Isis Research Paper

Jake Peters

College Composition II

Dr. Margot Stafford

3/9/16

Self-Funded Money Maker

What are the key factors that make a terrorist group so successful? Is it the ability to instill extreme extents of fear in those they oppose or is it their capability to spread so rapidly? The Islamic State of Iraq came to be a problem in 2003, when the Unites States was fighting the Second Gulf War, the dismantling of the Iraqi army and the destruction of the existing governmental structure, led to a security and governmental vacuum and the country’s fragile social fabric was severely damaged. With a distraught government and economy it wasn’t long before the terrorist group took a firm hold over the nation. ISIS describes themselves to be an “Islamic Caliphate”, so in other words they consider their group to be a godly empire, to their disciples. Their ability to establish a reign of terror has come from their successful attacks and regulations in such things like slavery and rape, but what is most amazing about this particular group is their capacity to fund these massive attacks and the resources they use them on. The Islamic group brings in staggering profits from oil smuggling all the way to kidnapping for ransom. To further this argument, it has been argued by the US that they find it extremely difficult to combat ISIS’s superior propaganda war: a hi-tech media jihad. Who is masterminding this media and how to stop it are very pressing matters. It is my belief that without these aspects, a terrorist group cannot function to their best ability. Simply if we can limit their ability to fund their resources we can eliminate just some of their power.

        ISIS’s incredible aptitude to gather money in various ways from neighboring nations is the very reason the opposition can’t touch them. ISIS is primarily financed through a wide array of criminal activities, large and small, centered in the parts of Syria and Iraq that are under the group's control. Among these illegal undertakings they steal livestock; sell foreign fighter passports; tax minorities and farmers and truckers; run a sophisticated extortion racket; kidnap civilians for ransom; loot antiquities; and much more (Levitt). They also make nearly 40 million dollars a month from illegitimate oil sales alone. These sources primarily support the group's expensive state-building and war-fighting enterprises on their own home front, ranging from paying teacher's salaries and collecting the garbage to bribing tribal leaders and paying fighters' salaries. Furthermore, while the possibility of the terrorist group receiving funds from a mysterious figure nation may be a slim chance, they have proved to be a very effective self-funding organization that is deeply rooted in their nation. Here many citizens are forced to support the fearful group or in other rare circumstances, citizens are better off with the help of ISIS.

        Without a doubt ISIS’s real money maker is oil smuggling, with ISIS achieving anywhere from 1.1 to 1.5 million dollars a day from selling of oil and its products (Bronstein). According to Newsweek, the ISIS group transfers crude oil by four main ways of transportation: boats, pumps, persons (on foot), and horseback. Petroleum shed in the cans and transfer near the border on foot and in mountains carry by donkey. Sami Khalaf, an oil smuggler and former Iraqi intelligence officer under Saddam Hussein, said that: "We buy an oil tanker carrying around 26 to 28 tons for $4,200. We sell it in Jordan for $15,000.  Each smuggler takes around eight tankers a week." Also, he added: "smugglers typically paid corrupt border officials $650 to pass through each checkpoint” (Giovanni).   Isis’s main oil producing region is in Syria’s eastern Deir Ezzor province, where production was somewhere between 34,000 to 40,000 barrels a day in October, according to locals, but due to coalition and Russian airstrikes against oil facilities they have suffered a small set back (Solomon). In order to further get my point across think about how Us-led coalitions have been able to launch a new air raid of ISIS oil fields and have successfully diminished their ability to maintain product, but even that being said, it’s still ISIS’s main source of income.  ISIS followers go into these villages that they have claimed and completely rob them of all their natural resources. They have no regard for the people or the lives they ruin by taking these assets. To properly convey some of the conditions citizens and persons involved, the journey of an oil barrel is an interesting one.  First, ISIS acquires thousands of barrels a day from local captive markets closer to home in the rebel-held territories of northern Syria. Next, the terrorist group sells most of its oil directly to sovereign traders at the oil fields in their possession. In a highly organized system, Syrian and Iraqi buyers go directly to the oil fields with their trucks to buy and collect oil. This used to result in them waiting for weeks in traffic jams that queued for miles outside of oilfields (Solomon). But since airstrikes against oil vehicles increased, Isis rethought its collection system. Now, when truckers register outside the field and pick up their number in line, they say they are given exactly what time they can return to fill up to avoid a pile-up of vehicles and make a more obvious target for strikes. ISIS has successfully become a well crude refining and smuggling machine and in doing such, through all the transportation and people they come in contact with along the way, are exposed to the spread of ISIS, simply because any citizen, worker or even police officers are heavily encouraged to look the other way. They have created a market and mastered it at the same time, yet to account for oil lost in air attacks it has caused the radical group to raise the price on certain barrels of oil. After acquiring they must sell the oil, then they have a couple options they can run through in order to pick up the cargo: Take the oil to nearby refineries, unload it and return to queue at the field—usually done by traders under contract to refineries. Sell their oil on to traders with smaller vehicles, who then send it to rebel-held northern Syria, or east towards Iraq. Try their luck selling to a refinery or sell it at a local oil market. The biggest are near al-Qaim on the Syrian-Iraqi border (Inside Isis Inc). Most traders prefer to try and sell the oil right away to further avoid possible attacks. Instead the attacks are focused on disrupting the extraction process, hitting around the wells or facilities at the oil fields, as well as Isis vehicles. The goal does not appear to be to hit the actual wells but impede efforts to extract from them. If the US and with the help of Russia, who is the leader in these oil attacks, can start to decrease the sheer size of oil production, we can hopefully start to get under the skin of ISIS, and make a lasting impression. ISIS’s oil production scheme has been coined the “The Black Gold Feeding the Black Flag” (CNN). I found this quote to be very significant because it explains the situation in such a perfect manner. The black gold – refers to its rare gold-like price tag but black unwanted material, is feeding the outlaws, pirates, of the black flag.