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/
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
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)
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.
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