy, but they prefer to appear indecisive. That’s because the strategy would likely provoke even greater criticism than the false confession of endless dithering. The actual strategy is detente first, and then a full alliance with Iran throughout the Middle East and North Africa. It has been on display since before the beginning of the Obama administration. During his first presidential campaign in 2008, Mr. Obama used a secret back channel to Tehran to assure the mullahs that he was a friend of the Islamic Republic, and that they would be very happy with his policies....

They DO have a strategy, but they prefer to appear indecisive. That’s because the strategy would likely provoke even greater criticism than the false confession of endless dithering. The actual strategy is detente first, and then a full alliance with Iran throughout the Middle East and North Africa. It has been on display since before the beginning of the Obama administration. During his first presidential campaign in 2008, Mr. Obama used a secret back channel to Tehran to assure the mullahs that he was a friend of the Islamic Republic, and that they would be very happy with his policies....

Yemen's president is accusing Iran of provoking current unrest in his country as Shi'ite Houthi rebels advance on the capital Sana'a. -excerpt- He claimed in a statement that Iran was trying to “trade Sana'a for the Syrian capital, Damascus,” a reference to Iranian support for Syria's Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian civil war.

Earlier this week, the Jerusalem Post reported that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi had harsh words for the countries of Turkey and Qatar. The Egyptian president told a group of newspaper editors that “Qatar, Turkey and the international organization of the Brotherhood are currently establishing many companies, newspapers and websites. They allocated hundreds of millions of dollars to spread chaos among the Arab nation, destabilizing Egypt and destroying the Egyptians.” Turkey and Qatar supported the rule of al-Sisi’s predecessor, the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohammed Morsi, who is currently on trial for a number of offenses including conspiring to kill political opponents....

WASHINGTON — The international effort to help Iraqis fight Islamic militants is heating up, with seven additional countries agreeing to provide arms to the Kurdish peshmerga forces. Albania, Canada, Croatia, Denmark, France, Italy and the U.K. have committed to giving weapons and equipment to the embattled Kurds, the Pentagon announced Tuesday. The announcement comes about two weeks after Hagel set up a working group to find ways to accelerate arms deliveries to the Kurds. The Defense Department said the materiel is “urgently needed” as the Kurds take on the militant group known as the Islamic State, which has taken over...

No government has supported Hamas throughout its war with Israel more stridently than Qatar, hosting its leaders, funding its militarization, and, in recent weeks, blocking cease-fire efforts on Gaza brokered by Egypt and supported by the US. That might cause a modest rift between Washington and Doha, on opposite ends of the spectrum of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But neither country is so invested in challenging the policies of the other on Hamas to shake the foundations of the US-Qatar relationship, broadened well beyond what transpires in the Gaza Strip. The tiny state jutting into the Arabian Gulf, sitting on an...

At a recent press conference with a spokesperson for the Pentagon, a journalist asked if the spokesperson could characterize the relationship between the United States and Qatar, noting reports that Qatar supports Islamist terror groups. To which the man replied: We continue to have a solid military to military relationship with Qatar…. Obviously, we don’t encourage any support by any nation for terrorist groups and extremists, particularly in that part of the world. Asked if he was concerned that Qatar has supported terrorist groups, he stated: I’ve seen those reports and if the reports are true absolutely that’s concerning. “If...

Whatever they may disagree about, Western leaders are in complete agreement about one thing: the new self-styled caliphate, the Islamic State, has nothing whatsoever to do with Islam. It’s a comforting, reassuring vision for Western non-Muslims facing a massive influx of Muslim immigrants and jittery about the prospect of Islamic terrorism, except for just one problem: it’s entirely false.Barack Obama has made it clear: “ISIL speaks for no religion. Their victims are overwhelmingly Muslim, and no faith teaches people to massacre innocents.” David Cameron intoned: “What we are witnessing is actually a battle between Islam on the one hand and...

THE hostilities in Gaza between Israel and Hamas persist and the diplomatic war at the United Nations continues, also without resolution. While there is no shortage of opinions on the way forward, the most obvious solution is strikingly absent — the need to disarm and isolate Hamas, the radical Palestinian Islamist group. Since Israel disengaged from Gaza in 2005, Hamas has dragged us into three rounds of major assaults, and more than 14,800 rockets have been fired into Israel by the group or its proxies. The discovery of dozens of tunnels packed with explosives, tranquilizers and handcuffs that end at...

