Posted on 08/31/2014 11:56:04 AM PDT by COUNTrecount
US President Barack Obama’s authorization of airstrikes on ISIS targets in Iraq serves as an opportunity to remind ourselves which countries are bankrolling the deadly terror group.
The answer: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Turkey and Qatar – three of the United States’ biggest allies in the region.
Last night Obama announced limited airstrikes to slow the advance of ISIS fighters and help members of the Yazidi religious minority group who were forced to flee into a mountainous region in the north of Iraq to avoid slaughter.
However, the administration has failed to put pressure on several (Persian) Gulf states that are directly responsible for helping ISIS gain a foothold in Iraq in the first place.
As the Daily Beast’s Josh Rogin documents, “The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), now threatening Baghdad, was funded for years by wealthy donors in Kuwait, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, three US allies that have dual agendas in the war on terror.”
In addition to funding itself through criminal activity and punitive taxes imposed on the local population on pain of death, ISIS relies on a steady stream of income from countries that have bankrolled extremists… for years yet have faced zero backlash from successive White House administrations. Even evidence of direct Saudi involvement in 9/11 failed to generate any reconsideration of who America calls its friends.
“Everybody knows the money is going through Kuwait and that it’s coming from the (Persian) Gulf,” said Andrew Tabler, senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “Kuwait’s banking system and its money changers have long been a huge problem because they are a major conduit for money to extremist groups in Syria and now Iraq.”
State backing for ISIS, now the wealthiest terror group in the world, prompted Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to point the finger directly at Saudi Arabia and Qatar during a France 24 television interview. “I accuse them of inciting and encouraging the terrorist movements. I accuse them of supporting them politically and in the media, of supporting them with money and by buying weapons for them,” said al-Maliki.
In failing to call these countries to account for funding ISIS, the White House has deliberately placed the importance of isolating Iran and Syria over and above the stability of the entire region.
The White House is also directly responsible for the spread of ISIS militants having backed other rebel groups in Syria which were once allied with and then taken over by ISIS.
Indeed, some evidence suggests that the US even trained some of the fighters who went on to join ISIS at a secret base in Jordan in 2012.
Aaron Klein was told by Jordanian officials that, “dozens of future ISIS members were trained at the time as part of covert aid to the insurgents...”
Yet another US ally – Turkey – also trained ISIS fighters at a location in the vicinity of Incirlik Air Base near Adana.
According to a source close to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, the Obama administration turned a blind eye to the fact that Turkey was equipping and then sending fighters to Syria before they went on to Iraq. The source even went on to accuse the White House of being “an accomplice” in the ISIS takeover of major Iraqi cities.
Whether or not the “humanitarian” airstrikes on Iraq are really aimed at stopping the terror wrought by ISIS, or are merely part of a ploy to create a justification for a long-awaited attack on Syria, the White House itself, as well as some of America’s closest supposed allies, all share some of the blame in aiding the growth of ISIS in the region.
shucks ... only had 50%
This may all be true, but it is interesting that not one shred of evidence is provided to confirm it. And then folks accept it as sound truth, and form opinions based on it.
What money trail has been documented? It would be nice to see even one instance where these entities that are trashed, have provided funding to terrorist groups. Where is the bank account documentation? Where are the cancelled checks? Where is the routing and transfers documentation?
You see, if we knew these paper trails existed, we could bring pressure to bare on the players, and banks in involved.
Strangely, that never takes place. Why?
Is it because the West wants to die, or is it because this is all a well accepted fabrication tossed out there to impact perceptions?
Aliens ...
The entire “Syrian opposition” and now ISIS is a total redo of the disastrous U.S. policy in Pakistan & Afghanistan - where our “regime change” again is trumped, in implementation on the ground, by an Islamist agenda of the locals and our “friends” supporting them.
In Afghanistan we gave a big boost to Al Queda, emboldened various Islamist terrorist groups and the cream of our efforts was the Taliban ascendency.
In Syria, we allowed our agenda to be subsumed by what is essentially a Sunni-Islamist putsch against Assad, and a by-product of all our investment in this failed regime change agenda is an expanded and emboldened ISIL (ISIS?/ISIL?). Like I said - an Afghanistan redo.
Good work, Obama - our biggest ally in the region, by far, used to be Israel, but you completely punted that away, moron.
Obama approves arming Syrian rebels - USA Today
No mention of the Obama Administration in the posted article?
Wot?
"U.S. allies" helping ISIS rebels? Oh I see. Never mind
Three? Funny that it was posted (but fortunately not originally written) by COUNTrecount.
I find it hard to believe Saudi Arabia is bankrolling these guys. It would seem to me, ISIL will soon be a direct threat to the royalty.
It’s ISIS not Obama regimes ISIL.
Press TV. I won’t bother as it’s Iranian propaganda from Iranian news service.
They need to be cut off.
The source of the article, PressTV, is Iran. Could all be true, or half-true, or all lies, the veracity of the article not being my point.
Funny, that so many political folks agree with the pro-Russian sentiments in that piece. Press TV is an Iranian state-owned broadcasting outfit.
Why not? They like the diet of Russian propaganda. May as well throw the same propaganda from the Iranians into the mix. Next thing you know, they’ll be posting and admiring manipulated images of a shirtless Ayatollah riding monsters.
;-)
/bingo
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