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Compiled Fast Reference: ISIS: 6/19/2014

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ISIS, wild and cruel, has proven through its criminality and inhumanity incapable of governance except through continued sadism.  Call it deeply intoxicated by brute power, it is as it displays itself.

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Although the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) — a marauding army of Sunni Muslim jihadists — has turned south toward Baghdad, Kurds in the semi-autonomous oil-rich northeast expect that they may have to face their fellow Sunnis, who left a trail of death and destruction in overrunning the Iraqi army in taking the cities of Tikrit and Mosul.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/06/19/kurds-outgunned-by-fanatical-isis-hope-looming-baghdad-battle-buys-time-for/ 6/6/2014.

The crisis caused by the sudden advance of the Isis insurgents has driven world crude prices past $114 a barrel in recent days and led to warnings of shortages from industry experts.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/18/dwindling-iraq-oil-reserves-cause-price-spike 6/18/2014.

. . .  nearly 100 militants had been killed as his forces repelled wave after wave of attacks since Tuesday.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/06/19/witness-claims-isis-flag-flies-over-key-iraq-refinery-baghdad-says-soldiers/ 6/19/2014.

 . . . a stark illustration of one of the most alarming aspects of ISIS’s rise: the group’s growing ability to fund its own operations through bank heists, extortion, kidnappings, and other tactics more commonly associated with the mob than with violent Islamist extremists.

http://complex.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2014/06/16/isis_uses_mafia_tactics_to_fund_its_own_operations_without_help_from_persian_gulf_d 6/16/2014.

ISIS appears to be as well-endowed economically as any such group can be endowed by conquest, by plunder and by voluntary contributions. How do they make their money?

http://wlrn.org/post/how-isis-endowed-conquest-stocks-its-war-chest 6/18/2014.

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