Qatar is getting an air force training facility in Idaho, U.S.A. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made the announcement on October 10. Despite the intense criticism the administration incurred after the news broke, this isn’t the first arrangement of this kind on American soil.
Hegseth said of the development:
Today … we’re signing a letter of acceptance to build a Qatari Emeri air force facility at the Mountain Home Airbase in Idaho. The location will host a contingent of Qatari F-15s and pilots to enhance our combined training, increase lethality, interoperability. It’s just another example of our partnership.
The announcement followed what has turned into a very fragile — and interrupted — ceasefire in Gaza. The Qataris were considered the main Arab mediators who worked with U.S. President Donald Trump to strike a deal between Israel and Hamas. Egypt and Turkey were also involved in the negotiations.
Immediate Backlash
The news about the facility triggered a torrent of backlash, including from those who otherwise support Trump. MAGA media figure Steve Bannon, who worked for the president before and briefly during his first term, said there “should never be a military base of a foreign power on the sacred soil of America.” Laura Loomer, who recently obtained credentials to cover the Pentagon, said, “Never thought I’d see Republicans give terror financing Muslims from Qatar a MILITARY BASE on US soil so they can murder Americans.” She added, “The Qatari influence on the Trump administration is totally out of control.” Commentator Mike Madrid lashed out on X as well. “Joe Biden was criticized for a Chinese balloon flying over our airspace. [The Trump administration is] giving Qatar an entire f’ing air base,” he said.
The backlash prompted a clarification from Hegseth:
To be clear, Qatar will not have their own base in the United States — nor anything like a base,” he said. “We control the existing base, like we do with all partners.
Representatives of the Gulf state said the same thing. Fox News reported:
“This is not a Qatari base,” Hamad Mohammed AlMuftah, deputy chief of mission for the Qatari embassy in Washington, D.C., clarified to Fox News Digital. “Qatar will fully fund the construction of the training facility, as well as barracks for the airmen who will be stationed there. There will be no cost to the American taxpayer, and, in fact, the investment will support and generate jobs in the Idaho region.”
An article by the long-standing military publication Stars and Stripes on the development corroborated the distinction as well. “There are no foreign military bases in the U.S., but some foreign militaries do maintain a presence for training,” it reported.
This project started back in 2017, “when the United States inked a $12 billion deal that gave Qatar ’36 aircraft, their associated weapons systems, U.S.-based training, maintenance support equipment and logistics support,’” the paper noted.
Hamad told Fox the same thing:
“In 2017, the U.S. and Qatar finalized a $12 billion agreement for F-15QA fighter aircraft, part of a broader package approved by Congress and valued at up to $21.1 billion in U.S. foreign military sales to Qatar,” Hamad continued. “This arrangement was years in the making and is similar to existing programs between the United States and several of its international allies. It represents a continued expression of the strong defense partnership between Qatar and the United States, including ongoing cooperation to further expand our collective defense capabilities.”
The training program is slated for 10 years, with the possibility of an extension afterward.
Not Just Qatar
Qataris aren’t the only ones to have training facilities in the U.S. The German air force has a tactical training command in Texas, and has had one in the U.S. for decades. Qatar won’t even be the first foreign nation to have a training facility at the same base. As Stars and Stripes pointed out, “Singapore’s air force also has a presence at Mountain Home Air Force Base in southwestern Idaho.”
Pilots from several other NATO allies also train in the U.S.
The practice of allowing other nations to train on American soil started around the time of World War I with French and British soldiers, and has continued since.
Terrorist Ties?
Qatar is considered the richest country in the world per capita. It holds 13 percent of the world’s oil reserves, which is significant for a country about the size of Connecticut. Nearly 3 million residents live there under sharia law.
A major concern for many is Qatar’s suspected ties to terrorist groups. According to the Mideast Journal, which is partially funded by Qatar, the tiny, rich nation has financed Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, and al-Qaeda. The part about Qatar’s funding for Hamas was also brought up by The Times of Israel, but the documents on which the allegation was made were quickly denounced by Qatar as “fabricated.”
Qatar has reportedly been funneling money to Hamas for many years — and had done so with the approval of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. According to The Mideast Journal:
The Qatari government had been sending millions of dollars a month into the Gaza Strip under the leadership of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. … Netanyahu gambled that a strong Hamas would keep the peace and reduce pressure for a Palestinian state. According to accounts denied by Netanyahu’s office, former Israeli intelligence agency Shin Bet chief Nadav Argaman, the IDF told Netanyahu in 2019-2020 that terror chief Muhammad Deif was seizing millions from monthly payments.
Funding American Universities
Qatar has also been a significant contributor to American universities. It’s said to have poured $4.7 billion into academia between 2001 and 2021. According to reports, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos initiated an investigation and found that:
The DoE established an online portal in June 2020 to streamline the process, and in just four months more than 7,000 transactions were recorded totaling roughly $3.8 billion—the largest donations coming from Qatar, China, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. Close to 60 of the colleges and universities that filed through the portal had never submitted reports between the years 1986 and June 2020. A summary of the DoE’s findings published in October 2020 disclosed previously unreported funding to universities, amounting to $6.5 billion in foreign gifts and contracts.
A major concern about all this Qatari money in American universities is that it could produce antisemitism. The last few years have seen a significant increase in anti-Israel protests on campuses. Mixed in some of those protests is legitimate antisemitism.
In addition to its upcoming military facility and its long-standing influence on America, there’s another connection between Qatar and the U.S. In April, the Trump Organization, which is being run by President Trump’s sons right now, announced it was investing $5.5 in a golf resort in Qatar.
