Has Turkey warned Russia, 'Hands off our black-market ISIS oil'?
"Turkish fighter jets shot down a Russian-made warplane near the Syrian border on Tuesday after repeatedly warning it over air space violations, Turkish officials said, but Moscow said it could prove the jet had not left Syrian air space."
Just the other day, "American warplanes destroyed around 280 of ISIS' oil tanker trucks along the Syria-Iraq border on Monday, U.S. officials told NBC News."
"While it took the U.S. fifteen months to even begin targeting ISIS' oil refineries and tankers, air strikes by Moscow destroyed more than 1,000 tankers in a period of just five days."
"Col. Steve Warren said that the U.S. had taken out only 116 tanker trucks, the "first strike" to target ISIS' lucrative black market oil business, which funds over 50 per cent of the terror group's activities."
"U.S. air strikes targeting ISIS oil assets are so rare that PBS was caught using footage of Russian fighter jets bombing an oil storage facility in Syria and passing it off as evidence of the U.S. targeting the Islamic State's oil infrastructure."
"U.S. military pilots have also confirmed that they were ordered not to drop 75 per cent of their ordnance on ISIS targets because they could not get clearance from their superiors."
Will this bombing by Russia or the United States stop the money flowing to ISIS terror in the West? Probably not. "Islamic State is still extracting and selling oil in Syria and has adapted its trading techniques despite a month of strikes by U.S.-led forces..."
Who is buying the ISIS oil on the black market?
Some say Turkey buys ISIS oil. The key question is, how much of an illegal trade is there? The New York Times cited experts who placed the figure "at $1 million to $2 million a day." Speaking to Al-Monitor, a presidential adviser who preferred to remain anonymous dismissed this claim. He said, "This is impossible. A barrel of oil would be sold for about $50 on the black market. This means 400,000 barrels of oil a day passing illegally from Iraq or Syria to Turkey."
Beyond that, Turkey leadership seems to have a direct connection to ISIS income. Tyler Durden writes that, "… while we patiently dig to find who the on and offshore 'commodity trading' middleman are, who cart away ISIS oil to European and other international markets in exchange for hundreds of millions of dollars, one name keeps popping up as the primary culprit of regional demand for the Islamic State's 'terrorist oil' – that of Turkish president Recep Erdogan's son: Bilal Erdogan."
So, Turkey, a state that wants to join the EU, is helping to kill EU members while it's making a request for membership. Beyond that, it's important to remember that the last meeting ambassador Stevens had before he died at Benghazi was with Turkish consul general Ali Sait Akiny.
If the Trump presidential campaign wants to know more about who funds ISIS, they should, as usual, follow the money. Then report to the American people who pays for the terror we see in Paris and around the world.
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