WASHINGTON (AP)—The Islamic State (ISIS) is earning about $1 million a day from black market oil sales, the United States has said, vowing to impose harsh sanctions on the purchasers of the oil, “including middlemen from Turkey.”
“With the important exception of some state-sponsored terrorist organizations, ISIS is probably the best-funded terrorist organization we have confronted,” David Cohen, U.S. Treasury Department undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in a speech at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington on Oct. 23. “It has amassed wealth at an unprecedented pace.”
ISIS is generating tens of millions of dollars a month through a combination of oil sales, ransom, extortion and other criminal activities, and support from wealthy donors, said Cohen, laying out the most comprehensive outline yet of the U.S. financial strategy against the group.
“It is difficult to get precise revenue estimates … but we estimate that beginning in mid-June, ISIS has earned approximately $1 million a day from oil sales,” Cohen said. Other estimates have ranged as high as $3 million a day.
Middlemen in Turkey
The undersecretary said ISIS was selling oil at substantially discounted prices to a variety of middlemen, including some from Turkey, who then transport the oil to be resold. “It also appears that some of the oil emanating from territory where ISIS operates has been sold to Kurds in Iraq, and then resold into Turkey,” he said.
However, the U.S. official also praised Turkey and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) for being “committed to preventing ISIS-derived oil from crossing their borders.”
He also said U.S.-led airstrikes on ISIS refineries in Syria were also working to threaten the group’s supply networks, dashing a major blow to its resources.
Cohen acknowledged, however, that ISIL moves oil in illicit networks outside the formal economy, making it harder to track.
“But at some point, that oil is acquired by someone who operates in the legitimate economy and who makes use of the financial system. He has a bank account. His business may be financed, his trucks may be insured, his facilities may be licensed,” he said.
“We not only can cut them off from the U.S. financial system and freeze their assets, but we can also make it very difficult for them to find a bank anywhere that will touch their money or process their transactions,” he said.
The Treasury also is going after individuals who donate money to ISIS and is urging officials in Qatar and Kuwait to do more to target terror financiers in their countries. A key, he said, is to restrict the militant group’s access to the international financial system.
Turkey has been looting Iraq and Syria by using ISIS to get stolen oil for several years. Mr Obama has just WOKEN up from a big SLEEP and has threatened sanctions. Against whom? ,, he is AFRAID to say….
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/23/us-mideast-crisis-sanctions-idUSKCN0IC1P620141023
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Turkey has cooperated with ISIS in several ways: Stealing oil, gas, money, weapons from Iraq/Syria; and Using ISIS to attack (Commit acts of genocide to) some minorities like Armenians in KASSAB and Kurds. Using ISIS to abduct and kill innocent people.
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This is not a NEW story, it is OLD news. Mr Obama has been too busy to notice his MATES robbing Syria and Iraq.
http://asbarez.com/128206/turkish-dealers-help-isis-earn-1-mil-per-day/
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BIRDS OF A FEATHER FLOCK TOGETHER?
THERE IS HONOR AMONG THIEVES?
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Americans/allies including NATO and Israel encouraged/funded and armed Turkish terrorists to commit crimes against humanity. These hyenas are still sheltered in Turkey and the whole world is turning a blind eye to their existence.
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The attack on Kessab was an example of how Turkey aided by Americans/NATO executed a genocidal act on Armenians in Syria.
http://asbarez.com/121807/young-kessab-armenian-killed-by-rebels/
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Syria has been a SHELTER to millions of ETHNIC minorities for centuries. Why does anyone want to destroy it? Learn from Syria about MULTICULTURALISM. Syria should be congratulated. Even “ISRAELIS” used Syria as a safe-heaven. Look at the way THESE “Wolves in sheepskin” show their appreciation. Look what these “animals” have done to SYRIA/Aleppo?
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Mr Obama has promised that he will get all terrorists. There is no where they can hide from him. However, Mr Obama only mentions the terrorists in Iraq and Syria. Somehow, he overlooks the ones in TURKEY… Terrorists are very active in Turkey.
http://reportergary.com/2014/09/obama-to-isis-no-where-to-run-no-where-to-hide/
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WAKE UP SALLY…..
There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.”
If Turkey is the friend of the West, than the West is in deep SHT
What about imposing harsh sanctions on Turkey itself, for allowing the middlemen to operate?
Yet another story on the sad country the EU and NATO are stuck with.
Let us as ARMENIANS,WITHOUT FEAR,BLINKING,CENSORING,GOING AROUND WITH THOSE SCARED EYES;START TELLING IT LIKE IT IS….OR WE WILL ALWAYS BE LITTLE PEOPLE,AND THE GENOCIDERS,WILL CONTINUE TO LIVE THE BIG LIE….
FOR THOSE SLOOW ON THE UPTAKE….jerky turkey IS isis….BORN,BRED,SUPPORTED….