Inside the Empire of Terror | Full Documentary

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This flag is now the symbol of terror, the one thatIslamic State rules the world. Islamic State, Daesh in Arabic, this terrorist group floods the planet of his ultra-spectacular propaganda films. Mounted with Hollywood special effect. Super productions that are the showcase of an organization rich in billions. In communication’s terms, this multinational terrorist corporation would almost pass the former enemy number one, Osama bin Laden, for an amateur. To build its fortune , the Islamic State has achieved. What no terrorist organization dared to imagine, build your own state. A five hour flight from Paris, straddling Syria and Iraq, the jihadists have taken control of a territory the size of Italy, on which ten million inhabitants live. We woke up one morning thinking, we have a new neighbor, Daesh. At the borders of this territory, now a huge front line. Come on, I'll show you. This war is not only about territory, it’s also economical, because of this region subsoil. is one of the richest in the world. Daesh wants to steal our land, our oil, our women, and our honor. They want to occupy our land to take everything from us. At its head, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi presents himself as the caliph, in other words, the successor of the Prophet Mohammed. I have been appointed to rule you. To assert his authority, he employs methods that are, to say the least, barbaric. Slavery of women. Executions in the open, by one of the most appalling methods available, decapitation. His organization does not hesitate to threaten us directly. You won't be safe, even in your dreams, as long as you don't convert to Islam. Paris, January 9, the Islamic State strikes France. Before being shot by the security forces, Amedy Coulibaly, the hostage taker of the Hyper Cacher, killed five people. Attacks that he claims in a posthumous video, in the name of the Islamic State. If you attack the caliph, you attack the Islamic State. By posting propaganda videos directly in our language on the Internet, the terrorist organization seeks to recruit French fighters. This is a message for all Muslims who still live in a land of disbelief. Why haven't you emigrated yet? So there would be a thousand French people who had gone to join the ranks of an army, estimated at 50,000 men. Based on this observation, we wanted to understand precisely How did Daesh become this terrorist organization the most powerful and richest of all time. We investigated the sources of funding of the Islamic State, starting with oil which constitutes a very important part of its income. Which jihadists still practice today intensive smuggling, despite international pressure. By meeting those who trade with Daesh, we discovered another sector, even more surprising, that of cotton. A commodity including the terrorist organization Breaks prices to enter international markets even at home, in France. We don't care where cotton comes from. Are you only looking at quality and price? Yes, especially the price. We are also going to reveal to you how ISIS is racking the ten million civilians who live under his control in order to increase his immense fortune on a daily basis. My neighbor told me if you want, I'll take you to see the Emir, you have to pay for it in gold. I told him I don't want any details and ran away. This investigation took us to various countries in the Middle East, a region under high tension, where the indiscriminate violence of Daesh knocks every day. For three months, we thus plunged into the heart of the economic system. of the Islamic State. Ironically, Daesh owes its rise in part to the United States. In 2003, the Americans decided to overthrow the regime of Saddam Hussein. My dear fellow citizens, as I speak to you, American forces, aided by an international coalition, are on the cusp of a military operation to disarm Iraq, liberate its people and defend the world against grave danger. It will only take three weeks for coalition troops to overthrow the dictator. But the fall of the man who ruled Iraq with an iron fist the last 25 years will have unintended consequences. Far from being pacified, the country is entering an era of instability and violence. A chaos, from which numerous terrorist groups are emerging. To deal with it, coalition soldiers are increasing the number of massive, sometimes arbitrary, arrests. What they do not know is that in this way they will promote the meeting of the future founders of the Islamic State. In this image, the American military prison at Camp Boca In 2004, a simple secretary arrested by chance will be detained there for a year. His name was Abubakar al-Baghdadi. In this camp, the man will become radicalized among confirmed jihadists, as explained by Jean-Charles Brisard, who heads the Center for Terrorism Analysis. It's an open-air incubator. They did not need to be in hiding. They were brought together by the