Is Qatar Obama's Best Friend Forever in the Middle East?

The US has begun surveillance flights over Syria after President Barack Obama gave the authorization, US officials said, a move that could lead to airstrikes against ISIS militant targets there. Obama has not approved military action inside Syria, but additional intelligence on ISIS would be required before he could take that step. Pentagon officials have been drafting potential options for the President, including airstrikes. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, US Army General Michael Dempsey, in Kabul for the changing of the US military command in Afghanistan, told reporters that the US wants more clarity on the militants in Syria, but declined to comment on the surveillance flights. "Clearly the picture we have of ISIS on the Iraqi side is a more refined picture. The existence and activities of ISIS on the Syrian side, we have...some insights into that but we certainly want to have more insights into that as we craft a way forward." Top Pentagon officials have said the only way the threat from the militants can be fully eliminated is to go after the group inside neighboring Syria as well as in Iraq, somethlng that was pushed to the front following the ISIS video showing the beheading of American journalist James Foley, who was held hostage in Syria. Dempsey earlier said he would recommend the military move against ISIS if there is a threat to the homeland. He didn't rule out strikes for any other critical reasons, but listed the homeland threat as the key. Dempsey also said the US has been meeting with allies in the region to help develop a better understanding of the ISIS threat. He said he believes those talks are now beginning to "set the conditions for some kind of coalition to form." He said they are "trying to better understand the threat that ISIS poses, not just in Iraq and Syria but regionally." Dempsey has said he believes key allies in the region - including Jordan, Turkey and Saudi Arabia - will join the US in quashing ISIS. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Monday that Obama has demonstrated his willingness to order military action when necessary to protect American citizens."That is true without regard to international boundaries," he said. ~~~~~ Obama administration officials have suggested the President is concerned that seeking to take out ISIS inside Syria could unintentionally help Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said today, "We are not interested in trying to help the Assad regime," while acknowledging that "there are a lot of cross pressures here." A top Syrian official said Monday that Syria will welcome assistance in eliminating the terrorists, but that any US airstrikes without consent from Syria would be considered an aggression. ~~~~~ ISIS, after beheading James Foley, is now threatening to kill other US citizens being held in Syria. Family members and US officials today confirmed that ISIS has been holding hostage since last year a young American woman engaged in humanitarian efforts in Syria. Her family asked that her name be withheld out of concern for her safety. Peter Theo Curtis was released by the al-Qaida affiliate al-Nusrah Front earlier this week. Curtis, 45, was abducted in Antakya, Turkey, in October 2012. He was held by the al-Nusrah Front in Syria, which has broken with the more radical ISIS. ~~~~~ Qatar has announced that it arranged the release of Curtis. A statement of Qatar's Foreign Ministry Sunday said that it had made "relentless efforts" to secure Curtis's release "out of Qatar’s belief in the principles of humanity and its keenness on the lives of individuals and their right to freedom and dignity." The Washington Post reported that White House officials and Qatar's Persian Gulf neighbors believe the Emirate is also motivated by its desire to garner status as a regional power. The Post reported that while US Treasury Department officials say that Qatar's government no longer funds groups like the al-Nusrah Front, they believe that a number of wealthy Qatari private citizens continue to raise funds for groups that are attempting to overthrow al-Assad. The sudden unexplained release of Curtis days after the beheading of Foley has raised many questions about Qatar's role in funding terrorism and brokering the payment of multi-million dollar ransoms for western hostages held by Islamist terror groups in the Middle East. The US government and the Curtis family have denied paying any ransom for Curtis, 45, who was released on Sunday after 22 months in captivity. But, David Weinberg, a senior fellow specialising in Gulf affairs at the Foundation for Defence of Democracies who testified recently before the US Congress on Qatar's role in funding terrorism, said the release of Curtis had raised many unanswered questions. "If you see a group like al-Nusrah releasing hostages, they're getting something out of it," said Mr Weinberg, adding that Qatar had emerged in the last two years as a "central figure" in the payment of ransoms to Middle East terror groups. ~~~~~ Dear readers, Qatar seems to be playing an interesting game -- funding al-Nusrah to fight al-Assad, supporting Hamas so it can attack Israel, being on the black list of Egypt's el-Sisi for supporting the Moslem Brotherhood, and all the while trying to be America's Best Friend Forever in the Middle East. For Qatar, it's about putting your money on the possibly preferred side while putting your diplomatic-cum-terrorist reach on the side you wish to be seen to be on. This strategy can work if you have enough money. Qatar does. It also appears to have the ear of, and a set of bank deposit slips for, the al-Nusrah Front in Syria, an al-Qaida affiliate that has thus far successfully held off ISIS. Maybe Qatar is paying al-Nusrah to fight ISIS in Syria as a friendly gesture toward al-Assad and America, while at the same time helping calm Arab fears about an ISIS ascendancy. So, when we ask if Qatar paid a ransom to al-Nusrah for the release of Peter Theo Curtis, that is not the right question. What we should be asking is when is a ransom not a ransom. The answer is - when you are supporting al-Nusrah so completely that demanding the non-ransom release of one American to cement your Emirate as America's BFF cannot be refused. So, President Obama can ponder the bombing of ISIS targets in Syria and his love-hate relationship with al-Assad in tranquility -- because he knows that his BFF Qatar will smoothe the way with al-Assad so that American planes can help him in his war against ISIS, thereby helping the US in Iraq. And Obama knows that as long as Qatar continues to fund al-Nusrah and Hamas, the stand-off dynamics in the Middle East will make it a public relations slam dunk for him to say that America will stay in the air with no boots on the ground because it's up to the region to get their act together and solve their problems themselves. And Qatar will keep paying - for humanitarian and prestige and political reasons. That's what Middle East BFFs are for.