ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

When a small, $400 remote-controlled quadcopter drone landed on the grounds of the White House in February 2015, Obama administration officials were in full freak-out mode. Just 10 days before that incident, officials from the Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. military, and the FAA huddled for a “summit” regarding a danger that they had been contemplating for years: Terrorists’ use of weaponized drones for attacks or assassination. As reported by  Wired , while the conference was open to the public it was not open to the press, but one attendee  told the online tech magazine  it was an eye-opening experience: The officials played videos of low-cost drones firing semi-automatic weapons, revealed that Syrian rebels are importing consumer-grade drones to launch attacks, and flashed photos from an exercise that pitted $5,000 worth of drones against a convoy of armored vehicles. (The drones won). However, the attendee noted, the most impactful visual aide was sitting on a d

Democrats, some Republicans and the government of Mexico have all criticized President Donald J. Trump’s proposed border wall, with many of them either vowing it won’t get built or, in Mexico’s case, it won’t be built with pesos. But special operations teams from the U.S. Border Patrol and U.S. military prove without question  why  the wall  must be built  if we’re ever to get serious about  border security :  It’s impenetrable . For weeks these highly capable individuals have been attempting to breach all eight of the models/prototypes that have been built thus far for the Trump administration to choose. Over the course of these weeks,  The Associated Press  reported, teams attempted to breach “using jackhammers, saws, torches and other tools and climbing devices,” but were  unsuccessful every single time . In short,  any one of these designs  would make an effective anti-drug smuggling, anti-human smuggling, national security-enhancing addition to one of the most porous majo

Qaher 2-M missile Over 35 members of forces loyal to Saudi-backed President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi were killed and over 20 others were injured in a missile strike at their military site in al-Khayami in the Yemeni province of Ta’izz on January 20, the pro-Houthi TV network al-Masirah reported. According to al-Masirah, the Houthis used a Qaher 2-M ballistic missile in this attack. Pro-Saudi sources claimed that al-Masirah overestimated the casualties of Saudi-backed forces and said that only about 10 people were killed in the attack. The incident allegedly took place during a military inspection. A deputy interior minister of the Hadi government, Naser Lakhshaa, was attending it. The official survived the attack.

258 fighters have finished training to joint so-called security forces of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the SDF’s media wing reported on January 23. The fighters likely finished the program developed by the US under its initiative to establish a 30,000-strong “border force” in northeastern Syria. The idea faced a strong resistance from Turkey and became one of the reasons behind the Ankara’s Operation Olive Branch in the SDF-held area of Afrin. On January 18, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that Washington’s intentions had been “misportrayed” and it had no plans to establsih “a border security force”.  This statement clearly contradicted to the Pentagon’s official announcements. and does not mean that the program was really halted. Most likely, the “bordr security force” just changed its name as Kurdish YPG/YPJ militias were rebranded into the SDF. Click to see the full-size image Click to see the full-size image Click to see the full-size image

On January 20, ISIS fighters launched a rapid attack on positions of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and its allies south of the Syrian capital, Damascus and captured several key buildings in al-Zain neighborhood between the Yarmouk refugee camp and Yalda district, according to the ISIS-linked news agency Amaq. The media outlet added that ISIS fighters killed three members of HTS and its allies. From its side, Syrian opposition sources revealed that most of al-Zain is now under control of ISIS as HTS and its allies failed to hold their positions inside it. The strategic neighborhood will allow ISIS fighters to launch attacks inside Yalda district located only 2km west of the Damascus airport highway. Video Player 00:00 00:40 HTS and several armed groups linked to the Palestinian Hamas Movement refused to withdraw from the districts of Aqraba, Beit Sahm, Yalda and Babila on December 2017. In response, hundreds of locals who are facing the threat of the nearb

There is a  growing consensus among many observers in Washington that the national security agencies have become completely politicized  over the past seventeen years and are now pursuing selfish agendas that actually endanger what remains of American democracy. As Philip Giraldi notes,  up until recently it has been habitual to refer to such activity as the Deep State, which is perhaps equivalent to the Establishment in that it includes financial services, the media, major foundations and constituencies, as well as lobbying groups, but  we are now witnessing an evolutionary process in which the national security regime is exercising power independently . Nowhere is that “independence” of the ‘state within a state’ more evident than in the blatant and egregious news this week that The National Security Agency destroyed surveillance data it pledged to preserve  in connection with pending lawsuits and apparently never took some of the steps it told a federal court it had taken to

Illustrative image Units of the Turkish Ground Forces entered Syria’s Afrin area at 11:05 AM Sunday, Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım has announced,  according to the Turksih media . Ground units crossed the border from  Turkey’s Kilis . “The operation will have four stages, there will be a 30-kilometer buffer zone,” Yıldırım said commenting the development. Meanwhile, members of the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army attacked positions of YPG/YPJ militias in the same area. The advance followed a major artillery and air bombardment campaign of the Turkish military against Kurdish forces in the area. On Saturday,  the Turkish Armed Forces officially announced the start of “Operation Olive Branch”  to combat what Ankara calls “terrorism” in the area. Turkish forces shell YPG positions: