ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Long-suppressed report finds Pakistani government was negligent, inefficient, and incompetent in the bin Laden affair. If there were one, simple conclusion to be drawn from the report of the Pakistani commission established to investigate Operation Neptune Spear - the US raid on Abbottabad, Pakistan, in which Osama bin Laden was killed on May 2, 2011 - it would be that there are times when things are precisely as they appear. The long-suppressed Abbottabad Commission report has now emerged to provide a timely reminder of a truism which this author learned long ago through hard experience: When seeking to explain negative events, and given a choice between some grand conspiracy and simple incompetence, bet on incompetence every time. Who would have guessed? Surely, few either in the US or Pakistan were prepared to believe that Osama bin Laden, easily the most wanted man in the world, could have lived for years with multiple wives and many children in the heart of a military town

Summary There is a great debate underway in Egypt on whether the move to oust President Mohammed Morsi is tantamount to a military coup. Considering that the Egyptian army is forcibly removing a democratically elected president in the wake of nation-wide unrest, the military intervention is indeed a coup. However, it differs from other coups in that direct military rule will not be imposed. Analysis There is a great debate underway in Egypt on whether the move to oust President Mohammed Morsi is tantamount to a military coup . Considering that the Egyptian army is forcibly removing a democratically elected president in the wake of nation-wide unrest, the military intervention is indeed a coup. However, it differs from other coups in that direct military rule will not be imposed. There is considerable public support for Morsi's removal, so the provisional authority that will replace him likely will be a broad-based entity that includes representatives of the nation's main politi

Arab Spring Timeline Year JUL032013 Egypt: Constitution Will Be Temporarily Suspended, Army Head Says The Egyptian Constitution will be temporarily suspended and the constitutional court head will run state affairs, army head Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said July 3, Al Arabiya reported. JUL032013 Egypt: Army Tells Morsi That He Is No Longer President The Egyptian army informed Mohammed Morsi that he is no longer the president, Ahram reported July 3. JUL032013 Egypt: Military 'Roadmap' To Include For New Elections, Constitution Suspension, Parliament Dissolution The Egyptian military's "roadmap" for the country's political future will involve dissolving the parliament, suspending the constitution, and calling for new presidential and parliamentary elections, BBC reported July 3. JUL032013 Egypt's Atypical Military Coup A military coup is not the outcome the army wanted. JUL032013 Egypt: Troops Movements Reported In Suez, Sinai Some 20 armored vehicles and per

Analysis The deadline attached to the Egyptian military's ultimatum expired July 3, and it appears the military is removing President Mohammed Morsi from office to begin the plan that it leaked to the press on July 2. Morsi gave a defiant speech last night , saying that he would not give up his electoral legitimacy -- essentially forcing the military to choose between intervening and removing him directly or reaching some kind of compromise. It appears the former is in the process of happening, though it is still possible that the military could be engaging in a show of force to dramatically increase pressure on negotiations. The military could be using this brinksmanship to get the Muslim Brotherhood to adopt the "road map" the military released for the political future. Al Masry Al Youm reported earlier that Muslim Brotherhood and Wasat party leaders had been banned from leaving the country and that it was likely the Egyptian intelligence service was involved in enfor

The Syrian conflict continued to morph into a full-blown regional sectarian struggle (see our new report). President Bashar Assad’s forces recaptured the town of Qusayr near the Lebanese border with the backing of Hizbollah fighters, whose open support for the regime is mobilising Sunnis across the region. An unprecedented conference in Cairo brought together some of the most prominent, and usually divided, Sunni religious opinion leaders in a joint appeal for jihad against the regime. Their call was endorsed by Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi. Meanwhile Iraqi Shiite militia are reportedly streaming into Syria in ever greater numbers. As both regime and opposition forces take on increasingly overt confessional stances, the massacre of Shiites in the eastern village of Hatla, reportedly carried out by opposition armed groups, further inflamed the atmosphere. UN/Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi reported that a planned peace conference in Geneva is unlikely to take place before August

DAR ES SALAAM, TANZANIA — U.S. President Barack Obama’s visit to Tanzania as the last stop of his African tour, underscores a silent competition with China to tap the country’s growing economic potential. It’s always a hard day’s work at the Kivukoni fish market in Dar es Salaam.  This place was once the center of business and trade in the city by the sea.  But that has all changed.  Tanzania’s economy has a 7% growth rate and the country is quickly developing.  Competition to get into the market is heating up. Chinese companies are already at the forefront, leading construction of buildings and infrastructure. But the United States is also looking for a stronger foothold, a priority emphasized by U.S. President Barack Obama’s visit to the country. Lead economist for the World Bank in Tanzania Jacques Moriset says the competition can be a good thing. “In my view, it’s a benefit, it’s a huge opportunity for Tanzania, I mean I strongly believe in the basic principle of economy: com

Want X­ray vision like the man of steel? A technology that lets you see behind walls could soon be built in to your cell phone. MIT professor Dina Katabi and graduate student Fadel Adib have announced Wi­Vi, a demonstration of a technology that uses Wi­Fi to allow a viewer to "see" a person moving behind a wall. (Wi­Vi stands for "Wi­Fi" and "vision.") Previous work demonstrated that the subtle reflections of wireless inter signals bouncing off a human could be used to track that person's movements, but those previous experiments either required that a wireless router was already in the room of the person being tracked, or "a whole truck just to carry the radio," said Katabi. The new device uses the same wireless antenna as is found in a cell phone or laptop and could in theory one day be embedded in a phone. [See also " WiSee Detects Your Gestures Using WiFi ."] The trick is canceling out all interfering signals – Wi-Fi doesn'

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's state media warned on Saturday that a "counterstrike" against the Philippines was inevitable if it continues to provoke Beijing in the South China Sea, potentially Asia's biggest military troublespot. The warning comes as ministers from both countries attend an Association of Southeast Asian Nations meeting in Brunei, starting Saturday, which hopes to reach a legally binding code of conduct to manage maritime conduct in disputed areas. At stake are potentially massive offshore oil reserves. The seas also lie on shipping lanes and fishing grounds. Both China and the Philippines have been locked in a decades-old territorial squabble over the South China Sea, with tensions flaring after the Philippines moved new soldiers and supplies last week to a disputed coral reef, prompting Beijing to condemn Manila's "illegal occupation". The overseas edition of the People's Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party,