U.S. sanctions Al Qaeda officials sheltered by Iran

The U.S. has levied sanctions against three Al Qaeda leaders residing in Iran.  The sanctions mean that you can’t give money or business with these guys.  They’ll be on sanctions list databases and financial institutions will be checking transactions against those databases to help enforce the sanctions.  Wouldn’t it be nice if Iran helped us enforce these sanctions, since we freed up billions of dollars for Iran in the nuclear deal?

From The Long War Journal:

Treasury designates 3 senior al Qaeda members in Iran

By Thomas Joscelyn | July 20, 2016 | tjoscelyn@gmail.com | @thomasjoscelyn

The Treasury Department announced today that three senior al Qaeda members have been added to the US government’s list of designated terrorists. All three of them are “located in Iran.”

The newly-designated al Qaeda operatives are: Faisal Jassim Mohammed Al Amri Al Khalidi, Yisra Muhammad Ibrahim Bayumi, and Abu Bakr Muhammad Muhammad Ghumayn.

The Iranian government has maintained a relationship with al Qaeda since the early 1990s. Although the two sides are sometimes at odds, including inside Syria, Treasury’s announcement indicates that some of al Qaeda’s most important commanders are able to evade the American drone campaign by sheltering inside Iran.

Read about each of the three men on The Long War Journal here.

Arabs realize khums funds terror

The Koran 8:42 says that “when ye have taken any booty, a fifth part belongeth to God and to the Apostle…” This one-fifth tax, or khums, on booty or the spoils of war has been a common revenue-raising measure employed by caliphs, sultans, and Muslim military commanders since the eighth century.  Shia Muslims regard the concept more broadly to apply to one-fifth of personal net profits.

The problem with khums is that it has been used to fund Hezbollah for years, that it has funded jihadist movements for decades including the Iranian Revolution itself, and it has been used more recently to fund subversive activities in Bahrain.  Even Iraqi Shia have been critical of Iran’s abuse of khums, calling khums haram and equating it to flushing money down the toilet.  It’s amusing that Sunni Muslim figures in the Gulf are just now catching on to the scourge.

From the Jerusalem Post on May 4 (h/t El Grillo):

Gulf Shi’ites paying religious tax to Iran are funding terror, Sunni campaign says

The age-old Sunni-Shi’ite split is now the underlying cause of a new Sunni outcry against the expansionist policy of Iran in the Middle East.

A social media campaign launched recently by Sunni Muslims seeks to protest over the transfer of a religious tax payed by Shi’ites living in the Gulf to the main centers of Shia scholarship in Iran and Iraq.

The Khums (meaning fifth in Arabic), is a tax mentioned in the Koran and consisting of 20% of a person’s excess earning. The money is donated to poor and orphans, as well as to Islamic institutions.

According to the Koran, the Khums should be collected by the Imam Mahdi (the Shi’ite messiah). However, because the day of judgement has not yet arrived, the religious establishment in Iran is the one getting the money.

Since these endowments arrive directly to Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, without any supervision by Iranian state institutions, they are allegedly used for political purposes and not for religious and moral ones, as the Koran obligates.

According to Arab media reports, hundreds of millions of dollars payed annually by Gulf Shi’ites to the religious scholars in Qom (the major Shi’ite center in Iran) are transferred to Iran’s militias in Iraq and Syria, which are fighting the local Sunni population.

The Khums is also a major income source for Hezbollah. In 2005, then-Hezbollah spokesman Hussein Nabousli proudly declared that most of the organization’s revenues come from Khums.

Since this money is not circulated in the international financial system, it helped the Iranian regime withstand the financial sanctions that were imposed on it by the West, providing it with liquidity.

In light of Iran’s expansionist policy in the Middle East, Sunni social media activists are now calling on governments in the Gulf to prevent the transfer of the money collected from Khums to Iran and obligate Shi’ites to pay this money to the states they are living in.

The standard-bearer of the Sunni campaign is Khaled Alkami, a well-known Saudi political analyst, who wrote on Twitter a series of comments under the hashtag: “the transfer of Khums to Iran is terror.”

“Sending money, under any name, to the thug state of Iran, is the same as sending money to al-Qaida, ISIS or Hezbollah, and it should be designated as ‘terror funding,'” Alkami said…

Supreme Court: Iran must pay up

Two of three branches of the American government agree that Iran owes money to the families of the victims of its state sponsored terrorism.  Congress passed a law requiring that frozen Iranian assets be used to satisfy a judgment against Iran.  Iran argued that Congress overstepped.  Six of eight justices weren’t buying it.  The court ruled that Congress was within its authority to require satisfaction of the judgment.

This is a victory for at least some of the victims of Iranian-sponsored terrorism.  Now if we could just get the Obama administration to recognize that ALL of Iran’s victims should be compensated before more funds are released to the rogue regime through sanctions relief.

From Reuters (with a hat tip to Zadok):

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that almost $2 billion in frozen Iranian assets must be turned over to American families of people killed in the 1983 bombing of a U.S. Marine Corps barracks in Beirut and other attacks blamed on Iran.

The court’s 6-2 ruling dealt a setback to Iran’s central bank, finding that the U.S. Congress did not usurp the authority of American courts by passing a 2012 law stating that the frozen funds should go toward satisfying a $2.65 billion judgment won by the families against Iran in U.S. federal court in 2007.

Bank Markazi had challenged a 2014 ruling by the New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that the assets, bonds held in a trust account overseen by former federal judge Stanley Sporkin, should be handed over to the more than 1,000 American plaintiffs.

With the legal questions resolved, lawyers for the plaintiffs said all that is left is for a federal judge to allow Sporkin to distribute the funds.