American army in this camp and so were able to very freely design what was going to later be the Islamic State. Once released, Al-Baghdadi and associates launch their terrorist enterprise, aided by wealthy sponsors from the Gulf. The real project of the future caliph is create a new state and self-financing. Thanks to the chaos in Iraq and then to the civil war in neighboring Syria, first, he conquers neighborhoods, then entire swathes of territories, until now they control half of Syria and a third of Iraq. It rules over cities of several hundred thousand inhabitants, like Raqqa in Syria, of which they have made their capital. Since June 2014, Mosul, the second largest city in Iraq, that they caught in a few hours and where they carried out the heist of the century. The Islamic State controls the main banks very quickly. The Mosul branch of the Iraqi central bank. They get their hands on several hundred million dollars. And others, nearly thirty banks present locally. Several billion dollars go directly into the coffers. All at once? -In one fell swoop. The Islamic State now has start-up capital to continue his major offensive. Its territory in constant expansion, also allows it to multiply its sources of income. In particular, the jihadists exploit a raw material Oil is extremely valuable, and it arrives in an unbelievable way to be extracted and sold all over the world. According to our information, it represents today a quarter of the revenues of the Islamic State, or just under 600 million euros per year. It is impossible to access the hundreds of oil wells controlled by Daesh. To understand how simple terrorists extract this black gold and turn it into millions of dollars, the only way is to get to the sites the Islamic State lost through the vagaries of war. Heading to Syria. On the other side of this river is a region controlled by the Kurdish army. A territory recently taken over from Daesh. Its particularity is the numerous oil deposits that are located there. From this road to the village, everything was under the control of Daesh. Sileman Zelef is now the local oil minister. It will reveal to us the astonishing simplicity with which the jihadists are able to extract and market black gold every time they take control of an oil site. On this one, the traces of Daesh are still clearly visible. What is written on the tank over there? He wrote the Islamic State in Syria. Jihadists have a radical way of exploiting oil wells. The minister is going to show us that their method is both rudimentary and extremely effective. -Is all this oil? -Yes, all that. Generally, they dig a river that connects the well to an accessible location. Once it's done, all they have to do is use small pumps to fill the trucks. A rough trench as a pipeline and voila. This device allows jihadists to run their wells at full speed. If I use the well, I can get 600 barrels a day out of it, but they go up to 1000 barrels per day. Normally, it cannot be exploited in this way. They don't care, they just do it for money. The risk with such exploitation of the well, It is to destroy the extraction system. 1000 barrels per day represents 160,000 liters of oil. By extracting black gold in this way in a crazy manner Jihadists want to raise money maximum profits in a minimum of time. Because this oil will then be smuggled intensively. A trade that is obviously illegal, whose outlines will be revealed to us by one of the fighters of Daesh, now prisoners of war. The interview takes place in a room at the headquarters of the Kurdish army. To preserve his anonymity, we will call him Abu Hassan. He agreed to talk to us and said he was free to speak. A 27-year-old Syrian man was in charge of the surveillance of an oil well. What was your job exactly? Do patrols around the oil, with tanker trucks coming in. Those who worked there filled them with oil. And where did the oil go? Some of it was refined on site and the gas was sold directly for local consumption. In contrast, crude oil was exported to the Turkish border. Approximately how many barrels were exported to Turkey? Approximately 3000 barrels. There are special tankers. Some had a capacity of 60 barrels, others 200 barrels. There were about 3,000 barrels exported per day. To find customers, terrorists do not hesitate to cut prices. According to Abu Hassan, each barrel of Daesh oil is sold for around €20, three times lower than official market prices. At the height of this traffic, the Islamic State thus won up to two and a half million euros per day. In theory, however, jihadists should not be able to sell this oil because it is the subject of an international embargo that was supposed to cut off their food. In Baghdad, the Iraqi Oil Ministry, it is assured that some countries do not respect this embargo. Turkey is being singled out in a thinly veiled manner. The oil regions controlled by Daesh border Turkey. There, this trafficking is very frequent and, due to the fact that there are accomplices, it helps the oil to