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CLICK HERE to Share Your Thoughts After Your Vote
Dear Readers,
My focus this week is to get everyone to start asking questions, including one of the most important questions that no one is asking but should.
The answer to this question, should you choose to look for it, could change the way you view the world forever.
First, let’s talk about a very controversial subject that needs to be addressed.
Last week, I talked about the dangers of letting Syrian refugees into Canada.
On one hand, we should help; on the other, should we help by allowing 25,000 refugees into our most populated cities, where the costs of living are extremely high?
Canadians are very divided about this, with the latest poll showing an increasingly negative sentiment towards allowing Syrian refugees in Canada.
But before you cast your vote or share your thoughts, let’s look at the facts.
No Prior Risk
The numbers tell us that refugees settling in North America pose little threat.
A recent article by the Economist showed that of the 745,000 refugees resettled in the U.S. since the September 11th attack, only two have been arrested on terrorism-related charges, and both without planning any attack.
Canada has allowed almost 265,000 refugees over the last decade without any attacks.
But is it safe to say that refugees pose little threat to national security?
Not so fast.
While refugees allowed into both Canada and the U.S. have thus far posed little threat, they were screened with processes that often took several years.
Trudeau wants to allow 25,000 in a matter of weeks.
Is that safe?
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Dangers Aside
Aside from the dangers – even if the chances are slim – of allowing a terrorist to slip into our borders, there are also many other ramifications.
For example, the million plus refugees allowed by Canada and the U.S. over the last years added to a population that was facing a shortage of jobs.
While the U.S. appears to be recovering (I use the word appear very literally) Canada’s economy is struggling, and looking to get worse.
It’s estimated that it will cost the Canadian government $1.2 billion to resettle the 25,000 refugees, with $876.7 million needed in 2015-2016 alone. Canada is already expected to run massive deficits while Trudeau is in power.
Of course, the argument for this is simple: money isn’t everything.
Radicalization
Lastly, I fear that as we help Syrian refugees, there is a possibility of homegrown radicalization. Fear is a very powerful emotion – one that could lead good people into doing bad things.
An article by Shannon Gormley from the Ottawa Citizen summed it up when she explained what’s happened in Europe:
“…Most refugees go to Germany and Sweden instead. But these countries extended open invitations to Syrians without creating the housing solutions that would make them at home. In both countries, residence shortages are serious; in both countries, locals set refugee residences ablaze. At the Arctic Circle, one miner told me that because foreigners have insisted on going where they don’t belong, flames will soon lick at the North. He called it a prediction. I heard a threat.
Apartments on fire in the north, tents on fire in the south, a mosque on fire in Canada: violence this spiteful can only inflame the cultural anxieties that spark more violence, and that particular fire can’t be extinguished by treating refugees as if they’re the very murderers that they’re fleeing. Especially when those murderers try to frame them with a fake passport planted at a bomb scene.”
Things overseas have gotten worse, and those friendly borders are now no more.
Via Reuters:
“The European Commission has now formally authorized the temporary reimposition of border controls by Sweden and Germany’s extension of frontier checks to help get a grip on a large influx of asylum seekers.”
For the safety and future of our children, know the risks but don’t let fear overtake your humanity.
Will the entrance of 25,000 Syrian refugees spark racism and radicalization within our borders?
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Instability
Many years ago, I warned in my Letter, “ The Secret Deal Between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia,” that we should not let the events in Syria slip our thoughts, and that war was likely if the price oil remained low.
“Given the size of the oil market, Saudi Arabia, and the U.S. can only do so much to keep the price of oil down.
And while the U.S. has been planning a long time to prepare for this lower oil price scenario by increasing production at home, OPEC members may eventually say enough is enough.
Via…Andolu Agency:
“The U.S. and Saudi Arabia alone do not have the power to seriously affect oil prices”, Hasanov insisted. “No country has this kind of power, unless it starts a war or executes a strong embargo, as was done in 1973.”
Unless it starts a war…”
And war is exactly what is happening in all of the regions in the Middle East. Regardless of what you believe and who to blame, the facts cannot be mistaken.
Syria has never been worse. France – along with Russia and the U.S. – are now dropping bombs and artillery in Syria at rapid pace.
