Treasury Efforts to Squeeze Islamic State Funding Will Be Difficult

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“Targeting ISIL’s money will be a significant challenge given its clandestine financing sources,” said Mark Dubowitz, a counterterrorism expert with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

“But since 9/11, Treasury’s Terrorism and Financial Intelligence unit has deep experience and notable successes in tracking terrorist financing networks and uncovering and punishing [Persian] Gulf donors who have underwritten Sunni jihadism,” he said.

Bill Roggio, editor of the online Long War Journal, agreed that the effort to curb IS financing will not be easy.

“While Treasury’s efforts are commendable, the reality is that sanctions and other proposed mechanisms will barely dent the Islamic State’s capacity to fund its operations,” Roggio said.

Roggio said most of IS funding is the result of local operations, including black market oil sales, criminal activities, and demanding “taxes” from people under its control.

“European countries are more than willing to pay ransoms for their kidnapped citizens, despite claims to the contrary,” he said.
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