Category Archives: History

Groups Behind Closing Gitmo

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A few years ago, Marc Thiessen wrote a book titled Courting Disaster. The spirit of the book delivers proven evidence that interrogation of enemy combatants kept America safe and offered up more actionable knowledge in the terror networks globally. Thiessen provides names, organizations and lobby groups in full opposition of black sites and Guantanamo. One needs to understand all the moving parts before they offer criticism of decisions by the Bush administration.

So as Barack Obama entered the White House, his first move was to close Gitmo while almost 7 years later there are 140 detainees still there. The question is why? The team known to be the go-to operation to close Gitmo has also proven some success in getting terrorists released from the ‘other’ Gitmo, the prison(s) in Colorado that actually has more detainees than Gitmo.

These wars across the globe against terror networks involves hundreds of thousands of fighters, hence in begs the question, who no capture and interrogate? Is killing the via drone since all ground hostilities have been terminated effective? Terror cells have grown exponentially including al Nusra, Daesh, AQAP, Boko Harem and more. Their operating territory has expanded in the last 6 years as well.

Here are some facts that cannot be disputed.

If you knew who was behind “Close-Gitmo” push, you’d be shocked

On Saturday, January 11, a coalition of “Close-Gitmo” forces is expected to march on Washington to commemorate the 12th anniversary of detention and interrogation operations.

Though the march from the White House to the National Museum of American History is purportedly about advancing “human rights” and “stopping torture,” a closer look at the key participants reveals a more troubling, some might say hidden, agenda.

If more Americans knew who is behind this campaign, there would be nationwide outrage.

While everyone is for “human rights” and “stopping torture,” Americans should not be fooled by these false flags meant to damage U.S. power and prestige.

Dig a little deeper into who has been driving the anti-Gitmo disinformation campaign these past 12 years, and you will discover an international, fervently anti-American, far-left coalition attacking the nation through a savvy propaganda effort.

Just dig a little deeper into who has been driving the anti-Gitmo disinformation campaign these past 12 years, and we discover an international, fervently anti-American, far-left coalition attacking the nation through a savvy propaganda effort.

This includes those linked to Al Qaeda financiers, communist groups, anarchist movements – backed by sympathetic press and politicians.

Regrettably, it’s a coalition President Barack Obama has sided with in his priority to release as many Al Qaeda, Taliban and “affiliates” as humanly possible.

Let’s take a look at the key players:

Amnesty International. Along with Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International was revealed as partner organization to Al Karama, a human rights non-profit run by Qatar’s Abdul Rahman Omeir Al-Naimi.

Al-Naimi was recently exposed by the U.S. Treasury Department in December 2013 as a long-term major financier of Al Qaeda.  According to an expose by Eli Lake in the Daily Beast, “Terrorists for Human Rights,” the Treasury Department’s designation said he, “oversaw the transfer of hundreds of thousands of dollars to Al Qaeda and its affiliates in Iraq, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen over the last 11 years.”

Center for Constitutional Rights. CCR was founded by far-left civil rights lawyer William Kunstler in the 1960s, a man who told the press his goal was to “destroy society from within.”

Kunstler represented the “Chicago 7,” a group that was charged with conspiracy to start a riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention, and later he defended domestic militant/terror groups like the Black Panthers, Weather Underground, and Attica Prison Rioters.

CCR is currently funded by groups like the “1848 Foundation,” named after the year Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto was published and revolutions swept through Europe.

Kunstler would be proud of CCR’s signature work over the past decade in coordinating the “Gitmo Bar Association” of 500 lawyers representing detainees.

Reprieve. A British organization led by blogger Andy Worthington, it pressures release of British citizens and residents.  Ethiopia’s Binyam Mohammed, a British resident, allegedly plotted to blow up high rise apartment buildings in the U.S. with a dirty bomb; Ruhal Ahmed, Asif Iqbal, and Shafiq Rasul, a.k.a., the Tipton Three, ethnic Pakistanis went to fight for jihad in Afghanistan but were caught by the Northern Alliance in Nov. 2001; and Shaker Aamer, a Saudi citizen with British residence, alleged to have led a unit of Al Qaeda fighters in Tora Bora, and reportedly a former close associate of Usama Bin Laden, shoe-bomber Richard Reid and 20th hijacker, Zacharias Moussaoui.

World Can’t Wait. This organization is believed to have been founded by members and supporters of the Revolutionary Communist Party & Anarchists. It organized at least 24,000 supporters during Iraq War, including actor Sean Penn and anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan.

