Al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahiri The Coordinator 2015 Part 19-110-Caliphate-Money-Jihad-2

By Capt (Ret) C de Waart, feel free to share: in Confidence. In The "War of the Cross, we seek a Strategy, our Enemy has one."

Bleed America economically

PARIS - Several of Al-Qaeda's major financers, known collectively as the 'Golden Chain', have been found to be among those holding bank accounts at the Swiss HSBC, reported Le Monde on Tuesday

US President Barack Obama says the US is "not at war with Islam - we are at war with the people who have perverted Islam". He was speaking to representatives from 60 nations attending a three-day event on extremism that follows attacks in Denmark and France. Mr Obama said the world had to confront the ideologies that radicalise people. He said those heading groups like Islamic State and al-Qaeda were not religious leaders but terrorists.

Putin’s latest visit to Egypt gives a chance to both countries to send a message to US, demonstrating that they don’t need to follow its guidelines in foreign policy.

• To push the progress further, the two countries are to discuss a free trade agreement between Egypt and the Russia-led Eurasian free trade union, which also includes Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia. Russia and Egypt may also dump the US dollar and switch bilateral trade to their national currencies, Putin said in an interview

• Sisi has been fighting a threat to the Suez Canal, combating ISIS in the Sinai and worrying about ISIS now aligning with the al-Qaida-affiliated militia and the Libyan Muslim Brotherhood in Libya on Egypt’s western border.

• Meanwhile, al-Qaida-affiliated terrorists are gaining strength in Nigeria and Somalia to the south of Egypt

• “Sisi had no choice but to fill the void left by the Obama administration’s decision with the military aid that Russia was willing to provide,”

“With the Obama administration supporting the al-Qaida militia in Libya and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, it’s a great illustration how an errant foreign policy undertaken by the U.S. State Department and a White House national security team has managed to drag the United States down lower and lower in credibility throughout the Middle East.”

• Let me recall: AQSL 2020 Grand Plan The Fifth Phase This will be the point at which an Islamic state, or caliphate, can be declared. The plan is that by this time, between 2013 and 2016, Western influence in the Islamic world will be so reduced and Israel weakened so much, that resistance will not be feared. Al-Qaida hopes that by then the Islamic state will be able to bring about a new world order.

Russia and Turkey may switch to payments in national currencies, and not only in the gas industry. Representatives of Turkish mechanical engineering, who have recently visited Moscow, said they would be willing to deliver machinery tools to Russia.

Some Twelve months ago, the group now known as Islamic State (IS) was little recognised on the international stage beyond those inspired to travel and join the group as fighters or those in the security and academic worlds monitoring developments in Syria and Iraq. Even at its emergence, it was dismissed as just another of the multitude taking advantage of the chaos created in Syria by the wide-ranging conflict with President Bashar al-Assad. In January 2014, US President Barack Obama downplayed the capabilities and threats posed by those

flying the al-Qaeda flag in Falluja and elsewhere across Iraq and Syria. But within a few months, IS controlled a vast and valuable swathe of territory across northern Syria and Iraq, and now threatening other states. Former US Secretary of Defence Chuck Hagel described IS as being as "sophisticated and well-funded as any group that we have seen". "They're beyond just a terrorist group… they are tremendously well funded," he said 1.

The Guardian 18 February 2015 By Dan Roberts in Washington White House officials are downplaying calls to focus on Islamist terrorism in a three-day summit aimed at preventing violent extremism, insisting that recent attacks should not lead to stereotyping of certain communities as higher risk. The international conference, which begins on Tuesday in Washington and will seek ways of deterring home-grown terrorism, has been criticised by Republicans for failing to single out Islamist extremism for particular scrutiny despite having been convened by Barack Obama in the wake of the terrorist attacks in Paris and coming amid concern over radicalisation by the Islamic State, or Isis, and just days after a terrorist attack in Denmark.

