Mayor urges joint venture between investors and armed Marxist guerrillas

Rodrigo Duterte, mayor of the third largest city in the Philippines, is urging the Communist rebels to lease or sell 50,000 to 100,000 hectares of land to a group of Malaysian and Thai investors to use for a palm oil plantation.

According to the Philippine military, Marxist violence in that country led to the deaths of 3,000 people between 2001 and 2009. Yet Mayor Duterte thinks that local rebels in his city can be happily bought off with rents paid by foreign investors.

This is the same mayor who let it slip that he himself has paid revolutionary taxes to these insurgents (a common terrorist financing tactic), and he encouraged corporations to do the same. Just what kind of investors are these who would be willing to make such deals? One suspects that corruption between Duterte and this unnamed group of investors is afoot; backscratching is going. The only good news is that the Communist terrorists themselves don’t seem too interested Duterte’s corrupt deal.

It should be noted that the tendency of businessmen to cave into the demands of terrorists and pay them money is how ISIS rebuilt its capital before beginning to sweep down the Iraqi countryside.

From Davao Today in June:

Duterte urges rebels to engage in palm oil “joint venture” with Malaysian, Thai company

By JOHN RIZLE L. SALIGUMBA

June 13 2014

DAVAO CITY — Mayor Rodrigo Duterte urged New People’s Army guerillas to “bury your guns, or hang it on a tree” and engage into a joint business venture with a Malaysian and Thai entity that is looking for a 100,000-hectare area to plant oil palm and sesame seeds plantation.

With Paquibato District a known “stronghold” of the NPA in northern Davao City, Duterte said a plantation in their mid would be solely offered to the guerrillas to grab the opportunity.

“Wa ko mangayo nga ang NPA isurrender ilang armas, tagoan lang nila unya akoy mopagador, sabot mo kung pila ilang pangayuon sa yuta. Kay ilang paliton ang palm oil unya naay trabaho. (I do not ask the NPA to surrender their arms; they just have to hide it. You [NPA] should talk [to investors] how much [rent] you want for the land. They [investors] will buy it and provide jobs),” he said.

Duterte said if the NPA agreed, he guarantees to talk with President Benigno Simeon Aquino III and the Armed Forces of the Philippines about “closing” Paquibato.

“Inyo na, kamo diri ug mga NPA,” said Duterte during the 116^th Philippine Independence Day commemoration program he attended in Barangay Paquibato Proper, Paquibato District here.

Duterte was talking about his proposal several times since May this year but it was only lately that he gave the nationalities of the supposed investors. The size of the supposed plantation range from 50,000 to 100,000 hectares, which are figures given by Duterte himself in interviews with the media.

The NPA has not issued any statement yet on Duterte’s offer but the guerrillas have spoken against oil palm plantations in several statements.

The Communist Party of the Philippines refers to the NPA as “‘the tax enforcement agency of the people’s revolutionary government’ as it collects ‘revolutionary taxes’—especially from foreign-owned enterprises—in the regions where it operates.”

Terror-weary, IRA shifts to financial crime

Coming to terms with their faded, washed out political cause, ex-terrorists of the disbanded Irish Republican Army and their newer generation of recruits have turned to money laundering schemes, organized crime, drug trafficking, and other forms of financial crime.

Like the movie, “The Third Generation,” illustrated, after the wind goes out of the sails of a formerly principled revolutionary group, the newer followers turn to ruthless and petty trifles.

This is something of a cautionary tale for the way the world deals with terrorist organizations and rebel groups who have failed to carry out their main objectives. Is it better to finish them off once and for all, or to let them limp along through banditry? The problem with this case is that the bandits appear to have evolved into a permanent mafia class.

This commentary from the National Post in May sheds more light on the development:

…The more controversial British economic policy post-Thatcher was to effectively allow Sinn Fein’s military wing, the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), to launder the huge amounts of money it had acquired through high-profile bank robberies. This bounty was widely labelled by republicans as a pension fund — or pay settlement — for IRA members.

