Who is arming the terrorists?

Which terrorists? There are probably 60 different insurgencies going on in the world, if not more.

Chechnya? Hamas? ISIS? Yemen? Somalia? Sudan? Montana?

Define your terrorist….

@elbanditoroso Isis, but feel free to include any terrorists groups on earth

Everyone.

One man’s terrorist is another man’s ally.

Nothing is consistent. Everything is opportunistic. If the leadership of a war-like group changes, all sides pump money into the group hoping to create an effective ally. So if a two-bit leader with 50–100 “troops” (fleshed out with rag-tag boys) in a troubled area rattles his swords loud enough? He can get funding from all sides to build his army into a viable “rebel group”. Then he sells his allegiance to the highest bidder.

Don’t forget, China is a player, as well.
The important war money is free, easy and off the books to the players.

Arm dealers.

Too bad it’s not a matter of “we” and “us”. The corporations pull the strings of the US government, military, and CIA. The CIA are part of how the US arms and creates and influences violent non-military groups, which we then sometimes find convenient to label as terrorists who want to destroy “us”, mainly for other purposes of corporations.

So for many reasons but firstly for that one, the situation is not such that “we” could/would ever “just stop selling weapons to Isis and other countries or groups that hate us” and have that solve much of a problem. The US does already do some of that though. For instance, Iran has US-made F-14 military aircraft, which is a reason why the US bans the sale of F-14 parts to anyone and destroyed all decommissioned F-14’s… though of course the part about Iran being a country that “hates us” is part of a US/corporate agenda to create a reason to attack Iran for mainly corporate reasons, even though perhaps the main issue Iran has with us is they’re afraid we will attack them…

Also Russia and others sell weapons all over the place, and there are many countries in the world, so even if the US stopped all foreign arm sales from the US, there would still be plenty of weapons out there.

But also yes, it’d probably be a good thing overall if the CIA stopped handing out weapons and creating militant groups around the world.

We are.

If you’re talking about ISIS, pretty much everyone in various ways. They purchase a lot of their arms from countries like North Korea and some of the ‘stans. A lot of their arms are purchased on the black markets of southern Europe, as well. There is a shitload of armament left over from the 1990’s wars in the Balkans, now in the hands of unscrupulous dealers such as the Neapolitan Mafia and other orgs and individuals.

They have had control of large, productive oil fields in the Middle East such as those in eastern Syria and, until very recently, those around oil-rich Mosul in northern Iraq, the oil of which they sell on the black market, the paperwork of which is then laundered, then the oil is resold onto the world oil marketplace in Rotterdam.

The laundering of the paperwork which obviously isn’t very effective in hiding the provenance of the oil, serves to give plausible deniability to the buyer. Nobody is really fooled by the process.

But if a retired nurse isolated on a small island in the Caribbean knows about this, so do the people who buy this high quality oil at bargain rates much below market price, including U.S, Canadian and many European companies without hindrance of international authorities whose job it is to prevent things like this from happening.. And in this way, the US, Canada, Germany and many other European countries arm ISIS. It is the height of hypocrisy, but nobody is doing anything to stop it. .

The big four: the US, Russia, China and Europe. They may use intermediaries but they are where the arms originate. If I were to guess I would guess that the order I have given is the order of magnitude.

@rojo Please site evidence that the US government is knowingly involved in sales of arms through agents to ISIS. We produce an enormous amount of arms, and they can end up in many different hands after resale and further resale, but I haven’t found any links to anything that could be considered intentional to ISIS.

I’m interested in anything you might have, including the oft ridiculed Mother Jones Magazine.

Edit: cite evidence.

I just heard on the radio this morning that ISIS has been building factories in Iraq and Syria to manufacture rockets, mortars and IEDs. The raw materials are obtained on the free market, mostly from Turkey. Link

I’m not surprised. With all that money they’ve made on that oil in the past three years, I’m surprised that they haven’t put together or bought much more dangerous weapons.

@Espiritus_Corvus Amnesty International Note, this is just on the sales of arms and being the major supplier. I will answer more fully later.

So you really want to know?

@rojo A lot of the arms going to ISIS through the black markets of southern Europe were manufactured in the US. A lot of them are of Chinese, Russian even Czech manufacture.

Many of the arms that are in possession of terrorists in the Middle East, notably the old Al Qaeda, are of Russian and US manufacture, left over from the decade-long Afghan war.

But the arms now being sold to ISIS from places like Naples were mostly left over from the Balkan wars. When a war breaks out, the arms merchants—arms manufacturer representatives from around the world—show up to present their wares to the various belligerents. Sales are made, legitimately. What happens to those arms after the war is over is anybody’s guess, until they show up in the hands of terrorists, etc. This may sound irresponsible, but a manufacture is not a soothsayer.

In this way, US weapons have resurfaced in some awfully vicious hands throughout the world. But so far, I can’t find any direct, intentional sales by a legitimate American arms manufacturer to a terrorist group.

I’m not condoning this, as it is an ugly business. But it is what it is.

Ambassador Chris Stevens May Have Been Linked To Jihadist Rebels In Syria

The Arms Trade is Big Business

Changes in Arms Sales Post 9/11

U.S. arms showing up in hands of pro-Assad militias

Inside the Secret World of a U.S. Arms Dealer

Which terrorists? The IRA were primarily armed by the American people donating to them in Irish theme pubs. Thanks guys.

^^Yes, but that was the people, unofficial, not officially government sanctioned. I imagine that one or two of our intelligence agencies may have seen opportunities for skulduggery in Northern Ireland, though. I ran into a few of the younger IRA guys at a party once in Sweden. They may have been wannabees, I dunno. They were pretty serious dudes, though. But, evidently, they had run up against the CIA a few times. After the Bushmills and some weed had been passed around, they wanted to know if I was one and what the hell I was doing at the party. The girl who brought me there got me out fast. Said the were talking about killing me. Probably drunk talk. But one thing is for sure. They didn’t like the CIA at all.

@rojo. I checked the stories, checked the sources, checked the news agencies publishing the stories, checked Snopes on a few things. It all generally pans out.

Well, that was depressing.

But thank you for the free education. Nice work.

Man, this site is really fucked up today. Can’t navigate, can’t point anybody. Oh, well.

^^Yeah, very sluggish again. can’t ask question again.

“Who is arming the terrorists?”

We are, with every gallon of gasoline we put in our tanks.