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Category Archives: Department of Homeland Security
SCMedia: Attacks believed to be Iranian in origin were fended off for more than two weeks in April, but security experts examining the code detected snippets of code from an underground Russian marketplace.
Iranian hackers targeting critical infrastructure
Attacks believed to be Iranian in origin were fended off for more than two weeks in April, but security experts examining the code detected something they’d never seen before: snippets of code baring similarities to a known Russian toolkit available on the underground Russian marketplace.
The code had previously been used in a damaging cyber-attack on the Ukraine’s infrastructure in 2015.
Carl Wright, general manager and executive vice president of worldwide sales at TrapX Security, the San Mateo, California-based security firm that blocked the hackers last month, told an interviewer it was the first time his firm had detected an attack where hackers based in Iran were collaborating with Russian hackers-for-hire, according to an article in the New York Times.
Wright could not reveal the target of the attack owing to a confidentiality arrangement. But other security experts said the attackers could have purchased the Russian toolkit from an online forum and customised it for their campaign.
This hypothesis is countered by TrapX researchers, however, who noted that a number of “web domains used in the attack had been registered to a Russian alias, and that three email addresses continue to be used by a hacker in Russian hacking forums and in the underground web.”
The Iranian attackers behind the latest campaign, dubbed OilRig for their previous attacks on oil companies in Saudi Arabia and Israel, have been expanding their geographical range with hundreds of new attacks targeting a number of military, financial and energy companies in Europe as well as the United States, the Times reported.
Nearly three-quarters of the code employed in the latest campaign was previously used by OilRig in hundreds of attacks on other enterprises, including government agencies and oil companies.
But, as the defences of the newest target became more robust and the attackers evolved their tactics, the security researchers noted new weapons in their arsenal: a typical hacker’s kit, used to siphon out data, such as to steal usernames and passwords; but, more revealing, a tool never before detected in an OilRig campaign.
This was obfuscated with encryption to evade security investigators. After weeks spent decrypting the code, the researchers at TrapX determined that besides code similar to that used by OilRig in prior attacks, the bad actors were employing malware called BlackEnergy, also used previously, specifically by the Russian hackers who attacked the Ukraine power grid. Further, data was being transferred from the target to a server also used in the Ukraine attack.
TrapX lured the miscreants to inject their malware onto a server, which was then analysed by the TrapX team who were able to then shut the attackers out of their client’s system.
Forbes
*** There is more:
Iranian hackers which previously targeted organizations in Saudi Arabia are now targeting organizations in other countries, including the US, as part of a campaign identified as OilRig campaign.
In addition to expanding its reach, the group has been enhancing its malware tools.
Researchers at Palo Alto Networks have been monitoring the group for some time and have
reported observingattacks launched by a threat actor against financial institutions and technology companies in Saudi Arabia and on the Saudi defense industry. This campaign referred to as “ OilRig,” by Palo Alto Networks, entails weaponized Microsoft Excel spreadsheets tracked as
“Clayslide” and a backdoor called “Helminth.” More here.
More: Last month
The Israeli Cyber Defense Authority yesterday announced that it believes Iran was behind the a series of targeted attacks against some 250 individuals between April 19 and 24 in government agencies, high-tech companies, medical organizations, and educational institutions including the renowned Ben-Gurion University. The attackers – whom security experts say are members of the so-called OilRig aka Helix Kitten aka NewsBeef nation-state hacking group in Iran — used stolen email accounts from Ben-Gurion to send their payload to victims.
“This is the largest and most sophisticated attack they’ve [OilRig] ever performed,” says Michael Gorelik, vice president of R&D for Morphisec, who studied the attacks and confirms that the final stage was thwarted for the most part. “It was a major information-gathering [operation],” he says.
OilRig has been rapidly maturing since it kicked off operations around 2015. The attack campaign against Israeli targets employed the just-patched Microsoft CVE-2017-0199 remote code execution vulnerability in the Windows Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) application programming interface. This flaw had been weaponized in attacks prior to the patch, including Dridex banking Trojan and botnet attacks, and in at least one other cyber espionage campaign.
Forbes has more on corporate and individual hack operations in the United States by OilRig including other countries.
