ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Thousands of Yazidi women have been enslaved by ISIS. Does paying their captors for their freedom fund the terrorist organization? ERBIL, Iraq—In a crowded room in an undisclosed location in Northern Iraq, a Yazidi father is begging an American woman for money to buy back his daughters from the so-called Islamic State. Via a translator the man says he has been in contact with a broker—a middleman used as a go-between from ISIS to grieving Yazidi families—who for a high fee will return his children after they were taken and sold as slaves among the jihadis just over a year ago in the ISIS blitz of Northern Iraq. The man is desperate and low on cash, and says he’s considered selling his truck to pay for the girls’ release. In a haze of cigarette smoke and in between rounds of tea, the American, 66-year-old Amy Beam, tells him he shouldn’t sell his truck, but still needs to renegotiate with the broker. The asking fee is too high she says, and the Liberation of Christian and Yazidi Childre

To take down the so-called Islamic State in Syria, the influential former head of the CIA wants to co-opt jihadists from America’s arch foe. Members of al Qaeda’s branch in Syria have a surprising advocate in the corridors of American power: retired Army general and former CIA Director David Petraeus. The former commander of U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan has been quietly urging U.S. officials to consider using so-called moderate members of al Qaeda’s Nusra Front to fight ISIS in Syria, four sources familiar with the conversations, including one person who spoke to Petraeus directly, told The Daily Beast. The heart of the idea stems from Petraeus’s experience in Iraq in 2007, when as part of a broader strategy to defeat an Islamist insurgency the U.S. persuaded Sunni militias to stop fighting with al Qaeda and to work with the American military. The tactic worked, at least temporarily. But al Qaeda in Iraq was later reborn as ISIS, and has become the sworn enemy of its parent

Russia has begun its military intervention in Syria, deploying an aerial contingent to a permanent Syrian base, in order to launch attacks against ISIS and Islamist rebels; US stays silent. Alex Fishman Russian fighter pilots are expected to begin arriving in Syria in the coming days, and will fly their Russian air force fighter jets and attack helicopters against ISIS and rebel-aligned targets within the failing state. According to Western diplomats, a Russian expeditionary force has already arrived in Syria and set up camp in an Assad-controlled airbase. The base is said to be in area surrounding Damascus, and will serve, for all intents and purposes, as a Russian forward operating base. In the coming weeks thousands of Russian military personnel are set to touch down in Syria, including advisors, instructors, logistics personnel, technical personnel, members of the aerial protection division, and the pilots who will operate the aircraft. A formation of Russian Mig 31's (Photo: R

From Reuters) The White House is considering applying sanctions against companies and individuals in China it believes have benefited from Chinese hacking of United States trade secrets, the Washington Postreported Sunday (Aug 30). The White House is considering applying sanctions against companies and individuals in China over cyber theft The newspaper, citing several unidentified Obama administration officials, said a final determination on whether to issue the sanctions was expected soon, possibly as early as the next two weeks. Suspicions that Chinese hackers were behind a series of data breaches in the United States have been an irritant in relations between the world’s two largest economies as President Xi Jinping prepares to make his first visit to the United States next month. Obama administration officials have said China is the top suspect in the massive hacking of a US government agency that compromised the personnel records of at least 4.2 million current and former govern

By Pepe Escobar BANGKOK — China continues to grow at a not too shabby 7%. And yet, because of the yuan devaluation and the sharp drop in the stock market, in most Western capitals the narrative switched to Armageddon descended over an economic model that generated, over the years, six-fold growth in Chinese GDP. Few are aware that Beijing, simultaneously, is engaged in a thrice titanic task; to shift its growth vector from exports and massive investment to services; to tackle the negative and/or self-satisfied role of state-owned enterprises; and to deflate at least three bubbles — debt, real estate speculation and the stock market — in the context of a virtual global economic stagnation. All this while there is virtually no Western coverage of the China-led Eurasian trade integration push, which will help to eventually consolidate the Middle Kingdom as the largest economy in the world. And that brings us to a crucial subplot in the Big Picture: Southeast Asia. Four months from now, th

By Roberto Savio Reprint In this column, Roberto Savio, founder and president emeritus of the Inter Press Service (IPS) news agency and publisher of Other News, writes that the purpose of Greece’s third bailout is clear – all but seven percent of the 86 billion euros will go to pay debt with the other European governments, recapitalize Greek banks, pay interest on Greece’s debt and pay the debt of the state with Greek enterprises, while the country’s citizens will see none of it. SAN SALVADOR, Aug 20 2015 (IPS) - The long saga on Greece is apparently over – European institutions have given Athens a third bailout of 86 billion euros which, combined with the previous two, makes a grand total of 240 billion euros. Roberto Savio There is no doubt that the large majority of European citizens are convinced that this is a great example of solidarity, and that if Greece is not now able to walk on its own feet, the responsibility will lie solely with Greek citizens and their government. But thi

The New York Times has called on South Korea and the United States to cautiously respond in dealing with the crisis on the Korean Peninsula with an emphasis on restraint. The U.S. daily said in its editorial “A Perilous Moment at the Korean Border,” that given North Korea’s nuclear weapons arsenal and its erratic leader, Kim Jong-un, any inter-Korean confrontation must be taken seriously and managed carefully. The report said that the recent inter-Korean exchange of artillery firing is another reminder that the world’s major powers have failed to find a durable solution to one of the world’s most durable security threats, the nuclear-armed North. The daily urged the United States and China to play key roles in urging restraint. It added that it is an encouraging sign that the two Koreas held high-level talks, easing tensions at least temporarily.

South Korea and the United States stepped up their intelligence and surveillance status for North Korea’s possible provocation although the two Koreas started inter-Korean high-level talks on Saturday. The South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command on Sunday raised their five-level Watch Condition alert system, or WATCHCON, from level three to level two. The South Korean military is closely watching the movements of North Korean troops and mobilizing all available reconnaissance assets. The South Korean military and U.S. troops also remain ready to immediately respond in case the North attacks South Korea’s loudspeakers on the border. The South Korean military is said to have detected 72-point-two millimeter field guns, which were used for the North’s artillery provocation on Thursday, being deployed at some parts of the front-line areas. Some North Korean soldiers were also observed conducting a firing drill.