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The ISIS' Top Line: $2 Million In Daily Revenue From "Oil Sales, Extortion, Taxes And Smuggling"
A few days ago when we commented, somewhat in jest, on the seemingly impressive strategic planning behind the Islamic State jihadists becoming a "commodities trading powerhouse" (when it was revealed that ISIS had sold the grain it had stolen from the Itaqi government back to the government), we described just how well-versed in the ways of the modern world ISIS was: "from quickly taking control of (i.e., robbing) a central bank, to capturing the latest and greatest in US military equipment, to staging an amazing blitz-campaign that has resulted in the creation of a caliphate and captured the bulk of northern Iraq and a third of Syria including all of the former country's oil fields, to even having glossy year end annual reports, one would almost be forgiven in assuming that some vastly more strategic minds are behind what on paper at least would be a far more disorganized force."
Now, thanks to Bloomberg we can quantify this particular strategy, and put top-line numbers with the ISIS faces, so to speak: "The Islamic State, which now controls an area of Iraq and Syria larger than the U.K., may be raising more than $2 million dollars a day in revenue from oil sales, extortion, taxes and smuggling, according to U.S. intelligence officials and anti-terrorism finance experts."
In other words, a well-greased government machine, and not only that but one which has an infinitely greater net worth than the US, because with a net worth of some $2 billion (and rising by $2 million daily), the Islamic State has a "worth" of some $17+ trillion more than the United States, which instead of equity is funded entirely through debt, and ever more debt, thanks to the ongoing devaluation of the world's reserve currency.
Some more on how ISIS became the world's first self-contained, and funded, jihadist entity:
Unlike other extremist groups’ reliance on foreign donations that can be squeezed by sanctions, diplomacy and law enforcement, the Islamic State’s predominantly local revenue stream poses a unique challenge to governments seeking to halt its advance and undermine its ability to launch terrorist attacks that in time might be aimed at the U.S. and Europe.
“The Islamic State is probably the wealthiest terrorist group we’ve ever known,” said Matthew Levitt, a former U.S. Treasury terrorism and financial intelligence official who now is director of the counterterrorism and intelligence program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “They’re not as integrated with the international financial system, and therefore not as vulnerable” to sanctions, anti-money laundering laws and banking regulations.
This is bad news for banks such as HSBC, which will be unable to launder "donations" to the Islamic State, which does not need such services:
There are few reliable financial figures for the groups. A UN report estimated the Taliban raised about $400 million in 2011 through local taxes, donations, and extortion directed at drug smugglers, mobile phone operators and aid projects. The Afghan Taliban smuggle opium, minerals and timber; Colombia’s Marxist FARC rebels export cocaine; and Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines, as well as the al-Qaeda offshoots in Yemen and North Africa, have raised millions by taking hostages for ransom.
The money that the Islamic State group receives from outside donors pales in comparison to its income from extortion, kidnapping, robbery, oil smuggling and the like, said a U.S. intelligence official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss classified information.
In short, ISIS would have simply been the latest entrant of the Petrodollar closed loop, if only it had somewhat better diplomatic relations with the US. As for the currency of choice, so far ISIS does not appear to have a particular predisposition toward dealing in greenbacks, which means that in the coming months one should expect strategic "scouting" missions by both Russia and China, deep below the radar of course, in the shadowy alleyways of Reqqa.
The revenue streams available to the Islamic State through its control of a vast oil-rich territory and access to local taxes dwarfs the income of other groups.
With its control of seven oil fields and two refineries in northern Iraq, and six out of 10 oil fields in eastern Syria, the terror group is selling crude at between $25 and $60 a barrel, Luay al-Khatteeb, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Doha Center in Qatar, said in a telephone interview. That reflects a discount from world market prices due to the risk faced by middlemen smuggling and brokering the oil. By comparison, Brent crude for October settlement fell 1 cent today to $102.28 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange.
Nations such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE are hardly enjoying these dumping rates, but one person who will be truly displeased by a marginal seller who gives as much as a 75% discount will be none other than Vladimir Putin, for whom as is widely known, the stock market may go up and go down, but one thing matters critically: to keep the price of Brent as high as possible. And with ISIS impairing the supply and demand curves, one wonders how long before the Kremlin decides to make a move of some sort.