The PA Ministry of Education has named at least 28 schools after terrorists and an additional 3 schools after Nazi collaborators. Significantly, the PA Ministry of Education is directly and solely responsible for the naming of schools:
“The naming of schools and changes are the responsibility of the Minister of Education, by a direct decision of the Ministry or the Name Committee.” [Ma’an, independent news agency, Aug. 26, 2015, see also WAFA, official Palestinian Authority news agency Aug. 25, 2015]
By naming schools after terrorists, the Palestinian Authority is telling its children most emphatically that terrorists who have murdered Israeli civilians are role models and heroes. PMW has found evidence that in practice, students who attend such schools refer to terrorists as personal heroes whom they look up to and aspire to emulate.
The following are schools the Palestinian Authority has named after terrorists
Terrorist Dalal Mughrabi led the most lethal terror attack in Israel’s history, known as the Coastal Road massacre, in 1978, when she and other Fatah terrorists hijacked a bus on Israel’s Coastal Highway, killing 37 civilians, 12 of them children, and wounding over 70.
The PA has named three schools after terrorist Dalal Mughrabi.
1. The Dalal Mughrabi High School for Girls – Gaza
2. The Dalal Mughrabi High School for Girls – Al-Shuyoukh, Hebron
3. The Dalal Mughrabi Elementary School for Girls – near Hebron
The PA has named two schools after terrorist Shadia Abu Ghazaleh.
4. The Shadia Abu Ghazaleh School for Girls – Gaza
Oscar Lopez Rivera, the convicted domestic terrorist whose prison sentence Obama commuted, will be released Wednesday and return to New York City. He will also be given a hero’s welcome during the city’s annual Puerto Rican Day parade next month.
Rivera was serving a decades-long sentence for his role in terrorist attacks while serving as a member of the violent, far-left militia known as the Armed Forces of National Liberation, or FALN. The group sought to gain Puerto Rican independence by using violence and Marxist tactics, so naturally, Obama took a shine to Rivera.
The Free Beacon summarizes: Lopez Rivera was originally convicted of crimes committed while he was a member of the Armed Forces of National Liberation, known by its Spanish acronym FALN, a leftist, violent separatist group that sought complete independence for Puerto Rico.
During the 1970s, FALN claimed responsibility for more than 100 bombings across New York, Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. One of the bombings, at the Fraunces Tavern in New York in 1975, killed four people and injured more than 60 others.
For his crimes, Lopez Rivera was sentenced in 1981 to 55 years in prison for “seditious conspiracy” and other felonies, and an additional 15 years in 1988 “for conspiracy to escape; to transport explosives with intent to kill and injure people; and to destroy government buildings and property,” according to CNN.
Lopez Rivera was not charged directly for involvement in FALN attacks, but rather for plotting to overthrow the U.S. government. His prison sentence would have expired in 2051 had it not been commuted by more than 30 years.
[…] Upon Lopez Rivera’s release, many will welcome him as a beloved son. He will be celebrated across Puerto Rico and Chicago this week, and on June 11, he will be recognized as Procer de la Libertad–National Freedom Hero–during New York City’s annual Puerto Rican Day parade.
Many Puerto Ricans also celebrated Lopez Rivera. But victims of FALN’s bombings feel differently.
“I’ve had long hours in the middle of the night trying to figure out what I am missing, why he has all this support,” Diane Berger Ettenson said of Lopez Rivera. Ettenson was six months pregnant when her husband was killed at Fraunces Tavern.
“Every time I have to defend my father’s life, it takes a little more of my life away,” said Joseph Connor, who was 9 when his father was killed, also at Fraunces Tavern.
“My kids never met my dad, but they certainly had to deal with this. We never asked for it.”
Pillar of tolerance and compassion (and also creator of the Broadway musical, Hamilton), Lin-Manuel Miranda, said of Rivera: “One can disagree or agree with him politically, but he is a symbol of resolve and conviction.” He also claimed to have sobbed “with gratitude” after Obama commuted the terrorist’s sentence. The Left’s hypocrisy is particularly ripe in this instance, and we can expect more adulation for the terrorist to be heaped on him during the festivities next month.
Meanwhile back on a college campus:
How about this commencement speaker?
Taxpayer-Funded College Hosts Sharia-Loving Commencement Speaker With Ties To Terror Group
Palestinian-American activist Linda Sarsour will be this year’s commencement speaker at the taxpayer-funded City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy.
“I am delighted to confirm that Linda Sarsour will indeed speak at our June 1 commencement at the Apollo Theater,” said Barbara Aaron, chief of staff to CUNY Graduate School of Public Health dean Ayman El-Mohandes, in a statement sent to The Daily Caller.
Sarsour, one of the main organizers behind January’s Women’s March on Washington, is the former executive director of the Arab American Association of New York.
