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Weekend Edition September 12-14, 201<br>
<b><small><small><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/09/12/how-the-west-created-the-islamic-state/">http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/09/12/how-the-west-created-the-islamic-state/</a></small></small></b><br>
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<div class="subheadlinestyle">Follow the Money; Follow the Oil</div>
<h1 class="article-title">How the West Created the Islamic State</h1>
<div class="mainauthorstyle">by NAFEEZ AHMED</div>
<div class="main-text">
<p><strong>Part 1 – OUR TERRORISTS</strong></p>
<p>“This is an organisation that has an apocalyptic, end-of-days
strategic vision which will eventually have to be defeated,” Gen
Martin Dempsey, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a
Pentagon press conference in August.</p>
<p>Military action is necessary to halt the spread of the ISIS
“cancer,” said President Obama. Yesterday he called for expanded
airstrikes across Iraq and Syria, and new measures to arm and
train Iraqi and Kurdish ground forces.</p>
<p>“The only way to defeat [IS] is to stand firm and to send a
very straightforward message,” declared Prime Minister Cameron.
“A country like ours will not be cowed by these barbaric
killers.”</p>
<p>Missing from the chorus of outrage, however, has been any
acknowledgement of the integral role of covert US and British
regional military intelligence strategy in empowering and even
directly sponsoring the very same virulent Islamist militants in
Iraq, Syria and beyond, that went on to break away from al-Qaeda
and form ‘ISIS’, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or now
simply, the Islamic State (IS).</p>
<p>Since 2003, Anglo-American power has secretly and openly
coordinated direct and indirect support for Islamist terrorist
groups linked to al-Qaeda across the Middle East and North
Africa. This ill-conceived patchwork geostrategy is a legacy of
the persistent influence of neoconservative ideology, motivated
by longstanding but often contradictory ambitions to dominate
regional oil resources, defend an expansionist Israel, and in
pursuit of these, re-draw the map of the Middle East.</p>
<p>Now despite Pentagon denials that there will be boots on the
ground – and Obama’s insistence that this would not be another
“Iraq war” – local Kurdish military and intelligence sources
confirm that US and German <a
href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/09/02/are-american-troops-already-fighting-on-the-front-lines-in-iraq.html"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.thedailybeast.com']);">special
operations forces</a> are already “on the ground here. They
are helping to support us in the attack.” US airstrikes on ISIS
positions and arms supplies to the Kurds have also been
accompanied by British RAF reconnaissance flights over the
region and <a
href="http://news.yahoo.com/britain-arming-iraqi-kurds-machine-guns-fight-140021897.html"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://news.yahoo.com']);">UK
weapons shipments</a> to Kurdish peshmerga forces.</p>
<p><b>Divide and Rule in Iraq</b></p>
<p>“It’s not that we don’t want the Salafis to throw bombs,” said
one <a
href="http://newint.org/features/2009/10/01/blowback-extended-version/"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://newint.org']);">US
government defense consultant</a> in 2007. “It’s who they
throw them at – Hezbollah, Moqtada al-Sadr, Iran, and at the
Syrians, if they continue to work with Hezbollah and Iran.”</p>
<p>Early during the 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq, the US
covertly supplied arms to al-Qaeda affiliated insurgents even
while ostensibly supporting an emerging Shi’a-dominated
administration.</p>
<p>Pakistani defense sources interviewed by <a
href="http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GB15Ak02.html"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.atimes.com']);">Asia
Times</a> in February 2005 confirmed that insurgents described
as “former Ba’ath party” loyalists – who were being <a
href="http://rawstory.com/news/2005/CAUGHT_RED__0923.html"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://rawstory.com']);">recruited
and trained</a> by “al-Qaeda in Iraq” under the leadership of
the late Abu Musab Zarqawi – were being supplied
Pakistan-manufactured weapons by the US. The arms shipments
included rifles, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, ammunition,
rockets and other light weaponry. These arms “could not be
destined for the Iraqi security forces because US arms would be
given to them”, a source told Syed Saleem Shahzad – the Times’
Pakistan bureau chief who, “known for his <a
href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/09/19/the-journalist-and-the-spies"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.newyorker.com']);">exposes
of the Pakistani military</a>” according to the New Yorker,
was murdered in 2011. Rather, the US is playing a double-game to
“head off” the threat of a “Shi’ite clergy-driven religious
movement,” said the Pakistani defense source.</p>
<p>This was not the only way US strategy aided the rise of
Zarqawi, a bin Laden mentee and brainchild of the extremist
ideology that would later spawn ‘ISIS.’</p>
<p>According to a little-known November report for the <a
href="http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/2005/0511_jsou-report-05-5.pdf"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','download','http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/2005/0511_jsou-report-05-5.pdf']);">US
Joint Special Operations University</a> (JSOU) and Strategic
Studies Department, <i>Dividing Our Enemies</i>, post-invasion
Iraq was “an interesting case study of fanning discontent among
enemies, leading to ‘red-against-red’ [enemy-against-enemy]
firefights.”</p>
<p>While counterinsurgency on the one hand requires US forces to
“ameliorate harsh or deprived living conditions of the
indigenous populations” to publicly win local hearts and minds,
“the reverse side of this coin is one less discussed. It
involves no effort to win over those caught in the crossfire of
insurgent and counterinsurgent warfare, whether by bullet or
broadcast. On the contrary, this underside of the
counterinsurgency coin is calculated to exploit or create
divisions among adversaries for the purpose of fomenting
enemy-on-enemy deadly encounters.”</p>
<p>In other words, US forces will pursue public legitimacy through
conventional social welfare while simultaneously delegitimising
local enemies by escalating intra-insurgent violence, knowing
full-well that doing so will in turn escalate the number of
innocent civilians “caught in the crossfire.” The idea is that
violence covertly calibrated by <a
href="http://themester.indiana.edu/themester2011/events/ahmed.pdf"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','download','http://themester.indiana.edu/themester2011/events/ahmed.pdf']);">US
special operations</a> will not only weaken enemies through
in-fighting but turn the population against them.</p>
<p>In this case, the ‘enemy’ consisted of jihadists, Ba’athists,
and peaceful Sufis, who were in a majority but, like the
militants, also opposed the US military presence and therefore
needed to be influenced. The JSOU report referred to events in
late 2004 in Fallujah where “US psychological warfare (PSYOP)
specialists” undertook to “set insurgents battling insurgents.”
