Dr. Frankenstein's ISIS: Made in Washington, Riyadh - and Tel Aviv

The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is being touted as the newest "threat" to the American homeland: hysterics have pointed to Chicago as the locus of their interest, and we are told by everyone from the President on down that if we don't attack them - i.e. go back into Iraq (and even venture into Syria) to root them out - they'll soon show up on American shores. How is this supposed to work? Well, you see, that monster who beheaded James Foley had a British accent, and there are reports of more than a few Brits (and Americans) traveling to Syria to fight on behalf of ISIS. So these jihadi "internationalists" could always just fly back to either Britain or the US, where another 9/11 would shortly be in the works. Let's put aside the FBI statement that, while Americans abroad may be in some unspecified degree of danger, ISIS represents "no credible threat" to the continental United States. If we take the ISIS-threatens-us-at-home war propaganda seriously we have to believe Western law enforcement agencies, with all the tools at their command - including near total surveillance of online and telephonic communications worldwide - have no idea what dubious characters have traveled to Syria via, say, New York or London, and would in any case be powerless to prevent their return. In short, we have to invade yet another country (or two) because our own post-9/11 security arrangements are virtually nonexistent - in spite of having spent untold billions on building them up. Can that really be true? If we step back from the hysteria generated by the beheading of US journalist James Foley, what's clear is that this new bogeyman is the creation of the United States and its allies in the region. ISIS didn't just arise out of the earth like some Islamist variation on the fabled Myrmidons: they needed money, weapons, logistics, propaganda facilities, and international connections to reach the relatively high level of organization and lethality they seem to have achieved in such a short period of time. Where did they get these assets?