ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

What if you could control the weather?   It’s a question that has exercised mankind for millennia.   Now evidence has emerged that the US Intelligence community is funding climate research in what a leading climate scientist fears is a step towards controlling and weaponizing weather. Professor Alan Robock, a climate scientist at Rutgers University in New Jersey, has revealed in a recent conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San José how three years ago he received a telephone call from two men who claimed to be working for the CIA.  Apparently they said: “we are working for the CIA and would like to know if some other country was controlling our climate would we be able to detect it?” Robock said he was scared by the call revealing that he thought that the CIA operatives were also wondering “if we wanted to control someone else’s climate could  they  detect it?” Further evidence of the CIA’s interest in clim...

Security forces inspect the site of a suicide attack outside the Shia mosque [Massoud Hossaini/AP] On September 29, an ISIS suicide bomber attacked a Shiite mosque in the Afghan capital Kabul, according to the ISIS-linked news agency Amaq. According to Amaq, 50 civilians were killed or injured in the attack. From its side, Afghanistan Interior Ministry spokesman Najib Danish said that the suicide bomber attacked a mosque in Qala-e-Fathullah area in Kabul city at around 2pm local time. According to Danish, 6 civilians were killed and 30 others were injured. Danish also announced that 3 suspects linked to the attack were arrested by the Afghan Police. In a separated development, the Taliban news agency Voice of Jihad announced that Taliban fighters attacked and captured a checkpoint of the Afghan Army in Kunsak area of Bala Baluk district in Farah province in western Afghanistan. Voice of Jihad said that 9 Afghan soldiers were killed, and 3 other were captured in the attack. ...

On Friday, ISIS fighters captured 5 checkpoints of the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) near al-Sukhnah town in the eastern Homs countryside, according to the ISIS-linked news agency Amaq. The media also claimed that ISIS fighters captured al-Qualya’a village and its gas station south of al-Sukhnah town. Moreover, Amaq even claimed that ISIS fighters capture the al-Hail gas field east of Palmyra city. Amaq went on and claimed that ISIS fighters attacked the SAA positions in al-Qaryatayn town southwest of Palmyra. Pro-government sources claim that at least the attack of ISIS sleeper cells on al-Qaryatayn have been repelled. On other frontlines, the situation remains unclear. Clashes near the T-3 station: According to Amaq, ISIS fighters killed 40 SAA soldiers around al-Sukhnah, and 34 other in the T-3 station on Friday. Amaq also said that ISIS captured the following weapons from the SAA: two battle tanks; two BMP-1 vehicles; two 122mm artillery pieces; two 23mm guns; a Korne...

FILE IMAGE: A Kurdish Peshmerga forces member (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images) The Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) will declare an independence of Iraqi Kurdistan unilaterally, if the Iraqi Federal Government does not enter negotiations on the terms and condictions of this move, Vahal Ali, director of communications in the office of Kurdistan Region President Massoud Barzani said on September 29. Ali blamed the Iraqi government for a “very aggressive” stance towards the independence referendum as well as for Baghdad’s threats to cut the KRG oil pipeline to Turkey and  the air flights ban over the region , according to  the New York Times (NYT) . “We are hopeful that these are all temporary measures,” the NYT quoted Ali as saying. “ We want this to be a peaceful transition, but if Baghdad decides not, there is a lot we can also  do.” Barzani’s spokesman emphasized that Iraqi Kurds overwhelmingly voted in favor of independence ...

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), or drones, have long been staples in the U.S. military’s arsenal and are increasingly being utilized by more and more militaries around the world. But so-called “micro-drones” – miniaturized UAVs – are beginning to saturate the civilian market, and defense officials worry that they could be adapted by terrorists or other non-state actors to carry out a variety of attacks. Along those lines, British defense firm Selex ES recently introduced a magnetic shield-type of weapon that acts as a countermeasure to ward off and defeat commercial drones. As reported by  Sputnik , the Falcon Shield was in development for three years, making its public debute at the Defense and Security Equipment International Exhibit in London in mid-September. Officials with Selex ES did not explain the new system’s proprietary technology in much detailed – technology co-developed with military partners and customers – but they did say that drones can be detected...

Click to see the full-size map On September 28, the Egyptian Defense Ministry announced that the Egyptian Air Force coducted  an aerial operation against a group of terrorists who tried to infiltrate throw the Egyptian western border. Egyptian sources suggested that the terrorist were likely ISIS members who tried to enter Egypt from Libya. Egyptian warplanes discovered, tracked and destroyed at least 10 vehicles of the terrorists loaded with weapons, ammo and other smuggled materials during the aerial operation, according to the Egyptian Defense Ministry statement. Moreover, the statement revealed that the decision to launch the operation was taken after the Egyptian Army received critical information that terrorist are preparing to enter Egypt. In the last few months ISIS tried to enter Egypt through the western border several times. ISIS is likely trying to find a foothold in western Egypt as it is very hard for ISIS to supply its cells in the Sinai desert in easte...

ALLAUDDIN KHAN / AP On September 28, 12 Afghan policemen were killed in a suicide attack that targeted a base of the Afghan Police in Maroof district of Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan, according to Afghan sources. The Taliban announced that the suicide bomber was one of its members and took credit for the attack. Zia Durani spokesman for Kandahar province police chief revealed that the suicide bomber was driving a VBIED based on a Humvee vehicle. Durani also announced that “employees” from the Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS) were among the casualties. 2 Afghan policemen and 16 civilians were injured in the attack were killed in an IED attack in the Afghanistan capital Kabul on September 28 also. The Afghan Police said that the IED was attached to a police vehicle while it was parked outside of a mosque in Kabul. So far, no group has taken responsibility for the attack. In a separated development, Pakistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesper...

Maybe  Elon Musk  had a point… The US’s military leaders have agreed on a strategy to guarantee the US military retains its global dominance during the twenty-first century: Connect everything with everything, as  DefenseOne  describes it.  The result?  An unimaginably large cephapoloidal nervous system armed with the world’s most advanced weaponry, and in control of all military equipment belonging to the world’s most powerful army. Sound familiar? It should… A networked military – an extreme take on the “internet of things” – would connect everything from F-35 jets to the Navy’s destroyers to the armor of the tanks crawling over the land to the devices carried by soldiers – every weapon would be connected.  Every weapon, vehicle, and device connected, sharing data, constantly aware of the presence and state of every other node in a truly global network. Of course, the development of these “smart” weapons should unnerve Tesla CEO Elon Musk,...