Jason Leopold. Leopold is a former Los Angeles Times investigative journalist with a checkered past.  According to Fox News media critic Howard Kurtz, writing in a 2005 Washington Post feature, “Leopold says he engaged in ‘lying, cheating and backstabbing,’ is a former cocaine addict, served time for grand larceny, repeatedly tried to kill himself and has battled mental illness his whole life.”

So these are the folks Mr. Obama and Democrats in Congress are trying to appease by releasing more Gitmo detainees?

Nearly half the current population of 155 may be freed under the National Defense Authorization Act of 2014.

It would be comical if the stakes weren’t so high.

We’ve already seen Al Qaeda re-take Fallujah, site of the Iraq War’s bloodiest battles, just two years after Mr. Obama’s ordered withdrawal.  And Al Qaeda and/or “affiliates” killed our Ambassador and three other Americans in Benghazi.

Speaking of which, a Fox News report this week by Catherine Herridge reveals that the State Dept. will finally designate ex-Gitmo detainee, Libya’s Sufian Bin Qumu, and his group, Ansar Al-Sharia as “foreign terrorist entities” for their roles in the Benghazi Consulate attack.

Does Mr. Obama really think it’s in America’s security interests to free more terrorists from Gitmo, nearly one-third of whom have already returned to terrorism?

The silent majority must take this opportunity to speak up. Preventing the next Al Qaeda attack may depend on it.

J.D. Gordon is a retired Navy Commander who served as a Pentagon spokesman in the Office of the Secretary of Defense from 2005-09. He serves as senior adviser to several Washington-based think tanks.

***

Military tribunals have proved excruciatingly slow and imprisonment at Guantánamo hugely costly — $800,000 per inmate a year, compared with $25,000 in federal prison.

The criminal justice system, meanwhile, has absorbed the surge of terrorism cases since 2001 without calamity, and without the international criticism that Guantánamo has attracted for holding prisoners without trial. A decade after the Sept. 11 attacks, an examination of how the prisons have handled the challenge of extremist violence reveals some striking facts:

Lengthy sentences. Terrorists who plotted to massacre Americans are likely to die in prison. Faisal Shahzad, who tried to set off a car bomb in Times Square in 2010, is serving a sentence of life without parole at the Supermax, as are Zacarias Moussaoui, a Qaeda operative arrested in 2001, and Mr. Reid, the shoe bomber, among others. But many inmates whose conduct fell far short of outright terrorism are serving sentences of a decade or more, the result of a calculated prevention strategy to sideline radicals well before they could initiate deadly plots.

¶ Special units. Since 2006, the Bureau of Prisons has moved many of those convicted in terrorism cases to two special units that severely restrict visits and phone calls. But in creating what are Muslim-dominated units, prison officials have inadvertently fostered a sense of solidarity and defiance, and set off a long-running legal dispute over limits on group prayer. Officials have warned in court filings about the danger of radicalization, but the Bureau of Prisons has nothing comparable to the deradicalization programs instituted in many countries.

¶ Quiet releases. More than 300 prisoners have completed their sentences and been freed since 2001. Their convictions involved not outright violence but “material support” for a terrorist group; financial or document fraud; weapons violations; and a range of other crimes. About half are foreign citizens and were deported; the Americans have blended into communities around the country, refusing news media interviews and avoiding attention.

About 40 percent of terrorism cases since the Sept. 11 attacks have relied on informants, by the count of the Center on Law and Security at New York University, which Ms. Greenberg headed until earlier this year. In such cases, the F.B.I. has trolled for radicals and then tested whether they were willing to plot mayhem — again, a pre-emptive strategy intended to ferret out potential terrorists. But in some cases prosecutors have been accused of overreaching.

Do we really want to close Gitmo? Do we really want to keep these terrorists in prisons around the homeland? They are quietly being released by the Justice Department while being radicalized still during their prison terms. Do you know where they are now?

UPDATE: No Access to 2,500 Documents IRS to WH

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Update:  12/3/14 It seems that Treasury Secretary Jack Lew has intervened with the court’s decision forcing release of these documents. The White House is also working over-time to ensure the Judge’s ruling is impeded. This is more law-FARE.

Here is the link for more on this developing matter. Collusion and obstruction are being realized.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/feds-balk-at-releasing-docs-showing-irs-sharing-tax-returns-with-white-house/article/2556890#.VH9yMn7mYv0.twitter

 

It begins with a FOIA lawsuit, then comes a ruling, then comes the Inspector General. It should be noted that those guilty is actually per document, per count. Congressional hearings are scheduled.

