News 2 August 2015

Britains secret ties to governments, firms behind

ISIS oil sales
Nafeez Ahmed / Medium.com / 31 July 2015
Key allies in the US and UK led war on Islamic State (ISIS)
are covertly financing the terrorist movement according to
senior political sources in the region. US and British oil
companies are heavily invested in the murky geopolitical
triangle sustaining ISIS black market oil sales.
The Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq and
Turkish military intelligence have both supported secret
ISIS oil smuggling operations and even supplied arms to
the terror group, according to Kurdish, Iraqi and Turkish
officials.
One British oil company in particular, Genel Energy, is
contracted by the KRG to supply oil for a major Kurdish
firm accused of facilitating ISIS oil sales to Turkey. The
Kurdish firm has close ties to the Iraqi Kurdish
government.
Genel operates in the KRG with the backing of the British
government, and is also linked to a British parliamentary
group with longstanding connections to both the British
and KRG oil industries.
The relationship between British and Kurdish energy
companies, and senior British politicians, raises questions
about conflicts of interestespecially in the context of a
war on terror that is supposed to be targeting, not
financing, the Islamic State.
Kurds, Turks and blind eyes
One of ISIS most significant sources of revenue is oil
smuggling. The Islamic State controls approximately 60%
of Syrias oil, and seven major oil-producing assets in Iraq.
Using a carefully cultivated network of intermediaries and
middlemen in the Kurdish region of Iraq, as well as in
Turkey, ISIS has been able to produce a phenomenal

45,000 barrels of oil a day, raking in as much as $3 million

a day in cash by selling the oil at well below market prices.
But the sheer scale and impunity of this oil smuggling
network has caused local politicians to ask whether
certain officials in the KRG and Turkey are turning a blind
eye to these operations.
Iraqi, Kurdish and Turkish officials have accused both the
KRG and Turkish governments of deliberately allowing
some of these smuggling operations to take place.
Tensions between the KRG and Iraqs central government
in Baghdad are escalating over who controls production
and revenues from oil fields within the Kurdish region.
Kurdish officials see the oil within the Kurdish-controlled
territory of Iraq as a means to seek greater autonomy, if
not potentially total independence, from Baghdad
whereas the Iraqi government seeks to ensure it retains
sovereign control over all sales from its own oil fields,
which include those in the KRG.
Those tensions reached a crescendo when the KRG began
unilaterally selling oil by exporting it to Turkey, bypassing
Baghdad.
Complicity
KRG and Turkish authorities vehemently deny any role in
intentionally facilitating ISIS oil sales. Both governments
have taken measures to crackdown on smuggling
operations, and US and UK authorities work closely with
the KRG to identify ISIS smuggling routes.
Despite KRG arrests of Kurdish middlemen involved in
the ISIS black market oil sales, evidence continues to
emerge that these measures are largely piecemeal, and
have failed to address corruption at the highest levels.
According to a senior source in the Iraqi governments
ruling Islamic Dawa Party, US and Iraqi authorities have
developed significant intelligence confirming that

elements of the KRG have tacitly condoned ISIS oil sales

on the black market.
The source, which has direct access to top Iraqi
government officials, said that the KRG had originally seen
the ISIS invasion of Iraq as an opportunity to consolidate
Kurdish control over disputed territory, especially the oilrich region of Kirkuk. The Kurds had not, however,
anticipated how powerful ISIS presence in the region
would become.
In the early period of the invasion last year, he said:
Elements of the KRG and Peshmerga militia directly
facilitated secret ISIS oil smuggling through the Kurdish
province. This was known to the Americans, which shared
intelligence on the matter with the Iraqi government in
Baghdad.
The issue inflamed tensions between Baghdad and the
KRG, contributing to efforts by Hussein al-Shahrestani,
then Iraqs deputy prime minister for energy affairs, to
crackdown on independent Kurdish oil exports.
His successor, new oil minister Adel Abdul-Mehdi, was
brought in through a reshuffle in September last year that
was engineered under US diplomatic pressure. Unlike
Shahrestani, the source said, Abdul-Mehdi has a much
more conciliatory approach to the Kurdish oil question, one
which also happens to suit the interests of US and British
investors in the KRG: This has meant that Baghdad has
also been much more lax on evidence of ISIS oil smuggling
through the KRG.
The source confirmed that under mounting US pressure,
KRG authorities have taken serious steps to curb the
illegal smuggling on behalf of ISIS. But the smuggling still
continues, although at a more restrained level, with the
support of elements of KRGs ruling parties, who profit
from the black market oil sales.
Turkey also plays a crucial role in the ISIS oil smuggling
operations according to the Iraqi source. As the end-point
through which much of this oil reaches global markets,

