Excerpts follow from an IPT report regarding the effect of a nuclear deal with Iran that would lift sanctions against them. Iranian catspaw terror groups stand to benefit from the money that will flow their way. Hat tip to El Grillo:
The framework agreement on Iran’s nuclear program is set to refill Iran’s coffers and enable the Islamic Republic to invest considerable treasure in its regional network of terrorist and guerilla proxies…
They include the Shi’ite Lebanese organization Hizballah – the most highly armed terrorist entity in the world, active in the Syrian civil war – the Shi’ite Houthi forces currently seizing and destabilizing Yemen, a plethora of militant Shi’ite militias in Iraq, the Islamic Jihad terror group in Gaza and the West Bank, and Hamas, with which Iran has recently mended relations. Iran has begun sending Hamas, which rules over Gaza, tens of millions of dollars for its combat tunnel reconstruction and rocket manufacturing programs. The Iranian investment in Gaza’s Islamist war capabilities will only rise after sanctions are lifted.
Iran will also be able to use the money to boost its partners, who are increasingly reliant on its aid, and which are subject to Iranian directives. Iranian regional partners include the Assad regime in Syria, which has killed enormous numbers of innocent civilians in the country’s civil war, and the Shi’ite Iraqi government, dependent on Iranian support in the war against the Islamic State.
Once international sanctions are lifted, Iran stands to secure over $100 billion in unfrozen funds in foreign exchange assets around the world. Soon afterwards, international companies are expected to rush into Iran to invest, and oil sales will resume, generating huge new revenue sources.
The Islamic Republic will, without question, siphon off a part of that money to its various tentacles abroad, providing them with cash, training, and array of weapons, such as guided rockets and missiles for Hizballah, firearms and projectile capabilities to militias in Iraq and Yemen, and missiles for the Assad regime in Syria…
Hizballah chief Hassan Nasrallah has acknowledged the impact of lifting the sanctions on Iran, telling a Syrian television channel on Monday that the deal will “strengthen Tehran’s role in the region.”
“Iran will become richer and wealthier and will also become more influential,” Nasrallah told Syria’s Al-Ekhbariya TV. “This will also reinforce the position of its allies.”
“A stronger and wealthier Iran, in the coming phase, will be able to stand by its allies, and especially the Palestinian resistance, more than at any other time in history,” Nasrallah stated…
Many of the attacks during the Iraq insurgency that left over 4,000 American troops dead were carried out by Sunni militants funded by and aligned with Al Qaeda, former members of Saddam Hussein’s regime, the Gulf monarchies, or combinations of all three. But a new lawsuit by veterans and the families of our war dead is pointing out that a lot of the killing of coalition forces also came from Shia terrorists trained and funded by Iran. Iran was able to fund the trainers of those terrorists partly because of Iran’s access at the time to the international financial system as allowed by major banks with branches in the U.S. despite the sanctions against Iran throughout the 2000s.
From Reuters earlier this month (h/t El Grillo):
U.S. veterans sue banks, claim they should pay for Iraq attacks
Wounded U.S. veterans and family members of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq sued five European banks on Monday, seeking to hold them responsible for shootings and roadside bombings because they allegedly processed Iranian money that paid for the attacks.
The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, New York, named Barclays Plc, Credit Suisse Group AG, HSBC Holdings Plc, Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and Standard Chartered.
Barclays, Credit Suisse, RBS and Standard Chartered declined to comment. HSBC did not respond to requests for comment.
The lawsuit was brought under the U.S. Anti-Terrorism Act, a 1992 law that permits victims to bring private suits against alleged financiers of militant operations.
The lawsuit alleges the banks conspired with Iranian banks to mask wire transactions in order to evade U.S. sanctions. The Iranian banks then funneled more than $100 million to militant groups that operated in Iraq at Iran’s direction, according to the suit.
The militant groups included a Shi’ite militia in Iraq, Kataib Hezbollah, as well as Quds Force, the overseas arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the suit says.
