How You Are Unwittingly Funding Terrorists

by Garrett O'Brien - Author Vanessa Neumann shares the ways in which you are unwittingly helping Hamas, Hezbollah, ISIS, and many other pernicious organizations

International smuggling has exploded, deepening and accelerating the collaboration of transnational organized crime and terrorist groups.

Attacks like the Charlie Hebdo and Bataclan shootings in Paris, the kidnappings and murders by Boko Haram in Nigeria, and the San Bernardino shooting were partially funded by seemingly harmless illegal goods such as cheap cigarettes, smuggled oil, prostitution, fake Viagra, fake designer bags, and even bootleg DVDs.

But how can this be?

In Blood Profits, Vanessa Neumann Ph.D., an expert on dismantling illicit trade, explains how purchasing illegal goods translates to supporting organized crime and terrorists.

Vanessa also shows how the effects of the collapsed Iron Curtain, USSR scientists and intelligence agents left without work, regional trade pacts, the dissipation of the East-versus-West mentality, and new-age technology have all led to an intricate network of illegal trade.

She will lead you through a variety of cases, both by geography and by industry, selecting industries where illicit trade is generally poorly understood, before extracting lessons learned into some policy recommendations that we can all embrace.

Creative Finance On Steroids

Venezuelan money, Colombia drugs, North Korea, Iraq, Iran, Hezbollah…

Author Vanessa Neumann discusses how money from illegally purchased goods is filtered to terrorist groups and organized crime in her book, “Blood Profits.”

click the image above to play the video, which opens in our Rumble account (link)

To purchase her book on Amazon or read an excerpt from it…

The above was originally published on 06 January 2018 in DecisiveLiberty.News (archive)

Addendum - 15 Nov 2023

It is worth noting Vanessa’s book, selling for US$9.50 on Amazon (hardcover) in the U.S., is selling for R$520 on Amazon in Brazil. With today’s exchange rate of R$4.86 per US$1. her book costs just more than 11 times as much in Brazil as it does in the U.S.

Normally, for every 1 item you buy in Brazil, you can buy 3 (on average) in the U.S., especially anything that has to be imported - we have seen as much as 10 times as much for anything very popular, and this is the first we have seen to break even that level.

Anything beyond 3 or even 4 times as much in the U.S. means it is in high demand - or the Brazilian government is attempting to disfavor a product over one of its own.

Brazil has no such company as Vanessa’s, quite the opposite - another topic for another time.

ICYMI - Vanessa is the President of Asymmetrica Inc., and her company, per her ‘about’ page,

… traces its roots to 2010 implementing multidimensional security and financial integrity for government and private sector clients. From our Washington, DC office, we continue to implement Western Hemisphere projects that support access to accurate information (countering disinformation), and the empowerment of women and girls in an inclusive political and economic system. Integrity and inclusion are in our DNA.

Asymmetrica Europa, founded in 2023, has more than two dozen environmental recovery projects across Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), delivering value for highly-regulated European companies in need of carbon credits and emissions reduction. Our projects meet the highest standards of integrity and traceability, and every one is designed to leave long-term economic development for our local communities, with an emphasis on women, girls, and indigenous groups.

Our global reputation for business integrity and the promotion of good governance is based on the values of our founder, Dr. Vanessa Neumann, currently Spokesperson for Democratic Governance in South America for the IX Summit of the Americas process, which lasts through mid-2025.

In other words, Asymmetrica and Venessa are a force to be reckoned with. They know what is going on where and what is - and isn’t — being said by any government.

Lula and his clan are not fooling anyone save those who like communism as well as support Iran.

To read her popular report on how Hezbollah has been infiltrating the markets in Latin America and Brazil, click the following button (opens in our online library)…