|
ISIS Learns Business Savvy from Somali Pirates
by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700
Copyright
August 26, 2014
All Rights Reserved.
Beheading
40-year-old U.S. Journalist James Foley Aug. 19, the Islamic State of Iraq and
Syria performed business-as-usual, demanding $132 million ransom from the rich
American government. Learning well
from Somali pirates, ISIS has shown the same prodigious business skill involved
in abductions, ransom demands and summary executions. ISIS officials claimed Foley was executed for President Barack Obama’s Aug. 8 decision to
start bombing ISIS targets around Mount Sinjar where some 50,000 Zoroastrian
Yazidis fled to avoid annihilation for alleged devil worship. After beheading Foley, ISIS gave the
White House a chance to pony up $6.6 million to release 38-year-old humanitarian
aid worker, kidnapped over a year ago. With official U.S. policy that no ransom paid for hostages, White House officials have
been forced to reconsider the current policy.
Watching Foley beheaded, Obama doubled-down, ordering new air strikes around the
Mosul Dam to force ISIS into retreat.
Already taking Mosul June 1, Iraq’s second largest city, ISIS has taken
unprecedented amounts of sovereign territory from Syria and Iraq, prompting
America’s top general Chairman of the Joint Chefs of Staff Martin Dempsey to
declare ISIS a clear-and-present danger.
Making money by hostage-taking, blackmail and bank robbery, Egyptian
Grand Mufi Shawqi Allam reject ISIS as having any connection to Islam. Saying the ISIS poses a “danger to
Islam and Muslim,” he called for Muslim clerics around the globe to reject ISIS
extremist views and criminal activity.
ISIS makes no pretense about how it makes money by taking hostages and
extorting cash from governments willing to play along. Foley’s family knows the U.S.
couldn’t possibly meet its demands.
ISIS most recent demand for $6.6 million to save the unnamed humanitarian
aid worker comes with an unrealistic demand to release MIT neuroscience graduate
Aafia Siddiqui, formerly associated with ISIS.
Siddiqui was convicted by the Feds in 2010 for trying to kill U.S.
officials. ISIS would like Siddiqui
to rejoin the group, routinely demanding the U.S. release him from jail. Unlike the U.S., the European Union
routinely pays ransom for captured EU members, sometimes in the millions. Paying ransoms tells ISIS that crime
pays, rewarding hardened criminals for kidnapping and hostage taking. While the U.S. would like to save
lives of its citizens, paying ransoms perpetuates the problem. As was found out in Somalia, only a coordinated military response can stop piracy on the
seas or land. Letting Abu Bakr
al-Bagdadi extort cash from sovereign nations sets a dangerous precedent.
After hearing from the Pentagon’s top generals, terrorism and homeland
security experts, Obama looks poised to continue pounding ISIS with air strikes. Reluctant to go all the way with
ground troops, Obama must fish-or-cut-bail when it comes to dealing with ISIS. Regarded as a greater threat to U.S.
national security than al-Qaeda, most experts believe that once ISIS
consolidates power in Iraq and Syria, they’ll proceed to attack the U.S.
homeland. Terrorism experts see the
failure of Sept. 11 as an incoherent terrorism policy, giving Osama Bin Laden
too much time in Afghanistan to plan out the suicide attack on the World Trade
Center and Pentagon. Former
President George W. Bush got it right that the U.S. needed to take on offense
when conducting anti-terror operations.
Obama’s been told that if he doesn’t act on ISIS in Iraq and Syria, he’ll
be mopping things up on U.S. streets.
Holding 31-year-old American freelance journalist Steven Sotoloff
hostage, ISIS has already signaled that more beheadings are on the way. When private citizens or journalists go into war zones, they must assume responsibility
for their own safety. White House
officials can’t assure the safety of U.S. citizens that chose, for whatever
reasons, to cover stories in dangerous places.
When 38-year-old Wall Street Journal investigative journalist Daniel
Pearl was beheaded by Sept. 11 mastermind Khaled Sheikh Mohammed Feb. 1, 2002, the Bush White House
refused ransom demands for the obvious reasons. Like Israel, Bush decided to treat U.S. hostages like soldiers, though Israel certainly
paid a heavy price for the release of Gilad Shalit Oct. 18, 2011 after six year
in Hamas custody. Releasing 1,027
Palestinian prisoners, Israel showed its doesn’t hesitate to pay for its
soldiers’ release.
Foley’s Aug. 19 beheading sent a chilling message to Obama, hoping to
avoid more U.S. Mideast military intervention.
Told now that if he doesn’t intervene in Iraq and Syira, the next
president will have to at greater price.
Forced to deal with an undeniable gathering threat to U.S. national
security, Obama ordered surveillance flights over Syria in what looks like a
prelude to bombing. While Syrian
Foreign Minister Walid al-Maollem warned the U.S. against bombing ISIS without
Damascus permission, he did so with a nod-and-a-wink. Bashar al-Assad welcomes any foreign
help to rid ISIS from its Syrian land-grab.
Announcing surveillance flights is the first step for U.S. Special Forces
to dial in coordinates for a targeted bombings.
Degrading ISIS’s military hardware, including tanks, mortars,
surface-to-air missiles, etc., should help ground forces beat back their
advance.
About the Author
|