circulate. Many countries in the world benefit from this oil at very low prices. Unfortunately, some preferred to see their own interest rather than fighting Daesh, even if it means encouraging oil trafficking. The borders of Daesh's territory They are porous to say the least with Turkey. In places like here, almost symbolic. The black flag of the jihadists is only a few tens of meters away. Once the oil goes to Turkey, the deal is won for the Islamic State because there, it is directly mixed with legally imported oil. It is then impossible to go back to its source. It is very difficult to trace, even impossible to trace this oil. Very quickly, from identifiable oil coming from and controlled by ISIS, we switch to oil sold on the international oil trading market. Now it's completely impossible to trace it. Because it's a fungible product. Refiners buy oil that they buy from intermediaries, who bought it from other intermediaries and so on. Indeed, we are in a situation where oil becomes untraceable. There is no traceability of this product. Some of this oil from Daesh would even end up directly in the tanks of our cars. A scandal revealed last September by the ambassador of the European Union in Iraq. For Daesh, oil is the lifeblood of war. Unfortunately, European countries are buying their oil from them. In an attempt to cut off these smuggling routes, a coalition led by the Americans has been striking for several months oil installations in Syria and Iraq, which would have had the effect of reducing by half Daesh's oil-related revenues. But the Islamic State has managed to diversify. Because its conquests are always guided by economic interest. Not content with getting our hands on oil, gas, phosphate mines and cement factories, the terrorist organization also conquered one of the plains the most fertile in the region. Agriculture earns him 180 million euros every year. In particular thanks to a crop that is as untraceable as oil and cotton. With 500,000 tons produced every year before the war, Syria was among the ten largest exporters in the world. This is one of the revelations of our investigation. By buying our clothes here in France, we may be financing without knowing it, terrorism. Because this Syrian cotton, which is still arriving on the world textile market, is heavily taxed by Daesh. A large part of the low-cost clothing sold in France comes from Turkey. To produce these cheap t-shirts, local manufacturers Look for cotton that is as cheap as possible and no matter where it comes from. Traders like Anouar have a ready supplier, neighboring Syria. How much cotton has already been imported? How many tons? For the last three years? Roughly 200,000 tons. 200,000 tons, mostly imported from the territory of Daesh. The terrorist organization controls 90% of the Syrian cotton fields. This is no problem for Anouar because this cotton has a huge advantage. To prove it, he takes us to a Turkish weaver, an important customer. Hundreds of spools of wire come out of this factory every day. They will be used to make fabric, then clothing. The pattern imports cotton from all over the world. Different origins for different qualities. -It's American cotton. -OK. Chose for its cleanliness. And where is Syrian cotton? That's American. Very clean. Is there cotton from Syria that we can compare? This one is from Syria. What is the difference between the two? It's cleaner, there are no foreign products inside. That one is a lot cheaper. Less clean, but 20 to 30% cheaper than American cotton. In the low cost, Daesh cotton plays its rightful place, even if for sometimes now, under international pressure, the Turkish government is trying to limit imports. Apart from the price, what are the advantages of buying this cotton? The advantage is that it is cheaper and in addition, it is ready to use. The fields are barely ten kilometers from my factory. Cotton within reach, so low transport costs. A considerable advantage for producing at low prices. That's why in Turkey, everyone is snatching up cotton controlled by Daesh. However, this lucrative business hides a shocking reality. Because there, in Syria, producers are directly taxed by the Islamic State. For €1 of cotton sold to traders, farmers pay €0.10 to the terrorist organization. At the other end of the production chain, everyone seems to be turning a blind eye to this phenomenon. They are making T-shirts there. We're going to check it out in this factory which produces, among other things, T-shirts and joggers. For the local market, but also for Italy and for France. To make your clothes, the factory partly uses cotton from our Syrian importer. These pants, for example, could very well contain cotton coming from Daesh areas. For the director, it doesn't matter. Do you know when you make your clothes where cotton comes from? Where does it come from? Yes, the origin of cotton. No, he's just looking at the quality. We don't care where cotton comes from. Just the price and the quality? -Exactly. The