ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Mossad chief makes clandestine trip to US to meet with incoming Trump administration. Mossad chief Yossi Cohen Flash90 JTA - The head of Israel’s Mossad national intelligence agency made a secret visit to the United States to meet with members of President-elect Donald Trump staff and give them a security briefing. Mossad Director Yossi Cohen briefed the Trump staff members on the Iranian nuclear deal, the Syrian civil war, terror threats and the Palestinian issue, Ynet reported Saturday. The report did not say when the briefings took place. The security delegation was organized by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, according to Ynet, and was led by National Security Council head Yaakov Nagel. Israeli ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer reportedly also attended the meetings. The Israeli officials also reportedly discussed with Trump officials a proposed regional conference to jumpstart the Israeli-Arab peace process to be held in Egypt, and an anti-Israel United Nations resoluti...

By Norman Solomon News media should illuminate conflicts of interest, not embody them. But the owner of the Washington Post is now doing big business with the Central Intelligence Agency, while readers of the newspaper’s CIA coverage are left in the dark. The Post’s new owner, Jeff Bezos, is the founder and CEO of Amazon -- which recently landed a $600 million contract with the CIA. But the Post’s articles about the CIA are not disclosing that the newspaper’s sole owner is the main owner of CIA business partner Amazon. Even for a multi-billionaire like Bezos, a $600 million contract is a big deal. That’s more than twice as much as Bezos paid to buy the Post four months ago. And there’s likely to be plenty more where that CIA largesse came from. Amazon’s offer wasn’t the low bid, but it won the CIA contract anyway by offering advanced high-tech “cloud” infrastructure. Bezos personally and publicly touts Amazon Web Services, and it’s evident that Amazon will be seeking more CIA contracts...

As the Electoral College assembles, U.S. intelligence agencies are stepping up a campaign to delegitimize Donald Trump as a Russian stooge, raising concerns about a spy coup in America. By Robert Parry  As Official Washington’s latest “group think” solidifies into certainty – that Russia used hacked Democratic emails to help elect Donald Trump – something entirely different may be afoot: a months-long effort by elements of the U.S. intelligence community to determine who becomes the next president. I was told by a well-placed intelligence source some months ago that senior leaders of the Obama administration’s intelligence agencies – from the CIA to the FBI – were deeply concerned about either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump ascending to the presidency. And, it’s true that intelligence officials often come to see themselves as the stewards of America’s fundamental interests, sometimes needing to protect the country from dangerous passions of the public or from inept or corrupt poli...

From  SouthFront (SF) The text below is based on an article appeared in the Russian daily “Vzglyad” ( source ) and provides a critical look at the Syrian military. SouthFront (SF) does not support approaches used to estimate capabilities of the Syrian army in this analysis and believes that it includes some mistakes. Vzglyad’s article reflects views of a part of the Russian establishmen at the Syrian army and the Syrian conflict. Vzglyad newspaper is owned by the Russian Institute of Socio-Economic and Political Studies and traditionally adheres to pro-Kremlin positions. Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Syrian Army and Armed Forces, Defense Minister Fahd Jassem al-Freij (R) during a field visit to military units and checkpoints at an unknown location in the south of Syria, January 22, 2015 (Photo: AFP) SF editor: Vzglyad’s article appeared after the fall of Palmyra, so it is necessary to add a few words about it. The liberation of Palmyra from ISIS in March, 2016, had the main pur...

Yesterday SouthFront reported that at least 14 US-led coalition military advisers had been captured by the Syrian Special Forces in a bunker in the city of Aleppo. 19:42 US EST, VETERANS TODAY added: We have some confirmation on this from our own Syrian sources. The numbers are much higher than just the 14 names released by the Syrian MP via Facebook. That report of 14 officers might be a different group, as it had specific names. My report has only the numbers and nationalities…and the news that they were not really “captured” but were allowed out as part of a deal between all parties involved. You see the Moroccans are missing in these numbers. No. of American officers is 22 British 16 French 21 Israeli 7 Turkish 62 The list of 14 names leaked by a Syrian MP are not the real names of those officers, they are cover names; it is standard practice to use a fake ID when serving in a secret op. This is a leak that MSM is ignoring, as they have about all stories of captured foreign off...