AQAP to reap windfall from Paris attacks

January 10, 2015 https://moneyjihad.wordpress.com/2015/01/10/aqap-to-reap-windfall-from-paris-attacks/

After Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) claimed responsibility for planning the attack against Charlie Hebdo, former CIA deputy director Mike Morell told CBS Radio News yesterday that, “This is gonna put a lot of money in AQAP’s pockets. One of the ways you raise money in the terrorist world is to have a successful attack.” Indeed, AQAP would seem to have needed a notable success in the wake of their failed “underwear bomb” of Christmas 2009 and abortive air cargo bomb plot of 2010. AQAP had resorted to robbing banks, post offices, and payroll caravans in recent years, possibly to offset losses as wealthy Arabs diverted their zakat to ISIS rather than traditional Al Qaeda affiliates. Morell’s comments dovetail with those of terror finance expert Loretta Napoleoni, who recently said of the Islamic State that: The more famous you are, the more money you attract… The [ISIS] strategy is very interesting because instead of attacking the army of Assad—the army of Damascus—what they did was actually attacking the other jihadist groups. And that gave them a sort of notoriety within the jihadist movement because they looked the strongest, the better organized, the biggest, so everybody wanted to join them—so people wanted to move from one group to another to join them. But the same thing was for the sponsors who said “this is a really good group, this is a better group than the other, so let’s send them money.”

1 http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-30393832

Financing jihadism

Annual income and sources

Islamic State: sale of oil, tolls and 'taxes' $2bn

Afghan Taliban: donors, sale of drugs $400m

Al-Shabab: sale of charcoal and 'taxes' up to $100m

Boko Haram: kidnap for ransom, fundraising $10m

Al Nusra Front: donations, kidnap for ransom $ unknown

Then there’s the other aspect of notoriety which is of course through the Internet. This organization was so popular on the Internet because they were so successful that they started to get money coming from all over the world from sympathizers and supporters. Read in this light, the Charlie Hebdo attack would seem to put AQAP back on broader jihadist map, and give it a sales pitch for bigger recruitment and donations.

SwissLeaks: Al-Qaeda financers among HSBC clientsExecutives knew account holders had been charged

with terrorism10 February, 19:16 SwissLeaks: Al-Qaeda financers among HSBC clients

(ANSAmed) - PARIS - Several of Al-Qaeda's major financers, known collectively as the 'Golden Chain', have been found to be among those holding bank accounts at the Swiss HSBC, reported Le Monde on Tuesday.

The daily cited documents shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. Among the men is a Saudi prince known in the past to have provided protection to Osama Bin Laden and another man from the Saudi royal family whose wife had sent payments to one of the alleged 9/11 attackers. Le Monde reports that other account holders included the former treasurer of an organization accused of money laundering for Al-Qaeda and the owner of a factory bombed by the US on suspicion of producing prohibited chemical weapons for sale on the black market. The list of names from the Golden Chain, the newspaper states, was found in Sarajevo in 2002 in a raid on a foundation that was actually a front for the financing of Islamic terrorism. Some of the names later appeared in the media while US secret services investigated the complex financing network for Al-Qaeda and its 'sheikh'. HSBC, however, did not modify in any way its relations with the people included on the list and continued to manage accounts in their names. According to a 2012 US Senate report, bank executives and its service tasked with monitoring the money paid into the clients' accounts knew that the individuals had been charged with having links with the terrorist group. (ANSAmed).

19 Feb, about the need to talk to the Syrian government and have a presence in the capital ; The EU currently imposes sanctions on officials, businessmen, institutions and trade, and bans the import of Syrian oil or petroleum products 2. Diplomats say the calls have come from or would be supported by countries including Sweden, Denmark, Romania, Bulgaria, Austria and Spain, as well as the Czech Republic, which did not withdraw its ambassador. Norway and Switzerland, which are outside the EU, are also supportive. Those states have become more vocal in internal meetings about the need to talk to the Syrian government and have a presence in the capital. London and Paris reject this, saying President Bashar Assad has lost all legitimacy. Although Europe has long faced divisions on Syria, the calls have increased since Islamic State advanced in Syria and Iraq last summer and US-led strikes started against the group. US officials say there is no shift in their policy regarding Assad, even as their focus is fighting Islamic State, an al-Qaida offshoot which is also an enemy of Damascus. "Some states say: Bashar is a reality, we have to take this into account if there are threats to Europe," one European diplomat said, referring to the risk of attacks at home by jihadists returning from Syria. While it is generally understood that there will have to be negotiations, diplomats said,

2 http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Europe-could-switch-stance-on-Syria-due-to-ISIS-threat-391509

Britain and France see Assad's departure as a precondition. But the collapse of his government has become less likely as the war rolls on. "We've been waiting for it to fall like a house of cards, but the problem is that we've been waiting for that for four years and that isn't happening," a senior EU diplomat said. "It is important the European Union support the UN mediator and his effort to create a ceasefire," Denmark's Foreign Minister Martin Lidegaard told Reuters. "In relation to that, we cannot avoid to talk to the regime in Damascus since they represent an element of power." European diplomats point to what they see as the shift in the American stance on Syria. US officials say they have not relented in their goal of Assad leaving power but see no policy likely to achieve this at an acceptable cost. "We don't know what this coalition wants and the United States is not deciding," said Bassma Kodmani, director of the Paris-based Arab Reform Initiative and a former member of the main Syrian opposition in exile.

