ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

By Andrey Fomin Last September we published an outline of the analysis produced by the Russian investigator Vladimir Shalak on the hidden aspects of the Twitter-based campaign to lure the Middle Eastern refugees into Germany. Having studied 19000 refugee-related original tweets Shalak claimed that the great exodus to continental Europe was artificially arranged by non-European actors. The latest wave of migrant-caused violence in the number of European cities on New Year’s Eve sparked another intense anti-Merkel campaign in German and European social media, and yielded additional data for Shalak’s in-depth research . Below we will share its preliminary results. But before we do let’s have a glance at two pictures demonstrating drastic change in public narrative in Germany regarding the refugees in just 4 months:   January 2016 Was it a tragic but spontaneous development or a deliberate psy operation by an external agent? To come closer to an i

By Robert Barsocchini The US illustrates to ISIS , and the world, that the path to the seat of regional and then global power is genocide, land-theft, mass enslavement, never paying reparations, then wielding this illegally and brutally obtained money and military hardware over others and proclaiming one's national group to be superior (ethnocentrism) and a "respected leader", while in reality the country is feared, loathed, and isolated , maintaining and expanding its hegemony through continued methods of extreme propaganda , subversion, and physical force.- See more at: http://www.empireslayer.org/#sthash.8MB36baK.dpuf Through terror, bribery, threats, and other tactics, the US foists huge loans on small, relatively weak nations (which are often weak because of having been ravaged by Europe or the US), then forces them to repay the loans with interest as it drains and impoverishes the target countries, making them cheap resource and service stations for the top tiers of

In 2006 the U.S. was at war in Iraq. Some of the enemy forces it very much struggled to fight against were coming in through Syria. The same year Israel lost a war against Hizbullah. Its armored forces were ambushed whenever they tried to push deeper into Lebanon while Hizbullah managed to continuously fire rockets against Israeli army position and cities. Hizbullah receives supply for its missile force from Syria and from Iran through Syria. Its long-term plans to attack Iran and to thereby keep supremacy in the Middle East depend on severing Hizbullah's supply routes. The sectarian Sunni Gulf countries, mainly Saudi Arabia, saw their Sunni brethren defeat in Iraq and a Shia government, supported by Iran, taking over the country. All these countries had reason to fight Syria. There were also economic reasons to subvert an independent Syria. A gas pipeline from Qatar to Turkey was competing with one from Iran to Syria. Large finds of natural gas in the coastal waters of Israel and

By Moon Of Alabama When the Russian campaign in Syria started Obama promised that it would end in a quagmire. Various media and opinion writer picked up that narrative. It was false as Russia was and is executing a well thought out campaign . Being confronted with reality the U.S. media is now changing its false narrative. The LA Times writes : The Latakia attack mirrors similar government gains across the country, as forces loyal to President Bashar Assad, backed by Russian air power, have been on the offensive. ... It's a dramatic shift for the forces of Assad, who less than six months ago had warned supporters that the government would have to "give up areas" after a string of humiliating setbacks. ... The gains have strengthened the government's position in the run-up to Syrian peace negotiations scheduled to begin next week in Geneva. The Obama administration and its anti-Syrian allies had hoped for a defeated Syrian government in Geneva that would agree to th

By Pepe Escobar Facing the gleaming Doha skyline on a Persian Gulf winter carries the merit of a panoramic perspective. Most nations around it are going into melt down and the remaining ones – with the exception of Iran – exhibit neither the political leadership nor the economic and institutional infrastructure to do anything other than to meekly accept whatever tsunami hits their shores. They are nothing but scared spectators. The Empire of Chaos has enough warmongering hardware pre-positioned within spitting distance to turn the whole of Southwest Asia into ashes – as a gaggle of usual suspects in the Beltway, neocon or neoliberalcon, still can’t find a cure to their itching to «really win the next war» in a sort of exponential Shock and Awe. Fear reigns supreme. Jim Rickards, the author of Currency Wars, economist and CIA asset, has just released a new book, The Big Drop, with a pretty grim message. For his part J im Rogers , a.k.a. the «Sage of Singapore», most of the time China-bo

TEHRAN (FNA)- The great Kingdom of Saudi Arabia — the long-time dictator of crude oil prices for the world — is struggling on all fronts, Business Insider said. The Saudis are losing their proxy wars in both Syria and Yemen; their OPEC leadership is under threat; they are not winning the crude oil price war; and its long-running alliance with the West is in question, Business Insider reported. From Saudi Arabia’s perspective, Iran seems to be gaining ground everywhere. Saudi Arabia has several weaknesses that help explain the current anxiety emanating from Riyadh. 1. Saudi Arabia losing its leadership in the OPEC Saudi Arabia has been the default leader of OPEC; however, despite Saudi insistence to the contrary, the U.S. shale boom, increased Russian oil production, and a very resolute Iran are challenging this leadership. The result is that Saudi Arabia now finds itself powerless in supporting oil prices. Instead of the much-needed production cuts, during the 4 December 2015 meeting

TEHRAN (FNA)- At least 144 Al-Nusra Front terrorists were killed in the heavy airstrikes and artillery fire of the Russian and Syrian armies in Idlib province on Sunday night. The Russian and Syrian fighter jets targeted hideouts of al-Nusra Front terrorist group in al-Arbaeen Mountains in Idlib, killing 124 militants and wounding tens of others. The al-Nusra Front members have released the names of those killed in the attacks on their social media pages. Also, 20 more al-Nusra terrorists were killed in the Syrian army's artillery fire on militants' positions in Kafar Sanjah village in Ma'rat al-Na'man region. Other reports, on Sunday, also said that the Southern battlefields of Idlib province were the scenes of fierce battles between the militant groups and the Syrian Army and its popular allies, adding that scores of the terrorists were killed or wounded in the battle. The Syrian Army and the National Defense Forces (NDF) stormed gathering centers of the Jeish al-Nasr

Report by UK charity Oxfam calls for a crackdown on tax havens as the world's wealthiest hide $7.6 trillion from taxes. The world's richest 62 people now own as much wealth as half of the world's population, according to a report by the charity Oxfam. Super-rich individuals saw an increase of 44 percent since 2010, taking their cumulative wealth to $1.76 trillion - equivalent to the total owned by 3.5 billion of the world's poorest people. The UK-based charity on Monday also said tax havens were helping corporations and individuals to stash away about $7.6 trillion, depriving governments of $190bn in tax revenue every year. Speaking to Al Jazeera, Helen Szoke, Oxfam Australia's chief executive, said that there were no appropriate mechanisms to check if wealth was being shared appropriately. "We believe there is a need for commitments from global business leaders and political leaders for major tax reform to get rid of the tax havens," Szoke said. "Th