Profits of death: disaster capitalists fan flames of war in Syria

For instance, Barclays and HSBC finance has directly filtered down to Almaz-Antey, the manufacturer of the BUK missile that purportedly shot down flight MH17. Similarly, the publicly-owned Royal Bank of Scotland invests in ten companies involved in the UK's Trident, but is simultaneously a financier of Russia's Dolgorukiy nuclear deterrent as well.

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Take the US BGM-71 TOW anti tank missile, supplied by the US to the [Syrian] rebels (and frequently making its way into the hands of al-Qaeda affiliate al-Nusra, and even ISIS). Manufactured by Raytheon, the company has a $1.25bn credit agreement with top Wall Street bank, JP Morgan Chase.

Also in Syria, the Russians are operating the S-400 SAM missile defence system which is produced by Almaz-Antey. Funding for the company generally comes from either the Russian Government directly, or via the state-owned Vnesheconombank (VEB) development bank, and in April 2011 VEB signed an agreement for a syndicated loan worth $2.4bn, from 19 bank. Somewhat predictably, JP Morgan Chase was one of these financiers.