ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Agence France-Presse in Seoul North Korea has fired two short-range missiles into the sea, Seoul's military has said, in an apparent show of anger at an upcoming joint military drill between South Korea and the United States . The North fired the two short-range ballistic missiles into the East Sea (Sea of Japan) at 1.20am and 1.30am local time on Sunday, the South's defence ministry told AFP. "Their range appear to be around 500km [310 miles]," he said, adding that Seoul's military had stepped up monitoring for additional launches. The move – the latest in a series of similar launches in recent weeks – came a day after Pyongyang condemned an upcoming Seoul-Washington naval joint exercise. The annual drill, to be held from 16 to 21 July, involves the US aircraft carrier George Washington, which arrived in the southern port of Busan on Friday. The North bristled at the massive, nuclear-powered carrier visiting the port, calling it a "reckless" act of pr...

At least 80% of all audio calls, not just metadata, are recorded and stored in the US, says whistleblower William Binney – that's a 'totalitarian mentality' William Binney testifies before a German inquiry into surveillance. Photograph: Getty Images William Binney is one of the highest-level whistleblowers to ever emerge from the NSA. He was a leading code-breaker against the Soviet Union during the Cold War but resigned soon after September 11, disgusted by Washington’s move towards mass surveillance. On 5 July he spoke at a conference in London organised by the Centre for Investigative Journalism and revealed the extent of the surveillance programs unleashed by the Bush and Obama administrations. “At least 80% of fibre-optic cables globally go via the US”, Binney said. “This is no accident and allows the US to view all communication coming in. At least 80% of all audio calls, not just metadata, are recorded and stored in the US. The NSA lies about what it stores.” The NS...

The Independent OK, so by this afternoon, the exchange rate of death in two days was 40-0 in favour of Israel. But now for the Gaza story you won’t be hearing from anyone else in the next few hours. It’s about land. The Israelis of Sederot are coming under rocket fire from the Palestinians of Gaza and now the Palestinians are getting their comeuppance. Sure. But wait, how come all those Palestinians – all 1.5 million – are crammed into Gaza in the first place? Well, their families once lived, didn’t they, in what is now called Israel? And got chucked out – or fled for their lives – when the Israeli state was created. And – a drawing in of breath is now perhaps required – the people who lived in Sederot in early 1948 were not Israelis, but Palestinian Arabs. Their village was called Huj. Nor were they enemies of Israel. Two years earlier, these same Arabs had actually hidden Jewish Haganah fighters from the British Army. But when the Israeli army turned up at Huj on 31 May 1948, they ex...

“Fallout Continues from German/U.S. Double Agent” is the headline of Deutsche Welle (DW) Sunday, but the headline is an understatement, as Germany responds, across the political spectrum, to British puppet Obama’s unrelenting spying on Germany, treating it, in effect, as an enemy state. On July 2, German authorities arrested a 31-year-old employee of Germany’s foreign intelligence service, the BND, who reportedly sold 218 documents to an unnamed U.S. intelligence agency for 25,000 euros ($33,000), according to the German news agency DPA, which cited unnamed BND officials. This BND aide copied the documents to his flash drive. Of the documents sold, reportedly three pertain to a just-launched German parliamentary inquiry into NSA surveillance programs. The DW story says that the man offered his services to to the U.S. Embassy in Berlin, but that “the U.S., rather than notifying the BND, may have taken him up on his offer, one person said.” On July 4, Deputy Foreign Minister Stephan Stei...

The Saudi deployment of 30,000 troops to its border with Iraq, earlier this week, is not what it seems, given the Saudi role in creating terrorism, including its role in the 9/11 attacks on the United States, in the first place. The German news agency Deutsche Welle put some much needed attention on the Saudi backing of ISIS, yesterday, with an interview with Michael Lueder, a German journalist and Arabist based in Berlin who characterized the Saudi relationship with ISIS as “ambivalent.” “Saudi Arabia has an ambivalent strategy when it comes to ISIS. The Saudi government itself does not directly support ISIS,” he said. “But wealthy Saudi businessmen, in particular, are sending ISIS militants money. How much is unknown. And from what we have been able to determine, Arabs in other Gulf states are doing so as well. Those who support ISIS see it as a bulwark against the Shi’ites and the Shi’ite-led government in Iran.” He said that while the Saudi government is “very concerned” about the ...

The Turkish daily Hurriyet reports on a conference on China’s new initiative, “Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st Century Maritime Silk Road,” held in Beijing on July 2-3 and sponsored by the People’s Daily with the participation of more than 50 journalists from 11 regional countries. “When we mention the Silk Road, we can’t do it without looking at history. In history, the west for China was Central Asia. And now we have all the options to open new transportation channels between the West and East, from Europe to Asia,” said Liu Yunshan, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China. “The key words of this project are Silk Road and cooperation. With this spirit, we can achieve our goals,” he added. “This idea reflects the Chinese concepts of peaceful and inclusive development. China has made much progress in development in the last decades. But we believe in development, not only for ourselves, but also for our neighbors, region and even for th...

By RT Ukraine's new coalition calls officially for “pre-emptive nuclear strikes”. Governors on the international wanted list. And the sordid past of the new oligarch President. Parliament moves to quit Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty; Nazis 'regular reconnaissance visits to nuclear power stations'; Billionaire governor, whose Privatbank is top recipient of new IMF bailout, being placed on international wanted list for 'banned methods of warfare and aggravated murder'. Intelligence expert William Engdahl; economist Professor Michael Hudson; former US intelligence officer Scott Rickard; and the prosecutor who put Yulia Timoshenko's partner behind bars, Martha Boersch. RT: Nuclear weapons plans in the new gangster state of Ukraine. Coming up. Announcer: Ukraine's new coalition calls officially for “pre-emptive nuclear strikes”. Governors on the international wanted list. And the sordid past of the new oligarch President. RT: Pensions halved to $3 a day, heatin...

By Vera Graziadei Early this morning I call Italian writer Christian Malaparte, who’s been in Kramatorsk with American photographer Patrick Lancaster. For the last five days, they’ve been living through heavy bombing and shelling, done by the Ukrainian army. Patrick has a lot of evidence that the army is targeting civilians and civilian homes on purpose, thereby committing gross war crimes. Vera: How are you and Christian getting on there? Patrick: Well, there is a little bit of confusion right now. We were – about half an hour ago – woken up by the hotel staff, the one person that have been staffing the hotel, and they told us that officially hotel is now closed, but they said we are welcome to stay as long as we want. They told us that there’s an impression in the town that later on today the Ukrainian military will be moving into the town and will take in heavy equipment. V: So are you staying or leaving? P: I think we are going to be staying for a while. The bombing started about ...