How Al Qaeda was funded:
Oil money remains vital to their operations. While it’s too soon to tell how bin Laden’s death will affect such funding, it would be foolish to assume that it will end.
Terrorists also rail against US support for oil-rich regimes such as Saudi Arabia, and mistakenly believe that America wants to “steal” Middle East oil.
How ISIS is funded:
As ISIS fighters expand their control, it is in the border region, in villages like Besaslan, where the Islamic State group can make some of the money it needs to finance its wars. Oil-smuggling operations involving millions of barrels have recently been uncovered [...]
Besides revenue from oil smuggling, the group receives money through donations from wealthy sympathizers in countries including Qatar and Kuwait.
There’s a reason the US is bombing ISIS/Daesh’s oil infrastructure.
"We know the oil funds more than 50 percent of ISIL's operations," Warren said, using an acronym for Islamic State. "This is something we want to take away from them."
And how did those wealthy sympathizers in Qatar and Kuwait make their billions?
Of course, none of this is particularly controversial. We’ve known for over a decade the insidious role of petroleum money in the funding of terror networks, including from supposed allies like Saudi Arabia.
What is surprising about all of this is how resistant conservatives are to drying up this source of terrorist money. These are the people who have worked tirelessly to dry up liberal funding sources like labor unions and trial lawyers, yet when it comes to terrorism, they are working side-by-side to ensure the supremacy of Big Oil.
But instead of doing ISIS’ bidding by keeping out Syrian widows and orphans, why not strike a blow against their biggest funding apparatus? Why not help to make petroleum obsolete?
The US could help fuel a global shift away from fossil fuels by more aggressively supporting renewable energy sources, helping develop and popularize new technologies, thus increasing economies of scale and lowering prices. By seeking more aggressive cuts in global emissions, the US could further push the world toward non-petroleum energy sources.
And yet the GOP and their conservative base stand strong in opposition, warming the hearts of every terrorist, their donors, and sympathizers worldwide. And if Republicans really wanted to hobble Iran, why not deprive it of it’s biggest source of revenue?
The whack-a-mole kill-a-terrorist strategy of the past decade has done little to solve the problem. In fact, it is objectively making it worse. ISIS makes Al Qaeda look moderate in comparison, and Al Qaeda made Hezbollah look tame in comparison, and so on. Hobble one terrorist group by decapitating its leadership (including the assassination of a never-ending stream of “number twos”), and something even more horrible rises in its place. And just like before, funded by that goddamn petroleum.
Of course, the GOP is already doing ISIS’ bidding by screaming about a clash of civilizations and hating on destitute war refugees. This is a crowd that lives to be terrorized. Remember when Obama killed everybody with Ebola? Now they’re losing their shit over the Paris terrorist attacks, predictable cowering under their beds afraid of what a SYRIAN might do. (Aside from getting the hell out of Syria to escape those ISIS thugs, that is.)
So quitting their overt hostility toward renewable energy is too much to ask. Of course, they won’t stop their blind allegiance to Big Oil.
As the Koch brothers show, terrorists aren’t the only ones being funded by fossil fuels.