The terror triangle: Osama Bin-Laden Al-Qaeda and Qatar

Why was Osama Bin-Laden encouraging the al-Qaeda group to go to Qatar? What is it that Qatar offers for the al-Qaeda group and what are they getting in return?

After the 9/11 attack, the United States intelligence agency did a lot of digging and research about the links of Bin-Laden and the al-Qaeda group with Qatar. They found many documents that showed that Bin-Laden had very close links and relationships with the Qatari government. Links so strong that he would motivate and encourage the al-Qaeda group to move to Qatar. This can’t be without any reason; he wouldn’t just encourage his followers to move to a country unless he knew that life and planning their operations would be more comfortable and easier, maybe they were even getting assistance from the Qatari government and political leaders.

It is important to stress this topic as much as possible, especially looking at the current situation in countries like Afghanistan. Qatar is not only accused of sponsoring terrorist groups like the Muslim Brotherhood, al-Qaeda, and many other groups, but they have accepted actually that they are supporting the Taliban group as well. They even have allowed the Taliban to have an office from which they operate, design and implement their inhuman attacks on civilians in Afghanistan. They haven’t even left the academic institutions. One of their latest attacks were on Kabul University leaving around 20 dead and more than 100 students injured. It is time for the international community to speak out about this. It is the matter of lives of millions of people across the world and it all comes down to the finances that the Qatar government is providing for these terrorist groups and giving them the opportunity to have operational offices in different cities of Qatar.

The US administration on many occasions spoke out about Qatar’s relations with terrorism in the Middle East as the White House’s new administration tried to calm the situation and control the growing terrorism on the international level. But it is also questionable because if the United States government is aware of Qatar’s support for the terroristic groups, why did they host the peace talks with the Taliban in the state of Qatar? Can it be possible that the United States is also playing the same game as Qatar? Portraying and pretending to be someone/something else but is something totally different in reality?

Osama bin Laden’s documents that were seized by US forces during the attack on his residence in Pakistan, those documents revealed Qatar’s relations with al-Qaeda. Between these documents, there was a long letter Osama bin Laden sent to, Khayria Saber, his younger wife before his death where he asked her if she was willing to travel to Qatar. Why would he ask his wife to travel to nowhere else but Qatar? That’s another proving point regarding the relations of Bin-Laden, al-Qaeda, and Qatar.

In addition to funding terrorist groups, Qatar has been accused by the international community of hosting a number of al-Qaeda militants, Arab Afghan and Taliban fighters, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who planned to blow up 11 US aircraft over the Pacific Ocean. Moreover, Ossama bin Laden had praised the relations with this Qatari channel and called upon preserving good ties with it. He said that all the channels were working against them, except this one due to common interests. He added that this channel is an important media platform for them in the region.

All that said; it is becoming more and more evident and definite that Qatar has some very close relationship with al-Qaeda, Taliban, Muslim Brotherhood and many other terrorist groups. These are not only links but also the government even finances and supports’ the terrorist offices and groups across the world. The country’s political statements at the times of attacks are different than the actions they take when it come to supporting the terrorist groups. The number of attacks on military forces and civilians is increasing day by day not only in Afghanistan but many other countries across the world. It is important to think about where these attacks are being designed, who finances them, and why? It is even more important for impacted countries like Afghanistan to start taking action on this issue.