September 30, 2014                                                Mary Beth Hutchins, 202-400-2721

Cause of Action Defeats Treasury IG Tax Office in FOIA Lawsuit

Court Rules that TIGTA Must Process FOIA Request Regarding Investigations Into

Tax Records Improperly Shared with the President

WASHINGTON –The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled Monday that the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) must process an October 9, 2012 Cause of Action Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking documents about investigations into unauthorized disclosures of taxpayer information to the Executive Office of the President.

Cause of Action’s Executive Director Dan Epstein said:

The court has ruled that the federal government cannot hide behind confidentiality laws to prevent Americans from knowing if our President has gained unauthorized access to their tax information. This is a decisive win for all Americans and for government transparency and accountability. The public already knows the President uses FOIA to shield his targeting of the press and this ruling prevents the President from using FOIA to shield his targeting of taxpayers.

Revealed: 2,500 new documents in IRS / W.H. harassment cases

In a shocking revelation, the Treasury Inspector General has identified some 2,500 documents that “potentially” show taxpayer information held by the Internal Revenue Service being shared with President Obama’s White House.

The discovery was revealed to the group Cause of Action, which has sued for access to any of the documents. It charges that the IRS and White House have harassed taxpayers.

In an email from the Justice Department’s tax office, an official revealed the high number of documents, suggesting that the White House was hip deep in probes of taxpayers, likely including conservatives and Tea Party groups associated with the IRS scandal.

In requesting a delay in the delivery date of the documents, Justice told Cause of Action, “The agency [Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration] has located 2,500 potentially responsive documents and anticipates being able to finish processing 2,000 of these pages by the December 1 date. It needs the additional two weeks to deal with the last 500 pages to determine if they are responsive and make any necessary withholdings.”

Cause of Action, which calls itself “Advocates for Government Accountability,” wasn’t surprised by the number of documents. It had filed suit to win access to them and a federal judge shot down Treasury’s earlier bid to hide the documents.

“This disclosure, coming only after Cause of Action sued TIGTA over its refusal to acknowledge whether such investigations took place, and after the court ordered TIGTA to reveal whether or not documents existed, signals that the White House may have made significant efforts to obtain taxpayers’ personal information,” it said in a statement to Secrets.

The disclosure follows the agency’s recovery of 30,000 “lost” emails from former IRS executive Lois Lerner, the central figure in the IRS-Tea Party scandal.

Cause of Action said the latest finding renews their “concerns about the decaying professionalism of, and apparent slip into partisanship by, IRS’s senior leadership.”

Below is the full email from Treasury:

My client wants to know if you would consent to a motion pushing back (in part) TIGTA’s response date by two weeks to December 15, 2014. The agency has located 2,500 potentially responsive documents and anticipates being able to finish processing 2,000 of these pages by the December 1 date. It needs the additional two weeks to deal with the last 500 pages to determine if they are responsive and make any necessary withholdings. We would therefore like to ask the court to permit the agency to issue a response (including production) on December 1 as to any documents it has completed processing by that date, and do the same as to the remaining documents by December 15. I note that the court’s remand was for a “determin[ation],” which the D.C. Circuit has recently explained can precede actual production by “days or a few weeks,” but we would prefer to simply agree on a date for turning over any of the remaining 500 documents that may be responsive.

18 page lawsuit is here in full text.

Jihad John, the Beheader had Support Network

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Jihadi John’s British terror ring smashed as cops uncover a network stretching across the UK

An intelligence expert has told how evidence has been discovered showing a dozen or more suspects have been helping the ISIS executioner

Terror network: Jihadi John

Security agents who spent months tracking a UK terror network supporting Jihadi John uncovered a chilling web of evil stretching from West Yorkshire to the South East.

An intelligence expert has told how evidence has been discovered showing a dozen or more suspects have provided the Islamic State executioner with “money, contacts, and facilitated travel to Syria”.

The revelation comes after agents compiled one the “most extensive dossiers” on those behind the British killer whose identity is known by MI5 and the FBI.

Our source revealed all of his friends and contacts in Britain had been identified and that a web had been uncovered “stretching from Dewsbury to London”.

An intelligence expert commented: “Those supporting this terrorist face a simple choice – either co-operate with inquiries or face the full force of the justice system. There is nowhere to hide.”

Nowhere to hide: Jihadi John

Counter-terror police officers acting on US intelligence have found and tracked suspected members of his terror support network in the UK.

