ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

On September 18 th , South Korean President Moon Jae-in and his close to 200-member delegation completed their first day of summit talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang, North Korea. This is the third face-to-face meeting between the Korean leaders in 2018, however, according to South Korean spokesman Yoon Young-chan it celebrated a number of firsts. Yoon told reporters that this is the first time Kim has opened a summit in Pyongyang. The military band, he added, welcomed the South Korean delegation with music usually reserved for the upper echelon of North Korea’s leadership. It was also the first time Moon and Kim walked down the red carpet at Pyongyang’s Sunan International Airport and the South Korean leader inspected North Korean troops. The two men, accompanied by their wives, embraced after Moon walked down the steps of his aircraft, before talking for a few minutes ahead of a welcome ceremony and a field gun salute, television pictures showed. Foll...

A group of over 40 Congress members have sent President Trump a bipartisan letter reminding him that the US Constitution requires that the president seek Congressional approval before taking military action in Syria or elsewhere. Congressman Justin Amash (R-Mich.) announced via Twitter on Monday that the letter had been sent to the White House. Ironically Rep. Amash made the announcement just as Monday’s evening’s massive Israeli strike on Syria was underway , which resulted in  a downed Russian surveillance plane  carrying 14 troops amidst the confusion of missiles flying over the Mediterranean as it was hit by Syrian defense attempting to stave off the attack by Israel. While the Pentagon formally denied any US role in the strikes, it was an extremely dangerous situation with yet again the potential for serious escalation between Russia and the US and its allies. The letter was signed by a handful of Republicans including Thomas Massie, Mark...

A screenshot from the Russian Defense Ministry press briefing On September 18, the Russian Defense Ministry revealed additional details  on the IL-20 disappearance over the Mediterranean Sea  last evening. According to Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov, the plane was shot down by Syria’s S-200 air defense system because Israel’s F-16 fighters used it as a cover. “ By using the Russian plane as a cover the Israeli air pilots made it vulnerable to Syrian air defense fire . As a result, the Ilyushin-20, its reflective surface being far greater than that of F-16, was downed by a missile launched with the S-200 system,” Konashenkov said. “The bombing raid was not far from France’s frigate The Auvergne and in close proximity to the UIyushin-20 plane of Russia’s Aerospace Force that was about to land.” Konashenkov added that  Israeli warplanes had been carrying out strikes in the area of Latakia and deliberately created a dangerou...

Chinese Type 99A2 Main Battle Tank On August 21 st , defense ministers of China and India vowed to keep peace on the border between the two countries. As reported by the South China Morning Post, Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowed to maintain a peaceful border as the two militaries continue to work to repair their relationship. The pledge to keep building trust between the two countries came during Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe’s visit to New Delhi. A Chinese Defense Ministry statement released on August 21 st  said that Wei, who is also a general in the People’s Liberation Army, while speaking with Modi said that friendly cooperation had become the main component of China and India’s inter-military relations. The statement further said that Defense Minister Wei will meet Indian Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. They will discuss stability and security on the border. “This visit … will deepen our bilateral milita...

About 100 ISIS members have been killed since the start of the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) operation against the terrorist group’s cells in the area of al-Safa at the administrative border between the provinces of al-Suwayda and Rif Dimashq in late July, accordign to pro-government soruces. Up to 25  ISIS members were killed last weekend when the SAA ambushed an ISIS unit withdrawing from al-Safa . The rest were mostly eliminated in artillery and airstrikes by Syrian forces. Meanwhile, the Syrian state media reports that SAA units are working to strengthen their positions in the al-Safa hills thus increasing pressure on the remaining ISIS cells in the area. Click to see the full-size image

Written by  Brian Kalman   The Big Profits Driving Online Censorship This summer we have witnessed the increasing demand by mainstream media, Democratic Party legislators, and even former disgraced intelligence agency heads, for the silencing of dissenting viewpoints. Although the most recent wholesale ban on Alex Jones and Infowars on just about every social media platform out there is the most glaring and chilling example of outright censorship, the efforts of the Deep State to silence any voices of dissent or for presenting a narrative counter to that being peddled by the almost complete monopoly of social and mainstream media that serves them has been building in intensity for quite some time. The claims that the big tech companies that control all social media platforms through virtual monopoly are not required to meet the constitutional protections of the 1 st  amendment, because they are not governmental agencies, but private businesses, is patently false. I...