Excerpts: 30 nation meeting re ISIS. Problems re U.S. coalition.Islamic
State finance self-sustained September 15, 2014


+++SOURCE: Al Arabiya News 15 Sept.’14:”International ati-ISIS meet set to
kick off in Paris”,ny Staff Writer with Reuters, Associated Press

SUBJECT:15 Sept. 30-nation meeting re ISIS

QUOTE:”Almost 30 countries will be meeting with Iraqi authorities in Paris
pn Monday (Sept.15) to coordinate their response to ISIS”

FULL TEXT:Almost 30 countries will be meeting with Iraqi authorities in
Paris on Monday[15 Sept] to coordinate their response to Islamic State of
Iraq and Syria (ISIS), Reuters news agency reported.

French President Francois Hollande and his Iraqi counterpart will co-chair
the conference which will include the European Union, United Nations, and
the Arab League. Hollande said the goals are to provide political support to
the Iraqi government, coordinate humanitarian aid, and fight ISIS militants.

John Kerry is scheduled to meet British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond
during the 26-state conference, a day after ISIS militants released a video
showing the beheading of British aid worker, David Haines.

The conference comes after Prime Minister David Cameron said the United
Kingdom is battling ISIS on numerous fronts, but ruled out joining the
United States in announcing air strikes on militant targets.

As Kerry has been pressuring allies ahead of the meeting to show a united
front, especially from majority-Muslim nations, Several Arab countries
offered to conduct airstrikes against ISIS, a State Department official
traveling with Kerry told reporters.

The U.S. Secretary of State also said nearly 40 countries agreed to
contribute to a worldwide fight to defeat the militants before they gain
more territory in Iraq and Syria.

Muslim-majority countries are considered vital to any operation, although
there have only been vague offers of help previously. Iran was struck off
the invitation list, and Western officials have made clear they consider
Syria’s government part of the problem.

“Ultimately, this is a fight within Islam, within Sunni Islam,” White House
chief of staff Denis McDonough told Fox News on Sunday.[14 Sept.]

“That’s why we know that ultimately to defeat and ultimately destroy ISIL,
something that is not only in our interest but in the interest of the
countries in the region, they are going to need to take the fight to it,” he
said, using one of the acronyms for the group.

“We’ll build, we’ll lead, we’ll undergird, and we’ll strengthen that
coalition. But ultimately, they’re going to help us beat them on the
ground,” McDonough said.

But the Paris conference, officially dedicated to peace and stability in
Iraq, avoids mention of Syria, the power base of the militant organization
gaining territory in both countries by the week.

The U.S. opposed France’s attempt to invite Iran, which shares a
1,400-kilometer border with Iraq. The gathering itself will be brief, a
matter of a few hours between its start and a planned joint statement.

Action against ISIS

The CIA estimates the militant group has access to between 20,000 and 31,000
fighters in Iraq and Syria. A senior Iraqi intelligence official told The
Associated Press that more than 27,600 ISIS fighters are believed to be
operating in Iraq alone, including about 2,600 foreigners. He spoke
anonymously as he is not entitled to brief the media.

McDonough said Iraq’s newly inclusive Iraqi government allowed the U.S. and
other countries to step up their role.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said he was preparing to contribute up
to 10 military aircraft and 600 personnel to be deployed to the United Arab
Emirates. A statement from his office said special operations personnel who
could assist Iraq’s security forces were being prepared also, but combat
troops were not being deployed. Australia was not on the list of countries
attending the Paris conference released Sunday[15 Sept.] by the French
presidency.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier called Sunday[15 Sept.] for
“internationally agreed action to effectively stop the flow of fighters and
money.”

Germany on Friday banned all activity on behalf of ISIS, including the
distribution of propaganda and the display of its symbols, and is supplying
Kurdish forces fighting the extremists in Iraq with assault rifles,
anti-tank weapons and armored vehicles. But Germany has ruled out airstrikes
and ground troops.

(With Reuters and AP)

+++SOURCE: Jordan Times 15 Sept.’14:”Missing from the new U.S. coalition”,by
Amer Al Sabaileh

SUBJECT: Problems re U.S. coalition

QUOTE:”new coalition…formed by the U.S. is unlikely to have an on-the-ground
presence without cooperation and coordination with old and new allies in the
region”

FULL TEXT:The new coalition to combat terrorism, formed by the US, is
unlikely to have an on-the-ground presence without cooperation and
coordination with old and new allies in the region who are facing the same
threats.

The US has sought assistance from Arab countries through the Arab League,
avoiding speaking to each country separately, as it is not on good terms
with many.

The main challenge of this phase of coalition building is to avoid talk
about Syria joining the coalition as while it is not currently an Arab
League member, it has a large terrorist presence.

This dilemma prompted the Iranian foreign minister to comment that “the
United States has supported the group in Syria and therefore cannot decide
about fighting the ISIL in Iraq now”.

Many observers question the efficiency of any coalition to fight terrorism
that excludes Syria, Iran and Russia.

