13 June 2014

ISIS Now Richest Terrorist Group in World After Looting US$429M +Gold from Mosul Central Bank

ISIS on-the-March in Mosul

Perhaps the saddest thing -as we watch Iraq's hard-won democracy/liberty collapse before our eyes- is that the takeover of large swathes of territory by a bunch of Medieval savages in Toyota pickups could have been prevented. In fact, the Iraqi government had been begging the head-up-their-ass Obama Administration for air support since last November (2013), only to be utterly ignored (welcome to the club)...

Today we see the rotten fruit of horrendously foolish Obama foreign policy over the last six years dropping all around the globe, yet this Iraq debacle -erasing nearly all US war gains- really takes the cake: not only is the Sharia-enforcing ISIS solidly in control of the towns they've just nabbed -with the Iraqi Army still offering little resistance- the radical Islamist group now controls major oil fields, is in a position to threaten Bagdad, and has just looted almost half a billion dollars from the Iraqi Central Bank of Mosul -and other banks- as the town fell:
...ISIS militants had stolen millions from numerous banks across Mosul. A large quantity of gold bullion is also believed to have been stolen.

Following the siege of the country's second city, the bounty collected by the group has left it richer than al-Qaeda itself and as wealthy as small nations such as Tonga, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands and the Falkland Islands.

Richest Terror Factions in the World (as of 2011)

1) Taliban - $70m - $400m
2) Hezbollah $200m - $500m ($120m from Iran)
3) Farc - $80m - $350m
4) Hamas - $70m
5) Al-Shabaab - $70m - 100m

The financial assets that Isis now possess are likely to worsen the Iraqi governement's struggle to defeat the insurgency, which is aimed at creating an Islamic state across the Syrian-Iraqi border.
ISIS in Fallujah

But Obama may be successful after all- if his goal was -as so many suspect- disgracing American credibility and destroying the country's military capability/stomach for combat, he may well achieve that: how can you justify the cost in lives and treasure when the next Democratic president the political cycle provides inevitably gives it all away and surrenders utterly to determined fanatics he just never had time to deal with between golf rounds.

 And I guess Dear Leader at least fulfilled his campaign promise to pull out of Iraq, getting the most out of it for himself politically... great, now what.