TERRORIST FINANCE: ACTION REQUEST FOR SENIOR LEVEL ENGAGEMENT ON TERRORISM FINANCE | WIKILEAKS 09STATE131801_a

While the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) takes seriously the threat of terrorism within Saudi Arabia, it has been an ongoing challenge to persuade Saudi officials to treat terrorist financing emanating from Saudi Arabia as a strategic priority.

Saudi Arabia remains a critical financial support base for al-Qa’ida, the Taliban, LeT, and other terrorist groups, including Hamas. Riyadh has taken only limited action to disrupt fundraising for the UN 1267-listed Taliban and LeT-groups that are also aligned with al-Qa’ida and focused on undermining stability in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

While the GOK has demonstrated a willingness to take action when attacks target Kuwait, it has been less inclined to take action against Kuwait-based financiers and facilitators plotting attacks outside of Kuwait. Al-Qa’ida and other groups continue to exploit Kuwait both as a source of funds and as a key transit point.

United Arab Emirates (UAE)-based donors have provided financial support to a variety of terrorist groups, including al-Qa’ida, the Taliban, LeT and other terrorist groups, including Hamas.

Pakistan’s intermittent support to terrorist groups and militant organizations threatens to undermine regional security and endanger U.S. national security objectives in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Qatar has adopted a largely passive approach to cooperating with the U.S. against terrorist financing. Qatar’s overall level of CT cooperation with the U.S. is considered the worst in the region. Al-Qaida, the Taliban, UN-1267 listed LeT, and other terrorist groups exploit Qatar as a fundraising locale. Although Qatar’s security services have the capability to deal with direct threats and occasionally have put that capability to use, they have been hesitant to act against known terrorists out of concern for appearing to be aligned with the U.S. and provoking reprisals.

Tiny Kingdom’s Huge Role in Libya Draws Concern | WALL STREET JOURNAL | OCT 17, 2011

Between APRIL AND AUGUST, at least 18 cargo planes left Qatar for Libya, filled with assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and other small arms, as well as military uniforms and vehicles, say people familiar with the situation.

With the blessing of Western intelligence agencies, Qatar flew at least 18 weapons shipments in all to anti-Gadhafi rebel forces in 2012, the majority directly to militias run by Islamist leaders.

About a dozen other Qatari-funded shipments came via Sudan, according to previously undisclosed Libyan intelligence documents.

QATAR’S EMIR VISITS GAZA, PLEDGING $400,000,000 TO HAMAS | NEW YORK TIMES | OCT 23, 2012

JERUSALEM — The emir of Qatar on Tuesday became the first head of state to visit the Gaza Strip since Hamas took full control of it in 2007, the latest step in an ambitious campaign by the tiny Persian Gulf nation to leverage its outsize pocketbook in support of Islamists across the region — and one that threatened to widen the rift between rival Palestinian factions.

QATAR ISLAMIC CHARITY OFFICIALS GAVE MILLIONS TO AL-QAEDA, U.S. SAYS | WA POST | DEC 22, 2013

When Qatar’s royal family was looking for advice on charitable giving, it turned to a well-regarded professor named Abd al-Rahman al-Nu’aymi. The 59-year-old educator had a stellar résumé that included extensive fundraising experience and years of work with international human rights groups.

But one apparent accomplishment was omitted from the list: According to U.S. officials, Nu’aymi also was working secretly as a financier for al-Qaeda, funneling millions of dollars to the terrorist group’s affiliates in Syria and Iraq even as he led campaigns in Europe for greater freedoms for Muslims.

Nu’aymi was one of two men identified by Treasury Department officials last week as major financial backers of al-Qaeda and its regional chapters across the Middle East. Although U.S. officials routinely announce steps to disrupt terrorist financing networks, the individuals named in the latest case are far from ordinary. Both men have served as advisers to government-backed foundations in Qatar and have held high-profile positions with international human rights groups. The second man, a Yemeni, is heavily involved in his country’s U.S.-backed political transition.