The Sunday Mirror understands up to a dozen suspects have already been targeted by the authorities.

Last month the FBI confirmed they knew Jihadi John’s true identity but details have deliberately not been made public while intelligence officers continue to monitor the movements and electronic ­communication of his alleged helpers.

Some of the suspects were already known to British security services and have been linked to previous UK-based Islamic terror plots.

It is also understood that friends of Birmingham-born Junaid Hussain, one of Jihadi John’s close associates in a gang of British IS fighters dubbed “The Beatles”, have been co-operating with intelligence officers.

A US intelligence source close to the investigation said: “The emphasis has been to track down the support network around the British IS executioner because we know they are still communicating with him.

“There has been success in this approach and our monitoring techniques have exposed British members of a tight network that is actively sending funds and resources to IS fighters in Iraq and Syria.

“Familiar names of known jihadists have cropped up again and again in this investigation.”

Former London rapper Abdel – Majed Abdel Bary, 23 – shares several physical attributes with the killer and had been considered a suspect.

But voice recognition experts believe it is not him.

There has also been confusion over whether the man seen talking in the beheading videos is the same person who carried out the executions.

Crucial clues have been provided by US analysts who have used advanced facial recognition technology to literally unmask the killer.

Using only the man’s eyes — the only part of his face left uncovered in the video – they have pieced together a photofit style picture of what they say lies underneath the mask.

The forensic officials created two versions of the likeness: one clean shaven and another with a moustache.

The US source said: “High-tech imaging techniques have been used, but it is still only a very good guess at what the killer could look like.”

Other experts are using the IS beheading videos to determine exactly where and when the Western hostages were beheaded.

US experts now say it is possible that two militants appear in the video. Both dressed in the same black garb, they could be switching places between frames.

In the James Foley video, the man speaking has a pistol holster underneath his left arm — a sign that he is right-handed. But the masked fighter who beheaded Foley did so with his left hand.

In another sign of inconsistency, the knife the man held at the start of the video does not appear to be the same  knife shown next to Foley’s decapitated body.

Two weeks ago Jihadi John, believed to have beheaded two British and  two American hostages, was reported to have been injured in a US-led air strike.

The masked ‘executioner’ with a London accent is believed to have narrowly escaped death when he attended a summit of the group’s leaders in an Iraqi town close to the Syrian border last Saturday.

Jihadi John is reported to have been rushed to hospital after the air strike in Al Qaim, in Anbar Province, Western Iraq.

The Foreign Office said: “We don’t have any representation inside Syria, so it is difficult to confirm these reports.”

The joint US-Iraqi mission left at least 10 IS commanders dead and around 40 injured.

IS members issued urgent calls through the local mosque’s loudspeakers, appealing for the town’s residents to donate blood at the hospital.

Jihadi John has become one of the world’s most hunted terrorists after the beheading of British aid workers David Haines, 44, from Perth, and Alan Henning, 47, from Manchester, as well as American journalists James Foley, 40, Steven Sotloff, 31, Peter Kassig, 26, and an unknown Syrian soldier.

Unlike most other western Muslim recruits, Jihadi John has risen to a ­position of some seniority.

Normally, Western fighters occupy lowly positions. He is believed to have been a prison guard for IS and has risen to be a member of a shura council, or governing body, of an IS ‘wilayat’, or province.

Jihadi John is aged between 28 and 31, and is fluent in English, Arabic and classical Arabic, the language of the Koran.

He first joined IS in Iraq when he left the UK, but then moved to Syria.

He is said to travel around in a black Audi jeep, and has six other British terrorists with him who act as his  bodyguards.

***

But America has the same issues as noted below.

U.S. federal prosecutors have charged two young American men from Minnesota, one of whom is in the Middle East fighting, with supporting the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militant.

Somali Americans Abdi Nur, 20, and Abdullahi Yusuf, 18, were charged with “conspiracy to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, namely, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS),” Assistant Attorney General John Carlin said.

Abdi Nur, who traveled on May 29 to Turkey, through which many Islamist militant pass en route to fight with ISIS, was to have returned to the United States on June 16 but did not, the statement added.

Yusuf was arrested on his way to school at Inver Hills Community College. His attorney argued for his release during a Tuesday hearing in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis, noting he had been going to school and work despite knowing for months that he was under investigation. But a magistrate judge ordered him held until a detention hearing Wednesday.

“More than 16,000 recruits from over 90 countries traveled to Syria to become foreign terrorist fighters with alarming consequences,” said Carlin.

“This is a global crisis and we will continue our efforts to prevent Americans from joining the fight and to hold accountable those who provide material support to foreign terrorist organizations,” he added. “With these two defendants, we have now charged more than 15 individuals with offenses related to the foreign fighter threat in Syria.”

Yusuf in Minneapolis sought an expedited U.S. passport for his trip to Turkey, but could not give an itinerary or explain the source of his funds for his trip, as he was unemployed, authorities said.

Yusuf’s parents – who authorities said didn’t know about their son’s plans – attended Tuesday’s court hearing but declined to speak to The Associated Press.
ISIS emerged in Syria’s war in the spring of 2013.

The militants proclaimed a “caliphate” in June after seizing swathes of Iraq and Syria.

UN Just Got the Memo on Ansar al Sharia

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The United Nations has something call Blue Sheets which are immediate notices of concern as they often reference threats. The UN also has their own list of terror cells, organizations and individual terrorists by name.

The State Department also authors a SETL, Security Environment Threat List and the United Nations is part of the distribution list. Libya has been included on more than one SETL. For reference, this is what action is required by virtue of a SETL.

While the United States was quite slow for unknown reasons to list Ansar al Sharia on the terror list until February of 2014, the United Nations did not add Ansar al Sharia until this month, November 2014. Why you ask? Ah, the short answer is diplomacy.

Alas, it appears that after years, Libya has been officially recognized by the United Nations, so now what is the solution? None on the horizon.

UN Security Council adds Libya Islamists to terror list

United Nations (United States) (AFP) – The UN Security Council on Wednesday added to its terror list a Libyan Islamist group accused of involvement in the 2012 attack on the US mission in Benghazi that killed the ambassador and three other Americans.

The council blacklisted Ansar al-Sharia for its ties to Al-Qaeda, slapping an arms embargo, assets freeze and global travel ban on the extremists at the request of Britain, France and the United States.

The measure targets Ansar al-Sharia Benghazi and its sister group Ansar al-Sharia Derna, which both have links to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and other violent radical outfits.

In October, Ansar al-Sharia Derna pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (IS), the Islamist group that has seized control of territory in Iraq and Syria.

French Ambassador Francois Delattre said the decision would provide a boost to efforts by UN special envoy Bernardino Leon to broker a deal between Libya’s many militias and the government.

“This is an important decision because it draws a clear line between, on the one hand, jihadists with whom there can be no dialogue, and on the other, those Libyan groups — Islamist and others — that must take part in talks launched by special envoy Bernardino Leon,” Delattre told AFP.

Since 2012, the Benghazi wing has operated several training camps mainly to help armed groups in Iraq and Syria and to a lesser extent in Mali, according to the request filed by the three countries.

Twelve of the 24 jihadists who attacked the Algerian In Amenas gas complex in 2013 trained in the camps of Ansar al-Sharia in Benghazi, Libya’s second city, documents said.

More recently, the group has conducted several attacks on Libyan security forces, it added.

Ansar al-Sharia Derna also took part in the September 2012 attack on the US mission and is operating camps in the northeastern Derna and Jebel Akhdar regions to train fighters for Iraq and Syria.

A third sister group, Ansar al-Sharia Tunisia, was added to the UN terror list in September.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told a meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in September that the group should face sanctions as part of efforts to prevent Libya from sliding further into violence.

The UN effort to broker a deal with various militias and the government on restoring order in Libya led to a 12-hour humanitarian ceasefire in Benghazi earlier on Wednesday.

Libyan authorities have struggled to assert control across a country awash with weapons and powerful militias after the ouster of longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi in a 2011 revolt.

Libya’s internationally recognized government has been forced to take refuge in the country’s far east to escape a mainly Islamist coalition which seized control of Tripoli at the end of August.

***

Due in part to oil investments in Libya, the West takes extreme measures when it comes to Libya, while it is a failed state with no standing government.

So it takes experts to declare Libya is a rogue state? Just what experts exactly? Logical analysis is fleeting.

Islamic State has toehold in lawless Libya, experts say

TRIPOLI, Libya — With Libya engulfed in chaos, the town of Derna in the east of the largely lawless country is emerging as a new stronghold for the Islamic State jihadist group, experts say.

The North African state has been wracked by instability since the overthrow of autocratic leader Moamer Kadhafi in 2011, providing a fertile ground for Islamic extremists.

