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CIA Backed Color Revolutions

Many readers likely never heard the name of the remarkable Serbia-born political operator named Srđa Popović. Yet he and his organization, CANVAS, have played a lead role in most every CIA-backed Color Revolution since he led the toppling of Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic in 2000, at least fifty according to last count. Now he has turned his sights on Hungary and Hungary’s popular and defiant Prime Minister Victor Orban.

On September 8, the professional regime-change specialist Srđa Popović came to Budapest and joined with the anti-Orban opposition groups in front of the Hungarian Parliament. It‘s clear that Popović was not in town to promote his Hungarian book on nonviolent regime change but rather to give aid to the anti-Orban parties before Hungarian elections in spring of 2018. Many in Hungary smell the oily hand of Hungarian-born regime-change financier George Soros behind the Popović appearance now in Budapest.

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Wikileaks: Turkish Energy Minister Indirectly Involved In ISIS Oil Trade

WikiLeaks published on Monday a searchable archive of nearly 58,000 emails from the private email account of Berat Albayrak - Turkey’s incumbent energy minister and son-in-law of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan – revealing the influence Albayrak has in Turkey and his correspondence regarding Powertrans, a company implicated in oil imports from ISIS-controlled oil fields.

The emails encompass 16 years between April 2000 and September 23, 2016. A search by the ‘Powertrans’ keyword in the published WikiLeaks emails returns 32 results, including emails sent to Albayrak regarding personnel and salary issues at Powertrans.

Turkey banned oil transportation by road or railway in or out of the country in November 2011, but included a provision in the same bill that it could revoke the ban in specific cases, such as meeting the needs of the military. The Turkish government later gave exclusive privilege to Powertrans for transit of oil, WikiLeaks says.

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Isis and Clinton Foundation both funded by Qatar and Saudi Arabia, says Julian Assange

Wealthy officials from Qatar and Saudi Arabia who donated money to Hillary Clinton's charitable foundation also provided financial support to Isis, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has claimed. In an extended interview at the Ecuadorian embassy in London with documentary maker John Pilger for RT, Assange said the same Saudi and Qatari officials could be seen to be supporting both the Clinton Foundation — founded by Clinton's husband Bill — and funding the activities of Isis.

Pilger asked if Assange believed that "this notorious jihadist group, called Isil or Isis, is created largely with money from people who are giving money to the Clinton Foundation"

"Yes," Assange replied.

The WikiLeaks founder pointed to an email exchange between presidential hopeful Clinton and her campaign manager John Podesta, leaked by his organization last month, which he believes "is the most significant email in the whole collection".

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Assange: Clinton & ISIS funded by same money, Trump won’t be allowed to win (JOHN PILGER EXCLUSIVE)

In the second excerpt from the John Pilger Special, to be exclusively broadcast by RT on Saturday, courtesy of Dartmouth Films, Julian Assange accuses Hillary Clinton of misleading Americans about the true scope of Islamic State’s support from Washington’s Middle East allies.

In a 2014 email made public by Assange’s WikiLeaks last month, Hillary Clinton, who had served as secretary of state until the year before, urges John Podesta, then an advisor to Barack Obama, to “bring pressure” on Qatar and Saudi Arabia,“which are providing clandestine financial and logistic support to ISIL [Islamic State, IS, ISIS] and other radical Sunni groups.”

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Hillary Clinton Tops 2015-16 Islamist Money List

The Middle East Forum's "Islamist Money in Politics" (IMIP) project has revealed the top ten recipients of 2015-16 campaign contributions from individuals who subscribe to the same Islamic supremacism as Khomeini, Bin Laden, and ISIS.

Hillary Clinton tops the list, raking in $41,165 from prominent Islamists. This includes $19,249 from senior officials of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), declared a terrorist organization by the United Arab Emirates on November 15, 2014.

