WarSclerotic

Islamic State Raked in Over $1 Billion in 2014 Oil sales, extortion, theft produce ‘massive’ terrorist finance challenge

BY: Bill Gertz
October 21, 2015 5:00 am

Source: Islamic State Raked in Over $1 Billion in 2014 – Washington Free Beacon

Islamic State fighters sending a video message / AP

The Islamic State remains one of the most well-armed and well-funded terrorist groups in the world, raking in over $1 billion in revenues last year and capturing up to $50 billion in Iraqi weapons, according to a State Department security report.

“ISIL’s sophisticated military skill and brutality has been key to its success in Iraq and Syria,” states an Oct. 19 report by the Overseas Security Advisory Council.

“However, its ability to generate cutting-edge propaganda to promote its ideology and gain sympathizers and members across the globe, added to its largely self-reliant, robust financial system, has contributed heavily to its success as well.”

ISIL, which stands for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, is an acronym for the Islamic State, as are ISIS and IS.

Russian military intervention is the latest twist in the five-year-old Syrian conflict where the Islamic State “remains a violent, capable force,” the seven-page security report states.

Foreign nationals continue to join the group, spurred on by sophisticated Islamic State propaganda and recruitment efforts through some 46,000 Twitter accounts used by members and sympathizers.

“Halting the flow of foreign fighters is incredibly difficult,” the report says, noting that travel bans imposed by western countries have not been effective at curbing foreign fighters from joining the group who can easily enter Syria.

The report provides a detailed breakdown of the group’s income, which comes primarily from sales of oil, extortion and ransom, seized bank assets, taxation, artifact smuggling, and agricultural theft.

Last year, the Islamic State raised $100 million from oil trafficking from seized oil facilities in Syria and Iraq. The amount is expected to decrease slightly this year because of the decline in oil prices on international markets.

U.S. airstrikes have targeted oil transportation networks, the report said, noting that Turkish government efforts to stem oil smuggling across the Turkish-Syrian border.

According to the report, the terrorist group’s revenues for 2014 included between $500 million and $800 million in seized state-owned bank assets, $20 million to $70 million from taxation of controlled territory, $100 million in oil revenues, and $25 million to $45 million from kidnapping and ransom.

Theft of agricultural products brought in between $10 million and $50 million last year, and border tariffs imposed by the group raised between $10 million and $50 million. Funds from smuggling of artifacts could not be estimated, according to the report, but private estimates have put the figure at “tens of millions.”

Those figures do not include a more modest sum—up to $40 million—that the Islamic State received from foreign donors in the Persian Gulf, including financial backers in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Kuwait, as well as some in Europe.

The capture of equipment and weapons from Iraqi security forces, who fled and left their arms and equipment after the Islamic State attacked Iraq in 2014, includes between $20 billion and $50 billion worth of arms.

The weapons were taken after the group took over the Iraq Second Division, based in Mosul, which included a motorized brigade and several infantry brigades.

The weapons include Russian-made T-55 tanks and some M-1 Abrams tanks, along with towed artillery, armored vehicles, and troop transports.

“Since ISIL declared a caliphate in Iraq and Syria in July 2014, the group has become one of the world’s most well-financed terrorist organizations,” the report said.

“Unlike other terrorist groups, ISIL is largely self-financed, and operates mainly outside of the formal financial system.”

With tens of millions in its coffers, the group also must make large funding outlays, unlike most other terror groups.

“ISIL’s governance of a large swath of territory necessitates a structured, growing economy,” the report said. “By targeting the group financially, its ability to support itself and those living under its rule will be heavily impacted, and its ability to operate outside Iraq and Syria may be limited over the long term.”

The Islamic State has become adept at using social media, according to the report.

The group “makes heavy use of social-media platforms like Twitter to deliver the message that Sunni Muslims have a duty to either fight under the Caliphate or live under it, and to fight against Shia domination in the region,” the report said.

The Islamic State is also using an Islamic “hadith,” or saying attributed to Mohammed, that predicts that three armies will emerge prior to the apocalypse in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen, with the greatest army appearing in Syria.

Slick, high-quality videos and magazines also are part of its recruitment and propaganda programs.

The United Nations estimates that there are around 20,000 foreign fighters in Syria and Iraq from about 100 countries, mainly in the Middle East and North Africa.

“ISIL relies strongly on a constant stream of foreign fighters to bring with them money and technology, and to maintain the image that the group is constantly expanding,” the report says.

The report concludes that the Islamic State poses an international threat of producing terrorists who can strike around the world.

“ISIL’s success on the ground, militarily but also financially and ideologically, translates into ongoing support for home-grown violent extremists who may conduct attacks in ISIL’s name,” the report said.

“It also has led to the growth of ISIL-linked groups abroad, such as Sinai Peninsula in Egypt or Najd Province in Saudi Arabia.”

Last month, the Treasury Department imposed sanctions on 30 people linked to Islamic State funding programs, including 15 people identified as supporters who provided technical, logistical, or financial backing.

