Qatar-U.S. Law Enforcement Cooperation Agreement, Signed In Biden Administration's Final Months Ostensibly To Enhance The Fight Against Terrorism, Compromises Americans' Rights And Freedoms – While Qatar Still Hosts Terror Headquarters

Introduction

An agreement signed with Qatar by the Biden administration in August 2024, that is ostensibly aimed at more effectively fighting terrorism, compromises Americans' rights and freedoms. Under it, the U.S. must, if requested, provide information about Americans' race, ethnicity, political and religious views, and sexuality.

It is important to note that Qatar is the foremost supporter of Islamist terrorist organizations and movements in the world and that it is still hosting the headquarters of Hamas and the Taliban. The state-owned Al-Jazeera channel incites to terrorism, supports Hamas and other terrorist organizations, by Qatar, and promotes antisemitism and the Holocaust.[1]

It will be recalled that media have reported that in or around 2017, Qatar hired former CIA operative Kevin Chalker and his company to spy on U.S. lawmakers Senator Ted Cruz, Senator Tom Cotton, Representative Mario Diaz-Balart, and Representative Ed Royce, who is former chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, who opposed Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.[2] Additionally, Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, who masterminded the 9/11 attacks on U.S. soil, was formerly a government employee of the Qatari Ministry of Electricity and Water.[3]

The U.S.-Qatar Law Enforcement Cooperation Agreement 

The U.S.-Qatar Law Enforcement Cooperation Agreement, signed in Doha, the Qatari capital, on August 4, 2024,  "prompted by the parties' desire to cooperate as partners to prevent and combat crime, particularly terrorism, more effectively." The agreement states that it "shall encompass crimes constituting an offense punishable under the domestic law of the Parties by a maximum deprivation of liberty of more than one year or a more serious penalty."[4]

U.S. Ambassador to Qatar Timmy Davis and Qatari Interior Minister Abdullah bin Khalaf bin Hattab Al-Kaabi sign the agreement, August 4, 2024 (Source Arabnews.jp/en/middle-east/article_127704)

The agreement sets out a process for "automatic querying" of fingerprint data, stating that "[f]or the purpose of implementing this Agreement, the Parties shall ensure the availability of reference data from the file for the national automated fingerprint identification systems established for the prevention and investigation of criminal offenses."  

In addition to fingerprints and other identifying data, the U.S. must provide to Qatari authorities, if requested, personal data concerning Americans' "racial or ethnic origin, political opinions or religious or other beliefs, trade union membership or health and sexual life" if "particularly relevant to the purposes of this Agreement.[5]

It should be noted that Qatari Penal Code 2004 targets the LGBTQ community, criminalizing same-sex sexual activity and setting out penalties including incarceration, flogging, and even death by stoning.[6]

The agreement goes on to state that the data "shall be protected with suitable measures against inappropriate use and other forms of improper use" and that "[t]he Parties, recognizing the special sensitivity of the above categories of personal data, shall take suitable safeguards, in particular appropriate security measures, in order to protect such data." However, there is no definition of what constitutes "inappropriate use" of the data, what these "suitable measures" or "safeguards" might be, and what "appropriate security measures" exactly will be taken.

This U.S.-Qatar Law Enforcement Cooperation Agreement was aimed, as noted, to facilitate the two parties' "desire to cooperate as partners to prevent and combat crime, particularly terrorism, more effectively." But Qatar has continued to host the headquarters of Hamas, which has been a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization since 1997.

*Yigal Carmon is Founder and President of MEMRI.