Americans are reporting problems with taking their own money out of U.S. banks.

Disturbing stories have been trickling in from around the country – different banks, different tellers, different amounts – but the same runaround.

Customers trying to withdraw sums as low as $2,000 have been stalled, denied their money, or even threatened with legal action…

What’s going on?

RELATED: Former Treasury Official: 'Literally Your ATM Wouldn’t Work'…

Patricia F. was treated like a criminal for trying to take out $5,000 from her account at a major national bank.

She was told that the bank considers anything over $1,500 suspicious, and her withdrawal would be reported to the federal government. “Afterward, I received several notices regarding structured money laundering, pointing out the high fines and jail times involved,” she said.

David B. has had an account for 30 years at a San Francisco branch of one of America’s largest banks.

“I presented my bank card, my state-of-the-art California driver’s license, and entered my PIN. There was no issue as to who I was or my account,” he said. “I told the teller the amount I wished to withdraw. It was in the five figures, but not even close to six figures.”

SEE ALSO: The Disaster You’re NOT Prepared For…

The teller told him that she would need to speak to the manager.

“She came back and then the stories started to flow,” he recalled. “This branch has low security and doesn’t carry that amount of cash… You can try another branch…”

He couldn’t get a straight answer. Eventually, the manager said the best they could do was $10K. And he’d have to go to a different office to get it.

Ordinary citizens are baffled by these alarming new policies.

But financial publishing mogul Bill Bonner – who’s been studying and writing about the U.S. economy for over 40 years – reveals that it’s actually part of a much larger effort by the federal government to conceal a fatal flaw in our financial system.

REVEALED: The Real Reason Obama Wants a Digital Dollar

Bonner has been tracking a problem that has grown exponentially since the crisis of 2008. It’s a major threat that could rock U.S. markets.

To keep a lid on it, the federal government has drastically increased rules related to cash withdrawals. The buzzwords are “structured transactions” and “suspicious activity reports” (SARs).

Today, banks don’t just report withdrawals over $10,000… They have to drop a dime on customers taking out smaller amounts if there’s even a possibility of impropriety.

In the past decade, the number of SARs filed by banks has skyrocketed.

According to a new analysis – just released online – there is a frightening reason for the government’s recent attacks on cash. It’s something that everyone with accounts or investments in the U.S. should see.

The video comes from a private news and research service that usually reserves information like this for private subscribers.

How long it will remain online we don’t know. But for the moment, it’s available HERE. We strongly recommend you watch it right away.

BAGHDAD — As the Islamic State loses territory in Iraq and Syria, it is waging a counteroffensive far from the battlefield, taking its fight to the bustling markets and streets of the Iraqi capital in an attempt to distract security forces and create chaos.

The group has unleashed carnage in Baghdad over the past week, carrying out a wave of attacks ferocious even for a city so used to violence. Bodies of the dead lay scattered among blazing shops and vegetable stalls after militants launched four separate bombings in open-air markets. Checkpoints were also attacked.

U.S. and Iraqi military officials say the attacks are part of an effort by the Islamic State to stall any offensive to retake its strongholds in Iraq — Fallujah and Mosul — by refocusing security forces on the capital. While Iraqi commanders characterize the bombings as a sign of desperation, analysts say they are a calculated campaign to worsen instability in the capital amid a political crisis in Baghdad.

With its origins in al-Qaeda, the Islamic State has carried out mass-casualty bombings on civilian targets throughout its existence. But the severity of the latest bombings in Baghdad is “somewhat unprecedented” since the group declared its caliphate two years ago, according to Otso Iho, an analyst at IHS Jane’s Terrorism and Insurgency Center.

Over the past week, more than 150 people have died in violence linked to the group in Baghdad alone, a reminder that the Islamic State will be able to continue to wreak havoc even if it is eventually routed on the ground. The Islamic State-linked news agency Amaq claimed that the group had killed 522 people in the capital in less than a month.

Islamic State militants “may be reverting to their terrorist roots,” Gen. Joseph Votel, head of U.S. Central Command, told reporters Wednesday in Germany ahead of a visit to the Middle East. “We have to respect our enemies and respect their ability to adapt and adjust on the battlefield.”