Instead of trying to recover the funds, the British government turned a blind eye and gave the IRA 10 years in which to legitimize the cash. This the IRA did, with property in parts of Dublin exchanging hands well above the market value. The laundering reached such heights that pubs on the outskirts of the city exchanged hands for millions of euros. While all this initially worked well for the IRA, the spectacular economic collapse of the Republic of Ireland, and in particular the property crash, meant that the ex-IRA members’ funds plunged in value.

British Intelligence agencies kept a close watch on the whole process, and became increasingly alarmed as members of the disbanded IRA turned to more traditional forms of organized crime — such as drug dealing and brothel management in order to make up for shortfalls caused by the financial crash. The absence of foreign organized crime syndicates in Northern Ireland (one of the few positive effects of the conflict) meant that opportunistic ex-IRA members were able to quickly fill this crime vacuum with relative ease.

Ex-loyalist paramilitaries had long since been involved in organized crime in loyalist areas of Northern Ireland. Indeed, much of the violence that has taken place in the so-called post-conflict era has been the result of “turf wars” between rival gangs of loyalists fighting over control of the lucrative illegal drugs markets…

Arab state cash: recommended news reading

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Bangladesh probes terror-linked sharia bank

The government of Bangladesh is reviewing a report from Islami Bank Bangladesh, Ltd. (IBBL) on its expenditures. Authorities will review whether IBBL has accurately disclosed the organizations to which it contributes money, and perhaps whether the bank maintains any accounts for individuals listed on international blacklists.

IBBL has previously been documented to have diverted profits to militant Islamist groups as a form of corporate zakat. The bank was also cited by the U.S. Senate as one of the financial institutions with which the British bank HSBC should not have been doing business with due to terror finance concerns.

Thanks to readers Talha, Ranel, Ononto, and MFS for sending in the news. This account comes from Bangladesh 24:

Govt is investigating Islami Bank’s spending

The government is looking into where the Islami Bank spends its profit, State Minister for Home Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal has said.

“Islami Bank already gave a report on how its profits are spent. The intelligence people have been instructed to look into whether there are any discrepancies in it,” said the minister.

He was speaking to reporters after emerging from a meeting of the ministry’s Antiterrorism Committee on Thursday.

Kamal said the government was monitoring a few other financial institutions, operated by the bank, accused of terrorist-financing.

“The key to terrorism is funds. If that can be traced then wiping out terrorism will be easier,” said the minister.

Islami Bank has been under international pressure in the last few years after a US Senate Committee report accused it of terrorist financing.

Banks like HSBC, Citi Bank NA and Bank of America have suspended transaction with it since then.

According to Bangladesh Bank officials, the bank maintained accounts of people, who were on the UN’s suspicious people’s list.

Islami Bank authorities did not disclose information of those accounts to the central bank…

The bank, widely believed to be supported by the Jamaat-e-Islami, has come under fire from pro-liberation forces for their alleged funding of Islamist groups.

The party itself is facing investigation of the International Crimes Tribunal for the crimes against humanity committed during the War of Independence.

The Board of Directors of the bank is always dominated by people linked to Jamaat-e-Islami.

According to claims of Islami Oikya Jote leaders, the incumbent Chairman Abu Naser Mohammad Abduz Zaher was a leader of Al-Badr, a vigilante group of Bengalis raised by Pakistani occupation army, in Chittagong.

Islami Bank’s former Vice-Chairman Mir Quasem Ali is a member of Jamaat central committee and now facing trial for alleged war crimes perpetrated during the 1971 Liberation War.

He is also the member (administration) of Islami Bank Foundation and a member of Ibn Sina Board of Trustee, an associate organisation of the bank.

Islami Bank’s former Chairman Shah Abdul Hannan is known to be closely linked to the party, which had opposed the nation’s independence from Pakistan in 1971.

Its Deputy Managing Director Syed Abdullah Md Saleh is the sibling of former Jamaat MP from Chouddagram, Syed Abdullah M Taher.

