/

20071209
• Secret - Rudy Giuliani - Drug - Government - Politics - Qatar - Hong Kong - North Korea - Crime - Global - US - 2008 Election - "Giuliani Won't Release Client Names." ... "For the past year, though, Giuliani has declined to identify his clients on the grounds that they entered into confidentially agreements with his firm." ... "Giuliani formed the consulting firm in early 2002, offering "management consulting service to governments and business" and over the next five years it earned more than $100 million. That income, along with a robust speaking schedule, helped transform the moderately well-off public servant into a globe-trotting consultant whose net worth is estimated to be in the tens of millions of dollars." ... "Giuliani Partners has represented a pharmaceutical company mired in a lengthy investigation; a confessed drug smuggler who hired Giuliani to ensure his security company could do business with the federal government; and the horse racing industry, which was eager to recover public confidence after a betting scandal." ... "But many of the firm's clients have never been listed on its web site or identified publicly by associates, and two of the most controversial arrangements among them only surfaced in recent weeks. One involved a 2005 agreement to provide security advice to the government of Qatar. The second stemmed from a deal to assist a partnership proposing a Southeast Asian gambling venture. Among the partners were relatives of a Hong Kong billionaire who has ties to the regime of North Korea's Kim Jong Il and has been linked to international organized crime, according to a report in the Chicago Tribune." -By Matthew Mosk -WashingtonPost

  ---

  
• Rudy Giuliani - Police - Politics - Trips - Apartments - New York - Indigent - Lawyers - US - Qatar - Terrorism - 2008 Election - "Giuliani Defends Girlfriend's Expenses." ... "Former New York Mayor [and 2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] Rudy Giuliani on Sunday defended the expenses incurred by his security detail as he was beginning an extramarital affair with current wife Judith Nathan, saying police made the decision after she had received threats." ... "Giuliani in recent weeks has faced a barrage of questions about New York police security costs for his trysts with Nathan and about his business clients, which have included the Persian Gulf country of Qatar. The Gulf state is a U.S. ally, but allegations have been made that some prominent Qatari officials sheltered suspected Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. " ... "Records first reported by Politico.com last month showed repeated trips between 1999 and 2002 to Long Island, where Nathan had a condominium. Giuliani's first trip was from Aug. 31 to Sept. 1, 1999 - months before he acknowledged the breakdown of his second marriage in the spring of 2000." ... "Security costs for those trips were charged to agencies like the New York City Loft Board, which regulates loft apartments and was billed $34,000. The Office for People with Disabilities was charged $10,000, while the Assigned Counsel Administrative Office, which provides lawyers for indigent defendants, was charged roughly $400,000. " -By Libby Quaid -AP via -CBSNews 

  ---

20071129
• Rudy Giuliani - Terrorism - Money - Politics - US - Qatar - Military - Intelligence - Osama bin Laden - Law - Enforcement - 2008 Election - "Giuliani's Ties to Qatar Raise Questions for Mr. 9/ll." ... "Contracts awarded to [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] Rudy Giuliani's private security firm in the Gulf state of Qatar were overseen by a government minister suspected of harboring the al Qaeda terrorist who planned the 9/ll attacks, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, according to security consultants in the region." ... "Since 2005, Giuliani Partners and its Giuliani Security & Safety (GS&S) unit has provided security consulting and advice in Qatar through contracts overseen by the country's Interior Ministry, which is currently run by a member of the royal family who has long been accused of supporting al Qaeda, according to security consultants familiar with the area." ... "The current interior minister, Sheik Abdullah Bin Khalid al-Thani, was suspected of sheltering Mohammed at his farm and tipping him off to the arrival of CIA [Central Intelligence Agency] and FBI [Federal Bureau of Investigation] teams coming to arrest the al Qaeda strategist back in 1996, according to the National Security Council's former chief counterterrorism adviser and ABC News consultant Richard A. Clarke, former CIA agent Robert Baer and a 2004 Congressional Research Service report." ... "Khalid al-Thani is also believed to have welcomed Osama bin Laden on two visits to the farm, according to an Oct. 10, 2007 CRS study." ... "The firm's work in Qatar was too close for comfort to former law enforcement agents familiar with the country." ... ""We have a guy who could be president who's taking money from the same accounts that harbored terrorists," said Baer, the former CIA agent." -By Marcus Baram -ABCNEWS.com 

  ---

20060223
• US - United Arab Emirates - Political - Business - Texas - Kuwait - Saudi Arabia - Qatar - "UAE gave $1 million to Bush library." ... "A sheik from the United Arab Emirates contributed at least $1 million to the Bush Library Foundation, which established the George Bush Presidential Library at Texas A&M University in College Station." ... "The UAE owns Dubai Port Co., which is taking operations from London-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co., which operates six U.S. ports. A political uproar has ensued over the deal, which the White House approved without congressional oversight." ... "Other Arab donors include the state of Kuwait, the Bandar bin Sultan family [of Saudi Arabia], the Sultanate of Oman, King Hassan II of Morocco and the amir of Qatar." -By Wendy Benjaminson -AP via -HoustonChronicle.com 

