Trump administration should bring Al Jazeera in line with US law

Peloni:  The US must divest itself from all aspects of Qatari influence peddling, including the Qatari propaganda hub better known as Al Jazeera

AJ+ is headquartered in the United States but the Justice Department found it operates “at the direction and control” of the Qatari government.

There’s one challenge in the Middle East that President Donald Trump can easily tackle. During his first term, his administration ordered AJ+, a U.S.-based project of the Al Jazeera Media Network, to register as a foreign agent acting on behalf of Qatar. Al Jazeera remains noncompliant. As the Qatari network faces heat for aiding and abetting Hamas terrorism—including a lawsuit in U.S. Federal Court—the Trump administration should enforce its original order.

AJ+ is headquartered in the United States but the Justice Department found it operates “at the direction and control” of the Qatari government. It’s a textbook target for the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), which exists to “promote transparency with respect to foreign influence.” Accordingly, the Justice Department instructed AJ+ to register under FARA in 2020.

Al Jazeera’s manipulation of language is a misdemeanor, however, compared to the network’s direct involvement with terrorists. In October, the Israel Defense Forces released documents it found in Gaza “indicating close cooperation” between Al Jazeera and Hamas. One document included instructions for Al Jazeera on how to cover a misfired Islamic Jihad rocket that killed Palestinian civilians. Hamas directed Al Jazeera to refrain from using the word “massacre.” The Qatari network apparently complied.

Israeli troops have also uncovered evidence implicating Al Jazeera journalists in Palestinian terrorism. Al Jazeera correspondent Ismail Abu Omar was injured in an Israeli drone strike last year, but Israel did not target him because he worked for the media outlet. According to the IDF, he was a deputy Hamas commander who participated in the terror group’s Oct. 7 assault. Abu Omar even filmed himself from inside Kibbutz Nir Oz on the morning of the attacks. And he isn’t Al Jazeera’s only rotten apple. The IDF has exposed at least a half-dozen other Al Jazeera journalists who moonlit as Hamas and Islamic Jihad operatives.

As the Gaza war approaches the 18-month mark, and with the future of the ceasefire uncertain, Qatar needs to feel the heat. The emirate has been parading as a neutral arbiter while aiding Hamas’s efforts to shape global opinion. And it’s done so after shoring up the terrorist group with political and financial support for decades.

Forcing AJ+ to register as a foreign agent is a minimally disruptive way for the Trump administration to uphold transparency and show Qatar it is not above the law.

Forcing AJ+ to register under FARA will also show that the Trump administration can finish what it starts. It’s been on the administration’s to-do list since at least 2018, when a bipartisan group of congressional members sent a letter to then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions asking the Justice Department to investigate whether AJ+ “should be required to register under FARA.” Two more congressional letters landed on the desk of the U.S. attorney general before the Justice Department finally took action.

If AJ+ continues to skirt its FARA obligations, the Justice Department should subject the network to prosecution, financial penalties or both. The Trump administration can further twist Doha’s arm by revoking the Al Jazeera Media Network’s Capitol Hill press credentials. Lawmakers encouraged congressional leadership to do just that in February 2023, asking how, “unless and until” Al Jazeera complies with U.S. law, Congress can “in good conscience allow over 100 of its employees almost unfettered access to roam the halls and even loiter outside the floor of the House or Senate?”

The Swords of Iron War has proven that Qatar is neither an honest broker nor a faithful ally of the United States. Forcing AJ+ to comply with its FARA obligations should be the first of several steps taken to hold Qatar accountable for its conduct. The Trump administration should pressure Qatar to extradite senior Hamas leaders and shutter the terror group’s Doha office. It should also strip Qatar of its Major Non-NATO Ally status. And it should press the Pentagon to replicate elsewhere the vital military capabilities that currently reside at Al Udeid Air Base outside of Doha. Qatar shouldn’t enjoy the privileges of friendship with the United States while supporting designated terrorist organizations and flouting U.S. law in the process.

Natalie Ecanow is a senior research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD).