ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Identity of Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old former IT specialist at CIA, revealed at his own request, UK newspaper says. The Guardian said on Sunday it published the identity of 29-year-old Edward Snowden, a current employee of defence contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, at his own request. "I have no intention of hiding who I am because I know I have done nothing wrong," Snowden was quoted as saying. In a note accompanying the first set of documents he provided to the London-based newspaper, he wrote: "I understand that I will be made to suffer for my actions," but "I will be satisfied if the federation of secret law, unequal pardon and irresistible executive powers that rule the world that I love are revealed even for an instant." Booz Allen confirmed on Sunday that Snowden was an employee of the company. According to the US technology consulting firm, he has worked for Booz Allen for less than three months and was assigned to a team working in Hawaii. ...

Edward Snowden says he leaked details of US programme harvesting internet and phone records to protect basic liberties. A former CIA worker has revealed himself as the source of leaked information on a secret US spy programme that harvests internet and phone records of US citizens and foreigners. Edward Snowden, a current employee of defence contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, said he leaked information on the Prism programme to protect "basic liberties for people around the world". "I do not want to live in a world where everything I do and say is recorded. That is not something I am willing to support or live under." In an interview with the Guardian newspaper, the 29-year-old said he had no intention of hiding "because I have done nothing wrong", but was aware that his actions had made him a target for US agencies. Snowden leaked a presentation on the Prism surveillance system, which allows the US National Security Agency (NSA) and the FBI direct access t...

Interior ministry says all seven attackers killed in Afghan capital following assault on main airport.  A coordinated suicide and grenade attack on the Kabul airport has ended with all seven attackers being killed, the Afghan interior ministry has said. The Taliban earlier claimed responsibility for the pre-dawn attack on Monday, telling Al Jazeera that the target was the military airport. "There were seven assailants...two (suicide bombers) died detonating themselves and five others were killed in fighting," Mohammad Ayoub Salangi, chief of Kabul police, said. "There have not been any casualties to the security forces, and we have not received any report of civilian casualties so far," he said. Loud explosions and bursts of small-arms fire were heard during the attack, with the US embassy sounding its "duck and cover" alarm and its loudspeakers warning that the alarm was not a drill. Al Jazeera's Jennifer Glasse, reporting from the Afghan capital, ...

By Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese June 05, 2013  - Early in the morning of July 16, 1979, a 20-foot section of the earthen dam blocking the waste pool for the Church Rock Uranium Mill in New Mexico caved in and released 95 million gallons of highly acidic fluid containing 1,100 tons of radioactive material. The fluid and waste flowed into the nearby Puerco River, traveling 80 miles downstream, leaving toxic puddles and backing up local sewers along the way. Although this release of radiation, thought to be the largest in US history, occurred less than four months after the Three Mile Island partial nuclear meltdown, the Church Rock spill received little media attention. In contrast, the Three Mile Island accident made the headlines. And when the residents of Church Rock asked their governor to declare their community a disaster area so they could get recovery assistance, he refused. What was the difference between the Church Rock spill and the Three Mile Island partial meltdown?...

BRUSSELS — The U.S. commander in Afghanistan, General Joseph Dunford, says Taliban insurgents are inflicting heavy losses on Afghan national security forces as the Afghans assume the lead. U.S. Marine Corps General Joseph Dunford spoke to reporters on the sidelines of a gathering where U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel joined NATO defense ministers to talk about the way forward in Afghanistan as international forces prepare to draw down next year. As that drawdown nears, international troops are taking up more of a support role and it is the Afghans who are in the lead against the insurgents. Now on the front lines with international troops only providing backup, the Afghans are at risk for greater losses. Several weeks into the fighting season, General Dunford said the Taliban has done what it said it would do: step up high-profile assaults and insider attacks to create fear and intimidation. He called the losses among Afghan forces significant. “The numbers have been, as I look back...

The military trial of U.S. Army Private Bradley Manning began Monday.  He is charged with violating the Espionage Act by knowingly leaking thousands of classified documents to the Wikileaks whistleblower website . The documents, including sensitive State Department cables and classified military logs from Iraq and Afghanistan, comprised one of the largest breaches of security in U.S. history. Shortly after Wikileaks began posting the material online in May 2010, Manning, an intelligence analyst serving in Iraq, was detained by military authorities and has been held in solitary confinement since. Although he has already admitted leaking the documents and pleaded guilty to some of the charges, his closely watched trial is expected to last the summer. What Is Wikileaks? International not-for-profit group that publishes anonymously-submitted material online. Published leaks includes internal documents from the Church of Scientology, secret memos targeting corruption in the Kenyan g...

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s Prime Minister-designate Nawaz Sharif will review anti-terrorism cooperation with the United States soon after taking office.  A close adviser to Sharif says the incoming government will demand an immediate end to controversial American drone strikes within Pakistani territory for better future ties. The newly-elected National Assembly on Wednesday will formally select Nawaz Sharif as the country’s prime minister for an unprecedented third time because his political party, the Pakistan Muslim League or PML-N, enjoys a majority in the lower house of parliament. On the home front, the incoming government is expected to look for ways to revive a deteriorating economy by addressing the severe energy crisis facing the country.  But critics say Sharif will also have to take urgent steps to ease strains plaguing diplomatic relations with the United States and seek an immediate end to drone strikes on Pakistani soil, a commitment he undertook during the electio...

A senior Chinese general says warships will continue to patrol waters where Beijing has territorial claims, despite disputes with other Asian countries. Speaking at an annual security conference in Singapore Sunday, Lieutenant-General Qi Jianguo, deputy chief of the People's Liberation Army, said Beijing regards the East China Sea and the South China Sea as being under Chinese sovereignty. Qi told the delegates that Chinese warships and patrolling activities are totally legitimate and uncontroversial. China is embroiled in territorial disputes with Japan, Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei and Malaysia over several resource-rich islands in the two seas.