A recent report by Sky News Arabia implicates Tunisian “moderate” Muslim Brotherhood leader Rachid Ghannouchi in a Qatar-funded assassination of one of his political rivals and vocal critics, Chokri Belaid, in February 2013:

An outspoken critic of #Tunisia's Islamist government has been assassinated http://t.co/uA6LSaPs — The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) February 6, 2013

The report claims that intelligence files finger al-Qaeda operatives working at the direction of Qatar as conducting the assassination, with the coordination and approval of Ghannouchi.

Belaid had uncovered evidence of Qatar’s complicity in the Ain Amenas hostage killings in Algeria:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lnpu9iiK1oU

This will be particularly awkward for the Washington, D.C. foreign policy establishment and the former Obama administration, both of which openly promoted Ghannouchi and his Ennahda party in Tunisia as the model of “Islamist democracy”:

Here’s a translation of the Sky News Arabia report:

Qatar … fingers tampering with the stability of the Arab Maghreb Qatar intervenes in the Maghreb Over the past few years, Qatar has focused itself on the affairs of most Arab countries through its support of militant groups. The Arab Maghreb countries have not succeeded in spreading Doha’s policies of spreading chaos and harming Arab national security. In Tunisia, for example, intelligence documents and information in 2014 showed that Qatar-funded organizations were behind the assassination of Tunisian trade union leader Chokri Belaid. The accusation came to Doha after the Ain Amenas terrorist operation in Algeria carried out by the so-called AQIM and its support for other militant groups. According to security and intelligence sources in reports reported by Tunisian newspapers at the time, the decision to assassinate Belaid was made after he announced that he had information and serious facts about the entry of suspicious parties to Tunisian and Algerian territory via Qatari drones equipped with advanced equipment of the kind granted by Doha to the Tunisian government. The sources said that Belaid had secret and dangerous documents revealing the involvement of Qatar in the Ain Amenas incident in Algeria, which made Belgian parliamentarian Lawrence Lewis accuse Qatar of involvement in the assassination of Belaid. Intelligence sources said that the main objective of the State of Qatar during that period was to create an atmosphere of chaos and insecurity in Algeria, as well as to get its hand on the countries of the Maghreb by supporting Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. In the following months the town of Ghadames, located in the border desert triangle between Libya, Tunisia and Algeria, turned into a safe haven for al-Qaeda operatives as cells ready to carry out operations serving the Doha agenda in the region, benefiting from the state of security chaos in the region. Belhadj Qatar has also put its hand on the armed Libyan battalions. Abdul Hakim Belhadj, who was included in the Saudi-Egyptian-Bahraini-Emirati-Bahraini last statement on the terrorism list, receives direct support from the Qatari intelligence. The FBI later arrested the terrorist Abu Anas al-Libi and admitted after questioning that the political assassinations that were taking place in Tunisia, the most important of which was the assassination of the politician Chokri Belaid, involved Abdul Hakim Belhadj, who was coordinating directly With Rachid Ghannouchi, head of the Tunisian Ennahda Movement. This coordination was with the knowledge of the Qataris. The perpetrators of the kidnappings and killings (assassinating Chokri Belaid) were carried out by men from the battalion of commando leaders, most of whom were directly involved in the Ain Amenas incident in Algeria. Those involved were in constant contact with the terrorist Haitham al-Tagouri, the right-hand man of Abdel Hakim Belhadj, who controlled the TEC men with the support of the Qatari intelligence service. The Qatari intelligence arranged the matter with Haitham al-Tagouri and Abdel Hakim Belhadj, who ordered the task force, specifically Khaled al-Basir, to persuade the “Blood-Signers” Battalion, along with terrorist Mukhtar Belmokhtar, to carry out the operation in exchange for substantial financial support. Thus, the process of Ain Amenas, whose preparation and implementation was vague, was brought back to the fore by the assassination of Chokri Belaid. Investigations uncovered widespread information in the European and American intelligence offices.