This involved actually promoting Zarqawi’s ideology, ironically,
to defeat it: “The PSYOP warriors crafted programs to exploit
Zarqawi’s murderous activities – and to disseminate them through
meetings, radio and television broadcasts, handouts, newspaper
stories, political cartoons, and posters – thereby diminishing
his folk-hero image,” and encouraging the different factions to
pick each other off. “By tapping into the Fallujans’ revulsion
and antagonism to the Zarqawi jihadis the Joint PSYOP Task Force
did its ‘best to foster a rift between Sunni groups.’”</p>
<p>Yet as noted by Dahr Jamail, one of the few unembedded
investigative reporters in Iraq after the war, the proliferation
of propaganda linking the acceleration of suicide bombings to
the persona of Zarqawi was not matched by meaningful evidence.
His own search to substantiate the myriad claims attributing the
insurgency to Zarqawi beyond anonymous US intelligence sources
encountered only an <a
href="http://thefallujahproject.org/home/node/69"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://thefallujahproject.org']);">“eerie
blankness”</a>.</p>
<p>The US military operation in Fallujah, largely justified on the
claim that Zarqawi’s militant forces had occupied the city, used
white phosphorous, cluster bombs, and indiscriminate air strikes
to pulverise 36,000 of Fallujah’s 50,000 homes, killing nearly a
thousand civilians, terrorising 300,000 inhabitants to flee, and
culminating in a disproportionate increase in birth defects,
cancer and infant mortality due to the devastating environmental
consequences of the war.</p>
<p>To this day, Fallujah has suffered from being largely cut-off
from wider Iraq, its infrastructure largely unworkable with
water and sewage systems still in disrepair, and its citizens
subject to sectarian discrimination and persecution by Iraqi
government backed Shi’a militia and police. “Thousands of
bereaved and homeless Falluja families have a new reason to hate
the US and its allies,” observed <a
href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/apr/27/iraq.iraq5"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.theguardian.com']);">The
Guardian</a> in 2005. Thus, did the US occupation <a
href="http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/08/isis-a-short-history/376030/"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.theatlantic.com']);">plant
the seeds</a> from which Zarqawi’s legacy would coalesce into
the Frankenstein monster that calls itself “the Islamic State.”</p>
<p><b>Bankrolling al-Qaeda in Syria</b></p>
<p>According to former French foreign minister <a
href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeyRwFHR8WY"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.youtube.com']);">Roland
Dumas</a>, Britain had planned covert action in Syria as early
as 2009: “I was in England two years before the violence in
Syria on other business,” he told French television: “I met with
top British officials, who confessed to me that they were
preparing something in Syria. This was in Britain not in
America. Britain was preparing gunmen to invade Syria.”</p>
<p>Leaked emails from the <a
href="http://blogs.channel4.com/alex-thomsons-view/syria-spooks-wikileaks-military/5502"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://blogs.channel4.com']);">private
intelligence firm Stratfor</a>, including notes from <a
href="https://wikileaks.org/gifiles/docs/1671459_insight-military-intervention-in-syria-post-withdrawal.html"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://wikileaks.org']);">a
meeting with Pentagon officials</a>, confirmed that as of
2011, US and UK special forces training of Syrian opposition
forces was well underway. The goal was to elicit the “collapse”
of Assad’s regime “from within.”</p>
<p>Since then, the role of the <a
href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/06/14/america-s-allies-are-funding-isis.html"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.thedailybeast.com']);">Gulf
states</a> – namely Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, the United
Arab Emirates, and Jordan (as well as NATO member Turkey) – in
officially and unofficially <a
href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/09/12/how-the-west-created-the-islamic-state/financing">financing</a>
and coordinating the <a
href="http://www.dw.de/who-finances-isis/a-17720149">most
virulent elements</a> amongst Syria’s rebels under the
tutelage of US military intelligence is no secret. Yet the
conventional wisdom is that the funneling of support to Islamist
extremists in the rebel movement affiliated to al-Qaeda has been
a colossal and regrettable error.</p>
<p>The reality is very different. The empowerment of the Islamist
factions within the ‘Free Syrian Army’ (FSA) was a foregone
conclusion of the strategy.</p>
<p>In its drive to depose Col. Qaddafi in Libya, NATO had
previously allied itself with rebels affiliated to the al-Qaeda
faction, the Islamic Fighting Group. The resulting Libyan regime
backed by the US was in turn <a
href="http://www.businessinsider.com/us-syria-heavy-weapons-jihadists-2012-10"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.businessinsider.com']);">liaising
with FSA leaders</a> in Istanbul to provide money and heavy
weapons for the anti-Assad insurgency. The State Department even
hired an al-Qaeda affiliated Libyan militia group to provide <a
href="http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/benghazi-consulate-protected-alqaida/2013/05/02/id/502565/"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.newsmax.com']);">security</a>
