The State of Qatar

Floor Speech

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Mr. BERGMAN. Wasserman Schultz).

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman, my friend from Michigan, General Bergman, for his indulgence and his generosity.

Mr. Speaker, I close by reminding the American public the names and faces you saw tonight are only a fraction of those who remain held hostage in Gaza by cowardly terrorists, by Hamas.

I hope every American understands that Israel is fighting to protect her citizens from this diabolic terrorist organization and to rescue her hostages.

There is only one culprit to blame for this war, and that is Hamas. Their singular goal is to destroy Israel and kill Jews.

Mr. Speaker, this Chamber has always and will always continue to stand strong with Israel and work to release these victims from terrorist tyranny and support, preventing an attack like this from being perpetrated against Israel by Hamas ever again.

``Am Yisrael Chai,'' ``The people of Israel live.''
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Mr. BERGMAN. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire how much time I have remaining?
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Mr. BERGMAN. Mr. Speaker, the State of Qatar poses the gravest and most profound threat to the national security interest of the United States in the Middle East.

This was true before October 7, but it is now undeniable in the aftermath of the unspeakable horrors of that day, where at least 32 Americans were brutally murdered, and another 12 Americans were taken hostage.

Qatar poses a threat to the U.S. not through its military. Nor does Qatar threaten the U.S. by training and directly equipping terrorist groups the same way that the Ayatollah and the mullahs from Iran do.

Qatar threatens the U.S. even though it does not call Israel the Little Satan, nor does it call the United States the Great Satan. It is true that Qatar does not loudly proclaim that it wants to wipe Israel off the map, just as it does not publicly chant ``death to America.'' But it is precisely because Qatar does not espouse extremism so boldly and brazenly that this tiny but wealthy emirate is so dangerous to our national security interests.

The nature of this threat is best understood by comparing and contrasting the two main state sponsors of Hamas--Qatar and Iran.

Qatar has access to the corridors of power and the ability to mingle with world elites. Iran, on the other hand, simply does not have the ability to influence our glad-hand Western leaders.

Iran does not get involved and invited to the G20. Qatar does.

Iran does not attend Davos. Qatar does.

Iran does not host the forward headquarters of CENTCOM, Central Command. Qatar does.

The Iranian Ayatollah can't simply get President Biden on the phone for a friendly call, but the Qatari Emir can, and does.

The Islamic Republic of Iran in its current form run by the mullahs would never be designated as a major non-NATO ally. Yet just last year, President Biden bestowed this prestigious designation on the State of Qatar.

Qatar has used its enormous influence with the West to help terrorist groups, such as Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Taliban. Qatar's singularly unique support for Hamas has proved invaluable for the bloodthirsty terrorist group.

Hamas leaders not only planned the unprecedented error campaign from luxury villas and penthouse suites in Doha, provided to them by the State of Qatar, but they have been allowed to promote blood libels daily since October 7 on Al Jazeera, the propaganda outlet owned and ultimately controlled by the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.

For years and continuing to this day, Qatar has promoted and whitewashed Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Taliban, among other terrorist groups, including with fawning coverage on Al Jazeera. Qatar also effectively serves as the diplomatic arm for these terrorist groups, including when they claim to act as mediators with the terrorists from the West. And, of course, Qatar also funds these and other terrorist groups, sometimes overtly and sometimes quietly.

But Qatar has also provided direct and material support to Hamas here in the United States, such as aggressively protecting the terrorist group by successfully killing legislation that was to enact harsh sanctions on the state sponsors of Hamas.

As I will soon explain in more detail, the State of Qatar was single- handedly responsible for killing the Hamas Sanctions Bill, which was first introduced in 2017 by my friend and colleague, Congressman Brian Mast.

The State of Qatar not only killed the Hamas Sanctions Bill in the 115th Congress, but after it was reintroduced in 2019, the emirate once again killed the legislation in the 116th Congress.

While it is impossible to know for sure, it is distinctly possible that if Qatar had not gone to such extraordinary lengths to protect Hamas from sanctions, that the atrocities of October 7 might never have happened.

Almost the entire Beltway foreign policy establishment, not just Democrats but also Republicans, have gotten Qatar wrong for the past 25-plus years. The establishment's conventional wisdom is that although almost all outward indicators show that Qatar is firmly aligned with Iran, Islamists, and jihadists, the supposed truth is that they are secretly moderate and pro-America.

Unfortunately, our foreign policy elites have chosen to cling to the illusion of who the Qataris privately claim to be, while ignoring the harsh reality of who they actually are.