However, blocking the outfit from using its funds to buy weapons and spare parts and supporting affiliates around the world remains difficult, according to Adam J. Szubin, the Treasury’s acting undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.

“When you look at a group like ISIL compared with a group like al Qaeda, the financing challenges are night and day, given the territory that ISIL controls, and its ability to extort funds from people and its territory, and to draw on the natural resources, oil or otherwise, in the territory it controls,” Szubin told the Senate Banking Committee Sept. 17. “It is a massive challenge.”

The Treasury Department held a meeting of what it calls the Counter ISIL Finance Group, led by U.S., Italian, and Saudi officials and including representatives from 25 other nations, on Oct. 7.

Daniel L. Glaser, assistant secretary for terrorist financing at the Treasury Department, said in a blog post that officials at the meeting discussed the Islamic State’s financial structure and how it can be undermined.

Among the issues addressed during the meeting were cross-border illicit financial flows, oil smuggling, financial connections with affiliates, and the looting and sale of antiquities.

Western states are trying to prevent the Islamic State from using the international financial network, to counter its extortion schemes, and to cut off funding from abroad. The states are also trying to prevent IS from providing its funding and resources to affiliated groups.

The Islamic State has spread from Syria and Iraq to the Sinai Peninsula, Afghanistan, and Libya.

Glaser said he was encouraged by the counter-financing efforts and that “we will continue to use every tool available to disrupt ISIL financing and make it more difficult for ISIL to operate.”

A Treasury Department spokesman did not return emails seeking comment.

Jimmy Carter Offers Help for Russia’s Bombing Campaign in Syria Says he sent Putin a message, received response from Russian embassy asking for maps

BY: Daniel Wiser

October 20, 2015 3:45 pm

Source: Jimmy Carter Offers Help for Russia’s Bombing Campaign in Syria – Washington Free Beacon

Clowns on the right, Clowns on the left Jokers in the middle

Former President Jimmy Carter teaches Sunday School class at Maranatha Baptist Church in his hometown in Plains, Ga / A

Former President Jimmy Carter said recently that he provided maps of Islamic State positions in Syria to the Russian embassy in Washington, a move apparently at odds with the Obama administration’s official policy of not cooperating with Russia in the Syrian war.

Carter said on Sunday in Georgia that he knows Russian President Vladimir Putin “fairly well” because they “have a common interest in fly fishing.” When he met with Putin in April along with other global leaders to discuss the crises in Syria and Ukraine, the Russian president gave him an email address so the two could discuss his “fly fishing experiences, particularly in Russia,” Carter said.

The civil war in Syria, where U.S. officials say Russia has bombed rebels and CIA-backed groups rather than the Islamic State terrorist group, has also been a topic of conversation between the two. Carter said he sent maps of the Islamic State’s locations in Syria, produced by the Carter Center, to the Russian embassy so Moscow could improve the accuracy of its strikes.

“I sent [Putin] a message Thursday and asked him if he wanted a copy of our map so he could bomb accurately in Syria, and then on Friday, the Russian embassy in Atlanta—I mean in Washington, called down and told me they would like very much to have the map,” Carter said at his Sunday school class in Georgia, according to a video of his remarks first aired by NBC News. “So in the future, if Russia doesn’t bomb the right places, you’ll know it’s not Putin’s fault but it’s my fault,” he added as the audience laughed.

Obama administration officials have publicly said the United States will not collaborate with Russia as long as it targets U.S.-backed rebels in an effort to prop up Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a longtime ally of Moscow. The administration has said Assad must eventually step down as part of efforts to seek a political resolution to the Syrian war. “We are not prepared to cooperate on strategy which, as we explained, is flawed, tragically flawed, on the Russians’ part,” said Ash Carter, U.S. defense secretary, earlier this month.

However, Carter appears to have reached out to Putin on his own initiative and urged him to find common ground with the United States by only targeting the Islamic State in Syria.

Cmdr. Elissa Smith, spokeswoman for the Department of Defense, declined to comment about whether the Pentagon was aware of Carter’s correspondence with Putin.

“I can’t speak to whether anyone in the Pentagon was aware the Carter Center provided maps to the Russia Embassy,” she said in an email.

The White House referred the Washington Free Beacon to the Carter Center, which did not respond to a request for comment. The Russian embassy also did not respond to a request for comment.

Carter has previously expressed support for Russia and its actions in Ukraine, where Moscow has supported separatists with weapons and troops against Ukrainian forces backed by the United States. After meeting with Putin earlier this year, Carter said Russia’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula in Ukraine was “inevitable” and was what residents wanted—a stance that conflicts with most international observers who have said that Russia illegally invaded Crimea and held an illegitimate referendum.

He also said last year that the United States should not impose more sanctions on Russia and that he believed “Putin is not going to use military force” in eastern Ukraine. “I don’t think there is anything we can do that is going to deter Putin,” he said at the time.

