re: How do we proactively eradicate ISIS without "continuing pointless war in the Middle East?

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This idea that terrorism will ever be completely eradicated is folly.

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Agreed. But you can't just keep blowing innocents up to attempt to scare the radicals down. All you do is make more radicals. How is this such a hard concept to understand?

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Shut off their revenue sources.

how?

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Cutting off ISIS’ Cash Flow
Charles Lister Friday, October 24, 2014

"The Islamic State (or ISIS) is “the best-funded terrorist organization we’ve confronted,” but “we have no silver bullet, no secret weapon to empty ISIS’ coffers overnight.” These were the words of David Cohen, the undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence at the U.S. Department of the Treasury in a speech yesterday, in which he outlined the U.S. government’s assessment of ISIS finance and a strategy to counter it.


According to Cohen, ISIS’ principal source of finance is still derived from its control and sale of oil, which he assessed was still bringing in $1 million a day.

Additional funds come from kidnap for ransom, extortion networks, criminal activities, and donations from external individuals, the latter being of least significance in terms of scale. In order to counter this broad base of financial incomes, Cohen explained that U.S. strategy is focused on disrupting ISIS revenue streams, restricting ISIS access to the international financial system, and targeting ISIS leaders, facilitators and supporters with sanctions.

Despite vastly underestimating ISIS’ potential in the months and years leading up to the organization’s 2014 offensives in Syria and Iraq, the Treasury’s, and by extension the U.S. government’s assessment of ISIS finance and how to combat it does seem largely in tune.

It is indeed right that external financial donations are of minimal significance to ISIS. Since as early as 2005, ISIS predecessor organizations Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), Majlis Shura al-Mujahideen, and the Islamic State in Iraq (ISI) all consistently sought to develop internal structures dedicated to maintaining financial self-sufficiency and an independence from potentially vulnerable external donors. In the current climate, however, a diminished capacity to earn from the sale of oil may elevate the importance of external sources of funding for ISIS to sustain its internal durability.

Should the United States negotiate with terrorists?
For this reason, it is more important than ever to now focus on existing ISIS donors abroad — particularly in the Gulf — in order to diminish their potential to expand in scale when the need may arise. As Cohen made clear, initiatives in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates appear to have made some headway, while in Kuwait and Qatar, Cohen assessed that despite new legislation aimed at countering terrorist financing, both countries remain “permissive jurisdictions” for such activities and that “both countries have more work to do.” At this point, it is unclear whether new legislation — introduced in Qatar in mid-September and in Kuwait, in January — has been slow to make an impact, or is simply not powerful or as far-reaching as is necessary. Whatever the case, it remains evident that more needs to be done by Qatar and Kuwait to enforce their laws."


LINK

Why do we have to do something about ISIS?

How the Islamic State makes its money

"Its control of an expansive territory obviously gives the Islamic State a valuable source of funding and flexibility. However, some U.S. officials have argued that having territory might also be seen as a weakness for the group. Maintaining a state of 8 million to 10 million people, waging war around its borders, and financing and carrying out international attacks are costly and difficult tasks. Without adequate funds to provide services to the local population, people in Islamic State territory might turn against the group, provoking a backlash that might end its grip on power, the thinking goes. In addition, reports from territory held by the group paint a picture of a brutal, two-tiered society, in which terrorists and their families live well and most others suffer. Under this pressure, the economy struggles to function, leaving the Islamic State with less and less to tax and to sell.

As other writers have pointed out, considered as a state ISIS looks quite poor, with a budget roughly on par with Afghanistan or the Democratic Republic of Congo. But considered as a terrorist organization, it looks wealthy and diversified. Below are 12 ways the Islamic State earns its revenue:

Oil: The oil fields that it has captured in Syria and Iraq have been a major source of funding for the terrorist group. Although it's relatively easy for the United States and other countries to prevent large-scale exports of oil from Islamic State territory, it's much harder to control the black market oil trade that reportedly flourishes along the porous borders of territory controlled by the Islamic State and surrounding countries.

Taxation/extortion: Because the Islamic State controls an expansive territory, it can levy taxes on the people who live there. Some of these taxes are akin to those of a normal state, while others are more like extortion.

