ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Until recently, Muhammad Wanndy Mohamed Jedi was a relatively unknown name in the jihadi community of Syria. A 26-year-old from a small village in the district of Malacca on the southwest of the Malayan Peninsula, he arrived in Syria on 26 January 2016, officially recruited into the jihadi community through Facebook. The Islamic State seemed perfect for his ambitions, as it had no strict preconditions for new recruits — no previous battlefield experience, no theological credentials, only a determination to serve the cause and an oath of commitment to its self-proclaimed “caliph,” Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The Malaysian recruit fit all of the above, but was placed under routine probation, common for foreigners who join the Syrian and Iraqi battlefields, where they are tested for discipline, will, courage and behavior. Restrictions were placed on Jedi from the start; he was not allowed to roam about freely. Such rules didn’t apply to battle-hardened warriors from previous frontiers

By Danny Sjursen  The United States has already lost -- its war for the Middle East, that is. Having taken my own crack at combat soldiering in both Iraq and Afghanistan, that couldn’t be clearer to me. Unfortunately, it’s evidently still not clear in Washington. Bush’s neo-imperial triumphalism failed. Obama’s quiet shift to drones, Special Forces, and clandestine executive actions didn’t turn the tide either. For all President Trump’s bluster, boasting, and threats, rest assured that, at best, he’ll barely move the needle and, at worst… but why even go there? At this point, it’s at least reasonable to look back and ask yet again: Why the failure? Explanations abound, of course. Perhaps Americans were simply never tough enough and still need to take off the kid gloves. Maybe there just weren’t ever enough troops. (Bring back the draft!) Maybe all those hundreds of thousands of bombs and missiles just came up short. (So how about lots more of them, maybe even a nuke ?) Lead from the

Turkey has decided not to directly participate in the liberation of the Syrian city of Raqqa and offered to send formations of the Syrian opposition to storm the capital of the Islamic State terrorist group in the country. Photo: AFP The Turkish Army will not be directly involved in the liberation of Raqqa city from terrorists of the Islamic State (IS) group, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on February 19. Instead of this, Ankara offers to send loyal formations of the Syrian opposition to storm the capital of Syrian terrorists, and currently tries to agree on this issue with Washington. As experts noted, sending of Turkish tanks to Raqqa would turn into open war with Syrian Kurds. During his visit to Germany, Yildirim made it clear that the Turkish Army is not going to participate in the offensive on Raqqa, but it is ready to provide “tactical support” to troops of the Syrian opposition. According to the Turkish prime minister, Ankara wants detachments of the Free Syri

According to the Al-Sumaria TV-channel, “Abu Abdullah”, a chief of the ISIS Security Service was killed in Mosul High-ranking terrorist named as “Abu Abdullah”, was killed in airstrikes at the Mosul airport on Tuesday, the Al-Sumaria TV-channel reported. “Abu Abdullah” was killed in the morning along with two of his aides near the main entrance to the Mosul airport. According to the sources, terrorists were attacked by an unmanned combat air vehicle (UСAV). The information about terrorist’s name (“Abu Abdullah”), his call sign or military position raises doubts. It is quite possible that the announced data is far from the truth. Another version appeared on February 20, the killed terrorist was named as “Abu Bakr al-Shishani” who was considered to be a chief of the ISIS Security Service. ‘Al-Shishani’ means a native of Chechnya (Russian North Caucasus region) or marks nationality “Chechen”. It is worth pointing out that ISIS security service and intelligence command stuff are mainl

A program of military assistance to the Syrian opposition in the north-west of the Arab Republic, coordinated by the CIA, has been suspended. Photo: Newsmakers / David Burnett The US has suspended a program of military assistance to the Syrian opposition in the north-west of the Arab Republic, which was coordinated by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) , the Reuters news agency reported, citing sources in the opposition’s ranks. The program was frozen after an attack of extremists that occurred in January, it will be restarted after reorganization, representatives of the opposition said. A US official source told Reuters that the suspension of aid to the Syrian opposition was not associated with the change of the administration in the US and the coming of President Donald Trump to power. The source confirmed that the reason for this move was the attack of extremists. Meanwhile, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that the armed opposition and formations of mercenaries in Sy

By Eric Margolis President Dwight Eisenhower’s warning about the dangers of the military-industrial complex made half a century ago ring as loud and clear today. The soft coup being mounted against the Trump government by America’s ‘deep state’ reached a new intensity this week as special interests battled for control of Washington. The newly named national security advisor, Lt Gen Michael Flynn, was ousted by Trump over his chats with Russia’s ambassador and what he may or may not have told Vice President Pence. The defenestration of Flynn appeared engineered by our national intelligence agencies in collaboration with the mainstream media and certain Democrats. Flynn’s crime? Talking to the wicked Russians before and after the election. Big, big deal. That’s what security advisors are supposed to do: keep an open back channel to other major powers and allies. This is also the job of our intelligence agencies. There is no good or bad in international affairs. The childish concept of ‘g

Click to see the full-size image The USS America LHA-6 successfully completed combat systems ship qualification trials (CSSQT) on February 3rd, in preparation for its first overseas deployment at the head of the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit/Amphibious Ready Group (MEU/ARG). The vessel went to sea several times in January to conduct training exercises in the run-up to its future deployment, testing different mixes of aviation assets to be fielded on the new class of ship. The USS America is classified as a Landing Helicopter Assault (LHA), and lacks a well deck to launch and recover LCACs or AAVs. The U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps have to determine exactly how to best utilize the new vessel as an integrated component of an MEU/ARG. There was no small amount of controversy over the new vessel when it was first proposed. Many senior officers in the USMC argued that an amphibious assault ship meant to head an MEU/ARG must have amphibious assault capability. Without a well deck, t

It would appear the mainstream media (along with several celebrities and Swedish politicians) is going to be apologizing to President Trump once again. Having spent the entire new cycle trying to ignore the immigrant crisis facing Sweden, and pin the ignorant tail on Trump, both Dagbladet and Expressen reports riots breaking out in the highly immigrant concentrated Stockholdm borough of Rinkeby, Sweden with police firing warning shots as 100s of young people throw stones and burn cars. During the evening hundreds of young people gathered in the center of Rinkeby, well known for its high concentration of immigrants and people with immigrant ancestry. In June 2010, Rinkeby was the scene of riots and attacks against the local police station and Rinkeby is the region in which the ’60 Minutes’ crew were attacked in 2016. The problems Sweden faces integrating large numbers of Muslim immigrants is a subject on which Nordstjernan columnist Ulf Nilson has written many times. His warnings of