Ghannouchi has denied the claims, and filed a lawsuit against Sky News Arabia:

Ennahdha's Ghannouchi sues Sky News Arabia over defamatory 'fake news' https://t.co/t8pJrzlh4B — The New Arab (@The_NewArab) June 21, 2017

Both Ghannouchi and Libyan militia leader Abdel Hakim Belhadj have been tied to the Belaid assassination. Belaid’s widow and brother openly accuse Ennahda of complicity in his murder:

Belaid’s Widow Speaks Out Against Ruling Ennahda http://t.co/Y8bjAkZs — Al-Monitor (@AlMonitor) February 13, 2013

BREAKING-Tunisia: Direct accusation by brother of martyr Ckokri Belaid, Ghannouchi gave the order to kill my brother pic.twitter.com/rs7D03DKHE — MENASTREAM (@MENASTREAM) February 5, 2016

Defense in murder trial of Shokri Belaid, asks to question Abdul Hakim Belhadj.http://t.co/53bVl0yg1R pic.twitter.com/SLEKNW2a8O — Alwasat (@alwasatengnews) February 12, 2015

My new piece: "Abdelhakim Belhadj and Ansar al-Sharia in Tunisia." http://t.co/q1cQLGeDGY — Daveed Gartenstein-Ross (@DaveedGR) October 8, 2013

Un documentaire émirati accuse explicitement Rached Ghannouchi de l'assassinat de Chokri Belaid et Mohamed Brahmi https://t.co/AjdZq9Y4VI — KAOUACHE Tarek (@NO__PASARAN) June 25, 2016

The involvement of Belhadj will prove to be an additional embarrassment for the Obama administration: it had campaigned for his release from prison in 2009.

Senator John McCain has openly allied with and backed the former Libyan al-Qaeda leader:

A few years ago || Senator John McCain received an award from Head of LIFG (AlQaeda) Abdulhakeem Belhadj. #Libya pic.twitter.com/CZhrwguZYn — Matog Saleh (@MatogSaleh) June 9, 2017

Before becoming the darling of the Washington, D.C. foreign policy establishment, Ghannouchi was banned from the United States for his role and his support of terrorists. As Martin Kramer noted back in 1994, Ghannouchi had threatened attacks on the United States in a speech in Khartoum during the Gulf War crisis:

Kramer on 'moderate' @R_Ghannouchi:urged violence against US interests and demand Israel’s destruction http://t.co/X14mHj2rOt @Martin_Kramer — Ariel Ben Solomon (@ArielBenSolomon) October 29, 2014

As a senior leader in the International Union of Muslim Scholars, he also backed a 2003 IUMS fatwa that authorized the killing of Americans in Iraq:

BREAKING: Yale to Host Radical Terror Sheikh Who Advocated Killing of U.S. Soldiers http://t.co/mhM7PokIqO by @Kredo0 pic.twitter.com/jzVtTJQ1fa — Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) September 26, 2014

More recently, he signed on to other militant statements threatening Western nations:

In 2009, R. Ghannouchi, the leader of Tunisia's #MuslimBrotherhood, signed a GAAC statement which calls on Muslims to attack foreign navies pic.twitter.com/s54KkTNO01 — Islamism Map (@IslamismMap) February 9, 2017

And yet, the Obama administration — particularly Hillary Clinton’s State Department — embraced Ghannouchi after the beginning of the so-called “Arab Spring” and promoted his Ennahda (Renaissance) Party in Tunisia. The State Department encouraged his role in brokering agreements between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority:

State Dept. met repeatedly with Hamas ally Sh. Ghannouchi who helped broker Palestinian unity deal http://t.co/hfrm37zbmF Via @jrossman12 — InvestigativeProject (@TheIPT) April 29, 2014

Ignoring Ennahda’s role in sending jihadist fighters to Syria …

Tunisia’s 'Road to Jihad' in Syria Paved by Muslim Brotherhood http://t.co/VmoeQb3yyP — Intel Girl 🤓 (@IntelGirl111) October 23, 2013

… and Ghannouchi’s increased leadership in the international Muslim Brotherhood while the organization was openly advocating violence in the wake of massive protests that ousted Muslim Brotherhood president Mohamed Morsi in Egypt:

Ghannouchi becomes international Brotherhood's deputy http://t.co/pAJrwB5XUj — Egypt Independent (@EgyIndependent) July 15, 2013

Ghannouchi’s own Ennahda Party only narrowly averted the same fate in Tunisia by resigning after massive protests in Tunisia following Belaid’s assassination:

Tunisia’s Islamists learned from the Muslim Brotherhood’s failure in Egypt http://t.co/r2boRS974N — The Jerusalem Post (@Jerusalem_Post) October 29, 2014

Islamist Party in Tunisia to Step Down http://t.co/9siEDorKXZ — The New York Times (@nytimes) September 28, 2013

Tunisia’s Islamist Leader Resigns, Formally Ending His Party’s Rule http://t.co/WMuTn3hrEa — The New York Times (@nytimes) January 9, 2014

Islamist Party in Tunisia Hands Power to Caretaker Government http://t.co/YaZD2ZctR5 — The New York Times (@nytimes) January 29, 2014