for the US embassy in Benghazi – although they had links with
the very people that attacked the embassy.</p>
<p>Last year, CNN confirmed that CIA officials operating secretly
out of the Benghazi embassy were being forced to take extra <a
href="http://thelead.blogs.cnn.com/2013/08/01/exclusive-dozens-of-cia-operatives-on-the-ground-during-benghazi-attack/?hpt=hp_t4"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://thelead.blogs.cnn.com']);">polygraph
tests</a> to keep under wraps what US Congressman suspect was
a covert operation “to move surface-to-air missiles out of
Libya, through Turkey, and into the hands of Syrian rebels.”</p>
<p>With their <a
href="http://world.time.com/2012/09/18/syrias-secular-and-islamist-rebels-who-are-the-saudis-and-the-qataris-arming/"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://world.time.com']);">command
and control centre</a> based in Istanbul, Turkey, military
supplies from Saudi Arabia and Qatar in particular were
transported by Turkish intelligence to the border for rebel
acquisition. <a
href="http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Report-Syrian-rebel-forces-trained-by-West-are-moving-towards-Damascus-324033"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.jpost.com']);">CIA
operatives along with Israeli and Jordanian commandos</a> were
also training FSA rebels on the Jordanian-Syrian border with
anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons. In addition, other <a
href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/mar/08/west-training-syrian-rebels-jordan"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.theguardian.com']);">reports</a>
show that British and French military were also involved in
these secret training programmes. It appears that the same FSA
rebels receiving this elite training went straight into ISIS –
last month one ISIS commander, <a
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/08/18/the-terrorists-fighting-us-now-we-just-finished-training-them/"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.washingtonpost.com']);">Abu
Yusaf</a>, said, “Many of the FSA people who the west has
trained are actually joining us.”</p>
<p><a
href="http://www.thenational.ae/world/middle-east/syrian-rebels-get-arms-and-advice-through-secret-command-centre-in-amman#full"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.thenational.ae']);">The
National</a> thus confirmed the existence of another command
and control centre in Amman, Jordan, “staffed by western and
Arab military officials,” which “channels vehicles, sniper
rifles, mortars, heavy machine guns, small arms and ammunition
to Free Syrian Army units.” Rebel and opposition sources
described the weapons bridge as “a well-run operation staffed by
high-ranking military officials from 14 countries, including the
US, European nations and Arabian Gulf states, the latter
providing the bulk of materiel and financial support to rebel
factions.”</p>
<p>The FSA sources interviewed by The National went to pains to
deny that any al-Qaeda affiliated factions were involved in the
control centre, or would receive any weapons support. But this
is difficult to believe given that “Saudi and Qatari-supplied
weapons” were being funneled through to the rebels via Amman, to
their favoured factions.</p>
<p>Classified <a
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/15/world/middleeast/jihadists-receiving-most-arms-sent-to-syrian-rebels.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.nytimes.com']);">assessments</a>
of the military assistance supplied by US allies Saudi Arabia
and Qatar obtained by the New York Times showed that “most of
the arms shipped at the behest of Saudi Arabia and Qatar to
supply Syrian rebel groups… are going to hardline Islamic
jihadists, and not the more secular opposition groups that the
West wants to bolster.”</p>
<p>Lest there be any doubt as to the extent to which all this
covert military assistance coordinated by the US has gone to
support al-Qaeda affiliated factions in the FSA, it is worth
noting that earlier this year, the Israeli military intelligence
website <a
href="http://www.debka.com/article/23808/Syrian-rebels-allowed-to-attack-Latakia-from-Turkish-soil-under-Turkish-air-cover-Iran-raises-Cain-in-Ankara"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.debka.com']);">Debkafile</a>
– run by two veteran correspondents who covered the Middle East
for 23 years for The Economist – reported that: “Turkey is
giving Syrian rebel forces, including the al-Qaeda-affiliated
Nusra Front, passage through its territory to attack the
northwestern Syrian coastal area around Latakia.”</p>
<p>In August, <a
href="http://www.debka.com/article/24223/Israeli-forces-caught-up-in-Al-Qaeda%E2%80%99s-complex-toils-in-both-Golan-and-Gaza-"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.debka.com']);">Debkafile</a>
reported that “The US, Jordan and Israel are quietly backing the
mixed bag of some 30 Syrian rebel factions”, some of which had
just “seized control of the Syrian side of the Quneitra
crossing, the only transit point between Israeli and Syrian
Golan.” However, Debkafile noted, “al-Qaeda elements have
permeated all those factions.” Israel has provided limited
support to these rebels in the form of “medical care,” as well
as “arms, intelligence and food…</p>
<p>“Israel acted as a member, along with the US and Jordan, of a
support system for rebel groups fighting in southern Syria.