ISIS stealing everything but the kitchen sink

Ninevite officials allege that the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria have stolen utility infrastructure, furniture, city cars and lorries in a coordinated heist. It’s not so hard to believe; ISIS has stolen just about everything else, including oil wells, dams, and military equipment.

What’s interesting is that the looted municipal and residential property has been transported to Syria. One may have originally suspected that international sanctions against Syria would make it more difficult to re-sell the pilfered items in Syria than in the relatively open Iraqi economy. Apparently not.

Thanks to Brian for sending this in from Al-Shorfa on Aug. 14:

Ninawa tribes accuse ISIL of theft, smuggling

The Ninawa tribal council said Thursday (August 14th) the “Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant” (ISIL) has stolen public and private property from Iraqis and smuggled it to Syria.

“ISIL recently stole electric cords, light poles, electric appliances, office furniture, municipal vehicles and trucks from Mosul and transported them to Syria,” said Ninawa tribal council deputy head Ibrahim al-Hassan.

ISIL fighters also stole the contents of dozens of residential buildings and tourist complexes and sent them to Syria to be sold to smuggling gangs, he said.

The magnitude of the operations indicates they were part of a targeted plan, al-Hassan told Al-Shorfa.

Audio: Moscow funding Donbass militia

Russia claims its 260-truck convoy into eastern Ukraine was just delivering humanitarian aid, not weapons and supplies for pro-Russian fighters.

This would be a good time for a quick review of who has been financing the separatists from the outset of the conflict. Previous reports include:

• Money for the breakaway movement is passed through four Russian banks including state-owned Sberbank;
• Potentially billions of dollars worth of funding was and continues to be provided by former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovich;
• Reuters recently reported that weapons for the separatists come from Russia; and
• Pro-Russian forces claim their arms come from Ukrainian weapons depots.

Yet most signs suggest that catspaw elements in eastern Ukraine, such as the “Donbass People’s Militia,” receive funding on orders from the Kremlin. Here’s a report from Buzzfeed last month after the crash of Malaysia Airlines flight 17, which includes the possibility of a 5 percent tax on businesses to fund pro-Russian rebels:

Ukraine Says New Tapes Prove Russia Finances Rebels Who Shot Down Malaysian Plane

DONETSK, Ukraine — Ukraine says it has unearthed new evidence that the separatist militia in the country’s east shot down a Malaysian airliner last week and is funded from Russia, after releasing recordings of rebels discussing strategy and military movements.

Ukraine’s security service, the SBU, posted three recordings to YouTube on Friday that it said were phone taps of the separatists’ political leader, military commander, and the loose cannon rebel it alleges shot down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, killing all 298 on board. The new tapes could not be independently verified, though the content of some other conversations previously leaked by the SBU — some of which involve the same men — has been proven genuine.

The first tape purports to be a leaked phone conversation between Alexander Borodai, a Russian citizen and prime minister of the self-proclaimed “Donetsk People’s Republic,” and Alexei Chesnakov, a former senior figure in the Kremlin administration and deputy secretary of President Vladimir Putin’s party, United Russia. During the conversation, which has been edited, the men discuss financing the revolt against Kiev’s government with cash from Moscow and debate how to rein in the militia’s mercurial Russian commander, Igor Strelkov.

“The military situation sucks. You know and understand that,” says the man alleged to be Borodai. “The DNR [Donetsk People’s Republic] looks like a dick with Donetsk as the head and it’s not looking promising.”

The man alleged to be Borodai then discusses difficulties implementing a 5% tax on local business that he says is part of a plan prepared by the Russian presidential administration, and then asks the other man for more money.

“The biggest problem I have now is that I’m running out of dough,” he says. “Out of the 150 I took with me, they’re basically all gone, because I gave 50 to Zakhar, a million hryvnia [$85,000] to Igor [Strelkov], plus all the other expenses.”…

Why it was right to refuse James Foley’s ransom

ISIS demanded a $132 million ransom a week prior to their beheading of American journalist James Foley. The New York Times reports that the U.S. declined to pay.