IS fighters have already swept across Iraq and Syria, and their leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi recently boasted of vows of allegiance from militants in Libya, Egypt, Algeria, Yemen and Saudi Arabia.

Some Western observers consider Derna, a town of 150,000, to be the home of a third IS franchise in North Africa, after Jund al-Khilifa in Algeria and Egypt’s Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis declared their support earlier this year.

“The Islamic State is in Derna. It’s well documented. There’s no doubt,” said Othman Ben Sassi, a former member of the now-disbanded Transitional National Council, the political arm of the rebellion that overthrew Kadhafi.

The jihadist group is exploiting “the absence of state authority and porous borders,” he added.

Statements and images have for several weeks circulated on extremist forums claiming to depict gatherings of “Libyan jihadists” belonging to IS — prompting concern in Washington.

“We have seen reports that violent extremists (in Libya) have pledged allegiance to IS and are looking to associate themselves with it,” said State Department spokesman Jeffrey Rathke.

Libyan authorities have struggled to control militant groups as well as powerful militias which ousted Kadhafi, and the internationally recognized government has been forced to take refuge in the far east of the oil-rich country.

‘Ideological fight’
Derna and large areas of Benghazi, Libya’s second city, have served as strongholds for radical groups including Ansar al-Sharia, which is classified by the UN as a terrorist organization.

In April, an offshoot of the group announced it had implemented Islamic sharia law in Derna.

The self-proclaimed “Shura Council of Islamic Youth” has reportedly opened Islamic courts and established a religious police force in the town.

Dozens of masked members have appeared in military fatigues, regularly parading in pick-up trucks brandishing rocket launchers and heavy machine guns and toting the black and white flag used by jihadists.

In August the Shura Council posted a video online appearing to show the public execution in a Derna football stadium of an Egyptian man accused of murder.

But the group has yet to formally pledge allegiance to IS, and analysts say there are divisions within its ranks.

“Several extremists in Derna are attracted to IS. But the majority of senior jihadists in Libya are former al-Qaeda members and there is an ideological fight between IS and al-Qaeda partisans,” said a Libyan expert on jihadists who did not want to be named.

The UN this month branded Ansar al-Sharia a terrorist organization owing to its affiliation with al-Qaeda’s North African franchise.

“The decision was based on reliable intelligence,” the Libyan expert said. “Ansar al-Sharia has closer ties to al-Qaeda than to any other group.”

‘Islamic emirate’
According to Claudia Gazzini, Libya analyst at International Crisis Group, some Derna factions have pledged allegiance to IS, but it is unclear which ones and how much support they enjoy.

“There is a misguided tendency to automatically associate the establishment of Islamic courts and the killings of soldiers with an IS agenda,” she said.

Derna was already considered by many analysts to be a de-facto “Islamic emirate”, entirely free from state control, before the reported claims of allegiance to IS.

The town has long been suspected of harboring and training foreign fighters who then go on to fight in Iraq and Syria, where IS has declared a “caliphate” and imposed its harsh interpretation of Islamic law.

“There are factions in Derna who reportedly swore allegiance to IS in the search for a group that could unify the Muslim community,” said a former Libyan official who also asked not to be named for security reasons.

“But ideological differences between jihadist groups and the international coalition offensive against IS means these factions have so far opted for discretion, or have gone to fight in Iraq and Syria,” the former official added.

According to one resident of Derna, life in the town goes on largely as normal — for most people.

“You go out, you do your chores, you visit friends. No one bothers you,” the resident said.

“But if you are a policeman, a soldier or a lawyer, you’re dead.

 

Money, People, Bribes, Politicians and Islamic State

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The U.S. Treasury maintains a sophisticated global banking network that tracks money for laundering, destinations, use, recipients and interim banks. But why is the top person in charge of tracking dark money not using the tools when it comes to the increasing wealth of Islamic State? The answer is chilling.

Corruption Currents: Islamic State Receives Millions in Ransom Payments

Bribery:

Brazil’s bribery probe of Petrobras SA is threatening the firm’s debt financing. A suspect in the scandal turned himself in. (Bloomberg, AP)

The former chief executive of a Virginia defense contractor pleaded guilty to providing gratuities to a federal contracting official, and the company agreed to pay a $300,000 fine. (Washington Post)

Fewer Filipinos are giving bribes, according to a survey, but opposition politicians doubted the findings. (Philippine Star, Philippine Daily Inquirer, ABS-CBN News, Manila Standard-Today)

Tom Fox navigates resource reductions, spots the Chamber of Commerce defending the FCPA and discusses doing business in India. The FCPA Blog notes a purge of ad men in China and reports on recent remarks from the SFO director. The FCPAProfessor runs a guest post about challenges in pursuing bribe-takers.

