By Brandon Turbeville
Just when you think the propaganda coming from the Western mainstream media and Western governments couldn’t get any dumber, they come right along and top themselves. This time, there are no easily disproven claims of chemical weapons usage by the Assad government or new and creative ways to accuse Assad of killing his own people. Instead, major mainstream mouthpieces like the Daily Beast have recently “revealed” who is buying the stolen oil from ISIS and, according to the notoriously misleading outlet, it’s not Erdogan, Turkey, or Israel – it’s Assad.
The article “Revealed: Assad Buys Oil From ISIS” is as much an attempt to cover up the increasingly well-known connections between the Erdogan family and ISIS’ stolen oil industry – a connection that was being reported on by many in alternative media for some time but has gained more popularity with the Russian demonstration of Erdogan/ISIS links in regards to the stolen oil – as it is an attempt to cover them up.
“It’s true Turkey has long been accused of complacency when it comes to the self-proclaimed Islamic State, or ISIS,” writes the Daily Beast. “Turkey’s NATO allies regularly call for it to do more, including sealing the border with Syria. But Moscow accused Ankara of something more sinister: state sponsorship of a genocidal terrorist group that’s tearing Iraq and Syria apart and attacking foreign capitals with suicide bombers.”
Michael Reed writes these words indignantly as he recounts the insult that poor Turkey has had to endure at the mouths of the nasty Russians. But, of course, the fact that Turkey is indeed a state sponsor of terrorism is without question, no matter how indignant Erdogan and the Daily Beast may pretend to be.
The pro-war outfit takes the propaganda level to the absurd in short order, however, when it writes that the true culprit funding ISIS through oil purchases is, in fact, the Assad government. The Daily Beast writes, “Russia’s accusations point to one basic question: Who really buys ISIS oil? Turkey doesn’t rank high on that list. The awkward truth is that the Assad regime, which Russia is backing to the hilt, ranks higher.”
The evidence for the Daily Beast’s claim that the Assad regime is buying oil from ISIS? – circumstantial at best.
The writer paints a picture of an ISIS oil industry quite similar to what one might find in the United States (presumably so that the American audience can more easily identify with it) and predictably backs up the State Department line that “ISIS relinquishes ownership at the pump.” Of course, no one in their right mind suggested that ISIS maintained ownership of the oil throughout its entire life from beginning to end. After all, it is the nature of selling something to, at some point, relinquish control over it.
The Daily Beast, however, argues that, because ISIS does not extract, refine, and transport the oil by using their actual fighters, it is not the main party guilty of stealing the oil and funding the terror organization. Instead, the article blames “locals” for either cooperating with ISIS, being forced to cooperate with the terrorist organization, or simply doing whatever they have to do in order to survive the ISIS control of their region.
The fact that the Daily Beast would attempt to draw down the amount of oil ISIS is allegedly producing and selling – when it was presented to the American public only months ago – is quite telling. After all, Americans were told that IS is now an actual state capable of running its own “oil ministry” and funding itself independently. Why now, all of a sudden, is ISIS oil “not that much oil?” To be sure, the article admits that even what the IS “records” show is a lot of oil but it attempts to suggest that it is nowhere near as much as what the Russians claim ISIS is selling. All this as if the Russians were the purveyors of the self-sustaining jihadist state myth. The Daily Beast writes,
Russia’s claim that ISIS smuggles 200,000 barrels a day assumes of course that the group produces that much. In reality, ISIS has never been credited with pumping so much oil. The group’s own internal assessment, retrieved by U.S. commandos during the May raid that killed ISIS oil emir Abu Sayyaf, pegged production at 55,000 barrels a day earlier this year. More recent estimates point to daily output of 40,000 barrels at most. That’s still a lot for a cult that fancies itself a state. But supply is only half the story. More than 5 million people are trapped in ISIS territory, and they could easily consume that amount every day. ISIS is also at war. If it retains any refining capacity for itself, or takes a cut from local refiners, that’s one more customer at home who gets priority.
The killing of Abu Sayyaf is itself incredibly suspicious considering the parallel reports coming from both the United States and the Syrian government as to what really took place and who was actually killed as well as who was responsible for the incident. Regardless, if the oil sales were “illicit” as we have been told from the beginning, would it not stand to reason that much of it does not go through the official channels and find its place on a record book? Is that not the nature of illicit commerce? And what about that domestic consumption Reed talks about? Are we to assume it doesn’t exist and that there no consumption in the ISIS-held areas themselves?
