the oil across the frontier to Turkey . Relations between former allies Turkey and Israel broke down in 2010 after an Israeli naval raid on a Gaza - bound flotilla killed ten Turkish citizens . Turkey has become the strongest critic of Israeli actions in Gaza , and reconciliation efforts between the two have repeatedly failed .
Crude oil extracted at Syria ’s Deir ez - Zor and Iraq ’s Qayyara oil fields , which remain under under Islamic State control , is being sold for as little as $ 25 per barrel to smugglers , independent Syrian and Iraqi traders who transport oil using their own trucks . The crude oil could also be sold to nearby refineries that produce petrol and fuel oil , or directly to the local oil market . Yet the capacity of local buyers is limited , so smugglingmovement.transportartifact.hideoil to Turkey and other countries is more profitable . “ Turkey is playing not a very clean game , especially with smuggling the Iraqi oil and Syrian oil through the borders and selling it in the black market in Turkey , ” Iraqi MP Mowaffak Al - Rubaie , a former national security adviser , told RT , adding that a recent investigation by the Norwegian authorities exposed Turkey as having ties with Islamic State ’s illegal oil trade . Most smuggled ISIS oil goes to Turkey , sold at low prices – Norwegian report https://t.co/ZsxKy1QEmVpic.twitter.com/Jjrc2VnoPf — RT ( @RT_com ) December 20 , 2015
" Both the November Paris attacks and the October 2015 bombing of a Russian airliner suggest a shift in IS strategy towards going global . " The IS group has developed an " external action command " that was trained for " special forces - style attacks " internationally , the report said . But the report played down fears that jihadists were smugglingmovement.transportartifact.hidethemselves into Europe as part of the huge wave of refugees and migrants that the continent is dealing with , many of whom are fleeing the war in Syria . " There is no concrete evidence that terrorist travellers systematically use the flow of refugees to enter Europe unnoticed , " it said . It warned however that many new arrivals were vulnerable to radicalisation or recruitment , with evidence that extremist recruiters were specifically targeting refugee centres .
PARIS French investigators believe a Frenchman detained in Ukraine with a cache of weapons and explosives was more likely involved in arms smuggling than tied to a militant group , the prosecutor leading the case said on Tuesday . France has requested Kiev 's cooperation but is still awaiting a response more than 24 hours after Ukraine 's state security service ( SBU ) said the suspect had planned " terrorist attacks " during the Euro 2016 soccer tournament which kicks off on Friday in France . " This young man is unknown to French intelligence services , and the judicial authorities for now are leaning towards a possible arms smugglingmovement.transportartifact.hidecase , " Thomas Pison , the state prosecutor for Nancy , said by telephone . SBU chief Vasyl Hrytsak said on Monday the 25-year - old had made contact with armed groups in Ukraine . In a sting operation , the suspect was stopped at the Polish border with rocket launchers , Kalashnikov assault rifles and explosives .
The crude oil could also be sold to nearby refineries that produce petrol and fuel oil , or directly to the local oil market . Yet the capacity of local buyers is limited , so smuggling oil to Turkey and other countries is more profitable . “ Turkey is playing not a very clean game , especially with smugglingmovement.transportartifact.hidethe Iraqi oil and Syrian oil through the borders and selling it in the black market in Turkey , ” Iraqi MP Mowaffak Al - Rubaie , a former national security adviser , told RT , adding that a recent investigation by the Norwegian authorities exposed Turkey as having ties with Islamic State ’s illegal oil trade . Most smuggled ISIS oil goes to Turkey , sold at low prices – Norwegian report https://t.co/ZsxKy1QEmVpic.twitter.com/Jjrc2VnoPf — RT ( @RT_com ) December 20 , 2015 A political science assistant professor from the Northeastern University in Boston , Max Abrahms , told RT that it is exactly the illegal oil trade that has enabled Islamic State to become so strong after seizing vast territories in Iraq and Syria .
“ Their previous documented attempts to gain access to a nuclear power station in Belgium are evidence of their intent , ” he stated at an international conference in Amsterdam . “ The terrorists do n’t necessarily have to use a ' dirty bomb ' . We are not just talking about stolen nuclear material , using conventional explosives in a nuclear plant , such as smugglingmovement.transportartifact.hidein a bomb , would have catastrophic consequences . ” Moshe Kantor , president of the International Luxembourg Forum ( Reuters ) Former British defence secretary Des Browne , a member of the forum and vice - chairman of the Nuclear Threat Initiative ( NTI ) , said the threat of nuclear terrorism was a highly significant and complex issue which needed a unified international response .
Bear parts are in high demand at black markets throughout Asia and are used in Chinese soups It is not clear how the animals were killed but the goods were bound for Tongjiang city in the Heilongjiang province of China An unnamed man , part of an alleged gang of smugglers , was arrested and accused of two counts of smugglingmovement.transportartifact.hide. He also allegedly had a mammoth tusk weighing four kilograms . It is not clear how the animals were killed but the goods were bound for Tongjiang city in the Heilongjiang province of China , the Siberian Times reported .