It is simply not true that Qataris are reluctantly close with Iran, Islamists, and jihadists, engaging with these malign actors out of necessity or to help the United States and the West.

The overwhelming evidence shows that, in fact, the Qataris are true believers.

Qatar's apologists claim that the emirate only has dealings with Iran because they jointly own the North Field, the world's largest natural gas reserve.

Yet time and again, Qatar acts in sync with Iran across the Middle East, where both regimes just so happen to try and destabilize the same governments, especially those that are strong allies of the United States. And Qatar and Iran both sponsor some of the same terrorist groups, including Hamas and Hezbollah.

There is no support for Ambassador Al Thani's allegation. The most generous interpretation for the emirate is that Qatar wanted to serve as the home for Hamas headquarters and its leaders, and that it convinced the Obama administration to allow them to become joined at the hip with this bloodthirsty terrorist group.

Similarly, Qatar is also no reluctant supporter of Hamas. Qatar's Ambassador to America, Meshal Al Thani, implied in a Wall Street Journal op-ed earlier this month that the United States essentially requested Doha to host Hamas' world headquarters and to provide sanctuary to the terrorist group's leaders.

The best evidence that Qatar genuinely supports Hamas and generally shares the same world view and goals as the terrorist organization is what you see when Hamas leaders, such as Ismail Haniyeh or Khaled Mashaal, meet with the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.

As you can see in photos of their meetings, the Emir warmly embraces Mashaal, terrorists with blood on their hands, and the Emir clearly demonstrates with his smile and body language that he considers these Hamas thugs to be his close, personal friends.

There are two other powerful indicators that Qatar agrees with the radicals who hate America.

The first is the ruling Al Thani family's close relationship with the longtime spiritual leader of the International Muslim brotherhood, Yusuf Al-Qaradawi. The other is something available for anyone to see for themselves, the stomach-turning content of Al Jazeera, the Qatari state-owned propaganda outlet.

Until Yusuf Al-Qaradawi died last year at the age of 96, he was not only the top religious cleric for the Muslim Brotherhood, but also for the ruling Al Thani family.

The Qatar Foundation, which is actually a private company owned by the Emir of Qatar and his parents, worked closely with Qaradawi for decades, spending hundreds of millions of dollars to export and promote Qaradawi's deranged brand of Islam.

To understand just how much of an extremist Qaradawi was, all you would have to do is watch the old broadcasts of his show on Al Jazeera. Over the years, Qaradawi used his platform to endorse violent jihad against the West, and he specifically advocated for terrorist attacks on Israel, as well as attacks on U.S. soldiers in Iraq.

Qaradawi also praised the Holocaust and repeatedly used his show to promote the mass murder of Jews.

On his Al Jazeera show in 2011, Qaradawi proclaimed that Allah used Adolf Hitler to wreak the Holocaust upon the Jews as divine punishment, and he praised Hitler for putting Jews in their place.

Qaradawi was also well known for praising Hamas during the Al Jazeera broadcasts. Unfortunately, the entirety of Al Jazeera is now well known for praising Hamas.

Al Jazeera has served as an unabashed cheerleader for Hamas for years, and especially since October 7. The broadcasts of state-owned Al Jazeera have been rife with explicit cheerleading for Hamas and spreading blood libels about the Jewish State.

Not only does Al Jazeera reveal its repugnant biases in hailing Hamas as the resistance and casting Israel as the occupiers, but among its earliest reporting on Hamas' October 7 terrorist attack was a story praising the brutal kidnapping as ``humanitarian,'' under the headline, ``Activists praise the resistance's humanitarian treatment of an Israeli woman and her children.''

In the time since, Qatar's propaganda outlet has continued to interview top Hamas leaders, often in-studio in Doha, allowing them to promote dangerous falsehoods designed to incite viewers against not just Israel, but also America and the West.

For years, Hamas has tried to sell the West a fiction, the idea that there is an armed wing and a political wing of the terrorist organization. Well, it is safe to say that since October 7, Al Jazeera has become the media wing of Hamas.

If someone wants to know about Qatar's true foreign policy positions, all they need to do is check out Al Jazeera's Arabic language coverage.

That way, it wouldn't be a surprise to anyone that Qatar's Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement on October 7 that holds Israel solely responsible for the mass murder of 1,200 innocents and the kidnapping of another 200-plus.

