ISIS Funding more than it seems

In the Washington Examiner last week [Jacqueline Klimas, Lawmakers go after ISIS funding, 4 January 2016] is a story in a story.  The House Task Force to Investigate Terrorism, in case you didn't know it existed, has almost no public activities, something no Congressional Committee wants.  Even the Intelligence Committees have public reports and a website with a host of hearings and public policy debates.  They did provide the reporter some interesting context for the story.  

The story tells us that the usual suspects help with the funding of ISIS through private organizations in Turkey, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia.  Some of those are already on a Treasury watch list, and have been for years.  It hasn't slowed them down very much.  

The U.S. Treasury Department has had reports on this over the years to pin down funding of Al Qaeda, which is the root organization of ISIS.  We know that Iran is fueling the fighters on the other side of this mess in the Middle East.  Iraq is certainly not helping very much.  Russia is bombing all sides in Syria, but seems to favor Iran in this.  The Obama Administration seems to be the same, negotiating Iran's nuclear deal and paying them billions of dollars in what looks to be money-for-hostages.  I thought we gave that up years ago.  

So, when it comes to financing terrorism, it seems the Middle East countries all help to fund their own brand of Muslim extremists, then wonder why the fighting is so intense and barbaric.  They don't call them extremists for nothing.  If the Catholics were to decide that Baptists were all wrong about their brand of Christianity, then fund extremists to kill them off and dominate them with force, saying become Catholic or die, we would have an analogous situation here. The Baptists, Seven Day Adventists and Mormons would defend themselves by hiring their own extremists, if they could find any, and attacking everyone who was Catholic.  The Bible Belt would take on a whole new meaning.  

As much as Al Qaeda tried to make it a war between Muslims and Non-Muslims, they have to admit it is a war of extremist Muslims against everyone else.  The rest of the world is starting to get it.  Even Muslims don't like the result.  Maybe they can do something about the money going to ISIS.  We can't.