ISIS, in an incredibly short time span, has grown from a merry band of men with pie-in-the-sky ideals into a ruthless marauding horde committing the most unspeakable atrocities and giving no quarter to anyone for whom they have the slightest distaste.

It has become an unstoppable force that thrives on such brutality as to make Genghis Khan and Attila the Hun seem like fresh-faced choir boys. It has taken a large swathe of land straddling the Iraq-Syria border, a tract of land awash in oil rendering it equally well awash in cash which it puts to good use in procuring armaments and materiel to achieve its objectives.

It has spread throughout the Middle East like a virus and has firmly set foot in Libya. So forking out €7,500 to set up a shell company in Malta would be a Sunday walk in the park.

What a spectacular coup that would be! With a towering temple of Islam’s sworn infidels on almost every other street corner, it would be spoilt for choice.

Few would put it beyond these barbarians to blow them all up simultaneously, but not before – for maximum effect – having impaled on the clock towers and spires the heads of the heads of the Institution that to them is nothing but the Devil Incarnate.

That’s what BOV, the MFSA and Identity Malta just didn’t cotton on to.

Did someone really pull the wool over their eyes?

Joseph Genovese