ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

U.S. President Barack Obama speaks with Saudi Arabia's King Salman © Kevin Lamarque / Reutersudi Arabia has become by far the number one purchaser of US weapons, with $115 billion deals under the Obama administration alone. Congress has just rubber-stamped every single one, says author and activist Medea Benjamin. Chris Hedges discussed US-Saudi relations with Medea Benjamin. Saudi Arabia carried out 158 executions, 63 for non-violent drug crimes last year, often through public beheadings. Early this year, it executed 47 men for terrorism-related offenses, including the prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr. It practices gender apartheid against women, who are not allowed to drive, are banned from most jobs, and are controlled by male guardians. It prohibits freedom of expression, including freedom of religion. Homosexuals can be put to death. It promotes a fundamentalist form of Sunni Islam throughout the Muslim world known as Wahhabism, which sanctifies violence aga

The Russian general staff announced on November 2 that President Vladimir Putin had ordered a humanitarian pause in Aleppo from 9am to 7pm on November 4. General Valery Gerasimov, the chief of the Russian General Staff reported that joint militant forces failed to break the government forces’ defenses in the city and lift the siege from militant-controlled areas. “Considering that our American colleagues were unable to separate the opposition from terrorists, we are addressing all militant leaders directly, urging them to cease hostilities and leave Aleppo with their arms,” he said. “Two corridors will be opened, from which Syrian troops and weapons would be pulled back.” The corridors for militants will lead to the Turkish-Syrian border and the province of Idlib. Six additional corridors will be opened for civilians. Since November 1, the fighting in the area has become stationary. The western part of the al-Assad Neighborhood is contested. The al-Nusra led coalition, Jaish al-Fatah

Click to see full-size image The Destert Hakws Brigade (or Liwa Suqur al-Sahara), the Syrian Arab Army’s Tiger Forces and Hezbollah are playing a crucial role in the ongoing clashes in western Aleppo where the al-Nusra Front-led coalition, Jaish al-Fatah, seeks to break the government forces’ defenses and to lift the siege from the militant-controlled areas of the city. The Desert Hawks Brigade and The Syrian Arab Army’s Republican Guard were in the al-Assad Neighborhood and in the Minyan area November 2 morning: While the Tiger Forces and Hezbollah are widely known among the international audience, the Destert Hakws Brigade remains a dark horse of the Syrian war. Meanwhile, it’s one of the most capable units affilated with the Syrian Arab Army. It’s one of the formations that operate advanced T-90 main battle tanks , donated by Russia to the Syrian military.

© / AFP NATO’s former deputy military chief in Europe says his book, a fictional story which describes a nuclear war with Russia over the Baltic nations taking place in 2017, is based on an “entirely plausible” scenario. General Sir Richard Shirreff, from Britain, served at the second-highest NATO military office in Europe between 2011 and 2014. He says his experience acquired in the alliance of war-gaming future conflicts helped him model the narrative for the book. According to his scenario, starting next year Russia would first occupy Ukraine to secure a land route to Crimea and then invade the three Baltic nations, all of which are members of NATO. The move, Shirreff argued, would be driven by the perception of NATO’s weakness and Russia’s opposition to what it sees as the alliance’s attempts to encircle it. We need to judge President [Vladimir] Putin by his deeds not his words,” the retired general told BBC Radio 4’s Today program. “He has invaded Georgia, he has invaded the C

by JOHN PILGER Photo by Diego Torres Silvestre | CC BY 2.0 The American journalist, Edward Bernays, is often described as the man who invented modern propaganda. The nephew of Sigmund Freud, the pioneer of psycho-analysis, it was Bernays who coined the term “public relations” as a euphemism for spin and its deceptions. In 1929, he persuaded feminists to promote cigarettes for women by smoking in the New York Easter Parade – behaviour then considered outlandish. One feminist, Ruth Booth, declared, “Women! Light another torch of freedom! Fight another sex taboo!” Bernays’ influence extended far beyond advertising. His greatest success was his role in convincing the American public to join the slaughter of the First World War. The secret, he said, was “engineering the consent” of people in order to “control and regiment [them] according to our will without their knowing about it”. He described this as “the true ruling power in our society” and called it an “invisible government”. Today,

By Mike Whitney “Nation state as a fundamental unit of man’s organized life has ceased to be the principal creative force: International banks and multinational corporations are acting and planning in terms that are far in advance of the political concepts of the nation-state.” — Zbigniew Brzezinski, “Between Two Ages: The Technetronic Era”, 1971 “I’m going to continue to push for a no-fly zone and safe havens within Syria….not only to help protect the Syrians and prevent the constant outflow of refugees, but to gain some leverage on both the Syrian government and the Russians.” — Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Third Presidential Debate Why is Hillary Clinton so eager to intensify US involvement in Syria when US interventions in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya have all gone so terribly wrong? The answer to this question is simple. It’s because Clinton doesn’t think that these interventions went wrong. And neither do any of the other members of the US foreign polic

DAMASCUS, SYRIA (10:15 P.M.) - Jaysh Al-Islam (Army of Islam) and their Islamist allies are facing complete defeat in the East Ghouta region of rural Damascus, as the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and their allies continue their onslaught near the Syrian capital. Most recently, Jaysh Al-Islam lost two imperative hilltop villages in the northern part of the East Ghouta, leaving them completely exposed at Douma's eastern flank. The two hilltop villages captured by the Syrian Armed Forces in the East Ghouta were Tal Sawwan and Tal Kurdi; these sites are located directly north of the strategic town of Al-Reyhan. With Douma exposed, the Syrian Arab Army's 105th Brigade of the Republican Guard will likely offer the Islamist rebels one last chance to surrender; if rejected, they will storm the town from two different flanks.

(TASS) Moscow strongly condemns a chemical attack against civilians in Aleppo, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Maria Zakharova said in a commentary on Monday. The ministry reports that on Sunday terrorists shelled Hamdaniya and Dahiyet al-Assad districts in western Aleppo using self-made shells stuffed with chemical agents. "At least 35 people were poisoned, many of them were hospitalized," the ministry said. "This incident in which terrorists used toxic agents against civilians is unfortunately not an isolated one," the commentary said. "Earlier, gunmen applied similar chemical weapons in 2013 in East Ghouta, in 2013 not far from the settlement of Khan al-Assal at Aleppo, in 2015 in the settlement of Marea in the same province and also in the summer of 2016 when the Salah-Eddin neighborhood of Aleppo was shelled," the diplomat said in the commentary. "We consider it our duty to remind those, who as they themselves maintain have influence on armed