ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Secretary of State John Kerry — who recently made international headlines for inventing a country — has again drawn attention for questionable remarks, this time to a group of German students. Mr. Kerry , while speaking in Berlin on Tuesday, asserted that in the United States “you have a right to be stupid if you want to be.” He didn’t stop there. “People have sometimes wondered about why our Supreme Court allows one group or another to march in a parade even though it’s the most provocative thing in the world and they carry signs that are an insult to one group or another,” he said, according to Reuters . “The reason is, that’s freedom. In America … you have a right to be disconnected to somebody else if you want to be. America just sloughs through it all, he said. Enlarge Photo U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry gives a statement after meeting with ... more > “And we tolerate it. We somehow make it through that,” he said. This is Mr. Kerry ’s first official overseas jaunt sinc...

Police officers nationwide, engaging a smartphone-happy public eager to catalog every potential misstep and post it on YouTube , are donning new accessories — body-mounted video cameras. The lightweight devices that attach to an officer’s sunglasses, hat or uniform seem to be defusing some sticky situations before they arise. “People tend to behave better when they are on video,” said New Carrollton Police Chief David Rice , whose 17-member department has used body-mounted cameras for about a year. He said the effect can be seen among both officers and civilians. “We’re not getting as much combativeness from people. In that respect, it has worked very well,” he said. The Laurel Police Department , which is testing cameras and will deploy them in coming weeks, is among three municipal agencies in Prince George’s County using the cameras both in an effort to protect their own officers from false complaints and to better document evidence for criminal cases. “I think every agency is con...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S.-led military command in Afghanistan incorrectly reported a decline last year in Taliban attacks and is preparing to publish corrected numbers that could undercut its narrative of a Taliban in steep decline. After finding what they called clerical errors, military officials in Kabul said Tuesday that a 7 percent drop in “enemy initiated attacks” for the period from January through December 2012 reported last month will be corrected to show no change in the number of attacks during that span. The 7 percent figure was included in a report posted on the coalition’s website until it was removed recently without explanation. After The Associated Press inquired about the missing report, coalition officials said they were correcting the data and would republish the report. “During a quality control check, ISAF recently became aware that some data was incorrectly entered into the database that is used for tracking security-related incidents across Afghanistan ,” s...

India sharply rejected alleged remarks by president Barack Obama’s defense secretary nominee Check Hagel accusing New Delhi for financing problems in Afghanistan to crate trouble for Pakistan. According to a statement released by the Indian embassy in Washington, “Senator Hagel’s remarks are in sharp contrast to the viewpoint of the Obama Administration that has always been in praise of India’s developmental role in Afghanistan and in fact has been pressing New Delhi to do more in Afghanistan.” The Indian embassy’s statement said, “Such comments attributed to Senator Hagel, who has been a long-standing friend of India and a prominent votary of close India-US relations are contrary to the reality of India’s unbounded dedication to the welfare of Afghan people.” Chuck Hagel has alleged that India has over the years “financed problems” for Pakistan in the war-torn country, The Economic Times reported. A video containing these remarks from an unreleased speech of Hagel at Oklahoma’s Camero...

A heavy explosion rocked capital Kabul early Wednesday morning. The incident took place in Kart-e-Seh area in west of Kabul city near Sara-e-Ghazni area. Preliminary reports suggest the explosion took place as a result of a suicide bomb blas and the target of the bomber was a vehicle convoy of the Afghan army. In the meantime Gen. Zahir Azimi, spokesman for the Afghan defense ministry said the incident took place after a vehicle carrying Afghan army officers was targeted. He said only 6 Afghan army officers have reportedly been injured following the blast and there no are reports if army officers were also killed following the blast. He also did not disclose further information if the explosion took place due to a suicide bomb attack. Afghan interior ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqi confirming the report said at least 8 people were injured following the blast. Mr. Sediqi further added the suicide bomber detonated his explosives in the sixth district of capital Kabul city and he was look...

Over 500 Afghan men on Tuesday marched through the capital of Afghanistan’s restive Wardak province in an outburst anger against US special forces who have been accused of overseeing torture and killings of the innocent people in this province. Angry protesters called for the immediate withdrawal of the American soldiers and were shouting “Death to America”, “Death to Obama” and “Death to speical forces” Reuters reported. They also threatened to join the Taliban if their demand was not met. Haji Abdul Qadim, an Afghan protester told Reuters, “If the situation remains like this, this province will collapse very soon. People will join the insurgency very soon because of the abuses of these forces.” This comes as Aimal Faizi spokseman for president Hamid Karzai on Sunday announced that all U.S. special forces must leave Wardak province within two weeks following the accusations that Afghans working for them had tortured and killed innocent people. Karzai’s demand could further complicate ...

The US senate on Tuesday voted to confirm Chuck Hagel as president Barack Obama’s next secretary of defense after one of the lengthiest and most bitter confirmation fights in recent history. Leon Panetta will now be replaced as head of the Pentagon by the Republican former senator from Nebraska and decorated Vietnam veteran. This comes as America is seeking to draw down its ground forces in Afghanistan but ramping up its controversial drone warfare across the globe. He is also taking the reigns at the exact moment a fierce budgetary fight is raging in Washington over looming spending cuts, including to large swathes of the military. Defence chiefs have been warning that the planned cuts have already caused delayed deployments of manpower. Just four Republicans crossed the political divide to back Hagel as he won a 58 to 41 vote in America’s upper chamber. They were Thad Cochran of Mississippi, Mike Johanns of Nebraska, Richard Shelby from Alabama and, surprisingly, Tea Party favourite ...

According to security officials in western Afghanistan, at least 48 Taliban militants were killed or injured during military operations in Herat province. The officials further added at least three Arab militant fighters were also among those killed during the operations. Gen. Nezamuddin Khanjar, head of the operations for 207 Zafar national army commandment said at least 28 militants have been killed and 20 others have been injured during the operations so far. Gen. further added that six more militants were also arrested during the operations. He said at least two Afghan national army soldiers were killed and two others were injured following clashes with the armed militants. The operation “Naveed 5″ has been conducted in Keshk-e-Kohna and Keshk-e-Rabat districts of western Herat province and the operation is still continuing during the past one week. Herat is among the peaceful provinces in western Afghanistan however militants have increased their activities in its remote district...