Montreal Gazette November 17, 2002
Qatar, U.S.: an odd couple: Tiny emirate's openness is rare in Gulf region. Progressive Arab country is set to become staging area for American military's most ambitious operation in a decade
By MIKE BLANCHFIELD
When Abdullah A-Aziz Al Sahlawi returns home in the evening, he logs on to his home computers to see which Web sites they've visited. He checks his satellite television system to see that the codes blocking selected signals are intact.
"I have 99 channels," the father of four explained, but he said the broadcasts that blare dance music and gyrating, exposed flesh are off-limits in his home.
"I feel sick when I see this," said Al Sahlawi, 44, who has three sons and a daughter, age 10 to 18. "I am absolutely against this. People believe this is the way of civilization. That is not a civilized way to have an influence in this country. I hate it, frankly." Al Sahlawi, a Qatari petroleum executive, does not, however, believe all things American are bad for his Muslim family - or his country. He understands that just a half-hour drive from his office, the United States is in the process of a formidable buildup of people, aircraft, weaponry and state-of-the-art telecommunications.
In the next few weeks, the U.S. Central Command - currently charged with waging the war on terrorism from Tampa, Fla., as well as plotting the eventual demise of Iraq's Saddam Hussein - comes to town in earnest to set up a command centre of 600 personnel, led by General Tommy Franks. The al-Udeid air base outside Doha will serve as the U.S. regional nerve centre to orchestrate war with Iraq.
"As many as they bring in, it's not going to affect me at all. Definitely, it is a benefit for the country," Al Sahlawi said of the buildup. "They won't be integrated with the community very closely. They have their own camp. So their influence on the community, I haven't felt it yet."
Al Sahlawi's ambivalence toward the U.S. parallels that of his small but affluent nation. Qatar is by far the most progressive and tolerant country on the Arab Peninsula. In this tiny city-state of half a million (more than half of whom are foreigners), women drive cars and vote, media censorship has been abolished, a new constitution is in the works, and foreigners are allowed to buy alcohol - the most frequently cited examples of its progressive leanings.
But there is an underlying aversion in Qatar to the Western influences some believe could undermine their country's Islamic foundation. Neither host nor guest wants to get too close. That makes this Persian Gulf emirate an ideal place for the United States to be staging its most ambitious military operation since the Persian Gulf War more than a decade ago.
The Americans, fearing the sort of sporadic terror attacks that recently killed a Marine in Kuwait and a diplomat in Jordan, are being left by the Qataris to plot undisturbed in their new desert fortress outside Doha, Qatar's capital.
"The leaders of this country made a conscious decision to move their country forward," one Western diplomat said. "It's trying to be a big player in the region."
Qatar's embrace of the West started in 1995, when a young, energetic and British-educated crown prince stole the reins of power from his father while the patriarch was vacationing in Europe. The bloodless palace coup transformed Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al Thani, then 45, into the youngest ruler in the region.
Hamad immediately turned his attention westward. He underwrote the creation of an independent satellite news channel, Al Jazeera, which would go on to scoop CNN regularly with its dramatic Osama bin Laden videos during the Afghan war. He has given women the vote, allowing them to run in municipal elections in 1999. (None won.) And he routinely violates a traditional Islamic tenet by appearing regularly in public with his wife, Sheika Mouza, who has also been allowed to become a role model for women.
The emir has watered down the Saudi strain of Wahabi Islam, an ultraconservative interpretation of the religion, replacing it with a more moderate version that allows for equality of the sexes, among other things.
Abdel Hameed Alansari, dean of the College of Sharia Law at Qatar University, said Qataris believe they must embrace global culture and commerce with confidence.
"There is no contradiction with the principles of Islamic Sharia and the modernity of the world, politically, economically, even socially. Islam permits us to benefit from others and be open," Alansari said.
Playing host to the U.S. military also makes Qatar a big wheel in the Persian Gulf, as well as giving it an insurance policy against the hostile regime in Baghdad or other neighbours with devious designs on its plentiful natural-gas reserves, the third largest in the world.
Co-operating with Washington also insulates Qatar from Saudi Arabia, which is so disgusted by its tiny neighbour's reforms that it recently withdrew its ambassador.
In Doha these days, there is an almost glib satisfaction that Saudi Arabia's loss is Qatar's gain.
"Saudi Arabia cannot prevent others from co-operating with the United States," Alansari said. "Qatar has a right to permit the United States to use military bases like al-Udeid because the matter is subject to the agreement of two countries only - Qatar and the U.S."
From the road, the bunkers and barracks of the al-Udeid air base look unremarkable scattered across the flat desert. From the air, the view is far more formidable.
Since the late summer, satellite imagery readily available on the Internet has detailed the buildup at al-Udeid. Dozens of new buildings - aircraft hangars, storage depots and housing - have sprung up.
Hundreds of yellow tents that can accommodate up to 3,000 soldiers have been erected and there are hangars and storage facilities for the tanks and armoured vehicles that would be required for a ground invasion of Iraq.
