Eitan Fischberger is a Middle East analyst, OSINT investigator and a writer. His work has been published in National Review, NBC News, New York Daily News, Tablet Magazine and other news outlets.
Qatar’s influence strategy is simple and brutally effective. Use state wealth to buy proximity to power, shape what elites and institutions say out loud, and launder the regime’s preferred narratives through “credible” intermediaries across politics, media, culture, academia, and civil society.
Here are just some examples:
➤ A Qatar-linked intelligence operation allegedly targeted the woman accusing ICC prosecutor Karim Khan, seeking personal data to undermine her credibility and shape the narrative around an active international case.
➤ Qatar’s 2022 bid has been shadowed for years by allegations of improper payments and secretive media rights arrangements, with ongoing investigations and repeated calls for scrutiny.
➤ Belgian-led investigations uncovered large cash seizures and alleged influence buying linked to Qatar, aimed at softening EU criticism and shaping votes and resolutions.
➤ Israeli investigators have probed allegations that figures close to Netanyahu took money tied to Qatar to push pro-Qatar messaging in Israel.
➤ South Africa’s arts minister cited a Qatar attempt to buy influence around the Venice Biennale pavilion by arranging post show purchases, triggering a political firestorm.
➤ Qatar’s real estate arm poured hundreds of millions into flagship Western assets like CityCenterDC, embedding itself in high status, high access corridors of influence.
➤ Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund took a minority stake in Monumental Sports and Entertainment, the parent company of the Wizards and Capitals, placing it inside major U.S. sports and venue ecosystems.
➤ Brookings publicly confirmed it received Qatari funding in the past for the Brookings Doha Center before choosing not to renew it in 2017.
➤ Portland Communications has been accused of commissioning favorable Wikipedia edits benefiting clients including Qatar, exactly the kind of narrative sanitation that later gets echoed across search, summaries, and AI outputs.
➤ Qatar announced a 500 million dollar support package for UN organizations, buying institutional proximity and reputational ballast through global governance channels.
➤ Qatar Holding committed 375 million dollars to Elon Musk’s Twitter X acquisition financing, an example of buying a foothold in the information plumbing itself.
➤ Recent reporting tied to U.S. Department of Education foreign funding disclosures shows Qatar as a top foreign source of university funding, totaling about 6.6 billion dollars across decades.
➤ Qatar has spent heavily across dozens of FARA registered lobbying and PR firms, an industrial scale influence footprint aimed at shaping U.S. policy and elite opinion.
Here's how Qatar's FARA empire operates:
➤Registered Qatari foreign agents have been paid as much as $375,000 per month for so-called “strategic consulting” and “PR work.”
➤Qatar has 31 FARA registrants in the U.S., with 22 based in Washington, D.C. (a 71% concentration), the highest of any major lobbying country.
➤Since 2016, Qatar has spent nearly $250 million on 88 lobbying and PR firms, logging 627 in-person political meetings from 2021 to 2025, more than any other country.
➤In 2018, the Wall Street Journal reported that Qatar had targeted 250 influencers in an effort to steer Donald Trump’s policy decisions in its preferred direction.
➤According to Robert Schmad of the Washington Examiner, since Trump’s 2024 victory Qatar has intensified outreach to conservative media, with over half of its foreign-agent efforts now aimed at right-leaning outlets (up from roughly 10% previously). This includes $180,000 per month to a firm that secured a Tucker Carlson interview for the Qatari prime minister and pitched favorable coverage to other conservative outlets.
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