Their efforts are coordinated through a war-room which the
Pentagon established last year near Amman. The US, Jordanian and
Israeli officers manning the facility determine in consultation
which rebel factions are provided with reinforcements from the
special training camps run for Syrian rebels in Jordan, and
which will receive arms. All three governments understand
perfectly that, notwithstanding all their precautions, some of
their military assistance is bound to percolate to al-Qaeda’s
Syrian arm, Jabhat Al-Nusra, which is fighting in rebel ranks.
Neither Washington or Jerusalem or Amman would be comfortable in
admitting they are arming al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front in southern
Syria.”</p>
<p>This support also went to ISIS. Although the latter was
originally founded in Iraq in October 2006, by 2013 the group
had significantly expanded its operations in Syria working
alongside al-Qaeda’s al-Nusra until February 2014, when ISIS was
formally denounced by al-Qaeda. Even so, experts on the region’s
Islamist groups point out that the <a
href="http://english.alarabiya.net/en/views/news/middle-east/2014/09/06/We-re-forgetting-something-ghastly-about-al-Nusra-Front.html"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://english.alarabiya.net']);">alleged
rift</a> between al-Nusra and ISIS, while real, is not as
fraught as one might hope, constituting a mere difference in
tactics rather than fundamental ideology.</p>
<p>Officially, the US government’s financial support for the FSA
goes through the Washington DC entity, the Syrian Support Group
(SSG), <a
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/30/world/middleeast/syrian-group-in-united-states-seeks-to-arm-rebels-against-assad.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&pagewanted=all&"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.nytimes.com']);">Syrian
Support Group (SSG)</a> which was incorporated in April 2012.
The SSG is licensed via the US Treasury Department to “export,
re-export, sell, or supply to the Free Syrian Army (‘FSA’)
financial, communications, logistical, and other services
otherwise prohibited by Executive Order 13582 in order to
support the FSA.”</p>
<p>In mid-2013, the Obama administration intensified its support
to the rebels with a new <a
href="http://m.europe.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887324188604578543820387158806?mobile=y"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://m.europe.wsj.com']);">classified
executive order</a> reversing its previous policy limiting US
direct support to only nonlethal equipment. As before, the order
would aim to supply weapons strictly to “moderate” forces in the
FSA.</p>
<p>Except the government’s vetting procedures to block Islamist
extremists from receiving US weapons have never worked.</p>
<p>A year later, <a
href="http://m.motherjones.com/politics/2013/09/syrian-rebel-aid-handwritten-receipts"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://m.motherjones.com']);">Mother
Jones</a> found that the US government has “little oversight
over whether US supplies are falling prey to corruption – or
into the hands of extremists,” and relies “on too much good
faith.” The US government keeps track of rebels receiving
assistance purely through “handwritten receipts provided by
rebel commanders in the field,” and the judgement of its allies.
Countries supporting the rebels – the very same which have
empowered al-Qaeda affiliated Islamists – “are doing audits of
the delivery of lethal and nonlethal supplies.”</p>
<p>Thus, with the Gulf states still calling the shots on the
ground, it is no surprise that by September last year, eleven
prominent rebel groups distanced themselves from the ‘moderate’
opposition leadership and <a
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/26/world/middleeast/syria-crisis.html?ref=world&_r=1&"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.nytimes.com']);">allied
themselves</a> with al-Qaeda.</p>
<p>By the SSG’s own conservative estimate, as much as 15% of rebel
fighters are Islamists affiliated to al-Qaeda, either through
the Jabhut al-Nusra faction, or its breakaway group ISIS. But
privately, <a
href="http://www.nbcnews.com/news/other/extremist-element-among-syrian-rebels-growing-worry-f8C11115141"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.nbcnews.com']);">Pentagon
officials</a> estimate that “more than 50%” of the FSA is
comprised of Islamist extremists, and according to rebel sources
neither FSA chief Gen Salim Idris nor his senior aides engage in
much vetting, decisions about which are made typically by local
commanders.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Part 2 – THE LONG WAR</strong></p>
<p><b>Follow the Money</b></p>
<p>Media reports following ISIS’ conquest of much of northern and
central Iraq this summer have painted the group as the world’s
most super-efficient, self-financed, terrorist organisation that
has been able to consolidate itself exclusively through
extensive looting of Iraq’s banks and funds from black market
oil sales. Much of this narrative, however, has derived from
dubious sources, and overlooked disturbing details.</p>
<p>One senior anonymous intelligence source told Guardian
correspondent <a
href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/15/iraq-isis-arrest-jihadists-wealth-power"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.theguardian.com']);">Martin
Chulov</a>, for instance, that over 160 computer flash sticks
obtained from an ISIS hideout revealed information on ISIS’
finances that was completely new to the intelligence community.</p>
<p>“Before Mosul, their total cash and assets were $875m [£515m],”
said the official on the funds obtained largely via “massive
cashflows from the oilfields of eastern Syria, which it had
commandeered in late 2012.” Afterwards, “with the money they
robbed from banks and the value of the military supplies they
looted, they could add another $1.5bn to that.” The thrust of
the narrative coming from intelligence sources was simple: “They
had done this all themselves. There was no state actor at all
behind them, which we had long known. They don’t need one.”</p>
<p>“ISIS’ half-a-billion-dollar bank heist makes it world’s
richest terror group,” claimed the Telegraph, adding that the
figure did not include additional stolen gold bullion, and
millions more grabbed from banks “across the region.”</p>
<p>This story of ISIS’ stupendous bank looting spree across Iraq
made global headlines but turned out to be <a
href="http://www.businessinsider.com/isis-never-stole-430-million-from-banks-2014-7"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.businessinsider.com']);">disinformation</a>.
