THE ISLAMIC STATE'S RESILIENT FINANCIAL INFRASTRUCTURE
Although the Islamic State has sustained significant territorial losses in recent months, its global influence and reach remain potent, a new Congressional study has warned. "At least 34 radical Islamist groups have pledged their allegiance to ISIS... [and] the organization has managed to expand its presence to dozens of countries and territories - in addition to recruiting tens of thousands of fighters from over 120 nations," the report, authored by the Homeland Security Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, notes. "Most alarmingly," it observes, "ISIS is driving an unprecedented surge of terror plots against the West and poses a persistent and grave threat to the U.S. homeland."
This significant threat profile is propelled by the group's extensive, and innovative, revenue stream. "ISIS is unique in comparison to other terror groups in that it runs a state-like infrastructure designed to raise revenue and support government functions, such as providing social welfare services and waging war," the report outlines. This extensive infrastructure, the study notes, rests on seven distinct pillars: black market oil and natural gas; black market commodities; antiquities; extortion, taxation, and robbery; kidnappings for ransom; support from nation states in the Gulf, and; emerging fundraising tactics like fraudulent financial activities.
Despite significant advances in U.S. economic warfare against the Islamic State, the committee concludes, these diverse revenue streams "continue to strain the U.S. Government's ability to disrupt the group's financial flows." In response, it recommends the creation of an interagency working group "on emerging terror financing threats and vulnerabilities," as well as more robust targeting of "facilitators that support ISIS's financial networks" by the U.S. government, among other steps. (House Homeland Security Committee, October 2016)
FEAR AND LOATHING IN ASTANA
Following a wave of deadly extremist attacks this summer, the government of Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbaev is working toward imposing a formal ban on Salafism in the former Soviet republic. The attacks, which took place in the northwestern city of Aqtobe, were carried out by Salafists, prompting the country's Ministry of Religious Issues and Civil Society to initiate a formal legal process designed to ban the extremist interpretation of the Muslim faith. The rationale, according to Religious Issues Minister Nurlan Ermekbaev, is that Salafism clearly "poses a destructive threat to Kazakhstan." (Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty, October 14, 2016)
A NEW ISIS TACTIC: EXPLODING DRONES
On a routine patrol earlier this month, Kurdish forces in northern Iraq shot down an Islamic State drone. This in itself was not an unusual occurrence, as ISIS has dozens of reconnaissance drones which the terrorist group flies over battle areas. But when the Kurdish soldiers took the fallen drone back their base, it exploded, marking the first time the terror group successfully utilized a drone as an explosive device. The new tactic is of growing concern to U.S. and allied forces now operating in the Iraqi theater, and American forces have been warned to treat all downed ISIS drones as potential explosives. (New York Times, October 11, 2016)
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