ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Written by  Asif Haroon Raja ; Originally appeared at  VT The US-North Korea antagonism has its roots in the 1952-3 Korean War which had divided the country. While North Korea is backed by Russia and China, South Korea is protected by the US and it has a large military presence in the country. In order to ward off impending danger posed by USA and its allies, North Korea despite being an impoverished country, developed nuclear bombs and missiles, causing deep anxieties to USA and its allies South Korea and Japan. The US imposed sanctions in response to Pyongyang’s defiance of previous UN resolutions banning the testing of ballistic missiles and nuclear warheads. When North Korea launched two intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) in July 2017, which many analysts believe are capable of hitting the US mainland, the US piled on more sanctions in August 2017, which further inflamed tensions. Russia and China bear a measure of respon...

FILE IMAGE: Russian Special Operations Forces troops are in Syria The Russian military announced on October 24 that ISIS now controls less than 5% of the Syrian territory. “Today, ISIL [ISIS] controls less than 5%, before the operation of the Russian Aerospace Forces, ISIL controlled more than 70% of Syria’s territory,” Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said during the fourth meeting of defense ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member states and dialogue partners,  according to TASS . “Some 998 towns and settlements have been liberated, and the liberated territory reaches 503,223 square kilometers. Many militants have been killed. The process of restoring peaceful life in the country has started.” According to the statement, about 2,500 settlements across Syria have joined reconciliation effort thanks to the Russian center for reconciliation of warring parties. Since 2015, 1.126m people have returned home. Sho...

Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko. (Vincent Kessler/Reuters) The Ukrainian media  reported  of a foiled assassination attempt on President Petro Poroshenko on October 23. The assassination had been planned to take course during his visit to Avdiivka. “Security Service of Ukraine [ SBU] forces have dismantled a terrorist cell, that had planned to assassinate the President of Ukraine. Two cell members were killed during the operation,” Vesti Ukr’s report says refering a website of SBU as the original  source of the information. The killed had in their possession a Steyr-Mannlicher sniper rifle, a Makarov pistol with two magazines, two anti-tank grenades, two hand grenades and three smoke grenades. “The killed had taken part in Kyiv riots. The investigation is still ongoing,” the report added. However, right now, the official Security Service of Ukraine website contains no report of the assassination attempt. SBU later  posted  on its Fa...

 Unless you’ve been associated with the U.S. military in any capacity, you likely have never heard of the “naval militia.” In fact, even if you  have  been in, chances are good you’re hearing about this particular branch of service for the first time. But, as noted by LTC (OH) Deano L. McNeil, MPA, MCP in a  piece for  InHomelandSecurity , not only is the naval militia a real entity, but it is one of the most  underused of all Pentagon assets, and at a time when terrorism threatens our homeland and great powers increasingly threaten global stability, now is a perfect time to revitalize this forgotten branch of service. “The United States government and the governments of the states and territories utilize a multi-tiered military and emergency management force structure to prepare and respond to issues pertaining to homeland security and domestic military operations,” McNeil writes. “This force structure includes active and reserve federal militar...

Dark side of the drugs. Andrei Khrapov, Head of the Main Directorate for Drug Control of the Russian Ministry of the Interior, stated the following: “The first place in the number of seized drugs is cannabis, on the second before it was opiates, now synthetics.” “In December 2016, the group” Khimprom “- 68 people was liquidated, almost 4 thousand kg of drugs were seized. This year, the main site of the Russian anonymous Internet stopped functioning.” Mr. Khrapov means, of course, RAMP (Russian Anonymous Marketplace). Altogether, about 150 narcotics laboratories manufacturing synthetic drugs were liquidated. In general, the traffic Darknet, where RAMP existed, sets records. In 2016, it grew on the territory of the Russian Federation ~15 times. That is connected also with growth of transactions in cryptocoins (growth in 20 times). Among the ocean of censorship is an island of freedom, occupied by sins. Click to see the full-size image Tor, which is the basis of Darkn...

Source: http://aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/pkk-pyd-terrorists-seize-syria-s-largest-oil-field/944696 Covering the alleged advances of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces in the province of Deir Ezzor, the Turkish state-run media outlet Anadolu Agency has failed to find a proper location of the Omar oil fields. So, according to Anadolu Agency, the Omar oil fields are located northwest of Deir Ezzor city, on the western bank of the Euphrates. Meawnwhile, in reality, the fields are located east of Deir Ezzor city.  More about the situation in the area HERE Click to see the full-size map

Very ‘moderate’ rebels Originally appeared at  RT A group that claims to be fighting against Russian propaganda and “fake news” is asking a reporter not to pursue information on the CIA arming Syrian rebels. PropOrNot, famous for being an ex-source for the Washington Post, says the story may fall into the wrong hands. On Thursday, Jason Leopold, a senior investigative reporter at Buzzfeed, tweeted that he had filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the CIA for documents related to the US arming Syrian rebels. PropOrNot beseeched him to drop its case in a tweet. Last year, the Washington Post published a front page  article  that cited PropOrNot, a group that, according to the site’s description, is  “volunteering time and skills to identify propaganda – particularly Russian propaganda – targeting a US audience.” The report identified more than 200 websites as  “routine peddlers of Russian propaganda.” After several complaints,...