{"id":107918,"date":"2014-06-30T11:22:09","date_gmt":"2014-06-30T08:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/?p=107918"},"modified":"2022-11-23T20:10:33","modified_gmt":"2022-11-23T17:10:33","slug":"how-the-terrorists-got-rich-in-iraq-and-syria-isis-militants-are-flush-with-funds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2014\/06\/30\/how-the-terrorists-got-rich-in-iraq-and-syria-isis-militants-are-flush-with-funds\/","title":{"rendered":"How the Terrorists Got Rich In Iraq and Syria, ISIS Militants Are Flush With Funds"},"content":{"rendered":"<header id=\"story-header\" class=\"story-header\">\n<div class=\"story-meta\"><br class=\"story-heading\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"story-meta-footer\">\n<p class=\"byline-dateline\"><span class=\"byline\">By <span class=\"byline-author\" data-byline-name=\"JUAN C. ZARATE\">JUAN C. ZARATE<\/span> and <\/span><span class=\"byline\"><span class=\"byline-author\" data-byline-name=\"THOMAS M. SANDERSON\">THOMAS M. SANDERSON<\/span><\/span><time class=\"dateline\" datetime=\"2014-06-28\">JUNE 28, 2014<\/time><\/p>\n<div class=\"inside-story\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"lede-container\">\n<figure class=\"media photo lede layout-large-horizontal\" data-media-action=\"modal\"><span class=\"visually-hidden\">Photo<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"image\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"media-viewer-candidate\" src=\"http:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2014\/06\/29\/sunday-review\/0629TERRORIST\/0629TERRORIST-master675.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-mediaviewer-src=\"http:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2014\/06\/29\/sunday-review\/0629TERRORIST\/0629TERRORIST-superJumbo.jpg\" data-mediaviewer-caption=\"\" data-mediaviewer-credit=\"George Bates\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"media-action-overlay\"><\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"caption\"> <span class=\"credit\"> <span class=\"visually-hidden\">Credit<\/span> George Bates <\/span> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"lede-container-ads\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"sharetools-story\" class=\"sharetools theme-classic  sharetools-story sharetools-init\" data-shares=\"email|email,facebook,twitter,save,show-all|more,ad\" data-url=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2014\/06\/29\/opinion\/sunday\/in-iraq-and-syria-isis-militants-are-flush-with-funds.html\" data-title=\"In Iraq and Syria, ISIS Militants Are Flush With Funds\" data-description=\"Theyb\ufffd\u0019re making money off trade, taxes and charity, and web\ufffd\u0019re not keeping up.\" data-publish-date=\"June 28, 2014\">Continue reading the main story <span class=\"sharetools-label visually-hidden\">Share This Page<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"sharetool email-sharetool login-modal-trigger\" data-modal-title=\"Log in to Email\"><a data-share=\"email\"><i class=\"icon\"><\/i><span class=\"sharetool-text\">email<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"sharetool facebook-sharetool \" data-modal-title=\"\"><a data-share=\"facebook\"><i class=\"icon\"><\/i><span class=\"sharetool-text\">facebook<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"sharetool twitter-sharetool \" data-modal-title=\"\"><a data-share=\"twitter\"><i class=\"icon\"><\/i><span class=\"sharetool-text\">twitter<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"sharetool save-sharetool login-modal-trigger\" data-modal-title=\"Log in to Save\"><a data-share=\"save\"><i class=\"icon\"><\/i><span class=\"sharetool-text\">save<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"sharetool show-all-sharetool \" data-modal-title=\"\"><a data-share=\"show-all\"><i class=\"icon\"><\/i><span class=\"sharetool-text\">more<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p id=\"story-continues-1\" class=\"story-body-text story-content\" data-para-count=\"638\" data-total-count=\"638\">A FEW feet from the Bab al-Salam border crossing near the Turkish town of Kilis, there is a shabby cafe where the most interesting items for sale are not found on the menu. The cafe is the final stop for young radicalized men from Europe or North Africa who are planning to slip past the lax Turkish border officers and into Syrian territory. This is where they exchange their passports for cash. When one of us visited the cafe in January, a Belgian passport was for sale for $8,000. A buyer could have it altered for movement to Europe or visa-free travel to the United States. New passport photos were being snapped in the parking lot.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"marginalia related-coverage-marginalia nocontent robots-nocontent\" data-marginalia-type=\"sprinkled\">Continue reading the main story<\/p>\n<header>\n<h2 class=\"module-heading\">Related Coverage<\/h2>\n<\/header>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<article class=\"story theme-summary\">\n<div class=\"thumb\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2014\/06\/29\/sunday-review\/0629GLANZ\/0629GLANZ-thumbStandard.jpg\" alt=\"A pool hall in Husayba, Iraq, near the Syrian border, in 2007.