The lead plaintiff was Deborah Peterson, whose brother, Marine Lance Corporal James Knipple, died in the Beirut bombing…

Eye on terror finance: suggested reading

• Sanctions levied against men who collected $175,000 for jihad… more>>

• Another anti-Israel Gaza flotilla will be sponsored by the Turkish front charity IHH… more>>

• For $500 you can buy a hacked corporate email inbox… more>>

• A new bill proposed by senators Marco Rubio and Mark Kirk would prohibit offshore U.S. dollar clearing by Iran… more>>

Terror plotting news: suggested reading

• Al Qaeda in Syria seizes weapons from Western-backed rebels… more>>

• U.S. indicts 7 Iranians who hacked 46 American banks… more>>

• Documents seized from ISIS show Turkey gave their fighters safe passage to Syria… more>>

• Belgium’s alleged Muslim Brotherhood front is funded by Qatar Charity… more>>

Bribes, waste, and abuse: suggested reading

• The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps will cash in from sanctions relief on Iran… more>>

• The Swiss may have paid the PLO in 1970 to prevent terrorist attacks in Switzerland… more>>

• Question raised whether Sweden is still funding marksmanship training for Muslim refugees… more>>

• Islamist preacher runs 140 tax-funded charter schools in U.S… more>>

10 biggest terror finance news stories of 2015

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. 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.

10. 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.

Iranian billionaire sanctions evader on trial

Even leaving aside the terrorist financing and sanctions evasion, Iran’s financial system is as clean as a sewer.  Assets unfrozen by the Iranian nuclear deal aren’t only at risk of being used for nefarious purposes, but are also at risk for theft, mismanagement, and to worsen the corruption of endemic to the Iranian regime and its associates abroad.  This trial in Turkey helps illustrate that point.  From Today’s Zaman:

Iran may confiscate Zanjani’s assets in Turkey-linked graft case

All assets belonging to Babak Zanjani — supposedly the richest businessman in Iran who also has alleged ties with the prime figure in Turkey‘s graft scandal — might be confiscated, as sought in the indictment of his trial, known as the biggest corruption case in Iran’s recent history.

The Turkish daily Hürriyet reported on Monday the third session of the first hearing into Zanjani’s trial, which started on Oct. 3, and cited the Tehran deputy chief prosecutor who continued to be the reader of the 237-page indictment following the first and second sessions that were held on Saturday and Sunday.

While referring to the charges against Zanjani — which are mainly charges of fraud, money laundering and corruption both within Iran and in several other countries, including in Turkey — the deputy chief prosecutor said, “I [therefore] demand the confiscation of all of the defendant’s assets in Iran and other countries, including those assets that have been fraudulently transferred to his associates, in the national interests of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

Zanjani, believed to be the richest man in Iran who has reportedly $14 billion in assets, is known for helping the Iranian government evade the Western sanctions that were imposed on the country over its disputed nuclear program.

Undersecretary: Iran may use unfrozen assets for “more bad things”

State Department official Wendy Sherman has confirmed that at least $50 billion will be released to Iran because of the proposed nuclear deal, and that those funds could be used by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).  Sherman made the comments during an interview for American Forum which will air on PBS.  Roll tape:

Terror financial news: suggested reading

• “Iran will get hundreds of billions of dollars from sanctions relief and investments to fuel its aggression and terrorism in the Middle East and North Africa and beyond,” says Israel’s prime minister… more>>

• Shurat Hadin is pursuing legal action to stop the Iran deal until the victims of Iranian-sponsored terrorism are compensated… more>>

• Lawyers for the “British” beheader for ISIS known as “Jihadi John” are fleecing the government for legal defense fees, even though they don’t live in Britain either… more>>

• An Amnesty International director and her husband have been outed as Muslim Brotherhood supporters… more>>

Treasury says Iran will keep funding Hezbollah

Treasury undersecretary Adam Szubin says Iran will continue sponsoring terrorism regardless of the sanctions deal with Iran.  This seems to be a point upon which many executive branch officials agree.  In fact, it will probably worsen.  We’ve covered many reports over the years of Hezbollah and Hamas budgets suffering because of sanctions against Iran.  Logically, as sanctions are lifted, we can expect the Shia-backed terrorist groups to replenish their bank accounts and fund newer, bolder attacks.

From the Washington Free Beacon:

Sanctions Czar: Iran will Continue Funding Terrorist Armies Under Nuclear Deal

BY: Blake Seitz

Obama’s sanctions czar admitted Wednesday that Iran would continue to fund terrorist proxies like Hezbollah under the nuclear deal.

Administration officials like Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of Treasury Jack Lew have downplayed the possibility that Iran could use sanctions relief cash to fund terrorism, saying that much of that money would be earmarked for debt relief and domestic projects.

Adam Szubin, the undersecretary of Treasury for terrorism and financial crimes, was more candid about the most likely use of sanctions relief money.

“Unfortunately I do expect to continue to see Iran funding Hezbollah and its other violent terrorist proxies,” Szubin told the Senate Banking Committee.

Szubin praised the U.S. sanctions regime for bringing the Iranian economy to its knees.

“Thanks to those congressional sanctions, our sanctions against Iran’s proxies carry this international weigh and designated entities become pariahs worldwide,” Szubin said.

Szubin said that “it is incumbent” on the U.S. “to do more” through sanctions to stop Iran’s financing of terrorism—although the president’s nuclear deal lifts many sanctions on Iran and allows its banned banks back into the global financial system…

Szubin has replaced David Cohen as undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.  President Obama has named Cohen as the deputy director of the CIA.