Senior Iraqi officials and bankers confirmed that banks in Iraq,
including Mosul where ISIS supposedly stole $430 million, had
faced no assault, remain open, and are guarded by their own
private security forces.</p>
<p>How did the story come about? One of its prime sources was
Iraqi parliamentarian <a
href="http://www.salon.com/2014/07/21/long_slide_into_the_abyss_cheneys_old_pal_ahmad_chalabi_is_back/"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.salon.com']);">Ahmed
Chalabi</a> – the same man who under the wing of his ‘Iraqi
National Congress’ peddled false intelligence about Saddam’s <a
href="http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/iraq-turmoil/ahmed-chalabi-discredited-wmd-figure-floated-iraq-pm-n148436"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.nbcnews.com']);">weapons
of mass destruction</a> and ties to al-Qaeda.</p>
<p>In June, Chalabi met with the US ambassador to Iraq, Robert
Beecroft, and Brett McGurk, the State Department’s deputy
assistant secretary of state for Iraq and Iran. According to
sources cited by <a
href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/aramroston/ahmad-chalabi-conned-america-into-war-now-aims-to-lead-i#29jksvi"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.buzzfeed.com']);">Buzzfeed</a>
in June, Beecroft “has been meeting Chalabi for months and has
dined at his mansion in Baghdad.”</p>
<p><b>Follow the Oil</b></p>
<p>But while ISIS has clearly obtained funding from donors in the
Gulf states, many of its fighters having broken away from the
more traditional al-Qaeda affiliated groups like Jabhut
al-Nusra, it has also successfully leveraged its control over
Syrian and Iraqi oil fields.</p>
<p>In January, the <a
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/29/world/middleeast/rebels-in-syria-claim-control-of-resources.html"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.nytimes.com']);">New
York Times</a> reported that “Islamist rebels and extremist
groups have seized control of most of Syria’s oil and gas
resources”, bolstering “the fortunes of the Islamic State of
Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, and the Nusra Front, both of which are
offshoots of al-Qaeda.” Al-Qaeda affiliated rebels had “seized
control of the oil and gas fields scattered across the country’s
north and east,” while more moderate “Western-backed rebel
groups do not appear to be involved in the oil trade, in large
part because they have not taken over any oil fields.”</p>
<p>Yet the west had directly aided these Islamist groups in their
efforts to operationalise Syria’s oil fields. In April 2013, for
instance, the Times noted that al-Qaeda rebels had taken over
key regions of Syria: “Nusra’s hand is felt most strongly in
Aleppo”, where the al-Qaeda affiliate had established in
coordination with other rebel groups <a
href="http://www.aymennjawad.org/13420/jabhat-al-nusra-aleppo"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.aymennjawad.org']);">including
ISIS</a> “a Shariah Commission” running “a police force and
an Islamic court that hands down sentences that have included
lashings.” Al-Qaeda fighters also “control the power plant and
distribute flour to keep the city’s bakeries running.”
Additionally, they “have seized government oil fields” in
provinces of Deir al-Zour and Hasaka, and now make a “profit
from the crude they produce.”</p>
<p>Lost in the fog of media hype was the disconcerting fact that
these al-Qaeda rebel bread and oil operations in Aleppo, Deir
al-Zour and Hasaka were directly and indirectly supported by the
US and the European Union (EU). One account by the <a
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/us-feeds-syrians-but-secretly/2013/04/14/bfbc0ba6-a3b3-11e2-bd52-614156372695_story.html"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.washingtonpost.com']);">Washington
Post</a> for instance refers to a stealth mission in Aleppo
“to deliver food and other aid to needy Syrians – all of it paid
for by the US government,” including the supply of flour. “The
bakery is fully supplied with flour paid for by the United
States,” the Post continues, noting that local consumers,
however, “credited Jabhat al-Nusra – a rebel group the United
States has designated a terrorist organisation because of its
ties to al-Qaeda – with providing flour to the region, though he
admitted he wasn’t sure where it comes from.”</p>
<p>And in the same month that al-Qaeda’s control of Syria’s main
oil regions in Deir al-Zour and Hasaka was confirmed, the <a
href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-22254996"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.bbc.co.uk']);">EU
voted to ease an oil embargo</a> on Syria to allow oil to be
sold on international markets from these very al-Qaeda
controlled oil fields. European companies would be permitted to
buy crude oil and petroleum products from these areas, although
transactions would be approved by the Syrian National Coalition.
