- Funding of Paris attacks
The November 2015 attackers paid for $32,000 worth of pre-attack operations including hotel lodging and car rentals through anonymous prepaid cards purchased in Belgium. Payments were loaded in small increments; rules for prepaid cards allow for reloading up to $2,500 without identity verification. Although the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is responsible for the attacks and the training of several attackers, the precise source of the $32,000 is less clear. Money for travel appears to have become available after a stopover in Greece.
- Nuclear deal will release billions to Iran
The nuclear agreement that President Obama signed will release $100 billion to $150 billion of frozen assets to Iran, a state sponsor of terrorism. Hopefully the asset thaw will get gummed up in court while attorneys seek to collect the compensation that is owed to the victims of Iranian-sponsored terrorism first.
- Wahhabi funding monarch takes power
Saudi Arabia has crowned a new king, Salman bin Abdulaziz, who started his career in public service by bankrolling the exportation of radical Wahhabism throughout the Islamic world. We will be contending with well-funded terrorist groups for as long as men such as Salman rule Arabia.
- Coalition bombs ISIS oil fields
According to news reports, the U.S. is increasing pressure against ISIS’s financial assets by bombing oil fields in their territory. If true, the bombing means that the Obama administration has begun to recognize that it is worth destroying oil infrastructure to deprive ISIS of funding even if it means it will be harder to rebuild the infrastructure when and if ISIS retreats.
- Son of terror victim sues wire transfer company
The son of a slain Somali politician and singing star is suing the money transfer company Dahabshiil for its alleged involvement in issuing a bounty for the singer’s murder. Saado Ali Warsame had sung a song denouncing Dahabshiil as a financier of terror and a profiteer from inter-tribal conflict.
- Jihadists in Yemen fund Charlie Hebdo assassins
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) gave $20,000 to future Charlie Hebdo attacker Said Kouachi before he and his brother left Yemen in August 2011. The foreign funding helps explain how a group of underemployed ex-cons were able to buy AK-47s for their January 2015 attacks and pay for Said Kouachi’s international travels.
- PA and PLO owe damages for terror attacks
A jury found the Palestinian Authority and the PLO liable for terrorist attacks with American victims in the early 2000s, with damages set at $656 million in Sokolow v. PLO. A federal judge set $10 million bond while the PA and PLO appeal.
- Taliban takes control of more turf
The Washington Post reports that the Taliban has taken control or maintains a significant presence in 30 percent of Afghanistan—the most territory it has occupied since 2001. The problem with this from a financial standpoint is that the Taliban lives off the land. One of their primary sources of income is taxation on commercial activity in the areas they control. More turf means more money.
- Arab Bank settles with terror victims
Arab Bank PLC provided client services to Hamas affiliates which funded terrorist attacks against Israel. After years of lawsuits, the settlement was reached between the bank and American victims of these terrorist attacks, possibly for $1 billion. Together with the Sokolow, these cases show that legal tactics can be used effectively to hit terrorists where it hurts: their wallets.
- Debt-financing of San Bernadino attack
Syed Rizwan Farook took out a $28,000 debt consolidation loan weeks before waging an assault against his victims. This method of financing attacks is particularly popular among jihadists living in Western countries where easy credit is, well, easy.
Loans by text pay jihadists’ way to Syria
July 13, 2015Swedish Islamists are taking out loans through text message services to join the battle in Syria. They use the borrowed funds to buy plane tickets, cars and, presumably, other equipment when they arrive. Sweden’s security agency says that a majority of fighters’ travels are debt-financed. Thus the lenders are violating the first rule of lending: character. What kind of screening are these small lenders performing on their borrowers? So much for knowing your customer.
From The Local on June 22 (h/t Moscow Ghost):
High-risk men max out credit cards before Middle East travel
April 20, 2015Over one hundred “very high-risk” account holders have borrowed the maximum amount of money they could from their bank before traveling to countries neighboring Iraq and Syria. Presumably this means Turkey and perhaps Lebanon or Jordan. Typically those are the places ISIS recruits from the West fly into before crossing the border by ground into Syria or Iraq. The credit card accounts have gone dormant and the debts will never be paid back.
Thanks to Gisele for sending this news in about debt-financed travel for jihad from QMI via the Toronto Sun:
Posted in News commentary | Tagged Canada, debt, Iraq, Royal Bank of Scotland, Syria | Leave a Comment »
IMF weighs debt relief for genocidal Sudan
October 23, 2013The genocidal and Arab supremacist regime of Omar al-Bashir is demanding that the International Monetary Fund bailout Sudan by cancelling billions of dollars of external debt.
The Sudan has long been under international and U.S. sanctions for its bloody repression by Arab Sudanese Islamists against black Sudanese Muslims and Christians, and for historically playing host to terrorists from Carlos the Jackal to Osama Bin Laden. Cancelling the Bashir regime’s debts would amount to aiding and abetting a state sponsor of terrorism.
The Save Darfur Coalition has rightly condemned the possible debt forgiveness in even starker terms, declaring: “No Bailout for Sudan’s $34 Billion Debt.” Read it all:
Posted in News commentary | Tagged debt, IMF, Sudan | 1 Comment »
Muslim Brotherhood-linked mosque hit with lien
July 19, 2011Among his many leadership positions among North American Muslim Brotherhood front groups, Dr. Jamal Badawi also serves on the board of directors for the Maritime Muslim Academy of Halifax, Canada.
The Maritime Muslim Academy hired Kassner/Goodspeed Architects for a project at Ummah Mosque and Community Centre. The Maritime Academy has since stiffed the architects for over $35,000.
The bill has gone unpaid for at least several months, so Kassner/Goodspeed has fearlessly upped the ante by filing a mechanic’s lien against the mosque. If Maritime doesn’t cough up the payment, a judge could force the sale of the mosque to satisfy the lien. Alas, Maritime will probably reach some sort of half-hearted payment plan or settlement with the firm.
But wouldn’t a forced sale be lovely? A prediction, by the way: we will see more and more unpaid debts by Islamic institutions to “infidel” professional service firms and lenders in the coming months and years.
From TGMBDR (with paragraph breaks added) on June 28:
Posted in News commentary | Tagged Canada, debt, Jamal Badawi, mechanic's lien, Muslim Brotherhood | 4 Comments »