ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

By Ellen Brown Several central banks, including the Bank of England, the People’s Bank of China, the Bank of Canada and the Federal Reserve, are exploring the concept of issuing their own digital currencies, using the blockchain technology developed for Bitcoin. Skeptical commentators suspect that their primary goal is to eliminate cash, setting us up for negative interest rates (we pay the bank to hold our deposits rather than the reverse). But Ben Broadbent, Deputy Governor of the Bank of England, puts a more positive spin on it. He says Central Bank Digital Currencies could supplant the money now created by private banks through “fractional reserve” lending – and that means 97% of the circulating money supply. Rather than outlawing bank-created money, as money reformers have long urged, fractional reserve banking could be made obsolete simply by attrition, preempted by a better mousetrap. The need for negative interest rates could also be eliminated, by giving the central bank more...

“I am the police chief who was asked to guard ISIS terrorists” By Nafeez Ahmed + Turkey’s intelligence chief, Hakan Fidan, named as member of terror group linked to al-Qaeda and ISIS + Turkish intelligence directly supplied military aid to ISIS for years + Turkish government siphoned military supplies to ISIS through humanitarian relief agency + ISIS fighters, including al-Baghadi’s deputy, received free medical treatment in Turkey and “protection” from Turkish police + Head of ISIS in Turkey received “24/7 protection” under the personal order of President Erdogan + Turkish police investigations into ISIS are being systematically quashed + ISIS oil is sold with complicity of authorities in Turkey and Kurdish region of northern Iraq + NATO affirms Turkey’s role as ally in war on ISIS  A former senior counter-terrorism official in Turkey has blown the whistle on President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s deliberate sponsorship of the Islamic State (ISIS) as a geopolitical tool to expand Turke...

By Staff writer, Al Arabiya English  More than 60 Syrian government soldiers were killed and dozens of others injured Saturday in US-led coalition air strikes on an air base in the east of the war-torn country, the Russian army said. “Warplanes from the international anti-militant coalition carried out four air strikes today against Syrian forces surrounded by ISIS in the Deir Ezzor air base,” the army said in a statement. “Sixty-two Syrian soldiers were killed and a hundred others were injured in these strikes.” “Straight after the coalition’s strikes, ISIS militants launched an offensive,” said the statement, adding that “fierce fighting against the terrorists” ensued nearby. “If these strikes were due to an error in the target coordinates, that would be a direct consequence of the US’ refusal to coordinate with Russia its fight against the terrorist groups in Syria,” it said. The Russian defense ministry said fierce battle was being waged between the Syrian army and ISIS militan...