The militants have lost about 45 percent of their territory in Iraq and 20 percent in Syria, according to the latest U.S. military estimates.

Iraqi forces have retaken ground along the Euphrates River in the western province of Anbar, most recently winning back the town of Hit. They have also advanced south of Fallujah, which has been under the group’s control for more than two years.

“They want to distract us and drag our forces that are now around Fallujah towards the capital in order to reduce pressure,” said Yousef al-Abadi, a spokesman for Baghdad operations command, which is responsible for security in the capital. “It’s their last card.”

As Islamic State militants bombed three markets on Tuesday, commanders said the group’s forces were collapsing 240 miles west in Rutbah, a smuggling town deep in the desert that is a waypoint between Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Syria. Iraq’s Defense Ministry announced that it had seized control of the town’s local council building on Wednesday night.

“It’s not the same enemy we fought in Ramadi or Baiji,” said Brig. Gen. Abdul-Ameer al-

Khazraji from Iraq’s elite counterterrorism forces, referring to battles for the province’s capital and the country’s biggest oil refinery.

“They are just leaving their weapons and running away,” he said.

But Hisham al-Hashimi, a Baghdad-based analyst specializing in jihadist movements, said the Islamic State is cutting its losses in some areas — withdrawing from outposts that are difficult to defend like Rutbah in an effort to prevent casualties.

Instead, it is doubling down to defend its more valuable assets, including Mosul and Fallujah in Iraq and Raqqa and Deir al-Zour in Syria, he said.

The group is holding up better militarily in Syria, where it benefits from a more complicated web of groups fighting one another on the ground, he added.

There, the Islamic State is also attempting to strike back. It blew up the Shaer gas field on Saturday and has been making advances toward the ancient town of Palmyra, which was recaptured by the Syrian army in March. Also on Saturday, the militants launched their first offensive in many months against the Syrian army in the eastern city of Deir al-Zour, though reports from there say the battle has stalled.

The Islamic State has attempted counteroffensives on the battlefield in Iraq, too, but has been largely unable to gain new ground. Kurdish commanders said hundreds of Islamic State fighters were killed as they tried to capture Teleskof in northern Iraq this month, an attack during which a Navy SEAL also died. Those front lines hadn’t moved significantly for more than a year and a half, but the attack came as Iraqi army forces were beginning to build up for a Mosul offensive farther south. Commanders say they are seeing an increase in hit-and-run attacks with no apparent strategic purpose other than to kill.

“They are not able to generate the large attacks that we’ve seen in the past,” said Maj. Gen. Gary Volesky, commander of the land component of the U.S.-led coalition’s campaign against the Islamic State.

“Every time the Iraqis are able to put pressure on Daesh, they delay,” he said, using the Arabic acronym for the militant group. “They trade space for time.”

By disrupting Baghdad they may be able to gain time.

The frequency of attacks since the beginning of the year suggests a “concerted campaign, rather than the last resort response of an organization cracking under pressure as it faces eradication,” Iho wrote in an analysis. Political reconciliation between Sunnis and Shiites — which U.S. officials stressed was necessary alongside a military offensive in order to eradicate the group — never got off the ground. Splits within the Shiite community itself have also surfaced.

Even before supporters of the Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr stormed Baghdad’s Green Zone last month, the commander of the Mosul operation, Maj. Gen. Najim al-Jabouri, expressed concern that the capital’s political crisis was holding up efforts to retake the city.

Since then, two bombings have targeted markets in Sadr City, a support base for the cleric in eastern Baghdad, accounting for the majority of the deaths in the capital over the past week.

Hashimi said that’s a calculated move by the Islamic State to push Sadr’s supporters, already frustrated with the government, to cause further unrest.

Last week, hundreds of protesters gathered at the bomb site in the poverty-stricken Shiite neighborhood. The slogans on their placards didn’t direct blame at the militants.

“It wasn’t Daesh that killed them,” said Jassim al-Assadi, 24, who lost two friends in the bombing. “It was the government. If the government really wanted to protect this city, they would deploy forces to protect us, not just leave us to die.”