\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"media-action-overlay\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h2 class=\"story-heading\"><span class=\"story-heading-text\">News Analysis: Life in Iraq Grinds On, Whoever Is in Charge<\/span><time class=\"dateline\" datetime=\"2014-06-28\">JUNE 28, 2014<\/time><\/h2>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/aside>\n<p id=\"story-continues-5\" class=\"story-body-text story-content\" data-para-count=\"483\" data-total-count=\"1121\">Half a continent away, in Kuwait, on an evening in March, a soon-to-be auctioned 1982 Chevy Caprice Classic awkwardly sat parked on carpets outside a tent. Inside potential bidders were being asked to alleviate the suffering of Syrians with b\u001chumanitarian contributions.b\u001d Few could have had any doubt that once their money found its way to Syria, fighters b\u0014 some affiliated with Al Qaeda b\u0014 would decide whether to use it to buy aspirin for children or ammunition for killers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"story-body-text story-content\" data-para-count=\"640\" data-total-count=\"1761\">On June 10, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, moved on Mosul, Iraqb\u0019s second largest city. The advance blew the uniforms off hapless soldiers and police officers, and left prison cells and bank vaults emptied of their contents. In the largest bank holdup in recent memory, ISIS operatives reportedly stole up to $400 million in cash. Flush with money, ISIS will have the resources (as well as the territory) to establish itself as the hub of a global terrorist movement in the heart of the Middle East. There are no Treasury paratroopers to send in to seize the cash, or bank regulations to issue to stop ISIS from spending it.<\/p>\n<p id=\"story-continues-2\" class=\"story-body-text story-content\" data-para-count=\"581\" data-total-count=\"2342\">These three episodes reflect a deep problem for the United States and its allies that has been evolving for several years. The campaign to disrupt and dismantle terrorist financing after 9\/11, which met with much success and once caused Osama bin Laden to bemoan the lack of funding in Al Qaeda coffers, has given way to a new reality. The metastasized, Qaeda-inspired terrorist movements have learned to raise millions of dollars locally, while the conflicts in Syria and Iraq have resurrected the terrorist funding networks of old. Terrorist funding is now both local and global.<\/p>\n<p id=\"story-continues-6\" class=\"story-body-text story-content\" data-para-count=\"584\" data-total-count=\"2926\">Donors and everyday citizens from the Persian Gulf and other sympathetic corners of the world, witnessing the humanitarian crisis in Syria, have been funneling money to the most effective forces fighting the regime of Bashar al-Assad there, namely Qaeda-affiliated groups and ISIS. Smartly, these groups have realized they must match their brutal militancy with charitable services, akin to the governance and charity models of groups like Hezbollah and Hamas. This makes it difficult to differentiate funding to alleviate the suffering of Syrian refugees from support for terrorism.<\/p>\n<p class=\"story-body-text story-content\" data-para-count=\"505\" data-total-count=\"3431\">Alongside these global revenue streams, terrorist networks have gotten better at taking advantage of local moneymaking opportunities. In North Africa, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb has the market cornered on kidnap-for-ransom and smuggling operations to the tune of tens of millions of dollars. It has used its resources to buy more weapons to assault Malian and French forces and to support the training of Boko Haram operatives, while Boko engages in its own hostage-taking for profit in West Africa.<\/p>\n<p id=\"story-continues-3\" class=\"story-body-text story-content\" data-para-count=\"324\" data-total-count=\"3755\">The Taliban and Haqqani networks in Afghanistan and Pakistan also run smuggling and kidnapping operations, while profiting from the heroin trade. The Shabab movement in Somalia has developed a trade-based money-laundering system through the export of charcoal and import of sugar, while imposing taxes in areas it controls.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"marginalia comments-marginalia  comment-prompt-marginalia\" style=\"display: block;\" data-marginalia-type=\"sprinkled\" data-skip-to-para-id=\"story-continues-7\">Continue reading the main story<\/p>\n<header>\n<h2 class=\"module-heading\"><i class=\"icon\"><\/i>undefined Comments<\/h2>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"comments-view\">\n<h3 class=\"comment-prompt\">Share your thoughts<\/h3>\n<p class=\"user-action\"><a>Share your thoughts \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p id=\"story-continues-7\" class=\"story-body-text story-content\" data-para-count=\"527\" data-total-count=\"4282\">In earlier days, ISIS made plenty of money on petty crimes, bank robberies and oil smuggling. Today, with its control of territory growing in Syria and Iraq, it has established a war economy. ISIS militants have taken control of resources like granaries and oil installations and are extorting b\u001ctaxesb\u001d from businesses and selling off government property and equipment (an inventory that now includes American-made Humvees). This has spawned a for-profit militant model that breathes life into insurgencies around the world.