Fraud:

A grand jury found that fraud persists in programs meant to bring New York contracts to businesses owned by women and minorities. (NY Times)

Money Laundering:

An Indian regulator tightened regulations targeting money laundering. (Economic Times)

The founder and former president of a community bank was sentenced to two years in federal prison for bank fraud and money laundering. (AP)

A senior executive FIFA’s ticketing and hospitality partner could be jailed if he returns to Brazil to await trial for charges including money laundering, racketeering and illegally selling World Cup tickets. The executive denies the charges. (Bloomberg)

Iran and China agreed to fight money laundering together, Iranian media reported. (FARS)

A Thai court extended detention for family members accused of helping their “big brother,” a former top police official, launder bribes. The two denied the allegations. Thai police say the “big brother” confessed to the charges, including soliciting bribes for job appointments and allowing illegal gambling and oil smuggling. (Bangkok Post, AP)

Sanctions:

Republicans are fuming about the Iran nuclear talks extension. Both sides are racing to sign a deal before the new, Republican-controlled Congress takes office. Oman has played a low-key but important role in the negotiations. (National Journal, NY Times, Guardian, ABC News, BuzzFeed)

The extension in talks leaves a U.N. atomic agency probe in limbo; it needs more money to continue the investigation. (Reuters, Reuters)

A European court awarded damages, for the first time, in a sanctions case. (European Sanctions)

Terrorism Finance:

The Islamic State has received between $35 million and $45 million in ransom payments in the past year, a U.N. report said. (AP)

How can a bank know if it’s holding money for a terrorist? (Top Broker)

General Anti-Corruption:

China’s corruption watchdog launched a series of inspections of state-owned enterprises and government bodies, state media reported. (Reuters)

FIFA’s general secretary said the body will need years to repair its reputation. (NY Daily News, AP, Reuters)

The first tennis official to be banned for life from the sport for corruption said he’s innocent and is being used as a scapegoat. (Bloomberg)

What do you do when corruption is treated as part of the business process? (HR Reporter)

Corrupt politicians only suffer when there are local media organizations to report on it. (Nieman Lab)

***

No Blacklist Yet for Islamic State Banks

Why the United States isn’t using its biggest financial weapon against banks in the Islamist militant group’s territory.

In June, the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) militants inspired fear and awe when they swept into Iraq’s second-biggest city, Mosul, and reports spread that they looted the city’s banks and walked away with more than $400 million.

Those claims were later contested, but the group’s reputation for being not only savagely violent, but also incredibly wealthy, was already set. In July, the Financial Times reported that armed guards from the Islamic State, as the group later renamed itself, were stationed outside the banks, but that the banks’ coffers had not been pillaged.

Over the summer, the United States continued blacklisting members of the group and its supporters, but not the financial institutions in territory under Islamic State control. The Treasury Department traces its efforts against the group and its predecessor, al Qaeda in Iraq, back to 2004. In August, the United States froze the assets of three key terrorist financiers, one of whom allegedly helped funnel money through Kuwait to ISIL, as the U.S. government calls the group.

In September, 11 more names of individuals were added to the list for allegedly helping move funds and fighters to facilitate terrorist organizations from Iraq to Indonesia. Still, the banks that were so brazenly overrun in Mosul and those in the rest of Islamic State-controlled territory were never named. The reasoning behind that decision illustrates how fraught the U.S. fight to disrupt the Islamic State’s funding has been, as even the best U.S. tools for fighting terrorist financing are ill-suited to the task.

The Islamic State evolved out of earlier extremist groups in the region and improved upon their financial models as it grew. Instead of relying mostly on outside donations, the Islamic State earns most of its money through criminal activity — from oil smuggling to kidnapping — within the territory it controls, which makes it less reliant on the formal financial system. The group’s ability to make money in the illegal financial sector using cash for dealings in stolen oil and antiquities means it is less vulnerable to the biggest weapon the United States uses to go after its enemies’ finances: shutting down the banks, accountants, and middlemen that keep the money flowing.

On Thursday the Obama administration will face questions from Republican lawmakers about U.S. attempts to undercut the Islamic State’s funding. Treasury Department anti-terrorism finance chief David Cohen is set to testify before the House Financial Services Committee.