Russia is currently supporting Iran and its regional militias with airstrikes as the pro-Assad forces prepare an offensive on the major Syrian city of Aleppo. The Islamic State is reported to have benefited from the Russian strikes on rebels as the terrorist group moved in from the north to gain more territory.

The Pentagon said on Tuesday that the United States had signed an agreement with Russia in an attempt to avoid incidents in Syrian airspace, where American planes are also bombing Islamic State positions.

Peter Cook, Pentagon press secretary, said in a statement that the memorandum with Russia “does not establish zones of cooperation, intelligence sharing, or any sharing of target information in Syria” and does “not constitute U.S. cooperation or support for Russia’s policy or actions in Syria.”

Syrian rebels say receive more weapons for Aleppo battle

October 19, 2015

Source: Syrian rebels say receive more weapons for Aleppo battle | Syrian Observatory For Human Rights

Rebels battling the Syrian army and its allies near Aleppo said on Monday they had received new supplies of U.S.-made anti-tank missiles from states opposed to President Bashar al-Assad since the start of a major government offensive last week.

The rebels from three groups contacted by Reuters said new supplies had arrived in response to the attack by the army, which is backed up by Russian air strikes and on the ground by Iranian fighters and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

The delivery of the U.S.-made TOW missiles to rebels in Aleppo and elsewhere in Syria appears to be an initial response to the new Russian-Iranian intervention. Foreign states supporting the rebels include Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar.

But officials from one of the Aleppo-based rebel groups said the supplies were inadequate for the scale of the assault, one of several ground offensives underway with Russian air support.

“A few (TOW missiles) will not do the trick. They need dozens,” said one official, declining to be named due to the political sensitivity of the military support programme.

A number of rebel groups vetted by states opposed to Assad have been supplied with weapons via Turkey, part of a programme supported by the United States and which has in some cases included military training by the Central Intelligence Agency.

These groups fight under the banner of the “Free Syrian Army” – a loose affiliation of rebels that do not operate with a centralised command structure and have been widely eclipsed by jihadist groups such as the Nusra Front and Islamic State.

“We received more supplies of ammunition in greater quantities than before, including mortar bombs, rocket launchers and anti-tank (missiles),” said Issa al-Turkmani, a commander in the FSA-affiliated Sultan Murad group fighting in the Aleppo area. “We have received more new TOWs in the last few days … We are well-stocked after these deliveries.”

TOW missiles are the most potent weapon in the rebels’ arsenal. FSA-affiliated groups have also been using TOWs against government forces to fend off another offensive in Hama province, southwest of Aleppo.

Rebels there said last week they had plentiful supplies of the missiles.

Since the start of the Russian air strikes, ground offensives by the Syrian army and its allies have mostly hit areas controlled by insurgent groups other than Islamic State in parts of western Syria that are crucial to Assad’s survival.

“LAST THREE DAYS WERE BAD”

The Aleppo offensive is targeting areas a few kilometres (miles) to the south of the city near the highway to Damascus. The army and its allies have captured several villages.

Syrian state TV said the army had captured the town of al-Sabeqiya south of Aleppo on Monday and said the rebels had suffered heavy casualties.

Some 3,000 families have fled to other parts of Aleppo province, said Rami Abdulrahman, head of the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which reports on the war using sources on the ground.

Abdulrahman said at least 41 rebel fighters had been killed. One Aleppo-based rebel group, the Nour al Din al Zinki Brigades, said its military commander was among the dead. His group is one of the recipients of military aid channelled via an operations room in Turkey and is also supplied with TOW missiles.

“The battles are underway in a big way on a number of fronts. The last three days were bad. Yesterday (the rebel) forces were able to form an operations room and to distribute zones of operation,” Hassan al-Haj Ali, head of the rebel Suqour al-Jabal group, told Reuters via the internet.

Government troops and their allies are also trying to advance to the east of Aleppo towards Kweires military airport to break a siege of the base by Islamic State, which controls some parts of Aleppo province, notably to the north of the city.

Abdulrahman said rebels had hit at least 11 army vehicles with TOW missiles near Aleppo since Friday.

One FSA brigade, the Sham Revolutionary Brigades, posted six videos on Saturday showing its fighters targeting army vehicles with wire-guided missiles near Azzan. Videos posted by Sultan Murad showed its men targeting a tank and a bulldozer with TOW missiles near Abtin, captured by the army on Friday.

“There are TOWs in the southern Aleppo front but not enough,” said a second rebel official who declined to be named. “Yesterday the regime’s armoured vehicles were moving freely. We had a shortfall in TOW and the regime APCs were able to move.”

The Observatory reported fresh Russian air strikes on Monday in the southern Aleppo area. Abdulrahman described the fighting as heavy but added that the government side had not made further strategic gains on Monday.

The Syrian state news agency said on Monday the rural Aleppo area was one of 49 sites targeted by Russian warplanes, along with rural Damascus, Latakia and Hama.

uk.reuters.com