AP
World News
06.14.14
America's Allies Are Funding ISIS
The
Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), now threatening Baghdad, was
funded for years by wealthy donors in Kuwait, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia,
three U.S. allies that have dual agendas in the war on terror.
The
extremist group that is threatening the existence of the Iraqi state
was built and grown for years with the help of elite donors from
American supposed allies in the Persian Gulf region. There, the threat
of Iran, Assad, and the Sunni-Shiite sectarian war trumps the U.S. goal
of stability and moderation in the region.
It’s
an ironic twist, especially for donors in Kuwait (who, to be fair, back
a wide variety of militias). ISIS has aligned itself with remnants of
the Baathist regime once led by Saddam Hussein. Back in 1990, the U.S.
attacked Iraq in order to liberate Kuwait from Hussein’s clutches. Now
Kuwait is helping the rise of his successors.
As ISIS takes over
town after town in Iraq, they are acquiring money and supplies including
American made vehicles, arms, and ammunition. The group reportedly
scored $430 million this week when they
looted the main bank in Mosul.
They reportedly now have a stream of steady income sources, including
from selling oil in the Northern Syrian regions they control, sometimes
directly to the Assad regime.
But
in the years they were getting started, a key component of ISIS’s
support came from wealthy individuals in the Arab Gulf States of Kuwait,
Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Sometimes the support came with the tacit nod
of approval from those regimes; often, it took advantage of poor money
laundering protections in those states, according to officials, experts,
and leaders of the Syrian opposition, which is fighting ISIS as well as
the regime.
“Everybody knows the money is going through Kuwait
and that it’s coming from the Arab Gulf,” said Andrew Tabler, senior
fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Studies. “Kuwait’s
banking system and its money changers have long been a huge problem
because they are a major conduit for money to extremist groups in Syria
and now Iraq.”
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has been publicly
accusing Saudi Arabia and Qatar of funding ISIS for months.
Several reports have detailed how private Gulf funding to various Syrian rebel groups has splintered the Syrian opposition and
paved the way for the rise of groups like ISIS and others.
“The
U.S. has made the case as strongly as they can to regional countries,
including Kuwait. But ultimately when you take a hands off, leading from
behind approach to things, people don’t take you seriously and they
take matters into their own hands.”
Gulf
donors support ISIS, the Syrian branch of al Qaeda called the al Nusrah
Front, and other Islamic groups fighting on the ground in Syria because
they feel an obligation to protect Sunnis suffering under the
atrocities of the Assad regime. Many of these backers don’t trust or
like the American backed moderate opposition, which the West has refused
to provide significant arms to.
Under significant U.S. pressure,
the Arab Gulf governments have belatedly been cracking down on funding
to Sunni extremist groups, but Gulf regimes are also under domestic
pressure to fight in what many Sunnis see as an unavoidable Shiite-Sunni
regional war that is only getting worse by the day.
“ISIS is part
of the Sunni forces that are fighting Shia forces in this regional
sectarian conflict. They are in an existential battle with both the
(Iranian aligned) Maliki government and the Assad regime,” said Tabler.
Donors in Kuwait, the
Sunni majority Kingdom on Iraq’s border, have taken advantage of
Kuwait’s weak financial rules to channel hundreds of millions of dollars
to a host of Syrian rebel brigades, according to a December 2013 report
by The Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank that receives
some funding from the Qatari government.
“Over the last two and a
half years, Kuwait has emerged as a financing and organizational hub for
charities and individuals supporting Syria’s myriad rebel groups,”
the report said.
“Today, there is evidence that Kuwaiti donors have backed rebels who
have committed atrocities and who are either directly linked to
al-Qa’ida or cooperate with its affiliated brigades on the ground.”
Kuwaiti donors collect funds from donors in other Arab Gulf countries
and the money often travels through Turkey or Jordan before reaching
its Syrian destination, the report said. The governments of Kuwait,
Qatar, and Saudi Arabia have passed laws to curb the flow of illicit
funds, but many donors still operate out in the open. The Brookings
paper argues the U.S. government needs to do more.
“The U.S.
Treasury is aware of this activity and has expressed concern about this
flow of private financing. But Western diplomats’ and officials’ general
response has been a collective shrug,” the report states.
When
confronted with the problem, Gulf leaders often justify allowing their
Salafi constituents to fund Syrian extremist groups by pointing back to
what they see as a failed U.S. policy in Syria and a loss of credibility
after President Obama reneged on his pledge to strike Assad after the
regime used chemical weapons.
That’s what Prince Bandar bin Sultan, head of Saudi intelligence
since 2012 and former Saudi ambassador in Washington, reportedly
told Secretary of State John Kerry
when Kerry pressed him on Saudi financing of extremist groups earlier
this year. Saudi Arabia has retaken a leadership role in past months
guiding help to the Syrian armed rebels, displacing Qatar, which was
seen as supporting some of the worst of the worst organizations on the
ground.
The rise of ISIS, a group that officially broke with al Qaeda core
last year, is devastating for the moderate Syrian opposition, which is
now fighting a war on two fronts, severely outmanned and outgunned by
both extremist groups and the regime. There is increasing evidence that
Assad is working with ISIS to squash the Free Syrian Army.
But the
Syrian moderate opposition is also wary of confronting the Arab Gulf
states about their support for extremist groups. The rebels are still
competing for those governments’ favor and they are dependent on other
types of support from Arab Gulf countries. So instead, they blame
others—the regimes in Tehran and Damascus, for examples—for ISIS’ rise.
“The
Iraqi State of Iraq and the [Sham] received support from Iran and the
Syrian intelligence,” said Hassan Hachimi, Head of Political Affairs
.