When I warned that all of the events in Syria affect us directly – not just from a capital markets and economic standpoint via lower oil prices – many did not take it seriously.
Now, just a year later, we are about to import the problems from Syria directly into Canada by bringing in 25,000 refugees in a matter of weeks.
I haven’t even begun to update you on the situation in Iraq.
For now, this brings us to one of the most important questions you should be asking the governments of our nations.
This question should be asked before we even talk about refugees or any other matter related to the war in the Middle East and the threat of terrorism.
The Richest Terrorist Organization Ever
ISIS is undoubtedly the wealthiest terror organization in the world. They plan on bringing down the West.
This week, U.S. Department of the Treasury officials told us they had been wrong in estimating ISIS revenues. What’s worse is that their estimates were off by a whopping $400 million dollars.
Via Bloomberg:
“According to U.S. Department of the Treasury officials and data they released in the wake of the Paris mayhem, the terrorist group is actually taking in $500 million from oil a year.”
But oil is just the beginning.
Via Fortune:
“According to the Treasury Department, the Islamic State seized between $500 million and $1 billion from Iraqi banks last year. Additionally, the group has earned hundreds of millions from extortion, $20-$45 million from ransoming kidnapped victims, and about $5 million from foreign donations. UN agricultural officials and a Syrian economist have also estimated that ISIS could earn about $200 million from selling crops on the black market.”
While we are all focused on the refugee situation, the media has deflected us into asking the most important question we should really be asking:
“Who Buys Oil from ISIS?”
Some Western media tell us that ISIS sells oil to Assad, yet with practically no proof. Why would Assad bomb its own infrastructure, and then buy oil from the very enemies it is fighting?
Eastern media, and Russian President Vladimir Putin, tells us that ISIS is selling oil to America’s Western allies.
Regardless of what you believe to be true, we’re not talking a few barrels of oil.
We’re talking half a billion dollars per year in illegal oil revenue.
Is the lower price of oil supported by ISIS undercutting everyone?
What bank allows for the transfer of such vast amounts of illegal terrorist funds?
How can any terrorist group launder and transact in half a billion dollars a year – likely more – without the U.S. or other government officials knowing?
Who are the middlemen that facilitate these massive oil trades?
Don’t tell me its all done in cash, or Bitcoins.
Ask these simple questions. Look for answers. And perhaps it will change your view of the world forever.
What do you think? Who is helping ISIS sell oil?
CLICK HERE to Share Your Thoughts
Don’t Take Things Lightly
Fear and tension continue to spread throughout the world.
We are now witnessing the worst migrant crisis since World War Two.
The EU is falling apart with countries now all protecting their borders from each other.
Slovenia has recently built a razor wire fence on its border with Croatia, and Austria announced Friday it would erect a metal fence along its border with Slovenia, in a new blow to the EU’s cherished open-border Schengen accord.
Meanwhile, Sweden and Germany have also resumed border checks.
In Asia, things are also getting worse.
Tensions continue to intensify over the South China Sea, as the U.S. continues to play chicken with China.
According to Reuters:
“Two U.S. B-52 strategic bombers flew near artificial Chinese-built islands in the South China Sea this week and were contacted by Chinese ground controllers but continued their mission undeterred, the Pentagon said on Thursday.”
China has already told the world that they are extremely angry about this. So much so that it has signed a deal with Moscow for 24 cutting-edge Su-35 fighter jets:
Via RT:
“Russia is selling China high-performance aircraft as an answer to America’s actions around Asia, Conn Hallinan from Foreign Policy in Focus, told RT.
Beijing has signed a deal with Moscow for Sukhoi fighter jets. China will buy 24 cutting-edge SU-35s. China is the first foreign sale of the multipurpose aircraft.”
This global calamity is not to be taken lightly.
While the majority of us sit back and “act” as humanitarians by “talking” about helping refugees, nations around the world are fighting with each other. Many would describe the incidents as acts of war – it’s just a matter of what words you choose to use.
Stop talking about what the media wants you to talk about. Start asking the REAL questions.
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Seek the truth,
Ivan Lo
The Equedia Letter