"That's leading to calls in Europe that Assad is the lesser of the two evils. The debate has come full circle."

THE Islamic State may be harvesting the organs of victims to finance its terror operations, Iraq’s ambassador to the United Nations says. Ambassador Mohamed Alhakim said today that in the past few weeks, bodies with surgical incisions and missing kidneys or other body parts have been found in shallow mass graves. “We have bodies. Come and examine them,” he said, referring to the UN Security Council. “It is clear they are missing certain parts.”

ISIS Empire: Smuggling, shakedowns, donations feed swelling terror budget By Lucas Tomlinson Published February 16, 2015 FoxNews.com ISIS advancing in Iraq's Anbar province. As the Islamic State seeks to export its brand of barbaric terror to would-be affiliates, the U.S. faces a growing challenge to find the sources of ISIS funding and blunt its flow to allied militants. The terror army's most recent atrocity was the mass beheading of 21 Coptic Christians in Libya. It remains unclear how closely tied those militants are to ISIS in Iraq and Syria, but the Islamic State's underground economy continues to thrive. Even as the U.S.-led coalition strikes at what was long the heart of ISIS' revenue stream -- oil fields and refineries -- officials say the terror network is making money in other ways. "We know that oil revenue is no longer the lead source of their income in dollars," Pentagon press secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby said recently. But he added: "They get a lot of donations. They also have a significant black market program." How much money ISIS truly makes from donations is a matter of debate. But experts agree that ISIS receives significant revenue from black-market smuggling and other operations. "ISIS is selling anything they can get their hands on," Dr. Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said in an interview with Fox News. Plus, according to reports, the group is even skimming Iraqi taxpayer dollars by shaking down government employees in areas they've conquered. In short, ISIS is set on building a terror empire, going so far as to tout its annual financials. Reportedly, ISIS released a $2 billion budget for 2015 including a $250 million surplus, though those numbers are disputed. After Mosul fell to the Islamic State in June, the International Business Times declared ISIS the "world's richest terrorist organization" after the central bank's vaults were looted of some

$420 million. Estimates vary, but ISIS reportedly rakes in between one and three million dollars per day, though the strikes against its oil refineries have taken a toll. The United Nations last Thursday tried to strike at the money stream. The Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution aimed at cutting off millions of dollars in earnings from oil smuggling, antiquities trafficking and ransom payments to ISIS. The measure calls for sanctions against individuals and entities that trade in oil with ISIS and Al Qaeda affiliates such as the Al-Nusra Front in Syria. The resolution was co-sponsored by more than 35 countries. It called for all 193 countries of the U.N. to take steps to prevent ancient artifacts from being smuggled and sold and to ban the direct or indirect sale of ransoms. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power said payments and donations to ISIS "perpetuate a cycle of horrific brutality, giving these groups resources to carry out more murderous acts and incentivizing them to take more people captive." How much ISIS really receives from donations is unclear. "Most charities [supporting radical Islam] in the Gulf are aligned with Al Qaeda, not ISIS," said Gartenstein-Ross. Gartenstein-Ross pointed to Abdulrahman al-Nuaymi, a Qatari who has been accused by the U.S. Treasury Department of transferring millions of dollars to Al Qaeda affiliates in Iraq and Syria, as a prime example of this arrangement. While many blame Qatar for playing a "double game" of supporting both radical Islamist groups and the coalition against ISIS, the Obama administration disputes the notion that wealthy Arabs from Persian Gulf countries give generously to ISIS. "ISIL derives a relatively small share of its funds from deep-pocket donors, and thus does not, today, depend principally on moving money across international borders. Instead, ISIL obtains the vast majority of its revenues through local criminal and terrorist activities," said Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David S. Cohen in October, at The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is a lot of opacity," Gartenstein-Ross admitted. But he said the smuggling of black market goods, similar to the opium trade by the Taliban inside Afghanistan; taxation among the Iraqi population particularly in Mosul; and the sale of oil round out other areas of ISIS funding.

