Terror threat

The rise of ISIS has radically changed international law

Two years ago, virtually no one had heard of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). In a January 2014 New Yorker interview, President Obama dismissed the group as “Junior Varsity.”

Since then, ISIS has emerged as one of the most wealthy, powerful and dangerous terrorist organizations that ever existed.

ISIS now possesses more than US$2 billion in stolen cash, thousands of captured tanks and bombs, as well as lucrative oil wells and refineries in the large parts of Syria and Iraq that it has taken over.

In these areas, the U.S. has determined, ISIS is committing genocide against Christians, Shia Muslims and Yazidis. Beheadings, burning people alive, mass rape – these are the methods of ISIS terror.