The point of the video, which I saw, is that Israel is part of a
distribution network for the oil. This network existed when the oil came
from the Kurdish region and is now being used even though the profits are
now going to ISIS.
Miriam
Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
Home > Who's Buying ISIS' Oil?
________________________________________
Who's Buying ISIS' Oil?
By Vijay Prashad [1] / CounterPunch [2]
December 10, 2015
At the bottom of the article is a video of Prashad discussing this on The
Real News.
On December 2, Russia's Deputy Minister of Defense Anatoly Antonov made a
strong statement about Turkish complicity with ISIS. The charge sheet is
long and detailed. It mentions many aspects, but the most incendiary is the
accusation about "ISIS oil."
ISIS controls Iraqi oil fields near Mosul. They have been making millions of
dollars each day by selling oil from these fields. How does ISIS get the oil
from the fields in Mosul to the market?
What ISIS has done is to use the old networks that have smuggled oil from
the Kurdish Regional Government without any consideration given to Baghdad's
sovereignty over that oil. This had been a point of contention for decades,
since the Kurdish region began to exercise autonomous control of the north.
Kurdish oil was sold to smugglers who would cart them in tankers across the
border into Turkey. In Turkey the trucks would run the length of the country
to the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan. From Ceyhan, which is a port run by the
Turkish government, the oil is purchased by transporters whose ships go to
Malta, where the oil is transshipped to destinations such as Ashdod
(Israel). This has long been a bone of contention between the Iraqi
government, the Kurdish Regional Government and the Turkish government. It
was documented by Tolga Tanış in his book Potus ve Beyefendi (2015). Tanis
accuses Berat Albayrak, son-in-law of Turkish president Recep Tayyip
Erdoğan, of involvement in this illegal scheme. ISIS has merely replaced the
Kurdish Regional Government in the new arrangement.
How does ISIS do it? ISIS sells the oil to smugglers who cart it to Ceyhan.
But now the story gets interesting. Who is involved inside Turkey with the
oil? The Russians have accused the BMZ Group of being a major agent for the
transport of the oil. It turns out that one of the owners of BMZ is Bilal
Erdoğan, son of the president. BMZ Group has - according to the Financial
Times - purchased two new tankers this last month. Its volume of oil has
increased. Is this ISIS oil? What the Russians allege would need to be
investigated further. In the UK parliament, Labour Party leader Jeremy
Corbyn said, "We need to know which banks and countries are in on ISIS oil
smuggling." This is the most important question. It is being ignored.
Much of this is well-known in Turkey, where journalists have been bravely
writing about the Turkish government's role along the porous Turkish-Syrian
border. That is why the government of Erdoğan has so ruthlessly gone after
the media. The arrest of Cumhuriyet editor Can Dündar and Ankara bureau
chief Erdem Gül is only one part of this crackdown. Dündar and Gül had the
temerity to publish pictures that showed Turkish resupplying of extremists
in Syria. Erdoğan went after the New York Times' Ceyhan Yeginsu when she
reported on ISIS recruitment centers in Turkey. There is zero tolerance for
press freedom on these issues. If one names these names - Bilal Erdoğan,
Berat Albayrak, Ahmet Çalık - there is danger of prosecution. Çalık holds
the keys to the kingdom at the Cehyan refinery - through which, it is
alleged, ISIS oil travels. Will there be an impartial investigation of this?
Unlikely. Too much is at stake. Erdoğan has said that he would resign if any
such link were proven. It is likely no such link will be demonstrated.
That the Russians have made these allegations will only increase tensions
between Ankara and Moscow. Indeed, on December 3, Russian President Vladimir
Putin suggested that retaliation for the downed jet has not yet come. The
tempo of threats has risen.
Stunningly Ceyhan Port is a few hours drive from the Incirlik Air Base, from
where the US jets have been hitting targets in Syria. It is literally under
the noses of the US planes that the ISIS oil has been transported. For the
fourteen months that the US has been hitting ISIS targets, it has avoided
striking at the oil tankers. US officials say that they did not strike ISIS
oil tankers for fear of "collateral damage." In fact, when the US did hit
the oil tankers last month, they did so after warning the drivers by
leaflets. This was a very noble gesture, but also out of character. The US
generally does not warn its targets. It only began to hit the oil tankers
after Russian jets struck them. Did the US begin its strike on the tankers
so as not to be shown up by the Russians? When I put this question to a US
state department official, she demurred. She said that the US was merely
building up intelligence on the tanker routes and it was now prepared to hit
the convoys. That it came after the Russian bombings of the tankers, she
said, is mere coincidence.
