ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Video transcription Libya is facing its worst violence since the U.S.-backed ouster of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. To talk more about Libya, we are joined by Vijay Prashad, professor of international studies at Trinity College. He is the author of several books, including Arab Spring, Libyan Winter. AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman. Islamist militants in Libya say they’ve solidified control of the capital Tripoli after taking over the main airport and ousting rival militias. Libya is facing its worst violence since the U.S.-backed ouster of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. To talk more about Libya, we’re joined by Vijay Prashad in part two of our interview. Professor of international studies at Trinity College, he’s the author of a number of books, including Arab Spring, Libyan Winter and his most recent, The Poorer Nations: A Possible History of the Global South. Welcome to Democracy Now!, Vijay. Talk about what’s happening in

Militant Islamist fighters wave flags as they take part in a military parade along the streets of Syria's northern Raqqa province June 30, 2014. (Reuters) Both the Islamic State militants and the Syrian government have committed crimes against humanity during the civil war in Syria, a report by a special UN panel says. The report, conducted by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry, accuses the Islamic State militants of “widespread and systematic attacks on the civilian population” in Syria. "In areas of Syria under ISIS control, particularly in the north and northeast of the country, Fridays are regularly marked by executions, amputations and lashings in public squares," the four-member commission said in a statement. “Bodies of those killed are placed on display for several days, terrorizing the local population. Women have been lashed for not abiding by ISIS’s dress code. In Ar-Raqqah, children as young as 10 are being recruited and trained at ISIS cam

ARCHIVE PHOTO: Ukrainian soldiers in a tent camp in Rostov Region on 4 August, 2014. (RIA Novosti / Julia Nasulina) A group of 62 Ukrainian troops have crossed into Russia’s Rostov Region seeking shelter to save their lives amid an intensified counteroffensive recently launched by anti-Kiev militia in southeastern Ukraine. “Today, 62 servicemen of the Ukrainian Armed Forces turned to Russian border guards asking to let them into the Russian territory near Russia’s settlement of Shramko, Matveyevo-Kurgansky district, with the aim to save their lives,” the spokesman for the FSB's border guard office in the Rostov Region, Nikolai Sinitsyn, told Itar-Tass news agency on Wednesday. They were allowed to cross and provided with a transit corridor on the principles of humanism, but only after they left their weapons on the Ukrainian side of the border, Sinitsyn added. This case became the latest in a series of similar incidents where a total of over 500 Ukrainian troops crossed into Rus

Image by @PaulaSlier_RT Kiev forces have shelled residential areas in the center of the rebel-held town of Donetsk, killing at least three people and damaging several apartment blocks, a kindergarten and a cultural center. On Wednesday, Kalininsky District in the center of the city came under artillery fire from the government forces. RT’s Paula Slier arrived on the scene less than half an hour after the shelling when the local residents were “still in shock”. One of the missiles directly hit a passenger car on Shevchenko Boulevard, turning the vehicle into a torch. “There’s a car where three people have died and the bodies are badly burned inside,” Slier said.  Another missile hit the roof of the Youth Culture Center as several fire brigades were working to put out the fire caused by the explosion, she added. According to the City Council, a kindergarten and two apartment blocks were also shelled in the area. “We’re hearing from the militia that there were around six, seven hits at

By Pepe Escobar There's danger on the edge of town Ride the king's highway, baby Weird scenes inside the gold mine Ride the highway west, baby The Doors, The End The killer awoke before dawn. He put his American desert boots on. He took a knife from the ancient gallery. And he walked on down the hall - bathed in desert sunlight. The killer spoke with a British accent (London's East End?) Father (Saud), I want to kill you. Mother (Langley?) I want to... yeeeaaahh, c'mon! Then the sartorially composed Man in Black beheaded American photojournalist James Foley. This is not the end, beautiful friend. It's just a new beginning in the never-ending Global War on Terror. Now starring Papa Saud's brand new bag - The Caliph and his goons. This is the way Shock and Awe morphs into "Assad must go" morphs into Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, morphs into The Caliph's Black Britannia goon responding to "humanitarian" bombing. I'm my own baby now.

Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images / AFP As lawmakers in Washington, DC, consider ways to stem the flow of military equipment to local law enforcement agencies, police lobbies and organizations are firing back at the possibility. In fact, the National Tactical Officers Association (NTOA) – which lobbies for 1,600 different SWAT teams in the United States – has already sent emails to all congressional staffers urging them to keep in place the Pentagon program responsible for sending armored vehicles, body armor, and more to police departments around the country. “The police have to be one step ahead of the criminal element, have to be prepared for the worst-case scenario. You don’t want a community to be taken over by one or many criminals,” NTOA Executive Director Mark Lomax said to the Daily Beast . “We’re definitely for equipping our law enforcement officials out there properly, with proper training and proper policies.” The move comes as protests against police in Ferguson, Missouri,

Reuters / Lucy Nicholson Close to 200 state and local police departments in the United States have been suspended for losing military-level equipment transferred to them by the Pentagon, a new investigation found. According to the media outlet Fusion , its independent investigation into the Pentagon’s “1033 program,” which equips state and local police departments across the US with excess military equipment, turned up an alarming trend: Not only did many law enforcement agencies fail to comply with the program’s guidelines, they routinely lost dangerous weaponry. Already, the investigation has found that police departments in Arizona, California, Mississippi, Missouri, Georgia, and others have lost or cannot account for various types of weapons. This list includes M14 and M16 assault rifles, .45-caliber pistols, shotguns, and even vehicles. So far, 184 state and local departments have reportedly been suspended in a program that involves the participation of more than 8,000 agencies.

The guided-missile destroyer USS Ross (AFP Photo / US Navy) A US Navy destroyer and a French frigate are expected to enter the waters of the Black Sea next week, a diplomatic and military source said. “Two NATO warships at once will arrive in the Black Sea on September 3. They are US Navy’s destroyer USS Ross and frigate, Commandant Birot, of the naval forces of France,” the unnamed source told RIA-Novosti news agency. There’s currently one NATO ship present in the Black Sea, with French surveillance ship, Dupuy de Lome, expected to remain in the area until September 5. USS Vella Gulf, which was patrolling the black Sea since August 7, recently left for its port of commission. The maintenance of the operational rotational presence of NATO ships does not promote stability in the Black Sea region in any way, the source noted. According to the Montreux Convention of 1936, warships of non-Black Sea states can stay in the Black Sea for no more than 21 days. But, earlier this year, the