On Al Jazeera, Congressman Calls Out Network’s Qatari Owners for Funding Hamas War Crimes | THE TOWER | JUL 7, 2014

Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., who sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, also slammed the network’s coverage of the latest round of fighting between Hamas and Israel during his recent appearance on the network.

“Every one of those rockets [fired by Hamas into Israeli cities] is a war crime, almost every one,” Sherman said, noting that Hamas seeks to hit civilian targets. “Of course it’s a war crime committed by Hamas. And of course the owners of this TV network help fund Hamas.”

EMAIL CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN JOHN PODESTA & HILLARY CLINTON ACKNOWLEDGING QATAR’S AND SAUDI ARABIA’S INVOLVEMENT IN TERROR FUNDING | WIKILEAKS | AUG 29, 2014

“While this military/para-military operation is moving forward, we need to use our diplomatic and more traditional intelligence assets to bring pressure on the governments of Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which are providing clandestine financial and logistic support to ISIL and other radical Sunni groups in the region.”

“The Qataris and Saudis will be put in a position of balancing policy between their ongoing competition to dominate the Sunni world and the consequences of serious U.S. pressure. By the same token, the threat of similar, realistic U.S. operations will serve To assist moderate forces in Libya, Lebanon, and even Jordan, where insurgents are increasingly fascinated by the ISIL success in Iraq.”

Qatar’s Support of Islamists Alienates Allies Near and Far | NEW YORK TIMES | SEP 7, 2014

Standing at the front of a conference hall in Doha, the visiting sheikh told his audience of wealthy Qataris that to help the battered residents of Syria, they should not bother with donations to humanitarian programs or the Western-backed Free Syrian Army.

“Give your money to the ones who will spend it on jihad, not aid,” implored the sheikh, Hajaj al-Ajmi, recently identified by the United States government as a fund-raiser for Al Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate.

Qatar is a tiny, petroleum-rich Persian Gulf monarchy where the United States has its largest military base in the Middle East. But for years it has tacitly consented to open fund-raising by Sheikh Ajmi and others like him. After his pitch, which he recorded in 2012 and which still circulates on the Internet, a sportscaster from the government-owned network, Al Jazeera, lauded him. “Sheikh Ajmi knows best” about helping Syrians, the sportscaster, Mohamed Sadoun El-Kawary, declared from the same stage.

FORMER HEAD OF HUMAN RIGHTS CHARITY ACCUSED OF LEADING DOUBLE LIFE AS TERRORIST FUNDRAISER | TELEGRAPH | SEP 20, 2014

“Abdul Rahman al-Nuaimi accused of sitting at centre of web of funding for al-Qaeda affiliates in countries ranging from Yemen to Syria, to Iraq to Somalia.”

“Mr Nuaimi, 60, has previously worked as a professor of history at Qatar University and even as president of the Qatar Football Association.”

“A leaked cable from the US Embassy in Doha in 2007 describes him as an “Islamist hardliner” and states that he was briefly jailed in 2000, for criticising the wife of Qatar’s then ruler for her role in public life.” US DIPLOMATIC CABLE | WIKILEAKS

He also was a founding board member of the Eid bin Mohammed Al Thani Charitable Association and a past board member of Qatar Islamic Bank.

How Qatar is funding the rise of Islamist extremists | TELEGRAPH | SEP 20, 2014

Western officials have tracked the Qatari arms flights as they land in the city of Misrata, about 100 miles east of Tripoli, where the Islamist militias have their stronghold. Even after the fall of the capital and the removal of Libya’s government, Qatar is “still flying in weapons straight to Misrata airport”, said a senior Western official.

GOVERNMENT DONATION TO MUSLIM CHARITIES FORUM DENOUNCED AS “MADNESS” | TELEGRAPH | SEP 23, 2014

A government department donated £18,000 to a charity coalition with ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, a group whose activities Britain has vowed to curtail following concerns over their extremist links in the Middle East, it has been claimed.