Mustafa Salim in Baghdad and Liz Sly in Beirut contributed to this report.

TORONTO — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau apologized "unreservedly" for making physical contact with a female opposition member of Parliament who said Trudeau elbowed her in the chest as he waded through a group of opposition lawmakers.

Opposition lawmaker Ruth Ellen Brosseau said she had to leave the House of Commons chamber Wednesday.

"I was elbowed in the chest by the prime minister and then I had to leave. It was very overwhelming," she said. "I missed the vote because of this."

Footage from the House of Commons television feed shows Trudeau wading into a clutch of lawmakers and pulling one through the crowd in order to get the vote started. As Trudeau turns around to pull the lawmaker through, Brosseau can be seen grimacing in pain.

Trudeau, a boxer and former bar bouncer, later stood up in Parliament and said it wasn't his intention to hurt anyone as he attempted to escort the lawmaker. Trudeau said he thought the man was being impeded as he walked up the aisle of the chamber and wanted to help him in attempt to speed up the vote.

"I admit that I came in physical contact with a number of members as I extended my arm, including someone behind me whom I did not see. I certainly did not intend to offend or impact on anyone," Trudeau said. "I apologize for that unreservedly and I look for opportunities to make amends."

Opposition New Democrat lawmaker Peter Julian called it a "pretty violent push" and said he had never seen such behavior in his 12 years in Parliament. "Physical force in this House is never permitted," he said. Opposition Conservative Andrew Scheer said he was sitting across from Trudeau and said it was clear he lost his temper.

"He was motivated by anger and lost his temper," said Scheer, who added it was "very unstatesmanlike."

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FORT MCMURRAY, Alberta -- More than 80,000 residents who fled Canada's main oil sands town because of a massive wildfire could return home starting on June 1 if conditions are deemed to be safe, officials said Wednesday.

Premier Rachel Notley said the re-entry will be done in stages and will be voluntary and cautioned the date is preliminary. Those who live in the least damaged areas will be allowed in first.

Notley said schools will not reopen again until September and there will be a boil water advisory in effect for all of June.

"Remember, many hazards remain in Fort McMurray," Notley said. "We need to address all of them before it is safe for residents to begin to return, and we are doing this."Tens of thousands of Fort McMurray residents were forced to evacuate more than two weeks ago. About 1,921 structures were destroyed in Fort McMurray, but 90 percent of the city remains intact, including essential infrastructure like the hospital, water treatment plant and the airport.

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The United States military killed a senior Al Qaeda leader Tuesday in an airstrike in Afghanistan's southern Zabul Province, the local website Tolo News reported, citing a statement from Afghan special forces.

The Al Qaeda commander killed in the airstrike was identified by Afghanistan's Ministry of Defense as Mullah Mohammad Ali.

The U.S. military confirmed a strike took place in the same location yesterday, but would not say whether a senior Al Qaeda leader was killed.

"We can confirm that U.S. Forces conducted a counter-terrorism strike in the Shah Joyi district, Zabul province, May 17. For operational security reasons, we do not discuss the details of counter-terrorism operations," said the statement from Operation Resolute Support, the name for the U.S.-led mission in Afghanistan.

From the beginning of January through March 1, the U.S. has conducted roughly 100 counter-terrorism strikes. In April, it conducted another 19, according to Brigadier General Charles H. Cleveland, deputy chief of staff for communications for Operation Resolute Support. He said the majority of the strikes were against ISIS or ISIS-affiliated groups in eastern Afghanistan, but some were against Al Qaeda.

Brig. Gen. Cleveland added that there are now between 100 and 300 Al Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan, 15 years after the 9/11 attacks.

When asked about the current level of coordination between Al Qaeda and the Taliban, Cleveland said there is evidence the two groups are working "closely" at times.

"We have seen more interaction. We have seen them working more together," Cleveland said. "Bottom line is there is still an Al Qaeda presence here in Afghanistan."

There are an estimated 30,000 Taliban fighters in Afghanistan, according to Cleveland -- a roughly 20 percent increase over 2009 estimates.

The nearly 10,000 U.S. troops stationed in Afghanistan are supposed to be roughly cut in half when President Obama leaves office in January.

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