ISIS Versus the World?

Obama continues to gradually raise America's investment in protecting the tottering Maliki government in Iraq.  A total of 800 US troops, mostly Special Forces, have gone to help retrain the Iraqi Army to face this new threat.  According to Russia Today, widely seen as a Kremlin mouthpiece, Russia delivered five combat planes to Iraq to help in that nation's defense.

This comes as ISIS announced the formation of a caliphate.  In Islamic tradition, a caliph is a religious leader with somewhat less spiritual authority than a Roman Catholic Pope.  The closest Western approximation might be the Anglican title for the British monarch "Defender of the Faith."  Holy Roman Emperors also had similar combinations of temporal and spiritual authority.

According to Time, even Sunnis (whom the caliphate supposedly represents) have fears about the radicalism of the new movement.  Unease about new rules for worship and civil interactions could dampen enthusiasm for ISIS outside of areas it controls.

Control of Baghdad is key.  As the inheritor of civilized traditions reaching back 5,000 years, it would give legitimacy to the aspirations of ISIS terrorists.  This has spurred action from both the United States and Russia on the side of Iraq.

Russia has specific worries.  Around 20 million of its 142 million people worship in the Muslim faith.  Most of these live in the southern regions of the country.  The effect of a rising radical Muslim state must worry Moscow.  Similarly, Red China's Xingjiang Province has a high concentration of Muslims who have rebelled against Beijing.

Shi'ite Muslims have religious reasons to oppose the ISIS caliph.  Traditionally, they believe that it is blasphemous to name a caliph outside of the lineage of Mohammed.  Iran and much of Iraq worships in the Shi'ite tradition.  They likely would strongly resist rule by a Sunni caliph they found not only invalid, but a blasphemy against their faith.

The backing of Russia and the United States should boost the morale of the Iraqi government, so long as ISIS momentum can be dented.  Allegedly, ISIS plans to seize Africa north of the equator, Iran, India, and the rest of the Middle East and Central Asia.  Its designs include the conquest of three NATO states and parts of Russia, as well as Europe up to the borders of Germany and Poland.

Currently they control northeastern Syria and most of Iraq north of Baghdad outside of Kurdish territories.

Significant ISIS gains would likely bring together a number of states usually not on friendly terms.  Already, Iran has approached the United States to discuss a coordinated response, although working with the mullahs has its own danger.  Should Baghdad fall, likely many states would set aside differences in an international effort similar to the Boxer Rebellion expedition in 1898.

Banks Seek Technological Solutions to Reduce the Hundreds of Billions Lost to Fraud

Last February, the FBI busted a 13 person conspiracy that planned to bilk over $200 million from credit card companies.  It included a network of complicit businesses that would access the money and wire it to one of several Asian or Eastern European countries.

Today, US investigators announced the arrest of four Russians and a Ukranian.  They had hacked databases to retrieve information on over 160 million credit card numbers.  The indictment, according to Russia Today, said that “Financial institutions, credit card companies and consumers suffered hundreds of millions in losses, including losses in excess of $300 million by just three of the corporate victims, and immeasurable losses to identity theft victims."

Mexico and the United States experience the highest rates of credit card fraud, according to a Forbes report last fall.   In both nations, over 40 percent of card holders describe having experiencing some type of credit card fraud.  Debit card fraud is more difficult, but the two aforementioned countries are near the top of that list as well.  One out of four or more debit card holders in both countries have been defrauded in some way.

Help may be on the way.

This year, US credit and debit issuing companies will start issuing EMV standard cards.  This stands for Europay, MasterCard, Visa.  These cards will start including an extra layer of security in the form of ID chips. 

The process will take years, however, because of the need to update card readers and ATMs.

Banks lose $190 billion per year to fraud, according to another Forbes report.  Industry observers hope that EMV, among other measures, will roll back the heavy losses. 

Until then, organized criminals with technical prowess will continue to plunder banks and consumers alike.