Linda Sarsour via Facebook
The FBI has alleged that Salah Sarsour, who resides in Milwaukee, raised money for Hamas
In December 2016, Sarsour spoke at the 15th annual convention of the Muslim American Society and Islamic Circle of North America. More detail here from DailyCaller.
Notice in the video the men dressed in black suits, further notice the capitol police, they look like Keystone cops. What is also curious, all foreign dignitaries are protected while in country by our diplomatic security staff….see any? As an aside, 2 Secret Service agents were injured however.
In fairness, John McCain expressed outrage:
Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.) on Thursday morning called for throwing the Turkish ambassador out of the United States in response to Turkish officials beating a crowd of protesters in Washington this week.
McCain started his interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” with his call to remove the Turkish diplomat.
“I’m still outraged at this Turkish beating,” McCain said. “We should throw their ambassador the hell out of the United States of America.”
“This is the United States of America, this isn’t Turkey, this isn’t a third-world country, and this kind of thing cannot go un-responded to diplomatically and maybe in other ways,” McCain continued.
Host Joe Scarborough asked what the United States could do in response to the attack on protesters by Turkish security officials.
McCain again advocated throwing out the Turkish ambassador and said the guards had orders from someone to attack the protesters. The senator called for charges against those involved.
“You cannot have that happen in the United States of America,” McCain said. “People have the right in our country to peacefully demonstrate and they were peacefully demonstrating.”
More detail and background…..
IPT: The man with the bullhorn already had been knocked to the ground, repeatedly kicked and beaten. Then the man with a mustache, wearing a sharp suit and a handgun on his hip, raced up and launched a fierce kick, hitting the man with the bullhorn square in the face.
The man with the bullhorn was protesting visiting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The man with the mustache is an Erdogan bodyguard. This beat-down, captured on video by the Voice of America, took place Tuesday, just 1.4 miles from the White House, where Erdogan met with President Trump.
Nine people were injured, including two who required hospitalization. A similar, but smaller brawl broke out last year when Erdogan was greeted by protesters outside a speech at the Brookings Institution.
The State Department issued a statement Wednesday saying it would tell the Turkish government that it is “concerned by the violent incidents …. Violence is never an appropriate response to free speech, and we support the rights of people everywhere to free expression and peaceful protest.”
It’s difficult these days for stories outside the White House’s struggle to contain the Russia investigation to gain much traction.
But events in and near the White House Tuesday should not get lost in the shuffle. Even without the violence by Erdogan’s goon squad, his White House visit should concern those who expected the Trump administration to follow through on its tough talk about confronting radical Islam.
For all the talk about naming radical Islamic terrorism where it exists, there appears to have been no mention of Turkey’s ongoing support for the Muslim Brotherhood and its terrorist offshoot Hamas. Rather, President Trump publicly lauded Erdogan, saying it was an honor to host him and that he looked forward to working together to create Middle East peace.
Erdogan is a favorite of U.S.-based Islamists, especially those with Muslim Brotherhood links, like Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Executive Director Nihad Awad. That may be due, at least in part, to his view that Hamas is not a terrorist group, but a national liberation movement.
Erdogan provided a safe haven for Hamas operative Salah Arouri even after Arouri was implicated in the deadly kidnapping of three Israeli teens that led to the summer 2014 war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. In that conflict, Erdogan predicted that Israel would “drown in the blood that they shed,” and likened the Jewish state to Adolph Hitler: “Just like Hitler tried to create a pure Aryan race in Germany, the State of Israel is pursuing the same goals right now.”
Arouri was asked to leave Turkey only last year, as part of an effort to restore diplomatic relations between Israel and Turkey – relations Erdogan severed in 2010.
But that doesn’t mean Erdogan has turned a corner. In February, Turkey hosted a meeting of Hamas officials and affiliates. Last week, Erdogan repeated the baseless claim that Israel is an apartheid state, asking, “What’s the difference in Israel’s current practices from the racist and discriminatory policies implemented towards the blacks in America in the past, and in South Africa more recently?”
The ignorant talking point ignores the equal voting rights enjoyed by Israeli Arabs. The International Committee of the Red Cross rejected Erdogan’s rhetoric outright: “There isn’t a regime here that is based on the superiority of one race over another; there is no disenfranchisement of basic human rights based on so-called racial inferiority.”
In addition, Erdogan was slow to stem the tide of foreign fighters crossing his border in order to join ISIS in Syria. When he does act, he often targets U.S.-backed Kurdish forces fighting ISIS – a stateless minority Turkey oppresses.
