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ISIS/ISIL and the Money Trail (Francisco Wong-Diaz, USA, 06/23/14 3:56 am)Ric Mauricio's post of 22 June reminds us of the problem of causation v. correlation. The oil-producing countries are not solely Sunni Arabs, but sharp operators of commodities futures, so no surprise in their taking advantage. The previous knowledge that they might have had, which led to Ric's June 10th call on oil, is probably the reflection of better access to intel about the developing situation, since important financiers are in their midst.
By the way, the releasing of five Haqqani terrorists to Qatar is another example of the myopia affecting US leaders.
JE comments: Commodities operators don't like uncertainty, and ISIS/ISIL provides uncertainty in abundance. Here's a news item on that group's $450 million heist from the Mosul Central Bank. ISIS now has the distinction of being the richest terrorist organization in the world. All this begs two questions: 1) Whose money was it? and 2) Why was it lying around in the middle of a war? The booty amounts to $562,500 for each of the 800 fighters involved in the Mosul operation.
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