Why Journalism Matters
How Dominica's passports make life easy for oligarchs, criminals and those who want to change their identity. Plus Britain's little known military relationships with Israel and Qatar, who fund Hamas
5 minute read
One Caribbean paradise island offers golden passports for $100,000—a bargain for those fleeing criminal justice and accountability
National governments are on a continuous search for inward foreign investment as a way of boosting their economies. Many of these investments involve big industrial projects for manufacturing or for building much needed—and increasingly expensive—infrastructure.
But one of the easiest, less time-consuming and most cost-effective ways ways of attracting foreign funds is to offer rich individuals ‘golden passports’ or ‘golden visas’ . These exchange citizenship and residency for large cash investments, particularly in property.
These schemes are especially advantageous to smaller countries who have limited means of diversifying their economies and not much scope for large-scale industrial development.
One of those small countries is Dominica, a jewel of natural beauty in the Caribbean which has been highly reliant on its banana trade.But that trade has been devastated in recent years by hurricanes and international trade restrictions.
For many years Dominica has offered citizenship in exchange for investment without the applicants even having to set foot on the island.
But this scheme has now been put under the microscope by the relentlessly forensic investigative outlet, The Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and its partners.
For a mere $USD100,000, you can gain visa-free access or visa-on-arrival privileges to 130 countries and territories, including those in the European Union.
The ‘Passports of the Caribbean’ project obtained a list of more than 7500 people who have purchased Dominica passports under the scheme. The OCCRP reporters identified more than two dozen of those who were charged with crimes or sentenced to prison in their native countries. Some later used their news passports to become fugitives, facilitated by the ability to be able to change their names, as well as their citizenship.
The key findings of the report:
Reporters obtained the names of 7,700 people who bought into Dominica’s ‘citizenship by investment’ program, which allows the purchase of a passport for a base price of $100,000.
Passports from the country allow visa-free or “visa on arrival” travel to more than 130 countries and territories, including in the European Union.
The list includes oligarchs, officials from repressive regimes, and politicians — like the former Prime Minister of Jordan.
Reporters also found many new “Dominicans” who were later investigated, charged, or convicted of crimes in other countries.
Dominica’s budget has become dependent on revenues from the program, which are also channeled into real estate developments on the island.
The report tells the stories of numerous criminals and otherwise notorious individuals who have utilised Dominican citizenship to set up suspect corporate entities around the world or flee from justice.
As is often the case, these people have created complex money dealings and opaque financial schemes to hide their activities. Still others are simply trying to hide reprehensible personal histories.
One of the latter is Asadullah Khalid who was named head of Afghanistan’s top intelligence agency in 2012 and later became the country’s defence minister in the period before the return of the Taliban. But even before becoming more prominent, he had been publicly accused of systematic human rights violations including murder.
According to the OCCRP report: “In 2009, a Canadian diplomat who worked with him testified at a parliamentary commission that, during his time as a provincial governor, Khalid allegedly operated a dungeon in which he was ‘known to personally torture people’.
“Khalid dismissed the allegations as ‘propaganda’ — only to be featured in multiple subsequent reports by journalists and human rights groups that alleged his involvement in arbitrary detention, rape, and torture.
“None of this, however, prevented him from purchasing citizenship from Dominica… He did so in 2017, long after the allegations against him had been widely reported.”
Safe bet
It’s a safe bet that, if he is still alive, Khalid will no longer be in Afghanistan, thanks, no doubt to his Dominican passport.
And then there’s the story of Jordanian businessman Mutasem Faouri and his father Fayez who acquired Dominica passports in 2010. Only Two years later, they were arrested, charged with defrauding investors of tens of millions of dollars, and sentenced to prison terms.
“But while the elder Faouri is currently serving a sentence on a related case, Mutasem, who also received a sentence, managed to evade prison. Despite at least four travel bans and 17 arrest warrants over the years, Mutasem is yet to see the inside of a prison cell.
While on the run he has set up companies in the United Kingdom, listing his nationality as “Dominica” and his country of residence as the United Arab Emirates.
Despite these instances of abuse, the Dominican government considers the golden passport scheme a runaway success. According to budgetary figures between 2009 and 2021 the scheme has raised $775 million for the island, making a significant contribution to Dominica’s development.
Multiple land holdings
But OCCRP investigations reveal that not all the revenue from this scheme can be accounted for in government records. And there are question marks over the rise in Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit’s personal wealth which cannot be squared with his $USD2000-a-month salary. He has purchased multiple land holdings in Dominica worth more than $USD400,000 and is constructing a ‘palatial residence’ in his hometown of Vielle Casse.
Although Dominica has one of the largest golden passport programmes, a simple google search reveals that there are many companies promoting these schemes on behalf of countries across the globe.
Within the EU, Malta, Spain Italy and Greece operate schemes although the EU bureaucracy wants countries to wind them down because of their threat to security, particularly from Russian oligarchs trying to evade Western sanctions imposed as a result of the war in Ukraine.
