ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Recruitment of foreign terrorist fighters, facilitation of their cross-border movement into Syria and the supply of weapons to the terrorist groups active there. By Voltaire Network Reportedly, representatives of ISIL — with help from the Turkish intelligence services — have established an extensive network in Antalya for the recruitment of individuals who have arrived in Turkey from the post-Soviet States, to enable their participation in the Syrian conflict and possible transfer to Russia. The group of recruiters consists of a Kyrgyzstan national named Abdullah; a native of Adygea named Azmet; a native of Tatarstan named Elnar; a Russian Federation national named Ilyas; an Azerbaijan national named Adil Aliev; and a native of Karachay-Cherkessia named Nizam. They are led by a Russian Federation national, Ruslan Rastyamovich Khaibullov (also known as Baris Abdul or by the pseudonym “The Teacher”), born on 1 April 1978 in Tatarstan. He lives with his family in Antalya. He has a Turkish...

By Mike Whitney Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan seems to think so. In fact, Erdogan is acting like Wednesday’s explosion in the capital was a gift from God. You see, Erdogan and his fellow Islamists think that if they pin the blame for the bombing on luckless patsy, Salih Neccar, who has links to the Kurdish YPG, then they’ll be able to convince Washington that the YPG is a terrorist organization. And if they can convince Washington that the YPG a terrorist organization, then Obama will have to break off relations with the YPG even though the Kurdish militia has been helping the US defeat ISIS in Syria. And if Obama breaks off relations with the YPG, then he’ll have to depend more on good old Turkey for his footsoldiers which is just hunky-dory with Erdogan provided that Washington meet his numerous demands, that is. So, could a bomb blast in Ankara change the outcome of the 5 year-long war in Syria? It certainly could, if Obama is stupid enough to fall into Erdogan’s trap....

Once again, Moscow has shown itself better able to make strategic choices than we are. Russia is not an ideal partner for the United States, but sometimes its interests align with ours. In those cases, we should drop our Cold War hostility and work with Russia. The best place to start is Syria. American policy toward Syria was misbegotten from the start of the current conflict five years ago. By immediately adopting the hardest possible line—“Assad must go”—we removed any incentive for opposition groups to negotiate for peaceful change. That helped propel Syria into its bloody nightmare. Russia, which has suffered repeated terror attacks from Islamic fanatics, is threatened by the chaos and ungoverned space that now defines Syria. So are we. Russia’s policy should be ours: prevent the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s government, craft a new regime that would include Assad or his supporters, and then work for a cease-fire. The fall of Assad would create a catastrophic power vacuum like those t...

By Stephen Kinzer COVERAGE OF the Syrian war will be remembered as one of the most shameful episodes in the history of the American press. Reporting about carnage in the ancient city of Aleppo is the latest reason why. For three years, violent militants have run Aleppo. Their rule began with a wave of repression. They posted notices warning residents: “Don’t send your children to school. If you do, we will get the backpack and you will get the coffin.” Then they destroyed factories, hoping that unemployed workers would have no recourse other than to become fighters. They trucked looted machinery to Turkey and sold it. This month, people in Aleppo have finally seen glimmers of hope. The Syrian army and its allies have been pushing militants out of the city. Last week they reclaimed the main power plant. Regular electricity may soon be restored. The militants’ hold on the city could be ending. Militants, true to form, are wreaking havoc as they are pushed out of the city by Russian and S...

As negotiations between the major state actors in the Syrian conflict continue without a solid solution; Turkey has used the confusion on the ground to continue military actions to gain territory. The targets include both US and Russian allies – the two leading nations in the Syrian negotiations – leaving Turkey in an increasingly lonely quest to retain dominance. The “cessation of hostilities”, opening besieged areas to humanitarian aid and facilitating talks between the Assad regime and Syrian opposition are agreed to be the first plausible stepping stones of negotiations taking place in Munich . Still; even this low bar seems out of reach with recent counterproductive actions by military actors in and around Syria. The United States and Russia; still in disagreement over visions for the future Syrian government, have agreed that the nation’s best hope is to be kept intact to restore control and order . The largest roadblock – the future of Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad – continu...

By Justin King  -    Langley, Virginia -  As more and more evidence mounts that the US government was secretly assisting the Islamic State, it might be time to point out a few instances when the Central Intelligence Agency created secret armies. The current  theory  suggests the US secretly supported the Islamic State so the Islamists would destabilize the government of Syrian President Assad. If that seems out of the question, remember the CIA once started a war over bananas… literal bananas. Cuba:  Probably the best known secret army. Castro nationalized the assets of western companies after his government took power,  so the US decided to overthrow the government of Cuba and install a puppet regime. As with most of the armies backed by the US intelligence establishment, it failed. Miserably. The Bay of Pigs invasion saw  1400 US-trained Cubans  surrender to Castro’s forces within 24 hours. El Salvador:  The US-...

In his January 2016 State of the Union Address, US President Barack Obama proudly declared that «We spend more on our military than the next eight nations combined», which is a startling and indeed repulsive boast. What is less surprising is the US decision to refocus military spending, thus boosting shares in military industry companies. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) calculates that spending was higher than the next seven countries, rather than eight, but the message is still there: Following the President’s statement, on February 2 his Defence Secretary Ashton Carter gave a speech on defence affairs at the Economic Club in Washington. The Economic Club is proud of the fact that «For over 25 years [it] has provided a forum for prominent business and government leaders who have influenced economic and public policy both here and abroad. Members represent over 600 businesses and organizations [in Washington, DC] that are at the forefront of the private ...

By Finian Cunningham Less than five months after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered military intervention in Syria, the five-year war has been completely transformed. Peace is far from certain as a tentative truce this week will attest. The conflict may even escalate. But what Russia’s intervention has certainly achieved is to squeeze out into the open the poisonous forces of regime change that have brought Syria to its dire condition. Not only is the Syrian state pulled back from the brink of collapse into a terrorist-run failed entity, as befell «NATO liberated» Libya, but the Russian air strikes like a surgical operation have lanced the noxious inflammation festering in Syria. All sorts of poisons are now oozing and being exposed, primarily the nefarious roles played by Western powers, their regional allies, and the toxic lies propounded by the Western news media to cover for crimes against peace. If it were not for the gravity of human suffering, the situation could be seen a...