ISIS #MadeInTheUSA; Funded and Trained by US Government

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Chinese national bank in terror financing

Is the Cold War part 2 the endless war on terror financed by chinese and russian banks as well as by Iran and OPEC nations that gain from the sale of oil to the USA?

Clipped from www.southasiaanalysis.org

Chinese Bank in terror Financing

By Bhaskar Roy  In a startling development, one hundred plaintiffs filed a case last week with a Los Angeles Circuit Court that a Chinese state-owned bank was acting as a financial conduit for terrorist groups Islamic Jihad (IJ) and Hamas. The Bank of China Ltd. China’s third largest bank, has expectedly denied the charge saying it would contest the suit.   The law suit alleged that the bank was aware of these illegal transactions but did nothing to stop them. It claimed, through certain supportive documents, that millions of dollars were sent through the Bank of China to finance attacks by the two terrorist outfits, resulting in death and injuries to innocent people.   The charges add that the illegal transfers emanated from the Middle East, sent to the banks’ branches in the USA, and were then transferred to accounts at the Bank of China branch in Guangzhou in Southern China, and finally wire-transferred to Hamas and IJ leaders in Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. This money helped terrorist attacks between 2004 and 2007.   Israeli officials in 2005, brought these activities of the bank to the notice of officials of China’s Central Bank but the practice continued, the law suit said.   Following the war on terror led by the USA from 2001, US intelligence and federal justice department officials started working with a large number of countries including China to block the routes of terror financing. For example, US Justice Department officials have trained Bangladesh central bank officials on tracking illegal money transactions. This happened following the 2005 country-wide terrorist bombings in Bangladesh and it was discovered that a number of Gulf NGOs like the Al Hamrain trust and the Revival of Islamic Heritage Society (RIHS) of Kuwait were funding Islamic terrorist groups in the country.   According to the Bank of China’s website, it reported by 2006 more than one thousand cases of suspicious transactions amounting to $ 56.5 billion to the Chinese police, but there is no official report on how these cases were dealt with.   Illegal monetary transactions are also hidden in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in China. Money sent out illegally by some companies about which not much is known,      return as FDI. Information on such financial flows is rarely sought by the government agencies. One partner involved in illegality will surely need an unscrupulous partner outside China. Money laundering is a murky world where all the undesirable people – gun runners, narco traders, terrorists and black marketers are partners – with no questions asked.   It is well known that China assisted the Taliban during the war against Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. But it was not China alone who supported the Taliban – the USA was the main culprit along with king pin Pakistan. While the western countries withdrew from Afghanistan after the Soviet Union left to gradually implode, China, with assistance from Pakistan, stayed with the new rulers of Afghanistan, the Al-Qaeda indoctrinated Taliban. China’s commitment to counter terrorism has always been suspect, although it has its own problems with the Muslim Uighur separatists in the western region of Xinjiang. This problem is not receding.   At a particular period of the cold war, China maximized its gains from most sides. The experience may have encouraged the Beijing leaders to sit in the middle and fish in troubled waters.   China was very much aware that its Uighur militants were being trained in Pakistan and Afghanistan by Pakistani Jehadis of ISI creation, the Taliban and even the Al Qaeda. Some of these training camps were common to both Uighurs and Kashmiri militants.It hoped that with good relations with Pakistan and the Taliban in Afghanistan, the Uighur separatist menace would be resolved or, at least, kept within manageable limits. It may be recalled that even after the US missile attacks on Taliban post 9/11, China maintained for some time that there was no evidence that the Taliban was involved in terrorism. Chinese companies were entering Taliban controlled Afghanistan in a big way in telecommunication, military informatics, and oil and gas survey. Further, Afghanistan was seen as a strategic gateway to Central Asia.  Pakistan was, and remains, China’s gateway to the Gulf and West Asia or as the Chinese prefer to call it these days, the “Golden Gate” out of US encirclement. The route from western China to Pakistan extending to Afghanistan into Central Asia was also very important to consolidate its multi-pronged surge in that ex-Soviet region.  Simultaneously, growing militancy in countries perceived to be potential competitors or adversaries was apparently seen as a bonus by the Chinese security establishment. China’s larger regional strategy seemed to have given some cover to Islamic terrorism and militancy, at least by omission. This strategy has also enabled terrorists to sneak into southern China from Hong Kong and near by areas in the cover of petty businessmen. Terrorist money laundering from Guangdong province bordering Hong Kong was reported as early as 2002.  The Bank of China case raises the question whether there is disconnect between the hard line intelligence and security establishment and the top section of the Central leadership group led by President Hu Jintao? If that is so, this is a dangerous call for the rest of the world, especially neighbouring regions troubled by Islamic militancy and terrorism. The West, of course, would be a major target.   Otherwise, it is difficult to find an answer how such huge illegal transfers through the Bank of China in Guangzhou has remained unaddressed for so long when evidence was staring the Chinese security in the face. The related question is whether the Bank of China case is the tip of the iceberg, given the fact that terrorists in UK, Europe and India appear financially well-supported.   Read more at www.southasiaanalysis.org