Earlier this month, at a Gulf Cooperation Council gathering, Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani doubled down on this position when he had the audacity to condemn the world for allowing Israel supposedly to be above the law, as if a nation should not be allowed to defend itself from mass murders at its border, even as the Emir himself very much treats the Hamas leaders as above the law by refusing to arrest them.

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Mr. BERGMAN. Mr. Speaker, time is finite because once a minute is gone, it is lost forever.

I have countless examples here of how Qatar's influence is so deep in Washington, D.C. That includes hacking. That includes targeting committee chairmen. Most importantly, the biggest example that is read, The Gray Lady, The New York Times, is a business partner, to an extent, with Hamas.

It is time that we stop treating Hamas' benefactors and the government as an ally. The time is now for the U.S. to force Qatar to choose between the U.S. and Hamas. They cannot embrace both. If they choose to continue embracing Hamas, we must treat them as we treat any other state sponsor of terrorist groups that murder Americans.

Mr. Speaker, the State of Qatar poses the gravest and most profound threat to the national security interests of the United States in the Middle East.

This was true before October 7th, but it is now undeniable in the aftermath of the unspeakable horrors of that day--where at least 32 Americans were brutally murdered and another 12 Americans were taken hostage.

Qatar poses a threat to the U.S. not through its military. Nor does Qatar threaten the U.S. by training and directly equipping terrorist groups the same way that the Ayatollah and the Mullahs from Iran do.

Qatar threatens the U.S., even though it does nor call Israel the Little Satan, nor does it call the United States the Great Satan. And it is true that Qatar does not loudly proclaim that it wants to wipe Israel ``off the map,'' just as it does not publicly chant, ``Death to America.''

But it is precisely because Qatar does not espouse extremism so boldly and brazenly that this tiny but wealthy emirate is so dangerous to our national security interests.

The nature of this threat is best understood by comparing and contrasting the two main state sponsors of Hamas--Qatar and Iran.

Qatar has access to the corridors of power and the ability to mingle with world elites. Iran, on the other hand, simply does not have the ability to influence or glad-hand Western leaders.

Iran does not get invited to the G-20--Qatar does.

Iran does not attend Davos--Qatar does. Iran does not host the forward headquarters of CENTCOM--Qatar does.

The Iranian Ayatollah can't simply get President Biden on the phone for a friendly call.

But the Qatari Emir can--and does.

The Islamic Republic of Iran in its current form run by the mullahs would never be designated as a ``Major Non-NATO Ally.'' Yet just last year, President Biden bestowed this prestigious designation on the State of Qatar.

Qatar has used its enormous influence with the West to help terrorist groups, such as Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Taliban. Qatar's singularly unique support for Hamas has proved invaluable for the bloodthirsty terrorist group.

Hamas leaders not only planned the unprecedented terror campaign from luxury villas and penthouse suites in Doha--provided to them by the State of Qatar--but they have been allowed to promote blood libels daily since October 7th on Al Jazeera, the propaganda outlet owned and ultimately controlled by the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamnad Al Thani.

For years and continuing to this day, Qatar has promoted and whitewashed Hamas, Hezbollah and the Taliban--among other terrorist groups--including with fawning coverage on Al Jazeera. Qatar also effectively serves as the diplomatic arm for these terrorist groups, including when they claim to act as ``mediators'' with the terrorists for the West.

And of course, Qatar also funds these and other terrorist groups, sometimes overtly and sometimes quietly.

But Qatar has also provided direct and material support to Hamas here in the United States, such as aggressively protecting the terrorist group by successfully killing legislation that was intended to enact harsh sanctions on state sponsors of Hamas.

As I will soon explain in more detail, the State of Qatar was single- handedly responsible for killing the Hamas Sanctions Bill, which was first introduced in 2017, by my friend and colleague, Congressman Brian Mast.

The State of Qatar not only killed the Hamas Sanctions Bill in the 115th Congress, but after it was reintroduced in 2019, the emirate once again killed the legislation in the 116th Congress.

And while it is impossible to know for sure, it is distinctly possible that if Qatar had not gone to such extraordinary lengths to protect Hamas from sanctions, that the atrocities of October 7th might never have happened.

Almost the entire Beltway foreign policy establishment--not just Democrats, but also Republicans--have gotten Qatar wrong for the past 25-plus years. The establishment's conventional wisdom is that although almost all outward indicators show that Qatar is firmly aligned with Iran, Islamists and jihadists, the supposed ``truth'' is that they are secretly moderate and pro-America.

Unfortunately, our foreign policy elites have chosen to cling to the illusion of who the Qataris privately claim to be, while ignoring the harsh reality of who they actually are.