The leading Anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International (TI) is unequivocal in its condemnation of the schemes.
“If you’re a government official embezzling public funds or a businessperson making dodgy deals, chances are you’re worried about future prosecution,” said Eka Rostomashvili of TI.
“When the going gets tough, a golden passport in your back pocket allows you to skip town. New citizenship — and potentially a new identity — comes in handy if you want to evade law enforcement and prosecution efforts.”
6 minute read
How the UK military supports both Israel and Qatar. One bombs Palestinian civilians and the other hosts and bankrolls Hamas
With the renewed violence in the Middle East, UK government ministers, starting with Prime Minister of Rishi Sunak have stepped up to proclaim their support for Israel, which has long been a steadfast ally of Britain. At the same time the British government has decried the barbaric acts carried out by Hamas on October 7.
But behind the headlines the UK military establishment is pursuing a different agenda, driven by billions of dollars in arms sales.
Although not prominent in the discourse surrounding what has happened this month in Gaza and Israel, it is gradually seeping into public awareness that Qatar, the prosperous Arab emirate state in the Gulf is a steadfast and generous supporter of Hamas.
But what is not widely publicised is the fact that the UK military has a strong and growing relationship with Qatar’s defence forces.
These ties have been examined by Declassified UK (DCUK) an investigative journalistic outfit that specialises in seeking out the ‘real’ role of UK government and corporations in world affairs.
They outline their objectives in this mission statement on their website:
“The ‘mainstream’ UK media is not uncovering the reality of Britain's role in the world and the public is being largely kept in the dark. This means that governments are not being held to account for their policies.
The problem is not just with the UK's right-wing, billionaire-owned media but also with its more ‘liberal’ outlets and the BBC, the most popular source of news for the British public.
The government publishes key information on its policies virtually every day which is often very revealing. But only a tiny proportion of this is ever covered in the establishment media. Those journalists choose not to cover it, or else don't care. We do.”
In addition to traditional methods of investigative journalism, UKDC searches through recently declassified documents, and other sources, to seek out important information often hiding in plain sight.
Although many might believe that because Hamas is widely designated as a terrorist organisation, it somehow exists as an outlaw criminal gang, hiding out in tents in the desert or bombed-out buildings in Gaza. But Hamas has many sections in addition to its military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades which has taken responsibility for the October 7 attacks.
Hamas also has political and ‘humanitarian’ branches which have been given generous support by Qatar since at least 2008 to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars a year.
Indeed the current leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh resides in luxury in Doha, Qatar’s capital, hosted and supported by the emirate. After the attacks Haniyeh made a statement in Doha celebrating the atrocities of the Hamas fighters in Israel.
(Up until now Haniyeh has also spent time in Turkey, but following the attacks Hamas is no longer welcome in Istanbul.)
Hamas leaders
According to DCUK’s research, Qatar has hosted Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh since 2020 and before that it offered a base to Khaled Meshaal, the group’s leader from 2004 until 2017.
The UK designates the whole of Hamas, including its military wing (mostly funded by Iran), as a terrorist organisation, and government ministers have been critical of the UK media, primarily the BBC, for not making the same designation.
UK Defence Secretary Grant Shapps describes the BBC’s position as ‘verging on disgraceful’ and that the BBC has to locate its ‘moral compass’.
(Hamas is proscribed as a terrorist organisation in the UK meaning that the government officially views it as illegal to support them.)
However, the UK Ministry of Defence feels it is perfectly allowable to support those who support Hamas, namely the Qatari government and its defence forces.
In 2020 the RAF announced that they would be forming a joint squadron, 12 Squadron, with the the Qataris, ‘the first with any nation since the second world war’.
In a story written by DCUK editor Mark Curtis he reveals: “the first squadron operates out of RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire and was agreed in 2017. It was part of a £6bn (USD$7.33 billion) arms deal in which the UK will sell Qatar 24 Typhoon warplanes alongside…nine Hawk aircraft, both manufactured by British firm BAE Systems [along with European partners].”
In a 2020 edition RAF News announced they would also be providing Qatar with a ‘bespoke support and training package’.”
The second squadron is a ‘joint training unit for the Hawk fighter’ based at RAF Leeming in Yorkshire.
“Qatar and the UK share mutual interests in ensuring stability in the Middle East”, the RAF has stated, having recently agreed to extend the joint squadron at Coningsby for a further two years.
“The joint squadron at RAF Leeming, which was agreed in 2021, will train British and Qatari pilots on Hawk fighter aircraft and enhance “interoperability and coordination between both air forces”.
The UK also has a security pact with Qatar to share classified intelligence, involving GCHQ, the UK’s largest spy agency.
On the financial front British ministers have welcomed Qatari investments of over £40bn ($USD 49 billion) in Britain, in assets including Harrods and the London Stock Exchange, mainly through the state-run Qatar Investment Authority. (See story below.)