While Erdogan and Trump praised each other publicly, ABC reports that “they made little progress to deal with their sharp differences on issues like terrorism and Syria.”
Erdogan, meanwhile, has purged tens of thousands of government employees, teachers and jailed scores of journalists in a clamp-down on any potential opposition. His crackdown is not limited to his own borders, as European critics have been targeted for arrest and surveillance.
Under his rule, Turkey’s secular education system has been weakened as religious training schools known as imam hatipgrew more than 15 times in enrollment since 2003. His radical Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP) wants Turkey to be governed by an Islamist authority that demands adherence to strict religious tenets.
The White House meeting lasted about 20 minutes, McClatchy reports. Beforehand, 81 members of Congress issued a statement urging the president to raise Erdogan’s human rights abuses in the meeting.
“Erdogan and his allies have mounted an assault on the rule of law, particularly using sweeping state of emergency authorities to stifle fundamental rights including free speech, undermine the independence of the judiciary, and quash any opposition to their undemocratic actions,” they wrote.
There is no indication whether that topic was discussed. After the meeting, Erdogan expressed appreciation for the president’s hospitality. That’s fine, but the failure to openly challenge Erdogan’s increasingly Islamist, authoritarian direction is disappointing. Turkey’s help is needed in the fight against ISIS. But if the United States intends to confront radical Islam, it missed a golden opportunity on Tuesday.
President Trump did ask that Turkey release jailed American pastor Andrew Brunson, the White House readout of the meeting said. The two leaders also plan to meet again next week during the president’s first official international trip.
Unless he challenges Erdogan then, the lasting images of this will be the unprovoked violence Erdogan’s armed bodyguards inflicted on peaceful demonstrators in the heart of the nation’s capital instead of a direct and honest challenge to Erdogan’s ongoing and egregious support for Islamist terrorists.
Shortly after 4 a.m. Wednesday, heavily-armed ATF agents — wearing helmets and bulletproof gear and carrying rifles — forced their way into a storefront and a back building near Exposition Boulevard and Western Avenue in Exposition Park. Agents approached in an armored vehicle down a narrow alleyway behind the small business.
Once inside, federal agents and police detectives found what they described as gang members involved in human trafficking, as well as possible victims. The storefront, which appeared to be locked from the outside, was full of garbage.
A few of the people detained were handcuffed and lined up facing a metal fence in the alleyway next to the armored vehicle.
The indictment names the former leader of the gang and a dozen people who acted as a joint council of leaders, Brown said.
The lead defendant in the indictment is 43-year-old Jose Balmore Romero, known as “Porky.” Romero called the shots for the gang in Los Angeles in 2013 and 2014 and oversaw the gang’s drug-trafficking activities and coordinated the collection of extortion money, some of which was distributed to the Mexican Mafia, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles. Romero has been in custody since 2015, charged with ordering a gang-related slaying.
Three men were charged with murder in connection with the gang’s activities, authorities said. Carlos Alfredo Cardoza Lopez, 23, known as “Little Boy,” faces a violent crime in aid of racketeering murder charge in the fatal shooting of a innocent bystander inside the gang-controlled Little San Salvador Nightclub and Restaurant on Western Avenue, federal prosecutors said in a statement. A friend of the victim also was stabbed. More here.
Dozens of MS-13 gang members nabbed in 50 Los Angeles raids
Los Angeles (CNN)Hundreds of federal and local authorities stormed homes and storefronts across Los Angeles early Wednesday, targeting dozens of high-ranking members of the notorious MS-13 street gang.
The 50 pre-dawn raids, aimed at catching suspects asleep or off guard, also focused on nabbing members of MS-13’s core leadership, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) said.
“Today we disrupted this gang’s command and control,” said Eric Harden, special agent in charge of the ATF’s Los Angeles field division.
Los Angeles is the US base for MS-13, which has tens of thousands of members worldwide. Authorities count the gang among the largest criminal organizations in the US.
More than half of the 44 people arrested Wednesday are undocumented immigrants, acting US Attorney Sandra Brown said.
But the raids aimed to curb violent crime — not immigration violations, Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said. He said MS-13 often “preys on” undocumented immigrants.
The suspects face a wide range of charges, including federal racketeering and narcotics conspiracy. If convicted, Brown said, most of those arrested Wednesday could face decades in federal prison — and three could face the death penalty.
About 1,000 officers from the ATF, the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department took part worked on the massive effort.
And they had to execute their plan in the dark of night.