One feature of Ghannouchi’s “dialogue” with Western countries was the double messages he would give: his positions when speaking in English or French contrasted with the more extremist positions he would deliver in Arabic. After the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi in September 2012 that killed four Americans, Ghannouchi vocally denounced it. And yet back home in Tunisia, the media there noted that his condemnations of jihadist groups were muted when he wasn’t talking to Western outlets:

Doubletalk of Tunisian Muslim Brotherhood leader: Ghannouchi Condemns Salafists, Jihadists Only to Foreign Press – http://t.co/7r6oSSlQ — Patrick Poole (@pspoole) October 6, 2012

Just weeks later, secretly recorded video emerged of Ghannouchi talking with hardline Salafist allies plotting to take control of various ministries in the Tunisia government:

Those behind-closed-door comments proved troubling to liberal party leaders in Tunisia:

Tunisia Islamist leader stirs fears of radicalism in video http://t.co/BGz5mkjH — Reuters World (@ReutersWorld) October 11, 2012

Tunisia shaken by Islamist video http://t.co/lFgXJ4F7 — Middle East & Africa (@FTMidEastAfrica) October 12, 2012

The problems of Ghannouchi’s double-talk became apparent on his first trip to the U.S. in late 2011. During a session at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), Ghannouchi made statements predicting that the so-called “Arab Spring” would spread to countries like Saudi Arabia in the following year; that the new Tunisian constitution should not preclude normalization with Israel; and that the U.S. was not the “Great Satan”:

https://twitter.com/Martin_Kramer/status/142430571883278336

But Ghannouchi was then criticized in the Arab press for his “moderate” statements, and he complained that his statements had been taken out of context:

Read about Tunisian Al-Nahda Party Leader Rached Ghannouchi's conflicting statements in the U.S. http://t.co/RL9CYPQE — MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) January 10, 2012

That prompted WINEP to publish audio of the whole discussion, showing Ghannouchi had indeed made those statements:

Response from WINEP: Concerning Mr. Rachid Ghannouchi's Visit to The Washington Institute http://t.co/ueYEOdf — Aaron Y. Zelin (@azelin) December 21, 2011

On that first trip to Washington, D.C., Ghannouchi was welcomed on Capitol Hill by the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), which hailed him as a “Tunisian Revolution Leader” despite the fact he had played no role in it whatsoever. He only returned from exile in London after the departure of Ben Ali:

Attend MPAC-DC Forum on Islamic Political Movements & Dinner with Ghannouchi, Tunisian Revolution Leader – http://t.co/9cjjtfNm — MPAC (@mpac_national) November 28, 2011

Ghannouchi has also been embraced by other U.S. Islamist groups, such as the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA):

ISNA to Host Ghannouchi http://t.co/fGb4LViM — InvestigativeProject (@TheIPT) May 11, 2012

ISNA Hosts Rachid Ghannouchi; Recently Predicted End Of Israel http://t.co/a00Cd9fPve — The Global MB Watch (@globalmbwatch) June 6, 2013

He also became the darling of D.C. think tanks such as the Council on Foreign Relations, Carnegie Endowment, and the U.S. Institute of Peace, even leading prayers at the CFR offices:

US at its best. Top Islamic thinker @R_Ghannouchi at prayer at CFR. Impossible in France or Ben Ali's Tunisia:. pic.twitter.com/33iGXayISH — Ed Husain (@Ed_Husain) May 31, 2013

#Ghannouchi at CFR today: moderate secular/Islamist coalition ending more than 50 years of polarization @R_Ghannouchi @Ed_Husain — Isobel Coleman (@Isobel_Coleman) May 30, 2013

A Conversation on #Tunisia’s Future with Rached Ghannouchi – Carnegie Endowment for International Peace http://t.co/vlQui8Cn — Kadir Ustun (@KadirUstun) December 5, 2011

Thanks to all for following today's conversation with Sheikh Ghannouchi: https://t.co/OilosJ8EFA #USIPTunisia pic.twitter.com/qI6QCC0aOA — U.S. Institute of Peace (@USIP) October 28, 2015

Some described it as Ghannouchi taking a “victory lap”:

Which was due in no small measure to the U.S. public relations and lobbying firms hired by Ghannouchi’s Ennahda Party:

Tunisian Islamists hire US lobby shop http://t.co/fPzmYk5Gdi — Al-Monitor (@AlMonitor) September 22, 2014

That public relations and lobbying money paid dividends in the glowing media coverage from the New York Times, Washington Post, NPR, and other establishment media outlets:

Rachid al-Ghannouchi Imagines Democratic Future for Tunisia http://t.co/W0vHpZwf — The New York Times (@nytimes) October 20, 2011

