Geschäfte machen mit Al Kaida

Etabliert sich ein neofundamentalistischer "Staat" zwischen Euphrat und Tigris? Im London Review of Books berichtet Patrick Cockburn, wie sich "Islamischer Staat", the terror group formerly known as ISIS, konsolidiert. Cockburns aufschlußreicher Artikel macht auch deutlich, dass der jetzige Vormarsch der Islamisten nur möglich wurde, weil im Irak Staatlichkeit, Rechtsicherheit und eine nationale, nicht ethnisch gebundene Politik schon längst zerstört waren.

There are other wholly corrupt states in the world but few of them have oil revenues of $100 billion a year to steal from. The sole aim of many officials has long been to get the largest kickback possible and they did not much care if jihadi groups did the same. I met a Turkish businessman in Baghdad who said he had had a large construction contract in Mosul over the last few years. The local emir or leader of Isis, then known as al-Qaida in Iraq, demanded $500,000 a month in protection money from the company. ‘I complained again and again about this to the government in Baghdad,’ the businessman said, ‘but they would do nothing about it except to say that I could add the money I paid al-Qaida to the contract price.’ The emir was soon killed and his successor demanded that the protection money be increased to $1 million a month. The businessman refused to pay and one of his Iraqi employees was killed; he withdrew his Turkish staff and his equipment to Turkey. ‘Later I got a message from al-Qaida saying that the price was back down to $500,000 and I could come back,’ he said.