A UN terrorist-monitoring expert said ISIS has taken in as much as $45 million in ransom payments so far this year alone. Yotsna Lalji told the UN Security Council’s Counter-Terrorism Committee that ISIS is one of many terrorist groups whose kidnapping for ransom “continues to grow.”
Between 2004 and 2012, terrorist groups collected $120 million from kidnapping ransoms.
It’s “the core al Qaeda tactic for generating revenue,” said Lalji. Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb has made $75 million through ransoms over the past four years and al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula made $20 million from 2011 through 2013, according to Lalji’s report.
Some countries have a policy of refusing to pay terrorist ransoms, including the U.S., which has lost three citizens to ISIS abductions and murders so far this year. Read more.
{Andy Heller-Matzav.com Newscenter}
That pales in comparison to how much they have made in selling stolen oil.
Somalian pirates and inland kidnappers make similar profits- unless of course the Navy SEALs kill them first. When will the SEALs start targeting ISIS?