Evil Is the Islamic State’s Business, and Business Is Good

Evil Is the Islamic State’s Business, and Business Is Good

by John Hayward 19 May 2015
http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2015/05/19/evil-is-the-islamic-states-business-and-business-is-good/

The New York Times offers a dismaying look at the Islamic State’s financial situation by Sarah Almukhtar: She looks at data from the RAND Corporation and judges that the modern-day Mordor “has revenue and assets that are more than enough to cover its current expenses despite

expectations that airstrikes and falling oil prices would hurt the group’s finances.”

Great — there’s one country on Earth running in the black.

Almukhtar writes that the caliphate “takes in more than $1 million per day in extortion and taxation.”  Look on the bright side — unlike some Western nations, at least they understand that extortion and taxation are two different things.

ISIS is taxing its captive citizens at 50 percent, and companies at 20 percent, which is disturbingly close to the kind of tax rates civilized governments impose.  They get $100 million a year from oil, plus $20 million from kidnapping and ransoms.  They’ve plundered some $500 million from Iraqi state-owned banks.  It’s not clear from the article whether this figure includes the sale of stolen historical artifacts, which some sources portray as one of ISIS’ top income streams.

On the expense side of the ledger, ISIS disdains such annoying, thankless tasks as providing public services or building infrastructure that might get blown up by enemy air strikes.  It’s shelling out $3 million to $10 million per month on salaries, along with unspecified investments in “police-state institutions, such as committees, media, courts, and market regulation.”  It obtains a great deal of its military hardware by stealing it, such as the shiny new American armored vehicles and missile launchers it took from the fleeing Iraqi defenders of Ramadi.

From a grand-strategy standpoint, this financial model isn’t sustainable over the long haul.  Opportunities for big-bucks looting will dry up as territorial advances stall out — there’s only so much in the war-torn sphere of operations for the Islamic State to steal.  Kidnapping and ransom income are likely to grow tighter for similar reasons.  Taxes are said to be increasing as other revenue sources decline; ISIS, like every other government in the world, will learn that the goose can only be choked so much before the golden eggs stop coming.

But in the near-term, this picture of flush financial health, coupled with the territorial gains ISIS is still making, is very different from what President Obama’s war strategy promised.  The good guys are the ones wondering what they’re supposed to do now that Ramadi has fallen, not the terror state.  Obama’s reactive policies, intended primarily to relieve domestic political pressure by making it look like he’s doing something low-risk but productive, haven’t dealt any major strategic blows to an enemy that has figured out how to endure high-altitude precision bombing runs.

Unfortunately, the terror state can still afford to spread a great deal of mischief, and the knockout-punch counter attack we’re supposed to land on them — beginning with the liberation of Mosul by Iraqi forces — appears far less likely than it should.  The Islamic State should not have strong finances right now.

Islam

Louis Farrakhan is the acting head for the Nation of Islam, and was awarded the 2007 Jeremiah Wright Jr. Trumpeter award from the Trumpeter Newsmagazine.

Note: Trumpeter Newsmagazine is a publication for the Trinity United Church of Christ (Chicago).

Oprah Winfrey was a parishioner at the Trinity United Church of Christ (Chicago), and a guest at Mellody L. Hobson & George Lucas’s 2013 wedding.

Barack Obama was a parishioner at the Trinity United Church of Christ (Chicago), and an intern at Sidley Austin LLP.

Mellody L. Hobson was married to George Lucas in 2013, and is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago.

R. Eden Martin is the president of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and counsel at Sidley Austin LLP.

Michelle Obama was a lawyer at Sidley Austin LLP.        

Newton N. Minow is a senior counsel at Sidley Austin LLP, a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and an honorary trustee at the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Carnegie Corporation of New York was a funder for the RAND Corporation, and the Brookings Institution (think tank), and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank).

Foundation to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Brookings Institution (think tank), the Aspen Institute (think tank), and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank).

George Soros was the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society.

Cyrus F. Freidheim Jr. is an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago.

Commercial Club of Chicago, Members Directory A-Z (Past Research)

Tuesday, December 17, 2013       

http://thesteadydrip.blogspot.com/2013/12/commercial-club-of-chicago-members.html

Valerie B. Jarrett is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, the senior adviser for the Barack Obama administration, and her great uncle is Vernon E. Jordan Jr.

Vernon E. Jordan Jr. is an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), Valerie B. Jarrett’s great uncle, an Oak Bluffs (MA) homeowner, a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

Charlayne Hunter-Gault is an Oak Bluffs (MA) homeowner, was a reporter for the New York Times, and a correspondent for CNN.

Walter Isaacson was the chairman & CEO for CNN, and is the president & CEO for the Aspen Institute (think tank).

Stephen L. Carter is an Oak Bluffs (MA) homeowner, and a trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank).

Henry Louis Gates Jr. is an Oak Bluffs (MA) homeowner, a trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank), a director emeritus at the Revson Foundation, and was an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank).

James S. Crown is a trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank), a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and a director at the General Dynamics Corporation.

Lester Crown is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, was a lifetime trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank), and a director at the General Dynamics Corporation.

John M. Keane is a director at the General Dynamics Corporation, and was a trustee at the RAND Corporation.

Carnegie Corporation of New York was a funder for the RAND Corporation, the Brookings Institution (think tank), and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank).

David A. Hamburg is the president emeritus for the Carnegie Corporation of New York, Margaret A. Hamburg’s father, an adviser for the Nuclear Threat Initiative (think tank), and married to Beatrix A. Hamburg.

Ted Turner is a co-chairman for the Nuclear Threat Initiative (think tank), and the founder of CNN.

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank) was a funder for the Nuclear Threat Initiative (think tank). 

Jessica Tuchman Mathews is a director at the Nuclear Threat Initiative (think tank), was the president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank), a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank), an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

Ed Griffin’s interview with Norman Dodd in 1982

(The investigation into the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace uncovered the plans for population control by involving the United States in war)

http://www.illuminati-news.com/110106a.htm

Beatrix A. Hamburg is married to David A. Hamburg, and a director emeritus for the Revson Foundation.

Martha L. Minow was the chair for the Revson Foundation, Barack Obama was her student, and is Newton N. Minow’s daughter.

Barack Obama was Martha L. Minow’s student, an intern at Sidley Austin LLP, and a parishioner at the Trinity United Church of Christ (Chicago).

Newton N. Minow is Martha L. Minow’s father, a senior counsel at Sidley Austin LLP, a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and an honorary trustee at the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Carnegie Corporation of New York was a funder for the RAND Corporation, and the Brookings Institution (think tank), and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank).

Mellody L. Hobson is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and was married to George Lucas in 2013.

Oprah Winfrey was a guest at Mellody L. Hobson & George Lucas’s 2013 wedding, and a parishioner at the Trinity United Church of Christ (Chicago).

Trumpeter Newsmagazine is a publication for the Trinity United Church of Christ (Chicago).

Louis Farrakhan was awarded the 2007 Jeremiah Wright Jr. Trumpeter award from the Trumpeter Newsmagazine, and is the acting head for the Nation of Islam.