ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Russia's Kalashnikov Concern has identified 50 countries as potential priority buyers of its weapons by 2020. The company hopes that the present rebranding will boost its competitiveness in global arms industry. © Sputnik. Grigoriy Sisoev Kalashnikov Concern Nearly Closes Sales Gap Due to Sanctions: Rostec CEO MOSCOW, December 2 (Sputnik) — Russia's largest small arms manufacturer, Kalashnikov Concern, has rolled out its new development strategy for between now and 2020 that includes looking for potential buyers in 50 different countries, the company's CEO Alexei Krivoruchko said Tuesday. "Speaking about military products, we have identified 50 priority countries," Krivoruchko said at a historic conference that was hosted by the Russian state technologies corporation Rostec. The event, held in the Russian capital, announced the company's rebranding to increase "a feeling of unity" between its separate production lines. Kalashnikov representatives poi

Occupy Central deliberately ignores overwhelming public demands to end protests, resorts to clashes with police, violence. (Tony Cartalucci - LD) - Fully qualifying claims that the so-called "Occupy Central" or "Occupy Hong Kong" movement is little more than US-backed political subversion dressed as "pro-democracy," mobs remained in the streets, creating chaos as police worked to reopen streets and return order to downtown Hong Kong. A recent poll carried out by one of the movement's own collaborators - the Public Opinion Programme (HKU POP) of the University of Hong Kong - revealed over 80% wanted the protests brought to an end with over 60% advocating police action to clear the streets if necessary. In direct defiance not of the government in Beijing, but the will of Hong Kong's people themselves the "Occupy" movement claims to represent, protesters have vowed to continue disrupting order and remain in the streets as long as possi

Grad rockets fired indiscriminately into populated areas by Kiev regime - a war crime NATO has condemned before, but only when politically convenient. ( Tony Cartalucci - NEO ) - "The Grad rocket cannot be targeted, so shooting it into a town full of civilians, with no specific military objective, violates the laws of war." These words were found in a 2011 Human Rights Watch (HRW) document titled, " Libya: Rocket Attacks on Western Mountain Towns - Grads Striking Civilian Areas ," one of many reports ceaselessly cited by the United Nations and in turn, NATO as part of justifying a military intervention in the North African nation. At the time, accusations of indiscriminate bombardment of populated areas by air and artillery, and the use of punitive squads to detain, beat, torture, and/or arbitrary arrest citizens served as the rhetorical and legal foundation of NATO's "humanitarian war." In fact, the text of UN Security Council resolutions 1970 and 19

(Tony Cartalucci -LD) Germany's international broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW) published a video report of immense implications - possibly the first national broadcaster in the West to admit that the so-called "Islamic State" (ISIS) is supplied not by "black market oil" or "hostage ransoms" but billions of dollars worth of supplies carried into Syria across NATO member Turkey's borders via hundreds of trucks a day. The report titled, " 'IS' supply channels through Turkey ," confirms what has been reported by geopolitical analysts since at least as early as 2011 - that NATO member Turkey has allowed a torrent in supplies, fighters, and weapons to cross its borders unopposed to resupply ISIS positions inside of Syria. In one surreal scene from the DW report, anti-Syria terrorists are seen walking across the border and literally shot dead just on the other side by Kurdish fighters. Local residents and merchants interviewed by Germany&

When Rodney Watson was called up by the U.S. army for a second deployment to Iraq in 2006, he made the decision to desert. He now lives in a small room in a church in Vancouver, which immigration officials refrain from entering due to a tradition of sanctuary that dates back to medieval times. Yolande Cole VANCOUVER, British Columbia — For more than five years, former U.S. soldier Rodney Watson has lived as a prisoner, confined to a church that serves a poor neighborhood here. Wanted on charges of desertion in the United States and marked for deportation from Canada, he’s invoked the protection of sanctuary. Following a tradition established in medieval times, the Canada Border Services Agency officers have refrained from entering the church. Watson is safe from arrest as long as he stays within its walls. There are as many as two dozen men and women like Watson living in Canada today. Self-described conscientious objectors or resisters to the 2003 Iraq war, they have applied to Cana

(Reuters) - Protests erupted at universities across Egypt on Sunday, condemning a court decision to drop criminal charges against Hosni Mubarak, the president whose ouster in the 2011 uprising raised hopes of a new era of political openness. Hundreds of demonstrators gathered at Cairo University, waving pictures of Mubarak behind bars and demanding the "fall of the regime", the rallying cry of the Arab Spring uprisings that shook governments from Tunisia to the Gulf in 2011. Police stood ready at the gates to bar students that sought to take their demonstration into the streets. An Egyptian court on Saturday dropped its case against Mubarak over the killing of protesters in the 2011 uprising that ended his 30-year rule. The ruling was seen by activists as the latest sign that the rights won during the revolt are being eroded. Two people were killed and nine were wounded on Saturday evening, when security forces fired tear gas and birdshot to disperse about 1,000 protesters wh

(Reuters) - At a desert base, Gulf state Qatar is covertly training moderate Syrian rebels with U.S. help to fight both President Bashar al-Assad and Islamic State and may include more overtly Islamist insurgent groups, sources close to the matter say. The camp, south of the capital between Saudi Arabia's border and Al Udeid, the largest U.S. air base in the Middle East, is being used to train the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and other moderate rebels, the sources said. Reuters could not independently identify the participants in the program or witness activity inside the base, which lies in a military zone guarded by Qatari special forces and marked on signposts as a restricted area. But Syrian rebel sources said training in Qatar has included rebels affiliated to the “Free Syrian Army” from northern Syria. The sources said the effort had been running for nearly a year, although it was too small to have a significant impact on the battlefield, and some rebels complained of not being ta

The Brazilian Navy has selected MBDA's Sea Ceptor to provide the local area air defence for its next generation Tamandaré class corvettes. After the UK's Royal Navy (RN) and the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN), Brazil's is now the third navy to have chosen Sea Ceptor. With discussions also well advanced with other leading navies around the world, Sea Ceptor is rapidly establishing a significant user community. A production contract was awarded by the UK MoD in September 2013 for Sea Ceptor to provide the next generation Air Defence capability and so replace the Seawolf system on the Royal Navy's Type 23 frigates from 2016 onwards. Sea Ceptor will subsequently be transferred to the Royal Navy's new ships as they start entering service, when the Type 23s are replaced by the future Type 26s. This long term commitment to Sea Ceptor by the Royal Navy is a solid assurance to each new member of the weapon's user community of the longevity of this new system over the y