Turkish authorities have routinely turned a blind eye to the

IS-run black market. The Turks have an acrimonious
relationship with the Americans, he claimed, but
admitted that US intelligence is familiar with Turkeys role:
US intelligence is monitoring many of these smuggling
operations in minute detail. Some of this intelligence has
been passed on to us. The Americans know what is going
on. But Erdogan and Obama dont have a great
relationship. Erdogan basically does what he likes, and the
US has to lump it.
The allegations have been confirmed by Turkish
government officials and parliamentarians. In particular, a
source with extensive connections to the Turkish political
establishment including the office of the Prime Minister,
said that Turkeys support for Islamist rebels opposed to
Bashir al-Assads reign in Syria began long before the
emergence of the Islamic State, and was pivotal in the
groups meteoric rise to power.
Turkey, a longstanding NATO member, is part of the US-led
coalition fighting IS, and has been integral to the regions
moderate rebel training schemes supervised by Western
military intelligence agencies.
Turkey is playing a double-game with its Syria strategy,
said the source.
Turkey has sponsored Islamist groups in Syria, including
ISIS, since the beginning, and continues to do so. The
scale of ISIS smuggling operations across the TurkishSyrian border is huge, and much of it is facilitated with the
blessings of Erdogan and Davitoglu, who see the Islamists
as the means to expand the Turkish foothold in the
region.
Recep Tayyip Erdogon is the President of Turkey, and
Ahmet Davutoglu is the countrys Prime Minister. Asked
how this fits with recent Turkish operations to shut-down
ISIS smuggling operations and target ISIS strongholds
across the border, the source described the actions as too
little, too late.

These actions fit with Erdogans strategy of expansion,

he said. We are not trying to shut down the infrastructure
of ISIS, we are attacking it selectively.
A shadow network in broad daylight
The ISIS oil smuggling routewhich encompasses the
KRG and ends up at the Turkish port of Ceyhanwas
recently investigated by two British academics at the
University of Greenwich.
The paper by George Kiourktsoglou, Lecturer in Maritime
Security and former Royal Dutch Shell strategist, and Dr
Alec Coutroubis, Acting Head at the Faculty of Engineering
and Science, attempted to identify suspicious patterns in
the illicit oil trade.
Their extraordinary study, published by Maritime Security
Review in March, examined the international route used by
ISIS, based on a string of trading hubs comprising the
localities of Sanliura, Urfa, Hakkari, Siirt, Batman,
Osmaniya, Gaziantep, Sirnak, Adana, Kahramarmaras,
Adiyaman and Mardin. The string of trading hubs ends up
in Adana [in southeast Turkey], home to the major tanker
shipping port of Ceyhan.
By comparing spikes in tanker charter rates from Ceyhan
with a timeline of ISIS activities, the University of
Greenwich analysis identified significant correlations
between the two. Whenever the Islamic State fights in
the vicinity of an area hosting oil assets, the exports
from Ceyhan promptly spike. This may be attributed to an
extra boost given to crude oil smuggling with the aim of
immediately generating additional funds.
While the evidence is still inconclusive at this stage, the
authors wrote that there are strong hints to an illicit
supply chain that ships ISIS crude from Ceyhan to global
markets. Since the launch of the ISIS oil venture in
summer 2014, tanker charter rates from Ceyhan recoupled up to a degree with the ones from the rest of the
Middle East.

Though they could not be categorical, primary research

including interviews with informed sources indicated that
this was most likely the result of boosted demand for
ultra-cheap smuggled crude, available for loading from
the Turkish port.
Kiourktsoglu and Coutroubis call for further research on
ISIS criminal ventures which can potentially integrate it
within the global economy. The academics have
previously given evidence before the parliamentary
foreign affairs select committee regarding maritime
security off the Somalian coast.
Their study also highlights failures in the US military
approach to the ISIS oil operations. Although they
commend how US, Turkish and Gulf air raids have
curtailed the Islamic States oil cashflows by
destroying some oil manufacturing facilities, this has not
gone far enough. They report that:
extraction wells in the area of bombardments have yet
to be targeted by the US or the air-assets of its allies, a
fact that can be readily attributed to the at times toxic
politics in the Middle East.
Despite large convoys of trucks transporting ISIS oil
through government-controlled areas in Syria, Iraq and
Turkey, allied US air-raids do not target the truck lorries
out of fear of provoking a backlash from locals. As a
result, the transport operations are being run efficiently,
taking place most of times in broad daylight.
The public record
Evidence already in the public record corroborates the
allegations of the Iraqi and Turkish sources, showing that
corruption is endemic at both the origin and end-points of
the ISIS smuggling route.
Informed observers inside and outside Turkey have
accused the Turkish government of turning a blind eye to
the smuggling of oil across the Syrian-Turkish border in its
commitment to bringing down the Assad regime.

Prosecutor and witness testimony in Turkish courts

revealed that in late 2013 and 2014, Turkish military
intelligence had supplied arms to areas in Syria under
Islamist rebel control, contributing directly to the rise of
ISIS.
Turkish opposition MP Ali Ediboglu last year said that some
$800 million worth of ISIS oil had been smuggled into
Turkey. He also said that over a thousand Turkish nationals
were helping foreign fighters join ISIS in Syria and Iraq
through Turkish territory. Both, he alleged, are occurring
with the knowledge and involvement of Turkish military
intelligence.
In July 2014, Iraqi officials revealed that when ISIS had
begun selling oil extracted from the northern province of
Salahuddin, the Kurdish peshmerga forces stopped the
sale of oil at first, but later allowed tankers to transfer and
sell oil.
Three months later, a KRG Interior Ministry document
leaked to the Kurdish media outlet, Rudaw, showed that a
former opposition MP, Burhan Rashid, had accused KRG
institutions of facilitating the flow of funds and arms to
ISIS militants in Iraq.
A Kurdish political party in Erbil has supplied the ISIS
militants with weapons and ammunition in exchange for
oil, Rashid is recorded as saying. The document revealed
that the KRG chief public prosecutor had secretly prepared
a lawsuit against Rashid for making the allegations.
The lawsuit, which apparently went nowhere, was an
obvious effort to silence criticism. By January, however, an
investigative committee led by the KRG interior minister
and natural resources minister had largely corroborated
Rashids allegations.
Kurdish parliamentary sources familiar with the final report
of the committee, which remains secret, told Rudaw the
report had confirmed:

 a number of officials from the ruling Kurdistan

Democratic Party (KDP), the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan
(PUK) and the Peshmerga have been involved in the illegal
trade.
Half a year later, the identities of officials investigated
remain undisclosed, and no one has been charged, tried or
sentenced. The KRGs UK office did not respond to a
request for comment.
The Nokan Group
Instead, a couple of months after the committee had
reached its conclusions, evidence emerged that the Nokan
Group, a major Kurdish company with close ties to the
KRG, had been directly facilitating ISIS oil sales.
In a letter to the Nokan Group, Mark D. Wallacea former
US ambassador to the United Nations under President
George W. Bush and CEO of the New York-based Counter
Extremism Projectnoted credible reports that some
Kurdish entities are in fact facilitating ISIS-related oil
trade
Specifically, certain Kurdish companies are reportedly
contracted to transport refined fuel from the ISIScontrolled Baiji refinery, north of Tikrit, Iraq, for delivery
throughout the Kurdish region by Sulaymaniyah province
authorities in Iraqi Kurdistan, in the north-eastern region of
Iraq.
Trucks owned or operated by Meer Soma, a subsidiary of
the Nokan Group, are being used to transport refined
petroleum products from ISIS-controlled refineries to
Kurdish entities in or near Kirkuk, wrote Ambassador
Wallace in the letter dated 20th March 2015.
Wallace noted that according to the Kurdish press, Meer
Soma is among several Nokan-controlled dummy
companies operating on behalf of the group, to avoid
public association with the parent firm.
Photograph enclosed with Ambassador Wallaces letter to
the Nokan Group, extracted from various media reports