From a strategic point of view, Jordan is obliged to join any coalition to
combat regional terrorism because it shares borders with both Syria and
Iraq, and the Islamic State’s (IS) designs include Jordan in the caliphate,
making it a target for any expansion.

Additionally, Jordan is a strategic military and security partner of the US
and a friend of NATO.

Saudi Arabia is also taking the lead in facing the militant IS’ rapid rise
in Syria and Iraq.

It recently hosted a conference on counter-terrorism, with the GCC
countries, as well as the US, Turkey, Egypt and Jordan, to address regional
terrorism and the extremist organisations that propagate it.

Meanwhile, there has been an international determination to include Turkey
in any coalition combating terrorism.

While its geographical position and the fact that it is a NATO member would
dictate inclusion, consideration should be given to the fact that the
initial collapse of the situation in Syria meant that many of the groups
operating there moved their base of operations into Turkey, where many
active members still exist.

It seems that while combating terrorism remains a key regional concern, the
conditions are far from traditional and many of the partnerships and
alliances are new and unconventional.


+++SOURCE: Jordan Times 15 Sept.’14:”Islamic State group’s war chest is
growing daily”, Associated Press
SUBJECT:Islamic State finance self-sustained
QUOTE:”Islamic State…a self-sustaining financial juggernaught earning more
than $3 million a day”
FULL TEXT:WASHINGTON — Islamic State (IS) militants, who once relied on
wealthy Persian Gulf donors for money, have become a self-sustaining
financial juggernaut, earning more than $3 million a day from oil smuggling,
human trafficking, theft and extortion, according to US intelligence
officials and private experts.

The extremist group's resources exceed that "of any other terrorist group in
history," said a US intelligence official who, like others interviewed,
spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss classified assessments. Such
riches are one reason that American officials are so concerned about the
group even while acknowledging they have no evidence it is plotting attacks
against the United States.

The IS group has taken over large sections of Syria and Iraq and controls as
many as 11 oil fields in both countries, analysts say. It is selling oil and
other goods through generations-old smuggling networks. The illicit oil is
generally transported on tanker trucks, analysts said.

"There's a lot of money to be made," said Denise Natali, who worked in
Kurdistan as an American aid official and is now a senior research fellow at
National Defence University. "The Kurds say they have made an attempt to
close it down, but you pay off a border guard you pay off somebody else and
you get stuff through."

The price the IS group fetches for its smuggled oil is discounted —$25 to
$60 for a barrel of oil that normally sells for more than $100 — but its
total profits from oil are exceeding $3 million a day, said Luay al
Khatteeb, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution's Doha Centre in
Qatar.

The group also has earned hundreds of millions of dollars from smuggling
antiquities out of Iraq to be sold in Turkey, Khatteeb said, and millions
more from human trafficking by selling women and children as sex slaves.

Other revenue comes from extortion payments, ransom from kidnapped hostages,
and outright theft of all manner of materials from the towns the IS group
has seized, analysts say.

"It's cash-raising activities resemble those of a mafia-like organisation,"
a second US intelligence official said, reflecting the assessment of his
agency. "They are well-organised, systematic and enforced through
intimidation and violence."

Even prior to seizing Mosul in June, for example, the group began to impose
"taxes" on nearly every facet of economic activity, threatening death for
those unwilling to pay, US intelligence officials say. An analysis by the
Council on Foreign Relations estimated the group was reaping $8 million a
month from extortion in Mosul alone.

Once the group took over Mosul, in northern Iraq, and other areas, it
grabbed millions of dollars in cash from banks, though not the hundreds of
millions initially reported, US intelligence officials say.

This spring, four French and two Spanish journalists held hostage by IS
extremists were freed after their governments paid multimillion-dollar
ransoms through intermediaries.

The IS group "has managed to successfully translate territorial control in
northern Syria and portions of Iraq into a means of revenue generation,"
said a third US intelligence official.

Analysts say the group is relying on the fact that the area along the border
between Iraq and Turkey has long been a smugglers haven, and was made more
so by the fall of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in 2003. Generations of
families have illicitly moved goods through the region.

The IS is the successor to Al Qaeda in Iraq, which was founded by Jordanian
Abu Musab Al Zarqawi. For a time, the group was allied with the Nusra Front,
Al Qaeda affiliate that is a key player among the rebels battling Syrian
President Bashar Assad. The IS group has since broken with the Nusra Front
and Al Qaeda.

In the early days of the Syrian civil war, the IS group was funded in large
part by donations from wealthy residents of Gulf States, including Kuwait
and Qatar, American officials have said.

"A number of fund-raisers operating in more permissive jurisdictions —
particularly in Kuwait and Qatar — are soliciting donations to fund... the
Nusra Front and the Islamic State [IS]," David Cohen, the Treasury
department's top counterterrorism official, said in a speech in March.

That stream of funding has diminished in recent months as the group's
violent tactics have drawn worldwide attention, US intelligence officials
say.

The group's reliance on oil as its main source of revenue could easily be
disrupted by American air strikes, officials say. But so far, no decision
has been made to target Iraqi or Syrian oil infrastructure, which is
serviced by civilian workers who may have been conscripted.
====
Sue Lerner - Associate, IMRA