How Qatar Influenced A Top American General To Lobby For Itself

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It’s a shameful moment for Potus as a former leader in the US Central Command has been implicated in sharing classified information with Qatar. The now retired general was actually a lobbyist for the Qatar government and lied about his role.

It has been Qatar’s modus operandi to influence key officials and academia to lobby for itself, for freebees, fam trips and monetary gains too. General John Allen now serves as the head of Brookings Institutions, one of Washington’s premium think tanks. His association came to light in 2017 when he was about to retire and yet to join the American think tank.

Allen collaborated with Richard Olson, a former US ambassador to Pakistan, and Imaad Zuberi, a Pakistani-American venture capitalist and political fundraiser, who is serving a prison sentence for falsifying records to conceal his work as a foreign agent while lobbying US government officials, tax evasion and illegal campaign contributions.

A spokesperson for Allen has justified his acts as patriotism to the media; that he did not receive any fees, was protecting US interests, and had voluntarily participated in the investigation. US law requires lobbyists for foreign governments to register with the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which Allen had not done.

This feels as a far-fetched theory because in his meetings with key American officials, he had an opportunity several times to disclose the association, but chose not to. Allen was allegedly involved in lobbying to help Qatar against United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia’s economic embargo.

According to the filings reported by an American newspaper of repute, Allen travelled to Doha, negotiated a payment of $20,000 as speaking fees, and pursued another contract which would have provided him a million dollars though it is not clear if he received it.

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