Project ENDGAME: When Your Ally Hires Your Spies to Spy on You
Qatar as America’s frenemy, Kevin Chalker as a former CIA agent who missed the “United States” part of his job title, and Ted Cruz as the guy who didn’t know he was on a Gulf state hit list until it
“The health of a democratic society may be measured by the quality of functions performed by private citizens.” Alexis de Tocqueville
There’s a special kind of geopolitical farce that only happens when petrostate money meets Washington corruption, and I’m thrilled to report we’ve reached peak absurdity: the tiny Gulf nation of Qatar — home to America’s largest military base in the Middle East — allegedly spent $60 million hiring ex-CIA operatives to run espionage operations against sitting U.S. senators.
Not Russian senators. Not Chinese senators. American senators. On American soil. Using American spies.
And the best part? We kept the military base there anyway.
Welcome to the U.S.-Qatar relationship, where friendship means never having to say you’re sorry for conducting covert operations against your ally’s elected officials.
Your Tax Dollars at Work (Against You)
Let’s set the stage: Qatar, an oil-soaked postage stamp of a country roughly the size of Connecticut, hosts Al Udeid Air Base — the nerve center of U.S. Central Command with approximately 8,000 American military personnel. It’s the largest American military installation in the Middle East, the logistical backbone of our operations across the region.
It’s also, according to leaked documents obtained by Fox News, the command center for a Qatari-funded influence operation called “Project ENDGAME” that targeted American lawmakers who dared to suggest that maybe — just maybe — the Muslim Brotherhood and its subsidiary Hamas shouldn’t be treated like legitimate political organizations.
The documents, drafted by Global Risk Advisors (GRA) — a firm founded by ex-CIA officer Kevin Chalker — read like a Tom Clancy novel written by someone experiencing a psychotic break.
“High Alert: An attack on Hamas is an attack on Qatar. An attack on the Muslim Brotherhood is an attack on Qatar.”
Not “an attack on Qatar’s interests.” Not “an attack on Qatar’s regional strategy.” An attack on Qatar itself.
Qatar has so thoroughly merged its identity with Islamist terror organizations that criticizing Hamas is tantamount to an act of war. And their response? Hire American intelligence operatives to conduct espionage against the senators asking uncomfortable questions.
This is what we call “alliance building” in the 21st century.
Meet the Hit List (It’s Shorter Than You’d Hope)
So who earned a spot on Qatar’s ideological enemies list? Buckle up, because it’s a greatest hits compilation of lawmakers who committed the cardinal sin of pattern recognition.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas): Reintroduced legislation to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. You know, the group that literally spawned Hamas and has been outlawed by American allies like Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. Apparently, this made Cruz Qatar’s enemy, because pointing out that the Muslim Brotherhood is a terrorist organization is, in Qatar’s view, a personal attack.
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas): Had the audacity to suggest that Egypt’s secular leader Abdel Fattah el-Sisi might be a more reliable American ally than the Muslim Brotherhood regime that preceded him. Apparently, preferring stable secular governance over Islamist theocracy qualifies you for Qatari surveillance.
Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Florida): Co-sponsored Cruz’s bill to sanction the Muslim Brotherhood. That’s it. That’s the crime. He co-sponsored a bill, and Qatar added him to their target list like he was on some kind of Middle Eastern shit list.
Former Rep. Ed Royce (R-California): The former chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, because if you’re going to spy on American lawmakers, might as well aim for committee chairs.
These weren’t fringe conspiracy theorists. These were sitting senators and a committee chairman asking basic foreign policy questions. And Qatar’s response was to unleash a $60 million espionage operation.
Because nothing says “trusted ally” like conducting offensive intelligence operations against your partner’s legislative branch.
The Spy Who Billed Me (Through a Gibraltar Shell Company)
Now let’s talk about Kevin Chalker, the former CIA officer who apparently interpreted “defending American interests” as “whoever pays the most.”
Chalker founded Global Risk Advisors and proceeded to offer Qatar’s Al-Thani ruling family a buffet of services: “enhanced tracking and monitoring, intelligence collection, predictive intelligence, information operations” — basically everything short of a gift basket that says “Congratulations on Successfully Compromising Your American Ally.”
According to an April 2017 letter of intent reviewed by Fox News, GRA would provide these services for $60 million over three years. Shortly after, a Gibraltar-based company owned by Chalker started receiving seven- and eight-figure payments from Qatar.
Gibraltar. Of course it’s fucking Gibraltar. Because if you’re going to betray your country for oil money, at least have the decency to launder it through a British tax haven.
And here’s where it gets truly chef’s kiss: when the FBI started showing up unannounced at former GRA employees’ homes to ask questions, Chalker sent an email to his staff calling the FBI “a bunch of Keystone Cops who are poorly trained, inadequately educated.”
The FBI. The institution investigating him for potentially illegal espionage activities on behalf of a foreign government. Those Keystone Cops.
You can’t write characters this oblivious to irony. They have to emerge fully formed from the intersection of greed and cognitive dissonance.
Operation “Mitigate Attacks” (By Attacking Everyone)
But Project ENDGAME wasn’t just about surveillance. It was a full-spectrum influence operation designed to “Mitigate Attacks” against Qatar by... launching attacks against Qatar’s critics.
One target: the Counter Extremism Project (CEP), a nonprofit organization that had the temerity to point out Qatar’s financial support for Hamas since 2017.