The Islamic State levies taxes on things including goods sold, utilities such as electricity and water (when they run, that is — in some areas, the electricity is only on for an hour a day), telecommunication companies, cash withdrawals from bank accounts, employee salaries, trucks entering Islamic State-controlled territory at checkpoints, looting archaeological sites and non-Muslim communities in general. A report by Thomson Reuters estimates that this system of extortion and taxation could generate as much as $360 million per year for the terrorist organization.

Kidnapping for ransom: A U.N. report from October 2014 cited estimates that the Islamic State had generated $35 million to $45 million in the previous year through kidnapping for ransom alone.

The United States and U.K. have tried to limit this financial channel by making it illegal to pay ransoms to terrorist organizations. The policy can seem very cold-hearted to the families that are affected by kidnapping, but officials maintain that it discourages terrorists from taking American and British hostages in the first place.

The Islamic State also generates a significant amount of revenue from kidnapping for ransom in its own communities, acts that tend to go unreported in the international press.

Wealthy donors: Although the Islamic State isn't primarily financed by wealthy donors the way that other terrorist organizations are, these contributions are still a substantial source of revenue.

Iraqi banks: The Treasury Department has estimated that the Islamic State gained at least half a billion dollars in cash by seizing branches of state-owned banks in northern and western Iraq in 2014.

"Before Mosul, their total cash and assets were $875 million. ... Afterward, with the money they robbed from banks and the value of the military supplies they looted, they could add another $1.5 billion to that," a U.S. intelligence officer told the Guardian.

Sales of other looted property: As the Islamic State captures territory in Iraq, it has acquired American vehicles, weapons and ammunition that can be used or resold. It has also reportedly resold construction equipment, generators, electric cables, cars, livestock, furniture and other goods.

Real estate: According to Niqash.org, a Web site published in partnership with a German nonprofit, the Islamic State has been generating cash by renting and auctioning off the properties of people who have been killed or fled newly occupied areas. "Property owned by individuals that the IS group considered their enemies — such as Iraqi army and police, government officials, politicians, judges and public prosecutors — has also been seized. And recently the group decided they should also own the property belonging to specialists in certain fields, such as doctors," the report says."

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I hear and see the resentment for the years of toiling in the sand and blowing billions of dollars on wars in the Middle East. I know that's a neocon principle, but how can we go after ISIS without everyone flipping out that POTUS is hypocritically continuing in conflicts in the Middle East?

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Go in there to destroy the enemy and not play social worker. That means non-combatants will die. So be it.

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I'm not sure about the False Flag Operation (haven't looked into that much), but I definitely agree ISIS doesn't exist if Saddam isn't overthrown and killed by U.S. intervention.

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The allegation is that ISIS is controlled by the CIA and the Mossad in order to destabilize the Assad government in Syria to achieve Israeli ends.

Get the CIA and Mossad to stop funding and training them?

ISIS is a US-Israeli Creation. Top Ten “Indications”

"ISIS is a US-Israeli creation, a fact as clear as the sky is blue. It’s a truth as black and white as the colors on their flag. For many alternative news readers, this may be patently obvious, but this article is written for the large majority of people in the world who still have no idea who is really behind the rise of ISIS. No matter which name they go by – ISIS, ISIL, IS or Daesh – the group has been deliberately engineered by the US and Israel to achieve certain geopolitical goals. They are a religious, fundamentalist, Sunni terrorist organization created to terrorize and overthrow certain secular or Shiite Arab nations such as Syria and Iraq, but they are not just “Islamic”. They may be Muslims, and they may be advocating an Islamic State, but they are very much working towards the goals of Zionism.

It’s amazing how many people still struggle to get that point. We have been inundated with propaganda surrounding the fraudulent war on terror, notably terms such as Islamic terrorism and radical Islam, but more accurate phrases would be Zio-Islamic terrorism and radical Zio-Islam. Secret military agencies such as the CIA and the Mossad pull the strings. Here is a list of the top 10 ‘indications’ that ISIS is a US-Israeli creation."

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Get the CIA and Mossad to stop funding and training them?

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You've cut to the chase! Hiding in plain sight - our government working to the detriment of the people of the United States.