Several commentators including David Rohde of Reuters and James Traub of Foreign Policy have taken the opportunity to question the so-called “U.S. and U.K.” policy against paying ransoms.

Actually, refusing to pay ransoms to terrorists isn’t just an idiosyncrasy of American and British policy; it is international law. UN Resolution 1904 forbids the payment of ransoms. Furthermore, an agreement by the G8 in 2013 pledged to refrain from paying ransoms.

The critics of the “U.S.” no-ransom policy omit this information either out of laziness or bias.  True, some European governments pay ransoms under the table, which is very damaging to international security, but that is in violation of international accords and their own publicly stated policies.

Transferring funds of any kind from the U.S. to ISIS would also constitute material support for a foreign terrorist organization under U.S. Code 2339B.

Not only is America prohibited from paying ransoms under international law, agreements, and domestic law, but it would also be foolish to pay ransoms to terrorist groups. Funding an enemy group that the U.S. Air Force is simultaneously carrying out missions against would be, to put it mildly, illogical. Paying ransoms to ISIS would also aid the enemy of Iraq–a nation that U.S. troops fought alongside with to protect from insurgent terrorism.

Moreover, paying ransoms only serves to increase the likelihood that Americans and other Westerners living or traveling in the Middle East will be kidnapped. Payments also drive up the price of the ransoms demanded.

Critics would have you believe that it’s time for “a debate” about paying ransoms. The debate came and went when Resolution 1904 passed the UN. The would-be ransom payers lost the debate back then.

In summary, abductions are tragic but they will be more commonplace if we started complying with ransom demands.

Financial war on terror: recommended reading

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Claim: al-Shabaab financiers tend to come from one clan

Money Jihad cannot confirm the accuracy of a recent claim that financiers of the al-Shabaab terrorist organization tend to come from the Hawiye—the dominant clan in Mogadishu.

A Somali news site says it investigated al-Shabaab’s funding for six months and identified 10 entrepreneurs from various Hawiye sub-clans working in Somalia, Kenya, and Dubai who allegedly fund al-Shabaab. Money from the businessmen is said to be routed through Sheikh Yusuf Sheikh Issa, a.k.a. “Kabkutukade,” but separate media accounts appear to contradict that statement by reporting that Kabkutukade was jailed a year ago.

There is some corroboration that one of the men named in the article, referred to as “Muse Mohammed Ganjab,” does indeed have militant connections. The Times recently reported that “Musa Haji Mohamed Ganjab,” an adviser to Somali president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, sent an arms shipment to al-Shabaab weeks after the terror siege of the Westgate mall in Nairobi, Kenya, and that he personally delayed an attack against an al-Shabaab base in Barawe.

There is also some indication of Hawiye roots and connections to al-Shabaab: the Jamestown Foundation says that the Islamic Union of Courts and its al-Shabaab offshoot were initially criticized as a Hawiye clan militia, the website Terror Free Somalia has previously noted that al-Shabaab’s sanctioned leaders are “mostly Hawiye,” and the Somalia Report says that al-Shabaab used to be referred to as a Hawiye clan based group. But it is also possible that some claims originate from rival clans, and al-Shabaab has members and supporters from non-Hawiye clans as well.

Nevertheless, the tribal connections are mostly immaterial, since al-Shabaab is, at its core, a jihadist group aligned primarily around its belief in fundamentalist Islam, and not along clan lineage.

Al-Shabaab profits from Somali telecom sector

Without a stable central government, Somalia’s telecommunications network has been unregulated for decades.  This has allowed for tremendous growth and fairly low prices for phone and Internet access in Somalia compared to neighboring countries.

However, this has also created a Wild West atmosphere of clan elders and businessmen in Mogadishu cutting deals with international—often Saudi-backed—telecommunications providers like Arabsat.  Arabsat is based in Saudi Arabia and is owned by the Arab League.  In addition to providing phone coverage, Arabsat’s satellites host television broadcasts by well-known hate channels Al Manar and Al-Aqsa.

