Report: Iraqi Insurgency Now Financially Self-Sustaining… Raising $70-$200 Million A Year By Smuggling, Kidnapping, Other Illegal Activities…

The New York Times John F. Burns November 25, 2006 02:23 PM

The insurgency in Iraq is now self-sustaining financially, raising tens of millions of dollars a year from oil smuggling, kidnapping, counterfeiting, corrupt charities and other crimes that the Iraqi government and its American patrons have been largely unable to prevent, a classified United States government report has concluded.

The report, obtained by The New York Times, estimates that armed groups responsible for many of the insurgent and terrorist attacks across Iraq are raising between $70 million and $200 million a year from illegal activities. It says that between $25 million and $100 million of the total comes from oil smuggling and other criminal activity involving the state-owned oil industry that is aided by "corrupt and complicit" Iraqi government officials.

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