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Iraq Insurgency Now Financially Self-Sustaining
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» basdini a répondu le Sun 26 Nov, 2006 @ 12:44am |
 Coolness: 145290 | NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Iraq insurgency has become financially self-sustaining, raising tens of millions of dollars a year from oil smuggling, kidnapping, counterfeiting, corrupt charities and other crimes, The New York Times reported in Sunday editions.
According to a classified United States government report, a copy of which was obtained by the newspaper, groups responsible for many of the insurgent and terrorist attacks are raising an estimated $70 million to $200 million a year from illegal activities. Some $25 million to $100 million of the total comes from oil smuggling and other criminal activity involving the state-owned oil industry aided by "corrupt and complicit" Iraqi officials, the Times said, citing the report. As much as $36 million a year comes from ransoms paid over hundreds of kidnappings. Unnamed foreign governments -- identified in the past by senior U.S. officials as including France and Italy -- paid kidnappers $30 million in ransom last year alone, the report said. The Times also quoted the report as saying: "If recent revenue and expense estimates are correct terrorist and insurgent groups in Iraq may have surplus funds with which to support other terrorist organizations outside of Iraq." The report, completed in June, was provided to the newspaper by U.S. officials in Iraq who told the Times they had done so in hopes that the findings could improve U.S. understanding of the challenges faced in Iraq. According to the Times, the report holds out little hope that much can be done any time soon to stem the flow of funds to insurgents, acknowledging how little U.S. authorities in Iraq know about crucial aspects of insurgent operations. And it paints a bleak picture of the Iraqi government's ability, or willingness, to take the necessary measures to contain the insurgency's financing, the Times said. Some terrorism experts outside the government who were given an outline of the report by the Times criticized it for a lack of precision and a reliance on speculation, the newspaper noted. TERRORIST HAVEN The report was compiled by an interagency working group that is investigating the financing of militant groups in Iraq. A Bush administration official confirmed the group's existence and said it is studying how money was moved into and around the country, the Times said. The official said the group, led by the National Security Council, drew its members from the CIA, the FBI, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the State Department, the Treasury Department, and the United States Army's Central Command, which oversees the war in Iraq. The group is led by Juan Zarate, deputy national security adviser for combating terrorism. The report also concluded that the Iraqi insurgency no longer depends on the sums, in excess of $1 billion, that Saddam Hussein and his associates seized as his government collapsed. The possibility that Iraq-based terrorist groups could finance attacks outside Iraq appeared to echo Bush administration assertions that prevailing in the war is essential to preventing Iraq from becoming a terrorist haven as Afghanistan became under the Taliban, the Times said, adding that that suggestion was one of many aspects of the report that drew criticism from Western terrorism and counterinsurgency experts working outside the government. According to the Times, the report also said that U.S. efforts to follow the insurgency financing trails have been hampered by a weak Iraqi government and its new intelligence agencies; a lack of communication between U.S. agencies and between the Americans and the Iraqis; and the nature of the insurgent economy itself, chiefly driven by manual money transfers rather than more easily traceable means. |
| I'm feeling surly right now.. | |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» neoform a répondu le Sun 26 Nov, 2006 @ 1:26am |
 Coolness: 339755 | The only possible solution to this problem is to leave there now.. the problem is, this will result in Iraq being the worst place in the world to live. |
| I'm feeling newsique.com right now.. | |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» basdini a répondu le Sun 26 Nov, 2006 @ 1:41am |
| Coolness: 145290 | alot of people try to compare the situation with vietnam, i used to think that you could draw parallels, however now i'm begining to think that it may actually be much worse in iraq that vietnam ever was, the middle may be a terrible mess for the next 40 years because of the west's actions in iraq...
i think your right neoform, we seem to be in a really bad catch doubley-deuce, if we leave before the job is done (whatever that could be) then it's a mess if we stay we still don't have any way of fixing the situation... as my papy might say "son we're real scrawdadied here" we never should have gone in the first place. |
| I'm feeling surly right now.. | |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» neoform a répondu le Sun 26 Nov, 2006 @ 2:09am |
| Coolness: 339755 | i suppose one feasible idea would be to cut off any/all imports and exports of the country by having a massive embargo on all of Iraq's borders.. thereby cutting off all weapon supplies and essentially lock down the whole country..
but that doesn't do much but stop the supply of weapons for the insurgents.. it doesn't stop the reason why the insurgents are attacking.. |
| I'm feeling newsique.com right now.. | |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» nothingnopenope a répondu le Sun 26 Nov, 2006 @ 3:09pm |
 Coolness: 201315 | One problem is Iraq is a BIG country. Way bigger than vietnam. There are also 3 different groups that hate each others guts (the sunni, shiites and the kurds). It is a fucking mess.
The only way this could be resolved is if the USA stayed there for a LOOOONG time. I'm talking about 30 years or so. With the republican/democrat shifting politics of the American government, there is no way this will happen. In the end, the losers are the american taxpayers, who will ultimately have to cover the huge expense of this operation, and the Iraqi people, who are crewed no matter what happens. The should have just left the old dictator Saddam in place, as bad as he was, at least he was a secular dictator. Now the real nutjobs are going to try taking over. |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» neoform a répondu le Sun 26 Nov, 2006 @ 10:10pm |
| Coolness: 339755 | Iraq:
437,072 km² Pop: 28 million Vietnam: 331,688 km² Pop: 84 million And by the way, the losers here, are all the people who died. not the tax payers. |
| I'm feeling newsique.com right now.. | |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» nothingnopenope a répondu le Sun 26 Nov, 2006 @ 11:29pm |
| Coolness: 201315 | Yes thanks for proving my point that Iraq is a lot bigger.
The tax payers are losers because they are supporting a futile campaign. People dying is a tragedy, both on the Iraqi side and the American one (they have lost many troops, many of them young). |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» neoform a répondu le Mon 27 Nov, 2006 @ 8:09am |
| Coolness: 339755 | 100,000 km² is a lot bigger to you? that's a strip 100km wide and 1000km long extra.. |
| I'm feeling newsique.com right now.. | |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» nothingnopenope a répondu le Mon 27 Nov, 2006 @ 11:56am |
| Coolness: 201315 | 100,000 km² is a lot bigger to you?
yes |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» neoform a répondu le Mon 27 Nov, 2006 @ 12:22pm |
| Coolness: 339755 | considering Iran is next door and the US wants to attack.. I'd say they're a better frame of reference.. Iran is 5 times the size of Iraq. |
| I'm feeling newsique.com right now.. | |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» moondancer a répondu le Mon 27 Nov, 2006 @ 3:09pm |
 Coolness: 92355 | We're ALL the losers. Some more than others. Reminds me of a Cranberries song. |
| I'm feeling long gone right now.. | |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» Kishmay_Pinas a répondu le Tue 28 Nov, 2006 @ 1:14am |
 Coolness: 103345 | 100000 km2 is a huge amount of land |
| I'm feeling like a beer right now.. | |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» neoform a répondu le Tue 28 Nov, 2006 @ 8:30am |
| Coolness: 339755 | Considering it's all sand, not really. |
| I'm feeling newsique.com right now.. | |
Iraq Insurgency Now Financially Self-Sustaining
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