Since 2009, the five banks have agreed to pay about $3.2 billion to the U.S. government to resolve allegations that they handled money in violation of sanctions against nations such as Iran, Libya and Cuba. All the banks signed deferred prosecution agreements with the U.S. Justice Department in addition to settlements with U.S. banking regulators…
When dealing with undesirable behavior by foreign governments, the U.S. has increasingly employed narrowly targeted sanctions against individual officials of those governments, from human rights abusers in Syria to Russian leaders responsible for the annexation of Crimea.
But the same logic has yet to be applied to the ISI, Pakistan’s terrorist-sponsoring intelligence agency, which, compared to Russia and Syria, has posed a more direct threat to U.S. forces and civilians through the ISI’s sponsorship of terrorism against our troops in Afghanistan and through the safe haven it provided to Osama Bin Laden.
New York Times reporter Carlotta Gall revealed last week that, “Soon after the Navy SEAL raid on Bin Laden’s house, a Pakistani official told me that the United States had direct evidence that the ISI chief, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha, knew of Bin Laden’s presence in Abbottabad,” and that the ISI ran a special desk to “handle” Bin Laden.
The Bin Laden revelation is only the tip of the iceberg. The Taliban itself was created by Pakistan, which allowed Al Qaeda to use Afghanistan as a base for hatching the 9/11 plot. The perpetrators of the 26/11 terrorist attacks against Mumbai that left over 160 dead were also “clients and creations of the ISI.”
In an intercepted conversation, former ISI chief Gen. Ashfaq Kayani was heard describing Jalaluddin Haqqani, leader of the terrorist Haqqani network, as a “strategic asset.” That is the way that Pakistani intelligence has looked at jihadists for decades—that holy warriors provide strategic depth and variety to the conventional armed forces along Pakistan’s borders. They regard terrorism as a tool in a broader arsenal against Pakistan’s foes, making the country a state sponsor of terrorism in the truest sense of the phrase.
Designating a foreign spy service as a terrorist entity wouldn’t be such a major leap as it appears at first blush. Interrogators at Guantanamo Bay are already trained to treat detainees affiliated with ISI the same way they would treat detainees affiliated with Al Qaeda or the Taliban. The approach is partly due to evidence of ISI’s role in coordinating terrorist groups in operations targeting Afghanistan and India.
There is already some support for such sanctions. Bruce Riedel, former CIA official and senior fellow at the Brookings Institute, called for individual sanctions against ISI officials. New York writer Suketu Mehta said “America and other countries should declare Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence, some of whose officials have a long history of backing terrorists attacking India, ‘a terrorist entity’.” The Afghan National Security Council also expressed strong support last year for designating the ISI as a terrorist organization (see here and here).
Are there arguments against levying sanctions against the ISI? Yes. Pakistan could retaliate by ceasing its assistance to us while our troops are still fighting in Afghanistan. But if it weren’t for Pakistan playing midwife to the Taliban, and the Taliban subsequently partnering with Al Qaeda, the terrorist attacks of 9/11 wouldn’t have happened in the first place. It makes little sense to mollycoddle the puppet master because we think it will help us attack the puppet.
Unfortunately, sanctions often don’t achieve the desired results. Foreign aid is fungible, and if the U.S. and U.K. continue bestowing lavish foreign aid upon Pakistan, the government there will simply be able to move money from development and education projects toward military and intelligence operations.
But to the extent that we use sanctions at all as an instrument of foreign policy, it should be done for the right reasons. Lately we use sanctions like a necktie that we wear to look fashionable, while absentmindedly dangling the tie over a paper shredder. Rather than a entangling ourselves in the regional or internal affairs of bad actors in places where we have few interests, sanctions should be used as a tool used to serve our own national security interests, and to contain those whose actions do us harm.
UN sanctions against al-Shabaab financier Ali Ahmed Nur Jim’ale have been lifted. The UN did not offer any explanation for the removal from their sanctions list. Last year the government of Somalia itself requested the removal, saying that Jim’ale “is innocent.”
