Country Reports on Terrorism 2016 - Qatar

Overview: The United States and Qatar maintained a strong partnership in the fight against terrorism in 2016 and collaborated to foster closer regional and international cooperation on counterterrorism, law enforcement, and rule of law activities. U.S. agencies have an active and fairly productive dialogue with their Qatari counterparts and worked closely for the exchange and evaluation of terrorist-related information. Qatar is a full partner and active participant in the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS and has provided significant support in facilitating U.S. military operations in the region. In addition to hosting 10,000 U.S. servicemen and women on two military installations critical to coalition efforts, Qatar offered to host a base to train-and-equip moderate Syrian opposition forces. Qatar's public role in support of Coalition efforts and the U.S. military has thus far not exposed Qatar to any known terrorism-related attacks. Terrorist activity historically has been low in Qatar; restrictive immigration policies and security services capable of monitoring and disrupting terrorist activities have maintained the status quo. Qatar supported the Saudi Arabia-led Islamic Alliance to Combat Terrorism through agreeing to participate in regional training exercises with alliance members.

Legislation, Law Enforcement, and Border Security: The Qatari government has in place legislation enacted in 2004, 2010, and 2014 to address terrorism, terrorist financing, and related offenses, which complements other criminal laws. The 2004 Law on Combating Terrorism sets forth broad provisions for defining and prosecuting terrorist-related activities in Qatar against the State of Qatar, including prohibitions on providing information, training, supplies, weapons, financing, and material support to terrorists and terrorist organizations. The law does not provide presumption of innocence, right to a fair public trial, access to counsel, timely presentation before a public prosecutor, or defined legal periods of detention. The law also prohibits creating, directing, or using lawful entities, associations, or organizations to commit terrorist activities. The 2004 law also criminalizes collaboration with or joining organizations or groups located abroad, which commit a terrorist crime, even if not against the State of Qatar; and outlaws obtaining military training from such organizations or groups abroad. The 2014 Cybercrime Prevention Law criminalizes terrorism-linked cyber offenses.

The State Security Bureau (also known as the Qatar State Security) maintains an aggressive posture toward monitoring internal extremist or terrorism-related activities. The internal security-focused Ministry of Interior (MOI) is well-positioned to respond to incidents with rapid reaction forces and trained internal security forces that routinely pursue and engage in structured counterterrorism training and exercises. Both the State Security Bureau and the MOI are responsive to the Emiri Diwan and prime minister-level command and control structures, and efforts have been made to streamline interagency coordination and civil defense operations. The Office of Public Prosecution is tasked with prosecuting all crimes, including any related to terrorism, and plays a significant role in terrorism investigations as the prosecutors conduct investigative interviews. Oversight and management of industrial security is now consolidated under the MOI, with integrated responsibility for protecting the critical energy infrastructure, ports, and airport.

Qatari authorities have requested and expressed their intent to participate in the Department of State's Anti-Terrorism Assistance program, to boost domestic security capabilities. Qatar continued to participate in and host multilateral Global Counterterrorism Forum (GCTF) events. Also in 2016, Qatar funded efforts by the United Nations (UN) Office on Drugs and Crime to help address violent extremism and radicalization to violence among youth and vulnerable populations. Qatar also maintains an interagency National Anti-Terrorism Committee (NATC) within the MOI composed of representatives from more than 10 government ministries and official institutions. The NATC is tasked with formulating Qatar's counterterrorism policy, ensuring thorough and transparent interagency coordination within the government, fulfilling Qatar's obligations to counter terrorism under international conventions, and participating in international or UN conferences on terrorism.

Qatar maintains its own watchlist of suspected terrorists that it uses to screen passengers on international flights. Qatar also conducts vetting and background checks on all applicants for work visas. The Qatari government uses biometric scans for arrivals at the Hamad International Airport. Qatar engages in information sharing between its state-owned airline and foreign governments, including collection and dissemination of advance passenger information and passenger name records on commercial flights, and has agreed to enhance information sharing arrangements with the United States. During 2016, MOI authorities cooperated with U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials to enhance screening capabilities of the approximately 50 million travelers that pass through Hamad International Airport each year.

During 2016, MOI authorities also engaged the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), which led to the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for additional training in the area of judicial capacity building; this MOU is intended to encourage and strengthen information sharing mechanisms between Qatar and the United States and leverage DOJ expertise to share best practices. In 2016, the United States and Qatar enhanced their abilities to share terrorism screening information.