It is simply nor true that the Qataris are ``reluctantly'' close with Iran, Islamists and jihadists, engaging with these malign actors out of necessity or to ``help'' the United States and the West. The overwhelming evidence shows that, in fact, the Qataris are true believers.

Qatar's apologists claim that the emirate only has dealings with Iran because they jointly own the North Field, the world's largest natural gas reserve.

Yet time and again, Qatar acts in sync with Iran across the Middle East, where both regimes just so happen to try and destabilize the same governments--especially those that are strong allies of the United States. And Qatar and Iran both sponsor some of the same terrorist groups, including Hamas and Hezbollah.

But there is no support for Ambassador Al Thani's allegation.

The most generous interpretation for the emirate is that Qatar wanted to serve as the home for Hamas headquarters and its leaders, and that it convinced the Obama Administration to allow them to become joined at the hip with the bloodthirsty terrorist group.

Similarly, Qatar is also no ``reluctant'' supporter of Hamas. Qatar's Ambassador to America, Meshal Al Thani, implied in a Wall Street Journal op-ed earlier this month that that the United States essentially requested Doha to host Hamas' world headquarters and to provide sanctuary to the terrorist group's leaders.

The best evidence that Qatar genuinely supports Hamas and shares the same worldview and goals as the terrorist organization is what you see when Hamas leaders, such as Ismail Haniyeh or Khaled Mashaal, meet with the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamnad Al Thani.

As you can see in photos of their meetings, the Emir warmly embraces Haniyeh and Mashaal--terrorists with blood on their hands--and the Emir clearly demonstrates with his smile and body language that he considers these Hamas thugs to be his close, personal friends.

There are two other powerful indicators that Qatar agrees with the radicals who hate America.

The first is the ruling Al Thani family's close relationship with the longtime ``spiritual leader'' of the International Muslim Brotherhood, Yusuf Al-Qaradawi.

The other is something available for anyone to see for themselves-- the stomach-turning content of Al Jazeera, the Qatari state-owned propaganda outlet.

Until Yusuf Al-Qaradawi died last year at age 96, he was not only the top religious cleric for the Muslim Brotherhood, but also for the ruling Al Thani family.

The Qatar Foundation, which is actually a private company owned by the Emir of Qatar and his parents, worked closely with Qaradawi for decades, spending hundreds of millions of dollars to export and promote Qaradawi's deranged brand of Islam.

To understand just how much of an extremist that Qaradawi was, all you would have to do is watch the old broadcasts of his show on Al Jazeera. Over the years, Qaradawi used his Al Jazeera platform to endorse violent jihad against the West, and he specifically advocated for terrorist attacks on Israel, as well as attacks on U.S. soldiers in Iraq.

Qaradawi also praised the Holocaust, and repeatedly used his show to promote the mass murder of Jews.

On his Al Jazeera show in 2011, Qaradawi proclaimed that ``Allah'' used Adolf Hitler to wreak the Holocaust upon the Jews as ``divine punishment,'' and he praised Hitler for ``putting (Jews) in their place.''

Qaradawi was well-known for praising Hamas during his Al Jazeera broadcasts. Unfortunately, the entirety of Al Jazeera is now also well- known for praising Hamas.

Al Jazeera has served as an unabashed cheerleader for Hamas for years, and especially since October 7th. The broadcasts of state-owned Al Jazeera have been rife with explicit cheerleading for Hamas and spreading blood libels about the Jewish state.

Not only does Al Jazeera reveal its repugnant biases in hailing Hamas as the ``resistance'' and casting Israel as the ``occupiers,'' but among its earliest reporting on Hamas' October 7th terrorist attack was a story praising the brutal kidnappings as ``humanitarian,'' under the headline, ``Activists praise the resistance's humanitarian treatment of an Israeli woman and her children.''

In the time since, Qatar's propaganda outlet has continued to interview top Hamas leaders, often in-studio in Doha--allowing them to promote dangerous falsehoods designed to incite viewers against not just Israel, but also America and the West.

For years, Hamas has tried to sell to the West a fiction, the idea that there is an ``armed wing'' and a ``political wing'' of the terrorist organization. Well, it is safe to say that since October 7th, Al Jazeera has become the media wing of Hamas.

If someone wants to know about Qatar's true foreign policy positions, all they need to do is check out Al Jazeera's Arabic language coverage.

That way, it wouldn't be a surprise to anyone that Qatar's Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement on October 7th that it holds ``Israel solely responsible'' for the mass murder of 1,200 innocents and the kidnapping of another 200-plus.

