ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

It would appear that the United States did in fact strong arm at least one country to keep them from offering asylum to Edward Snowden or assisting him in procuring travel arrangements via their country, according to Snowden’s associate, Glenn Greenwald. The German Vice Chancellor, Sigmar Gabriel, said this week that if they helped the NSA whistleblower in any way the United States would stop relaying all intelligence information to Berlin. “They told us they’d cease notifying us of schemes and other intelligence issues,” Gabriel said. Gabriel commended the work of other reporters and Greenwald as he presented a speech about the journalistic attempts made concerning the Snowden leaks. The Vice Chancellor expressed sorrow that the former Booz Allen employee was made to seek political refuge in “Putin’s autocratic Russia.” Greenwald questioned Gabriel as to why Germany did not offer Snowden asylum — because under international law, after asylum has been given, the subje

Reuters / Christian Hartmann More than 70 German women, nine of whom are schoolgirls, have left their home country for Syria and Iraq to join the Islamic State, the president of the German Domestic Intelligence Service (BFV) said. According to Hans-Georg Maassen, 40 percent of those women are under the age of 25, Zeit Online reported . While the recruitment of young girls and women by the Islamic State is not a rare phenomenon, Maassen warned that jihadists have lately focused on luring females to join the 'caliphate' via social networks. Jihadists blog on the internet and are active on forums, where they look for women showing an interest in jihad, BFV’s president said. Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) militants then contact the girls and women to inspire them to marry jihadists. Maassen says they write blogs with “romantic descriptions” of life in extremist camps, and the females have no idea about the future they are actually agreeing to. Most often, those who travel t

Sixty thousand copies of propaganda pamphlets dropped over Raqqa but experts question efficacy and tenor of the leaflet. The US military is dropping some gruesome propaganda on Syria. On March 16 an F-15E fighter jet dropped 60,000 copies of the above leaflet on Raqqa, the base of operations for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL. The image shows a "Daesh Employment Office" (Daesh is a pejorative nickname for ISIL in the Arab world). Two ISIL recruiters, one of whom appears more monster than man, feed young men into a meat grinder with "Daesh" written in blood on its side. A sign in the upper-right corner reads "Now Serving Number 6,001". When asked about the intended message of the leaflet, Pentagon spokesman Colonel Steve Warren, said "If you allow yourself to be recruited by Daesh, you will find yourself in a meat grinder." Warren said the leaflet was created by the Army’s Military Information Support Operations, or MISO.

Poly WB-1 (Photo: Top 81) China has presented Poly WB-1, a non-lethal ray gun that can be used for crowd dispersal, by making its targets feel like their skin is on fire. The US version of the weapon was shelved due to practical difficulties and the potential public backlash. According to the authoritative Jane’s magazine, the WB-1, presented at the Airshow China 2014 in Zhuhai last month, has a current range of about 80 meters, though it can be expanded to 1 kilometer. Using a similar principle to a microwave oven it incites movement in the fat and water molecules located just below the skin surface, making the target feel like they are burning from the inside. As soon as the target steps away from the ray, the pain ceases, purportedly leaving no damage to nerve endings and blood vessels, which are located deeper below the epidermis. This makes it a viable weapon for crowd control, which was how the US intended to use its own Active Denial System (ADS) during its occupations of Iraq a

Reuters / Stringer An alleged policy plan of the Islamic State outlines some chilling, if unrealistic, plots of the would-be terrorist state, including bribing Russia with access to oilfields in exchange for nuclear technology, and digging a canal across the UAE. The document reported by Britain’s Sunday Times is believed to have been written by Abdullah Ahmed Meshedani, a member of the highly secretive six-man war cabinet of the terrorist group, which wants to build an Islamist state, or caliphate, in parts of Iraq and Syria. It was captured by Iraqi special forces during a March raid on the home of a senior Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) member and confirmed as authentic by Western security officials. The 70-point plan provides an insight into the grandiose, if somewhat far-fetched, strategy aimed at undermining Shiites in the Arab world and Iran as that branch of Islam’s powerhouse nation. One of the goals listed in the documents is to offer Russia access to oilfields in Iraq’s

Reuters / Khaled Abdullah Houthi Shiite rebels obtained secret Yemeni intelligence documents with details about US-backed counter-terrorism operations, including the names and locations of informants, the Los Angeles Times reported citing American officials. The documents were stolen when Houthi fighters took over the office of Yemen’s National Security Bureau in the country's capital Sanaa, which was closely cooperating with the CIA on various anti-terror missions. US officials claim that some files were given to Iranian advisers. At the same time, the paper said there is no indication that Houthi rebels had direct control over the US intelligence files. The compromised files reportedly affected US President Barack Obama’s decision to evacuate remaining US personnel from Yemen last weekend, including 1,000 special operations forces. The decision to leave Yemen has crippled America’s counter-terrorism operations against Al-Qaeda militants in the area. The report emerged hours befor

Saudi Arabian forces, joined by nine other countries, have launched a military operation in Yemen against Shiite Houthi rebels, the Saudi ambassador to the US said. The offensive, which started with airstrikes, will also involve “other military assets.” According to Ambassador Adel bin Ahmed Al-Jubeir, the military operation in Yemen started at 7 p.m. EST (11 p.m. GMT). Obama ordered support to Saudi-led op, UN still ‘checking details’ US President Obama has authorized the provision of logistical and intelligence support to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)-led military operations in Yemen, the White House said in a statement, confirming that Washington had close communication with Hadi, the Saudis and other GCC states prior to the launch of the military operation. “While US forces are not taking direct military action in Yemen in support of this effort, we are establishing a Joint Planning Cell with Saudi Arabia to coordinate US military and intelligence support,” the statement said.

by Mark Stockley The Dark Web is reflecting a little more light these days. On Monday I wrote about Memex, DARPA's Deep Web search engine . Memex is a sophisticated tool set that has been in the hands of a few select law enforcement agencies for a year now, but it isn't available to regular users like you and me. There is another search engine that is though. Just a few days before I wrote that article, on 11 February, user Virgil Griffith went onto the Tor-talk mailing list and announced Onion City , a Dark Web search engine for the rest of us. The search engine delves into the anonymous Tor network, finds .onion sites and makes them available to regular users on the ordinary World Wide Web. Up to now the best way to search for .onion sites has been to get on the Tor network using something like the Tor browser , but Onion City effectively does that bit for you so you can search from the comfort of your favourite, insecure web browser. The site can do this because it's