The UN delisting notice lays out the grounds for the original sanctions. It is difficult to read their dossier and come away with an impression of innocence…
Ali Ahmed Nur Jim’ale (Jim’ale) has served in leadership roles with the former Somali Council of Islamic Courts, also known as the Somali Islamic Courts Union, which was a radical-Islamist element. The most radical elements of the Somali Islamic Courts Union eventually formed the group known as al-Shabaab. Al-Shabaab was listed for targeted sanctions in April 2010 by the United Nations Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolutions 751 (1992) and 1907 concerning Somalia and Eritrea (the “Somalia/Eritrea Sanctions Committee”). The Committee listed al-Shabaab for being an entity engaged in acts that directly or indirectly threaten the peace, security, or stability of Somalia, including but not limited to acts that pose a threat to Somali Transitional Federal Government.
According to the July 18, 2011 report of the Somalia/Eritrea Sanctions Committee’s Monitoring Group (S/2011/433), Jim’ale is identified as a prominent businessman and figure in the al-Shabaab charcoal-sugar trading cycle and benefitting from privileged relationships with al-Shabaab.
Jim’ale is identified as one of al-Shabaab’s chief financiers and is ideologically aligned with al-Shabaab. Jim’ale has provided key funding and political support for Hassan Dahir Aweys (“Aweys”), who was also listed by the Somalia/Eritrea Sanctions Committee. Former al-Shabaab Deputy Emir Muktar Robow reportedly continued to engage in political posturing within the al-Shabaab organization during the mid-2011. Robow engaged Aweys and Jim’ale in an effort to advance their shared objectives and consolidate their overall stance within the context of the al-Shabaab leadership rift.
As of fall 2007, Jim’ale established a front company in Djibouti for extremist activities called the Investors Group. The short term goal of the group was, through the funding of extremist activities and weapons purchases, to destabilize Somaliland. The group assisted in smuggling small arms from Eritrea through Djibouti into the 5th region of Ethiopia where extremists received the shipment. As of mid-2008, Jim’ale continued to operate the Investors Group.
As of late September 2010, Jim’ale established ZAAD, a mobile-to-mobile money transfer business and struck a deal with al-Shabaab to make money transfers more anonymous by eliminating the need to show identification.
As of late 2009, Jim’ale had a known hawala fund where he collected zakat, which was provided to al-Shabaab.
As of December 2011, unidentified donors from the Middle East were transferring money to Jim’ale, who in turn used financial intermediaries to send the money to al-Shabaab.
In 2009, Jim’ale worked with other like minded individuals to undermine the Somali TFG by not participating in Somali reconciliation efforts. As of late 2011, Jim’ale actively supported al-Shabaab by offering free communications, use of vehicles, food aid and political advisement and set up fundraisers for al-Shabaab through various business groups.
The request by Somalia for the UN to lift sanctions on Jim’ale suggests that the Somali government has been compromised by the very elements which it purports to be at war with. Just a couple years ago, Jim’ale was considered to be a security threat and an important al-Shabaab money man. Suddenly he’s free to roam about Africa again.
The lifting of the sanctions, which included an international travel ban, enables Jim’ale to resume his travels back and forth between Somalia and Djibouti. He holds passports with both countries.
For more on the cryptic UN delisting process, see prior Money Jihad coverage here and here.
Canada has officially named al-Muwaqi’un Bil Dima, often translated as the Signed-in-Blood Battalion, as a terrorist group. The Signed-in-Blood Battalion was created by Mokhtar Belmokhtar—an elusive terrorist, kidnapping mastermind, cigarette smuggler, and the former leader of Al Qaeda in North Africa (AQIM). His group carried out the hostage-taking crisis at Amenas gas facility in Algeria that left nearly 40 captives dead in January, and suicide bombings in Niger that killed 20 in May.
The blog Mr. Watchlist, which focuses on sanctions listings, notes that, “This is pretty unusual for OSFI [Canada’s financial regulator]. In the 11 months Mr. Watchlist has been posting, this is the first time they’ve amended their list unilaterally – they usually just follow the changes to the UN sanctions programs.”