Gartenstein-Ross pointed out that airstrikes from the U.S.-led coalition against oil refineries in Syria have denied ISIS a large source of revenue. Looting and ransoms make up for some of the difference, however. Some experts point to the Iraqi government as unwittingly contributing to ISIS' coffers. Aki Peritz, a former CIA counterterrorism analyst, said in a recent New York Times op-ed that the Iraqi government continues to pay its civil servants in Mosul, despite being controlled by

ISIS. Peritz wrote, "Baghdad provides about $130 million every month to pay all its workers in Mosul" and estimated that Iraq's treasury has paid over $1 billion to these civil servants since Mosul fell in June 2014. He estimated that ISIS has taken half of those payments in the form of taxation. While efforts are currently underway to dismantle key revenue sources for the Islamic State, there are signs the caliphate is receiving setbacks from within. According to syriadirect.org, "Assassinations, bombings and defections plague the Islamic State in Deir e-Zor," in oil-rich eastern Syria. The nonprofit news outlet based in Amman, Jordan, says that over the past month, assassination attempts against members of ISIS religious police have become more common.

Tensions rise between Saudis, RussiansAuthor: Paul J. Saunders Posted February 18, 2015 While the United States is widely considered Russia’s principal rival in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia may well be taking second place. Moreover, not unlike Moscow’s suspicions toward Washington, Russian officials and analysts have often seen a Saudi hand in problems closer to home, in Russia’s neighboring countries and even within Russia itself. Russian-Saudi tensions thus seem unlikely to lessen anytime soon. Some of the strains in Russia’s relations with Saudi Arabia derive from the kingdom’s long-standing role as one of America’s closest and strongest allies in the Middle East. Yet, even as Saudi Arabia’s alignment with Washington frustrates Russia in some areas, Riyadh’s differences with the United States — such as over its aid to Syrian militants that neither Washington nor Moscow find to be acceptable — create trouble in others.Saudi Arabia’s Cold War-era cooperation with the United States in supporting Afghanistan’s mujahedeen fighters against the 1979 Soviet invasion is the foundation for much of Russia’s distrust of Saudi Arabia. This is less a historical grievance, however, than a long-term and continuing problem for Russia, in that it ultimately contributed to a civil war in post-Soviet Tajikistan, an ungoverned Afghanistan exporting extremism, the spread of terrorists and drugs across the Eurasian space, and — after the attacks of Sept. 11 — a long-term US and NATO presence in Central Asia. Worst of all from a Russian perspective has been the spillover from Afghanistan to Russia’s own North Caucasus regions — especially Chechnya, but also Dagestan and Ingushetia. Russian officials have long argued that al-Qaeda terrorists from Afghanistan have not only operated in these regions, but assisted in attacks in Moscow and other cities across Russia.At times, Russia’s suspicions have also extended to Saudi nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) operating in Russia. While US and European media have focused almost exclusively on Russian concerns about Western-funded pro-democracy groups operating in the country, former Federal Security Service Director and current Secretary of Russia's Security Council Nikolai Patrushev has in the past specifically accused the Saudi Red Crescent (and a handful of Western NGOs) in public remarks as being involved in “espionage operations” with the goal of “trying to weaken Russian influence in the former Soviet Union and the international arena as a whole.” Patrushev suggested that the groups were behind unrest in Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan in 2003-2005. Saudi Arabia’s competition with Iran creates additional problems for Russia. Immediate among these is likely the civil war in Syria, in which Riyadh is of course extensively supporting forces seeking to oust President Bashar al-Assad, whom Russia and Iran are helping to stay in power. Given the tight limits on what the United States has been willing to do for the anti-Assad coalition in Syria, Saudi Arabia has been essential in preventing its defeat and — from Moscow’s point of view — in creating the pre-conditions necessary to establish the so-called Islamic State. As Alexey Pushkov, chairman of the State Duma’s Committee on International Affairs, said recently, the