About 4,000 personnel are based here, but the numbers are expected to swell to 10,000 by year's end, including Franks's command centre.
Al-Udeid also boasts a 4,270-metre runway, the longest in the Middle East and as good as anything the U.S. air force now employs.
Right now, al-Udeid is home to large tanker aircraft that fly about a dozen sorties per day in support of the military effort in Afghanistan.
Qatar's emir is happy to help with the expansion of the base, offering $400 million for the upgrades. This is an especially generous offer because it is not clear whether Qatar has any military personnel of its own there. It has given the U.S. military carte blanche at al-Udeid.
"We know some of what's happening out there," the Qatari foreign minister, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr al-Thani, the emir's cousin, told a local television station recently. "But I'd be lying to you if I said we were in 100-per-cent control of the base."
Colonel Tim Scott, who took reporters on a rare tour of the base in October, said al-Udeid was two to three months away from being fully ready to launch an attack. That means the U.S. could be in a position to strike at Iraq shortly after Christmas or early in the new year.
The buildup of military hardware elsewhere in the Persian Gulf certainly supports that timetable. Throughout the region, U.S. troop levels have swelled to 50,000 in the last three months, bolstered by an estimated 400 aircraft.
Two aircraft carriers, the USS Abraham Lincoln and the USS George Washington, are in the region. The USS Nimitz, the USS Harry Truman and the USS Constellation are on the way, due in the area next month or in early January.
The George Washington is at the end of its tour of duty, but the USS Kitty Hawk - the one U.S. carrier permanently based in Asia - left its Japanese port a few weeks ago and is widely assumed to be on its way to the Gulf. If and when the Kitty Hawk arrives, the U.S. navy would have five aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf.
"When they have five carriers here," one Western military official in the Persian Gulf said, "then you know they will be ready."
U.S. aircraft are also based in Turkey, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and the British-controlled Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia.
Canada has a modest number of warships and aircraft in the area, but because Ottawa has yet to indicate whether it will back a U.S. attack on Iraq - with or without UN approval - commanders in the Persian Gulf are saying little.
Canada's main contribution is two frigates, the HMCS Montreal and the HMCS Winnipeg. Their main jobs are to patrol the Persian Gulf, Strait of Hormuz and Gulf of Oman in search of fleeing Al-Qa'ida terrorists, and to contribute to the international coalition enforcing sanctions on Iraq.
The Montreal is to remain in the region until February. If war with Iraq breaks out and Canada signs on, the Montreal's six-month mission would probably be extended.
Commodore Dan Murphy, who commands Canada's Persian Gulf navy assets from the Montreal, said he's so busy these days with his current mission, "I can't apply any amount of effort" to contingency planning for a possible contribution to the Iraq campaign.
"My guys and gals are going 24/7 working the business of Operation Enduring Freedom," said Murphy, referring to the U.S.-led anti-terrorism campaign.
The Winnipeg, meanwhile, arrived in the region two weeks ago ready to start its six-month tour. Its captain, Commander Kelly Williams, would not discuss any role his ship might play in a new war on Iraq. But he said his crew had been put through the most vigorous training it had ever had and was ready for anything.
En route to the Gulf from its base in Victoria, the Winnipeg stopped off in Hawaii for what Williams described as "the most difficult and demanding missile exercise" it had ever attempted. His ship, he said, passed with flying colours, hitting all five targets required during the training exercise.
Williams said the level of training has become more intense since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. His crew, he said, was well prepared for Enduring Freedom and the Iraqi embargo - or more, he hinted.
"This is real. The training is far more focused and relevant," Williams said from the Montreal. "We are trained for the coming mission, but if something changes, we are capable of rapid refocus and reassignment."
If the war drags on, the backlash against the U.S. will be felt in Qatar and throughout the Arab world, Alansari said.
"If the strike is quick, I don't expect a very strong reaction from Arab people," he said.
Militants will strike at U.S. interests in Arab countries, including Qatar, despite its pro-U.S. leanings. If the war does not end swiftly, Alansari predicts attacks on McDonald's and other symbols of Americana and Western wealth.
"They will burn the American flag," he said.
"If it's a long-term strike, it will lead to other consequences."
GRAPHIC: Photo: GLOBALSECURITY.ORG; Satellite photographs show progress of al-Udeid air base being constructed by U.S. military.; Photo: MIKE BLANCHFIELD, THE OTTAWA CITIZEN; Abdullah A-Aziz Al Sahlawi doesn't mind American bombs on his country's soil, but he wants the U.S. to keep its culture at home.; Map: ; Photo: GLOBALSECURITY.ORG; About 4,000 people are based there now, but that number is expected to swell to 10,000.; Color Photo: ANDREW VAUGHAN, CP; Navy tugs ease the frigate HMCS Montreal into a berth in Halifax last year. The Montreal is to remain in the Persian Gulf region until February, but if war with Iraq breaks out, its six-month mission would probably be extended.
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