Neighbors help Islamic State make millions each month

Welcome to the Giant Clusterfuck

 "When these little African countries get into a dispute, they tend to just murder everybody. They live for the opportunity to settle scores... and they have a lot of scores to settle."

Monroe - Congo (1995)

(Editor  -  Though the movie is about Africa, the quote above really says it all about the extreme tribal nature of the Middle East.  Knowing this our politicians just can't wait to toss our boys into this meat grinder of hate where everyone is screwing everyone 24-7. While I am not an isolationist there are times you need to stand back and let the crazies kill each other off.)


The L.A. Times reports Islamic State still generates tens of millions of dollars in income every month.

In Iraq, U.S. financial officials say, dozens of local bank branches remain free to transfer money in and out of cities and towns controlled by the militants, giving them some access to financial systems.

David S. Cohen, the Treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said Islamic State has "amassed wealth at an unprecedented pace," including taking in at least $20 million in ransom payoffs this year.

With the exception of some state-sponsored groups, Islamic State is "probably the best funded terrorist organization we have confronted," he said, and stopping it will take time reports the Los Angeles Times.

"We have no silver bullet, no secret weapon to empty ISIL's coffers overnight," Cohen said, using a common acronym for Islamic State. "This will be a sustained fight and we are in the early stages."

Speaking at the nonpartisan Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Cohen said Islamic State raises tens of millions of dollars a month through the sale of stolen oil, ransoms for kidnapping victims, theft and extortion in areas it controls and, to a lesser extent, donations from donors and financiers in Persian Gulf nations.

Although precise figures are impossible to obtain, U.S. investigators estimated that Islamic State earned about $1 million a day from oil sales beginning in mid-June, when the group's military blitz through western Iraq vastly expanded its territory and its access to oil fields and refineries.

In addition to selling oil and refined petroleum products directly to middlemen and smugglers in Turkey, Islamic State has sold oil to Kurds in Iraq for resale in Turkey, Cohen said. "And in a further indication of the Assad regime's depravity, it seems the Syrian government has made an arrangement to purchase oil from ISIL," he said.

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