ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

By Michael Muhammad Knight " WP " - - The Islamic State just released a gruesome new beheading video, again helmed by a western-bred Jihadist. As often happens, I received messages asking for explanation. You see, I’m the jihadi who never was. Twenty years ago, I ditched my Catholic high school in upstate New York to study at a Saudi-funded madrassa in Pakistan. A fresh convert, I jumped at the chance to live at a mosque and study Qur’an all day. This was in the mid-1990s, during an escalation of the Chechen resistance against Russian rule. After class, we’d turn on the television and watch feeds of destruction and suffering. The videos were upsetting. So upsetting that soon I found myself thinking about abandoning my religious education to pick up a gun and fight for Chechen freedom. It wasn’t a verse I’d read in our Qur’an study circles that made me want to fight, but rather my American values. I had grown up in the Reagan ’80s. I learned from G.I. Joe cartoons to (in th...

Officials and members of the European Parliament in Brussels (AFP Photo) A new package of sanctions against Russia has been adopted by the EU. Previous reports said the "further restrictive measures" were aimed at targeting three major oil companies, as well as the defense sector. According to a Monday statement by the president of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, the new package was adopted through written procedure, "deepening the targeted measures of 31 July." "The sanctions aim at promoting a change of course in Russia's actions destabilizing eastern Ukraine," the statement reads. Although it was previously reported that the new sanctions could come into force by Tuesday, the final EU decision did not specify the date when they will be applied, only saying it "will take place in the next few days," leaving time "for an assessment of the implementation of the cease-fire agreement [in Ukraine]." "Depending on the si...

So-called “pause” in global warming has baffled climate scientists Image Credits: Tom Raftery / Wiki Commons The numbers are in and the verdict is that there has been no global warming for 17 years and 11 months, according to satellite data. Satellite data prepared by Lord Christopher Monckton shows there has been no warming trend from October of 1996 to August of 2014 — 215 months. To put this in perspective, kids graduating from high school this year have not lived through any global warming in their lifetimes. According to Monckton — the third Viscount Monckton of Brenchley and a former policy adviser to U.K. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher — the rate of warming has been half of what climate scientists initially predicted in the early 1990s. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) first predicted in 1990 that global temperatures would rise at a rate of 2.8 degrees Celsius per century. But the temperature rise since the IPCC’s prediction has only been at...

Islamic State fighters appear to be using captured US military issue arms and weapons supplied to moderate rebels in Syria, report finds Islamic State fighters appear to be using captured US military issue arms and weapons supplied to moderate rebels in Syria by Saudi Arabia, according to a report published on Monday. The study by the London-based small-arms research organisation Conflict Armament Research documented weapons seized by Kurdish forces from militants in Iraq and Syria over a 10-day period in July. The report said the jihadists disposed of “significant quantities” of US-made small arms including M16 assault rifles and included photos showing the markings “Property of US Govt”. It also found that anti-tank rockets used by IS in Syria were “identical to M79 rockets transferred by Saudi Arabia to forces operating under the Free Syrian Army umbrella in 2013″.

"Army could be called to act in one of these places tomorrow" Image Credits: Wikimedia Commons A U.S. Army report warns that American troops need to be prepared to enter New York City and other global “megacities” in order to prevent civil unrest, political uprisings and protect key infrastructure and natural resources in the national interest. The report, entitled Megacities and the United States Army ( PDF ), was released by the Chief of Staff of the Army, Strategic Studies Group. Cautioning that the power of national governments to deal with the problems caused by increasing urbanization and the growth of megacities is “diminishing,” the report notes, “It is inevitable that at some point the United States Army will be asked to operate in a megacity and currently the Army is ill-prepared to do so.” Given increasing concerns about martial law and the militarization of domestic law enforcement in the United States, some will be concerned to learn that one of these “megacitie...