Based on al-Khatteeb’s interviews with contacts in Iraq, the extremist group controls Iraqi fields with a production capacity of 80,000 barrels a day and now is extracting about half that amount. The Islamic State, he said, is likely earning some $2 million a day from crude sales, paid in cash or bartered goods as the oil crosses into the Kurdistan region of Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Jordan.
One important financial battlefield for the Islamic State, said the U.S. intelligence official, is the Baiji refinery in northern Iraq, which produces roughly a third of the country’s total oil output. It’s been shut down since an attack by extremists in June, and remains the scene of heavy fighting between extremists and government forces.
So what about the use of funds from the oil sales: for now these appears to be going to “keep the war machine running, to maintain institutions.” in the territory the Islamic State has seized from the Iraqi and Syrian governments, and “the rest of the cash is going to recruiting,” al-Khatteeb said.
Robin Mills of Dubai-based Manaar Energy Consulting and Project Management, said in a telephone interview that authorities have begun cracking down on oil smuggling into the Kurdish region, meaning more of the crude will be used locally by the Islamic State and oil revenues will start to shrink.
A second source of revenue for the Islamic State is taxing residents of the densely-populated cities such as Mosul in the territory it controls, which is roughly the size of Wyoming, and controlling granaries and other critical resources. Criminal activity from bank and jewelry store robberies, extortion, smuggling and kidnapping for ransom is also an important source of revenue.
Another source of profit: the group may have raised $10 million or more in recent years from ransom payments alone, said one U.S. official.
While the U.S. military launches airstrikes in Iraq against militants and their weaponry -- much of it American hardware abandoned by Iraqi forces -- other agencies are seeking ways to deplete the Islamic State’s coffers.
But the punchline, and where one can be certain the western banks are involved, is the following:
“It’s not totally clear where they’re storing all this money, but there may be ways to actually go after it,” he said. Whether or not it’s in a bank account, “you’ve got to put it somewhere.”
Uhm, just braintsotmring here, but has anyone thought to check HSBC and JPM's "private client" services database? Like we said, just a thought: clearly the world's largest banks would never stoop so low as to fund and launder money for the world's most barbaric and feared terrorist organizations.
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And yet the tax/extortion paid under ISIS is less than that paid to the previous "government"
Creation of ISIS Is one of Obama's few successes.
2 million a day?? Those are little league numbers!
The US guv takes in several billion a day from their extortions!
Don't take it personal, it's just business.
It is just that, business... Joe and Jane Citizen are no more than cows to be milked and slaughtered.
One wonders if they will EVER wake up.
Prolly not until they get hungry.
I hear they are going to do an IPO
Collateralize that bitch.....who wants to buy the head tranche?
They earn more revenue than Twitter.
http://www.planbeconomics.com/2014/08/islamic-state-isis-generates-more-...
"the world's most barbaric and feared terrorist organizations."
I believe the USA still holds that title.
This is bad news for banks such as HSBC, which will be unable to launder "donations" to the Islamic State, which does not need such services:
Every terrorist organization / drug cartel worth its salt undersstands the value of a TBTJ partner. #believeinHSBC
but one person who will be truly displeased by a marginal seller who gives as much as a 75% discount will be none other than Vladimir Putin, for whom as is widely known, the stock market may go up and go down, but one thing matters critically: to keep the price of Brent as high as possible.
As others have pointed out, ISIS has certainly (at least in the mind of the public) come out of nowhere. One has to ask, how is this possible? If intelligence circles, were really doing what they claimed, surely they would have seen this through the early stages. And if so, they would have tried to stop this earlier. But as we've seen, ISIS has steam rolled everyone. So my question is, is it possible that this is a subversive attack on Putin?
And that is what makes if feel so personal. We are less than dirt to them, just items to be discarded or used, don't matter which.
Yes, imagine some terrorists making money from taxes and extortion!
Government = organized crime.
you forgot booze, drugs, prostitution and gambling...have I forgot any?
Freeze and Seize their Accounts! Duh.