According to a 2012 country report by the Paris-based

business intelligence agency MarcoPolis, the Nokan Group
is among the largest companies in the province, and has
interests in Meer Soma.
In 2014, the same year that photographs of Meer Soma
tankers transporting ISIS oil to Kurdish refineries were
published online, the Nokan subsidiarys website was
deleted.
Ambassador Wallaces letter has generated little more
than silence. No response from the Nokan Group was
received by Wallace. The Nokan Group could not be
reached for comment.
Copies of the letter were sent to relevant Congressional
committees, as well as John E. Smith, Acting Director of
the US Treasury Departments Office of Foreign Assets
Control. The US Treasury did not respond to queries about
what was done to investigate the allegations.
Even a spokesperson for the Counter Extremism Project,
on behalf of which the letter was sent, declined to
comment when asked to clarify the follow-up from US
authorities.
Corruption, Nokan and the KRG
The Nokan Group is a conglomerate of companies owned
and controlled by the Iraqi Kurdish political party, the
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), which is one of the
KRGs ruling parties alongside the majority KDP.
The Kurdistan Tribune reports that Nokan is run from the
general management office of the PUK in Sulaymani
district. The newspaper estimates that, accounting for its
23 subsidiary companies, the Nokan Groups net worth
approaches roughly 45 billion US dollars, many multiples
larger than its declared value.
The Tribune points out that the PUK business model is
representative of private enterprise across the KRGrife
with corruption and nepotism, largely for the enrichment
of political elites and their allies. The economic model in

Kurdistan monopolises the market for the benefit of a few

and poisons the environment for Small Medium
Enterprises (SMEs), observes the paper.
A lengthy report in The Nation found that the KRGs
patronage system was alienating and disenfranchising
much of the population: Many of the most profitable
companies, such as those controlling construction
projects, are owned by a Barzani or Talabani, the heads of
the two KRG ruling parties.
But beyond the gleaming new suburbs, five-star hotels
and flashy cars lies an ancient city in which critics say
corruption remains a problem and the lines dividing
government and business are unhealthily blurred, noted
the Financial Times.
Until last year, the PUKs leader Jalal Talabani was
President of Iraq. His son, Qubad Talabani, is currently
Deputy Prime Minister in the KRG. Previously, the latter
served as the KRGs representative in the United States. In
both capacities Qubad has played a key role in developing
commercial relationships with the West, especially
concerning oil.
Jalal Talabanis other son, Pavel, oversees the KRGs antiterror squad in Sulaymani, which is run by PUK member
Lahur Sheikh Jangi.
The elder Talabanis sister-in-law, Shanaz Ibrahim Ahmed,
is the PUK representative to the UK responsible for media
relations, as well as for the finances of the Nokan Group.
Qubad Talabani, incumbent KRG deputy PM, is slated to
speak at the Kurdistan-Iraq Oil & Gas Conference to be
held in London this November. The conference, organised
by British firm CWC Group in partnership with the joint
PUK-KDP government, is sponsored by a number of energy
corporations including Exxon Mobil, Chevron, DNO, Gulf
Keystone Petroleum, and the Qaiwan Group.
The Qaiwan Group, among the London conferences
platinum sponsors, is contracted to the KRGs Ministry of