The New Islamists: Tunisia Navigates a Democratic Path Tinged With Religion http://t.co/YCRVwa41 — The New York Times (@nytimes) January 31, 2012

Most transitions to democracy are marked by bitter struggles. My take on changes in #Tunisia for @washingtonpost https://t.co/qTwPWZ4c97 — Fareed Zakaria (@FareedZakaria) October 30, 2015

Tunisia's Democratic Transition Benefits The World, Party Leader Says https://t.co/mT7Tj8qgFb pic.twitter.com/hdx7HCTKgF — Morning Edition (@MorningEdition) November 4, 2015

The evolution of Tunisia's Ennahda party shows that Islam is indeed compatible with democracy. https://t.co/mFyuKPCCAI — Foreign Affairs (@ForeignAffairs) August 21, 2016

Alcohol, bikinis, secularism, and Islam — welcome to democracy in #Tunisia http://t.co/yVotdUnu — The Atlantic (@TheAtlantic) November 8, 2011

And the D.C. foreign policy “smart set” began to fangirl Ghannouchi:

https://twitter.com/Martin_Kramer/status/353921112826068993

But they didn’t want to look at the darker side of Ghannouchi’s “Islamist democracy,” namely his open, long-time support for the terror group Hamas. In 2010, Oxfam in the UK had to investigate comments by Ghannouchi saying “I admire the Al-Qassam missiles” fired by Hamas at Israeli populations because of the effect “to strike terror into them.”

In fact, just a few weeks after Ghannouchi’s first trip to Washington, D.C. in late 2011 where he was embraced by the D.C. foreign policy establishment, he embraced Hamas honcho Ismail Haniyeh, a U.S.-designated terrorist, at an Ennahda Hamas rally back home in Tunisia:

At the January 2012 rally, Haniyeh tried to strike an optimistic tone:

Haniyeh: Muslims are creating the new Middle East: Hamas prime minister in Tunisia: Muslims … http://t.co/1C6CjTPw Via @jerusalem_post — Gal Rudich (@Galtweets) January 8, 2012

But not so optimistic for Israel’s prospects:

Haniyeh Promises ‘Difficult Days’ for Israel http://t.co/8NILxLf5 — Arutz Sheva Articles (@israelnatnews) January 9, 2012

Rally attendees began chanting “Kill the Jews.” Awkwardly, Ghannouchi had to condemn the anti-Semitic chants at the rally his own Ennahda Party sponsored featuring one of the top Hamas leaders:

#Tunisia: Nahdha leader Ghannouchi in press release condemns anti-Jewish slogans during visit of Hamas leader to Tunis — Borzou Daragahi 🖊🗒 (@borzou) January 9, 2012

al-Nahda's Ghannouchi slams anti-Semitic chants at HAMAS rally that he invited them to http://t.co/fq9UPtS Double discourse continues — Aaron Y. Zelin (@azelin) January 9, 2012

More recently, he has cheered youth joining Hamas:

In 2014, Ghannouchi appeared on stage at a IUMS event in Turkey with Hamas terror official Salah al-Aruri, who claimed Hamas credit for “heroic actions” in the abduction and murder of three Jewish teens in Hebron:

Ghannouchi always has time to receive Hamas officials in Tunis — like Hamas head Khaled Meshaal, a U.S.-designated terrorist:

Tunisia's Ennahda chief Rachid Ghannouchi and Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal in Tunis yesterday. pic.twitter.com/McLlOCBQio — Tom Stevenson (@TomFStevenson) September 13, 2014

The relationship between Ghannouchi and Hamas is so close that he has had to dodge allegations that he and Ennahda materially support Hamas in storing weapons and fighters:

Ghannouchi dodges accusations: No weapons and no Hamas fighters in Tunisia http://t.co/dHd4Y01WVi — Jonathan Schanzer (@JSchanzer) August 18, 2013

So it was a bit odd to see the establishment media and the foreign policy “smart set” get lathered up about comments Ghannouchi made last summer promising that his Ennahda Party was going to be separating religion from politics:

#Tunisia could be on the verge of a new revolution: separating religion and politics https://t.co/ny65wWFfS8 pic.twitter.com/igMQ46tInK — Haaretz.com (@haaretzcom) May 29, 2016

The Ennahda Party and the future of Tunisia, and of political Islam- Rachid Ghannouchi in Foreign Affairs https://t.co/LKX83PSyb5 — Marc Lynch (@abuaardvark) August 17, 2016

Not everybody was convinced, however:

