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Activist
Laura Loomer blasts Pentagon over planned Qatar military facility in Idaho
By Phil
Stewart
October
11, 20259:19 AM GMT+2Updated 11 hours ago
WASHINGTON,
Oct 10 (Reuters) - Far-right activist Laura Loomer slammed President Donald
Trump's administration on Friday over its deepening defense ties with Qatar and
made false accusations that spread on social media that the Pentagon was giving
it a military base on U.S. soil.
U.S.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth met with Qatar's Deputy Prime Minister Sheikh
Saoud bin Abdulrahman al-Thani at the Pentagon earlier in the day, announcing
that Qatar would pay for a facility at a U.S. air base in Idaho. He did not say
the U.S. would give Qatar the base, or any base in the United States.
The
facility, which has been in discussions for years, would support Qatar's plans
to train pilots on 12 F-15 fighter jets that the country is buying and which
would be located there, a U.S. official told Reuters. The facility would
include hangars to shield the aircraft from the elements and a squadron
operations building for the pilots, the official said.
U.S. TO
SUPERVISE CONSTRUCTION
The
arrangement, which the official said was in line with those agreed with other
U.S. allies, would result in the facility being built by local contractors
under U.S. military supervision and funded by Qatar. Pilots from Singapore
already train at the U.S. base.
"We're
signing a letter of acceptance to build a Qatar Emiri Air Force facility at the
Mountain Home Air Base in Idaho," Hegseth said, alongside his Qatari
counterpart.
Shortly
after the announcement, Loomer said she did not think she would vote in next
year's mid-term elections.
"Never
thought I'd see Republicans give terror financing Muslims from Qatar a MILITARY
BASE on US soil so they can murder Americans," Loomer wrote on X.
She
posted a clip of Trump speaking in 2017, when he accused Qatar of historically
funding terrorism "at a very high level."
In the
wake of her remarks, Hegseth posted on X: "To be clear, Qatar will not
have their own base in the United States — nor anything like a base. We control
the existing base, like we do with all partners."
Qatar’s
embassy spokesperson said the facility in Idaho would not be a Qatari air base.
“Qatar
has made an initial 10-year commitment to construct and maintain a dedicated
facility within an existing US air base, intended for advanced training and to
enhance interoperability,” Ali Al-Ansari said in a statement.
He said
the arrangement was similar to existing programs the U.S. has with other
international allies.
Qatar is
a U.S. security partner and host to al-Udeid Air Base, the largest U.S.
military facility in the Middle East. It acted as a mediator alongside Egypt in
talks between Israel and Hamas.
A
self-proclaimed "Islamophobe" who for years argued the September 11,
2001, attacks were an inside job, Loomer has a history of provocative and
self-promotional actions, including handcuffing herself to Twitter's
headquarters in New York in 2018 after the platform banned her for hate speech.
With 1.8
million followers on X and her own weekly program that draws a large audience,
Loomer can say she speaks for many of the MAGA faithful and influences their
views of the Trump administration.
In April,
Trump fired U.S. General Timothy Haugh, who was the director of the National
Security Agency and head of U.S. Cyber Command. The New York Times reported
that Loomer had called for his ouster.
Reporting
by Phil Stewart, additional reporting by Andrew Mills Editing by Rod Nickel and
Emelia Sithole-Matarise
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