Despite Obama’s silver tongue, the future of Iraq is looking pretty bleak after fall of Ramadi to Islamic State May 25, 2015 No Mr President, losing Ramadi is not a “tactical setback” – it is a catastrophe. Having also got by on my wits in graduate school, I always had a sense that I understood the elusive failings of Barack Obama far too well. When he obfuscates, he does so elegantly, often speaking in half-truths, illustrating his [...]
New airline laws will stop possible terrorists leaving the UK to join Islamic State March 8, 2015 Airline laws aimed at stopping would-be terrorists from leaving the UK will go before parliament next week. The new legislation, devised by home secretary Theresa May, would target flights carrying passengers to Iraq and Syria, where Islamic State and other radical groups are based. According to The Sunday Times, airlines would be required to [...]
Islamic State earnings call: The terrorist group’s finances point to a difficult year ahead February 24, 2015 The first quarter of every year brings a blizzard of financial reporting, as companies reflect on the past year’s achievements and (most often) make promises of greater things to come. Governments are no different, particularly in an election year. This quarter has seen record earnings from Apple, tax cut promises from the Tories, and anti-austerity [...]
Islamic State’s dominance must be halted – the West needs to act now February 8, 2015 There are no words to describe what flight lieutenant Moaz al-Kasasbeh – the Jordanian pilot captured by Isis in Syria in December 2014 – endured at the hands of his captors. But perhaps we should remember what writer Edgar Allen Poe once said: that “there are moments when, even to the sober eye of reason, [...]
The UK is creating a social media army January 31, 2015 The wars of the future will not be fought on the battlefield or at sea. They will be fought in space, or possibly on top of a very tall mountain. In either case, most of the actual fighting will be done by small robots. The Simpsons missed one important point: the wars of the future [...]
US Centcom Twitter account hacked by pro-Islamic State “CyberCaliphate” January 12, 2015 The US Central Command (Centcom), perhaps the most powerful unified command in the US military armoury, has had its Twitter account hacked and made to read “I love you isis.” The Twitter account, which is run by Centcom, was hacked by a group calling themselves the “CyberCaliphate.” The hackers replaced Centcom’s profile picture with an [...]
Islamic State’s $2bn budget is much smaller than thsoe of the countries it is trying to take over January 6, 2015 Two billion dollars (£1.31bn) sounds like a lot of money, but in the context of state budgets it's small. It's 500 times smaller than the US national budget, and 50 times smaller than Iraq's. Yet this amount has sent shivers down the media's collective spine since yesterday, when the first annual budget for terrorist [...]
How to destroy Islamic State: What Obama could learn from Wall Street November 17, 2014 TWENTY years ago, I sat on Wall Street as an expectant, newly-hired investment banker, being trained in the arts (although there was some science involved) of corporate finance, bond maths, and company valuations. One phrase from a shouty lecturer remains imprinted on my mind to this day. “Life’s just a stream of cashflows,” he bellowed [...]
Islamic State still makes “several million” dollars a week despite coalition airstrikes November 13, 2014 Coalition airstrikes are taking their toll on the Islamic State (I.S) group's revenue streams, yet the US said today that the terrorist organisation still earns "several million" dollars per week. I.S (also referred to as ISIL) has raised a “significant amount” of money from selling oil plundered from fields in Syria and Iraq argued [...]
Finance for terrorists: Why it’s proving so hard to choke off Islamic State November 12, 2014 Islamic State’s (IS) gruesome beheading videos thrust it onto the world stage and galvanised Western military intervention. But just as the group’s propaganda machine combines medieval barbarism with the very modern power of social media, so its finances combine old-fashioned looting and pillaging with high-tech illicit funding. By many estimates, IS is now the richest [...]