An inside look into a raid
Authorities conduct one of 50 simultaneous raids targeting MS-13 gang members.
CNN’s was the only TV crew that accompanied authorities during the raids.
At 4 a.m., a dozen ATF agents poured out of an armored vehicle, preparing to break open the front and back doors of an inconspicuous store just outside downtown. The storefront they hit was a suspected hub for MS-13.
Rifle-wielding officers suited in body armor and helmets appeared ready for combat. With the element of surprise on their side, agents peacefully took half a dozen people into custody.
One by one, they came out in handcuffs. Some were suspected gang members; some may be victims of human trafficking, authorities said.
A storefront might seem like an odd place to find notorious gang suspects. But MS-13 members have been known to live in storefronts and have been suspected of using them as a cover for drug activity, prostitution and human trafficking.
Investigation goes deep
Federal agents say the probe, which began in June 2014, targeted the leadership and the most violent members of MS-13 in Los Angeles and the gang’s links to the Mexican mafia.
“We believe the most impact is made by targeting the mid- to upper-level hierarchy of the gang and removing them,” Harden said.
“Once removed, it causes a disorganization of the gang, where it suppresses their activity for an extensive amount of time until another leader is developed or steps up.”
MS-13 makes money from extortions, kidnappings, drug and weapons trafficking and human trafficking, the ATF said. Killings for the protection of the gang are common, federal authorities say, and sometimes are carried out with machetes.
Harden has faced off with MS-13 for decades, dating back to his days as a street agent.
“They’ve been here since the ’80s and have thrived to this date,” said Harden. “They’re a transnational or international gang. Their level of brutality is extreme and high, similar to what we read about and hear with the drug-trafficking cartels in Mexico.” More here from CNN.
From the gasoline that helps your family take vacations to the advanced medical equipment at your community hospital, CITGO is fueling good.
It’s amazing the difference petroleum-based products make in our everyday lives. Based in Houston, Texas, CITGO is a refiner and marketer of transportation fuels, lubricants, petrochemicals and other industrial products. In addition to these products, there’s probably a CITGO in your neighborhood, a convenient place to fill up with gas and grab a quick snack.
The story of CITGO Petroleum Corporation as an enduring American success story began back in 1910 when pioneer oilman, Henry L. Doherty, created the Cities Service Company.
When Cities Service determined that it needed to change its marketing brand, it introduced the name CITGO in 1965, retaining the first syllable of its long-standing name and ending with “GO” to imply power, energy and progressiveness. The now familiar and enduring CITGO “trimark” logo was born.
Occidental Petroleum bought Cities Service in 1982, and CITGO was incorporated as a wholly owned refining, marketing and transportation subsidiary in the spring of the following year. Then, in August, 1983, CITGO was sold to The Southland Corporation to provide an assured supply of gasoline to Southland’s 7-Eleven convenience store chain.
In September, 1986, Southland sold a 50 percent interest in CITGO to Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A., (PDVSA), the national oil company of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. PDVSA acquired the remaining half of CITGO in January, 1990 and the company is owned by CITGO Holding, Inc., an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary. With a secure and ample supply of crude oil, CITGO quickly became a major force in the energy arena.
Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), has owned Citgo, an American refiner with headquarters in Houston, Texas, since the 1980s. At the end of 2016, cash-strapped Venezuela, in the throes of a combined economic and political crisis,[1] put up a large stake (49.9%) in Citgo as collateral in exchange for a loan from the Russian state-owned oil company Rosneft. Should PDVSA default on the loan, Rosfnet will gain control over Citgo. It is noteworthy that the U.S. imposed sanctions on Rosfnet following Russia’s seizure of Crimea in 2014.
On May 3, a bipartisan group of U.S. Senators introduced a wide-ranging bill calling for sanctions against the Venezuelan government and demanding President Donald Trump to prevent a deal struck by PDVSA and Rosfnet. CBS News reported: “The bill calls for the [U.S.] State Department to coordinate an international response to the crisis in Venezuela… In addition, a section of the bill highlights a Nov. 30 loan given by Russia’s state-owned oil company, Rosneft, to Venezuela’s state-owned oil company PDVSA. The deal would allow the Russian company to take control of nearly half of the U.S. oil company Citgo, which PDVSA owns, if Venezuela defaults on its debts.
