ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

By Eric Margolis - NATO has struck in Iraq. Or, more precisely, two French Rafale warplanes bombed a storage depot in northern Iraq believed to be used by ISIS. Washington cheered the French attack as the first wave of NATO military operations against the new enemy du jour, ISIS or the Islamic State. French president Francois Hollande, whose abysmal popularity ratings are now lower than Robespierre’s, butcher of the French Revolution, was elated by his show of machismo even if French voters were not. What the French were really doing, of course, was show-casing their new Rafale fighter. There’s nothing like bombing Arabs to sell military hardware, as Israel has long shown. Paris has been desperately trying to sell the Rafale, which is a very capable aircraft, to the Gulf Emirates, Saudi Arabia and India. Delhi signed an order for 126 Rafales in 2012 but has yet to implement it.  India knows France is desperate to sell Rafales and has been torturing the French with endless bureaucrat

By Jeffrey Rudolph The degree of mainstream media distortion concerning Hamas is endemic in the US and Canada. In my local newspaper, the Montreal Gazette, one searches in vain for meaningful coverage of the respected Goldstone Report yet references to Barak’s (mythical) “Generous Offer” persists and ahistorical reporting on Hamas rockets dominates. While one cannot entirely absolve Palestinians for their dire situation, three categorical truths should always be borne in mind to ensure that there is no confusion between victim and victimizer: Israel is illegally occupying Palestinian land; Occupied people have the legal right to resist occupation; and, Palestinians are the only occupied people to suffer international sanctions (while Israel enjoys significant economic, military and diplomatic support from powerful states). The following quiz is intended to provide needed context to the inadequate reporting of Hamas in the mainstream media. THE HAMAS QUIZ 1. Has Hamas ever deliberately

The European Commission headquarters in Brussels (Reuters/Yves Herman) Belgian police arrested several people planning a terrorist attack on European Commission Headquarters in Brussels, media reports say. It comes amid fierce efforts by local authorities to crack down on extremism.  Two of those arrested were from the The Hague, Dutch public broadcaster NOS reported. “They were planning an attack. One of the targets was the European Commission building. Individual commissioners were not particularly targeted. It would be more like the Jewish museum attack… with the aim to kill as many people as possible,”NOS reported citing an informed source. Belgian police reportedly found guns and bulletproof vests, while Dutch police uncovered jihadist literature. The arrests and seizure of arms resulted from simultaneous home raids in Brussels and The Hague. One raid was reportedly carried out in The Hague’s Schilderswijk district, where a demonstration in support of the Islamic State (IS, form

Turkey's security forces closed the border with Syria through which thousands of Kurds are trying to flee IS, after clashes between Kurds and soldiers on the Turkish side of the divide. The separatist Turkey-based Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which is classed as a terrorist organization by Istanbul, called for a solidarity demonstration on Sunday, after 70,000 Kurds crossed from Syria in just 24 hours. Hundreds of Kurds duly showed up near the barbed wire border fence - some volunteering to join the struggle against IS, others asking to bring over aid to the refugees on the other side of the border. Clarification: some ppl on Turkish side want to go in and get family, in some cases to fight #IS . Turks won't open the border until they go — Lizzie Phelan (@LizziePhelan) September 21, 2014 On 1 side Syrian #Kurds try 2 get thru on other Turkiah Kurds trying to convince authorities to let them in. V tense pic.twitter.com/7amnvDK9NB — Lizzie Phelan (@LizziePhelan) September