For example, Mrs. Clinton has accepted $3,900 from former CAIR vice-chairman Ahmad Al-Akhras, who has defended numerous Islamists in Ohio indicted – and later convicted – on terrorism charges.

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Report: US Must Address Massive Revenue Streams Funding ISIS

US efforts to curb the explosive growth of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) will be futile if the nation fails to address the diverse revenue streams fueling the terrorist organization, according to a new report released by Homeland Security Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX).

The report, Cash to Chaos: Dismantling ISIS’ Financial Infrastructure, is based on a ten-month investigation by the House Homeland Security Committee Majority Staff to identify and examine ISIS’ revenue sources and US efforts to counter terrorist financing.

The Committee explored seven key funding pillars: black market oil and gas; black market commodities; antiquities; extortion, taxation, and robbery; kidnapping for ransom; assistance from supporters in permissive Gulf State countries; and emerging fundraising tactics, such as crowdfunding.

“ISIS’ march across the globe is fueled not just by a hateful ideology—but by a constant cash flow,” McCaul said. “We cannot destroy the group without first disrupting its funding streams. Unfortunately, the Obama Administration has failed go after these income sources hard enough, which is why I have proposed several recommendations to put us on a path for success.”

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Report: Russian Government Initiative Gave Millions of Dollars to Clinton Foundation

The amount of money given to the foundation from “key” Skolkovo partners ranges from $6.5 to $23.5 million, according to Clinton Foundation data. The foundation only discloses donations in ranges, making it difficult to track the exact amount.

John Chambers, the head of Cisco and member of the Skolkovo Foundation, for example, donated between $1 million to $5 million to the Clinton Foundation, according to the report. Intel Corporation–formerly headed by Craig Barrett, who served on the board of the Skolkovo Foundation and the Clinton Global Initiative–has given between $250,000 and $500,000 to the Clinton foundation.

The FBI and U.S. Army determined that Skolkovo had transformed into a “dangerous pathway” for Russian technological espionage and boosted the military’s technological capabilities.

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Saudi Arabia upset after Hillary Clinton links oil kingdom to terrorism

Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have piled on outrage after Hillary Clinton condemned the weekend slaughter in Orlando and directly linked the oil-rich monarchies to the funding of terrorism.

In separate letters to Fairfax Media, the embassies for both countries in Canberra took exception to reporting of Mrs Clinton's call to "stop supporting radical schools and mosques around the world".

"Accusations levelled against the Kingdom of being lax or of supporting extremism fails to recognise the Kingdom's leadership role in combating terrorism," the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia wrote.

Kuwait's embassy said it "wishes to convey its disapproval of the criticism and allegations stated by the presumptive candidate Ms. Hillary Clinton".

The diplomatic stoush follows the rampage that killed 49 in a gay nightclub and a call by gunman Omar Mateen to emergency services where he pledged allegiance to Islamic State.

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Trump demands Clinton Foundation return $25 million from Saudis

Donald Trump on Monday demanded that Hillary Clinton return $25 million the Clinton Foundation reportedly received from Saudi Arabia.

“Crooked Hillary says we must call on Saudi Arabia and other countries to stop funding hate,” Trump posted to Facebook. “I am calling on her to immediately return the $25 million plus she got from them for the Clinton Foundation!”

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The Wall Street Journal reported last year that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia had donated between $10 million and $25 million to the Clinton Foundation since it was created in 1999. Other donors included the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Australia and Germany.

“Saudi Arabia and many of the countries that gave vast amounts of money to the Clinton Foundation want women as slaves and to kill gays,” Trump wrote in a separate post. “Hillary must return all money from such countries!”

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Treasury official: Gulf states moving to cut off terrorist financing

A U.S. Treasury official on Thursday said donors located in the Gulf remain an important source of revenue for al Qaeda, but that the U.S. and regional allies were "making strides" in cutting off that financing. 

