The New York Times:
The insurgency in Iraq is now self-sustaining financially, raising tens of millions of dollars a year from oil smuggling, kidnapping, counterfeiting, connivance by corrupt Islamic charities and other crimes that the Iraqi government and its American patrons have been largely unable to prevent, a classified United States government report has concluded.
The report, obtained by The New York Times, estimates that groups responsible for many insurgent and terrorist attacks are raising $70 million to $200 million a year from illegal activities. It says $25 million to $100 million of that comes from oil smuggling and other criminal activity involving the state-owned oil industry, aided by “corrupt and complicit” Iraqi officials.
As much as $36 million a year comes from ransoms paid for hundreds of kidnap victims, the report says. It estimates that unnamed foreign governments – previously identified by American officials as including France and Italy – paid $30 million in ransom last year.
Remember when the talking heads would try and lead you to believe the insurgency was the equivalent to farmers with pitchforks? How about when Rumsfeld said they didn’t predict a robust insurgency? Now that they are self-sustaining the problems have just grown. No longer do we have the scapegoats of Syria or Iran – the problem is totally within Iraq and we have no plan to cure it. This is the product of piss-poor planning by our administration and this will be a major downfall for us in Iraq.