<\/p>\n<p class=\"story-body-text story-content\" data-para-count=\"514\" data-total-count=\"4796\">ISIS is also a leader in using new technologies and social media to raise awareness and reach individual donors. Appeals for donations (or investments) are tweeted while money is raised and sent via the Internet, then withdrawn in the form of bags of cash to be transported into the war zones. The ISIS publication Al-Naba (The News) has kept donors informed about the progress of specific operations, while Twitter feeds are updated with body counts and photos of the equipment and territory fighters now control.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"marginalia comments-marginalia  selected-comment-marginalia\" style=\"display: block;\" data-marginalia-type=\"sprinkled\" data-skip-to-para-id=\"story-continues-4\">Continue reading the main story<\/p>\n<header>\n<h2 class=\"module-heading\"><i class=\"icon\"><\/i>Recent Comments<\/h2>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"comments-view\"><\/div>\n<footer>\n<ul class=\"comment-actions\">\n<li class=\"comment-count\">See All Comments<\/li>\n<li class=\"comment-reply\">Write a comment<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/footer>\n<\/aside>\n<p id=\"story-continues-4\" class=\"story-body-text story-content\" data-para-count=\"174\" data-total-count=\"4970\">If we hope to constrict these global and local fund-raising streams, and the dangerous ambitions of terrorist groups, we need a renewed campaign against terrorist financing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"story-body-text story-content\" data-para-count=\"776\" data-total-count=\"5746\">This will require creativity to launch operations against networks now supporting ISIS and Qaeda-related groups and to form partnerships with local law enforcement, customs authorities and regulators. We must strengthen border enforcement to intercept cash couriers, and step up anti-corruption efforts to ensure that groups cannot buy access or safe passage. This requires mustering the political will to isolate deep-pocket donors in places like Kuwait and Qatar; Turkish brokers doing business with these groups; front companies, facilitators and charities in the region; and even countriesunwilling to stem the flow of funds to known terrorist groups. And finally, legitimate aid organizations in Syria and the region must create alternative social services for refugees.<\/p>\n<p id=\"story-continues-8\" class=\"story-body-text story-content\" data-para-count=\"543\" data-total-count=\"6289\">But we cannot cut off the financing to a group like ISIS without first dislodging it from the territory it controls. And this requires a broader counterterrorism campaign. This has been done in the past b\u0014 during the surge in Iraq in 2007, and when Kenyan forces ran the Shabab out of the lucrative port of Kismayo in Somalia in 2012. It does not necessarily have to be done by American forces on the ground, but it does require forces allied with the United States to separate ISIS from the resources it controls and the economy it now runs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"story-body-text story-content\" data-para-count=\"360\" data-total-count=\"6649\">Unfortunately, a clear strategy for doing this and American leadership have been absent amid the caldron of the conflicts in Syria and Iraq. Meanwhile, we have lost the on-the-ground intelligence and military capabilities provided by task forces like the Iraq Threat Finance Cell, created in the mid-2000s to track and disrupt insurgency and terrorist funding.<\/p>\n<p class=\"story-body-text story-content\" data-para-count=\"448\" data-total-count=\"7097\">Our options and appetite for more investment of blood and treasure in the fight against terrorism may be limited, but without addressing all dimensions of the financing threat, our progress over the years may be lost. If groups like ISIS can fill their coffers, run economies and consolidate their hold on power, we may be facing a new, more dangerous brand of global terrorism that will threaten the United States and its allies for years to come.<\/p>\n<footer class=\"story-footer story-content\">\n<div class=\"story-meta\">\n<div class=\"story-notes\">\n<p>Juan C. Zarate, a former deputy national security adviser and assistant Treasury secretary, is the author of b\u001cTreasuryb\u0019s War.b\u001d Thomas M. Sanderson is the co-director of the Transnational Threats Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"story-print-citation\">A version of this op-ed appears in print on June 29, 2014, on page SR4 of the New York edition with the headline: How the Terrorists Got Rich. <span class=\"story-footer-links\">Order Reprints<span class=\"pipe\">|<\/span>Today&#8217;s Paper<span class=\"pipe\">|<\/span>Subscribe <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/footer>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By JUAN C. ZARATE and THOMAS M. SANDERSONJUNE 28, 2014 Photo Credit George Bates Continue reading the main story Share This Page email facebook twitter save more A FEW feet from the Bab al-Salam border crossing near the Turkish town of Kilis, there is a shabby cafe where the most interesting items for sale are [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":782140,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[89],"tags":[4259],"class_list":["post-107918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-turkey","tag-ataturk-features"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107918\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/782140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}