ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Lincoln Clapper This past week Europe experienced its second major terrorist attack within the last five months. The ISIS-claimed attack in Brussels signifies again just how real and how serious the militant group is about training, equipping, and tactically carrying out an assault in Europe. Although the attack appears to have been provoked or moved ahead of schedule due to the arrest of Salah Abdeslam (Belgium-born, French national personally involved in the Paris attacks), what is apparent is this attack was forthcoming based on the materials found in the apartment of the attackers, and the overall sophistication of the bombings suggests that this was not a reactionary, random plot. With details of the attackers released, their chief bomb maker Najim Laachraoui, along with two brothers Ibrahim and Khalid el-Barkraoui, are reported as Belgium nationals. As the search continues for the fourth perpetrator, questions are continually raised about where the next possible attack could be,

Lincoln Clapper The rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has become somewhat of a revelation to the international community over the last several months. Commencing with the desertion from Al-Qaeda, to the self-proclamation of Caliph by its leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, and finally the surge in Iraq and Syria, each move has occurred without a countervailing effort. In order to conceptualize the mentality of ISIS and its motivation, look no further than inside the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to examine how its puritanical Wahhabi doctrine has enabled the ideology of ISIS and terrorist groups alike, and will continue to do so for potential Islamic extremist groups in the future. It’s all too obvious that the theology of ISIS is reciprocal to the Wahhabi religious doctrine that has governed Saudi Arabia from its inception to this very day. A Brief History of the Deal at the Heart of Saudi Society Wahhabism refers to the Islamic doctrine founded by Muhammad Ibn’ Abdul-Wahhab. B

Spanish authorities have appealed for the public’s help in locating a stolen piece of equipment which contains radioactive elements. An orange suitcase, which is “unlikely” to be dangerous if not tampered with, was stolen in the southern city of Seville. The Nuclear Safety Council (CSN) is asking the public to help seek the case which contains a computer device used to measure soil density and moisture. The equipment belongs to the Studies Center of Materials and Building Control, SA (Cemosa), and contains two low activity radioactive sources: cesium 137 and americium 241. While the missing equipment has been placed in the category of threat level 4, “unlikely to be dangerous for people,” CSN warns that anyone who locates the equipment should restrain themselves from tampering with the case and immediately notify the authorities. Radioactive risk levels set by the International Atomic Energy Agency have a scale of one to five, with five being the least dangerous category. The theft o

Color revolutions would never be enough; Exceptionalistan is always on the lookout for major strategic upgrades capable of ensuring perpetual Empire of Chaos hegemony. The ideological matrix and the modus operandi of color revolutions by now are a matter of public domain. Not so much the concept of Unconventional War (UW). UW was spelled out by the 2010 Special Forces Unconventional Warfare manual . Here’s the money quote: “The intent of US [Unconventional Warfare] UW efforts is to exploit a hostile power’s political, military, economic, and psychological vulnerabilities by developing and sustaining resistance forces to accomplish US strategic objectives… For the foreseeable future, US forces will predominantly engage in irregular warfare (IW) operations.” “Hostile” powers are meant not only in a military sense; any state that dares to defy any significant plank of the Washington-centric world “order” – from Sudan to Argentina – may be branded“hostile”. The dangerous liaisons between

In the future, a fleet of heavy transport aircraft will reportedly be capable of moving a strategic unit of 400 Armata tanks, with ammunition, to anywhere in the world. And probably at hypersonic speed, enabling Russia to mount a global military response. According to a new design specification from the Military-Industrial Commission in Moscow, a transport aircraft, dubbed PAK TA, will fly at supersonic speeds (up to 2,000 km/h) and will boast an impressively high payload of up to 200 tons. It will also have a range of at least 7,000 kilometers. The PAK TA program envisages 80 new cargo aircraft to be built by 2024. This means in a decade Russia’s Central Command will be able to place a battle-ready armored army anywhere, Expert Online reports, citing a source in the military who attended the closed meeting. One of the main tasks of the new PAK TA is to transport Armata heavy missile tanks and other military hardware on the same platform, such as enhanced self-propelled artillery weap

An explosion occurred overnight at a nuclear power plant in Doel, northern Belgium, local media reported, adding that the blast caused a fire. The exact damage from the incident remains unknown. The blast happened around 11pm local time on Saturday. The fire started in Reactor 1 of the plant, but was soon extinguished by personnel. The explosion didn’t cause any threat to nature, Els De Clercq, spokeswoman from Belgian energy corporation Electrabel that runs the plant, told Het Laatste Nieuws. There was no fuel present at the time of the incident as the reactor had been shut due to its expired operational license. READ MORE: ​Mysterious drone over restarted Belgium nuclear plant prompts investigation Doel Nuclear Power Station, one of the two nuclear power plants in the country, is located near the town of Doel in east Flanders. The plant employs about 800 people. According to the Nature journal and Columbia University in New York, the plant is in the most densely populated area of a

An RT Documentary crew filming in northern Syria has seen Islamic State (IS, ISIS/ISIL) documents abandoned by retreating terrorists and found by the Kurds that, along with captured IS recruits, provide a stunning insight into IS oil trade. Shortly after the outbreak of the Syrian war, IS became a game-changer in Iraq and, in particular, Syria. Beheadings on camera, mass killings, and enslavement, as well as apparent connections to the Paris and Brussels attacks had become synonymous with the terror group, giving it wide publicity. Running a viable militant organization with such remarkable capabilities would be impossible without some logistical and financial support from the outside. RT films trove of jihadist docs providing a stunning insight i... ##ISIS, oil & #Turkey: shocking details on illegal linksPosted by RT Play on Thursday, March 24, 2016 Turkey, which has been actively engaged in the Syrian war since the outset, has repeatedly denied claims that it is aiding IS. How

Brussels suicide bombers Khalid and Ibrahim El Bakraoui were planning attacks on Belgian nuclear power stations, Dernier Heure newspaper reported. The newspaper exclusively reported that the arrest of Paris attacker Salah Abdeslam accelerated the plans of the terrorists. The brothers planted a hidden camera in front of the home of the director of the Belgian nuclear research program, the paper said.  Evidence obtained by the authorities shows that the same terrorist cell was behind the Paris attacks in November that killed over 130 people and this week’s Brussels bombings, which claimed the lives of 31 people and injured over 270, the paper wrote.  The footage with “dozens of hours” of the movements of Belgium’s nuclear boss was seized during an anti-terrorist raid in the apartment of another suspect belonging to the same terror cell, Mohammed Bakkali. READ