IS earns tens of millions of dollars per month: U.S. official
English.news.cn

WASHINGTON, Oct. 24 (Xinhua) -- The Islamic State (IS) group is amassing wealth at an "unprecedented" pace, generating tens of millions of dollars per month, a U.S. official said on Thursday.

The militant group "poses a different terrorist financing challenge," as its revenue sources have a different composition from many other terrorist organizations, said David Cohen, the Treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.

The group's primary funding tactics include the sale of stolen oil, the ransoming of kidnap victims, theft and extortion, as well as donations from supporters, Cohen said in a speech at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

"With the important exception of some state-sponsored terrorist organizations, ISIL is probably the best-funded terrorist organization we have confronted," Cohen said, using an alternate acronym of the group.

The U.S. official said it is difficult to get precise revenue estimates on the value to IS of the transactions in light of the murky nature of the market, but the U.S. estimates that beginning in mid-June, the group has earned about 1 million U.S. dollars a day from black market oil sales.

Full story: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2014-10/24/c_127134608.htm

-- Xinhua 2014-10-24

off topic troll post removed

IS earns tens of millions of dollars per month

"Earns?" Something of a stretch.

The group's primary funding tactics include the sale of stolen oil, the ransoming of kidnap victims, theft and extortion ...

The only remaining criminal tactic left to them would be to go into banking.

If an American citizen will earn a $ 100 tomorrow, the IRS, somehow will find out about it,

so who hard is it to trace where the funds are moving from and to and freeze it ?....

however this will be hard to do when you have rouge countries that for the sake of profit

will sell their souls to the devil........

Qatar is the piggy bank

If an American citizen will earn a $ 100 tomorrow, the IRS, somehow will find out about it,

so who hard is it to trace where the funds are moving from and to and freeze it ?....

however this will be hard to do when you have rouge countries that for the sake of profit

will sell their souls to the devil........

Thank god there isn't global "patriot act" !

Rouge countries ,sake of profit,souls to the devil... Wow.

...sorry...but this is beginning to read like fiction.....

If an American citizen will earn a $ 100 tomorrow, the IRS, somehow will find out about it,

so who hard is it to trace where the funds are moving from and to and freeze it ?....

however this will be hard to do when you have rouge countries that for the sake of profit

will sell their souls to the devil........

If an American citizen will earn a $ 100 tomorrow, the IRS, somehow will find out about it,

No they wouldnt drama queen

Bomb the refineries and/or oil producing sites as that's were the bulk of the money is coming from.

The sale of stolen oil, the ransoming of kidnap victims - if they don't behead them - and theft and extortion hardly qualify as 'earnings', do they?

Maybe i am dumb,but is it too hard to stop oil sales,stopping ships,bombing pipelines.Who is buying it.Stop the money and most of these mercanarys will drift away.

I think it is easier to stop Ebola than to stop the flow of oil.

If an American citizen will earn a $ 100 tomorrow, the IRS, somehow will find out about it,

so who hard is it to trace where the funds are moving from and to and freeze it ?....

however this will be hard to do when you have rouge countries that for the sake of profit

will sell their souls to the devil........

If an American citizen will earn a $ 100 tomorrow, the IRS, somehow will find out about it,

No they wouldnt drama queen

Don't take everything so literally.The point is tax departments are all over their own citizens,but can't do anything about criminal gangs with illegal earnings.Rather weak effort or are these gangs and terrorists smarter than govts.Maybe deals are done with other govts not to investergate if we can use your air bases.

Isn't taking out the source of oil an easier task than taking out terrorists one by one? What is the excuse for not doing this? US military like whingeing.

Or are afraid to upset their ME allies...

Maybe i am dumb,but is it too hard to stop oil sales,stopping ships,bombing pipelines.Who is buying it.Stop the money and most of these mercanarys will drift away.

It has been reported the oil is smuggled out of IS controlled areas by trucks into neighbouring countries. The Assad regeme is reported to be a buyer; basically a criminal enterprise irrespective of the actions of IS.

I would assume much of the profits generated would be via the nearly untraceable Hawala system.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawala

When Iraq was under sanctions, I worked in the norther part of Iraq and traveled frequently to Turkey. Sometimes the line of trucks smuggling oil was over 100 Km long. In order to comply with the sanctions, they had modified fuel tanks, sometimes two or three very large tanks under the truck. These would be filled and they would cross, sell the fuel and then get back in line.

I spoke with the UN officials and they said there wasn't much they could do since they weren't technically doing anything other than filling their tanks before returning. This was a huge source of income for Turkey (and the border officials). At one point they did limit the number of trucks that could cross per day, so that made for the longer line, but it was apparently lucrative enough that waiting in line for up to a week was worth it.

As long as there is money to be made, the oil will be smuggled.

Taking out the source can be tricky. There is a huge amount of environmental damage when you blow up a pipeline or a refinery.

And just how did they come up with that number. It's a guess nothing else. Unless of course they are their accountants.

'millions of dollars A MONTH' is nothing.. IS doesn't just fight wars, in the area it controls, like Mosul, tikret and other sunni towns-it has to be the government, it has to fix the water treatment facilities. whats left of them, it has to provide water, electricity, medical care.. and that's with the shiite regime in baghdad(with NATO and gulf state backing) intentionally trying to make life miserable for the Sunni's so that they reject the IS..

Assad has tried this tactic in the suburbs with some success but for the most part it has caused him to permanently loose 2/3s of his country and his regime is stronger than the one in baghdad..

since the iraq war has created a situation where shiites control both the regime in baghdad and damascus, it's time to accept the permanent reality of the Islamic State in sunni riverbank area's of iraq and syria.. rather than trying to destroy it, better to go for ceasefire lines in the short term.

IS earns tens of millions of dollars per month

"Earns?" Something of a stretch.

The group's primary funding tactics include the sale of stolen oil, the ransoming of kidnap victims, theft and extortion ...

The only remaining criminal tactic left to them would be to go into banking.

IS earns tens of millions of dollars per month

"Earns?" Something of a stretch.

The group's primary funding tactics include the sale of stolen oil, the ransoming of kidnap victims, theft and extortion ...

The only remaining criminal tactic left to them would be to go into banking.

Bomb their bank. Make it so hard for their bank to do business. Anyone doing business with them need to be attacked so they financially hurt.

Plus the banks/companies/individuals doing business with them need to be outed with their financial details spread across the media.

Money and credibility are the things to attack.