“Islamist or Wahhabi monarchies in the Gulf like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Bahrain, they seek to model the Syrian regime after their own” and “the armed opposition … are the same kind of people who blow up American soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq, and kill NATO troops in Afghanistan.” At the same time, Riyadh is looking for allies against Iran inside the former Soviet space — particularly in Azerbaijan, which borders Iran to the northwest. The Saudi role in Afghanistan can of course also be interpreted as an effort to encircle Iran and ensure that Tehran’s leaders must look not only west but east.Finally — and most damaging at present — many in Moscow suspect that Saudi Arabia is deliberately depressing oil prices to damage Russia’s economy, either on its own or in collaboration with the United States. The Russian Institute for Strategic Studies, which some see as linked to Russia’s intelligence services, recently published a study making this case. A spokesman for state-owned oil company Rosneft likewise accused Saudi Arabia of “political manipulation” of the oil price. Patrushev has publicly attributed the collapse of the USSR to a similar plot. Despite deep Russian concerns over Saudi conduct, Moscow clearly views the kingdom with respect as a formidable player. After all, with an economy only one-third the size of Russia’s — and about one-fifth its population — Saudi Arabia has an annual military budget that ranks just behind Russia’s (Moscow’s is the world’s third largest, and Saudi Arabia’s its fourth largest) and is only $8 billion smaller. At the same time, Saudi Arabia’s better-run oil-dependent economy has outperformed Russia’s for most of the last decade, including during the two oil price collapses in 2009 and today.One mark of this respect was the fact that Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev attended King Abdullah’s January 2015 funeral. Another is that in each of five different stories about Abdullah’s death, the Russian state media agency ITAR-TASS referred to the late monarch as “King Abdullah, one of the world’s most powerful people.” This is no accident. President Vladimir Putin himself said, “The deceased king was known as a wise and consistent statesman and politician, a leader loved and respected by his people and had a deserved authority on the international scene.” Indeed, perhaps most interesting is the extent to which senior Russian officials have refrained from publicly criticizing Saudi Arabia and its leaders — they are not nearly so shy in expressing their views of many other US allies. The fact that Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov are this careful suggests that notwithstanding widespread negative attitudes toward the kingdom’s foreign policy, Moscow is not eager to provoke Saudi Arabia any more than is necessary. From a certain perspective, that might just be the highest form of respect the Russian government can offer.11 Feb, "We discussed today the possibility of cooperation in nuclear power engineering," Putin said. "If final decisions are made, they will relate not only to the construction of a nuclear power plant but also to the creation of a whole new nuclear power industry in Egypt." The two countries have agreed on establishing a free trade zone with the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) and a Russia industrial zone in the Suez Canal area.

NAIROBI, Feb 19 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) Virtually all major U.S. banks have ended remittance services to Somalia over the last few years because of regulations that hold banks responsible if they transfer funds to "terrorist" groups like Somalia's al Shabaab. - Somali families are panicking and businesses are running short of funds two weeks after the last major U.S. bank stopped transferring money to the fragile Horn of Africa country, development groups said. Somalia has no formal banking system due to decades of war, so Somalis living abroad use money transfer companies to send some $1.3 billion home each year - far more than the country receives in aid, Oxfam, Adeso and the Global Center for Cooperative Security said in a report on Thursday. Merchants Bank of California closed its accounts with Somali-American transfer companies on Feb. 6, cutting off a lifeline to millions in a country plagued by widespread hunger, recurrent drought and an Islamist insurgency.

Virtually all major U.S. banks have ended remittance services to Somalia over the last few years because of regulations that hold banks responsible if they transfer funds to "terrorist" groups like Somalia's al Shabaab.Merchants Bank handled 60 to 80 percent of the money sent to Somalia from the United States, which is the country's biggest source of remittances, Adeso and Oxfam said.While most transactions are a few hundred dollars sent to needy family members, it is Somali businesspeople and traders, trying to transfer thousands of dollars, who have started feeling the impact of the Merchants Bank account closures."Cash-flow is becoming a problem in the system," said Adeso's Ali. "(The) pipeline of cash coming in from the U.S. is decreasing." Somalia's remittance crisis has been intensifying for years. Britain's Barclays Bank closed its accounts with Dahabshiil, the largest Somali money transfer company, in 2014.In Australia, Westpac, the only bank partnering with Somali remittance companies, is due to close their accounts at the end of March, the report said. It has also told banks dealing with Somali money transfer companies that they will not be prosecuted if money ends up in the wrong hands if they can show they have undertaken due diligence. Somalia endured famine in 2011, during which more than 250,000 people died. Malnutrition rates remain at emergency levels in several parts of the country as fighting continues between the Western-backed government and Islamist militants. CAIRO, February 9 (Sputnik) – Egypt's national gas company and Russian energy giant Gazprom have signed a deal on the supply of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Egypt, the country's trade, industry and investment minister told RIA Novosti on Monday. "The agreement was signed on Saturday between the Egyptian [state] gas company and Gazprom on the supply of LNG shipments annually for five years," Mounir Fakhry Abdel Nour said. In December 2014, Egypt reached a deal on LNG imports from Algeria. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday said his country was "actively discussing" the idea to exclude US dollars in the bilateral trade with Egypt and use national currencies – roubles and Egyptian pounds – instead. Highlighting the fact that Russia already uses its national currencies for trade with countries such as China, he added that the practice would "prove its worth."