What, the Fed + BIS + NSA can track ANY bank account and transaction on the planet, can seize or freeze accounts abroad, but can't do the same to ISIS? Are you fucking kidding me!?
Can but why? They are gonna make a fortune letting this play out.
Hillary Clinton deserves credit for that.
2012 - Clinton first proposed a plan to then-CIA Director David Petraeus to partner on a gun-trafficking program to arm the Syrian resistance and “vet the rebel groups, and train fighters who would be supplied with weapons,” according to The New York Times.
June of 2012: The New York Times reports that the CIA is operating a secret arms transfer program that sounds exactly like the plan Clinton developed with Petraeus. Suddenly, there is: “…an influx of weapons and ammunition to the rebels.”
http://m.townhall.com/columnists/katiekieffer/2013/04/29/benghazigate-ob...
They only claim $2MM through good tax accounting. The free USSA roll-up munitions and equipment are carried at a zero cost basis with excellerated depreciation write-offs. ISIS gonna get the cap gains hammer if they sell that stuff for a profit. Look for them to form an airport MLP soon.
You should write them with your suggestions.
Sounds like the CIA....oh it is!
Oil sales, taxes, extortion, and smuggling. Sounds like a government to me.
$2 mil a day and free weaponry from John Mcshitstain and that other bobsey twin
The solution: have the Justice Department send in its ace investigators to find out why ISIS is not filing Suspicious Activity Reports on potential money laundering. After all, why just target Americans who deposit legally obtained cash in their bank accounts. No loss if these investigators looking for civil penalties find out what ISIS does with all those sharp wooden stakes it has.
That's exponential growth; these asshats shoud take their movement public I bet that IPO would be a killer
ticker, well ... ISIS of course
Heads above the rest, certainly.
Nuremberg trials, ok
Not buyin' it.
Someone larger is providing logistics, intel and cover for them.
The training and intel are telling.
I very much doubt it's that high.
They should go public. Goods margins & cash flow. Hot market too! Sounds like a perfect Goldman deal to me!
Run some drugs and you'd have the CIA's model
You are thinking Afghanistan. This is oil country.
Once they are exchange listed they are respectable right? It worked for Goldman Sachs.
Maybe ISIS will make it to the fortune 500 list.
When they do they will be as respectable as Qatar and as feared as Israel.
That's the only yardstick the West and Hollywood really understand.
"We print the legend not the reality, let alone the truth !"
I Thought Taxes and Extortion were the same thing
Orwell, is that you?
jb
ISIS is making $2 million each day while the US is spending $2 billion a day more than it takes in. Which one will 'fall' first?
Sounds like they are doing better than Amazon, Twitter and a few other stocks.
Add child trafficking and organ harvesting and this could be Israel.
When do they get their BIS Central Bank branch? It sure was quick for the Libyan 'freedom fighters'. Gaddafi was still there.
All of their cash deposits go through a Rothschild-owned local bank and for their trading clearing, it's GS. Keep it all in the family.
ok so who is isis selling oil to.why dont we put sanctions on them instead of russia.
Israel, Turkey and maybe France.
Because ISIS is a Mossad and CIA operation.
Because -- oil.
O thinks if he gives them their own state all will be right in the world.
News is they are trying to get both the Ebola virus, and a dirty bomb in through Mexico.
Houston, we have a problem.
And I hear they have a weaponsized AIDS virus that will be released into the atmosphere over every major city in America!
Fear sucks.
Re: through Mexico
All them tur-bine sum-brero weanin' Mexicans sneekin'-r-cross-r-borded ain't just-a Mexicans lookin to pick fruit if you know-a-where I'm-a-headin' here !
News? Don't you mean fevered hallucinations?
Simple..blow up the oil fields they control....bye bye revenue
That's what Saddam did in Kuwait, knowing exactly what we were after. Well, no big deal! We retreated, waited till they rebuilt everything and moved in again.
And if they start pricing their oil in anything but USD, we'll be back.
Or if they keep selling oil so low and mass killing Christians. The Russians have the perfect excuse to be invited in by Syria and go to work.