The skepticism about how deep the abandonment of Islamist principles runs with Ghannouchi and Ennahda seems warranted. From the very beginning of the so-called “Arab Spring,” Ghannouchi made clear that the Islamist project was what the whole effort was about:

ARAB SPRING ALERT ==> Tunisia's Muslim Brotherhood leader Rached Ghannouchi – Islamists to dominate Arab world http://t.co/7ENY666J — Patrick Poole (@pspoole) November 30, 2012

One of Ghannouchi’s top deputies hailed at an Ennahda Party meeting that the coming of the “sixth caliphate” that would culminate in the “liberation” of Jerusalem had arrived:

Hamadi Al-Jabali, Tunisian PM Candidate and Secretary-General of Al-Nahda Party: The Sixth Caliphate Is Coming http://t.co/VF3r5fN1 — MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) November 17, 2011

Wow, Tunisia's Islamists hail arrival of the 'sixth caliphate' – Telegraph http://t.co/i46peiD5 via @Telegraph — Slim Khezri (@slimkhezri) November 17, 2011

And Ghannouchi himself said that democracy would be the method to bring in Islamic law — the very heart of the Islamist project:

Ghannouchi, Tunisian Ennahda Party leader: Islamic Law Favors Democracy which Provides It with Operational Framework http://t.co/bbOCQsv1 — MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) April 30, 2012

For those of us who have been watching the Middle East for a long time, there is a bit of déjà vu to the breathless foreign policy fangirls taking to their fainting couches over the prospect of Ghannouchi and Ennahda finally bringing forth a working model of “Islamic democracy” in the Muslim world. If there’s a touch of desperation on the part of the “smart set” with respect to their pet project of “Islamic democracy,” it’s because all subsequent attempts have failed.

None so spectacularly as Recep Erdogan in Turkey. On Obama’s first overseas trip, he traveled to Turkey and promised that the U.S.-Turkey relationship could be a model for the world:

Obama says U.S., Turkey can be model for world http://tinyurl.com/dchlb7 — CNN (@CNN) April 6, 2009

In 2010, Obama hailed Erdogan and Turkey as “a model Islamic democracy”:

Anyone remember 2010 when Obama called Turkey "a model Islamic democracy"? https://t.co/HeNtCN6Cbu pic.twitter.com/3P3TEfKHHa — Patrick Poole (@pspoole) March 30, 2017

And the foreign policy establishment fangirls got hot and bothered over Erdogan, too:

David Ignatius: Obama’s friend in Turkey – ISTANBUL As President Obama was feeling his way in foreign policy during … http://t.co/PynQCOCO — WaPo Syndicate (@WPNSS) June 8, 2012

But now it has all ended in tears:

Turkey's proposed new constitution would make President Erdogan into a 21st-century sultan https://t.co/szwqI857em — The Economist (@TheEconomist) April 15, 2017

It turns out that Erdogan, much like Ghannouchi, had said plainly years before that democracy would be how the authoritarian Islamist project would be implemented:

Democracy is a train, Erdogan once said. You get off once you reach your destination https://t.co/GEAW1bcd4m pic.twitter.com/1xzixiz4W3 — The Economist (@TheEconomist) February 10, 2016

It’s no surprise that Ghannouchi is taking Erdogan and Turkey as his prospective model, with the pair visiting frequently:

President Erdoğan Receives Ennahdha Leader Ghannouchi https://t.co/uMRLLFYap3 — Turkish Presidency (@trpresidency) May 20, 2017

The Ghannouchi-Erdogan relationship goes back decades, including when they both sat at the feet of Afghan warlord Hekmatyar, the “butcher of Kabul”:

https://twitter.com/MatthiasBj/status/873247624450756608

Given his lengthy track record of extremism and open support of terrorists, it’s not remotely surprising to see Ghannouchi tied to a Qatar/al-Qaeda plot to assassinate one of his top rivals and critics. Those are the circles he has run in his entire public career. That’s the reason why he was banned from the U.S. for nearly two decades. Sadly, the full truth of the assassination of Chokri Belaid may never be known.

Ghannouchi’s double talk — giving one message in English and French, and a contrary one in Arabic — and his backroom dealings with hardcore Salafists are all a matter of public record, there for anyone to see who cares to look.

But the so-called “Arab Spring” and its promise of bringing “Islamic democracy” to the Middle East fed the deepest fantasies of the Western establishment media and the foreign policy “smart set.” Instead, it has left the region in near-complete chaos.

For them to continue to fall for Ghannouchi’s “moderate Islamist” masquerade in light of the mountain of evidence to the contrary says everything about them.