Posted on 09/22/2014 9:04:53 AM PDT by Mount Athos
[...] ISIS is a self-funding movement due to its control of producing oil fields in Northern Iraq. King Abdullah of Jordan estimated the ISIS revenues from energy production were approximately $6,000,000 per day, a helluva lot of income for a ragtag terrorist organization. [...]
When I heard that my immediate response was to look at my spouse in astonishment and yell, “What the hell? Why are we allowing them to do that?” That question should be one that every tuned-in citizen asks of his elected representatives in Washington. To gather production from an oilfield into a central, marketable product requires a well-engineered network of collection processes that are quite visible to aerial observation and equally vulnerable to aerial attack and destruction. If all that black gold is moving through underground pipelines, there still must be major gathering points and transshipment terminals.
So why are these key targets not being bombed into oblivion by our military, thus cutting off ISIS’ cash flow? An age-old tenet of war is to strangle your enemy’s economy. Why then are we allowing these murderous thugs to extract, transport and sell on the international market a product that feeds their murderous atrocities? I’ve spent a large portion of my life around west Texas oilfields and you can believe me when I tell you that while all the geological exploration takes place mostly underground, the actual drilling and the subsequent collection processes take place right out there in the open, totally vulnerable to attack from the air. Even underground pipelines have periodic, above surface pumping stations just sitting there waiting for a smart bomb.
So, Barack, why are you sitting on your butt and allowing ISIS to fill its coffers by exporting oil?
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Also why aren't we using B52s, B1's, C130 gunships?
Hmmm. Religious freedom? If we didn’t allow it, would that make us racists?
Exactly. Oil infrastructure and transport is highly susceptible to bombing.
Bomb it.
The author has a spouse?
Wonder if he has a wife...
Wouldn’t it be better to boycott the oil they’re stealing and selling rather than bombing the oil fields?
For ISIS to have ‘formed’ in the last few months (or year) and to exert that level of control over these types of operations then there HAS to be a higher level of organization than any kind of ‘grass roots’ (radical or otherwise) movement.
They are being escorted into power by someone.
Or their influence is being grossly over stated.
Most oilfield targets are soft targets. It shouldn't be hard to disrupt the flow of oil. The question, though, is one of who 'owns' the oil? (controlling mineral interests) or is ISIS getting all of the money?
Then, who is buying it?
Since Turkey and others are buying that oil, and not us, how would that help? We don't buy the oil we already don't buy?
Better yet, let them load the ship and let the ship pass into international waters. capture the ship, sail it to the US and deposit the crude in out Strategic Oil Reserve and arrest the ship. Do the same to the next and next ship and soon no one will want to transport the crude.
Islamic State Smuggles Oil Into Turkey—With Hostages as Insurance
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-09-11/islamic-state-smuggles-oil-into-turkey-with-hostages-as-insurance
September 11, 2014
Obviously I meant those that were buying the oil other than us, since they’re supposedly against terrorism.
So how do you convince someone who has already decided to buy from a group like Isis, for drastically discounted prices, to change?
If I heard one of the 4star retired Gens correctly ISIS isn’t selling it on the open market, but selling it black market
and that would require intel
Intel we don’t appear capable of acquiring right now.
I agree with you. bomb them to bolivian.:)
It isn’t moving out on ships. They are not on ocean ports.
Better yet, pirate the oil in transit.
Because that’s where the money is, and profits trump ideology, national security, and national sovereignty. Duh!
Oil is almost totally fungible, that is, when commingled with the rest of the oil in international trade, it cannot be identified as being from some particular field or another.
What is going on, is that Turkey is accepting the oil from the ISIS organization, as broker, then covering up the chain of custody on the oil, hiding its source.
Turkey is no longer a friend of the US, NATO, or any country in the West. They have become an Islamic state, allied with the Muslim Brotherhood, and are very much in favor of the establishment of a Middle East Caliphate.
Because it’s too simple a solution, the elite intellectuals must weigh in with their “nuance.”
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