Arab foreign ministers held a meeting in Saudi Arabia on Sunday to discuss the Syrian conflict and the rise of "extremism" in the region, the official SPA news agency reported. The meeting came as US media reported that Washington, which has launched air raids in northern Iraq against Islamic State, could consider similar action against IS jihadists in Syria. The closed-door talks in the Red Sea city of Jeddah was attended by the foreign ministers of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar, as well as an advisor to Jordan's foreign minister, said SPA.

The U.S. Department of Education’s report, “Succeeding Globally Through International Education and Engagement” tries to show how American students will gain more international experience. The report features six quotes by the department secretary Arne Duncan, with phrases such as “recipe for protectionism and global strife,” “grow the pie for all” or “compassionate neighbors” and “global society.” Here are the six quotes, with the corresponding dates, in full: “The economic future of the United States rests not only on its ability to strengthen our education system but also on citizens in other nations raising their living standards. Thinking of the future...

With reports indicating that forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad are gaining ground in that country’s brutal civil war, moderate Syrian rebels have told a visiting journalist that the United States is arranging their training in Qatar. In a documentary to be aired Tuesday night, the rebels describe their clandestine journey from the Syrian battlefield to meet with their American handlers in Turkey and then travel on to Qatar, where they say they received training in the use of sophisticated weapons and fighting techniques, including, one rebel said, “how to finish off soldiers still alive after an ambush.” The...

Who finances ISIS? In the aftermath of its conquest of Mosul, the jihadi organization ISIS has been recognized as the richest terrorist organization in the world. Where does its money come from? Where does ISIS get its money? During its conquest of the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, ISIS fighters looted more than 500 billion Iraqi Dinar, worth about $420 million (308 million euros) at current exchange rates. ISIS is a rebel army composed of Sunni jihadis that calls itself the "Islamic State of Iraq and greater Syria." Its aim is to establish a theocratic Sunni caliphate in the region....

Arab states, particularly in the Gulf, are seeking to build up their air power and missile defenses to counter any challenger from Iran. Mostly they're looking to their traditional arms suppliers in the West, the United States, Britain and France, but Russia is pushing hard for a piece of the action. This year's biennial Dubai air show, which opened Sunday in the United Arab Emirates, provided a showcase for the latest technology on offer. Air power has been the deciding factor in most Middle Eastern conflicts since the 1967 Arab-Israeli conflict, when Israeli warplanes annihilated the air forces of Egypt,...

The impetus underlying China’s manifold interests in the Middle East remains a topic of close scrutiny. The dramatic social and political changes that are taking root in the region portend a vastly different geopolitical cartography in contrast with previous arrangements. These circumstances yield important implications for the people of the Middle East and foreign powers, such as the United States with longstanding strategic interests in the region. Owing to its notable inroads into the Middle East in recent years, China also is watching regional events unfold with great interest. Due to its increasing demand for Middle Eastern oil and natural...

In another heated exchange between State Department spokesman Marie Harf and AP reporter Matt Lee, the issue of whether any governments are funding ISIS / ISIL is proving to be a hot button issue. In this particular exchange, Qatar is the focus but other countries – specifically Turkey – should start getting spotlighted soon. Harf contends that there is “no evidence” of governments funding ISIL but Lee calls her on that assertion based on a quote from President Obama. To say there is “no evidence” that any government is “supporting this group (ISIS)” is a major lie ... Let’s go...

(Reuters) - German Development Minister Gerd Mueller accused Qatar on Wednesday of financing Islamic State militants who have seized wide areas of northern Iraq and have posted a video of a captive American journalist being beheaded. "This kind of conflict, this kind of a crisis always has a history ... The ISIS troops, the weapons - these are lost sons, with some of them from Iraq," Mueller told German public broadcaster ZDF. "You have to ask who is arming, who is financing ISIS troops. The keyword there is Qatar - and how do we deal with these people and states...

Reverend Al Sharpton, host of PoliticsNation on MSNBC and former presidential candidate, will be the keynote speaker at the annual fundraiser for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a U.S. Muslim Brotherhood entity with an extremist history. CAIR’s 20th Annual Banquet will be held on September 27 in Arlington, Virginia and also features Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA) and Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN). According to the U.S. Justice Department, CAIR is an entity of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood. More specifically, CAIR is part of the Brotherhood’s Palestine Committee, a secret body that was established to push the agenda of Hamas and...