price comes first. Price first? -Because of you. Because European or Western brands don't pay enough? You can't imagine how much he's offering us. In France, for example, the cost of a T-shirt is €2. French brands ask us to produce it for €1. Do you understand what I mean? Not €1.90. Are they always lowering the price? Way too much. Contrary to what one might think, The Islamic State is not cut off from the world at all. While some trade takes place only on the black market, others, on the other hand, are coming out into the open legally. Apart from arms, oil and financial flows, there is no embargo on the zone controlled by terrorists. Ten million people live on this territory, that must continue to be fed. A situation that Daesh is largely benefiting from. Kilis, a city in south-eastern Turkey, bordering Syria. Here, import-export is operating at full speed. Mahmoud is a poultry trader. He wants to show us the road that leads to one of the most important customs posts. There are an impressive number of trucks waiting to cross into Syria. Why are all these trucks stopped? They are waiting for their turn to enter Syria like many people. Are they all going to Syria? Of course, all of these are exports to Syria. Cement, iron, food products. In Daesh areas? Of course, there are even goods that go all the way to Mosul. At this border crossing, Mahmoud sees at least three trucks every week. of food to the Islamic State. Daesh is located 26 kilometers from this border crossing. The Turks let goods pass very easily. On that day, Mahmoud must send 5000 chickens to Syrian traders. These are all going to the Daesh zone. I came to check the condition of my chickens. Why send live chickens? Because Daesh prohibits the entry of frozen products. They want them alive, to ensure that their throats are slaughtered according to the Muslim rite. As he does with any of his clients, He declares his chickens, intended for the Islamic State, simply at the Turkish customs. Look, it's the export license. To go to Azez? In Azez, but also Raqqa or Hasakah. Raqqa and Hasakah, two cities over which the Islamic State partly controls. A few minutes later, we will see Let Mahmoud's truck go through customs without any problems. An ease of movement of goods, which is directly involved in financing the Islamic State. What will Assane tell us, working in one of the many import-export companies in the city. What exactly are you doing in this office? We also work in road transport. What does that mean exactly? We transport goods from the Turkish side to Syria. Our trucks send goods from Turkish customers to Syrian customers. There are even warehouses there. These trucks cross the border every day to reach areas controlled by the Islamic State. Trips recorded in his account book. For example, they sent cola to El-Beb. There, it's cola too, to Al-Mayadeen and then, cookies to Raqqa. Is it for one day? Yes, one day. There, for example, we have faucets. They are going to El-Beb. This is the border with Iraq. There, cookies. Goods largely intended for the needs of the population. Some private donors are also benefiting of this completely legal export sector to directly finance Daesh in kind. They send goods directly to Daesh so that they can sell them on the market and get the money back. Did you get what I meant? That's how they get the money back. Last time he sent them phones. They went directly to Daesh, who sold them slightly cheaper than market prices. They earn money to buy other goods like guns and paying salaries. In addition to the goods directly intended for him, Daesh is also collecting money on classical transactions between merchants. In Gaziantep, the main city of this border region with Syria, We meet Mahmoud, the poultry trader. His Syrian customer received the 5000 chickens. Mahmoud is now going to get paid for them. To do this, it will use an opaque financial system used to circumvent the international banking blockade under the control of the Islamic State. We accompany him to recover his money on a hidden camera. The pharmacy is on the street, but there are no commercial signs on the front. Inside, without discussion, the person behind the counter Hands a wad of bills to our merchant. The order to give him the $10,000 was made over the phone, directly from Raqqa, the capital of the Islamic State. Don't you have a receipt? No, this system is completely illegal. This money transfer is well known to experts in terrorist financing. This is typically the case with La Whallah. It's a traditional, informal money transfer system. Al Wallah means trust, or exchange. A person A who wants to transfer money to person B. Person A is the customer who bought the chickens from Mahmoud and who is in Syria. Person B is our trader in Turkey who needs to get paid. Between the two countries, bank transfers are impossible. They use an international network of underground exchange offices. The Syrian customer is going to go in an office near his home with the $10,000. This