10 Feb (RT 3)To push the progress further, the two countries are to discuss a free trade agreement between Egypt and the Russia-led Eurasian free trade union, which also includes Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia. Russia and Egypt may also dump the US dollar and switch bilateral trade to their national currencies, Putin said in an interview with the Egyptian daily newspaper Al-Ahram ahead of the visit. The situation is aggravated by the quarrel between Cairo and its long-time supporter Washington. The US backed Mubarak’s ouster and the emergence of the Muslim Brotherhood as a major political power in Egypt, but lashed out at the military coup by Sisi and his allies. Following that, Washington froze its annual $1.5 billion aid to Egypt and put on hold a deal to supply Apache helicopter gunships that the Egyptian Army needed to fight jihadists in the Sinai. With Washington frowning, Moscow stepped in and offered a big $3.5 billion arms deal to the new Egyptian government. The deal was reached in September last year. The US has since resumed aid and unfrozen the helicopter deliveries, but its relations with Egypt are far from shiny, with the administration criticizing Sisi’s government for harsh tactics in cracking down on the Brotherhood. Putin’s visit gives a chance to both countries to send a message to US, demonstrating that they don’t need to follow its guidelines in foreign policy. Cairo states that in can find support from players other than America to deal with its domestic troubles. For Moscow, it’s yet another testament that Washington’s narrative of Russia being

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internationally isolated is mere wishful thinking. Another potentially big deal on the table in Cairo is the construction of Egypt’s first nuclear power plant. Russia is bidding for the project. On international matters, Putin and Sisi are expected to discuss threats to regional stability in the Middle East and North Africa, including the terrorist organization Islamic State (also known as ISIS, or ISIL), the poor state of post-Gaddafi Libya and the stewing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

WASHINGTON 4 – Vladimir Putin’s visit to Egypt marks a low point in U.S.-Egyptian relations, weakening an alliance formed 35 years ago, when President Carter negotiated the Camp David Accords with Egyptian President Anwar El Sadat 5 and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, contends a retired Army general. Retired Maj. Gen. Paul Vallely, a founding member of the Citizens’ Commission on Benghazi, told WND the Russians filled a void after the Obama administration cut off military supplies and equipment to Egypt in response to the overthrow of the Muslim Brotherhood-backed president, Mohamed Morsi, which set the stage for Gen. Abdel-Fatal al-Sisi to become president. Vallely noted that in October 2013, after the Obama administration suspended military aid to Egypt, Sisi turned to Russia. The move was followed by Putin’s first visit to Egypt on Feb. 12-13, 2014, which resulted in Cairo’s decision to purchase some $2 billion of weapons from Russia.Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Tom McInerney, another founding member of the Citizens’ Commission on Benghazi, concurred. “It is amazing how fast the Obama administration has turned some of our most loyal allies against us. Egypt was the keystone of our Mideast Policy for 40 years,” McInerney said. Egypt is “vital,” he said, “because it controls the Suez Canal, plus airspace to enter and exit the Middle East as well as the crucial partner in the Israeli Peace Treaty, and we have now forced the Egyptians to look to Russia for support.

How could we let this happen?”Clare Lopez, senior vice president for research and analysis at the Center for Security Policy in Washington, warned Putin is a “shrewd operator who, like his predecessors, prioritizes a Russian presence in the Middle East.” “We must know that wherever the Kremlin is able to establish a foothold will be used to the detriment of our friend and partner, Israel, to perpetuate historical KGB relationships with Islamic terror operatives, and to oppose U.S. strategic interests in the region,” said Lopez, a former CIA officer and another current member of the Citizens’ Commission on Benghazi. “Squandering our decades-long partnership with Egypt is dangerous, foolish and entirely unnecessary,” she said.The Washington Institute for Near East Politics reported that between 1979 and Obama’s decision to suspend military aid to Egypt last October, the U.S. provided Egypt with nearly $70 billion in funding. More than half went to purchase American-made equipment. The Washington Institute further reported a $1.3 billion per year U.S. security-assistance grant accounting for 80 percent of Egypt’s military’s annual procurement budget.“Sisi had no choice but to fill the void left by the Obama administration’s decision with the military aid that Russia was willing to provide,” Vallely said.Vallely said that since declaring the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization in December 2013, Sisi has been fighting a threat to the Suez Canal, combating ISIS in the Sinai and worrying about ISIS now aligning with the al-Qaida-affiliated militia and the Libyan Muslim Brotherhood in Libya on Egypt’s western border.

