by the Islamist militant group , which holds swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq . The United States last month rejected Russian allegations that the Turkish government and President Erdogan 's family were in league with Islamic State to smuggle oil . However , US State Department spokesman Mark Toner said last month that ISIS was selling oil to middlemen who in turn were involved in smuggling the oil across the frontier to Turkey .
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.na, 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 .
He now lives in Italy , allegedly to finish his dissertation . Along with his sister , he is suspected of corruption and bribery . Bild also took note of last year ’s discoveries published by the British news outlet , The Guardian , which uncovered information indicating that Turkish businessmen are actively involved in various deals with Islamic State ( IS , formerly ISIL / ISIS ) terrorists , such as illegal oil smugglingmovement.transportartifact.na. READ MORE : Turkey is key supplier of weapons , military hardware to ISIS - Russian envoy to UN “ One of them according to [ The Guardian ] data is Bilal Erdogan , ” Bild points out .