According to CEP CEO and former U.S. Ambassador Mark Wallace, Qatar hacked accounts containing email correspondence with CEP leadership, then “engaged in a PR campaign to destroy us and paid Americans to do their bidding. All to whitewash their support of Hamas.”
Wallace also revealed that Hamad bin Jassim Al-Thani — Qatar’s former Prime Minister — allegedly tried to bribe former Senator Joe Lieberman during a meeting, making it “clear that he should name his price, and they would pay it to stop this effort.”
Let’s pause on that: a foreign government attempting to bribe a sitting U.S. senator to stop criticizing their support for a terrorist organization.
And we’re still allies!
The military base is still operational! The relationship endures!
This is fine. Everything is fine.
When Your Media Strategy Includes “Our Media Assets”
But wait, there’s more. Because Project ENDGAME also included a media component, noting that “Many news organizations won’t publish ENDGAME content, so Qatar’s media’s assets play a critical role.”
And which media outlets did Qatar list as potential assets?
The New York Times
The Intercept
Middle East Eye
Now, to be fair, listing an outlet as a potential “asset” doesn’t prove coordination. But it’s certainly interesting that Qatar identified these specific outlets as friendly to their messaging.
Middle East Eye’s ownership traces back to Jamal Bessasso, who previously worked for Qatar-owned Al Jazeera and the Hamas-affiliated Al-Quds TV. The Intercept declined to comment. And The New York Times? Also declined to comment, but here’s a fun detail: Qatar is a minority owner of the New York Times building in Manhattan through its control of Brookfield Property Partners.
Not suspicious at all. Just a friendly real estate investment by a government running espionage operations against American lawmakers while simultaneously relying on sympathetic media coverage.
Totally normal alliance stuff.
The October 7 Context Makes This So Much Worse
Here’s where this story transforms from “geopolitical absurdity” to “blood-soaked farce”: all of this came to renewed attention after Hamas — the organization Qatar hosts and funds — massacred 1,200 people in southern Israel on October 7, including more than 30 Americans.
The same Hamas leadership that planned those attacks? Living in luxury hotels in Doha. With Qatar’s blessing. While American soldiers stationed at Al Udeid Air Base provide security for the region.
We are literally protecting the country that harbors the terrorists who killed American citizens.
And when American lawmakers suggested maybe this was a problem, Qatar hired American spies to surveil and discredit them.
Sen. Cruz’s response, when Fox News asked him about being targeted: “The Qatari government spends uncountable billions of dollars promoting and even funding the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas and other terrorist groups. They have either bought or intimidated huge parts of Washington, D.C., into silence.”
That’s not hyperbole. That’s just describing the situation.
The Alliance That Keeps on Taking
Rep. Jack Bergman, a retired Marine Corps lieutenant general, asked the most important question: “If the Qataris are willing to use their state espionage capabilities to protect terrorist groups by targeting senators and the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, then how can we be confident in the security of our servicemen and women—and our secrets—at CENTCOM’s forward headquarters in Doha?”
It’s a good fucking question. One that apparently nobody in the State Department wants to answer, because when asked about the Qatar-sponsored espionage operation, a State Department spokesperson told Fox News: “We refer you to the FBI.”
The FBI’s response? “We can neither confirm nor deny conducting specific investigations.”
Translation: “Yes, we’re investigating, but we can’t say that because it would be diplomatically inconvenient to admit our ally is conducting espionage against our government.”
Meanwhile, Kevin Chalker’s lawyer insists there are “NO pending indictments” against his client and that “any allegations of wrongdoing—much less defamatory allegations of criminal wrongdoing—by him or GRA are just false.”
Which is lawyerspeak for “My client definitely did all of this, but you can’t prove it in a way that will hold up in court because he used shell companies and encrypted communications like a professional spy.”
Final Scene: The Base Stays Open
So what happened after all of this came to light? After the leaked documents, the FBI investigation, the revelation that an American ally spent $60 million conducting espionage operations against American elected officials?
Nothing.
Absolutely fucking nothing.
The military base stays open. The diplomatic relationship continues. Qatar still hosts Hamas leadership. American soldiers still provide security for a nation actively working against American interests.
Because in the end, this isn’t about principles or alliances or national security. It’s about money, leverage, and the uncomfortable truth that America has outsourced so much of its Middle East infrastructure to Qatar that we can’t afford to hold them accountable.
We’ve become a protection racket for a petrostate that funds our enemies and spies on our lawmakers, and we can’t leave because we’ve built our entire regional operation on their territory.
That’s not an alliance.
That’s a hostage situation with better PR.
And somewhere in Doha, in a luxury hotel overlooking the Gulf, Hamas leadership is probably having a good laugh. Because they’ve figured out the perfect strategy: get hosted by a country that hosts America’s military, then watch America tie itself in knots trying to explain why this is fine.
Project ENDGAME wasn’t Qatar’s plan to destroy America’s enemies.
It was America’s decision to pretend we couldn’t see it happening.
And we’re still pretending.
Because the base is too important. The relationship is too valuable. The cognitive dissonance is too expensive to acknowledge.
So we’ll keep protecting the country that spies on our senators, harbors our enemies, and funds the terrorists who kill our citizens.
This is what passes for foreign policy in 2025.
And Kevin Chalker?
He’s moved on to a new company called Qrypt, which claims to have “built the only cryptographic solution capable of securing data indefinitely.”
Because if there’s one thing you can trust a guy who conducted espionage against his own country for oil money to protect, it’s your data security.
Sleep tight, America.
Your ally is watching.
Thank you. Terrific -- and eye-opening -- article.