"Donors located in the Gulf have traditionally been an important source of revenue for AQ. This remains the case, but we are making strides in cutting off their financial networks," Daniel Glaser, assistant secretary for terrorist financing at the U.S. Department of Treasury, said at a hearing. 

He said the Gulf countries have taken a wide range of actions, and called Saudi Arabia a "regional leader" in combating terrorist financing, amid suspicions in Congress the kingdom is not doing enough to choke off support for terrorists. 

"All Gulf countries have now passed counter-terrorism laws that criminalize terrorist financing, and have enhanced financial controls across the charitable sector to ensure that funds intended for humanitarian objectives do not benefit terrorist activity," he said. 

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Obama aide: Saudi Arabia paid 'insufficient attention' to extremist funding

President Barack Obama's deputy national security adviser said that the government of Saudi Arabia had paid "insufficient attention" to money that was being funneled into terror groups and fueled the rise of Al Qaeda.

Ben Rhodes was speaking to David Axelrod in his podcast "The Axe Files" out Monday when he was asked about the validity of the accusation that the Saudi government was complicit in sponsoring terrorism.

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“I think that it’s complicated in the sense that, it’s not that it was Saudi government policy to support Al Qaeda, but there were a number of very wealthy individuals in Saudi Arabia who would contribute, sometimes directly, to extremist groups. Sometimes to charities that were kind of, ended up being ways to launder money to these groups," Rhodes said.

“So a lot of the money, the seed money if you will, for what became Al Qaeda, came out of Saudi Arabia,” he added.

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These Are Charity's Most Wanted

Plenty of people wear philanthropy like a mantle of sainthood, but as anyone with a passing familiarity with the business section (or the works of Charles Dickens) knows, good deeds do not a good person make. Before we knew them as criminals, Lance Armstrong, Michael Milken, Jeffrey Epstein, and Bernie Madoff had carefully-cultivated their charitable reputations.

Now a new case has tangled the worlds of bad finance and good works. Last Saturday, Andrew Caspersen, a 39-year-old Wall Streeter, was arrested and charged with securities and wire fraud. (He's pictured above, exiting federal court in Manhattan on March 28.) By the time he was caught by the United States Attorneys office, Caspersen had allegedly reduced a $25 million investment from a philanthropic fund to a ghostly looking bank account with little more than $40,000.

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Dirty Little Secrets

One April morning in 2014, Jurgen Mossack, the tall, German-born co-founder of the prominent Panama City law firm Mossack Fonseca, shot off an agitated email with the subject line “Serious Matter URGENT” to three top members of his staff. There was trouble brewing in the British Virgin Islands, a “secrecy jurisdiction” whose white-sand beaches and blue Caribbean waters conceal a barely-regulated haven for people who wish to create shell corporations. Many of those people employ Mossack Fonseca to perform precisely this service.

“Swindled investors call the office constantly. We need to resign from this company immediately,” Mossack wrote. “At any moment, the police arrive, and we end up in the newspapers.”

As a “registered agent,” Mossack Fonseca provides the paperwork, signatures, and mailing addresses that breathe life into shell companies established in tax havens around the world -- holding companies that often create nothing and sell nothing, but shelter assets with maximum concealment and a minimum of fuss.

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Nordea bank investigated over tax haven scandal

Nordea is named in The Panama Papers, a huge cross-border journalism collaboration that has been analysing millions of records held by an international law firm based in Panama.

The Swedish bank is listed alongside around 500 other banks or subsidiaries including global household names such as HSBC, UBS and Société Générale, as creating offshore companies through the legal firm, Mossack Fonseca.

The global investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) looked into the leaders, criminals and celebrities using secretive offshore companies.

Some 140 politicians and public officials around the world are mentioned in the research. These include 12 current or former world leaders including the president of Ukraine, Pakistan and Iceland's prime ministers and the king of Saudi Arabia.

