ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

BY KATIE SIMMONS While China’s government may be officially communist, the Chinese people express widespread support for capitalism. Roughly three-quarters of the Chinese (76%) agree that most people are better off in a free market economy. And since 2002, the Chinese have consistently been one of the strongest proponents of capitalism compared with other publics around the world, even more so than Americans and Western Europeans. The past 30 years have brought enormous changes to the Chinese economy. In the late 1970s, the government started opening the economy to foreign investment and privatization. With these changes came sky-high economic growth – an average of 10% since 1980. And on Wednesday, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) released figures estimating that China is now the biggest economy in the world, surpassing the United States, though this achievement is up for  debate . China’s incredible economic expansion has led the Chinese to be overwhelmingly happy with th

Reuters / Jason Reed To infiltrate foreign networks and gain access to sensitive systems, the NSA has been using the tactics of “physical subversion” – deploying undercover agents in Chinese, German, South Korean and possibly even American companies, The Intercept reports. Past reports on the National Security Agency (NSA) have typically depicted a government organ that hacks other systems or works with private corporations to bypass their own encryption protections, but the latest report based on files leaked by Edward Snowden suggests the agency could be embedding operatives into foreign, as well as domestic, “commercial entities.” In a 13-page document published by The Intercept, the NSA describes six different programs that it considers to be “core secrets,” all of which are filed under the banner of “Sentry Eagle.” The document warns that any disclosure of the “secrets” will cause “exceptionally grave damage to US national security” and should not be done without an authorizatio

Reuters / Str I slamic State’s offensive on the Iraqi capital intensified as the jihadist fighters advanced as far as Abu Ghraib, a suburb only 8 miles away from Baghdad’s international airport. The outer suburb of Abu Ghraib is also the site of the infamous prison the US military used to humiliate and torture Iraqi detainees. There are reports by the Iraqi military that the militants are in possession of MANPAD anti-aircraft missiles. The short-range, shoulder-fired missiles can shoot down airplanes within a range of 15,000 feet. The Iraqi military, aided by US military personnel, have so far failed in foiling the advance toward Baghdad of the Islamic State militia (also known as ISIS, or ISIL), which has expanded its control of huge swathes of Iraq and Syria despite the increase in US-led airstrikes. A total of 60,000 Iraqi soldiers are assigned to defend the capital, alongside 12 teams of American advisors, an Iraqi officer told CBS News. Meanwhile, undercover IS mili

Terror tactics have always been partly theater designed to elicit public reaction, whether to draw attention to a grievance or to draw the U.S. military into a conflict. Yet, American pols and pundits seem to have forgotten this reality and thus continue to get manipulated, writes ex-CIA analyst Paul R. Pillar. By Paul R. Pillar International terrorism has evolved in significant ways even just in what could be called its modern era, over the past 45 years or so. Policies and practices in responding to it also have evolved during the same period. Useful lessons have been learned and applied. Enough time has gone by, however, and there have been enough discontinuities both in preferred terrorist methods and in official responses, that some of the lessons have been forgotten. This has been especially true in the United States, where much of the public appears to believe that the whole problem of international terrorism began on a September day 13 years ago. President George W. Bush announ

Exclusive: America’s plunge into the “dark side” last decade created a hidden history of shocking brutality, including torture and homicides, that the U.S. government would prefer to keep secret, even though many of the perpetrators are out of office, writes ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern. By Ray McGovern There’s more of a mystery to how three Guantanamo detainees died on June 10, 2006, than I realized when I described their deaths as suicides in a recent article about force-feeding methods at the notorious U.S. prison. Some very experienced investigators who have examined the evidence suspect the three were victims of homicides amid the torture regime employed by President George W. Bush’s underlings. Scott Horton, whose upcoming book Lords of Secrecy contains new insights into the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Tenet go-ahead on torture and other abuses, has supplied me with additional detail highly suggestive of foul play by CIA interrogators. President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Ch

By Ajamu Baraka  The U.S. is conducting a curious humanitarian war against ISIS in Syria. While Kobani, the largely Kurdish district that straddles the border with Turkey is being attacked by ISIS forces and facing the very real possibility of mass civilian killings if it falls, U.S. military spokespersons claimed that they are watching the situation in Kobani and have conducted occasional bombing missions but that they are concentrating their anti-ISIS efforts in other parts of Syria. Those other efforts appear to consist of bombing empty buildings , schools, small oil pumping facilities, an occasional vehicle and grain silos where food is stored to feed the Syrian people. Turkey also seems to be watching as the Kurds of Kobani fight to the death against ISIS. The humanitarian concerns of officials in the U.S. with the plight of Kurds in Kobani could not be more different than what occurred in Iraq when ISIS forces made a push into Kurdish territory. When the Kurdish city of Erbil wa

by Pierluigi Paganini Criminal gangs have stolen millions of dollars from ATMs worldwide using the Tyupkin malware which forces machines to dispense cash. Criminal gangs in Eastern Europe are increasing the number of attacks against automated teller machines (ATMs), not only tampering the machine with card skimmers which steal debit card data, but also using malware. The malicious code used by cyber criminals allow hackers to steal cash from the ATM without using cloned credit cards . The Interpol conducted a joint operation with experts at Kaspersky Lab, which allowed them to detect the Tyupkin malware on nearly 50 machines. The infected machines are ATMs from a particular manufacturer running a 32-bit version of Windows as explained by the experts involved in the investigations. As explained in a blog post on SecureList, Tyupkin submissions to Virus Total are mainly from Russia (20), but other samples (4) were reported also from the United States, India and China. Malware resea

By Larry Jagan YANGON - Peace talks between the Myanmar government and leaders of an array of ethnic rebel groups have stalled after a period of progress, raising doubts that President Thein Sein will be able to achieve the national ceasefire his quasi-civilian government has prioritized as part of an internationally lauded democratic reform program. After a protracted week of talks ended on September 26, negotiations are now at an impasse, according to sources familiar with the situation. As new fighting erupts in many ethnic areas, including deadly battles in Kachin, Karen, and Shan States, the risk is rising that the foreign-backed peace process could unravel altogether as the rainy season yields to the cool season when military offensives are traditionally launched. During a national address on October 1, Thein Sein said the conclusion of a national ceasefire was necessary for holding "successful" elections in 2015. It represented the first time Thein Sein had linked the