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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsNew Evidence Reveals Turkish Government Is Directly Funding ISIS
When US special forces raided the compound of an Islamic State leader in eastern Syria in May, they made sure not to tell the neighbours.
The target of that raid, the first of its kind since US jets returned to the skies over Iraq last August, was an Isis official responsible for oil smuggling, named Abu Sayyaf. He was almost unheard of outside the upper echelons of the terror group, but he was well known to Turkey. From mid-2013, the Tunisian fighter had been responsible for smuggling oil from Syrias eastern fields, which the group had by then commandeered. Black market oil quickly became the main driver of Isis revenues and Turkish buyers were its main clients.
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In the wake of the raid that killed Abu Sayyaf, suspicions of an undeclared alliance have hardened. One senior western official familiar with the intelligence gathered at the slain leaders compound said that direct dealings between Turkish officials and ranking Isis members was now undeniable.
There are hundreds of flash drives and documents that were seized there, the official told the Observer. They are being analysed at the moment, but the links are already so clear that they could end up having profound policy implications for the relationship between us and Ankara.
http://www.mintpressnews.com/new-evidence-reveals-turkish-government-is-directly-funding-isis/208171/
So just maybe Russia had a very justifiable reason for striking so close and possibly within Turkey's borders
This sure as shit blurs the lines
madokie
(51,076 posts)for me to take anything at face value
Rex
(65,616 posts)So much war and death, so little healing and peace in the world.
leveymg
(36,418 posts)Between $400 and $800 million/year at world market prices, which have since plunged. The reported annual budget of the Islamic State, meanwhile, is more than $2 billion. The bulk of the remainder, as the spokesman for the US Joint Chiefs of Staff announced in February comes for "donors, lots of donors."
See, As UN Security Council Mulls ISIS Oil Sanctions, Most Funds Still Flow from Saudi and Gulf Donors
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026192755
Propo
lindysalsagal
(20,692 posts)what's underneath all of the foreign rocks, and his words really can effect how other leaders respond to his leveraging. He's talking to them more often than he's talking to us, and I would hope we'd have the sense (as the most developed nation) to understand that.
That's the point: we select people to handle things for us because some things just get screwed up in a committee. The congress can't decide if it should tie its shoes, for god sakes. At least POTUS can work with other leaders to help everyone.
The world is getting smaller and we should be able to see how short-sighted screwups will just come back to get us later on. He's trying to get it right, and he can't narrate every detail to the world.
This should be obvious: We know the general direction he's going but we can't take every step with him.