office calls its correspondent in Turkey and asks him to give the same amount to Mahmoud. As the two offices work together and the transactions are done in both directions, cash inflows and outflows balance themselves. Does money never circulate? -There is no transfer. There are no transactions. A technique that has already been widely tested by numerous terrorist groups, particularly Al-Qaeda, which used this system to finance the September 11 attacks. It allows you to send large amounts of money. Mahmoud sees wads of dollars pass by every day before his eyes. All the big retailers in the region do that. With my $10,000, no one is paying attention to me. The amounts exchanged here are 50,000, 100,000, a million dollars. As underground as it is, this parallel economy does not escape the organization of the Islamic State. In Raqqa, money transfer offices are taxed by Daesh. Of the $10,000 Mahmoud received, about $40 would have gone directly in the coffers of the terrorist organization. Trade is an important source of income. Everything that passes through the country is punctured. With these customs taxes, the Islamic State even forces its enemies to finance it. On the outskirts of Baghdad, the Jamila wholesale market, one of the largest in the region. It is here that the merchants of the Iraqi capital come to provide themselves with fruits and vegetables. Due to the lack of sufficient cultivation in Iraq, some products come from the West, but most of the goods are imported from neighboring countries. It's from Turkey. There, we have potatoes from Syria and tomatoes from Jordan. Nearly a thousand trucks arrive here every day. According to our estimates, 10% of them come from Syria and Jordan. To go all the way to Baghdad, they have little choice of roads, they have to cross Daesh territory and for that, you have to pay. When they pass Al-Anbar province, or by K. Maqam, who controls Daesh, every truck must pay a transit fee of €250. Doesn't it affect your business? Of course For example, at the moment, the kilo of melons has risen to 800 dinars, which is very expensive here. As they take €250 per truck, our costs are increasing and it is the population that suffers. With these taxes, the Islamic State makes around €30,000 per day, and that's just for the Baghdad market. There is no question for retailers to cut corners. Daesh customs officers have radical methods against bad payers. One day, we had a Syrian driver who did not want to pay the right of way. So they let him through. But they took his license plate and on the way back, they told him “You pay for the return trip and penalties, or we'll cut your head off.” Since there was no other road, he had to take the same path. In the end, did he pay more? -Four times the normal price. It was that or his head. This right of way isn’t a simple Bakshich. The terrorist organization has formalized this tax. It even issues payment receipts. We have obtained this document. At the top left is the organization’s flag and on the right, the inscription Islamic State in Arabic. Below is the driver’s name and surname. The cargo, this is barley. Then the tax price €21 per ton for a two-day right of passage. Finally, at the bottom of the page, the official stamps of the Islamic State. Because Daesh isn’t only a terrorist group. Above all, the Organization wants to present itself as a State, as seen in this propaganda video. It intends to preside over the destiny of these ten million citizens. So, like any country in the world, the Islamic State established a government. Chief al-Baghdadi has a cabinet under his command, that is to say ministers. In this government, everyone is in charge of a very specific portfolio, like oil or war. At the heart of the system is the Minister of Finance, named Abu Salah. With an entire administration under his command. On the financial side, there is a Minister of Finance, who is then assisted in each province by a correspondent, a financial manager who reports to him, in terms of accounting. Then, at the local level. Financial committees that decide on investment choices. Investments mainly focused on the war effort. To finance it, the administration of the Islamic State has put in place a particularly lucrative tax policy. Daesh thus burdens these ten million citizens from all kinds of taxes. A racket that allows them to collect millions of euros every month. A constant increasing financial windfall. It has even surpassed oil smuggling in the revenues of jihadists. The details of this racket will be revealed to us. by a Syrian group opponents exiled to Turkey. Mohammad is one of the founders. Is this your office? Yes, it's the meeting room. Like Mohammad, everyone who works here is Syrian and originally from Raqqa, the self-proclaimed capital of the Islamic State. With the complicity of other activists who remained in Syria, they decided to fight Daesh propaganda posting photos and videos on the Internet which show another reality of daily life in Raqqa. On a site