… from Sputnik, Moscow
[ Editor’s Note: I know the old saying “better late than never” is a well worn one, but it does fit this turn of events. It is not something that our government has done for moral reasons, as it lied to us on a huge scale with full denials. The damage not only to Obama’s legacy but to both the Pentagon and the State Department will be carved in stone.
But today we give them credit for putting some heat on Erdogan’s claims of innocence. It also put Turkish Intel right in the cross-hairs for its obviously being involved in the ISIL trade extensively. I am waiting to see if NATO and the EU make statements, or keep their heads down.
Notice how no apology was included in the turn around. Don’t hold your breath on Congress holding any investigations on how could such a huge failure in Intelligence occur where we did not know. That is a joke of course. The real investigation should be on how the stupid denials have hurt American credibility even more.
But no one in Congress wants to go down into that swamp as it has a long record of its own on similar foreign policy fantasies, most recently the John McCain and Lindsey Graham call for 10,000 US troops on the ground as “border guards” between Syria and Iraq, like those two countries could not do that on their own if we would just stop our support for our terrorist proxies there.
All who engaged in hammering the administration on their stupid denial policy, have a beer on me tonight. We all deserve it and we should keep motivated on working to push them on other crazy policy issues before we have to turn our flame throwers on the presidential loons who seem to me to be competing on who is the least qualified… Jim W. Dean ]
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– First published … December 11, 2015 –
Senior US government representatives on Wednesday and Thursday finally addressed the terrorist organization’s smuggling of oil via Turkish territory. Two senior US officials have conceded to Turkey’s role in the Daesh oil trade, having previously supported Ankara’s denials that it enables the terrorist group to profit by selling stolen Syrian oil.
On Wednesday US State Department spokesman John Kirby admitted that Turkey was allowing Daesh to transport contraband oil across its border, and said the US government wanted Turkey to close its border with Syria.
Kirby referred to a “98-kilometer stretch” of the Turkish-Syrian border, “which still needs to be closed off because it provides avenues of sustenance for ISIL,” allowing oil, fighters and other supplies to pass between the two countries.
“We’re working with the Turks to see what we can do to help close that 98-kilometers stretch off,” said Kirby, adding that “the Turkish government realizes the importance of this stretch of ground as well, and we’re working hard with them to see what we can do to close it off.”
However, quick to deflect attention from Ankara’s links with Daesh, Kirby added that “it’s not just about oil. It’s about all the ways that ISIL can sustain itself inside Syria.”
On Thursday US Treasury official Adam Szubin admitted that Daesh oil is smuggled into Turkey, along with the illogical conclusion that “ISIL is selling a great deal of oil to the Assad regime,” and claimed that despite being enemies, the two are “still engaged in millions and millions of dollars of trade.”
Szubin alleged that more oil is sold to the Syrian government that to Turkey.
“Some is coming across the border into Turkey,” admitted Szubin. The official said that each month, the terrorists make as much as $40 million selling oil, and have earned more than $500 million from the oil trade so far.
The official was unable, however, to come up with any evidence to back up his claim that Assad’s government is buying oil from Daesh.
The claim was first put forward by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last month, in order to deflect attention from the evidence Russia had produced to prove that the Turkish government is buying oil from Daesh.
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Jim W. Dean was an active editor on VT from 2010-2022. He was involved in operations, development, and writing, plus an active schedule of TV and radio interviews.
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