ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

N-backed talks start in Rabat, hours after airplanes bomb airport in Tripoli amid continuing conflict. United Nations-brokered peace talks aimed at resolving the political turmoil in Libya have started in Morocco, hours after the airport in the Libyan capital Tripoli was bombed. Warplanes from Libya's UN-recognised parliament in Tobruk carried out the air strikes on the airport in Tripolii, which is currently governed by a rival administration. The jets hit an open area near the runway at Maitiga airport on Thursday morning but caused no major damage and the airport was operating normally, a security source at the airport told the Reuters news agency. Libya's legislators are split between the UN-recognised government in the eastern city of Tobruk and the General National Congress, a rival legally-installed government in the capital, Tripoli. The political turmoil fuelled rival militias and allowed fighters claiming association with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL...

– Bank accounts at majority of banks in Britain and Ireland are vulnerable to hacking says Financial Times - Two-step authentication process used by most banks is inadequate - Vulnerabilities identified similar to those that were used by hackers to steal up to $1 billion across Eastern Europe - UK regulator says bank customers must be reimbursed, banks are responsible for security - Highlights risks to deposits and systemic risk should such vulnerabilities be exploited in cyber-warfare or indeed for monetary gain The vulnerability of banks and the global banking system – reliant as it has become on computer systems, information technology and the internet – was highlighted yet again in an important article in the Financial Times on Tuesday which was largely ignored elsewhere. The FT reports that it has come into possession of documents and correspondence between the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and a cyber security firm, Bronzeye that identify “serious security issues” at ...

Soldiers of the U.S. Army's 2nd Cavalry Regiment, deployed in Latvia as part of NATO's Operation Atlantic Resolve, ride in armored vehicles named "Stryker" during a joint military exercise in Adazi February 26, 2015.(Reuters / Ints Kalnins) 1512906 NATO is using the situation in Ukraine to push closer to Russia's border, according to the Russian deputy defense minister. He says the Alliance's activities have expanded considerably over the past years. In their push, Anatoly Antonov says Allied forces are ignoring diplomacy. "We've noticed that NATO member states are using the situation in southeastern Ukraine as a pretext to discard all diplomatic conventions, tricks and slogans and push forward, closer to the Russian border." According to the minister, what NATO is doing is completely out of proportion with what NATO commanders call the build-up of Russian forces on its side of the border in Ukraine. "NATO's activities are many times...

By Finian Cunningham The announcement this week that the Kiev regime struck a major deal with the United Arab Emirates for military weapons raises strong suspicions that the US-led NATO alliance has found a new backdoor into Ukraine. We say «new» because it is believed that the US and its NATO allies, Poland and Lithuania, are already covertly supplying weapons to the Kiev regime. Kiev President Petro Poroshenko hailed the new strategic partnership with the Persian Gulf kingdom while attending the International Defence Exhibition (IDEX) in the UAE capital, Abu Dhabi. Poroshenko, who was royally received by UAE Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed al Nayhan, declared himself a «president of peace» but that Ukraine, or rather the rump state that his regime commands, needed strong defence because of its «Russian enemy». A giveaway to the real significance of the surprise development is that Poroshenko and his Arab hosts also reportedly held discreet meetings with Pentagon officials and US weap...

Reuters//Beck Diefenbach Terror groups are using encrypted messages on eBay, Reddit, and pornographic websites. When decoded by Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency has discovered information concerning specific attacks – including when they may happen, a book claims. Gordon Thomas made the revelations in the new edition of a book entitled ‘Gideon’s Spies: The Secret History of the Mossad,' the New York Post reported. It explains how Israel’s secret service tracks terrorist threats – including trawling through X-rated online publications. This is because terror groups like Al-Qaeda have learned to use a technique called steganography, which allows them to conceal secret information within a digital file. The militant organization uses this method by encrypting messages in goods that are for sale on eBay. They also use social networks and news aggregator site Reddit – and have even uploaded images on pornographic websites. “X-rated pornographic pictures...conceal documents and o...

Leaked documents describe Tehran working to counter sanctions by using front companies and official channels. Rahul Radhakrishnan , Will Jordan Iran's efforts to use official and unofficial channels in South Africa to beat western-imposed sanctions have raised concerns within South African security services, according to leaked intelligence documents obtained by Al Jazeera. The Spy Cables provide a detailed account of Tehran allegedly using secret front companies, as well as open diplomatic channels, in its efforts to work around trade restrictions in order to obtain materials for both arms manufacture and other industries. A 128-page "Operational Target Analysis," written by South African spies, profiles dozens of alleged Iranian operatives, listing their names, cover stories, families, addresses and phone numbers. Going so far as to name the gardeners and drivers at its embassy, the report pieces together Iran's intricate network of individuals, businesses and...

Spy Cables reveal Mossad concluded that Iran was not producing nuclear weapons, after PM sounded alarm at UN in 2012. Will Jordan, Rahul Radhakrishnan Less than a month after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's 2012 warning to the UN General Assembly that Iran was 70 percent of the way to completing its "plans to build a nuclear weapon", Israel's intelligence service believed that Iran was "not performing the activity necessary to produce weapons". A secret cable obtained by Al Jazeera's Investigative Unit reveals that Mossad sent a top-secret cable to South Africa on October 22, 2012, that laid out a "bottom line" assessment of Iran's nuclear work. It appears to contradict the picture painted by Netanyahu of Tehran racing towards acquisition of a nuclear bomb. Writing that Iran had not begun the work needed to build any kind of nuclear weapon, the Mossad cable said the Islamic Republic's scientists are "working to close gaps in ar...

By WashingtonsBlog The U.S. Has Only Been At Peace For 21 Years Total Since Its Birth In 2011, Danios wrote : Below, I have reproduced a year-by-year timeline of America’s wars, which reveals something quite interesting: since the United States was founded in 1776, she has been at war during 214 out of her 235 calendar years of existence. In other words, there were only 21 calendar years in which the U.S. did not wage any wars. To put this in perspective: * Pick any year since 1776 and there is about a 91% chance that America was involved in some war during that calendar year. * No U.S. president truly qualifies as a peacetime president. Instead, all U.S. presidents can technically be considered “war presidents.” * The U.S. has never gone a decade without war. * The only time the U.S. went five years without war (1935-40) was during the isolationist period of the Great Depression. * * * Here is a graphic depiction of U.S. wars: And here is the year-by-year timeline of America’s ma...