ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

In an exclusive report today, Reuters dropped a bombshell that needs to be echoed far and wide by the alternative media because it won’t get much play at all in the so-called “mainstream media”: Namely, top U.S. spy officials do not agree with the CIA’s assessment Russia tried to disrupt the presidential election in favor of President-elect Donald J. Trump. Here’s the crux of the report : The overseers of the U.S. intelligence community have not embraced a CIA assessment that Russian cyber attacks were aimed at helping Republican President-elect Donald Trump win the 2016 election, three American officials said on Monday. While the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) does not dispute the CIA’s analysis of Russian hacking operations, it has not endorsed their assessment because of a lack of conclusive evidence that Moscow intended to boost Trump over Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton, said the officials, who declined to be named. The position of the ODNI, which overs...

WRITTEN BY: USAFEATURESMEDIA Germany is the latest European nation to suffer an Islamic terrorist attack, with the deaths of more than 12 people and wounding of dozens more in a crowded Christmas market on Monday after an ISIS operative driving a stolen Polish truck slammed into them, al la Nice, Paris-style. In the wake of the attack, political opponents in Germany have begun pointing the finger of blame at Chancellor Angela Merkel, over her policy of allowing millions of Middle East migrants into the country. GERMAN Chancellor Angela Merkel is facing a backlash after 12 people were killed when an attacker ploughed through innocent revellers at a Christmas market in a truck. The country’s far-right leaders have blasted the chancellor’s “open-door” immigration policy for sparking the attack in Berlin – and even her own party is putting the boot in. “These are Merkel’s dead,” Marcus Pretzell, chairman of the Alternative for Germany party in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia, p...

WRITTEN BY: USAFEATURESMEDIA  North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, in a New Year’s address to his nation, said the country is close to testing its first intercontinental ballistic missile, just as the administration of Donald J. Trump prepares to take office. Kim Jong Un said North Korea is in the “last stage” of preparations to test-fire an inter-continental ballistic missile, refusing to slow his nuclear arms development as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office in Washington. Kim made his remarks in a New Year televised address as he outlined his country’s military achievements for the past year, North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said Sunday. North Korea has conducted three nuclear tests under Kim and launched a series of long-range rockets. North Korea “will continue to strengthen its ability based on nuclear might to mount a preemptive attack,” Kim said during a half-hour speech that touched on a range of issues, including economic policy and relati...

WRITTEN BY: USAFEATURESMEDIA While much of the country remains rural and mired in corruption, China poured more resources into its military during the past year, making several advances. As noted by the Asia Times, the People’s Liberation Army, Navy and Air Force all saw important upgrades in technology and capability during 2016, including the recent launch of the country’s first aircraft carrier. The Asia Times noted further : As 2016 drew to a close, China flexed its military muscle with the high-profile dispatch of its lone aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, to an area of the western Pacific in a carrier battle group formation. Seven warships accompanied the carrier – three destroyers, three frigates and a supply ship. Contrary to many western China analysts’ who said the Chinese carrier would take many years to deploy, Chinese state media trumpeted naval drills as a sign the the carrier will ready for combat operation sooner than expected. “Compared with other countries, China has p...

Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) have entered the Industrial district west of al-Karamah in the ISIS stronghold of Mosul in the Iraqi province of Nineveh. ISF is aiming to liberate the area from ISIS terrorists. An intense fighting is ongoing there. Earlier this week, ISF allegedly liberated the areas of al-Arkoob and al-Saada located southeast of Tell Kepe. While ISF claims that al-Arkoob and al-Saada are under full control of government forces, there are indications that ISIS units are still able to operate in the area. Click to see the full-size map

In the evening of February 15, 2011, the Libyan Revolution began with the first protests in Al-Beida, a city in the eastern region of Libya, the Cyrenaica. The situation escalated very quickly. Gaddafi’s security forces used deadly force against the initially peaceful demonstrators. Nevertheless, the revolution spread within a few days almost all over the country. Al-Beida, Derna, Tobruk, and Benghazi, the capital of the East quickly fell under control of the “thuwar”, the revolutionaries. In Tripolitania, the western part of Libya, cities like Misrata, Zawia, and Zintan freed themselves from the oppression of Gaddafi… The Revolution and its aftermath But within days the pendulum swung back. In a ghostly speech on the capital’s Green Square during the night of February 22, 2011, Gaddafi promised to “cleanse Libya house-by-house” and to “kill all the rats”. He did his very best to fulfill the promise. Security forces dispersed demonstrators in Tripoli with machine guns, fired with tanks...

There is a caricature that goes as follows: A man wakes up in a place that obviously looks like hell and says: “This is a very nice place – did I die and come to heaven?” The man behind him, half confused answers to that: “What have you been through in Turkey?” “Exaggeration” is already in the definition of the caricature and when compared with the things happening in Syria, Turkey surely is not a place that can be defined as “hell” (yet). However, this caricature reflects the feelings of millions of people in Turkey right now. Especially, the feelings of millions of people, who are educated, wise, secular, non-sectarian, anti-nationalists and pacifist… About a year and a half year ago, there was the feeling of living in a society proceeding to be more democratic, peaceful and the rules of law were still valid. However, today, we are living in an environment that one man is actually doing whatever he wants and there is no legal structure that can control him. Recent years, inside and...

The map shows the Kudish insurgency in Syria, Turkey, and Iraq in November-December, 2016 The insurgency of the Kurdish PKK and its armed wing HPG (Hêzên Parastina Gel, People’s Defence Force, in Turkey) has intensified throughout 2016 in southeastern Turkey, causing a tightening of the Turkish government’s military and administrative repression. They regained control of cities like Cizre, Nusaybin, Sirnak or Diyarbakir at the price of major destruction. Many mountainous and rural areas, however, are under de facto control of the insurgency. Another Kurdish separatist group, the TAK (Kurdistan Freedom Falcons), with unconventional methods of action (suicide attacks, car bombs), intensified their actions and committed several attacks against the Turkish security forces, including December 10 bombing in Istanbul, which left 45 dead (it is worth noting that neither the PKK, nor the TAK target civilians). In Iraq, Turkey has good relations with the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government ...