The report details Qatar’s ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and terrorist groups such as Hamas and the Taliban and reveals why unrestricted access to Texas A&M University Qatar’s (TAMUQ) sensitive research poses an alarming national security risk to the United States.
Texas A&M is a public university leading state-of-the-art nuclear research with potential weapons applications. It has access to research nuclear reactors and maintains advanced projects in sensitive areas such as biotechnology, cybersecurity, robotics, and artificial intelligence. The Texas A&M Qatar campus was established in 2003 through a confidential agreement between Texas A&M and the Qatari Government-funded Qatar Foundation for Education, Science, and Community Development.
The Report details the problematic nature of the agreement between the Qatar Foundation and Texas A&M:
- ALL intellectual Property for research and development funded (including Nuclear) – belongs to Qatar
- Qatar has access to Sensitive student information.
- Qatar is working with Texas A&M on weapons development.
- The lack of transparency of the agreement and reporting of funds received by Texas A&M to the Government
Through an analysis on Texas A&M Qatar’s grants, ISGAP identified over 500 Qatari-funded projects, with an average award amount of approximately $1 million USD, with maximum grants up to $5 million USD, some of which going to highly sensitive research areas.
Qatar’s significant control over Texas A&M’s research poses serious questions.
- What does Qatar do with the resulting sensitive intellectual property and technologies?
- Will the Qatari Regime, an ally to Hamas and Iran, secretly provide or sell intellectual property or technologies to other dangerous regional actors?
The sweeping terms of this agreement make it possible for Qatar to proliferate dual-use sciences and compromise US national security.