Due to damaged infrastructure, oil would be trucked by road to
Turkey where the nearest refineries are located.</p>
<p>“The logical conclusion from this craziness is that Europe will
be funding al-Qaeda,” said <a
href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/may/19/eu-syria-oil-jihadist-al-qaida"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.theguardian.com']);">Joshua
Landis</a> , a Syria expert at the University of Oklahoma.</p>
<p>Just two months later, a former senior staffer at the Syria
Support Group in DC, David Falt, leaked internal SSG <a
href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/10215068/Wests-main-aid-group-for-Syrian-rebels-collapses-into-disarray.html"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.telegraph.co.uk']);">emails</a>
confirming that the group was “obsessed” with brokering
“jackpot” oil deals on behalf of the FSA for Syria’s rebel-run
oil regions. “The idea they could raise hundreds of millions
from the sale of the oil came to dominate the work of the SSG to
the point no real attention was paid to the nature of the
conflict,” said Falt, referring in particular to SSG’s director
Brian Neill Sayers, who before his SSG role worked with NATO’s
Operations Division. Their aim was to raise money for the rebels
by selling the rights to Syrian oil.</p>
<p><b>Tacit Complicity in IS Oil Smuggling</b></p>
<p>Even as al-Qaeda fighters increasingly decide to join up with
IS, the ad hoc black market oil production and export
infrastructure established by the Islamist groups in Syria has
continued to function with, it seems, the tacit support of
regional and western powers.</p>
<p>According to Ali <a
href="http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/ar/business/2014/06/turkey-syria-isis-selling-smuggled-oil.html"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.al-monitor.com']);">Ediboglu</a>,
a Turkish MP for the border province of Hatay, IS is selling the
bulk of its oil from regions in Syria and Mosul in Iraq through
Turkey, with the tacit consent of Turkish authorities: “They
have laid pipes from villages near the Turkish border at Hatay.
Similar pipes exist also at [the Turkish border regions of]
Kilis, Urfa and Gaziantep. They transfer the oil to Turkey and
parlay it into cash. They take the oil from the refineries
at zero cost. Using primitive means, they refine the oil in
areas close to the Turkish border and then sell it via Turkey.
This is worth $800 million.” He also noted that the extent of
this and related operations indicates official Turkish
complicity. “Fighters from Europe, Russia, Asian countries and
Chechnya are going in large numbers both to Syria and Iraq,
crossing from Turkish territory. There is information that at
least 1,000 Turkish nationals are helping those foreign fighters
sneak into Syria and Iraq to join ISIS. The National
Intelligence Organization (MIT) is allegedly involved. None of
this can be happening without MIT’s knowledge.”</p>
<p>Similarly, there is evidence that authorities in the Kurdish
region of Iraq are also turning a blind eye to IS oil smuggling.
In July, <a
href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/middle-east/12505-official-isis-is-selling-iraqi-oil"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.middleeastmonitor.com']);">Iraqi
officials</a> said that IS had begun selling oil extracted
from in the northern province of Salahuddin. One official
pointed out that “the Kurdish peshmerga forces stopped the sale
of oil at first, but later allowed tankers to transfer and sell
oil.”</p>
<p>State of Law coalition MP Alia Nasseef also accused the
Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) of secretly trading oil with
IS: “What is happening shows the extent of the massive
conspiracy against Iraq by Kurdish politicians… The [illegal]
sale of Iraqi oil to ISIS or anyone else is something that would
not surprise us.” Although Kurdish officials have roundly
rejected these accusations, <a
href="http://www.iii.co.uk/investment/detail?code=cotn%3AGKP.L&display=discussion&threshold=0&action=detail&id=11338779"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.iii.co.uk']);">informed
sources</a> told the Arabic daily Asharq Al-Awsat that Iraqi
crude captured by ISIS was “being sold to Kurdish traders in the
border regions straddling Iraq, Iran and Syria, and was being
shipped to Pakistan where it was being sold ‘for less than half
its original price.’”</p>
<p>An <a href="http://www.aawsat.net/2014/08/article55335732"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.aawsat.net']);">official
statement</a> in August from Iraq’s Oil Ministry warned that
any oil not sanctioned by Baghdad could include crude smuggled
illegally from IS: “International purchasers [of crude oil] and
other market participants should be aware that any oil exports
made without the authorisation of the Ministry of Oil may
contain crude oil originating from fields under the control of
[ISIS].”</p>
<p>“Countries like Turkey have turned a blind eye to the practice”
of IS oil smuggling, said <a
href="http://www.albawaba.com/business/isis-oil-sales-598772"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.albawaba.com']);">Luay
al-Khateeb</a>, a fellow at the Brookings Doha Center, “and
international pressure should be mounted to close down black
markets in its southern region.” So far there has been no such
pressure. Meanwhile, IS oil smuggling continues, with observers
<a
href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/as-turkey-turned-blind-eye-isis-took-advantage/"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.cbsnews.com']);">inside
and outside Turkey</a> noting that the Turkish government is
tacitly allowing IS to flourish as it prefers the rebels to the
Assad regime.</p>
<p>According to former Iraqi oil minister Isam al-Jalabi, “Turkey
is the biggest winner from the Islamic State’s oil smuggling
trade.” Both traders and oil firms are involved, he said, with
the low prices allowing for “massive” profits for the countries
facilitating the smuggling.</p>
<p><b>Buying ISIS Oil?</b></p>
<p>Early last month, a tanker carrying over a million barrels in
crude oil from northern Iraq’s Kurdish region arrived at the
Texas Gulf of Mexico. The oil had been refined in the Iraqi
Kurdish region before being pumped through a new pipeline from
the KRG area ending up at Ceyhan, Turkey, where it was then
loaded onto the tanker for shipping to the US. Baghdad’s efforts
to stop the oil sale on the basis of its having national
jurisdiction were rebuffed by <a
href="http://www.internationalenergylawyers.com/iraq-fails-to-seize-kurdish-crude-oil-bound-for-texas/"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.internationalenergylawyers.com']);">American
courts</a>.</p>
<p>In early September, the European Union’s ambassador to Iraq,
Jana Hybášková, told the <a
href="http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/184823#.VA8Gv0u4lSU"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.israelnationalnews.com']);">EU
Foreign Affairs Committee</a> that “several EU member states
have bought oil from the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS)
terrorist organisation that has been brutally conquering large
portions of Iraq and Syria,” according to Israel National News.
