Islamic State turns to selling fish and cars

reuters ^ | 4/28/16

[StCloudMoose]

Islamic State earns millions of dollars a month running car dealerships and fish farms in Iraq, making up for lower oil income after its battlefield losses, Iraqi judicial authorities said on Thursday. Security experts once estimated the ultra-radical Islamist group's annual income at $2.9 billion, much of it coming from oil and gas installations in Iraq and Syria. The U.S.-led coalition has targeted Islamic State's financial infrastructure, using air strikes to reduce its ability to extract, refine and transport oil and so forcing fighters to reportedly take significant pay cuts. Yet the militants, who seized a third of Iraq's territory and declared a caliphate in 2014, seem to be adapting again to this latest set of constraints, in some cases reviving previous profit-turning ventures like farming. "The terrorists' current financing mechanism has changed from what it was before the announcement of the caliphate nearly two years ago," a report by Iraq's central court of investigation said, quoting Judge Jabbar Abid al-Huchaimi. "After the armed forces took control of several oil fields Daesh was using to finance its operations, the organization devised non-traditional ways of paying its fighters and financing its activities," the report added, using an Arabic acronym for Islamic State.

[CMB_polarization]

Selling off the Toyota PUs the CIA gave them.

[PGR88]

I would advise them to start with fish and CHIPS, and then go from there.

[T-Bone Texan]

Pretty sure all those stripped down 3rd world Toyota Tacomas, sorry, “Hi Luxes” do not have AC. Every photo depicts the windows rolled down, a sure indicator.

I still want one though, preferably with a crew served weapon in the back.

It will come in handy when Obama declares martial law and refuses to abdicate and all heck breaks loose.

[lacrew]

Craaaazy Mo’s used car lot is having a BLOWOUT sale! We’re cutting throats...err...prices all day long. And by grace of Allah, if you don’t pay for the undercoating, you’re an infidel.

[eyedigress]

Sick the IRS on their ass.

You want money? give me money.

[windcliff]

Fresh Fish

[SgtHooper]

hahahahahaha, all which have faulty airbags!

[King of Florida]

Yeah, I had an uncle who opened a Fish and Cars stand. It went nowhere.

[hal ogen]

Quick...poison the fish and bomb the cars.

[kosciusko51]

+1 LOL

[LeoWindhorse]

count on our Marines sir

[onedoug]

"Now they've hit the big time...."

If we had a real leader they'd be sleeping with the fishes.

[PIF]

Time for the re-insurgence of Agent Orange ...

[Buckeye McFrog]

C’MON DOWN to CRAZY AHMED’S WORLD OF WHEELS!

We’ve got the hottest deals in the entire caliphate!
No credit? No problem! The Holy Qu’uran FORBIDS the
charging of interest! This week only we’re giving away
a FREE DETONATOR with every test drive! I will cut the
head off of ANY INFIDEL to close this deal! Hurry down!

[Larry Lucido]

[ManHunter]

And you can bet your ass they’ve got their fingers in used car dealerships (and drug trafficking) in the US as well, just like Al Qaeda did (does?) as was/is the case in California, Florida, Texas and many other states:

http://www.billwarnerpi.com/2008/07/stolen-cars-of-al-qaeda-financing.html

http://www.newson6.com/story/16340710/feds-raid-tulsa-used-car-dealership-over-he

There are many, many more such instances in open source information.

[StCloudMoose]

interest post, thank you. I was just reading that profits are down in oil and Saudi Arabia is looking for new revenue source. I wonder if they are connected. http://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/500-Billion-In-Lost-Oil-Revenues-Forces-Gulf-Nations-To-Turn-To-Debt-Markets.html

[ManHunter]

Wonder no more. A significant number of Middle Eastern-owned businesses (and not just Saudi) involved in criminal activity in the United States are financed by Saudi-owned banks in the US and elsewhere - and there are a lot of them. One rule of thumb to keep in mind is that the Saudi Royal Family, which is NOT popular among the Saudi people, especially extremist Wahhabis, buys favor with extremists inside and outside of Saudi Arabia by financing a LOT of activities that we would find “objectionable”...