with an evocative name, “Raqqa is being slaughtered in silence.” Everyday, via encrypted and anonymous Internet. His correspondents in Raqqa send him photos of daily life or official documents issued by Daesh. Here is a photo taken in front of the new Islamic court. Risking their lives, activists take photos Daesh buildings including slogans defying terrorists. Here it says “Freedom forever.” There, we see the Zakat ministry. Zakat is charity paid by every Muslim who has the means in the poorest favors. But in Raqqa, the donations are diverted by Daesh. Zakat has become a mandatory tax, a source of funding for them. Based on monthly income, you pay taxes to Daesh. If your income is €100, you must pay €2. There are instalments and with each new €100, it increases. Here, they’re handing over bills and zakat money. Here he is writing the receipts. See the latest zakat amounts here, 1,252,000 Syrian pounds. Is that a lot for a resident of Raqqa? That is a huge amount of money. Before the civil war, 50 civil servants were paid with this amount. In addition to this income tax, Daesh uses every pretext imaginable to extort funds from the population Raqqa. Merchants must pay a tax of between 5 and 10% of turnover. The terrorists also control access to telephones and running water. The cynicism height, as Daesh can’t maintain In good condition the electrical network, to have light, residents are forced to buy generators. That's good news, Daesh is in charge of this market. Here you can see one of its generators on these exclusive images that a resident of Raqqa sent us. The Islamic State sells them for €150 and it also sells gasoline to make them work. It's like a mafia actually. Yes, exactly. A system of generalized extortion, an insatiable administration. the most incredible thing is make it work Daesh doesn’t pay a cent for public services. The salaries of civil servants continue to be paid by the official States, the very people who are fighting the Islamic State. When the jihadists annexed the major Iraqi city of Mosul, they expelled the legitimate governor. He found refuge 100 kilometers away, outside the zone occupied by Daesh. However, he is not idle. As surprising as it seems, it continues everyday to sign official documents and send orders to his services in Mosul. Because 50,000 Iraqi officials still live inside the city. And above all, they continue to provide public services there, under the rule of Daesh. There are 2,000,000 inhabitants in Mosul. It would be very difficult to manage a mass exodus of this population. We don't want to lose the machinery of government that still exists there. We assume that these officials remain on our side, that the presence of the Islamic State there is only temporary. When we liberate Mosul, the city will be able to go back thanks to its officials, as before. In the meantime, the Iraqi authorities are therefore continuing. to pay the salaries of these civil servants every month. To pay them, Baghdad uses the same process as these merchants. that we filmed on the border between Turkey and Syria. The money is sent from Baghdad to Mosul via a network of exchange offices. There, it's the heads of departments who get that money. and who then sends it to their entire team in Mosul. According to our calculations, Baghdad would pay its officials in Mosul every month more than 220 million euros in salary. It is hard to imagine that this amount of money would escape the Islamic State, and that it is not used in the process. In Baghdad, we put the question to the economic adviser by the Iraqi Prime Minister, Mohder Mohammed Saleh, which is at first of all categorical. We are very careful, not a single cent goes into the pocket of the Islamic State. What do you do to prevent Daesh from being used? We try and do our best so that Daesh doesn’t take advantage of this money. Can't you tell us more about your security mechanisms? It's technical. You know, it's not easy, it's strategy, of the technical strategy. Extremely confusing explanations and for good reason, not content with benefiting from the work of Iraqi civil servants free of charge, the Islamic State also takes part of their salary in the form of taxes. This is what several reports reveal, including this one. It comes from an international experts group. According to them, the terrorist organization would collect up to 50% of salaries. These salaries add up to billions of dollars every year. Their taxation is therefore a potential source for the Islamic State. of revenues of several hundred million dollars. This large-scale racket imposed by Daesh caused millions of civilians to flee the territory of the Islamic State, and in particular all these religious minorities persecuted by the Terror Administration set up by jihadists. Like the Christians in Iraq who have found refuge in camps on the edge of the area occupied by the Islamic State. Until recently, they represented 10% of the population. Many lived in the Mosul region, taken just a year ago