Reed then moves on to his only (non)-evidence that ISIS is selling oil to the Assad regime – unproven and highly questionable accusations against a Syrian oil man by the name of George Haswani. The European Union and the United States are united in accusing Mr. Haswani of buying oil from ISIS and providing it to Assad. Despite being unable to even conclusively prove that Assad and Haswani are closely connected, both the E.U. and the U.S. have slapped sanctions on him as an individual.
So what is the basis for the claims being repeated by the Daily Beast as fact? Accusations from Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the President of Turkey and father of one of the top buyers of ISIS oil and the Florence Nightingale of the jihadist cause. That’s it. Nothing more.
So, according to the Daily Beast and the U.S. State Department, one of the kingpins of the ISIS oil industry who is also a notorious and blatantly obvious ISIS supporter makes an accusation after his own feet were being put to the fire and automatically the accusations are considered true. That kind of logic may work for the Daily Beast and its regular readers, but for those who demand evidence of the media organizations’ assertions, it simply doesn’t work that way.
Beyond that, Reed uses the Syrian oil ministry’s alleged inability to account for tens of thousands of barrels of oil to the satisfaction of shadowy “trade press” that most likely is centered in the West or handpicked by the State Department and its media mouthpieces. Considering that half of the country has been overrun by Western-backed cannibals and the other half is either in constant combat or under threat from the same, it is logical to assume that not every detail of oil will be meticulously kept at pre-war record-keeping standards. The Daily Beast, however, sees this reality as a potential propaganda opportunity.
Eventually, Reed comes around to his most ridiculous and pathetic conclusion of all, however – that ISIS is selling its oil to the Assad government. The evidence cited above is used to “prove” this case but beyond vague accusations and undocumented assertions, the case simply is not there to be made.
Obviously, the very idea that Bashar al-Assad’s government is purchasing oil from ISIS is about as logical as a Jewish organization purchasing bread from the Nazi party. Why on earth would the Syrian government purchase oil from ISIS when the sole purpose of ISIS is to destroy the Syrian government and the purpose of the Syrian government is to destroy ISIS? Sure, Assad needs the oil but how would it benefit either party to strengthen the other? Would ISIS not want to deprive Assad of much-needed oil? Would Assad not want to deprive ISIS of much-needed funding? Only in the pages of the Daily Beast and the State Department briefing sheets is such a situation plausible.
Nevertheless, Reed admits that there has been ample evidence that fuel was being smuggled into Turkey but claims that such smuggling is no longer taking place due to air strikes. But that is exactly the point! Russian airstrikes (not American ones) have been targeting ISIS oil refineries and oil shipments. If the shipments have stopped it is because the Russians have bombed them, which does nothing but help prove the Russians correct.
Despite the fact that the Russians have released a number of pieces of evidence demonstrating Turkish cooperation with ISIS oil smuggling, the Western mainstream press and Western governments are now in damage control mode. If it becomes popular knowledge that the United States and the rest of NATO are working closely with a country that blatantly supports ISIS, the people of those countries may eventually come to understand that the US/NATO plan is not to defeat and destroy ISIS but to perpetuate it and continue to use it as a proxy army in the Middle East and beyond, even into Russia itself. Understanding that ISIS is entirely a creation of the West would soon necessarily follow.
With that in mind, Reed closes his propaganda piece by stating that “Russia’s reputation for misinformation is well established, and Moscow doesn’t make distinctions in Syria. In Putin’s eyes, every rebel is ISIS, and every truck carries ISIS oil.”
Good. At least someone understands. It’s true – every rebel in Syria IS ISIS. They have always been ISIS, regardless of the amount of times the Western press calls them “activists,” “protesters,” or “rebels.”
The Turkish Connection
While the mainstream media obviously exaggerates the ability of ISIS to extract, ship, and collect enough oil to fund itself, particularly in such a way that is allegedly under the nose of the world’s most effective surveillance and military states, ISIS is no doubt selling stolen oil to foreign powers.
Yet ISIS is not engaging in oil deals without the knowledge of NATO since it is precisely NATO that it is doing business with.
In fact, one of the principle smugglers conducting business with ISIS is Bilal Erdogan, the son of Turkish President Recep Erdogan.
As F. William Engdahl writes for New Eastern Outlook,
Bilal Erdogan owns several maritime companies. He has allegedly signed contracts with European operating companies to carry Iraqi stolen oil to different Asian countries. The Turkish government buys Iraqi plundered oil which is being produced from the Iraqi seized oil wells. Bilal Erdogan’s maritime companies own special wharfs in Beirut and Ceyhan ports that are transporting ISIS’ smuggled crude oil in Japan-bound oil tankers.
