US created the ISIS, but who is funding it

New Delhi, Aug 12: The ISIS is a creation of the United States of America and this is a well known fact as it was the part of a West Asia policy. The extremist insurgency in Syria and Iraq is what finally shaped out to be the ISIS and this was backed by the United States of America as part of its West Asia Policy.

A recently declassified document f the US intelligence report states that it welcomes the prospect of Salafist Principality in Eastern Syria and an al-Qaeda controlled Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. Today the situation has gone from bad to worse and the US claims that it is fighting against the ISIS which has become a global phenomenon.

While the creation of the ISIS is one issue, the core of the problem today is the manner in which the outfit is growing from strength to strength. It is a well known fact that the ISIS is one of the richest outfits in the world. In this backdrop it would be interesting to see who finances the ISIS.

Did Obama administration fund the ISIS?

A recent admission by Yousef al-Salafi, an ISIS leader based in Pakistan states that the outfit is being funded by the USA. The funding that we get is routed through America to run the organization and recruit people into Syria, he said during his interrogation in Pakistan.

The investigations had further revealed that the US was paying them 600 dollars per recruit. While the US has denied these claims there have been questions about how much the country is doing to stop the funding of the ISIS. This has led to talk that the US has intentionally allowed the funding to go out of the country and reach into the hands of the ISIS recruiters.

There were also commentators who suggested that the US was allowing the funding to take place as it had its own interests in mind. The declassified documents do reveal that the ISIS was a creation of the US as part of its policy. Whether the US had a direct role in the creation or not is something that can be debated. However one can say with confidence that there was no al-Qaeda or the ISIS in Iraq until the US invaded the country.

Is the ISI funding the ISIS?

There have been allegations that Pakistan's ISI is funding the ISIS. The ISIS has been gaining in strength in Afghanistan and this could have prompted the ISI to fund the outfit in a bid to use it as another proxy. While some reports state that the ISI is funding the outfit, there are others who indicate that only factions of the outfit get ISI funding.

However the ISI's funding of the ISIS is a very debatable claim. Indian intelligence bureau officials also doubt this claim and say that the ISI is not yet willing to let go of the Taliban in Afghanistan. The ISI in fact is trying to bring about some amount of sanity within the Taliban after the death of Mullah Omar was announced.

Moreover the ISI is also aware that it is the Taliban and not the ISIS which will tow its line. However one needs to keep a watch on the situation as there could well be a shift of focus and the ISI may just nurture the ISIS if it finds that the Taliban is falling out of favour. The risk where the Taliban is concerned would come in the form of Mullah Yakoob (Mullah Omar's son) who has been rebelling against the ISI's choice of Mullah Mansoor as the new leader.

Does Saudi fund the ISIS?

The Saudi government may not be directly funding the ISIS, but there are a number of rich individuals who do support the outfit. US officials have compared these funders in Saudi to angel investors.

According to former U.S. Navy Admiral and NATO Supreme Commander James Stavridis, there are several rich Arabs who don the role of angel investors. He had told nbcnews.com, "these rich Arabs are like what 'angel investors' are to tech start-ups, except they are interested in starting up groups who want to stir up hatred.

The statements by Stavridis indicate that several rich Arabs are investing in the ISIS. The ISIS is capable of raising money through the oil reserves it has seized in Iraq, selling antiques, abductions etc. Once the money is raised, they pay back these financers.

While investments are one way of raising money for the ISIS, there is also the donations that are made by several persons. Most of these donations for the ISIS has come from Qatar.

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