PART II

The events that we wrote about in Part I of ’s despicable business dealings should not be a revelation as it has been common knowledge within international business circles.  

The Wall Journal reported that state-run Qatar Petroleum had signed a contract with "around 2005" and that the firm (of which Giuliani has a 30 percent equity stake) is offering security advice to a giant natural-gas processing facility called Ras Laffan.

While it is true that Giuliani hasn't disclosed the particulars of his Qatar business, he and others at the firm have been bragging about it for years, presumably on the assumption that mentioning good-paying clients is the best way to generate more of the same.

Gulf States Newsletter, a respected news publication in the region, used similar language this October to describe the firm's business in Qatar. It said the firm had, "through a combination of luck and good positioning, become trusted partners" of the Qatari government.

Despite this ample supply of evidence, Sunny Mindel, the firm's spokeswoman, denied in a November 11 Post story that Giuliani Partners "had any ties to Qatar Petroleum."

Gee, do you think that she might have an eye on being Rudy’s White House Press Secretary? She certainly has that “deny the facts with a straight face” response down pat. A definite asset if you aspire to the top spot for all bullshit artists.

Mindel's elusive answers are consistent with other efforts by the company to conceal the Qatar deals, even as Giuliani and others have occasionally talked openly about them. These efforts suggest that Giuliani is aware the association could prove disquieting, even without the embarrassing connection to the notorious KSM. It is definitely something that a future Presidential candidate would not put on his resume.

If Giuliani was unaware of the terrorism issues surrounding Qatar before he signed his initial contract with the emirate in 2005, then he must not be quite the expert he claims to be. And if he knew of those issues but signed up anyway, that raises other questions.

Either way he has no business being anything but a tourist to the White House because if he didn’t know, he’s a buffoon and if he did know, the question to be asked is…..is he a traitor?

I could go and on with more documentation of Rudy Giuliani’s business dealings with the Qatari government and his interpersonal relationships with the Royal family but what would be the point if he is just going to have his “spokesperson” give the stereotypical “non-denial denial.”

Perhaps we should insist what Joe Conason suggests in his November 30^th article in Salon.com; that other journalist should inquire about those Qatar deal  (and for that matter, all of the other business relationships that he has so far declined to disclose). Here are a few pertinent questions that Joe suggests to encourage them:

1. Are your company's security contracts with Qatar negotiated and administered through the Qatar Ministry of the Interior, as a government spokesman confirmed to the Village Voice?

2. Are you aware that the interior minister appointed in 2001 and reappointed this year by the emir of Qatar is Abdullah al-Thani, the former minister of Islamic affairs and a strict Wahhabi Muslim who has been identified in U.S. press and government reports as a protector of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed?

THE QUESTIONS THAT NEED ANSWERING CONTINUE……

3. Are you aware that Abdullah al-Thani, a strict Wahhabi Muslim, reportedly hosted on two visits to his Qatari farm?

4. Were you aware of that allegation against Abdullah al-Thani when you agreed to work for the Qatar government in 2005?

5. Are you aware that Abdullah al-Thani is a defendant in federal civil lawsuits brought by survivor families against officials deemed directly or indirectly culpable for the 9/11 attacks?

6. Are you aware that former CIA officer Robert Baer has accused Abdullah al-Thani of helping KSM escape from Qatar just before he was to be arrested in 1996 by the FBI?

7. Are you aware that Baer's account, based on the testimony of a former Qatari official, implicates the emir in KSM's escape as well?

8. Did you ever discuss Abdullah al-Thani's alleged terrorist ties with your friend Louis Freeh, the former FBI director, or with the two former FBI counterterrorism agents who work for Giuliani Security?

9. Were you aware when you agreed to provide security services to the emirate in 2005 that the U.S. State Department's annual report on worldwide terrorism released several months earlier had criticized Qatar for coddling Islamist extremists and permitting "members of transnational terrorist groups" to reside there?

10. Are you aware that the government of Qatar has hosted the leadership of Hamas and provides millions of dollars monthly to the Hamas authorities in Gaza -- and that the emir applauded Hezbollah's "victory" over Israel during last summer's war in Lebanon?

So, “Mr. 9/11”…..when do you plan to sit down and begin to answer these questions for I for one must tell you and my Readers that the thought of you sitting in the Oval Office, representing the United States of America, scares the shit out of me as you are a very dangerous man, sir.

Something to consider: A consulting company with instant name recognition like Giuliani's—and which claims to carefully vet its clients—can be both profitable and selective. Moreover, it's the only American company known to be providing security advice to Qatar; the rest hail from Singapore, Australia, and France. A company headed by a man who has known that he would make this presidential run for years—and with 9/11 as its rationale—could have chosen to make his millions elsewhere. Especially a candidate who divides the world into good guys and bad guys, claims that this war is a "divine" mission, and shuns complexity. For that kind of a candidate, Qatar may become one Giuliani contradiction too many.

I am confident that there is much more that we will discover as this Giuliani attempts to slime his way into the White House and he must be stopped at all costs!