New analysis by the U.S. intelligence community shows that
ISIS is now the richest terror group in the world, thanks to a 2014 raid on an
Iraqi bank that may have netted hundreds of millions of dollars. Officials who
doubted initial reports of a $400 million theft have revised their estimates
upward. Michael Sheehan, executive chairman of the Combating Terrorism Center
at West Point, says ISIS is all about holding territory, which is expensive,
and that support for terror attacks in the West is a lower priority, even if
they grab headlines. ISIS now pays its fighters -- and bureaucrats -- from
money it stole from the Central Bank of Iraq when its fighters overran Mosul
and took control of the local branch last June. An executive with the Iraqi
Central Bank gave a lower figure, $85 million, and U.S. intelligence officials
also said privately the number was grossly inflated. But officials now think
the number should be revised. According to one analyst, the total really is in
the "hundreds of millions," even if $400 million is too high. That
would make ISIS the richest Islamist terror group in history, with a
significantly higher bank balance than al Qaeda prior to 9-11. ISIS is also
spending money quickly, said the U.S. analyst, and is burning through its Mosul
haul. It's uncertain how much of the bank money is still available, said the
analyst, or where it is being kept. Some reports have the funds still in bank
vaults under heavy guard. When ISIS took control of large swaths of Syria and
Iraq last summer, the International Energy Agency estimated it had access to 3
million barrels of oil and could ship up to 30,000 barrels a day. Both those
numbers have been reduced dramatically by air strikes from the U.S., Saudi
Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, say U.S. and IEA sources.
Clifton Coleman
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