Qatari diplomat allegedly covered up Hezbollah terror funding - exclusive

Qatar's ambassador to Belgium aided a German public relations agency in a complex cover-up of the Gulf state's financing of the Hezbollah, a security contractor who claims to have worked for Western intelligence services has told The Jerusalem Post. According to the contractor, who has been identified in the German press as “Jason G.” and has spoken extensively to the Post, Qatar's Ambassador to Belgium Abdulrahman bin Mohammed Sulaiman al-Khulaifi allegedly sought to negotiate an agreement to pay Jason G., €750,000 to remain silent about Qatar's reported role in funding Hezbollah. Khulaifi previously served as ambassador to Berlin from 2009 to 2016. “I never intended to receive the settlement. It was always the intention to draw out who the financiers for Hezbollah were in Qatar and which Qataris were giving them protection,” Jason said. “Jason G.” said he uses the alias to avoid possible retaliation by the Qatari regime. He told the German press this week that he had written a dossier regarding Qatar's alleged support of Hezbollah. The Post was able to review sections of a comprehensive dossier organized by Jason, outlining Qatar's alleged finance of weapons for the Lebanese Shi'ite movement. German intelligence has reportedly authenticated the veracity of the dossier. Jason has been at the center of three bombshell German media reports in recent weeks about Qatar's terror finance of Hezbollah, and its use of the powerful WMP public relations agency to reportedly accept a large cash payment to erase Doha's fingerprints in providing material military aid to Hezbollah. While the Post has not met Jason, who won't reveal his nationality or for whom he is currently working, the paper has conducted numerous conversations with him and his attorney. The Post has received documentation from Jason and his attorney which alleges Qatar's role in financing Hezbollah activities. Two German publications − Die Zeit and Berliner Zeitung − reported in July that a top Qatari diplomat in Brussels, who was a contact of Michael Inacker, the CEO of the WMP public relations company, served as the point person between Qatar and Jason in the effort to hide Qatar's alleged financial support for Hezbollah. Inacker has denied that he was involved in an attempt to cover up alleged Qatari support for terrorist activities. According to a recording obtained by the Post of a conversation between Jason G. and Inacker, the Qatari ambassador to Belgium was referenced a number of times during the talk. Jason said that he met Inacker via an intermediary and that the public relations executive was on “the radar of the Western intelligence community” because of WMP's past work for Qatar's regime. Research conduced by the Post confirmed that Khulaifi was present at Arab-German business events with Inacker while Khulaifi was ambassador to Germany. The Berliner Zeitung reported on Monday that “It came in handy that Inacker apparently had contact to a Qatari top-level diplomat in Brussels.” Die Zeit wrote that “At the beginning of 2019 in Brussels, Inacker, Jason G. and the Qatari diplomat had lunch in Brussels to discuss the details” of the €750,000 deal to secure Jason's silence. Jason met the ambassador in 2019 in Brussels: three times in January, three times in July, once in August and again in September in Prague. The Berliner Zeitung wrote that “According to Berliner Zeitung's sources, the conversation between the two men was tackling an ominous agreement: High-ranking security officials in Qatar allegedly held out the prospect of €750,000 if the information were not to come to light.” According to the recording obtained by the Post of a conversation between Jason G. and Inacker, the security contractor told the PR executive on May 5, 2020 “I mean, what are we agreeing on? On your end? I said € 300,000 [of the €750,000 to go to Inacker] is fair?” The payment term of the alleged deal was, according to Jason G., €300,000 of the €750,000 would go to Inacker for his services. WMP chairman Inacker, responded: “Yeah” in connection with the fee condition proposed by Jason G. Less than a week before Inacker and Jason reached a deal to whitewash the role of Qatar's support to Hezbollah, the German government banned all Hezbollah activities in the Federal Republic. According to his published resume, Khulaifi's hobbies and interest are “Reading, painting and participation in exhibitions held in France, bodybuilding, classical music, and hunting.” Khulaifi reportedly made an antisemitic remark in a meeting with Jason and Inacker, stating Jews are the enemies of Qatar. Post press queries to Qatar's government in Doha and its embassies in Brussels, Washington and Berlin were not returned. In a boilerplate statement sent to German news outlets, an official for Qatar's embassy in Berlin told the Berliner Zeitung: “Qatar plays a central role in international efforts to combat terrorism and extremism in the Middle East,” adding that “We have strict laws in place to prevent and monitor terror financing by private individuals. Anyone found to be participating in illegal activity is prosecuted and punished to the full extent of the law.” However, Qatar's adversaries in the Gulf region view Doha as a supporter of jihadi entities. The UAE news organization The National asked in an editorial last week: “Are there extremists that Qatar does not fund? Hezbollah and the Muslim Brotherhood, both financed by Doha, have much in common.” In a written statement to the Post by email on Monday, Inacker said: “Our company has not participated in any concealment of cooperation between Qatari authorities or people and Hezbollah.” He added that WMP turned to the “responsible German agencies so that Jason's material could be evaluated there and thus used to combat Middle Eastern terror groups.” Inacker said “the WMP has not received any payment from private and/or government agencies in Qatar. Qatar's previous two-year client relationship ended more than three years ago. If there is any personal contact from this time, for example with the Qatari Ambassador to Belgium, please understand that we do not provide any information on the content of the talks.” The public relations executive said “The fact that a conversation with the ambassador in Brussels would have been used to conceal information about Qatar's support for anti-Israeli terrorist groups is fictional.” Qatar's aid to jihadi terrorist organizations has been front-and-center in Israel's counter-terrorism community for years. Ron Prosor, Israel's former ambassador to the UN, termed the tiny Qatari monarchy state a “Club Med for terrorists,” in a 2014 New York Times opinion piece. Qatar's role in funding terrorism was highlighted in 2014 by German Development Minister Gerd Müller who accused Qatar of financing the Islamic State terrorists. “This kind of conflict, this kind of a crisis always has a history... The ISIS troops, the weapons – these are lost sons, with some of them from Iraq,” Müller told German public broadcaster ZDF. “You have to ask who is arming, who is financing ISIS troops. The keyword there is Qatar – and how do we deal with these people and states politically?” Müller asked. According to the Die Zeit article, the defense and existence of Israel play an important role in the life of Inacker. In the audio transcript obtained by the Post covering the May conversation between Inacker and Jason, Inacker terms Hezbollah “the outspoken enemy of Israel.” When asked how Inacker reconciles his reported pro-Israel statements with his alleged work for Qatar's monarchy, he responded: “Our company can claim to have stood for the protection of the existence of the State of Israel at all times in its history. The current management of the WMP also feels committed to this principle.” Prior to his work for WMP, Inacker, as Vice President of Daimler Chrysler in 2004, delivered a talk to students at IDC Herzliya about “No Business without Social Responsibility.”

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