Dr. James P. Wickstrom
Obama Is Funding ISIS with U.S. Tax Dollars – Here’s How He’s Getting Away with It
People in the United States have seen their taxes soar over the past several years.
It’s happening with your healthcare (healthcare is now a “tax” per the Supreme Court). Your income is taxed at a higher rate… even the food you buy is being taxed more.
And with all that tax money, the Obama administration is helping to bankroll the Islamic State.
So what’s happening?
U.S.-supplied foreign aid is being delivered to ISIS strongholds. The aid is meant for Syrians, but it’s not always making it directly to them.
Deliveries are going to cities like Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor, but as the aid arrives, ISIS steps in between aid workers and the intended recipients and begins to go to work. As the Daily Beast reports:
… ISIS or ISIL, [does not] feel any sense of disgrace or indignity (and certainly not gratitude) receiving charity from their foes.What originated as a good idea is quickly turning out to be a very bad idea indeed.
Quite the reverse, the aid convoys have to pay off ISIS emirs (leaders) for the convoys to enter the eastern Syrian extremist strongholds of Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor, providing yet another income stream for ISIS militants, who are funding themselves from oil smuggling, extortion, and the sale of whatever they can loot, including rare antiquities from museums and archaeological sites.
‘The convoys have to be approved by ISIS and you have to pay them: The bribes are disguised and itemized as transportation costs,’ says an aid coordinator who spoke to 'The Daily Beast' on the condition he not be identified in this article.
The kickbacks are either paid by foreign or local nongovernmental organizations tasked with distributing the aid, or by the Turkish or Syrian transportation companies contracted to deliver it.
Part of the problem is the aid has no protection. So once it arrives, ISIS scoops it up and then uses it as bait to recruit new soldiers.
It’s a remarkable plan really. As noted, a lot of the aid is sold outright. The revenue is then placed into ISIS’ war chest, giving them a huge advantage over their enemies.
Prominent U.S. officials are shocked at what’s taking place. Jonathan Schanzer, with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies said, “I am alarmed that we are providing support for ISIS governance… By doing so we are indemnifying the militants by satisfying the core demands of local people, who could turn on ISIS if they got frustrated.”
It’s a colossal backfire. One that Obama probably saw coming, but just didn’t care enough to prevent it.