The rare independent decision by Canada indicates its concern about the return of Islamist Canadian citizens to Canada after participating in terrorism overseas. At least three Canadians participated in the terror operation in Amenas, two of whom were killed during the raid, and one who returned to Canada.
The National Post reports that “Canadian authorities are also worried that citizens who have travelled to Syria to fight will return home to spread extremist ideology, recruit others and possibly conduct attacks on Canadian soil.” The announcement about the Signed-in-Blood Battalion was accompanied by sanctions against the al-Nusra Front, in which Islamist Canadians have enlisted to carry out terrorist attacks in Syria.
The designation subjects members of the Signed-in-Blood Battalion and al-Nusra Front to Canadian criminal law, to asset seizures and forfeitures, and to penalties for doing business with or contributing to the operations of these groups.
Whether any other countries will follow suit by designating the Signed-in-Blood Battalion as a terrorist entity remains to be seen.
A deal has been reached to lift—according to different estimates—7, 8, or 20+ billion USD in sanctions against Iran in return for modest concessions on Iranian nuclear development. A portion of the billions of dollars in sanctions relief could have been earmarked to compensate the victims of Iranian-sponsored terrorism instead of letting Tehran spend it as it pleases.
If only the P5+1 had been willing to listen to one of the lawyers representing Iran’s victims:
Iran Owes Terror Victims Billions of Dollars, Says Activist Lawyer
The US talks with Iran about easing sanctions, but an Israeli activist lawyer says Obama overlooks the fact that Tehran owes American terror victims billions of dollars.
By: Tzvi Ben-Gedalyahu
Published: November 20th, 2013
Israeli activist lawyer Nitzana Darshan-Leitner: The US should make Iran pay off its debts to American relatives of terror victims before easing sanctions.
An Israeli lawyer who has won billions of dollars for relatives of terror victims has asked Obama administration officials why they are discussing letting Iran off the hook on sanctions while it owes American relatives colossal sums of money.
Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, who heads the Israel Law Center, has won billions of dollars for relatives of terror victims in lawsuits against the Palestinian Authority, Hamas, Hezbollah and other terrorist organization as well as banks and other agencies that aid terrorists or act as a pipeline for funds for them.
She wrote Under Secretary Wendy Sherman last month, “Iran must not be allowed under any circumstances to avoid making payment of reparations and due compensations to the families of those whose lives they have destroyed through terrorism…and through the terror organizations it supports: Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah.”
In a blog posted this past week on The Hill website based in Washington, Darshan-Leitner noted that Sherman did not respond, and she added, “As a result of lawsuits taken by American victims of terror in U.S. courts, the Iranian regime currently owes billions of dollars from decades of terrorist activity resulting in dozens of victims and severed families. This debt has yet to be recognized or paid by the Iranian government with no sign of an intention to do so.”
She called on Congress to ensure that the U.S. government is working to keep the interests of the terror victims’ families on the table.
Darshan-Leitner pointed out that when George W. Bush was President, he conditioned repealing of any sanctions against Libya on payment of reparations to the victims of Libyan terror. “This move resulted in the payment of $1.5 billion dollars to the victims’ families,” she wrote…
Money Jihad 
Assad funds his own enemies
December 31, 2015The regime of Syrian despot Bashar al-Assad is buying millions of dollars in oil from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Maybe years of sanctions against Syria have backfired in that Assad doesn’t have too many other willing sellers. This business relationship between Assad and ISIS helps explain the protracted nature of the conflict.
That, and we’ve been too slow to recognize that Assad may be the lesser priority evil in the region. The thinking in fashionable circles in D.C. for the last couple years was to defeat Assad then defeat ISIS. It may be a better idea to let him defeat ISIS and then reassess.
Here’s a telling excerpt from an interview by NPR’s Renee Montagne with Treasury official Adam Szubin (h/t El Grillo):
Posted in News commentary | Tagged Islamic State of Iraq, oil, sanctions, Syria | 1 Comment »