By Robert Mendic, Chief Reporter - 7:00AM GMT 16 Nov 2014Two of al-Qaeda’s most senior financiers are living with impunity in Qatar despite being on a worldwide terrorism blacklist, the American official in charge of sanctions has disclosed.
The revelation casts serious doubt on the Gulf state’s insistence that it does not support terrorists, including jihadists in Syria and Iraq.
It will also add to growing calls on the British Government to put pressure on Qatar to crack down on terrorist financiers following the murder of two British aid workers in Syria. Qatar has huge investments in Britain — including such landmark businesses as the Shard skyscraper — and yet at the same time is apparently condoning jihadist financiers operating out of the Gulf.
The two Qataris — Khalifa Muhammad Turki al-Subaiy and Abd al-Rahman bin Umayr al-Nuaymi — are living in Doha, the country’s capital, and are free to go as they please, according to David Cohen, the US Treasury under-secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.
Mr Cohen has accused Qatar and its near neighbour Kuwait of being “permissive jurisdictions for terrorist financing” but until now the fate of a number of money men — identified as Specially Designated Global Terrorists by the US government — has not been known.
Qatar has refused to say what has happened to al-Subaiy, al-Nuaymi and others on US and United Nations terrorism sanctions lists.
The Telegraph has asked over a number of weeks about the status of the men and Qatar has refused to answer.
But during a question and answer session following a keynote speech in Washington, a transcript of which has been obtained by The Telegraph, Mr Cohen said: “There are US- and UN-designated terrorist financiers in Qatar that have not been acted against under Qatari law. There’s Khalifa al-Subaiy — and more recently, Abd al-Nuaymi, who we designated last December, the UN designated in August.” Mr Cohen added that both men were residents in Qatar.The US Treasury said it could not disclose further classified information on the men.
Both al-Nuaymi and al-Subaiy are understood to be well-connected to Qatar’s ruling elite.
They are also accused of raising millions of dollars for al-Qaeda and other jihadist groups. Al-Qaeda and Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) have announced a deal to fight together in Iraq and in Syria.
Al-Subaiy, 49, a former Qatari Central Bank employee, was blacklisted as a terrorist fundraiser as long ago as 2008 but still appears to be heavily involved in a jihadist network.
According to the official American report, al-Subaiy was identified as “a Qatar-based terrorist financier and facilitator who has provided financial support to, and acted on behalf of, al-Qaeda senior leadership, including senior al-Qaeda leader Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM) prior to KSM’s capture in March 2003”.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has been named as the “principal architect of the 9/11 attacks” and is being held in Guantánamo Bay.
He had lived freely in Qatar for a number of years in the Nineties despite being wanted even at that stage by the US for terror offences.
Al-Nuaymi, a former president of the Qatar Football Association, is accused of being one of the world’s most prolific terrorist fundraisers, accused of sending more than £1.25 million a month to al-Qaeda jihadists in Iraq and hundreds of thousands of pounds to Syria.
He was designated a terrorist in the US last December and added to a British sanctions list only in October this year. Lire la suite
(Censuré par la presse française)