No no we don't blow up producing oil wells. We'll have Exxon in there next week showing them how to run the production units, and then nailing down a sweeeeet 5 year deal. That $60/bbl thing is the shit.
I saw a pic with one of the hooded guys wearin' Gucci shoes & Rolex so they must be doin' alright!
all deposited and fdic insured at GoldmanSach.
Oil Sales ( excise ) , Extortion ( regulatory charges ), Taxes And Smuggling ( customs )
Yep. ISIS is a Government alright !
Have France, Indonesia or Angola recognized them yet?
"may be raising more than $2 million dollars a day in revenue from oil sales, extortion, taxes and smuggling"
Oh they be rec'nized alright. Thats a very familiar M.O. Trying to remember what major world power that reminds me of....? Hmmmm.....I know it will come to me soon. I just know it.
but if I take $600 out of the bank, I have to agree to an anal probe.
A tad expensive. Pay no more than $200 & u shud get a full hour!
That's cause you're in their cage.
The street has ISIS as a buy & potential merger candidate with HAMAS with combined upside total return potential of +25% + dividends.
Let's IPO 'em!
These Folks have upside potential to rival Amazon!
200mm shares @ $35.00 should be about right.
Surprised that hasn't happened yet.
Give it a while.
ISMAS has a nice ring to it.
Rhymes with Tis the Season to be Jolly.
At two million a day they certainly give more bang for their buck than what the US taxpayer gets from its military. They are living proof that the US war machine is about profit and not results.
Where IS is keeping its money? Try Qatar, their sugar daddy.
Bags of US silver dimes in a hole in their back yard, like all end of the world prepers.. at least they know the date.
Oil is worthless without a buyer. The real terrorists are the buyers. Don't hear too much about that end of the deal. And what can you do with all that wealth if nobody sells you weapons? Who are the weapons sellers? The real terrorists are the arms dealers. They aren't making their own artillery and bullets. Self-sufficient my ass. Without complicity by some major players these guys would be nothing but a bunch of disgruntled yahoos on Facebook.
are you suggesting Goldman Sachs is somehow involved?
or maybe the see-i-aye?
My thoughts exactly! How come the article totally ignores who the buyers are?! It's not like barrels of oil is a virtual good, 50 or 60 thousands of barrels a day is a pretty big logistical challenge in a war torn country. You'd think they could easily follow the crude and figure out who is buying it.
My hunch is that Saudi Arabia is doing the purchases and supplying ISIS with fuel and other supplies to keep the war going and trying to topple Assad.
They might want to hedge those USD's!
they are the new hitler
do they make anything
do they have a military industrial complex.
can they refine oil can they control ships
what bank do they use
which countries are buying this stolen oil
what is the back story of the leader of isis
are isaeli field hospitals repairing these isis guys.
force military projection and takeover needs refined oils for fuel and logistics.
who is supplying those logistics.
bollox shit news for medicated morons.
We're the old one.
One criminal enterprise supported by many other criminal enterprises
who does this remind us of
the big money is being made by the kurds and israel and turkey stealing iraqs oil via pipeline and ship
Who cares, money wins nothing. Just look at America.
How soon before their lobbyists get Congress to reclassify them as "trusted allies"?
did you mean the USSA instead of ISIS ?
I like these guys already
Yeah isn't that nuts? First Putin, now ISIS. What's that about anyway? I guess we detest our government that much.
Actually, creative criminals usually appeal somehow. Maybe there is a little bit of the Mafia in all of us.
I think I would be a little more "Butch Cassidy." You know, "affable."
The CIA doesn't need anymore fanboys but thanks.
Who's the account exec assigned to ISIS by GS?
Back to the Good Old Days of the Ottoman Empire .
However , back at the Desert Ranch , the drought and overpopulation is beginning to assume the same severity as about 1800 BCE .
Then the Bronze Age Civilization collapsed .
Similarly , the stresses is tearing the Middle East apart .
See http://andreswhy.blogspot.com/2009/10/ansari-gens.html
for some small measure of the desperation .
So they've taken the U.S. business model and ran with it?