The Case Against Qatar | FOREIGN POLICY VOICE | SEP 30, 2014

The tiny, gas-rich emirate has pumped tens of millions of dollars through obscure funding networks to hard-line Syrian rebels and extremist Salafists, building a foreign policy that punches above its weight. After years of acquiescing — even taking advantage of its ally’s meddling — Washington may finally be punching back.

BANKER WHO FINANCED 9/11 MASTERMIND NOW FUNDING TERRORISTS IN SYRIA AND IRAQ | TELEGRAPH | OCT 4, 2014

Khalifa Muhammad Turki al-Subaiy – a Qatari citizen who was said to have provided ‘financial support’ for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed – was jailed for terrorist offences in 2008 but released after only six months.A terrorist financier from Qatar is at the centre of a jihadi network linking him to al-Qaeda fighters in Syria and Iraq.

AL-QAEDA TERROR FINANCIER WORKED FOR QATARI GOVERNMENT | TELEGRAPH | OCT 12, 2014

An al-Qaeda money man was employed by the Qatari government despite being officially designated a terrorist by the US.

Salim Hasan Khalifa Rashid al-Kuwari channelled hundreds of thousands of dollars to al-Qaeda through a terrorist network while working in the Gulf state’s Ministry of Interior.

STATE DEPARTMENT DEFENDS PARTNERSHIP WITH HAMAS-SUPPORTING QATAR | CNS NEWS | DEC 2, 2014

“We continue to interact closely with the Government of Qatar and will reinforce that such assistance should not go to Hamas.”

Qatar’s assistance to Hamas included a 2012 pledge of more than $400 million, supposedly for construction projects. Israel told the U.N. this year that Qatari money funded rockets as well as the cross-border tunnel network built by Hamas to carry out terror attacks inside Israel.

U.S. ALLY QATAR SHELTERS JIHADI MONEYMEN | THE DAILY BEAST | DEC 10, 2014

The world’s most two-faced nation fights ISIS while letting terrorists raise money. Why won’t Washington stop them?

WASHINGTON, D.C.—It has been dubbed the most two-faced nation in the world, backing the U.S.-led coalition against the militants of the Islamic State while providing a permissive environment, in the words of one top American official, for terrorist financiers to operate with impunity. And despite a growing furor on both sides of the Atlantic, Qatar, the tiny but super-wealthy Gulf emirate, shows scant willingness to clamp down on the jihad moneymen. Indeed, it may never unless Western powers start raising the political stakes.

“Abdulrahman al-Nuaymi, a Qatari who has been accused by the U.S. Treasury Department of transferring millions of dollars to al Qaeda affiliates in Iraq, Syria, Somalia, and Yemen, was described by the former emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al Thani, as an “old friend” who helped to keep him in touch with “men of Islamic political thought,” according to the Arab press. Those thinkers included a former mentor of Osama bin Laden, Abulmajeed al-Zindani, and the founder of Palestine’s Hamas movement, Ahmed Yassin.”

Should Qatar be Judged by the Company they Keep? | CONSORTIUM AGAINST TERRORISM FINANCING | SEP 10, 2015

A 2015 report by the Consortium Against Terrorist Finance (CATF) called attention on Qatar Islamic Bank’s correspondents claiming that some of them “have controversial histories of affiliation with or support of terrorist or extremist activities.”

Qatar Islamic Bank’s (QIB) controversial correspondents include:

Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited (IBBL) | WIKIPEDIA despite evidence suggesting they have also engaged in terrorist financing.

The presence of IBBL among QIB’s financial partners is not surprising given that Al Rajhi Bank had a 37% direct ownership in IBBL.

Moneyjihad reported that in 2011 “the Bangladeshi home ministry intelligence revealed that 8 percent of the bank’s profits were diverted as corporate zakat to support jihad in Bangladesh.”

Lobbying fees paid to Podesta Group: $390,000

2015 | Islami Bank Bangladesh | $300,000

2016 | Islami Bank Bangladesh | $90,000