By Post
Editorial Board November 20, 2015 | 9:25pm
The New York
When it
comes to US intelligence failures on ISIS , it
turns out President Obama’s dismissing the Islamic State as a “JV team” was
only a minor blip.
As Bloomberg
Businessweek reports, the Obama administration realized just days ago that ISIS is one of the richest organizations in the world —
with assets totaling billions.
And not
just that $500 million a year from smuggled oil, which Team Obama has only now
begun to truly target. (The Pentagon had declined to bomb moving oil trucks,
for example, for fear of killing civilian drivers.)
Even on
that front, the administration ignored warnings. Five years ago, a Rand Corp.
study, based on captured ledgers, warned of ISIS ’s
oil might.
Compounding
the problem: Bloomberg reports that, until this past week, the administration
“wildly overestimated the impact of what they did” to shut down ISIS oil sales.
But oil is
just a drop in the Islamic State’s very deep bucket. Its assets include:
Up to $1
billion seized from Iraqi banks.
Some $200
million a year from stolen Iraqi wheat.
Hundreds
of millions a year in taxes extorted from captive populations.
Tens of
millions from selling sex slaves and looted antiquities, as well as ransoming
foreign hostages.
Add in
strict spending controls — it covers its 100,000-strong payroll with just half
its oil revenue — and you have a terrorist cash cow that will keep the
caliphate afloat for years to come, even if its oil business is decimated.
All this is
on top of reports that higher-ups have systematically altered the intelligence
on ISIS to downplay the threat and inflate the
success of US efforts.
It’s
painfully clear that administration incompetence on ISIS
flows from the top down.
http://nypost.com/2015/11/20/team-obamas-latest-isis-oops/
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