by Daesh. On 9 June, Daesh entered the city. Our Muslim neighbours warned us: “Run away! Don't stay in Mosul, because there is a danger for you.” Daesh men announced at the mosque that we had a choice between paying a special tax, converting to Islam, or dying. My neighbor told me that if I wanted to see the Emir, I should pay him in gold, depending on the number of people in my family. I told him I didn't want any details and ran away. This choice, proposed to Christians, was formalized in a document a copy of which we found on the Internet. This one, written in Arabic, is issued by the Ministry of Justice of Daesh. Its message is unambiguous. “We offer them three options. Islam, or being under protection by paying jizya. In case of refusal, it will only be the sword.” Jizya, a name dates back to Middle Ages. It is a tax imposed on non-Muslims through which they purchased the caliph's protection. Not being able to pay this tax, they pay with their lives, Like on this propaganda video, published at the end of April. It depicts the execution of 28 men presented as Ethiopian Christians. They would in fact be migrants who were trying to reach Europe and who would have been in the wrong place at the wrong time. You won't be safe, even in your dreams, as long as you don't convert to Islam, or you pay jizya. In Mosul, the amount demanded by Daesh was exorbitant. Annan has taken refuge here with her husband and four children. Buy Daesh protection for this family was simply impossible. The tax depended on your income. For each of us, it was 100,000 dinars. There were seven of us. We had to pay 700,000 dinars a month while my husband, who worked in the construction industry, earned only one million dinars a month. It was difficult for us to pay and we also found it illegal. Did you take money leaving Mosul? Daesh at any cost. We don't have anything left. They took our house. They told us they took all our furniture, the living room or bedroom and the TV. They emptied the whole house. Daesh has settled there. Pushing minorities into exile, Daesh has embarked on a religious and cultural cleansing. For a year, jihadists have been filming themselves conscientiously trashing the churches deserted by Christians in Iraq. Propaganda images that make the whole world believe that Daesh is solely guided by a religious ideology. However, these videos hide much more mercantile ambitions. Because, far from destroying everything, Daesh has set up an huge traffic in relics and antiquities. To track this traffic, you must go to Lebanon, on another border with the territory of the Islamic State. In the Christian village of Raz Baalbeck, Elias Nasrallah, the priest, found himself well against his will, to have to trade with terrorists. Last year, he noticed that Syrian religious relics were sold on the black market in the neighboring village. Big bells. Where do these bells come from? The church of Santa Alla de Maaloula. With the help of his parishioners and a wealthy Lebanese industrialist, he decided to buy these items from Daesh. He has already spent nearly €90,000. If you hadn't bought them, where would you have gone? In my opinion, in Europe. Because Europeans like to have items from the East. The Islamic State has well understood the interest shown some unscrupulous collectors of Syrian heritage. This is not just about biblical art. Syria is home to some of the jewels of ancient times, like the city of Palmyra, classified as a World Heritage Site, and which just fell a few days ago into the hands of Daesh. Sites like this one, the jihadists control over 6,000, in Syria and Iraq. Treasures they don't hesitate to plunder. This is what a receiver we are meeting in Turkey will confirm. The man we'll call Borat is playing the middleman, particularly between Daesh and German collectors. Traffic described as being perfectly orchestrated by jihadists. Are you in contact with the Islamic State? Yes. When you work with them, you are only allowed one appointment, just one hour. One appointment. There’s no second visit. If you like it, you buy. Otherwise, you go back or you may have problems. On that day, Borat had no goods to sell, but he agrees to take us to another intermediary that he knows. For security reasons, we are pretending to be buyers, and we accompany her on a hidden camera. The men come from Aleppo, Syria. They have items from all over the country, including ancient sites controlled by Daesh. Are all the items from Aleppo? From Aleppo, from Deir ez-Zor, just about everywhere. The intermediary first presents us with a medallion set with gold, whose marble head would date from Antiquity. A jewel that he sells at a high price. It costs $15,000. He also has this bowl from the second millennium BC in his possession. Or even these bottles looted from tombs. We are pretending to have a period of reflection to end this meeting. Smuggling of natural resources, collecting taxes of all kinds, extortion, agriculture and donations. All of these sources of income