Energy to design, construct and operate planned

expansions to the Bazian oil refinery under a Power
Purchase Agreement (PPA).
The current phase three expansion, due for completion
by 2018, aims to lift the refinerys capacity from 34,000 to
80,000 barrels per day.
The Bazian refinery is, however, owned and controlled by
WZA Petroleumanother subsidiary of the PUKs Nokan
Group, dominated by the Talabani family.
WZA Petroleums president is Parwen Babakir, in which
capacity she
is the principal owner of the Bazian refinery. Babakir is
also the Chairman of the Nokan Group, and is in charge of
the PUKs oil and gas portfolio. She was previously
appointed Minister of Industry in the Sulaymani district by
Talabani from 2003 to 2007. She did not respond to
questions concerning the Nokan Groups alleged
facilitation of IS oil sales.
While KRG government officials and their relatives are
directly profiting from lucrative oil and gas contracts
brokered by the KRG, the same officialswho are
responsible for anti-terrorism in the Sulaymani province
oversee the Nokan Group, which is implicated in
facilitating ISIS oil smuggling.
The British connection
A British energy company with strong backing from the UK
political establishment operates the oil field supplying the
Nokan-owned Bazian refinery.
The refinery, owned by the Nokan Group whose trucks
were seen transporting IS oil through the Kurdish province
earlier this year, is supplied from the KRGs Taq Taq field.
The oil field produces a total of around 100,000 barrels per
day, most of which is shipped to local refineries. BritishTurkish firm Genel Energy has a 45 percent stake in the
Taq Taq field.

Genel Energy was formed from a $2.1 billion merger in

2011 between a UK firm, Vallares Plc, and a Turkish
company, Genel Enerji. The firm is run by Tony Hayward, a
former CEO of British Petroleum (BP).
Asked about Genels position on working with institutions
allegedly involved in financing ISIS terrorism, Andrew
Benbow, spokesperson for the Anglo-Turkish company,
stated: These are all questions to be asked to the KRG
rather than ourselves.
According to the final report of the House of Commons
Select Committee on Foreign Affairs inquiry into the
British governments policy toward the KRG, published in
January 2015, Genel is the only major British investor in
the province.
The report noted that the Kurdistan region holds an
estimated 45 billion barrels of oilin the same league as
Libya and Nigeriaand a further 110 trillion cubic feet of
gas, placing it around tenth or twelfth in the world for
reserves. The KRG aims to export as much as 2 million
barrels per day by 2020, a prospect of huge interest to
Western companies including, according to the report,
Exxon, Chevron, Repsol, Total, the local giant KAR, and
the British-Turkish company, Genel Energy.
Just a month earlier, David Camerons then Energy
Minister Matthew Hancock told the 4th Kurdistan-Iraq Oil &
Gas Conference in Erbil, that Iraq has a critical role to
play in meeting the worlds future demand for oil.
Remarking that US oil production is forecasted to peak in
2020, he said that therefore the world is expected to
become ever more dependent on Iraqi supply.
Iraqi oil production will treble to over 8 million barrels a
day by 2040, he added: Reserves in Kurdistan play a
significant role in this increase. The region is not only
thought to be one of the largest untapped areas of oil in
the world, but also has significant gas potential.

Genel Energy is positioned to profit massively from

increased Kurdish output, bar an oil shock or other such
wild card. Genels president, Mehmet Sepil, told the 2014
conference that his firm planned to play the lead role in
exploiting 11 trillion cubic feet of gas in the Kurdish
province.
A year earlier, the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on
the Kurdistan Region of Iraq had released a report from its
fact-finding mission to the province, recommending that
the Foreign Affairs Select Committee undertake this
inquiry.
As part of that fact-finding mission, British Conservative
MP Nadhim Zahawi, who is co-chair of the APPG on
Kurdistan, visited the Taq Taq oil field being run by Genel
Energy in November 2013.
Zahawi held shares in Genel Energy, according to the
House of Commons Register of Interests, which shows that
he declared his relationship to Genel in June 2013.
According to Zahawi, he sold his shares in Genel on 30th
April 2014.
Later in 2013, Zahawi was appointed by David Cameron to
the Prime Ministers Policy Board, with special
responsibility for business and the economy, a post he still
holds.
By June 2014, Zahawi was appointed as a member of the
Foreign Affairs Select Committee, and played a key role in
its inquiry into government policy.
These are obviously very serious allegations which I was
not previously aware of and that were not submitted to
the Select Committees inquiry, said Zahawi regarding
the Ambassador Wallaces letter concerning the Nokan
Group. He explained that the committee would investigate
ISIS funding sources in a further inquiry.
Zahawi also denied knowledge of the KRGs internal
investigation into support for ISIS terrorism, as well as the