Western bombing of Syria is now going to intensify. The French have joined
in with the Americans. The British will now begin its bombing raids, as the
Germans will support the French. The history of aerial bombardment shows
that guerrilla armies are not easily defeated from the air. The US blasted
the Vietnamese forces from the sky and still lost the war. As the British
found in World War II, German bombing only strengthened the will of the
British people to resist. They have forgotten that lesson.
The Europeans want to solve the refugee crisis. They believe that their
bombing will advance their interests. It is likely to increase the
displacement in Syria. The Turkish government's demand for a "buffer zone"
is of interest to the Europeans. They believe it is for refugees. But it
could just as well be to protect the tankers from the Russian bombing raids.
It is precisely what makes Corbyn's demand so important - to hold a through
investigation of the ISIS oil pipeline. Such an inquiry must ask the
following questions:
1 Who is carting the oil from Mosul to the Turkish border? Who owns those
trucks?
2 Who is carting the oil from the Turkish border to Ceyhan? Who owns those
trucks?
3 How does ISIS oil go through Ceyhan, a port owned by the Turkish
government?
4 Who owns the ships that cart the ISIS oil out of Turkey and to ports
afield?
5 What banks handle the transaction between the sale of ISIS oil and the
foreign buyers? Should they also be implicated in the smuggling of ISIS oil?
An investigation along these lines is overdue. It is not enough to accept or
dismiss the Russian accusations. These should be used as an opportunity to
clarity the actual pipelines for ISIS funding. Bombing the Omar fields in
Syria - as the UK has done today - might not be sufficient. It might dust
over the evidence of much greater complicity in ISIS oil.
[A shorter version of this will appear this Sunday in BirGün]
WATCH: Israel Key Link in Exporting ISIS Oil
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[4]
________________________________________
Source URL: http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/whos-buying-isis-oil
Links:
[1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/vijay-prashad
[2] http://www.counterpunch.org/
[3] mailto:corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=Typo on Who's Buying
ISIS' Oil?
[4] http://www.alternet.org/
[5] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
Home > Who's Buying ISIS' Oil?
Who's Buying ISIS' Oil?
By Vijay Prashad [1] / CounterPunch [2]
December 10, 2015
At the bottom of the article is a video of Prashad discussing this on The
Real News.
On December 2, Russia's Deputy Minister of Defense Anatoly Antonov made a
strong statement about Turkish complicity with ISIS. The charge sheet is
long and detailed. It mentions many aspects, but the most incendiary is the
accusation about "ISIS oil."
ISIS controls Iraqi oil fields near Mosul. They have been making millions of
dollars each day by selling oil from these fields. How does ISIS get the oil
from the fields in Mosul to the market?
What ISIS has done is to use the old networks that have smuggled oil from
the Kurdish Regional Government without any consideration given to Baghdad's
sovereignty over that oil. This had been a point of contention for decades,
since the Kurdish region began to exercise autonomous control of the north.
Kurdish oil was sold to smugglers who would cart them in tankers across the
border into Turkey. In Turkey the trucks would run the length of the country
to the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan. From Ceyhan, which is a port run by the
Turkish government, the oil is purchased by transporters whose ships go to
Malta, where the oil is transshipped to destinations such as Ashdod
(Israel). This has long been a bone of contention between the Iraqi
government, the Kurdish Regional Government and the Turkish government. It
was documented by Tolga Tanış in his book Potus ve Beyefendi (2015). Tanis
accuses Berat Albayrak, son-in-law of Turkish president Recep Tayyip
Erdoğan, of involvement in this illegal scheme. ISIS has merely replaced the
Kurdish Regional Government in the new arrangement.
How does ISIS do it? ISIS sells the oil to smugglers who cart it to Ceyhan.
But now the story gets interesting. Who is involved inside Turkey with the
oil? The Russians have accused the BMZ Group of being a major agent for the
transport of the oil. It turns out that one of the owners of BMZ is Bilal
Erdoğan, son of the president. BMZ Group has - according to the Financial
Times - purchased two new tankers this last month. Its volume of oil has
increased. Is this ISIS oil? What the Russians allege would need to be
investigated further. In the UK parliament, Labour Party leader Jeremy
Corbyn said, "We need to know which banks and countries are in on ISIS oil
smuggling." This is the most important question. It is being ignored.
