I can't dismiss from my mind the horrific scene from the Belgian terrorist attacks -- a couple and their 3-year-old twin daughters at the airport. The father and the children survived, but the mother was murdered in cold blood, her lifeless body riddled with shrapnel. Life for this family was put on hold and memory of their mother will haunt them for the rest of their days. The uncertainty of life is filled with all sorts of risks, but in our allegedly civilized world, we should be able to successfully combat the ISIS forces of this evil cancer known as terrorism from spreading throughout our world.
There is an action that must be taken now. Yes, it is extreme but I believe it would result in the demise of organized terrorism as we see it in ISIS today: Forcibly cut off their money supply.
During my 22 years as a United States senator, I served for two years as co-chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee and later chaired the Energy Committee. Prior to government service, I was a bank executive and learned the answer to many unknowns simply by "following the money trail." There is no business or political organization that can effectively function without adequate funding. Terrorism and ISIS are no exception.
Who funds terrorism? Where does its cash flow come from? Our intelligence agencies have much of the information, but are prohibited from releasing it. Facts reveal that most of ISIS funding comes from the illicit sale of oil originating in the Mideast. Estimates range from $1 million to $3 million per day in money funneled to ISIS from illegal oil sales. ISIS has captured several small producing oil fields, primarily in Syria and Iraq, and moves the oil through black-market traders. Some shipments go out through Turkey, where supplies are scarce and gasoline sells for around $7 per gallon. We have identified a half-dozen ISIS refiners in Iraq at Haditha, Mosul and Tawke. In Syria, oil moves via the Iraq-Turkey pipeline to Ceyhan, the Iraqi-Persian pipeline to the Persian Gulf, and the Syrian pipeline to Baniya. Satellite imagery gives us pinpoint locations from points of production to ports of delivery.
We can trace the route of money transfers from individual sources to ISIS. We have the satellite imagery and we have the sophistication to take out their delivery systems with smart bombs and drones, which will reduce loss of life among those near designated targets.
Alaskans understand the vulnerability of pipelines. Our own trans-Alaska oil pipeline, an 800-mile line from Prudhoe Bay to loading facilities at Valdez, could be taken down by a terrorist attack.
Why are we not taking action? One reason for our inability to move decisively against this threat is that we have become committed to diplomatic solutions to take care of international disputes -- our lack of resolve early on has led to complacency. But ISIS has gone beyond diplomacy. It knows no justice, only terror and death and destruction. I has no conscience. It is a scourge against our culture and our humanity.
Our president and our Congress must come together to act now. But either with or without President Obama, Congress should consider the adoption of a binding resolution. It should be very direct along the following lines:
Upon satisfactory evidence and certification from our intelligence agencies of the illicit sale of oil benefiting ISIS, we would inform Syria, Iraq and others believed to be complicit, including corporations, businesses, shipping companies, pipeline and port facility owners, brokers and foreign bankers, that we will destroy the infrastructure they own or control including the oil production or delivery systems effective 14 days from the formal notice from the U.S. State Department courier. The resolution must be direct in stating clearly that the choice is theirs: Cease production and delivery benefiting ISIS or face the consequences. There can be no turning back once the ultimatum is issued. Hopefully to focus on this narrow objective will reduce the likelihood of U.S. boots on the ground in our efforts to bury ISIS.
One nation must stand tall to initiate action now on behalf of humanity. The free world will join us in the refrain, God Bless America.
Frank Murkowski served in the U.S. Senate from 1981-2002, and as governor of Alaska from 2002-2006.
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