The government of Somalia has made attempts recently to begin taxing and regulating the telecommunications industry, but the bigger factors at play are the taxes you don’t see.  Some evidence suggests that informal licenses are granted by warlords or businessmen in exchange for bribes paid behind the scenes.

Reporting from the Gulf News earlier this year went even farther, suggesting that the warlords allow the telecoms to over-charge customers so they can pocket the difference or pay off al-Shabaab too:

…By persuading other telcos worldwide to clip the ticket for them, these [Somali telecommunications providers] groups has [sic] become wealthy enough to avoid attempts by government and the regulatory International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to rein them in.

Not only do these groups exploit vulnerable customers charging them often beyond their means and disproportionate to costs, there are also suspicions that some sponsor the terrorist scourge, Al Shabaab.

By negotiating with foreign companies to charge above the usual rates and to put money collected into overseas funds, these “companies” avoid tax — and have sufficient clout to offer deals to favoured factions, or fund groups they believe will deliver a government suited to their economic or ideological aims…

There are also rumors of relationships between, or at least pressure exerted by, al-Shabaab on several specific Somali telecommunications companies including Hormuud Telecom.  RBC Radio reported this year that, “Al Shabab has closed down Hormuud Telecom Company’s branch in Jilib town, Middle Jubba region after the company failed to pay $50,000 which Al Shabab demanded from local companies,” and added that, “Extorting money from private business companies and aid agencies operating in Somalia is seen as the biggest source of investment for Al Shabab’s war with the government.”  Some sources have gone further, describing Hormuud as “al-Shabaab’s messenger” or “the phone of death” taking its cues from al-Shabaab.

In October 2011, Hormuud was allowed to remain in operation while two rival companies were closed by al-Shabaab.  One of those rivals, Nationlink Telecom, eventually reopened after allegedly paying $30,000 to al-Shabaab to resume operations.  An al-Shabaab member told the Somalia Report that non-cooperative companies would be forced to close “until their managers agree to pay taxation for the war against the infidels as well as the crusaders.”

While it is possible that some of the claims about the telecommunications business in Somalia have been exaggerated due to clan or business rivalries, former al-Shabaab commander Mohamed Farah Al-Ansari confirmed the role of extortion against Somali telecommunications companies in funding al-Shabaab in an interview with Voice of America last year.

There are enough grounds for concern that international investors and corporations would do well to examine any business deals with Somali telecommunications companies with the utmost caution.  Similar to the risks of doing business with the money transfer company Dahabshiil, the taint of al-Shabaab is simply too strong to ignore.

Islamic charity pleads guilty to tax fraud

Al Haramain, a Saudi-based international charity which once maintained its U.S. branch in Oregon, has pleaded guilty to tax fraud 14 years after filing a false return designed to conceal a $150,000 check issued to Chechen jihadists.

The Associated Press reported on July 29:

…On Tuesday, the charity pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Eugene to one count of filing a false tax return with the Internal Revenue Service. The group was placed on probation for three years, and it agreed during that time not to resume operating as a tax-exempt charity in the U.S., prosecutors said.

The charity failed to report to the Internal Revenue Service that a $150,000 donation in 2000 went overseas to Saudi Arabia and was meant to be sent to Chechnya, prosecutors said. The charity falsely reported on its tax return that the money was used partly to buy a building in the U.S.

The foundation was disbanded after the U.S. government declared it was a terrorist organization and froze its assets…

Far from being a lawless series of raids in the early- to mid-2000s against innocent Islamic charities that CAIR and the ACLU have depicted, the successful convictions against the Holy Land Foundation and guilty pleas such a this illustrate that the Bush-era crackdowns on front charities was legitimate.

As part of the plea deal, Al Haramain’s former U.S. director, Pete Seda, who was previously convicted for his involvement in the case, is getting charges dropped against him.