ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

GETTY/REUTERS By J.Hawk Given the complexities of both international and domestic US politics, the US cruise missile strike on the Shayrat Airbase in the Homs Province in Syria cannot be subjected to causal reductionism. It is highly unlikely the decision was made on the basis of a single set of considerations. Rather, it was the outcome of several overlapping sets of problems with which the Trump Administration is coping right now. One can clearly argue and disagree over the relative importance of these factors. However, one should not deny all of them are present in the mind of Donald Trump (because yes, he has one) and in the minds of his cabinet and advisers. So, in no particular order: “Only Nixon could go to China” That’s because of Nixon’s impeccable McCarthyite credentials which meant that no matter what he did, he would not be treated as an appeaser at home. Even, in effect, giving away all of South Vietnam did not hurt his standing with the conservatives. Trump has no such cr...

The Operational Command of the Donetsk People’s Republic reported on arrival of the Islamic battalion of the Ukrainian Armed Forces to Kiev-controlled city of Mariupol. Deputy Commander of the Operational Command of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), Eduard Basurin (Photo: RIA Novosti / Igor Maslov) The Islamic battalion of the Ukrainian Armed Forces has been deployed in the Kiev-controlled city of Mariupol, Deputy Commander of the Operational Command of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), Eduard Basurin, said on Saturday. “We have discovered an arrival of the Islamic Battalion to Mariupol in the number of up to 500 people, who will operate in the zone of responsibility of the 36th Separate Marine Brigade. The battalion is stationed on Bakhchivandzhi Street. The battalion’s curator is a commander of a squadron of the Ukrainian National Guard, Major Karpenko,” Basurin said. Basurin did not explain why his “intelligence” called this division the “Islamic battalion.” He noted that ...

Originally appeared at ZeroHedge Last August, the intel world was abuzz following the news that a previously unknown hacker collective, “The Shadow Brokers” had hacked and released legitimate hacking tools from the NSA’s own special-ops entity, the “Equation Group”, with initial speculation emerging that the Russians may have penetrated the US spy agency as suggested by none other than Edward Snowden . The Shadow Brokers released a bunch of the organization’s hacking tools , and were asking for 1 million bitcoin (around $568 million at the time) to release more files, however failed to find a buyer. Attention then shifted from Russians after some speculated that the agency itself may be housing another “mole” insider . At the time, a former NSA source told Motherboard, that “it’s plausible” that the leakers are actually a disgruntled insider, claiming that it’s easier to walk out of the NSA with a USB drive or a CD than hack its servers.” As famed NSA whistleblower William Binney – w...