allegations concerning Genels relationship to Nokan. As

an ex retail shareholder, he explained, I have no more
knowledge of the details of their operation than any other
retail share holder or member of the public. I would
suggest that you submit your evidence and questions to
Genel directly.
The APPG on Kurdistan is intimately connected to both the
PUK-KDP run government and Western oil interests in the
province. Gary Kent, who is Director of Labour Friends of
Iraq, is paid directly by Gulf Keystone Petroleumwhich is
heavily invested in KRG oil assetsto provide secretariat
services for the APPG.
The KRG and its UK arm also provide administrative
services for the APPG, including dinners for
parliamentarians, annual receptions, and funding group
delegations to the province.
Describing the APPG on Kurdistans findings in January
2014, APPG Vice Chair Robert Halfonwho is now a
Minister (without portfolio) in David Camerons new
cabinet and Deputy Chairman of the Tory Partytold the
House of Commons:
Across the Kurdistan region, business is flourishing and
people are keen on British and foreign investment.
Privatisation continues apace and huge property
complexes are being built. There are significant oil and gas
reserves, which, unusually in these parts, are used for the
benefit of the country, not salted away in corruption. As I
pointed out in an early-day motion [tabled with Zahawi
and others] the KRG can become an important ally in
guaranteeing the UKs future energy security.
In January 2015, as the UK parliamentary Foreign Affairs
Select Committee released its inquiry report, Zahawi was
back in the KRG as part of an official UK trade delegation
led by Mayor of London Boris Johnson, recently appointed
to the Prime Ministers political cabinet.
Fracturing Iraq for oil
Although the KRG launched its investigation of ISIS
terrorism financing by Kurdish officials while the British

parliamentary inquiry was still ongoing, the inquiry report

makes no mention of it, nor does it acknowledge that the
KRG investigation had confirmed the allegations nearly a
month before publication.
The parliamentary committee did not come across such
allegations, nor had any such information ever been
submitted to the inquiry, Zahawi said.
The 2015 UK parliamentary report repeatedly justifies calls
for cementing British-KRG ties due to the KRGs role as a
reliable partner in the fight against terrorism.
While the parliamentary report goes to pains to emphasise
the British governments formal position in favour of a
unified Iraq, it also leans heavily toward a federal solution
granting the KRG considerable autonomy, based on its
ability to exploit oil and gas resources in the province.
Pointing to the UK Foreign Secretarys recommendation of
devo max (maximum devolution) as the best possible
model of democratic governance in Iraq, the report
recommends that the British government should be
prepared for the possible consequences of Iraqs breakup.
The KRGs increased self-governance, or even
independence, is itself rational, given its economic
potential and demonstrable capacity for effective selfgovernance, and also understandable, given its recent
history. While the move to independence is not imminent,
it is a medium-term possibility, depending in large part
on the Kurdistan Regions energy export strategy, for
which the UK Government should be prepared.
In its reporting on Zahawis visit to KRG oil fields run by
Genel Energy, The Independent observed that there is no
suggestion of any impropriety in relation to the Kurdistan
APPG.