Texas Republican Jeb Hensarling, the committee chairman, said the hearing would “examine the adequacy of international banking policies to combat the new challenges that the Islamic State and groups like it present.”

In remarks prepared for Thursday’s hearing, Cohen states that the United States is working with “Iraqi authorities, Iraqi bank headquarters, and the international financial community to prevent ISIL from using the scores of bank branches located in territories where it operates.

“The results of this work have begun to show,” Cohen’s remarks state. “We’ve seen a decline in financial activity in areas where ISIL operates, and banks under ISIL influence are losing their access to the international financial system.”

Cohen is also expected to say that U.S.-led airstrikes are taking a toll on the Islamic State’s oil smuggling operations. Since mid-June, the group reportedly has been taking in $1 million a day in illicit oil revenue, but Cohen says that the bombing has lessened the haul to “several million dollars a week” — an imprecise figure, to be sure.

According to Cohen, the United States is also trying to improve its ability to track the extremist group’s money: “We are working with our counterparts in the intelligence community to ramp up collection on ISIL’s finances.”

In addition, the United States is combing through financial data for potential connections to the Islamic State. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network is assisting in the effort by looking at the data the agency collects in the United States and through the agency’s connections with international financial intelligence-gathering institutions, a spokesman for the agency said Tuesday.

The risk of the Islamic State using the banks to move money internationally has to be weighed against the possible effect on the local population if Treasury tries to cut off those institutions. In a speech last month, Cohen acknowledged that the United States was not using its biggest weapon — shutting banks out of the financial system — against the institutions that had fallen into the hands of the extremists for exactly that reason.

“Our interest is not in shutting down all the economic activity in the areas where ISIL normally operates,” Cohen said. “They are subjugating huge swaths of the population, millions of people, who are still trying to live their lives. And banks, as everybody knows, are important lubricants for the economy.”

Vanda Felbab-Brown, an expert on illicit money at the Brookings Institution, said there are more than humanitarian factors to consider; the United States also doesn’t want to anger locals and push them closer to the extremists.

“At the end of the day what will make a difference in debilitating ISIL will be how much the local population turns against the group,” Felbab-Brown said. “This very tempting desire to shut down the financial system will tremendously worsen the lives of people that are already living in desperation.”

Felbab-Brown said that Somalia taught the United States that lesson. The United States sanctioned al-Shabab in 2010 as a terrorist group, but the move also scared humanitarian organizations out of the country just as a devastating famine was bearing down. Although many blamed the resulting suffering and starvation on al-Shabab, concerns grew that the anger and frustration would push more people toward the militant group.

Felbab-Brown praised the Treasury Department’s careful approach.

“The good thing about Shabab and ISIL is that they’re very heavy-handed and tend to really overplay their hand in terms of violence to the local population,” Felbab-Brown said. Without interference, that violence often becomes intolerable and eats away at the group’s local political support.

“One has to judge very carefully the likelihood of making a difference,” Felbab-Brown said. “And what are the political effects of any policy.”

Dennis Lormel, who led the FBI’s terrorism-financing investigations after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, said the United States doesn’t want to give the extremists an opening to demonstrate leadership.

“If they come out because they have the money to fund social programs that help the local economy and help the people, then they’re going to tout that and they’re going to demonstrate that they care and that the West doesn’t care,” Lormel said. “And they’ll use that as a recruitment tool.”

Perhaps acknowledging the importance of keeping the local economy going, if only so the group can continue extorting money from it, the Islamic State reportedly reopened the banks in Mosul in September, three months after it took control of them. Local reports said the Sunni militants allowed certain account holders to take out money, subject to the approval of an Islamic State committee and a hefty fee off the top.

Some analysts speculate that Treasury could also be keeping the banks open in order to glean intelligence that could help paint a clearer financial picture of the group.

“It’s considered to be more useful to try to watch what’s going on rather than to take some hard, punitive action right away and disrupt the process before you understand how it works and leverage your understanding,” said Patrick Johnston, a counterterrorism expert with the Rand Corp.

Even if the banks were blacklisted, though, it’s not clear that would keep the group from using them.

“They actually could be quite useful for ISIL without even having any real ability to transact with any foreign entity,” Johnston said.

Johnston said the conundrum for the United States is that even if they were to be cut off from the international financial system, the banks could be used to store and transfer money within the group’s territory for much the same reasons of efficiency and security that make banks a preferable way to move money in other countries.

“It really shows the challenge ahead of Treasury as much as anything else,” Johnston said.