offer Daesh an annual budget estimated at over two billion euros. A budget that, according to the jihadists, would largely allow them to finance their thirst for conquest. For starters, this money allows the organization to pay all these new hires. This is what David Thomson, a journalist at Radio France Internationale, discovered. For several years, he has been in direct contact with jihadists on the Internet. He was thus able to establish a very precise salary scale for the Daesh army. All fighters receive the same amount. It's not much, $50 a month, the base salary. Then there’s also $50 donated per woman, knowing that each fighter can have up to four wives, and $50 per slave since the group reinstated female slavery. And then $35 per child. Then there are lots of bonuses, especially in case of victory. We know that during the capture of Mosul, almost all the fighters who participated in the battle in Iraq in June and the capture of the city, were rewarded with $2,000. A significant amount of money for an Islamic State fighter. To carry out its conquests, Daesh needs more and more fighters. For recruiting, the promise of a salary is far from being their only argument. This one puts these billions to good use to maintain a marketing plan worthy of a multinational, and in particular high-definition propaganda films that use Hollywood codes or video games, whose goal is obvious to David Thompson. It's a one-year-old video. It is one of the first to be a kind of Islamic State blockbuster, made by people trained in the West, and who know how to talk to young Westerners. All this propaganda aims, on the one hand, to encourage young Western fighters. and of the whole world, more generally, to come and fight on their land. Also a military use, terrorize the enemy with psychological warfare. He wants to frighten the enemy to force him not to fight. To spread its message even more widely, The Islamic State publishes luxurious propaganda magazines on the Internet. In order not to miss any candidate, the jihadists take care to translate these newspapers, as well as their videos, in as many languages as possible. In French, English, Russian, German and Arabic. To reach as many people as possible. It's the novelty. Not all potential candidates speak Arabic. This all-round communication has made a significant contribution. to the military and economic rise of the Islamic State. Daesh strategists don’t intend stop here. Now, the terrorist multinational is conquering new market shares, by opening franchises such as in Yemen, Algeria or even Tunisia. Latest example in Nigeria, with Boko Haram jihadists who are spreading terror in the north of the country. From now on, they will be called the Islamic state‘s West African Province. sign of their allegiance to Abubakar al-Baghdadi's organization. Each time, Daesh does not forget to take care of communication of each of its new franchises. Like here recently in Libya. Every time a franchise is opened we have a video of a beheading. In case of this video, the Islamic State sent media emissaries to upgrade its new Libyan franchise in Libya, so that the videos are produced in the same way, like a big company sending emissaries to create a new franchise to branch out into a new market. As if the Islamic State had integrated Steve Jobs' marketing codes. All the big multinationals, after all. The world's multinationals. This expansion strategy also testifies to an economic necessity for Daesh. By wanting to embody a true State, The terrorist organization must also learn to manage a budget like any other country, what are its current resources do not yet allow it in the long term. The resources he has access to in Iraq and Syria are not enough. to keep this caliphate alive, and therefore it is in reality obliged to expand to find new resources and new opportunities. As huge as it is, the fortune on which he is sitting today Isn't it enough to make people give in? Yes, because we know the budgets of these provinces over 2 billion dollars per year for Iraq. The resources that are hers today, The income especially, is insufficient to support a living as they should optimally, public services, An electricity, water, et cetera service that must be essential to the population. The final project of Daesh goes well beyond its current borders. Jihadists now dream of restoring the Grand Caliphate which, in the Middle Ages, extended to the gates of France. While, for the moment, the terrorist enterprise seems to have gained an advantage, This endless war could drive it to the limits of its economic model. and eventually weaken it considerably.

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Channel: Best Documentary

Views: 4,390,046

Rating: undefined out of 5

Keywords: documentary, export22, fighters, full documentary, investigation, organization, territory

Id: o_Rdgx0pCdk

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Length: 56min 2sec (3362 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 08 2023