ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad says Russia has begun fulfilling some of its weapons contracts, but he did not say whether those deliveries include components of a controversial air defense system. Assad spoke Thursday in an interview televised on Al-Manar - a station controlled by the Lebanese Shi'ite militia Hezbollah - a close Assad ally. Moscow had promised to go ahead with the long-delayed sale of the S-300 air defense system, despite warnings this week from Israel that it would view such a move as a security threat. Assad said "it is not our policy to talk publicly about military issues," saying the various defense contracts with its longtime ally "have nothing to do" with Syria's ongoing civil war. On Thursday, as media reports of S-300 deliveries circulated, Israeli newspapers quoted a top Israeli official as saying the Jewish state would respond at a point the S-300 missile system is operational. The Israeli daily Haaretz quoted National

Depending on your point of view, U.S. General Keith Alexander is either an Army four-star trying to stave off a cyber Pearl Harbor attack, or an overreaching spy chief who wants to eavesdrop on the private emails of every American. Alexander, 61, has headed the National Security Agency since 2005, making him the longest-serving chief in the history of an intelligence unit so secretive that it was dubbed “No Such Agency.” Alexander also runs U.S. Cyber Command, which he helped to create in 2010 to oversee the country's offensive and defensive operations in cyberspace. The dual role means Alexander has more knowledge about cyber threats than any other U.S. official, since the NSA already protects the most sensitive U.S. data, extracts intelligence from foreign networks and uses wiretaps to track suspected terrorists. But it also puts the general at the center of an intense debate over how much power the government should have to spy on private citizens in the name of protect

The White House says U.S. President Barack Obama will talk cybersecurity next week with Chinese President Xi Jinping, amid fresh reports of cyber attacks on critical U.S. defense systems. U.S. officials have not commented on the latest reports, but White House spokesman Jay Carney says he is sure cybersecurity will be discussed when President Obama meets with President Xi in California. Carney called the issue a "key concern" of the administration that U.S. officials raise at every level in meetings with Chinese counterparts. Monday, The Washington Post newspaper published parts of a confidential defense report accusing Chinese cyberspies of compromising some of most sensitive and advanced U.S. weapons systems. Classified sections of the report outlined more than two-dozen breaches of missile defense and other weapons systems by Chinese hackers, including many that had not been previously reported. China has firmly denied involvement in the hacking attempts. It has also retur

China's state news agency says the Chinese army will conduct an exercise next month to test new types of combat forces, including units using digital technology. Xinhua reported Wednesday the drill marks the first time China's military will focus on digitalized combat forces to be used in "informationalized war." The announcement of the digitalized combat forces comes as U.S. President Barack Obama is expected to talk about cybersecurity next week with Chinese President Xi Jinping, amid fresh reports of cyber attacks on critical American defense systems. U.S. officials have not commented on the latest reports, but White House spokesman Jay Carney says he is certain cybersecurity will be discussed when President Obama meets with President Xi in California. Carney calls the issue a "key concern" for the administration that U.S. officials raise at every level in meetings with Chinese counterparts. Monday, The Washington Post newspaper published parts of a con

Agents from five continents have smashed a huge money-laundering scheme that allegedly helped 1 million criminals hide their profits. The U.S. Justice Department said Tuesday it indicted the Costa-Rican based Liberty Reserve digital currency company. Five suspects were arrested in New York, Spain and Costa Rica. Two others are still at large. The indictment accuses Liberty Reserve of laundering $6 billion in profits from crimes, including credit card fraud, identity theft, drug trafficking and child pornography. Justice officials say Liberty reserve gave criminals a way to hide their money without leaving a trace by letting them set up accounts with fake names and phony addresses. Police in 17 countries helped U.S. and Costa Rican authorities break up the ring. They include agents in Morocco, China, Russia, Australia and western Europe.

Analysts say it will be more difficult for the United States or other Western powers to enforce a no-fly zone over Syria if Russia goes ahead with the sale of anti-aircraft missiles to its ally Damascus. Moscow said this week it plans to deliver the advanced S-300 air defense system to the embattled government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, despite objections by the U.S., France and Israel. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Tuesday the transfer will be a "stabilizing factor" and will deter what he called "some hotheads" from considering sending foreign forces to intervene in the Syrian conflict. The surface-to-air missiles would represent a major upgrade over Syria's current air defenses and could challenge Western aircraft, said Ben MacQueen, a Middle East analyst at Australia's Monash University. "The S-300 has the capacity to knock down cruise missiles as well as high-altitude planes," he said. "So the possession of

A rapid expansion in 2013 of vigilante militias – civilian armed groups that claim to fight crime – has created a third force in Mexico’s ongoing cartel-related violence. Some of these militias contain well-meaning citizens and have detained hundreds of suspected criminals. However, they challenge the government’s necessary monopoly on the use of force to impart justice. As the militias spread, there is also concern some are being used by criminal groups to fight their rivals and control territory. The Peña Nieto administration needs to develop a coherent policy for dealing with the vigilantes, so that it can work with authentic community policing projects while stopping the continued expansion of unregulated armed groups; this also requires demonstrating that the state has sufficient capacity to restore law and order on its own. If the government fails to deal with this issue, militias could spread across the country, triggering more violence and further damaging the rule of law. Pres

State Duma MPs are discussing a proposal to allow Russian women to perform military service. The relevant amendments have been submitted to the Ministry of Defense for evaluation, Izvestia daily reports. The law on military service would feature a new subpoint that reads: "female citizens aged between 18 and 27…” may join the Russian services on the same grounds as men should they express a desire. For men of the same age group military service of one year is obligatory. According to the representative of the Ministry of Defense, quoted by the newspaper, “female military contractors are already serving in the armed forces, so there’s nothing wrong in this idea.” The other thing is that the law should be correctly worded so that it doesn’t provoke a negative reaction in the community," they added. About 50,000 women are already serving in the Russian Armed Forces. However, the main idea of the proposal to endorse the female military conscription is to equalize women's ri