"Senior American military officials Wednesday threw cold water on reports of an attempted coup d'etat in Qatar, nerve center for the U.S. military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan......Middle East media reported on Monday, Aug.3, that "various Arab websites are reporting on the sudden firing of senior Qatari military officials after they staged a failed coup attempt."In response to a query about the coup rumors, one of the senior U.S. military officials, speaking only on condition of anonymity, told SpyTalk, "We have no evidence to corroborate this." ......According to my CQ colleague Jonathan Broder, a longime Middle East hand, "the mutinous lot was said to have been Pakistanis and Yemenis, who serve in the army. About half of Qatar's military is made up of foreign nationals. It was reported at the time that U.S. troops were involved in putting down the coup attempt."The Middle East Media Research Institute, or MEMRI, cited Saudi and Jordanian sources for this week's coup reports, implying they were true. "According to the report on the liberal Saudi website Alssiyasi, Qatar's chief of staff Hamad bin Ali Al-Attiya might also have been involved in the coup attempt," MEMRI said.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
U.S. Military Downplays Qatar Coup Rumors
Jeff Stein in CQ, here
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2 comments:
The most interesting thing about this is the total media blackout in Qatar, although they know it is being published and discussed all around them. It’s so bad that even the internet forums that are frequented by ex-pats working in Qatar are practicing self-censorship out of fear of losing their right to operate their internet businesses.
Perhaps the biggest irony is that I, along with many others, came to Doha in 1999 as part of the Ruling Family’s move to open up the country and make Qatar (in the oft repeated words of Sheikha Mozah) “a knowledge based society”. The establishment of the DCMF (Doha Center of Media Freedom) and its subsequent problems with certain power brokers in the country, made it very clear to me that Qatar is in a marked state of regression. I think this will continue until most of the signs of progress that the country has enjoyed since the Emir has been in power are decimated. As is VERY clear: many Qataris actually desire to be in 7th century Arabia — as long as their energy sector revenues keep lining their pockets so they can enjoy all the finest frills in life that the West has to offer, without the actual contamination of our “values” (i.e., freedom, guaranteed human rights, religious tolerance, etc.).”
Regards,
PM
The most interesting thing about this is the total media blackout in Qatar, although they know it is being published and discussed all around them. It’s so bad that even the internet forums that are frequented by ex-pats working in Qatar are practicing self-censorship out of fear of losing their right to operate their internet businesses.
Perhaps the biggest irony is that I, along with many others, came to Doha in 1999 as part of the Ruling Family’s move to open up the country and make Qatar (in the oft repeated words of Sheikha Mozah) “a knowledge based society”. The establishment of the DCMF (Doha Center of Media Freedom) and its subsequent problems with certain power brokers in the country, made it very clear to me that Qatar is in a marked state of regression. I think this will continue until most of the signs of progress that the country has enjoyed since the Emir has been in power are decimated. As is VERY clear: many Qataris actually desire to be in 7th century Arabia — as long as their energy sector revenues keep lining their pockets so they can enjoy all the finest frills in life that the West has to offer, without the actual contamination of our “values” (i.e., freedom, guaranteed human rights, religious tolerance, etc.).”
Regards,
PM
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