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Norwegian Report Says Erdogan Lying About Turkey/ISIS Oil Deal

A newly-leaked report on illegal oil sales by Islamic State (IS, previously ISIS/ISIL), which was ordered to be compiled by Norway, has revealed that most of the IS-smuggled oil has been destined for Turkey, where it is sold off at bargain low prices.

Norwegian daily Klassekampen leaked details of the report, which was put together by Rystad Energy, an independent oil and gas consulting firm, at the request of the Norwegian Foreign Ministry.

“Large amounts of oil have been smuggled across the border to Turkey from IS-controlled areas in Syria and Iraq,”Klassekampen cited the report as saying. “[The] oil is sent by tankers via smuggling routes across the border [and] is sold at greatly reduced prices, from $25 to $45 a barrel.”

The crude is reportedly sold on the black market at greatly reduced prices, while the Brent benchmark is currently trading at $35-$50 per barrel.

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Islamic State: UN resolution aims to curb funding

Finance ministers from the 15 nations on the UN Security Council have adopted a resolution aimed at starving the so-called Islamic State of funds.

The resolution is based on one that was first passed in 1999 to target the rival jihadist group, al-Qaeda.

It urges countries to "move vigorously and decisively to cut the flow of funds" to IS, such as by preventing its smuggling of oil and antiquities.

The militant group is widely believed to be the world's wealthiest.

A recent study estimated that its monthly revenue was $80m (£53m).

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ISIS Funding

Having cemented its status as the Middle East's most feared Islamist militant organisation, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) appear well-equipped to claim another distinction: the world's wealthiest terror group.

In June 2014 ISIS robbed Mousels central bank and came into undreamed of wealth after making off with 500 billion dinars - £256 million, approximately $429 dollars.

The radical group is also said to have made off with a large amount of gold bullion from the bank, which was left unguarded in the chaos accompanying the militants' takeover of the city, which is one of Iraq's main oil centres. However Atheel al-Nujaifi, the governor of Nineveh province, said ISIS members had also seized many more millions from banks across the region and the total figure is likely to be far higher than the headline figure. The newly-acquired booty has elevated it to the world's best-resourced terror organisation.

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Erodgan Owes Syria 100Bn for Stolen Oil, Iraq Owed $1.5Tn

Over the last two weeks, Russia has been destroying the “living pipeline” that has allowed Turkey to steal tens of millions of barrels of Syrian crude oil, much of it at peak market prices, while only paying their ISIS allies a pittance.

This process isn’t new.  Turkey did this all during the Bush era, having cut a deal with US “manager” Paul Bremmer, a deal VT insiders helped manage for Bremmer and that I was witness to personally.

The game involved playing Baghdad against Erbil and bleeding off oil revenues from the Kirkuk Oil Fields, largest oil reserves in the world, as they moved by pipeline through Kurdistan and into Turkey.  There they were offloaded onto American tankers in the Mediterranean where these huge ships, largest in the world, were filled with oil but it was never recorded and the oil never paid for.

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How ISIS Gets Funding

Weapons, vehicles, employee salaries, propaganda videos, international travel — all of these things cost money. The recent terrorism attacks in Paris, which the Islamic State has claimed as its own work, suggest the terrorist organization hasn’t been hurting for funding. David Cohen, the Treasury Department’s Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence,described the Islamic State last October as “probably the best-funded terrorist organization we have confronted” — deep pockets that have allowed the group to carry out deadly campaigns in Iraq, Syria and other countries.

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The Role of Drug Trafficking and Money Laundering in Fighting ISIS

Is it possible to weaken ISIS by attacking the financial structure, through which it trains its recruits and acquires weapons? No, not without a significant change in how the world polices its economy. Because like many structured criminal organizations, ISIS has grown and succeeded by exploiting the channels through which capital enters: drugs, oil, private funding, smuggled artifacts. Blocking the assets that fill ISIS’ coffers would mean rethinking the world’s economy. France – like the United States before it – is paying a very high price for its sin of inattention.