Only Russia and Iran can be trusted to honestly and effectively assist Iraq in its targeting and destruction of the ISIS mercenaries , for they are the only countries who have a hatred for them and have n’t used them in previous military secret operations , as the U.S. had in the 1980 ’s against Russia in Afghanistan . How do you analyze the Turkish stance claiming the right to be involved in Mosul offensive ? The Turkish claim to have a right to be involved in the Mosul offensive is a dishonest claim , since Turkey has been financing the ISIS forces through oil smugglingmovement.transportartifact.hideand other human trafficking operations in Syria . Russia has exposed this , and President Vladimir Putin has clearly shown this in the Russian intelligence exposing the Turkish , Saudi , Israeli , Persian Gulf states , and U.S. funding through Swiss Banks such as Union Bank of Switzerland — which was also confirmed by WikiLeaks cables from the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency and Central Intelligence Agency , and Britain ’s MI6 . Turkey ’s real agenda is to carve out an area of Iraq that it can use to target Kurds and confiscate land belonging to Iraq and Syria -- all in the name of " countering ISIS ” .
In 2008 , the Trump Organization inked a branding deal with one of the most politically connected developers in Turkey . When the Dogan Group opened Trump Towers Istanbul in 2012 , Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan presided over their ribbon - cutting . But Aydin Doğan was indicted in a fuel - smugglingmovement.transportartifact.hidescheme back in March . With the family falling out of political favor — and Trump rebranding himself as America ’s leading Islamophobe — Erdogan called for the mogul ’s name to be removed from the towers this past June . Turkey is a key ally in America ’s fight against ISIS .
Those other programs were effectively tracking the activities and individuals in terrorist groups , drug cartels , human trafficking rings , nuclear proliferation programs , cyber crime gangs and foreign espionage agencies like Russia ’s Federal Security Bureau ( FSB ) , the successor of the Cold War KGB . After Snowden 's revelations of how the U.S. tracked those activities , many of the targeted groups changed the way they communicated to evade NSA ’s collection . The U.S. suddenly had less ability to prevent terrorist attacks , cocaine smugglingmovement.transportartifact.hide, and espionage . It is true that the U.S. may ultimately re - gain some of the access it lost because of Snowden -- some but not all . Gaining any new ability to track terrorists , criminals and spies will likely cost taxpayers billions of dollars .
But the weaker regulations also make it potentially easier for arms smugglers and human rights abusers to get their hands on US arms . For example , 36 US allies — from Argentina and Bulgaria to Romania and Turkey — will no longer need licenses from the State Department to import weapons and weapons parts from the United States . This will make it far easier for smugglingmovement.transportartifact.hidenetworks to set up front companies in such countries and get US arms and arms components that they can then pass on to third parties like Iran or China . Already a common practice , it will only increase under the new regulations . The degree to which the Obama administration has been willing to bend over backward to help weapons exporters was underscored at a 2013 hearing on those administration export “ reforms . ” Tom Kelly , then the deputy assistant secretary of the State Department ’s Bureau of Political - Military Affairs , caught the spirit of the era when asked whether the administration was doing enough to promote American arms exports .
They ’re importing not only oil , but wheat and historic artefacts as well . ” Bilal Erdogan denies Russian allegations Bilal Erdogan this week denied continuous Russian allegations that he and his family were profiting from the illegal smugglingmovement.transportartifact.hideof oil from ISIS - held territory in Syria and Iraq , after Russia ’s defence ministry said it had proof that the Erdogan family was benefiting directly from this trade . The Turkish government has already dismissed the accusations and on Tuesday the president ’s son added his voice to the many denials . “ We build offices in Istanbul ... We do not do business in the Mediterranean , in Syria or Iraq , ” he was quoted as saying in Corriere della Sera newspaper , talking about his own corporate concerns , which have been called into question by Russian media .
READ MORE : ‘ You can go your way ’ : Erdogan rejects demands to change anti - terror law for EU visa deal Erdogan has yet to appoint Davutoglu ’s successor , but as the President will no doubt want his replacement to be more malleable , it is speculated that Erdogan ’s son - in - law , Energy Minister Berat Albayrak , might have what it takes . Albayrak ’s appointment as the government ’s leader would benefit the whole Erdogan family , especially Bilal , who has been accused of involvement in illegal oil smugglingmovement.transportartifact.hidein Syria and Iraq . Bild states that Albayrak might be “ that firm part of the clan ” that the Turkish head of state wants to see by his side . READ MORE : ‘ Merkel threw me to a despot ’ : German comedian fights back against probe for insulting Erdogan
MADRID Two Indian men arrested in Spain for smugglingmovement.transportartifact.hideRussian anti - aircraft missiles were extradited to the United States , Spanish military police said in a statement on Thursday . Spanish police detained the pair in Barcelona in 2014 along with two Pakistani men , who have already been extradited , as part of a joint operation - dubbed Operation Yoga - with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration ( DEA ) to bust a smuggling ring based in the Catalonia region . The group had offered the Russian - built Igla missiles to foreign paramilitary groups .