David R Caudill  07/28/2009 02:09:14 PM  From  DB/Inbox:  PE

Cable 
Text:                                                                      
                                                                           
      
C O N F I D E N T I A L        DOHA 00558
CXDOHA:
    ACTION: AMB
    INFO:   RSO RAO P/E PAO MGT DCM

DISSEMINATION: AMB /1
CHARGE: PROG

APPROVED: AMB:JLEBARON
DRAFTED: AMB:JLEBARON
CLEARED: NONE

VZCZCDOI549
PP RUEHC RUEHEE RHMFISS RUCPDOC RHMFISS RBDHDZA
RUEAWJL RHMCSUU RUEKJCS RHMFISS RHMFISS RHMFISS
DE RUEHDO #0558/01 2171435
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 041435Z AUG 08
FM AMEMBASSY DOHA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 8103
INFO RUEHEE/ARAB LEAGUE COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RHMFISS/DEPT OF ENERGY WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RHMFISS/CDR USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL PRIORITY
RBDHDZA/COMUSNAVCENT  PRIORITY
RUEAWJL/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RHMCSUU/FBI WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RHMFISS/USCENTAF SHAW AFB SC PRIORITY
RHMFISS/CDR USSOCOM MACDILL AFB FL PRIORITY
RHMFISS/NGA HQ BETHESDA MD

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 DOHA 000558 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/04/2018 
TAGS: PREL AMGT KSPR ECON QA
SUBJECT: CHARTING EMBASSY DOHA'S COURSE - SYNCHRONIZATION 
BASED ON A SHARED INTERAGENCY VIEW OF QATAR 
 
Classified By: Ambassador Joseph LeBaron, reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) 
 
(C) Key Points: 
 
-- Embassy Doha's Country Team met July 30 to discuss the 
Embassy's plans for a September 2 interagency off-site on 
Qatar. 
 
-- The off-site, under the leadership of Ambassador LeBaron, 
will gather Embassy Doha's Country Team, CENTCOM 
representatives, analysts from the National 
Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, and others in order to 
develop a 
common picture of a complex operating environment: Qatar. 
 
-- The off-site will be the first step in a collaborative, 
interagency field process designed to synchronize the U.S. 
Government's programs and activities in Qatar, both 
classified and unclassified, military and civilian. 
 
----------------- 
Qatar's Evolution 
----------------- 
 
¶1. (C) Qatar is steadily emerging as a key regional partner 
for the United States - militarily and economically: 
 
-- Qatar hosts approximately 10,000 U.S. military forces at 
two major installations.  These forces are heavily involved 
in the conduct of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, 
especially the air wars. 
 
-- Over 15,000 private U.S. citizens reside in Qatar.  An 
estimated 200 more arrive every month. 
 
-- Qatar hosts branch campuses of six prominent U.S. 
universities, including Georgetown and Carnegie Mellon, 
ensuring that its role in educating the region,s next 
generation of leaders will only grow. 
 
-- Qatar is on course to become soon the richest country in 
the world on a per capita income basis - even on the basis of 
all 1.7 million residents, not just the tiny group of Qatari 
citizens who constitute perhaps just 15% of the total 
population.  (So sensitive is this demographic disparity that 
precise statistics are not released by the government.) 
 
-- Qatar is also on course to become a significant supplier 
of energy to the United States -- of LNG, specifically.  This 
recent trend is expected by Department of Energy officials to 
continue to strengthen over the next 20 years. 
 
-- Qatar's sovereign wealth fund, estimated at upwards of $60 
billion, is expected to grow rapidly as Qatar's energy 
revenues escalate, making Qatar a potentially major source of 
direct inward investment for the United States. 
 
-- With Qatar's recent diplomatic success in fashioning a 
critically important agreement among the competing factions 
in Lebanon, Qatar's diplomatic role in the region is 
gradually growing. 
 
-- Qatar is the home of Al Jazeera which, despite growing 
competition, continues to command the largest audience share 
in the Middle East ) in the range of 50 million Arabic 
speakers.  Despite its often unbalanced reporting of U.S. 
policy, this is an audience the U.S. can't afford to ignore. 
 
--------------------------------------------- -------- 
An Interagency Field Perspective of Qatar's Evolution 
--------------------------------------------- -------- 
 
¶2. (U) The interagency off-site will attempt to identify the 
most important and powerful trends in the evolution of Qatar: 
in Qatar's diplomacy; military and security posture; economic 
development and trade relationships; society, politics, and 
culture; and physical environment. 
 
¶3. (U) Even more ambitiously, the off-site will try to 
project the course of these trends over the next 36 months. 
Can we expect the trends we have been able to identify to 
strengthen, weaken, or remain essentially the same?  Will new 
trends emerge that we can begin to identify and understand? 
How will these trends interact with one another, directly and 
indirectly? 
 
¶4. (U) Another major goal of the off-site will be to put the 
traditional tools of diplomacy -- relationship building and 
personal contact development, commercial advocacy, public 
diplomacy, reporting and analysis -- within this strategic, 
interagency context. 
 
¶5. (U) Most important, the off-site will attempt to determine 
how the USG can use its understanding of these trends to 
achieve its strategic, operational, and tactical objectives 
in Qatar, using the skills and resources available to  the 
Country Team. 
 
------------------------------ 
Synchronizing the Country Team 
------------------------------ 
 
¶6. (U) Building on the insights and conclusions of the 
off-site, DCM Michael Ratney will take the lead in 
developing, in close consultation and collaboration with 
other members of the Country Team, a short, classified, 
interagency planning document synchronizing the programs and 
activities of the whole government represented by the Country 
Team. 
 
¶7. (U) The synchronization plan will not replace or alter any 
existing planning document, including the unclassified 
Mission Strategic Plan.  Also, it will recognize and respect 
the complementary role within Qatar of the Embassy Country 
Team's strategic partner, the U.S. Central Command. 
 
¶8. (C) The plan will seek to synchronize -- to arrange in 
space, time, and purpose for maximum effect -- the plans and 
programs of the various elements of the Country Team.  The 
plan will include as much as possible the sensitive, 
classified activities of the Country Team that cannot be 
captured in the several unclassified planning documents that 
exist across the Country Team, while remaining mindful of 
compartmented activities and considerations of sources and 
methods. 
 
¶9. (U) The plan will be adaptive in nature and flexible 
enough to accommodate 
whatever shifts in emphasis or content are required by parent 
agencies and departments in the USG's goals and objectives in 
Qatar. 
 
¶10. (U) With this cable, Embassy Doha begins a series of 
cables and reports informing addressees of the status and 
effects of our collaborative, integrated synchronization 
process underway as assessed by the Country Team. 
 
¶11. (U) The Country Team has cleared this cable. 
LeBaron