ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

By Caitlin Johnstone “What we’ve been undergoing to a large extent is a form of psychological abuse, actually, by very narcissistic, hegemonic governments and officials for a very long time. It’s a form of gas lighting where actually our own faith in our ability to judge a situation, and to some extent even our own identity, has been eroded and damaged to the point where we’re effectively accepting their version of reality.”  ~  Vanessa Beeley   The only thing keeping westerners from seeing through the lies that they’ve been told about Syria is the unquestioned assumption that their own government could not possibly be that evil. They have no trouble believing that a foreigner from a Muslim-majority country could be gratuitously using chemical weapons on children at the most  strategically disastrous time possible and bombing his own civilians for no discernible reason other than perhaps sheer sexual sadism, but the possibility that their government is making those things up i

In early May, ISIS forced traders to use its currency in the areas controlled by the terrorist group, especially in Raqqa and Deir Ezzor. ISIS has also published an infographic explaining the new currency. Click to see the full-size image ISIS has presented the currency with three values: -Copper fils: 6 fils weighing 3 grams of copper; -Silver dirham: 1 dirham weighing 3 grams silver; – Golden dinar: 1 gold dinar weighing 4.25 grams gold 21 caliber. Each silver dirham equals 100 fils of copper, and each gold dinar equals 85 silver dirhams. According to ISIS, the value of currencies determined by its “Monetary Authority”. ISIS is trying to promote its currency by claiming that it has “real value unlike paper currencies.” ISIS also claimed that its currency maintains its value during wars and crises becauseit is made of valuable metals. It is believed that ISIS came to impose its currency after the great collapse that hit its financing. This was a result of the destru

On April 11th, the White House released a “declassified four-page report” on the alleged chemical weapons attack in the village of Khan Shaykhun in the Syrian province of Idlib. The United States accuses the Syrian and Russian governments of providing disinformation and “false narratives” regarding the attack, adding that Washington is sure that the Assad government is responsible for the attack. However, the report provides only a “summary” of the United States’ version of the situation. According to this version, the US possesses intelligence and evidence of the attack but cannot reveal it because of security classifications. It is stated in the report that the Syrian government maintains the capability to conduct a chemical weapons attack to prevent “the loss of territory deemed critical to its survival”. Then, the “declassified” report just retells the story provided by hard-core “pro-opposition” media outlets and activists -in other words, supporters of Hayat Tahrir al-Sha

Philippines troops, backed by warplanes and attack helicopters, have continued struggling to retake the city of Marawi seized by ISIS terrorists earlier this month. According to a statement from the Armed Forces, some 61 terrorists have been killed in clashes with the army so far. The military added that 15 servicemen (army and police) have been killed and 39 others have been wounded. Furthermore, according to media reports, over 120 civilians have been killed as result of the ongoing clashes. Photos show an alleged aftermath of the airstrikes:

By dunning NATO nations to chip more money into the military alliance, President Trump may inadvertently cause some Europeans to rethink the over-the-top anti-Russian propaganda, says ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern. By Ray McGovern President Donald Trump’s politically incorrect behavior at the gathering of NATO leaders in Brussels on Thursday could, in its own circuitous way, spotlight an existential threat to the alliance. Yes, that threat is Russia, but not in the customary sense in which Westerners have been taught to fear the Russian bear. It is a Russia too clever to rise to the bait – a Russia patient enough to wait for the Brussels bureaucrats and generals to fall of their own weight, pushed by financial exigencies in many NATO countries. President Donald J. Trump and First Lady Melania Trump traveled to Brussels, Belgium on Wednesday evening for their fourth stop on their trip abroad. President Trump met with leaders from around the world before the NATO Summit in Brusse

Though many Ukrainians live in poverty, government officials and oligarchs lavish millions on Washington insiders to buy influence, another example of how foreign lobbying can fuel a crisis, Jonathan Marshall reports. By Jonathan Marshall (This is the sixth and final installment of a series on foreign lobbying.) (Updated on May 27, 2017, to clarify language about Rinat Akhmetov in 10th graf.) Donald Trump doesn’t just have a Russia problem, in the eyes of his critics. He also has a big — and related — Ukraine problem. His 2016 campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, was  forced to resign  last August amid a flurry of media exposés about Manafort’s lobbying for former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who fled to Russia following violent protests against his government in February 2014. “Any presidential candidate should properly vet the backgrounds of and moral decisions of the people he picks to advise him,”  said  Atlantic Council deputy director Alina Polyakova last year, de