4 http://www.wnd.com/2015/02/russia-pushing-u-s-out-of-middle-east/5 The assassination of Anwar Sadat occurred on 6 October 1981. Anwar Sadat, the President of Egypt, was assassinated during the annual victory parade held in Cairo to celebrate Operation Badr (1973), during which the Egyptian Army had crossed the Suez Canal and taken back Sinai Peninsula from Israel at the beginning of the Yom Kippur War. A fatwā approving the assassination had been obtained from Omar Abdel-Rahman, a cleric later convicted in the US for his role in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. The assassination was undertaken by members of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad.

Meanwhile, al-Qaida-affiliated terrorists are gaining strength in Nigeria and Somalia to the south of Egypt. WND reported an interim report by the Citizens’ Commission on Benghazi concluded the Obama administration “switched sides” in the war on terror in Libya in 2011 when the White House and State Department under Hillary Clinton chose to arm al-Qaida-affiliated militia and the Libyan branch of the Muslim Brotherhood in their effort to oust Muammar Gadhafi by force. “Russia has stepped up to provide the arms Egypt needs to defend itself against the radical Islamic terrorists al-Sisi faces on all sides,” Vallely said.He was referring to a report that Saudi Arabia has agreed to finance the weapons Egypt purchases from Russia. Valley said the Obama administration has managed to reverse some nearly 35 years of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, with Egypt now returning to Russia. Egypt had a close relationship with the Soviet Union had in era of President Gamal Abdel Nasser, from 1956 to 1970. “Egypt has a real concern about security, and the United States is not there to help as we should be helping,” Vallely said. “This is typical of the changes the Obama administration has made in U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East,” he said. “With the Obama administration supporting the al-Qaida militia in Libya and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, it’s a great illustration how an errant foreign policy undertaken by the U.S. State Department and a White House national security team has managed to drag the United States down lower and lower in credibility throughout the Middle East.”

Russia and Turkey to cooperate contrary to NATO's will 6

Every year, Russia spends $27 billion to buy machinery and equipment from abroad. Turkish machine builders stated that they were ready to expand cooperation with Russia. In general, Turkey has long been one of the best economic partners for Russia. Russia and Turkey have large-scale projects in the field of nuclear power. Turkish construction companies are traditionally active on the Russian market, both in Moscow and in the regions. At the same time, business structures of our southern neighbor raise the question of Turkey's accession to the economic Eurasian Union. This brings up an aspect, which somehow fades away into the background in the media. It goes about Turkey's cooperation with NATO. As it turns out, these are absolutely different things: business does not mix with military affairs."You'll laugh, but constituent documents of the North Atlantic Alliance do not limit economic cooperation of its members and allies with the countries, against which individual, personalized or sectoral sanctions have been introduced, - member of the International Bar Association, consultant of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation Igor Schmidt said in an interview with Pravda.Ru. - Legal documents of the alliance were formed a long time ago, when it was impossible to predict the situation that has developed in the world today. In other words, no one can forbid Turkey to cooperate with Russia in the economic sphere. NATO's regulations are rarely changed, and this is a long and complex process, which Turkey uses to its advantage.""With regard to Turkey's reliability as a partner, I'd like to note that this country has never joined the sanctions that several countries of the West imposed on Russia. Quite on the contrary, Turkey suggested expanding cooperation with Russia, including in the gas and energy sector, and in the military sphere, - chief editor of Arsenal of the Fatherland Journal, member of the advisory board of the Military-Industrial Commission of the Russian Federation, Viktor Murakhovski, said in an interview with Pravda.Ru. - Indeed, we want to work with Turkey regarding the supplies of various types of industrial equipment. Turkey has already proven itself as a reliable partner."Russia has not lost business appeal under sanctions;