But irrespective of parliamentary rules, the APPGs brazen

role in facilitating British oil and gas interests in the region
is hardly a secret.
We have taken the detailed reports from our delegations
to UK ministers and other groups to promote the message
that Kurdistan is open to business and to boost British
connections in trade, culture and other fields, the APPG
declares on its website.
This has helped change the UKs approach to Kurdistan
The groups reports helped overcome that erroneous
assumption and persuaded the UK Government to send its
first official mission to the Erbil Trade Fairmore British
companies are expected at next months fair.
Like many of the other interests involved, the UK Foreign
Office (FCO) simply failed to respond when questioned
about the British governments relationship with regional
authorities and firms implicated in the facilitation of IS
black market oil sales.
Genel Energy CEO Tony Hayward has previously spoken
out in defence of the KRGs decision to ask the company
to truck exports of crude oil from the Taq Taq field to
Turkey. The Anglo-Turkish firm is receiving payments for
these exports directly from the KRG, rather than from the
Baghdad government, which had condemned them as
illegal.
Until her resignation earlier this year, former Labour MP
Meg Munn was chair of the APPG on Kurdistan alongside
Zahawi. A former Foreign Office minister under Tony Blair,
she is Vice Chair of the Westminster Foundation for
Democracy (WFD), an executive non-departmental public
body sponsored by the Foreign Office that promotes
parliamentary institutions abroad.
The WFD has been contracted for many years by the
Foreign Office and UK Department for International
Development (DFID) to augment the formal mechanisms
of democracy in Iraq and the KRG.

Yet an independent review of the organisations work

commissioned by the FCO in 2010 concluded that its own
internal records provide little evidence that the
organisation is having significant, long-term and
sustainable impact. Rather, the review concluded:
the purpose of party supportstrictly definedis not
to show demonstrable improvements in the functioning of
democracy [but] allows the parties to engage in activity
that would be impossible for the FCO to undertake.
This involves political activities designed to help their
ideological counterparts in other countries and which
facilitate access to, and influence over parties in
developing democracies, thus supporting the UK
governments diplomatic objectives.
Thus, the WFD ultimately functions to promote British
government interests. Its constitution stipulates that all
fourteen members of its Board of Governors must be
appointed by the British Foreign Secretary, with eight of
them nominated by Westminster political parties. One
WFD Annual Report concedes that:
WFD offers the FCO and HMG [Her Majestys
Government] a focus on political work which the FCO or
the Government could not or would not wish to undertake
directly where direct British government support could
be interpreted as foreign interference.
Despite its self-description as a neutral convener
between demands for national unity and federalisation,
the WFDs entire national Iraq programme is run from the
KRG capital, Erbil.
In Iraqi Kurdistan, for the WFD this has meant, according
to the APPGs 2011 report, promoting a democratic
market economy safe for foreign capital penetration:
The menu includes a smaller but smarter state, an active
civil society, a free and professional media system and
more private businesses.
Kurdistan is exploiting its oil and gas riches commendably
and ahead of schedule through making good use of the

private sector, the APPG report under Zahawi and Munns

watch enthused.
European energy security will gain from their ability to
supply gas through the projected southern energy corridor
for a century. This deserves UK recognition and support.
The eagerness of American and British oil companies to
exploit Iraqi Kurdish resources, however, raises urgent
questions as to whether US-UK government support for
the KRG-Turkish oil nexus is undermining the war on ISIS, if
not fuelling the terror group.
Neither the British nor American governments appear to
be willing to answer these questions.
Dr Nafeez Ahmed is an investigative journalist, bestselling
author and international security scholar. A former
Guardian writer, he writes the System Shift column for
VICEs Motherboard, and is also a columnist for Middle
East Eye.
He is the winner of a 2015 Project Censored Award, known
as the Alternative Pulitzer Prize, for Outstanding
Investigative Journalism for his Guardian work, and was
selected in the Evening Standards Power 1,000 most
globally influential Londoners.
Nafeez has also written for The Independent, Sydney
Morning Herald, The Age, The Scotsman, Foreign Policy,
The Atlantic, Quartz, Prospect, New Statesman, Le Monde
diplomatique, New Internationalist, Counterpunch,
Truthout, among others. He is a Visiting Research Fellow
at the Faculty of Science and Technology at Anglia Ruskin
University.
Nafeez is the author of A Users Guide to the Crisis of
Civilization: And How to Save It (2010), and the scifi
thriller novel ZERO POINT, among other books. His work
on the root causes and covert operations linked to
international terrorism officially contributed to the 9/11
Commission and the 7/7 Coroners Inquest.
This exclusive is being released for free in the
public interest, and was enabled by crowdfunding.

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