“Influential senators from both parties sponsored the bill, including Senators Ben Cardin, D-Md.; Marco Rubio, R-Fla.; John Cornyn, R-TX; Dick Durbin, D-Ill.; John McCain, R-Ariz.; Bill Nelson, D-Fla.; Tim Kaine. D-Va.; Chris Van Hollen, D-Md. and Bob Menendez, D-NJ.”[2]
Earlier, Republican Congressman Jeff Duncan and Democratic Congressman Albio Sires sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of Treasury Steven Mnuchin, asking him to undertake an “immediate review of a recent asset transfer between Venezuela’s state-owned oil company. PDVSA, and Rosneft, which is under U.S. sanctions. The situation, if left unchecked, could severely undermine U.S. national security and energy independence.”[3]
On April 14, the Russian media outlet Vestifinance.ru, published an article titled “Rosneft And Citgo: Risk Or Anti-Russian Hysteria?” The article stated that U.S. lawmakers’ actions against The PDVSA-Rosneft deal are prompted by anti-Russian “hysteria.” Vestifinance.ru wrote: “By an amazing coincidence, a letter to Mnuchin was written just before U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s visit to Moscow. And as long as relations between Moscow and Washington are not improved significantly, politicians will keep finding new pretexts to incite fears.”
Below are excerpts from the Vestifinance.ru article:[4]
(Source: Rt.com)
PDVSA Still Owes Russia $62 billion
“PDVSA, the Venezuelan state-owned oil company, has paid off its [Russian] loan along with interest in the amount of $2.2 billion. This is good news as PDVSA avoided a default. However, the Vice President [of Venezuela] Tarik El Aissami characterized the situation as ‘a merciless economic war’ being waged against the Maduro government. The bad news is that PDVSA still owes [Russia] $62 billion.
“It is well-known that some members of the U.S. Congress are quite concerned about a possible default by Venezuela, since Russian-owned Rosneft can then get access to the American company Citgo. Citgo owns 48 oil terminals in 20 U.S. states as well as 3 oil refineries. It is the control of Rosneft over the American refineries that worries lawmakers the most.
“‘The Russian government could readily become the second-largest foreign owner of U.S. domestic refinery capacity. Such a development would give the Russians more control over oil and gas prices worldwide, inhibit U.S. energy security, and undermine broader U.S. geopolitical efforts’, [U.S. congressmen] wrote in a letter to Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin. ‘We remain deeply concerned over the implications for U.S. national security.’
How Rosneft Can Take Over CITGO
“Venezuela has been desperate for cash lately. Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), the Venezuelan state-owned oil company, has owned Citgo since the 1980s. In exchange for obtaining a loan from Rosneft in December, the Venezuelan oil company put up a large stake (49.9%) in Citgo as collateral. If PDVSA is unable to pay off the loan on time, Rosneft will almost certainly gain control over Citgo. All Rosneft would need for a majority share would be to buy a few more PDVSA bonds, thus clearing the 50% threshold of ownership.
[Rosneft] Is Not Going To Waste Money For The Illusory Opportunity To Harm The U.S.’
“The concerns expressed by [the U.S] congressmen are rather strange. What exactly is Rosneft going to do with three oil refineries? U.S. politicians believe that the Russian company will be able to take part in a conspiracy that will lead to a restriction of gasoline production, raise gas prices and thus cause damage to the U.S. national security or the American economy. This is plain silly. Even though Rosneft is a state-owned company, its purpose is still making profit, and it is not going to waste money for the illusory opportunity to harm the U.S. And the scenario offered by congressmen has no bearing on reality whatsoever. “Three refineries is a mere drop in the ocean compared to the rest of the U.S. oil assets. Even assuming that production could be reduced at these refineries, this may at most affect one region in the short term, but then other producers will quickly capture the market and stabilize it. And so if Rosneft takes over Citgo, it will simply produce and sell gasoline in the U.S., making money on it, rather than making insane plans to threaten the U.S. national security.
“Reports in the U.S. media treat the lawmakers’ letter with a healthy dose of irony and that is why it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the congressmen are deliberately trying to incite anti-Russian fears. By an amazing coincidence, a letter to Mnuchin was written just before U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s visit to Moscow. And as long as relations between Moscow and Washington are not improved significantly, politicians will keep finding new pretexts to incite fears.
“As far as Venezuela is concerned, yielding control of Citgo is a good way to reduce its debt burden. Most likely, this will happen no later than in the fall of 2017, since there is very little chance its economy will stabilize. Most likely, Venezuela will default and begin to restructure its debt this year. According to the credit-default swaps market, investors estimate the chances of Venezuela’s default in the next six months at 41%. And in March that indicator was below 34%.”
Forbes
New York Daily News
NY Daily News
