USQBC President Pens Letter to the Editor, Washington Post

"Qatar has a deep commitment to food security" The June 4 front-page article “Clintons gave Qatar a stage as allegations dogged FIFA ” stretched credulity. It conflated the Justice Department’s investigation into the soccer organization FIFA with a 2013 commitment to food security made by the chief executive of the Qatar 2022 World Cup committee at the Clinton Global Initiative Summit. The implication was that the Qataris bribed Bill Clinton to give them “legitimacy.” The persistent allegations of impropriety about the Qatari bid are offered mainly by the countries that lost the joint 2018-2022 World Cup bids, namely the United States and the United Kingdom. However, the FIFA ethics report that examined the bid process exonerated Qatar. What’s more, the Qatari donation to the Clinton Global Initiative was not an anomaly: It reflects a long-standing commitment to global food security that has drawn praise from experts and organizations, including the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations , the World Bank and the International Fund for Agricultural Development. Patrick N. Theros, Washington The writer is president of the U.S.-Qatar Business Council and was U.S. ambassador to Qatar from 1995 to 1998.