From: US Department of State
Remarks
Senior Director for National Security and Diplomacy Anti-Crime Programs, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs
Good morning.
Emilio [Viano], thank you for your kind introduction, for your leadership in co-chairing this North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Advanced Research Workshop and for helping the international community confront the threats to our collective security and humanity posed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) – also known as Da’esh.
Let me also thank the NATO’s Science for Peace and Security (SPS) for its kind invitation to speak at this year’s NATO ISIS Female Migration Symposium, and for their leadership in organizing this timely and excellent event.
On behalf of the United States, I would also like to thank NATO, the European Union (EU), and other NATO partners, for our enduring partnership in working together to make our world safer, especially as we collectively confront a wide range of transnational threats from Iraq and Syria to Libya and North Africa and Afghanistan.
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Da’esh includes convicted criminals among its ranks who help finance terrorism. Da’esh extorts money from local businesses and traders, and loots banks and households alike by using threats and perpetrating violent attacks. Extortion has long been associated with organized crime and criminal groups; Da’esh has taken extortion to a new and grotesque level. Working through long-established regional smuggling networks that Da’esh leverages, it raises money through extorting each step of the oil value chain from those who extract the oil from the ground to those who transport gas throughout ISIL-controlled territories. These illicit activities continue to net Da’esh millions of dollars through black-market oil sales.
Da’esh also generates funding from illegal taxation; trafficking in persons; and trafficking of counterfeits, fake and real antiquities, and cigarettes. These illicit sources of financing allow violent extremist groups to diversify their revenue streams in order to carry out their horrific attacks, procure weapons, and fund their recruitment efforts.