  ---

20050328
• -  -  -  -  -  - Osama bin Laden - "The New Head of Jihad Inc.? Intelligence Officials Say Jordanian Terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi May Be Emerging as Osama Bin Laden Successor." ... "However big a shock a recent suicide bombing in Doha was to the Qataris, it was far from unexpected in Western capitals, where intelligence agencies had discreetly put out a travel warning through their respective embassies." ... "The emirate, a key ally in the Bush administration's war on terror, has been high on the terrorist target list ever since it became home to the U.S. Central Command's operational headquarters in early 2003." ... "What did surprise intelligence officials was the name of the group which claimed responsibility for the bombing: Jund al-Sham ("Soldiers of the Levant")." ... "Although the group said that this was its first statement, Jund al-Sham is the same name as a group started by the Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Intelligence officials believe it may be a sign that Zarqawi is beginning to attack targets outside Iraq, and may, in fact, be emerging as a replacement to Osama bin Laden as the operational leader of the global jihad. Analysts are concerned that Zarqawi may now begin to redeploy his cadre of militants who, having gained important combat experience in Iraq, are capable of carrying out deadly missions elsewhere." (1, 2, 3, 4) -By Alexis Debat -ABCNEWS.com

  ---

20050321
• -  -  - "Egyptian Blamed in Car Bombing at Qatar Theater." ... "The [Qatar] government said Sunday that an Egyptian man was responsible for exploding a car bomb outside a theater complex in Qatar's capital on Saturday night, killing a British teacher and testing this Persian Gulf emirate's confidence in its immunity from terrorist attack." -By Michelle Wallin -NYTimes

  ---

20031113
• -  - "Back to Qatar:  Deteriorating Security in Iraq Draws CENTCOM to Region." ... "The general running the war in Iraq, Gen. John Abizaid, will move his headquarters back to the region beginning next week, because of the rise in attacks on U.S., allied and Iraqi targets, military officials told ABCNEWS." ... "Since taking command of U.S. Central Command, which covers the Middle East, in July, Abizaid has run the Iraq war from CENTCOM's permanent base in Tampa, Fla." -Contributions by Martha Raddatz -ABCNEWS.com 

  ---

20030326
• -  -  - "'PoWs and dead' shown on TV:  Pictures said to show two dead British soldiers and two British prisoners of war have been broadcast on Qatar-based TV station al-Jazeera." ... "The soldiers were said to have been killed and captured in fighting around the town of al-Zubayr, near the southern city of Basra." ... "The channel showed two apparently dead bodies in military uniform, lying next to a vehicle on a road, and two live men not wearing uniform, in a room full of Iraqis."-BBC/News 

  ---

20030324
• -  -  -  -  - "Al-Jazeera screens gruesome footage of battle casualties." ... "Millions of viewers throughout the Middle East saw pictures of Iraqi and American victims at the weekend which many western news organisations would consider too shocking to publish." ... "Al-Jazeera is owned by the government of Qatar, which is cooperating with the US in the invasion of Iraq, but its staff insist it has full editorial freedom." -By Brian Whitaker -Guardian.co.uk

  ---

  Search Iraq News - Search Google: 
• <Al-Jazeera-[News]>

---

20030320
• -  - "Main attack still to come." ... "The war in Iraq began with a US air strike against what the Pentagon calls "a target of opportunity" in the Baghdad area." ... "Sources at the US Centcom headquarters in Qatar indicate that five key Iraqi commanders - including possibly Saddam Hussein himself - were thought to be at one of the locations hit." -By Jonathan Marcus -BBC/News

  ---

20030120
• - "Iraq seen through a ‘bowl of mud’:  Qataris kept in dark aboutgovernment’s views on U.S. war plans." ... "On one hand, Qatar’s emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani is allowing one of his army bases to be transformed into a wartime headquarters for the American military." ... "On the other hand, Qatar has pursued close ties with Iraq and has never called publicly for the ouster of Saddam." ... "Hamad’s seven-year reign, launched when he toppled his vacationing father in a bloodless 1995 coup, has been heralded as an island of progress in a region known for closed societies ruled by petrol-fueled authoritarian regimes. Though he maintains absolute control of the country, the sheikh introduced municipal elections in 1999. A Qatari constitution is expected by 2004." -MSNBC

  ---

20021210
• -  - "With forces at ready, war could be swift:  US troop counts in the Mideast rise, ready for a campaign very different from Gulf War." ... "The hammer of US military force is almost ready for use against Iraq, even as the diplomatic struggle between Washington and Baghdad continues." ... "There are now some 80,000 uniformed American personnel in the region, counting troops deployed in Afghanistan. While an actual attack would likely require a final sprint deployment of strike units, most of the elements for war are now in place, as symbolized by this week's command-and-control exercise in Qatar." -By Faye Bowers and Peter Grier -CSMonitor 

  ---

20021209
• -  - "U.S. begins war game in Qatar in possible preparation for Iraq war." ... A U.S. war game believed to be a rehearsal for an invasion of Iraq began Monday in Qatar with senior commanders and battle planners conducting a computer-assisted exercise to improve their ability to fight a war in the region." ... General Tommy "Franks and his staff are controlling all of Central Command's forces from a high-tech, portable headquarters set up on Qatar's As Sayliyah army camp in the desert 20 miles outside of the capital, Doha." ... "The modular, portable buildings and the high-speed digital communications equipment, constructed by American defense contractor Raytheon, is being used for the first time." -AP via  -USATODAY 

  ---