ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Everyone knows by now that the US military has the largest budget on the planet. It’s so large in fact, that it could pay for China’s military budget 3 times over. Which has to make you wonder, where does all of that money go? You may think that question has an obvious answer, since we’re aware of most of the military’s weapon systems, personnel numbers, and equipment. In reality, we don’t know. And when I say we, I mean even our own government doesn’t really know. In response to Congressional demands that the Pentagon provide a comprehensive audit of their finances for the first time, a Department of Defense Inspector General’s report was published last week. It revealed that the Pentagon could not provide documentation pertaining to $6.5 trillion in transactions.  On top of that, the report showed that the Pentagon “did not document or support why the Defense Departmental Reporting System . . . removed at least 16,513 of 1.3 million records during Q3 FY 2015.  As a result, the

– may be coming in September By Justin Raimondo When a Russian FSB agent and a Russian soldier were killed by a team of Ukrainian saboteurs , and one of the captured Ukrainians was shown on Russian media in handcuffs, US ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt tweeted “US government has seen nothing so far that corroborates Russians allegations of a ‘Crimea incursion’ & Ukraine has strongly refuted them.” Apparently two dead Russians don’t count for much in Pyatt’s book: perhaps Putin personally killed them, and the whole thing is a set up. And how has Ukraine “strongly refuted” this accusation? According to the Ukrainian authorities, the captured would-be saboteur, one Yevgeny Panov, was “kidnapped” from his home town in Zaporizhia – a distance of some 200 miles – by the Russians and transported to Crimea. The Ukrainian police have solemnly announced that "We are taking all necessary measures to promptly, fully and impartially investigate all circumstances of this crime.” One

By Paul Craig Roberts  The Cold War began during the Truman administration and lasted through the Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, and Carter administrations and was ended in Reagan’s second term when Reagan and Gorbachev came to an agreement that the conflict was dangerous, expensive, and pointless. The Cold War did not cease for long—only from the last of Reagan’s second term and the four years of George H. W. Bush’s term. In the 1990s President Clinton restarted the Cold War by breaking America’s promise not to expend NATO into Eastern Europe. George W. Bush heated up the renewed Cold War by pulling the US out of the Anti-ABM Treaty, and Obama has made the war hotter with irresponsible rhetoric and by placing US missiles on Russia’s border and overthrowing the Ukrainian government. The Cold War was a Washington creation. It was the work of the Dulles brothers. Allen was the head of the CIA, and John Foster was the Secretary of State, positions that they held for a long tim

BERLIN: Germany’s Interior Minister unveiled proposals Thursday to boost security after recent attacks, including making it easier to deport foreigners deemed dangerous and stripping dual nationals who fight for extremist groups of their German citizenship. Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere’s plans also include creating several thousand jobs at federal security services over the coming years and making “promoting terrorism” a criminal offense. Four attacks last month included two carried out by asylum-seekers and claimed by Daesh (ISIS). Chancellor Angela Merkel has said Germany won’t be deflected from giving shelter to people who deserve asylum, but also pledged to do “everything humanly possible” to keep the country safe. “A lot of people ... are worried about further attacks. That is understandable,” de Maiziere told reporters. “No one can guarantee absolute security, but we must do what is possible.” He said Germany will consider joining other countries in screening the public

By John Pilger John Pilger provides an outside perspective on U.S. politics. Posted August 11, 2016 Host: David Swanson. Producer: David Swanson. Music by Duke Ellington. Download from LetsTryDemocracy or Archive . http://davidswanson.org/node/5243

By Paul Craig Roberts and Michael Hudson According to various reports, the Russian government is reconsidering the neoliberal policy that has served Russia so badly since the collapse of the Soviet Union. If Russia had adopted an intelligent economic policy, Russia’s economy would be far ahead of where it stands today. It would have avoided most of the capital flight to the West by relying on self-finance. Washington, however, took advantage of a naive, gullible and demoralized Russian government which looked to Washington for guidance in the post-Soviet era. Russians thought that the rivalry between the two countries had ended with the Soviet collapse and trusted American advice to modernize the Russian economy with best-practice Western ideas. Instead, Washington abused this trust to saddle Russia with an economic policy designed to carve up Russian economic assets and transfer ownership into foreign hands. By tricking Russia into accepting foreign capital and exposing the rub

The report claims that as many as 50 children from the UK are growing up with jihad propaganda in the ‘caliphate’ The children of foreign fighters living in Isis territory in Syria and Iraq are being trained to become the “next generation” of terrorists, Europe’s law enforcement agency has warned. The terror group advertises its use of children as fighters and suicide bombers , as well as featuring children, including a four-year-old British boy, as executioners in its gory propaganda videos. There are concerns the number of young boys forced into Isis ranks will increase as young children taken to live in its territories or born to “jihadi brides” grow up. Boys have been shown shooting prisoners dead at close range and beheading them In its annual report on terrorism in the European Union, Europol said children raised under the group’s rule are of “particular concern”. “In their propaganda, Isis has often shown that they train these minors to become the next generation of foreign ter

A military aircraft is pictured on the runway at Incirlik Air Base, in the outskirts of the city of Adana, southeastern Turkey. © Stringer / AFP  7,000 armed police in heavy vehicles surrounded the Incirlik air base used by NATO forces in Adana in what a Turkish minister called a “security check.” With no official explanation, speculations have arisen about a new coup attempt or VIP visit. Hurriyet reported earlier that Adana police had been tipped off about a new coup attempt, and forces were immediately alerted. The entrance to the base was closed off. Security forces armed with rifles and armored TOMA vehicles used by Turkish riot police could be seen at the site in photos taken by witnesses. 9 h Brasco_Aad   @Brasco_Aad @ Brasco_Aad  Pro Erdogan/AKParti supporters (civilians) are trying to get near the air base, but are being held back by Military Police  Follow Brasco_Aad   @Brasco_Aad @ Brasco_Aad  These heavy dump trucks are being made ready