Vice President of the Turkish Republican People’s Party (CHP), Gursel Tekin has even stated on record that the oil was being smuggled into to Turkey via BMZ, a shipping company owned by Bilal Erdogan. He stated that “President Erdogan claims that according to international transportation conventions there is no legal infraction concerning Bilal’s illicit activities and his son is doing an ordinary business with the registered Japanese companies, but in fact Bilal Erdogan is up to his neck in complicity with terrorism, but as long as his father holds office he will be immune from any judicial prosecution.”
He also said that “a family business and president Erdogan’s close relatives hold shares in BMZ and they misused public funds and took illicit loans from Turkish banks.”
Afraa Dagher, a political analyst now residing in Syria, described the transit of oil from Iraq and Syria through Turkey and on to Israel in the following way:
The Islamic State in Syria and the Levant has been caught smuggling stolen oil to Turkey as its primary buyer. Oil tankers have been heading from Syria and Iraq to the Turkish city Zahko, which is located close to Sirnak province. Both are on the borders with Syria and Iraq.
Every oil convoy consists from 70 to 100 tankers. On the other side of the border, the oil smuggling mafias are waiting for these convoys and the oil they carry. Those mafias consist of merchants of Syrian, Kurdish, Iraqi, and Turkish as well as other nationalities, possibly even Iranian. All, however, maintain sympathies with terrorists.
The one who is directly responsible for the oil cargo provides it to the highest bidder and, in return, takes a part of the price in dollars. Some drivers receive the empty oil tankers and return back with it, while others who have an official license take the full tankers and transfer it into Turkey.
This information belongs to a source in the Iraqi interior ministry who refused to give his name.
After subjecting the stolen oil to a preliminary refining, it is brought in to Turkey as a waste product through Ebrahim Khalil crossing via a single gate. This is the border between Turkey and Iraq which is strongly held by Turkish troops, planes and checkpoints. No one can cross it without their knowledge and permission!
When the oil enters the Turkish town of Silopi, the Iraqi nest of oil smugglers gets its money. They receive this money by an Israeli-Greek dual citizen (although he is a Greek national) known as Haj Fareed or Doctor Fareed.
Dr Fareed is the Israeli broker and he is the one who coordinates between the mafias which own the stolen oil and three main companies who receive, buy, and transport it through the three Turkish ports of Dortyol, Jihan and Mersin. In order to ship the oil to Zionist Israel via oil tankers, the last station of Syrian Iraqi oil would have to be Ashdod.
The rest of the money will be sent to the terrorists in Syria and Iraq in other ways.
Of course, this process is not new. It has been taking place since the beginning of the so-called Arab Spring by the same groups of terrorists, the so-called rebels.
The rebel al-Nusra Front is active in these areas and are inking deals with local tribes and controlling as many oilfields as they can. Several of them, however, remain with unclear ownership and that has allowed the illicit trade to flourish. This was reported by AL-Jazeera English TV, which is a mouthpiece for the “rebels.”
So why haven’t the United States and its “coalition” truly gone after the source of ISIS funding? Why haven’t the United States or the rest of its “coalition” to “degrade and destroy ISIL” addressed the fact that members of NATO are not only buying the oil stolen by ISIS and paying the terrorist organization money that will be used to support its jihadist mission in Syria and Iraq, but addressed the fact that one of the main smugglers is the son of the President of a NATO country? Couldn’t NATO at least request that Erdogan ask his son to refrain from funding the very terrorist organization that Turkey and the rest of NATO claim to see as the end of the world?
The reason for this lack of interest in Bilal Erdogan’s business dealings is because neither the United States nor NATO truly want to destroy ISIS. Instead, they want to continue to use the terrorist organization as the proxy army it was created to be.
As it stands, the stolen oil will continue to cross the Turkish border and head to Israel unless it stopped by the Russians or the Syrian army. Otherwise, the Erdogan family will continue to enrich itself at the expense of civilization and the true source of funding for ISIS will continue to go unmolested. Naturally, mainstream Western media outlets like the Daily Beast will continue to report nonsense blaming ISIS on the one force that has been fighting it from the beginning.
http://www.activistpost.com/2015/12/msm-claims-assad-funds-isis-evidence-claims-otherwise.html?
By Jon Fingas