Earlier this month at a Gulf Cooperation Council gathering, Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani doubled down on this position, when he had the audacity to condemn the world for allowing Israel supposedly to be ``above the law''--as if a nation should not be allowed to defend itself from mass murderers at its border--even as the Emir himself very much treats the Hamas leaders as ``above the law'' by refusing to arrest them.

Qatar has been able to hoodwink the State Department and the foreign policy ``elites'' for years through a two-tiered, carrot-and-stick approach.

They lavish money in all directions to purchase ``friends'' and supporters. And when they encounter the principled few who can't be bought off, Qatar has used its considerable espionage capabilities to target those critics it views as harmful to their interests.

In short, Qatar's influence strategy can be summed up in three words--buy or destroy.

The ``visible'' portion of Qatar's strategy has been to spread billions and billions of dollars across the U.S. Here's a srnall sampling of Qatar's largesse inside the U.S.:

A total of $6 billion given to our universities, which doesn't include the millions it gives to radical, anti-American campus groups, such as Students for Justice in Palestine.

An unknown dollar amount, but probably hundreds of millions of dollars in total, to think tanks.

Millions and millions of dollars to The New York Times--yes, the ``Gray Lady''--in the form of co-hosting dubious ``Art for Tomorrow'' conferences in Doha, as well as sponsoring other New York Times junkets, such as its ``Oil and Money'' conferences.

Since 2017, Qatar has engaged at least 75 lobbying and PR firms, according to the FARA website, and it has paid these firms approximately $225 million, for an average of $3 million paid to each registered FARA agent.

And most recently, Qatar's sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Investment Authority, or QIA, ``invested'' $200 million dollars to purchase 5 percent of Monumental Sports Entertainment, founded and run by Ted Leonsis, and which is the parent company of the NBA and NHL franchises right here in Washington, D.C., the Wizards and the Capitals.

Qatar's lavish spending habits on lobbyists and now for sportswashing have garnered at least some media attention. But the dirty secret is that it is the darker side of Qatar's ``buy-or-destroy'' approach that has probably been even more effective.

Qatar has engaged in hacking operations to intercept the communications of Americans whom the wealthy emirate believes to be harmful to its interests, reportedly by hiring firms such as Global Risk Advisors, founded and owned by former CIA agent Kevin Chalker, to plan and orchestrate these so called ``hack-and leak'' operations.

In recent years, Qatari espionage activities have used hacked materials to smear a long list of powerful and influential figures, including both former and current U.S. government offIcials.

Here are a few examples of the American critics of Qatar that the emirate went after through targeted dissemination of hacked materials to friendly media outlets:

the former Homeland Security Advisor to the President, Fran Townsend;

a former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Mark Wallace;

the former Deputy National Security Advisor, Elliott Abrams;

the former acting head of the Central Intelligence Agency, Michael Morell: and

the then-sitting Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Ed Royce.

The decision to target Chairman Royce is as stunning as it was brazen. But here is the cold, hard reality: a foreign government that sponsors numerous terrorist organizations used American citizens and others to intimidate and neutralize one of the most powerful U.S. government officials in matters of foreign policy, who at that time was the Chairman of this body's Foreign Affairs Committee.

Although Qatar has never publicly stated why they unleashed their espionage forces on Chairman Royce, the reason seems obvious.

It was to protect Hamas.

In late 2017, Chairman Royce's committee unanimously passed the Hamas Sanctions Bill, whose findings mentioned two state sponsors of Hamas-- Iran and Qatar. It was no secret at that time that Qatar's top priority was killing the legislation, and Qatari lobbyists were swarming Capitol Hill, desperately attempting to halt the bill.

Just a few months later, in early 2018, Qatar's high-priced PR agents worked in cahoots with media outlets, including The New York Times, to smear Chairman Royce--a good man, known and loved by many in this body--with splashy ``news'' stories that created false narratives through the use of hacked materials.

What makes the whole operation to smear Chairman Royce even more outrageous is the very significant ethical conflict of the primary media outlet that relied on hacked materials to do Qatar's bidding--The New York Times.

What the ``Gray Lady'' did not mention in any of the many stories it published based on emails hacked by Qatar is that The New York Times was in business with Qatar.

In fact, Qatar and Brookfield had reached an agreement to purchase 42 percent of the New York Times Building in Times Square by January 2018.

The New York Times also neglected to mention in these stories placed by Qatar's Intelligence services that Qatar had been lining the pockets of The New York Times for at least several years by this time, with untold millions of dollars for ``sponsoring'' junkets hosted by The New York Times.