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Nevertheless, the expert believes that Russia should not be too much attached to only China and Turkey. There are other powerful manufacturers, such as South Korea, Taiwan, Brazil. However, the expert admitted, Turkey's recent positions on the market of engineering equipment have been impressive during the recent decades."I want to say that all the talk in the West, those remarks from Obama about the Russian economy being in tatters and isolation show that all this is not true to fact, - the chief of the Sector for Regional Security Issues at the Centre for Defence Studies at RISS, Sergey Yermakov, said in an interview with Pravda.Ru. - Today, the businessmen and countries that support their national businessmen and manufacturers have a much more flexible and broader outlook. Turkey is a bright example. In this sense, Turkey is a great partner for Russia." Turkey has its own economic interests that are above certain political circumstances. Despite the fact that Turkey is a NATO member and is traditionally referred to as a member of the Western bloc, it plays its own role, on the basis of its national interests, he added. "This cooperation is beneficial for Turkey, we have very good prospects here," said Sergey Yermakov. Against the backdrop of sanctions, Turkey has obtained a chance not only to preserve the flow of Russian tourists, but also to develop the field of mechanical engineering. Turkish businessmen, who frequently visit Russia, say that Russia can purchase any equipment for any type of production in Turkey. These friendly relations have their brief, yet positive history. Thus, the activities of the Association of Exporters of Machinery and Equipment, which was established in Turkey in 2002, was originally aimed at close cooperation with the Ministry of Economy of the Russian Federation. This is the only Turkish association of exporters of machine building products that consists of more than eight thousand Turkish exporters.German quality of Turkish goods In 2013, Turkey's exports of machinery totaled $5.5 billion. The same year, Germany purchased the Turkish equipment worth $2.2 billion dollars. In other words, Turkey exports 16.7 percent of machinery and equipment products to Germany. Needless to say that Germany is an internationally recognized leader in the field of mechanical engineering in the European Union. Today, Turkey supplies machines and equipment to more than 200 countries. Turkey has established itself as a manufacturer of high-quality equipment in the world market. Yet, 60 percent of Turkish machine exports fall for the EU and USA. There is a long way to go as far as cooperation with Russia is concerned. The Turks promise flexibility in pricing policy, especially against the backdrop of the current ruble rate. Moreover, Turkish companies that now work in Russia already cut their prices for Russian customers. Moreover, it was reported that the central banks of Russia and Turkey work to switch to settlements in national currencies. Turkey's leading banks have suffered from Western sanctions against Russia. Thus, the US Treasury Department introduced restrictions on the Turkish DenizBank in September of 2014 in connection with the same restrictions that were imposed on Russia's Sberbank. The two banks are linked financially and organizationally. The restrictions were lifted in October of the same year. "Economic relations between Russia and Turkey have been developing for the past 20 years. Today, they are on the rise, - a member of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation, Director of the Institute of Political Studies, Sergei Markov, said at a press conference devoted for the development of the Russian-Turkish relations. - It is important that the structures of Russian and Turkish economies are not competitive, but complementary. What is developed in Russia is not very well developed in Turkey and vice versa." Andrei Mikhailov Pravda.Ru

Regards Cees; Can the United States, European Union and Russia cooperate against the burgeoning common threat posed by the so-called Islamic State , even as their diplomats

cross swords over the most recent escalation of fighting in Ukraine 7 ? The short answer is yes, but the path to cooperation will not be easy. The hard truth is that even when relations were good, counterterrorism cooperation was never as robust as many had hoped after 9/11. This was because of a fundamental conceptual gap about the nature of the terrorist threat. For the United States, the threat comes in the guise of foreign radicals, determined to undermine the institutions of American society. That is the lesson Washington drew from 9/11 as it formulated its response. Al Qaeda in fact might have had a more limited goal of driving the United States from the Middle East, but Washington depicted the threat as one against the West's fundamental democratic values. For Russia, the terrorist threat is inextricably linked to separatism. That was the lesson Moscow drew from Chechnya as it formulated its counterterrorist policies.

As Moscow buys the yellow metal in record amounts, we ask if gold is a geopolitical financial weapon. Feb 2015 So could President Vladimir Putin be pushing back through this gold shopping spree? He has railed against the dominance of the dollar and has dumped some of the country's holdings of US government debt. It has been termed as a kind of financial weaponisation. Russia is spending more on gold than at any time since the break-up of the Soviet Union. The Central Bank of Russia bought a record amount of gold in the first 11 months of 2014 spending an estimated $6.1 billion. It was late in 2005 when President Vladimir Putin publicly approved a plan from the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) to double Russia’s state gold holdings. Moscow’s “significant” role in gold came to the fore in 2014, both globally and for the domestic mining business. Today the CBR lags only the central banks and treasuries of France, Italy, Germany and the United States in the gold reserves it reports to the world. Holding some 1,188 tonnes, now worth over $45 billion at current prices, the CBR holds Russia’s largest hoard since the last Romanov Tsar topped 1,200 tonnes, right before the outbreak of WWI and the Bolshevik revolution which killed him. Some 175 tonnes of gold were newly mined in Russia during the first nine months of 2014. Moscow meanwhile bought 114 tonnes, and word among Western bullion bankers is the two are closely related.

7 http://nationalinterest.org/feature/isis-worst-nightmare-the-us-russia-teaming-terrorism-12216