http://nypost.com/2015/11/20/team-obamas-latest-isis-oops/Team Obama’s latest ISIS ‘oops’
By Post Editorial Board
November 20, 2015 | 9:25pm
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.