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How many of Boko-Haram have self-inflicted Ebola, or gathered blood in vials, and passed it onto ISIS, to be transported to the US, to be aerosolized into the air in a crop duster, over NY city, on a Tuesday, at 8:15am?
It's what I'd be doing if I were them.
Oops! Thinking outloud again!
•?•
V-V
Gee, I wonder if they file an income tax form at the end of the year?...
I smell major league corruption coming soon. All they need is a bank. Which banksters are licking their balls? By "their" I mean any.
All they need for a disguise is to shave and cut their hair. Hang out in Albuquerque and learn Spanish.
I can see ISIS partnering eventually with the Taliban in order to take away the CIA's opium smuggling operations and all that cold hard cash used to cause chaos secretly.Might have a new type of drug selling mafia shipping into the U.S. to help out with the plan to destroy society from within.Why let the CIA do it by themselves?
How do you spell HSBC?
$2 million per day? Pfffffffffffffft! The US government makes them look like amateurs.
Doesn't anyone see it? Al Qaeda is the new name for the Ikhwan, the combined military islamic brotherhood Wahhabi machine that Ibn Saud created in 1912. They were his secret army during and after WWI and was used to invade and take the Hajez from King Ali Hussein and it still is the secret military arm of the 3rd Saudi State today. Sure he stomped on their dicks in 1929, killed the leader and bought everyone else off and married them all into his family (he fathered 45 children). The same organization today has just changed their name to al Qaeda and they comprise the ISIS (TCG Tunisian's and Saudi's). This is what they shifted to after the American people wouldn't let Obama invade Syria after Saudi Chief of Intel, Prince Bandar pulled a false flag gas attack last September 2013 to get America to bomb Syria into the stone age. Didn't work, so they're going in another direction. I mean, who needs the U.S. if they won't bomb anyone that stands in the way of the 3rd Saudi State (1902-current). What? You didn't know about the 3rd SS? I'll bet you didn't know about the 1st SS (1744-1818), or the 2nd SS (1818-1890) Take a look at a BBC map of what ISIS controls, not the one circulating around the U.S., because that one is bullshit. The real map shows major contiguity with the northern border of Saudi Arabia, where the Kingdom has 35,000 troops to secure the border AND THAT'S BULLSHIT TOO! Because they're there to keep them supplied, give them direction, buy commodities and launder their funds. Why? A natural gas pipeline from Qatar to Turkey (where have you been?), the same reason they fought Syria. It didn't work that way so they're doing it another way and the US is in on it. 92 sorties in 3 weeks? Really? WoW, we're really kicking some rag ass, aren't we NOT? But the neocons of Obama and Bush are making the US irrelevant and before too long the Saudi's are going to shift to their new pals, the Chinese who now buy most of their oil. Sayonara Dollar.... chumps... www.scienceofliberty.us But then of course you wouldn't know about this because Tyler refuses to print my research.
this might sound like a stupid question, but about following the barrels of oil? seems like it is pretty physical enough to follow and simply find out who is buying this cheap crude, and sanction those countries.
Or perhaps these purchasing countries are allies and part of the plan of sustaining ISIS in taking down Assad once and for all?
So US has intel satellites, drones, etc. overhead, and they just sit up there watching $2mil a day in oil being "trucked off" without putting a crimp in their business. That alone should tell you what a farce this is.
But be afraid, very afraid. They will now have the bucks to buy a large ferry to transport their Nissan pickup trucks across the ocean to our shores.
AND THEN THEY WILL CUT OUR HEADS OFF! yikes
What a ironic and sad tangled web we weave. Things have deteriorated to the point that people in American are using every opportunity to take their eyes off what is happening in Iraq, the country has become a train wreck and is rapidly morphing into a failed State. It is often unwise to take your eyes off a problem for long because when you look back you might find that things have gone horribly wrong, this is the case in Iraq and Syria.
It is amazing so many people don't have a clue as to what is going on. Recently the group called ISIS shocked much of the world by swiftly capturing Mosul in an offensive that allowed the group to take control of major parts of northern and western Iraq. ISIS has plenty of money and is gathering more. The article below delves into ISIS and where the money is coming from.
http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2014/08/islamic-state-of-iraq-and-levant....