DCUK reports: “Some estimates are that Qatar funds Hamas to the tune of over $360m a year, which the group uses to buy fuel, support impoverished Gazan families and pay the salaries of the Hamas bureaucracy.
“Qatari spending in Gaza might look humanitarian, but in reality, Doha is funding Hamas’ coffers through oil sales”, writes Hussain Abdul-Hussain, an analyst at the right-wing Foundation for Defence of Democracies in the US.
“Without Qatari money, Hamas’s governorship of Gaza would have become untenable and its popularity among Palestinians would have collapsed,” he added.
In an ironic twist, good relations with Qatar have become particularly crucial at the moment as countries like America and Britain try to leverage Qatar’s close ties with Hamas to help free the hostages Hamas is holding in Gaza. As we go to press, some have already been released as a result of negotiations brokered by Qatar.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the political divide, the relationship between UK and Israel grows stronger and more mutually supportive.
DCUK reports: “The UK and Israel buy significant quantities of military equipment from each other. Britain has licensed over £400-million worth of arms exports to Israel since 2015.
Routine UK exports include components for assault rifles, pistols, warplanes, tanks and radars.
“Open licenses”
“ UK components for drones and combat aircraft have continued flowing while Israel has used such equipment for surveillance and armed attacks against Palestinians.
“Official UK export figures understate the real total since Britain has rubber-stamped over 30 “open licences” for weapons sales to Israel over the past five years. Such licences often permit an unlimited quantity of equipment to be exported.”
It’s also important to note that, unlike with other countries who buy UK arms, there is no ‘end use’ restrictions on supplies sold to Israel. (These restrictions are meant to act as a deterrent for the buyers to use these arms in current conflicts.)
But in the case of Israel, the country can use military equipment in any way it chooses without reference to the UK.
According to UKDC the most recent military agreement with Israel remains sand ‘ has not even been formally acknowledged by the UK government. But Israel lobby group Bicom (the Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre) has written that the two militaries are “integrating their multi-domain capabilities in maritime, land, air, space, and cyber and electromagnetic”’.
In which ever way these lucrative arrangements operate, it appears that moral compasses are not available to buy or sell in any of the relationships described.
Reference
4 minute read
Calls to boycott Qatari-owned hotels until Doha arrests Hamas leaders and stops support for terrorism
As we prepare for publication a US-based research and campaigning organisation has called on a boycott of Qatari-owned hotels around the world, including the Savoy and Ritz Hotels in the UK because of the country’s links to and support for Hamas.
The Counter Extremism Project(CEP), which maintains close ties to the US government, says Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of the terrorist group, planned and celebrated the massacre of 1,400 Israelis from his office in Doha, the capital of Qatar, where he is allowed to live in luxury.
The CEP says the boycott should continue until “the Al Thani royal family surrender the orchestrators” of the October 7 attack and close the Hamas office in Doha while ensuring the release of all hostages.
As the London Times reported: “Qatar, the gas-rich Gulf state that hosted the men’s football World Cup last year, is a significant ally of Britain and the US, providing natural gas and a market for arms, and hosting Nato bases.
“The country allowed Hamas to set up a political office in Doha in 2012, and is now the key intermediary in negotiations to release hostages, including Britons, captured during the October 7 raids.”
A number of hostages have now been released following talks brokered by Qatar.
The Times added: “When Rishi Sunak spoke to the country’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, last week to discuss ‘urgent efforts to secure the release of hostages’, the prime minister ‘reiterated his complete condemnation of Hamas’s terrorist attack’, but this was not reciprocated by Al Thani.
“Calls for a tougher stance on Qatar have grown louder in recent days, with detractors pointing to an October 7 statement by Qatar’s foreign ministry, saying Israel was ‘solely responsible for the escalation due to its ongoing violations’”.
Mark Wallace, CEP’s chief executive, a former US ambassador to the UN, said: “The Al Thanis ... must enact real justice by detaining the criminals they harbour. Until they do, Qatar should feel the full weight of economic and diplomatic isolation.”
Wallace added: “Any individual or entity that allows this kind of wealth to be repatriated to Qatar should face legal and moral consequences for returning funds to a safe haven for perpetrators of one of the most heinous acts of barbarism in living memory.”
By CEP’s reckoning Qatar has more than $40 billion in UK assets and $10 billion in property estates at 4,000 different UK sites, including luxury mansions and hotels. The Gulf state is the 10th largest landowner in Britain, owning more British property than the UK monarchy. As disclosed in the last few days, London is also home to former Hamas leader Muhammad Qassem Sawalha.
UK hotels and properties owned (or partially owned) by Qataris represent the most famous in the country:
Harrods
Canary Wharf Group
The Ritz Hotel
The Savoy Hotel
The Shard
The Chelsea Barracks
Reference
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