ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

© Thaier Al-Sudani / Reuters The Pentagon paid a UK PR firm half a billion dollars to create fake terrorist videos in Iraq in a secret propaganda campaign exposed by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism. PR firm Bell Pottinger, known for its array of controversial clients including the Saudi government and Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet’s foundation, worked with the US military to create the propaganda in a secretive operation. The firm reported to the CIA, the National Security Council and the Pentagon on the project with a mandate to portray Al-Qaeda in a negative light and track suspected sympathizers. Both the White House and General David Petraeus, the former general who shared classified information with his mistress, signed off on the content produced by the agency. Fake news and false flags: How the #Pentagon paid a British PR firm $500M for top secret Iraq propaganda http://bit.ly/2dk54xs 3:22 PM - 2 Oct 2016 The Bell Pottinger operation started soon after the US invasi...

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (L) greets Russia's foreign minister Sergey Lavrov during a bilateral meeting at the sidelines of the ASEAN foreign ministers meeting in Vientiane, Laos July 26, 2016. REUTERS/Jorge Silva (RT) If the US launches a military campaign to oust the Syrian government, it would further fracture the country and have tremendous negative long-term consequence for the entire region, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova warned. “If the US launches a direct aggression against Damascus and the Syrian Army, it would cause a terrible, tectonic shift not only in the country, but in the entire region,” Maria Zakharova said during a talk show, which is to be aired fully later on Saturday and has been cited by RIA. With no government in Damascus, there will be a power vacuum in Syria, which “so-called moderates, who are, in reality, not moderate at all but just terrorists of all flavors, would fill; and there will be no dealing with them,” the diplom...

In the latest video, an al-Nusra spokesman endorses the Nobel Peace prize candidates, the White Helmets, as mujahideen. Abdallah Muhammad al Muhaysini, is a popular Saudi cleric who has relocated to Syria illegally and became the Army of Conquests Shariah Court spokesperson. The White Helmets are seen as humanitarians, but the relationship between them and internationally recognised terrorist groups like al-Nusra is ignored. Abdullah Muhaysni says the White Helmets "are no different from the Mujahideen". In an interview with the Swiss Islamic Central Council, he said, “I was an admirer of al-Qaeda in Iraq and the Islamic State of Iraq."

In view of the total failure of the US policy to regime-change Syria and overthrow Assad, the time has now come for the United States to make a fundamental choice: to negotiate or double down. Apparently, Kerry and others initially tried to negotiate, but the Pentagon decided otherwise, treacherously broke the terms of the agreement and (illegally) bombed the Syrian forces. At which point, Kerry, Power and the rest of them felt like they had no choice but to “join” the Pentagon and double down. Now the US “warns” Russia that if the Aleppo offensive continues, the US will not resume negotiations. This is a rather bizarre threat considering that the US is clearly unable to stick to any agreement and that the Russians have already concluded that the US is “ not-agreement-capable ”. The Russia reaction was predictable: Lavrov’s admitted that he could not even take his American colleagues seriously . Okay, so both sides are fed-up with each other. What comes next? The US will send more wea...

By Mike Whitney “Syria is the summation of all the errors of a dysfunctional empire collapsing upon itself. History forgotten. Science ignored. Facts denied. Propaganda cannot hide that West is supporting and killing Islamists at the same time in a World War that risks escalating into a nuclear holocaust.” Vietnam Vet, comments-line, Sic Semper Tyrannis The attack on Deir Ezzor was a flagrant act of betrayal. For the first time in the five year-long war, US warplanes targeted an SAA military outpost killing 62 Syrian regulars. The surprise attacks — which lasted for the better part of an hour and were followed by a coordinated ground assault by members of ISIS– were intended to torpedo the fragile ceasefire agreement and send a message to Moscow that the US was prepared to achieve its strategic objectives in Syria whether it had to launch direct attacks on defenders of the regime or not. The attacks–for which the Pentagon eventually accepted responsibility–were followed by a callous ...

September 29, 2016 ( Tony Cartalucci - NEO ) - A nation is its institutions, and should those institutions weaken, the nation itself will be weakened. And should those institutions be destroyed, the nation, for all intents and purposes, will also be destroyed. A dramatic example of how to destroy a nation unfolded in 2003 in Iraq as a US led axis invaded and occupied it, intentionally targeting and destroying Iraqi institutions and essential infrastructure, including the police, military, and the government as well as bridges, electricity, and communications. In the ruins left in the wake of the US-led invasion, through the "Coalition Provisional Authority," US and European corporations were invited in to not only rebuild these institutions and infrastructure, but to do so in a manner making them dependent on and profitable to US-European corporate-financier interests well into the foreseeable future. The West's vast influence in Iraq today is owed to this process. While ...