ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

GAO, Mali — The migrants arrive by coach. Diadie picks them out from the other travelers by their swollen backpacks and their apprehensive looks. Up until this point, most of their journeys’ have been legal. They come from Gambia and Senegal, Guinea and parts of southern Mali, and, as such, they hold passports that permit them visa-free travel within the 15-country regional bloc of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). The moment they make a deal with Diadie, however, they become illicit human cargo on one of the most dangerous smuggling routes on Earth. Diadie, who asked to be identified by only his first name, organizes transport for dozens of Europe-bound migrants each week. Wearing a black leather jacket and a maroon scarf wrapped around his head so that only his eyes and the bridge of his nose are visible, the 30-year-old  coxeur  — a middleman, or agent, who links migrants and smugglers — says Arab and Tuareg drivers crossing the Sahara to Algeria tell him how

FILE IMAGE: the US Navy There was a combined change of command and squadron establishment of the Submarine Development Squadron 5 (DEVRON 5) at Naval Undersea Warfare Center on September 26. Capt. Stephen Mack, from Silver Spring, Maryland, relieved Capt. Robert Gaucher, from Pittsfield, Massachusetts, as commodore during the ceremony held at Barb Hall, according to  the US Navy website . Gaucher’s next assignment will be as the chief of staff for Commander at Submarine Force Atlantic in Norfolk. Gaucher assumed command of DEVRON 5 on March 23, 2016. He oversaw the successful deployments of the Seawolf-class fast attack submarines and their maintenance. Under his leadership, the command supported the development and launch of the Navy’s first unmanned undersea vehicle squadron. It is fitting then, that in addition to welcoming a new commodore, Unmanned Undersea Vehicle Squadron (UUVRON) 1 was established. Gaucher called this a historical day for the Navy. “ Today we are

Government troops near Hawija. Click to see the full-size image On Wednesday, the Iraqi Army and  the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU)  captured the strategic Fatha and al-Harariat areas southwest of Hawija town according to the PMU media wing. Iraqi government forces also captured the following 14 villages in Hawija area: Hawd 7, Yassen Taha, al-A’aliah, Khalaf al-Asuad, al-Safra, al-Rafia’a, Nayif Ibrahim, al-Sa’ay diyah, Rbiyda, al-Jaburiyah, al-Nafylah, Kazan Qarha, al-Dibs, al-Ghaziyah. Government forces also besieged ISIS fighters inside the strategic al-Riyad town east of Hawija town. Moreover, according to the PMU media wing dozens of ISIS fighters were killed, and 6 VBIEDs of ISIS were destroyed by government forces on Wednesday. Iraqi forces cross the Zab river: Meanwhile, the PMU Intelligence reported that ISIS leader in Hawija area threatened ISIS fighters with death if they kept withdrawing from the villages around Hawija town. According to the PMU Inte

FILE IMAGE: AP/Emrah Gurel On October 3, the Turkish authorities announced that security forces arrested ISIS commander Abu Yousef, also known as Khaider Kareem, during a security operation in the Turkish capital, Ankara. Abu Youssef is an Iraqi citizen; Iraqi authorities declared before that he was killed. Abu Youssef had been an active member of al-Qaeda terrorist group since 2011. He defected from al-Qaeda in 2014 and joined ISIS. After joining ISIS, Abu Youssef became one of ISIS commanders in al-Anbar governorate in Iraq. Turkish authorities said that the Special Investigations Office of Sakarya province Public Prosecution Office received information that Abu Youssef was alive and living in Ankara city. Based on the investigation of the Special Instigations Office, Turkish counter-terrorism force raided Abu Youssef house and arrested him. Turkish counter-terrorism units also found 40 fake ID cards in Abu Youssef house. Abu Youssef was handed over to Sakarya province

Five civilians were killed and eight wounded on Monday in an air raid on a rebel-held town in south Yemen, an official said, days after the United Nations agreed to investigate war crimes in the country. Speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, the government official said the raid targeted the Barh district in the southern province of Taez, which is largely controlled by Yemen’s Saudi-backed government.Barh, however, is held by the country’s Shia Houthi rebels, who are allied with Iran. The rebel-run Saba news agency said Saudi Arabia was behind the raid. Saudi officials did not comment on the news on Monday. Allied with former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, the Houthis for years have been locked in a war with the government of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, in turn supported by an Arab military coalition led by Saudi Arabia. More than 8,500 people have been killed and nearly 49,000 wounded since the Saudi-led coalition joined the Yemen war in 2015. The UN Human Rights Council las

FILE IMAGE: Staff Sgt. Aaron Allmon, US Air Force By  Rep. Ron Paul ; Originally appeared at  Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity Now that the defeat of ISIS in Syria appears imminent, with the Syrian army clearing out some of the last ISIS strongholds in the east, Washington’s interventionists are searching for new excuses to maintain the illegal US military presence in the country. Their original rationale for intervention has long been exposed as another lie. Remember that President Obama initially involved the US military in Iraq and Syria to “prevent genocide” of the Yazidis and promised the operation would not drift into US “boots on the ground.” That was three years ago and the US military became steadily more involved while Congress continued to dodge its Constitutional obligations. The US even built military bases in Syria despite having no permission to do so! Imagine if Syria started building military bases here in the US against our wishes. After six yea

With the Trump administration lately focused mostly on domestic policy – even as Mueller’s ongoing Russian probe continues to hang over Trump’s head – US power and influence in the Middle East has found itself in retreat, a continuation of unsuccessful and/or failed policies implemented by the Obama administration, resulting in a power vacuum that has to be filled, and one country has emerged willing to take America’s spot. As  Bloomberg writes today , “the Israelis and Turks, the Egyptians and Jordanians –  they’re all beating a path to the Kremlin in the hope that Vladimir Putin, the new master of the Middle East ,  can secure their interests and fix their problems .” And now, none other than Saudi Arabia is the latest to make friendly overtures toward the Kremlin, when Saudi King Salman visits Moscow on Wednesday,  the first monarch of the oil-rich kingdom to do so . At the top of his agenda will be reining in Iran, a close Russian ally seen as a deadly foe by most Gulf Arab st

U.S. intelligence analysts reportedly have traced North Korea’s leap forward in creating an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of striking U.S. territory to a decaying Ukrainian rocket-engine factory whose alleged role could lift the cover off other suppressed mysteries related to the U.S.-backed coup in Kiev. North Korean missile launch on March 6, 2017. Because the 2014 coup – overthrowing elected President Viktor Yanukovych – was  partly orchestrated  by the U.S. government’s influential neoconservatives and warmly embraced by the West’s mainstream media, many of the ugly features of the Kiev regime have been downplayed or ignored, including the fact that corrupt oligarch Igor Kolomoisky was put in charge of the area where the implicated factory was located. As the region’s governor, the thuggish Kolomoisky founded armed militias of Ukrainian extremists, including neo-Nazis, who spearheaded the violence against ethnic Russians in eastern provinces, which had voted h