She however “refused to divulge the names of the countries
despite being asked numerous times.”</p>
<p>A third end-point for the KRG’s crude this summer, once again
shipped via Turkey’s port of Ceyhan, was Israel’s southwestern
port of <a
href="http://www.newrepublic.com/article/118549/israel-and-kurdistans-alleged-oil-deal-putting-us-notice"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.newrepublic.com']);">Ashkelon</a>.
This is hardly news though. In May, <a
href="http://www.cnbc.com/id/101676275"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.cnbc.com']);">Reuters</a>
revealed that Israeli and US oil refineries had been regularly
purchasing and importing KRG’s disputed oil.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, as this triangle of covert oil shipments in which
ISIS crude appears to be hopelessly entangled becomes more
established, Turkey has increasingly demanded that the US pursue
formal measures to <a
href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/832866de-22fc-11e4-a424-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3CpHtocCw"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.ft.com']);">lift
obstacles</a> to Kurdish oil sales to global markets. The KRG
plans to export as much as 1 million barrels of oil a day by
next year through its <a
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/08/12/how-far-will-obamas-support-for-the-iraqi-kurds-go/"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.washingtonpost.com']);">pipeline</a>
to Turkey.</p>
<p>Among the many oil and gas firms active in the KRG capital,
Erbil, are ExxonMobil and Chevron. They are drilling in the
region for oil under KRG contracts, though operations have been
halted due to the crisis. No wonder Steve Coll writes in the <a
href="http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/oil-erbil"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.newyorker.com']);">New
Yorker</a> that Obama’s air strikes and arms supplies to the
Kurds – notably not to Baghdad – effectively amount to “the
defense of an undeclared Kurdish oil state whose sources of
geopolitical appeal – as a long-term, non-Russian supplier of
oil and gas to Europe, for example – are best not spoken of in
polite or naïve company.” The Kurds are now busy working to
“quadruple” their <a
href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-22/kurds-said-to-plan-quadrupled-oil-exports-on-pump-breakthrough.html"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.bloomberg.com']);">export
capacity</a>, while US policy has increasingly shifted toward
<a
href="http://www.aa.com.tr/en/news/380371--us-policy-favours-selling-of-kurdish-oil"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.aa.com.tr']);">permitting
Kurdish exports</a> – a development that would have major
ramifications for Iraq’s national territorial integrity.</p>
<p>To be sure, as the offensive against IS ramps up, the Kurds are
now selectively cracking down on IS smuggling efforts – but the
measures are too little, too late.</p>
<p><b>A New Map</b></p>
<p>The Third Iraq War has begun. With it, longstanding neocon
dreams to partition Iraq into three along ethnic and religious
lines have been resurrected.</p>
<p>White House officials now estimate that the fight against the
region’s ‘Islamic State’ will last <a
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/08/world/middleeast/destroying-isis-may-take-3-years-white-house-says.html?_r=0"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.nytimes.com']);">years</a>,
and may outlive the Obama administration. But this ‘long war’
vision goes back to nebulous ideas formally presented by late
RAND Corp analyst Laurent Muraweic before the Pentagon’s <a
href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/press_box/2002/08/the_powerpoint_that_rocked_the_pentagon.html"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.slate.com']);">Defense
Policy Board</a> at the invitation of then chairman Richard
Perle. That presentation described Iraq as a “tactical pivot” by
which to transform the wider Middle East.</p>
<p>Brian Whitaker, <a
href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/sep/03/worlddispatch.iraq"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.theguardian.com']);">former
Guardian Middle East editor</a>, rightly noted that the
Perle-RAND strategy drew inspiration from a 1996 paper published
by the Israeli Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political
Studies, co-authored by Perle and other neocons who held top
positions in the post-9/11 Bush administration.</p>
<p>The policy paper advocated a strategy that bears startling
resemblance to the chaos unfolding in the wake of the expansion
of the ‘Islamic State’ – Israel would “shape its strategic
environment” by first securing the removal of Saddam Hussein.
