ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

BEIT JALA, Palestine: Israel began construction on a controversial part of its separation barrier in the occupied West Bank Thursday, near a Palestinian Christian town, an AFP journalist reported. Cranes began lifting eight-meter(yard)-high blocks into place near Beit Jala, south of Jerusalem and close to Bethlehem, a photographer witnessed. This part of the wall could cut Palestinians from their olive groves. Nicola Khamis, mayor of Beit Jala, condemned what he saw as a land grab. "This land is for our families, our children," he said by phone from the bridge next to the construction site. The Israeli army referred questions to the defence ministry, which did not immediately respond. Residents of Beit Jala fear the construction of the wall may lead to the expansion of the nearby Israeli settlements of Gilo and Har Gilo. Khamis said they hoped to battle the wall's construction, with emergency strategy meetings planned, but he conceded they had no further appeals within th...

BEIJING: China's first special envoy for the Syrian crisis praised Russia's military role in the war Friday, and said the international community should work harder together to defeat terrorism in the region. Russia's military intervention in Syria in September helped turn the tide of war in President Bashar Assad's favor after months of gains in western Syria by rebel fighters, who were aided by foreign military supplies including U.S.-made anti-tank missiles. While President Vladimir Putin announced last month that "the main part" of Russian armed forces in Syria would start to withdraw, the Russian air force has continued to carry out strikes on targets in the country. Russia says it has targeted ISIS militants. But rebels on the ground and Western officials say the strikes have mainly targeted moderate rebel groups, including U.S.-trained fighters, not associated with Islamic State. Speaking to reporters in Beijing after being appointed last week, China...

The Jaysh al-Islam militant group fighting government forces in Syria has admitted to using “forbidden” weapons against Kurdish militia in Aleppo. The group’s statement comes after reports of chemical gas being used in shelling Aleppo’s Sheikh Maqsood district. The hardline Islamist group did not not specify what substances were used, but claimed that it will punish those responsible. The group’s statement reads: “During the clashes one of the Jaysh al-Islam brigade leaders used [weapons] forbidden in this kind of confrontations.” The group claims that the brigade commander in question was summoned to a military court, where it was decided he is to be held accountable. “This situation is contrary to the charter of Jaysh al-Islam,” says the group. Aleppo’s Sheikh Maqsood neighborhood was shelled with mortars containing chemical agents earlier on Thursday. The Kurdish Red Crescent confirmed reports that chemicals had been used in the attack. “The symptoms of those affected by the attack ...

The former Bank of England head Mervyn King said this week that the “depression” in Europe “has happened almost as a deliberate act of policy”. Specifically, King said that the formation of the European Union has doomed Europe to economic malaise. He points out that Greece is experiencing “a depression deeper than the United States experienced in the 1930s”. The depths of Greece's depression The depths of Greece’s depression Credit: RBS economics/RBS Indeed. Moreover – as Martin Armstrong has warned for decades – letting countries like Greece join he Euro without first structurally adjusting their debts was a recipe for disaster. So it is fascinating to learn that the U.S. was largely behind the creation of both the European Union and the Euro. The European Union: Funded By the CIA Professor of International Security at the University of Warwick Richard J. Aldrich reviewed available historical documents, and concludes that the European Union was largely an American project: US offi...

Russian woman Ekaterina Bikovtsova who has moved to Brussels with her husband and young daughter shared her experience of living in the heart of the European Union, Brussels. One of the most striking things that Bikovtsova has seen in Brussels is that the people are extremely tolerant. “People live a quiet peaceful life and are not used to shocks such as the terror attack that occurred in Brussels.” Before the attacks police were already on high alert and were rounding up illegal immigrants and those people who had expired visas. This was because Paris had been rocked by brutal terror attacks just a month earlier. © AFP 2016/ BENOIT DOPPAGNE / BELGA Brussels Airport to Partially Reopen on Sunday After Deadly Terror Attacks But despite the increased police presence in Brussels, the terror attacks were not stopped and the prime reason for that is that the attackers weren’t immigrants, but were born and raised in Brussels. Bikovtsova believes that this tolerance will be the downfall o...

The head of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s department for Asian countries said that Daesh militant group is expanding in Afghanistan and wishes to use the country as a “springboard for a wider expansion”. Daesh militant group is expanding in Afghanistan and wishes to use the country as a “springboard for a wider expansion,” the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s department for Asian countries said. “[Daesh] exists [in Afghanistan]. It flourishes and expands. It just acts quietly and gather strength for decisive actions,” Zamir Kabulov, who is also the Russian presidential envoy for Afghanistan, told the Izvestiya newspaper in an interview released Wednesday. According to the official, Daesh has less militants than Taliban, but it does not spend its resources on fighting Afghan and US servicemen in the country. “They have other aims. They need Afghanistan as a springboard for a wider expansion,” Kabulov explained. Afghanistan is experiencing political, social and security instabilit...

To many, the anecdote described below will sound far-fetched, and logical minds may suspect that the Vietnam vet in the story created the “incident” himself. But as those who lived through that period may remember, representatives of the covert side of government did far worse — and often. Infiltration, intimidation, framing, and more were all part of the arsenal against the “disloyal.” No method was deemed too severe. Today, we may find ourselves in a comparable period. Incidents covered by WhoWhatWhysuch as the fiery death of journalist Michael Hastings and the open statements that Edward Snowden should be assassinated remind us to take nothing for granted. (To see our stories on these threats, please go here here , here, here, here, and here.) The essay below is by the father of “Deep Politics” analysis, Peter Dale Scott . It reminds us that, too often, it is not the wild-sounding that is the fiction — but the constant assurances that everything is a-ok, that our soci...