ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

By Patrick Buchanan Devin Nunes just set the cat down among the pigeons. Two days after FBI Director James Comey assured us there was no truth to President Trump’s tweet about being wiretapped by Barack Obama, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee said Trump may have had more than just a small point. The U.S. intelligence community, says Nunes, during surveillance of legitimate targets, picked up the names of Trump transition officials during surveillance of targets, "unmasked" their identity, and spread their names around, virtually assuring they would be leaked. If true, this has the look and smell of a conspiracy to sabotage the Trump presidency, before it began. Comey readily confirmed there was no evidence to back up the Trump tweet. But when it came to electronic surveillance of Trump and his campaign, Comey, somehow, could not comment on that. Which raises the question: What is the real scandal here? Is it that Russians hacked the DNC and John Podesta’s emai

FILE IMAGE. Source: @RozanaFM/Twitter The ISIS-linked media outlet “Amaq” reported that the Tabqa dam north of Raqqa is on the verge collapse after US airstrikes that took place last evening and this morning. A statement by Amaq The organization claimed that a US airstrike targeted the electricity station that is part of the dam. As a result the dam went out of service and all of the dam’s gates shut automatically. The water level is increasing. According to ISIS, maintenance crews are unable to reach the electric station because of intense artillery strikes. A source among the dam workers informed Al-Mayadeen Channel that the dam was indeed closed because of damage suffered from airstrikes. Spokesman for the SDF denied reports about airstrikes in the area. 13 h Lizzie Phelan   @LizziePhelan 1. SDF spox Tilal Silo: International coalition didn't strike  # Tabqa  dam, no damage to it. Air drops of fighters were made to avoid this...  Follow Lizzie Phe

Iraqi security forces (ISF) declared control over the Badush Dam west of Mosul. Separately, ISF continued its operations against ISIS at the eastern bank of the Tigris liberating Al-Urouba and Sina’a districts. Fierce clashes continued in the Rajm al-Hadid district in western Mosul where ISIS allegedy destroyed two Iraqi armored bulldozer. ISIS terrorists also downed an ISF drone over Al-Siha district. The Iraqi Federal Police shelled the remaining district under ISIS control in western Mosul with mortar shells. At least 4,800 civilians have been killed since the launch of the Mosul offensive according to the Iraqi Observatory for Human Rights (IOHR). Click to see the full-size map From its side, ISIS claimed to have launched an attack on the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) south of the Tal Afar Airport. However, the terrorist group has achieved no gains so far. ISIS also launched an attack in the vicinity of the Ain Al-Baydah village near Shirqat south of Mosul.  Fo

On March 26, members of the Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) terrorist organization launched a new attack on the loyalist stronghold of Qamhana in Northern Hama trying to capture it for the second time after their first assault resulted in a failure. Unfortunately for terrorists, the second assault failed again resulting in no gains as predicted by SouthFront earlier . There are 1,000 Tiger fighters from the town’s local population defending the home city. Violent clashes continue in Breidij, al-Mugheer, Kafr Nabbudah front, al-Bana, and Tal al-Sakura villages where units from the Syrian Armed Forces supported by local fighters are repelling several waves of assaults by HTS-led forces. The Syrian Army artillery took no break as it bombarded insurgent positions and fortifications on Ma’arzaf front. As a result, a large influx of killed and injured rebels flooded into the rebel field hospitals in Kafar Zita, according to local sources. HTS targeted a civilian building in Mahardeh with 23mm ca

The Syrian Army has managed to liberate part of Al-Manshia neighborhood in Daraa city from terrorists of the Jabhat Fateh al-Sham group. Photo: RIA Novosti / Mikhail Alayeddin On Saturday, the Syrian Army managed to knock out terrorists of the Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (previously known as the al-Nusra Front) group from part of the territory of Al-Manshia neighborhood in the city of Daraa, the RIA Novosti news agency reported, citing an unnamed informed source at the scene. According to the news agency’s source, currently, the government forces are conducting intense fighting in Daraa with armed formations of Jabhat Fateh al-Sham. The source also noted that the enemy is suffering significant losses in the manpower. The city of Daraa, located to the south of Damascus near the border with Jordan, is controlled by the government forces. Illegal formations, mainly belonging to the Jabhat Fateh al-Sham terrorist group, hold a number of settlements, located to the north and west of Daraa, inclu

While mainstream media wrote that Flynn was a ‘Kremlin agent’, he actually was a Turkey’s lobbyist. Michael Flynn, a former national security advisor of US President Donald Trump (Photo: AFP 2017 / Mandel Ngan) Michael Flynn, a former national security advisor of US President Donald Trump , met with representatives of the Turkish government in September of the last year and discussed with them the issue of an extradition of an opposition Islamic preacher, Fethullah Gulen, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing a former head of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), James Woolsey, who attended the meeting. According to the newspaper, Woolsey said that a possibility of Gulen’s sending to Turkey without a formal extradition process was discussed during the meeting. According to his words, the son-in-law of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu also attended the meeting. “It seemed to be naive. I didn’t put a lot of credibility in it. This

Militants of the Kamuina Nsapu group have beheaded 40 policemen in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Photo: AFP 2017 / Griff Tapper A group of armed people has attacked the local police in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) and beheaded 40 policemen , the Reuters news agency reported. As a representative of the local authorities, Francois Kalamba, told the news agency, the militants of the Kamuina Nsapu group attacked policemen on Friday, when they were traveling along a road, located between the settlements of Tshikapa and Kananga. “They were apprehended by the militia members and they decapitated about 40,” Kalamba told Reuters. He also noted that witnesses said the fighters spared the lives of six police officers because they spoke the local Tshiluba language. The news agency added that the militants also stole weapons and a car from the police officers. According to local officials, it was the deadliest attack on police since an insurgency erupted in the region las