ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

By William R. Polk What we call the “Palestine Problem” is really a European Problem. No European society treated Jews as full members, and most have ugly records of anti-Semitism. Even relatively benign Western governments exploited, segregated or banished Jews (and such other minorities as Gypsies, Muslims and deviant Christians). Less benign governments practiced pogroms, massacres and expulsions. European history reveals a pervasive, powerful and perpetual record of intolerance to all forms of ethnic, cultural and religious difference. Jewish reaction to the various forms of repression was usually passivity but occasionally flight interspersed with attempts to join the dominant community. When Jews were attacked by Christian mobs during the Crusades, they suffered and tried to hide; when they were thrown out of such medieval cities as Cambridge, they fled to new refuges; when they and the Muslim Arabs were forced out of Spain in 1492, most found refuge in Muslim countries which w

Exclusive: An international community of resistance has formed against pervasive spying by the U.S. National Security Agency with key enclaves in Moscow (with NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden) and in London (with WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange), way stations visited by ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern. By Ray McGovern In early September in Russia, National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden told me about a documentary entitled “Citizenfour,” named after the alias he used when he asked filmmaker Laura Poitras to help him warn Americans about how deeply the NSA had carved away their freedoms. When we spoke, Snowden seemed more accustomed to his current reality, i.e., still being alive albeit far from home, than he did in October 2013 when I met with him along with fellow whistleblowers Tom Drake, Coleen Rowley and Jesselyn Radack, as we presented him with the Sam Adams Award for Integrity in Intelligence. NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden speaking in Moscow on Oct. 9, 2013. (From a video

Reuters / Yaser Al-Khodor Oil sales, ransoms and extortions help ISIS “generate tens of millions of dollars” monthly, the US Treasury estimates, promising to undermine the group’s finances and to impose sanctions on anyone attempting to do business with the extremists. The Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) has “amassed wealth at an unprecedented pace” and is now “probably the best-funded terrorist organization” the US has confronted, according to Treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, David Cohen. The bulk of the group’s wealth comes from oilfields in Syria and Iraq that are under the IS control, with oil sales earning the group “approximately $1 million a day,” the official said on Thursday, speaking at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The vice-president for the Endowment, Marwan Muasher, said the Islamic State is now "considered the world's wealthiest and most financially sophisticated terrorist organization,&quo

South Korean activists regularly launching balloons, carrying leaflets, transistor radios, DVDs, and even Choco Pies to the north.© AP Photo/ Ahn Young-joon Pyongyang has referred to the leaflet campaign , launched by South Korean activists and aimed at criticizing the North’s leadership and system, as a “de-facto declaration of war”, Yonhap news agency reports, citing the North’s reunification committee. “It's a de-facto declaration of war to insult and slander our supreme self-dignity and system with every kind of false and fabricated information,” North Korea's Secretariat of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said in a white paper, as quoted by Yonhap. “If another leaflet scattering operation is conducted despite the repeated warnings of the DPRK and opposition and rejection of the public at home and abroad, the inter-Korean relations will be pushed to an uncontrollable catastrophe and the situation will reach an alarming phase,” the North Korean news ag

  Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) and US President Barack Obama (R) .© Host Photo Agency Ukraine will need considerable help from Russia and the United States to have the country restored from the current crisis, former US Ambassador to Ukraine William Green Miller said. "It's going to take several years to recover from this period of turmoil, political unrest, revolution which is moving in the positive direction," Miller told RIA Novosti Wednesday. "But it will have to receive considerable help from the world institutions and from Russia as well as the United States, and Europe – all will have to work to restore Ukraine." Miller believes that the political reasons for the revolution are clear, and the remedies are being pursued. "So I think after few years Ukraine will be back on track," he concluded. As a result of the ongoing political crisis in the country, Ukraine is currently on the verge of a default. Kiev authorities are trying to re

The Swedish corvette HMS Visby is seen in the search for suspected "foreign underwater activity" at Mysingen Bay, Stockholm October 21, 2014. (Reuters/Fredrik Sandberg) Swedish Armed forces are ready to use force if they detect any foreign submarine in the waters of the Stockholm Archipelago, the supreme commander general said as the operation in search of the underwater threat entered its fifth day. "Our aim now is to force whatever it is up to the surface... with armed force, if necessary," Sverker Göranson said, as cited by the Local. He added that "the most important value of the operation - regardless of whether we find something -- is to send a very clear signal that Sweden and its armed forces are acting and are ready to act when we think this kind of activity is violating our borders.” According to Göranson, submarines are “extremely difficult” to detect and Sweden has never managed to find them in the past. On Tuesday, reports emerged that one of the

Contrary to predictions, the ousting of Saddam Hussein was followed by high levels of instability, a dangerous political vacuum and a fractured country divided along religious lines. This provided a fertile environment for terrorist groups to destabilize not only Iraq but the region as well. A primary tool was the targeting of U.S. forces, allies, the Shia community, the Christian community and other minorities. The most successful terrorist group has been the Islamic State formerly known as ISIL (the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) and ISIS (the Islamic State in Iraq and al Sham). [i] This group was formed by a splinter cell of al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) and later separated from AQI due to disputes over authority and power struggles. Through the use of a ruthless strategy and tactics, money, brutal efficiency, as well as alliances with local tribes this group has gained immense power and territory despite a limited number of fighters. [ii] Overall, the Islamic State seeks to bec