Jordan Schachtel of Conservative Review has a detailed report out today on a clandestine project that has been launched in South Carolina by the tiny, disproportionately influential, infamously pro-Islamism nation of Qatar. Along with increasingly Islamist Turkey, Qatar is one of the two chief contemporary bankrollers of extremist Sunni madrasas and insidious pro-Muslim Brotherhood academic sinecures alike. Qatar is infamous for its cozy ties with Hamas — and even with al-Qaeda.
And now, it seems, the Qatari regime’s pernicious tentacles are finding a new home in the Palmetto State.
Schachtel reports:
The Qatar-run Barzan Holdings was launched March 12, 2018, intended to act as “a commercial gateway for the defense industry in Qatar.” One week later, a subsidiary company, Barzan Aeronautical, was incorporated in South Carolina. The aircraft program appears to be in the very early stages of development. Barzan Aeronautical’s website lists a target launch date of May 2019. …
In interviews, Qatari officials have stressed that the one-year-old Barzan Holdings project is a top-priority project for advancing Qatar’s defense goals. In November, the ruler of Qatar himself paid a visit to the Barzan research and development center.
Information on the nature of the mission of Barzan Aeronautical first surfaced in Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) filings last year through the Department of Justice. A high-powered K Street law firm, Ott, Bielitzki & O’Neill PLLC, defined the Barzan Aeronautical mission as a project dedicated to “development and production of surveillance aircraft” for Qatar. Just a couple of weeks ago (without any media coverage), Barzan Aeronautical submitted its own FARA filing, describing its mission as aiding “in procurement / development of airborne ISR [Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance] systems for the foreign principal,” which is the state of Qatar. – READ MORE