Hey, biz isn’t great for everyone these days. A leaked document finds that ISIS is facing a revenue shortfall in its business (creating a calphate, conquering terrority, seizing oil fields) despite its activity (battling the US and other countries, and keeping busy with beheadings and executions of innocent men, women and children). So, a leaked document says, it’s cutting its fighter salaries in half.
Though the American media often portrays ISIS as an unstoppable, terrifying juggernaut, the truth is that the group is in real trouble, and is actually losing ground in its core Iraqi and Syrian holdings. A new leaked internal document suggests the pressure may be even worse than we thought. According to the document, ISIS is being forced to slash salaries for its fighters by half across its holdings.
The document was first reported by researcher Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi on his personal site, as part of a broader cache of documents he acquired. Here’s the core passage from the document:
On account of the exceptional circumstances the Islamic State is facing, it has been decided to reduce the salaries that are paid to all mujahideen by half, and it is not allowed for anyone to be exempted from this decision, whatever his position.
“Exceptional circumstances” are forcing ISIS to cut salaries to its fighters and commanders by fully half. If that’s not a sign of trouble, I don’t know what is.
The document appears to be authentic. “[I] definitely think this is real,” Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, told me. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an anti-Assad group watching the conflict, has heard from its own sources that ISIS is slashing salaries.
Some caution about whether the document’s orders will be implemented, however, is warranted. It’s possible the document’s recommendations are provisional or won’t be accepted by all. “If, for example, Goldman Sachs or ExxonMobil said they were cutting salaries in half across the board (or, say, 20 percent), we’d be skeptical,” Gartenstein-Ross said. “I think it’s plausible, understood with an asterisk.”
And the fact that it’s plausible at all — that ISIS may have to cut payments to the fighters and commanders it depends on to hold its caliphate — speaks to just how much trouble the group is in.
It’s noted in this article that most of ISIS’s money comes from asking for it in an offer they can’t refuse from those who are unfortunate enough to be its areas’s citizens at gun (or knife) point. But the territory it has is finite, or diminishing — 25 percent less than in 2014.
Even so we’ve seen what a small group of terrorists can do and this won’t diminish the threat. Will getting their salaries halved (if this article is true) diminish ISIS recruitment or the morale of its fighters? The good news is that apparently it isn’t only ISIS’ victims or kidnapped victims or the terrified residents of its territories that are hurting.
Karma may take time, but it eventually gets there –with a little help from your enemies.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.