“Jordan and Turkey would form an axis along with Israel to
weaken and ‘roll back’ Syria.” This axis would attempt to weaken
the influence of Lebanon, Syria and Iran by “weaning” off their
Shi’ite populations. To succeed, Israel would need to engender
US support, which would be obtained by Benjamin Netanyahu
formulating the strategy “in language familiar to the Americans
by tapping into themes of American administrations during the
cold war.”</p>
<p>The 2002 Perle-RAND plan was active in the Bush
administration’s strategic thinking on Iraq shortly before the
2003 war. According to US private intelligence firm <a
href="http://www.profutures.com/article.php/91/"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.profutures.com']);">Stratfor</a>,
in late 2002, then vice-president Dick Cheney and deputy defense
secretary Paul Wolfowitz had co-authored a scheme under which
central Sunni-majority Iraq would join with Jordan; the northern
Kurdish regions would become an autonomous state; all becoming
separate from the southern Shi’ite region.</p>
<p>The strategic advantages of an Iraq partition, Stratfor argued,
focused on US control of oil:</p>
<p>“After eliminating Iraq as a sovereign state, there would be no
fear that one day an anti-American government would come to
power in Baghdad, as the capital would be in Amman [Jordan].
Current and potential US geopolitical foes Iran, Saudi Arabia
and Syria would be isolated from each other, with big chunks of
land between them under control of the pro-US forces.</p>
<p>“Equally important, Washington would be able to justify its
long-term and heavy military presence in the region as necessary
for the defense of a young new state asking for US protection –
and to secure the stability of oil markets and supplies. That in
turn would help the United States gain direct control of Iraqi
oil and replace Saudi oil in case of conflict with Riyadh.”</p>
<p>The expansion of the ‘Islamic State’ has provided a pretext for
the fundamental contours of this scenario to unfold, with the US
and British looking to re-establish a long-term military
presence in Iraq.</p>
<p>In 2006, Cheney’s successor, Joe Biden, also indicated his
support for the <a
href="http://www.politico.com/story/2014/06/joe-biden-iraq-107858.html"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.politico.com']);">‘soft
partition’</a> of Iraq along ethno-religious lines – a
position which the co-author of the Biden-Iraq plan, Leslie Gelb
of the Council on Foreign Relations, now argues is “the only
solution” to the current crisis.</p>
<p>In 2008, the strategy re-surfaced – once again via <a
href="http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/monographs/2008/RAND_MG738.pdf"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','download','http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/monographs/2008/RAND_MG738.pdf']);">RAND
Corp</a> – through a report funded by the US Army Training and
Doctrine Command on how to prosecute the ‘long war.’ Among its
strategies, one scenario advocated by the report was ‘Divide and
Rule’ which would involve “exploiting fault lines between the
various Salafi-jihadist groups to turn them against each other
and dissipate their energy on internal conflicts.”</p>
<p>Simultaneously, the report suggested that the US could foster
conflict between Salafi-jihadists and Shi’ite militants by
“shoring up the traditional Sunni regimes… as a way of
containing Iranian power and influence in the Middle East and
Persian Gulf.”</p>
<p>One way or another, the plan is in motion. Last week, Israeli
foreign minister <a
href="http://www.newsweek.com/israel-tells-us-kurdish-independence-foregone-conclusion-256371"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.newsweek.com']);">Avigdor
Leiberman</a> told US secretary of state John Kerry: “Iraq is
breaking up before our eyes and it would appear that the
creation of an independent Kurdish state is a foregone
conclusion.”</p>
<p>The rise of the ‘Islamic State’ is not just a direct
consequence of this neocon vision, tied as it is to a dangerous
covert operations strategy that has seen al-Qaeda linked
terrorists as a tool to influence local populations – it has in
turn offered a pretext for the launch of a new era of endless
war, the spectre of a prolonged US-led military presence in the
energy-rich Persian Gulf region, and a return to the dangerous
imperial temptation to re-configure the wider regional order.</p>
<p><em><strong>Dr. <a href="http://www.nafeezahmed.com"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.nafeezahmed.com']);">Nafeez
Ahmed</a> </strong>is a bestselling author, investigative
journalist and international security scholar. He has
contributed to two major terrorism investigations in the US
and UK, the 9/11 Commission and the 7/7 Coroner’s Inquest, and
has advised the Royal Military Academy Sandhust, British
Foreign Office and US State Department. He is a regular
contributor to <a
href="http://www.theguardian.com/profile/nafeez-ahmed"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.theguardian.com']);">The
Guardian</a> where he writes about the geopolitics of
interconnected environmental, energy and economic crises. He
has also written for The Independent, Sydney Morning Herald,
CounterPunch, The Age, The Scotsman, Foreign Policy, Prospect,
New Statesman, Le Monde diplomatique, among many others. His
just released new novel, <a href="http://zro.pt"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://zro.pt']);">ZERO
POINT</a>, predicted a new war in Iraq to put down an
al-Qaeda insurgency. Follow him on Twitter <a
href="https://twitter.com/nafeezahmed"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://twitter.com']);">@nafeezahmed</a>
and <a href="http://www.facebook.com/DrNafeezAhmed"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.facebook.com']);">Facebook</a>.</em></p>
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