S8 Ep572: 2. Natalie Econo from the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD) explains why Qatar has been recommended for the Special Watch List (SWL) for religious freedom violations. She notes that while the U.S. views Qatar as a major non-NATO ally and med
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 12 March 2026
⏱️ 9 minutes
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Summary
2. Natalie Econo from the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD) explains why Qatar has been recommended for the Special Watch List (SWL) for religious freedom violations. She notes that while the U.S. views Qatar as a major non-NATO ally and mediator, the country continues to host Hamas and the Taliban. The designation serves as a warning that Qatar’s adherence to religious freedom and speech—illustrated by the persecution of a Baha'i leader—is not meeting U.S. criteria. (2)
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm John Batchelor. I welcome Natalie Econo of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. |
| 0:23.5 | Qatar is the subject. I visited Qatar to broadcast in 2019 is my memory. The city of Doha is |
| 0:31.3 | Qatar. It's on the Gulf. It has a beautiful romantic crescent moon over the Gulf at the right time of month, |
| 0:38.5 | and it's filled with men who are extremely well-to-do and very professional. Those are the |
| 0:44.7 | Qataris. Most of the population of Doha, however, are called guest workers. They're from all |
| 0:50.9 | parts of the Middle East, predominantly Muslim of different stripes. |
| 0:57.0 | I met with Palestinian Muslims when I was there. |
| 1:02.0 | That is also the headquarters of Al Jazeera. |
| 1:04.0 | All that is to say that it's somewhere in between the worlds of the Arab kingdoms and the European kingdom, somewhere in |
| 1:12.6 | between, except in terms of religious tolerance. I read from a news report most recently. |
| 1:20.9 | The U.S. Commission of International Religious Freedom sharply criticized the U.S. State Department for failing to protect people fleeing religious |
| 1:30.8 | persecution and for not penalizing violators of religious freedom. This is according to the annual |
| 1:37.2 | report, and this brings in the question of Qatar. And Natalie, a very good evening to you. As I understand it, the classifications are |
| 1:47.1 | critical here as to what the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom says, what the |
| 1:51.5 | State Department says. The issue in Qatar is many-sided, but I want to understand the bureaucratic |
| 1:59.3 | language now being applied to Qatar. What is SWL? What does that mean? |
| 2:07.1 | What is CPC means? And how does that explain the doubts about Qatar? Good evening to you. |
| 2:13.8 | Good to be here, John. Yeah, so SWL stands for a special watch list. CPC stands for |
| 2:20.6 | country of particular concern. CPC is a stronger designation than SWL. Both of those designations |
| 2:28.6 | are, or stem from a piece of legislation that the U.S. has on the books to promote and protect |
| 2:36.4 | religious freedoms. So basically what happened was, is this bipartisan commission here in the |
| 2:41.3 | United States recommended that Qatar be placed on the special watch list. That's SWL, |
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