ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Iron Dome Origins Since its inception, Israel has faced difficult political and military challenges. It defines the operational space in which IDF exists, the nature of development of its armed forces, and of individual weapons systems it uses. The key objective and permanent factors include: Israel’s geography, with the 470km-long country being no more than 135km wide. Hostile environment, including unresolved territorial disputes with neighbors and the Palestinian problem. Close proximity to borders of major cities and critical infrastructure. At the same time, Israel did not treat its adversaries’ ability to use rockets as a priority for a long time, therefore establishing a comprehensive ABM system was not among its priorities either. The situation changed after the 1991 Gulf War, when Iraq struck Israeli cities using improved Soviet R-17 (NATO classification SS-1b Scud-B) ballistic missiles. At that time, US Patriot PAC-2 ABM systems were used to protect Israeli cit

Written by  Brian Kalman  exclusively for  SouthFront ; Brian Kalman is a management professional in the marine transportation industry. He was an officer in the US Navy for eleven years. Introduction Although the U.S. State Department’s direct role in stoking the Maidan conflagration and toppling a democratically elected president is widely accepted as part of the historical record of the political and civil upheaval in Ukraine, little is reported about the initial and ever evolving U.S. military presence in the country. Former Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland’s intercepted phone calls and former U.S. President Barrack Obama’s public admission of the U.S. government’s $5 billion investment in funding fundamentally altering Ukraine’s political, economic and cultural alignment in the world received coverage, even by western main stream media. What has not received extensive media scrutiny is the involvement of the U.S. military and CIA

Salvatore Mancuso By Daniel Edgar The following is a translation of an open letter from Salvatore Mancuso to the ultra-right wing presidential candidate in Colombia, Ivan Duque, protégé of former president (from 2002 to 2010) Alvaro Uribe. Salvatore Mancuso was one of the most notorious paramilitary commanders from the late 1980s until their official demobilization in 2005. He was extradited to the United States several years later in contravention of the terms of the accord pursuant to which the main paramilitary groups formally agreed to demobilize. *** Mr Iván Duque Márquez, Esteemed Doctor, I was extradited to the United States during the government of Álvaro Uribe Vélez, in order to avoid [the possibility that we might reveal information about] our patron and all of his associates. We were condemned for crimes against humanity, of which you are very familiar, the abundant cases of massacres, selective assassinations, etc., and I was only convicted for drug traffick