Overall, Qatar's security services workforce is limited in scope and bandwidth, and in most agencies, is reliant on manpower from third countries to fill rank-and-file law enforcement positions. This limitation applies across the board with all Qatari government institutions (except for the Qatar State Security and elite units of the MOI's internal security force) and reflects the demographics of the nation. Due to the demographics of Qatar's security services, advanced security training is not made available for non-Qataris in some cases and to an extent contributes to ineffective police operations. Qatar, however, has procured and deployed a state of-the-art electronic surveillance capacity, which enhances Qatari security services' effectiveness in the detection and monitoring of terrorist suspects.

Countering the Financing of Terrorism: Qatar is a member of the Middle East North Africa Financial Action Task Force (MENAFATF), a Financial Action Task Force-style regional body, and the Qatar Financial Information Unit is a member of the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units. Qatar has made significant progress on deficiencies identified in its MENAFATF Mutual Evaluation Report in 2008. According to the Second Biennial Update Report, Qatar is deemed "Compliant or Largely Compliant" with all but recommendation 26, which accounts for regulation and supervision of financial institutions. Qatar's Combating Money Laundering and Terrorist financing Law of 2010 require Qatar's Public Prosecutor to freeze the funds of individuals and organizations included on the UN Security Council ISIL (Da'esh) and al-Qa'ida sanctions list. The Qatar Central Bank works with financial institutions to confirm asset-freezing compliance with respect to these UN obligations on entities and individuals, including Qatari citizens.

The Government of Qatar has made progress on countering the financing of terrorism (CFT), but terrorist financiers within the country are still able to exploit Qatar's informal financial system.

In 2015 and 2016, Qatar prosecuted and convicted Qatari terrorist financiers for the first time. As part of ongoing reforms to curb terrorist financing, the State of Qatar issued the Cybercrime Prevention Law and the Law Regulating Charitable Activities in 2014. Qatar continued to be an active participant in U.S.-sponsored training and capacity building focused on CFT issues.

Non-profit organizations are not obliged to file suspicious transaction reports, but, based on the charities law that was passed in 2014, every charitable project must be approved by the Charities Commission, a government interagency body that monitors charitable giving to prevent terrorist financing.

For further information on money laundering and financial crimes, see the 2017 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR), Volume II, Money Laundering and Financial Crimes: http://www.state.gov/j/inl/rls/nrcrpt/index.htm.

Countering Violent Extremism: The core of Qatar's strategy to counter violent extremism is investment in education. Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammad bin Abdulrahman Al Thani stated during the May 2016 World Humanitarian Summit that "neglecting education means that whole generations would become more vulnerable to human trafficking or falling prey to terrorism." Qatari leaders have made strong public statements in 2016 on the importance of countering violent extremism by addressing prevention, dialogue, and trust to communities most affected by the conflicts in the region.

While Qatar has invested heavily in promoting primary and secondary education abroad, its domestic spending to counter violent extremism is focused disproportionately on tertiary education, including at the national Qatar University, the new Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, and, most notably, the many institutions housed at Qatar Foundation, including the six branch campuses of American universities housed at Education City. Within this context, the Qatari government expanded its youth-focused countering violent extremism (CVE) programs directed at its citizens, as well as the vast, and far less privileged, population of third country nationals living within Qatar (including an influx of residents from Egypt, Gaza and the West Bank, Syria, and Pakistan).

Qatar's Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MEHE) continued its partnership with the United States for the second year in promoting CVE education through the Young Writers Program (YWP). Through this program, students from 122 government schools in areas with less exposure to Western culture participated in writing programs that exposed them to CVE programming through essay writing on subjects affecting their society.

For youth in Qatar, QF's programs, such as the Qatar STEAM Fair (recently renamed the National Scientific Research Competition) and Qatar Debate, are aimed at raising the level of education and knowledge exchange among average, non-elite Qataris in the more conservative Ministry of Education school system. The STEAM Fair, which is sponsored by QF's Research and Development Office, aims to create a core of future STEM and STEAM leaders and attracts thousands of Qatari public high school students each year to participate. QF also sponsors a Stars of Science program, an "edu-tainment reality" television show. Its stated mission is to provide a launching pad for the region's aspiring science and technology entrepreneurs and serve as an instrument to foster creative and innovative thinking in the region while inspiring hope in the next generation of Arab youth. One of the show's key aims is to provide "hope to youth in a region of suffering."

Qatar continued its financial support for the Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund (GCERF), highlighting this fund as the first global initiative aimed at enhancing skills, potential, and resources of both the public and private sectors to support local projects, such as education, vocational training, civic engagement, media, and defense of women's rights in an attempt to increase resilience against violent extremists' agendas that create real barriers to economic and political development.

International and Regional Cooperation: Qatar is an active participant in the United Nations, the Gulf Cooperation Council, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and the Arab League on counterterrorism activities. Qatar is active in all of the Defeat-ISIS Coalition Working Groups and is also a founding member of the GCTF.