ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

A secret online activist, unbowed by threats and murders, is nominated for a free-speech award CATHERINE VERVIER Being a citizen journalist in Tamaulipas, one of Mexico’s most violent states, means living a life of extreme risk and expecting very little by way of reward. For three years, the anonymous administrator of the website Valor por Tamaulipas (Courage for Tamaulipas) has hidden his online identity from everyone he knows and faced a constant barrage of threats against him and his family. He has seen colleagues brutally murdered, while criminal gangs and corrupt officials apparently continue to operate with impunity in his state. In recent years, Tamaulipas, which borders Texas in the US, has become a black hole for reporting, with traditional media outlets resorting to self-censorship to avoid upsetting the drug cartels that dominate the region. But there is one place where citizens can read about stories that the local newspapers, television channels and radio stations dare n

Female Kurdish fighter known as ‘Rehana’ (Image from Twitter user / @PawanDurani) Reports about the beheading of a young female Kurdish warrior known as ‘Rehana’ who fought for Kobani and reportedly killed scores of jihadists have sparked controversy. Other reports by people who claim to have contacted her say she is alive. A young girl, wearing military gear and holding a gun, has become an Internet sensation after a picture of her showing a victory salute went viral . The photo was posted on Twitter by Kurdish journalist Pawan Durani with a caption reading: “Rehana has killed more than 100 ISIS terrorists in Kobani". On October 26, Rehana’s supporters were shocked by “unconfirmed” reports claiming that she had been kidnapped or executed by Islamic State jihadists, who may have beheaded her. Jihadists have claimed, according to the Mirror, that a photo of a rebel holding a woman’s severed head is evidence that "Rehana" is dead. However, Kurdish journalist @Rashad Abdel

By Eric Zuesse Ukraine’s top general is contradicting allegations by the Obama Administration and by his own Ukrainian Government, by saying that no Russian troops are fighting against the Ukrainian Government’s forces in the formerly Ukrainian, but now separatist, area, where the Ukrainian civil war is being waged. Here is a screen-print of a google-chrome auto-translation of that statement : The Chief of Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces, General Viktor Muzhenko, is saying, in that news-report, which is dated on Thursday January 29th, that the only Russian citizens who are fighting in the contested region, are residents in that region, or of Ukraine, and also some Russian citizens (and this does not deny that perhaps some of other countries’ citizens are fighting there, inasmuch as American mercenaries have already been noted to have been participating on the Ukrainian Government’s side ), who “are members of illegal armed groups,” meaning fighters who are not paid by any government, b

As reported yesterday , in a surprise announcement late in the day, and shortly before the S&P downgraded Russia to junk (perhaps as part of the fine-print of its $1.5 settlement with the DOJ for daring to downgrade the US in 2011), the US Department of Justice announced it had busted a Russian spy ring in New York City , where at least one of the three people was said to be involved with finance and potentially, capital markets. Specifically, the DOJ announced " charges against Evgeny Buryakov, aka “Zhenya,” Igor Sporyshev and Victor Podobnyy in connection with Buryakov’s service as a covert intelligence agent on behalf of the Russian Federation (Russia) in New York City, without notifying the U.S. Attorney General of Buryakov’s status as an agent of Russia, as required by federal law. Buryakov was placed under arrest earlier today in Bronx, New York, and is scheduled to appear before U.S. Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn in federal court in Manhattan later today. Sporyshev a

By Dmitry Orlov The following article appeared briefly at this URL on censor.net.ua and was quickly pulled down. Ironic? It would seem so. My translation. I bring it to you because it succinctly lays out the situation as I've been able to piece it together from multiple Russian- and Ukrainian-language sources, and because you are unlikely to come across anything this truthful from cough Western media cough. International observers report of growing panic in Kiev in connection with the successful counteroffensive of the separatists near Donbass. Over a week of fighting the partisans have delivered a heavy blow to the Ukrainian forces. The group of Ukrainian fighters in Donbas suffered huge losses, the soldiers are demoralized, the officers are confused and unable to control the situation. Ukrainian military leadership is seriously concerned of a new encirclement near Debaltsevo, as well as in other areas. The situation is made worse by the fact that army and national guard reserv

By Tyler Durden - Amid the devastation of yesterday's Mariupol artillery strikes which killed or wounded dozens, which was promptly blamed by both sides on the "adversary" - and has been proclaimed by both 'sides' (more on that later) as more violent than before the truce - an 'odd' clip has emerged that appears to provide all the 'proof' a US intelligence officer would need to surmise that US military boots are on the ground in Ukraine. As the following clip shows, a Ukrainian journalist approaches what she thinks is a Ukrainian soldier (since he is wearing a Ukrainian military uniform and is carrying an AK) and asked him as they run through the battlezone, "tell me, what happened here?" His response, which requires no translation, speaks for itself. With daily reportage of the 'invasion' of Russian military forces into Ukraine territory (admittedly unconfirmed by NATO), this clip raises many questions about American involveme

In the 1980s and early 1990s the mantra was holy warriors in Afghanistan against the evil Soviet Union. Of course, not much was holy about these Takfiri Islamist sectarian warriors because soon they would slaughter the Shia, enslave women, support killing homosexuals, threaten to kill all apostates, whip women if not fully covered up and a host of other evils. The logical conclusion was an international jihadist network that was brought together with the help of the CIA, MI6, ISI and other interested parties in the Gulf region. Of course, once this barbaric year zero Takfiri Islamist reality came into being in Afghanistan then the end result was opium,, backwardness, terrorism, enforcement of women into the shadows of society and so many other brutal realities. Yet, the usual Western and Gulf powers – supported by Turkey and Pakistan in several conflicts depending on geopolitics, would continue to destabilize in Iraq, Libya and Syria. In other words, the madness created by the usual pl

Jax Jacobsen For all the crackdowns on civil society throughout the post-Soviet sphere and Middle East, we’ve heard surprisingly little about Azerbaijan, ruled by Ilham Aliyev since he inherited the position from his father Heydar in 2003. His latest move to silence opposition from international groups is to have police raid the office of US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty on Dec. 26, detaining journalists for hours. Former journalists of the station have also been questioned by police. According to Jeffery Gedmin, former president of RFE/RL and currently at Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service, at least 10 RFE/RL journalists in Baku were compelled to the prosecutor’s office for additional questioning. The station had also been shut down in 2009, along with the BBC and Voice of America, but listeners were able to access broadcasts via internet and satellite. U.S. Representative Eliot Engel, the top Democrat on the House Committee for Foreign Affairs, called on “leaders in Ba