ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

The Many Ways That You’re Being Tracked, Catalogued and Controlled By John W. Whitehead “[A security camera] doesn’t respond to complaint, threats, or insults. Instead, it just watches you in a forbidding manner. Today, the surveillance state is so deeply enmeshed in our data devices that we don’t even scream back because technology companies have convinced us that we need to be connected to them to be happy.”—Pratap Chatterjee, journalist January 07, 2014 - What is most striking about the American police state is not the mega-corporations running amok in the halls of Congress, the militarized police crashing through doors and shooting unarmed citizens, or the invasive surveillance regime which has come to dominate every aspect of our lives. No, what has been most disconcerting about the emergence of the American police state is the extent to which the citizenry appears content to passively wait for someone else to solve our nation’s many problems. Unless Americans are prepared to ...

By Finian Cunningham January 07, 2014 - " Press TV " - US top diplomat John Kerry must have taken us for fools. Earlier this week, speaking in Saudi Arabia, he warned that al-Qaeda in Syria and Iraq are “the most dangerous players in the region.” The US secretary of state vowed Washington’s support for the Iraqi government in its fight to regain control of towns in its western province taken over by militants belonging to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). That’s rich. The government of Syria is battling to root out these same al-Qaeda-linked militants. But in that country, Washington offers no such support. In fact, the priority there for Washington is to sack the government of President Bashar Al-Assad. So, how does Kerry square that contradiction? In Iraq, al-Qaeda is a threat that needs to be defeated, whereas in Syria the very same organization is apparently not a threat, but the Syrian government is. What’s even richer is that Kerry was issuing his warnings abo...

Although the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant is ramping up its campaign in Iraq, it is finding itself increasingly threatened in Syria . Hundreds of rebels and ISIL fighters have died as part of the largest and most serious rift between rebel and al Qaeda-linked forces since the start of the Syrian civil war. Provoked by incessant raids, detentions, assassinations, mutilations and the imposition of strict rules on rebel-held territories, Jaish al-Mujahideen and the Syrian Revolutionaries Front attacked a number of ISIL positions in Aleppo and Idlib on Jan. 3. The rebel offensive against ISIL has led to the capture of many ISIL positions across northern Syria, causing the jihadist group to threaten a withdrawal from areas where it is fighting the al Assad regime if rebel attacks do not cease within 24 hours. The rift is understood to represent a blow to the ongoing fight against the Syrian regime, but ISIL has occasionally been so aggressive toward other rebel groups that a...

Georgian and American soldiers on Exercise "Agile Spirit 2013" at Vaziani military base outside Tbilsi, Mar 29. Georgia is considering replacing its aging helicopter fleet with Western technology. (VANO SHLAMOV/AFP/Getty Images) Summary A seemingly mundane but potentially controversial plan by the Georgian military to renovate its aging helicopter fleet has put the spotlight on the small but strategic country and its delicate balance between Russia and the West. During a press conference on Dec. 27, 2013, Georgian Defense Minister Irakli Alasania announced that Georgia would completely phase out its Soviet-era helicopters and replace them with Western models from the United States and possibly France. This is not the first time Georgia has looked to the West to renovate its helicopter fleet, but phasing out the fleet entirely, not to mention other possible procurements, will create suspicion in Moscow. The prospect of such an overhaul faces considerable obstacles, but if Tbi...

Summary The mysterious death of a Saudi jihadist leader in Beirut is raising questions about Riyadh's increasingly convoluted militant proxy network in the region. Iran and Saudi Arabia are locked in a battle for influence in the Levant, and groups like the Abdullah Azzam Brigades are eager to exploit this dynamic. Saudi Arabia's strategy of selectively supporting jihadists in this active battle zone will come with costs, however. Analysis Majid al-Majid, a Saudi national, earned a spot on both the U.S. and Saudi lists of most-wanted terrorists in 2012 when he was revealed in jihadist forums as the new emir of the Abdullah Azzam Brigades. The Abdullah Azzam Brigades came on the jihadist militant scene around 2004 as an offshoot of al Qaeda in Iraq. The group has been responsible for attacks across the region, including rocket attacks against Israel from Lebanon and an attack on a Japanese oil tanker off the coast of Oman. When al-Majid took command, he emphasized the battle in ...

Europe's Economic Crisis Prediction: High unemployment rates will deepen the social and political consequences of the crisis as economic turmoil spreads northward on the Continent. Although extremist or anti-establishment parties will gain influence over the political debate, they will not be strong enough to take power in any eurozone country and the traditional elites will manage to stay in charge in 2013. Click to Enlarge Evaluation: Our forecast that the European Central Bank would have the tools to prevent a widespread financial panic in 2013 proved correct, and the traditional political elite managed to stay in power. However, rising unemployment weakened support for the political establishment, while extremist, Euroskeptical and anti-establishment parties gained popularity and increasingly influenced the political debate. We also correctly forecast the spread of the crisis to the north, with core countries such as France and the Netherlands coping with the political and so...

Summary Although the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant is ramping up its campaign in Iraq, it is finding itself increasingly threatened in Syria. Hundreds of rebels and ISIL fighters have died as part of the largest and most serious rift between rebel and al Qaeda-linked forces since the start of the Syrian civil war. The rate of losses is unsustainable, but there is little reason to think ISIL will back down in either Iraq or Syria. Analysis Provoked by incessant raids, detentions, assassinations, mutilations and the imposition of strict rules on rebel-held territories , Jaish al-Mujahideen and the Syrian Revolutionaries Front attacked a number of ISIL positions in Aleppo and Idlib on Jan. 3. The rebel offensive against ISIL has led to the capture of many ISIL positions across northern Syria, causing the jihadist group to threaten a withdrawal from areas where it is fighting the al Assad regime if rebel attacks do not cease within 24 hours. The rift is understood to represent a bl...

The latest round of negotiations among Sudan, Ethiopia and Egypt over Ethiopia's planned Grand Renaissance Dam ended on Jan. 5 without the three sides reaching an agreement about how Egypt's concerns would be addressed. Ethiopia is planning to build the dam on a major tributary of the Nile River, the Blue Nile, which accounts for about 85 percent of the Nile River. While Ethiopia wants to move quickly on constructing the dam, which would house a 6,000-megawatt hydroelectric plant, Egypt is concerned that the dam's construction would threaten its water supply farther downstream. Egypt's water supplies could be threatened in two ways . First, once the dam is constructed, a massive 74 billion cubic meter reservoir will need to be filled. Sudan and Egypt agreed in 1959 to a water-sharing agreement where Egypt and Sudan get a quota of 55.5 and 18.5 billion cubic meters annually, respectively, though Ethiopia claims the two countries do not consume their entire quota. T...