Much of this is well-known in Turkey, where journalists have been bravely
writing about the Turkish government's role along the porous Turkish-Syrian
border. That is why the government of Erdoğan has so ruthlessly gone after
the media. The arrest of Cumhuriyet editor Can Dündar and Ankara bureau
chief Erdem Gül is only one part of this crackdown. Dündar and Gül had the
temerity to publish pictures that showed Turkish resupplying of extremists
in Syria. Erdoğan went after the New York Times' Ceyhan Yeginsu when she
reported on ISIS recruitment centers in Turkey. There is zero tolerance for
press freedom on these issues. If one names these names - Bilal Erdoğan,
Berat Albayrak, Ahmet Çalık - there is danger of prosecution. Çalık holds
the keys to the kingdom at the Cehyan refinery - through which, it is
alleged, ISIS oil travels. Will there be an impartial investigation of this?
Unlikely. Too much is at stake. Erdoğan has said that he would resign if any
such link were proven. It is likely no such link will be demonstrated.
That the Russians have made these allegations will only increase tensions
between Ankara and Moscow. Indeed, on December 3, Russian President Vladimir
Putin suggested that retaliation for the downed jet has not yet come. The
tempo of threats has risen.
Stunningly Ceyhan Port is a few hours drive from the Incirlik Air Base, from
where the US jets have been hitting targets in Syria. It is literally under
the noses of the US planes that the ISIS oil has been transported. For the
fourteen months that the US has been hitting ISIS targets, it has avoided
striking at the oil tankers. US officials say that they did not strike ISIS
oil tankers for fear of "collateral damage." In fact, when the US did hit
the oil tankers last month, they did so after warning the drivers by
leaflets. This was a very noble gesture, but also out of character. The US
generally does not warn its targets. It only began to hit the oil tankers
after Russian jets struck them. Did the US begin its strike on the tankers
so as not to be shown up by the Russians? When I put this question to a US
state department official, she demurred. She said that the US was merely
building up intelligence on the tanker routes and it was now prepared to hit
the convoys. That it came after the Russian bombings of the tankers, she
said, is mere coincidence.
Western bombing of Syria is now going to intensify. The French have joined
in with the Americans. The British will now begin its bombing raids, as the
Germans will support the French. The history of aerial bombardment shows
that guerrilla armies are not easily defeated from the air. The US blasted
the Vietnamese forces from the sky and still lost the war. As the British
found in World War II, German bombing only strengthened the will of the
British people to resist. They have forgotten that lesson.
The Europeans want to solve the refugee crisis. They believe that their
bombing will advance their interests. It is likely to increase the
displacement in Syria. The Turkish government's demand for a "buffer zone"
is of interest to the Europeans. They believe it is for refugees. But it
could just as well be to protect the tankers from the Russian bombing raids.
It is precisely what makes Corbyn's demand so important - to hold a through
investigation of the ISIS oil pipeline. Such an inquiry must ask the
following questions:
1 Who is carting the oil from Mosul to the Turkish border? Who owns those
trucks?
2 Who is carting the oil from the Turkish border to Ceyhan? Who owns those
trucks?
3 How does ISIS oil go through Ceyhan, a port owned by the Turkish
government?
4 Who owns the ships that cart the ISIS oil out of Turkey and to ports
afield?
5 What banks handle the transaction between the sale of ISIS oil and the
foreign buyers? Should they also be implicated in the smuggling of ISIS oil?
An investigation along these lines is overdue. It is not enough to accept or
dismiss the Russian accusations. These should be used as an opportunity to
clarity the actual pipelines for ISIS funding. Bombing the Omar fields in
Syria - as the UK has done today - might not be sufficient. It might dust
over the evidence of much greater complicity in ISIS oil.
[A shorter version of this will appear this Sunday in BirGün]
WATCH: Israel Key Link in Exporting ISIS Oil
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Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
Report typos and corrections to 'corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx'. [3]
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.[4]
Source URL: http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/whos-buying-isis-oil
Links:
[1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/vijay-prashad
[2] http://www.counterpunch.org/
[3] mailto:corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=Typo on Who's Buying
ISIS' Oil?
[4] http://www.alternet.org/
[5] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