So when the tiny but wealthy emirate needed to ``teach a lesson'' to any other Congressman or Senator thinking of criticizing Qatar--or even Hamas--the State of Qatar turned for help to its own business partner, The New York Times, which dutifully published a hit piece smearing the then-current Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

The hit pieces that Qatar generated had the desired effect.

Even though the Hamas Sanctions Bill, H.R. 2712, had been unanimously passed by the Foreign Affairs Committee in November 2017 and was expected to easily pass a Floor vote in this body.

But after the Qataris successfully weaponized hacked materials to smear Chairman Royce, the Hamas Sanctions bill died a quiet death, never even making it to a Floor vote.

Could anyone imagine the Chairman Royce scenario playing out the same way, but with different countries or a different target?

For example, if Russia had targeted a Democratic Congressman or Senator that same way, does anyone doubt that the media and foreign policy ``elites'' would have been up in arms?

Or if it had been Iran smearing a Democratic Congressman or Senator with hacked materials? This is yet another example of the unique threat posed by Qatar.

There's no other nation that would be so daring as to intercept the communications of prominent Americans--let alone high-ranking U.S. government officials--that also has a cozy relationship with top media outlets or that has financial ties to a wide array of prominent and influential Americans.

Who in academia would dare step up to criticize Qatar for openly targeting American critics, including U.S. government officials?

Not likely someone affiliated with Harvard, which has received at least $17 million from Qatar.

Probably not anyone affiliated with Northwestern University, which has raked in over $600 million from Qatar.

The same goes for anyone affiliated with Georgetown University--which has received over $800 million in Qatari cash--or Cornell University, which Qatar has paid a staggering $2 billion.

The top ranks of the think tank world are also surprisingly reluctant to criticize Qatar--which is no surprise given the millions upon millions of dollars that Qatar spreads to think tanks.

And in case you might think that major law firms would be outraged at a foreign government hacking the communications of its American critics and then weaponizing those hacked materials, that has certainly not happened with Qatar.

Among the law firms retained by Qatar is Covington, a law firm that acts as personal counsel to President Biden.

Three Covington partners serve as the trustees of Biden's Vice Presidential Archives.

Covington partner Dana Remus was the first White House Counsel in this Administration, and before that, she was the general counsel for the Biden 2020 Presidential campaign.

Another Covington partner, Robert Lenhard, served as the lead outside counsel for the Biden 2020 Presidential campaign.

And Lenhard's wife, Viveca Novak, was an editor at McClatchy News when that outlet was publishing stories based on materials hacked by Qatar in 2017-2018.

Even with its tentacles everywhere in American society, the State of Qatar is looking to extend its influence operations into one of the last areas in the U.S. that has been immune from foreign influence-- American professional sports.

The Qatar Investment Authority has purchased 5 percent of Monumental Sports Entertainment, the parent company of the NBA and NHL franchises right here in Washington, D.C.--the Wizards and the Capitals.

Over the past month, I have sent multiple letters about QIA's proposed investment to the NBA, the NHL, and Monumental Sports.

All three of them responded to my initial letters with dismissive replies, and then the NBA and Monumental ignored my following-up letters sent two weeks ago, which included straightforward questions that would shed light on some of the basic details regarding this business deal that is obviously of significant importance to the American public.

There should be no doubt that Qatar's sole motivation for its investment into the Washington Wizards and the Washington Capitals is to give it a uniquely powerful tool for further cementing its death grip on our Nation's capital.

Congress must investigate this business arrangement. And because Monumental's President, Ted Leonsis, is seeking $600 million in taxpayer money to pair with Qatar's $200 million ``investment'' in order to renovate the Verizon Center, Congress has a duty to investigate.

As my time comes to a close, let me conclude by saying that it is of paramount importance that the United States immediately begin to reassess its relationship with the State of Qatar.

The only path forward is to pressure Qatar. It is unconscionable that Hamas is holding as hostages nine Americans and almost 200 others, while Hamas leaders live freely--and luxuriously--in Doha, just miles from the United States Air Base at Al Udeid.

We owe it to the memory of the 32 Americans murdered on October 7. And we owe it to the American people, whose government should not be treating Hamas' benefactors as an ``ally.''

The time is now for the U.S. to force Qatar to choose between the U.S. and Hamas. They cannot embrace both. And if they choose to continue embracing Hamas, we must treat them as we treat any other state sponsor of terrorist groups that murder Americans.

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