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Conflict, GeoPolitics, Intelligentsia, Paramilitary May 15, 2013

CIS Security Services to track Syria mercenaries – FSB

The security services of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) member states will be closely monitoring the movement of mercenaries from CIS nations fighting in Syria, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) head Alexander Bortnikov said on Wednesday.

According to the FSB, some 200 mercenaries from Russia, as well as from CIS member states and Europe, are fighting in Syria’s civil war. “They [mercenaries] pose a severe danger. It is highly important to track their movements following the end of hostilities,” the FSB chief said. The future fate of mercenaries active in Syria is of concern not only to the CIS special services, but European secret services as well, Bortnikov added.

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Analysis, Conflict, GeoPolitics, Paramilitary May 14, 2013

Report: Hizbullah Fighters Advance to Syria-Jordan Border

Hizbullah fighters have been advancing swiftly into southern Syria and have reached the flashpoint southern town of Daraa near the border with Jordan, media reports said on Tuesday.

The source pointed out that Hizbullah fighters are not just groups backing the army regime but comprehensive fighting units that includes a full logistic team. It said that Hizbullah’s military leadership is organizing the transfer of the units and providing them with weapons.

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Conflict, News, Paramilitary, Risks May 7, 2013

U.N.’s Carla del Ponte says Syrian rebels may have used sarin

A leading member of a United Nations investigatory commission says there are “strong concrete suspicions but not yet incontrovertible proof” that Syrian rebels have used the nerve agent sarin.

Carla del Ponte, a former prosecutor for U.N. tribunals investigating war crimes in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, made the comment in an interview Sunday with a Swiss television channel, the BBC reported. She said the evidence emerged from interviews conducted by investigators with victims, physicians and others in neighboring countries.

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Crisis, Flashpoints, Paramilitary May 1, 2013

Armed protests in Libya threatening safety in capital

Armed protests targeting Libya’s ministries and media in the capital this week have alarmed international observers who say deteriorating security conditions are becoming a matter of serious concern. Reporters without Borders said there was cause for “grave concern about recent violent attacks on Libyan journalists, whose safety conditions are deteriorating drastically” and called on the government to act. Gunmen in heavily armed vehicles remained in control of Libya’s Foreign Ministry for a fourth day on Wednesday, while the Justice Ministry was similarly surrounded on Tuesday and other institutions including the media have been targeted.

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Conflict, News, Paramilitary April 30, 2013

FSA may soon launch counterattack on Hezbollah, says Jordanian ex-army official

The Free Syrian Army (FSA) may soon be planning to launch retaliatory attacks on “elite Hezbollah forces” reportedly fighting in Syria, retired Jordanian major-general Fayez al-Doueiri told Al Arabiya on Monday night. Doueiri, who is now a military analyst, said the reported continuing battles between the FSA and Hezbollah fighters could be a “positive development for the FSA as it is managing to inhibit Hezbollah’s elite forces.” This may mean the “FSA is preparing to launch reverse operations to gain back what it lost in the past few weeks,” he added.

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Development, Economy, News, Paramilitary April 30, 2013

German Bundeswehr soldiers ‘for hire as mercenaries’

German soldiers are moonlighting illegally at private security firms while off-duty, a newspaper revealed on Monday. Working as heavily armed guards on freighters or in war-zones, some do it for the cash and others for the adrenaline kick.

As members of the German army, Bundeswehr, soldiers are not allowed to work as mercenaries for private companies – yet many are doing it, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) found out. Exact figures on how many of Germany’s soldiers, or former soldiers, work the private security circuit are unknown. According to the FAZ’s research, the field is growing and critics are warning of a “mercenary renaissance”.

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Conflict, Crisis, Flashpoints, Paramilitary, Sectarian Violence April 29, 2013

Sectarian Strife: Iraq’s Sunnis gear up against the country’s army

Residents of a number of Sunni cities in Iraq have announced the formation of “military forces” to counter attack the Iraqi army and its crackdown against protesters calling for Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki – a Shiite – to step down, Al Arabiya reported on Thursday. The announcements come after Sunni tribesmen were called to arm following a government sponsored military raid on a Sunni Muslim anti-government protest at a camp in Hawija, near Kirkuk, on Tuesday. Dozens of people were killed and injured in the initial incident. It set off a wave of revenge attacks that hit five different Sunni-majority provinces, killing at least 110 people.

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Conflict, Flashpoints, Paramilitary April 21, 2013

Insight: Battered by war, Syrian army creates loyalist paramilitary force

In Syria, for scores of men called each month to join the army for deadly combat, there is a more attractive alternative: stay home, join a loyalist paramilitary group, and get a share of the loot in raids on President Bashar al-Assad’s enemies.

Now into the third year of the uprising against Assad, which began with peaceful protests and became an armed rebellion, Syria’s regular army has been weakened. Sectarian faultlines that are increasingly dividing the nation are now fragmenting an army whose strength was already eroded by desertions and defections to rebels.

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Black Market, Conflict, Paramilitary April 12, 2013

The Rise of Mexico’s Vigilante Militias: Will They Help or Hurt the Drug War?

Clad in sombreros and baseball caps and clutching assault rifles, shotguns and machetes, the men take defensive positions on a hillside neighborhood of the ramshackle mountain town of Tierra Colorada and gather residents from their homes. You have suffered too much at the hands of kidnappers, extortionists and drug cartels, they tell them. It is time to fight back. “If you are in favor of our community police and want to join or support us, then step forward,” says Esteban Ramos, a leader of the local militia.

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GeoPolitics, Intelligentsia, Paramilitary March 28, 2013

Former Israeli MK Exposes Top-Secret IDF Unit Engaged in Foreign Assassinations

Shama Ha-Cohen reveals in his Knesset website what he worked in Aman, the IDF military intelligence department. He served there in a group that was called the “special unit for counter-espionage and special investigations” (היחידה המיוחדת לסיכול ריגול וחקירות מיוחדות). As is usual for Israeli spookery, this is spy lingo that euphemizes the real nature of what the group did. “Special investigations” means it engaged in, among other things, foreign assassinations.

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Conflict, Flashpoints, Paramilitary March 25, 2013

Central African Republic Rebels in Capital, France Sends Troops

Central African Republic rebels clashed with government forces inside the capital on Saturday as they sought to topple President Francois Bozize, prompting France to send in more troops to secure the international airport.

The Seleka rebel coalition resumed hostilities this week in the mineral-rich former French colony, vowing to oust Bozize whom it accuses of breaking a January peace agreement to integrate its fighters into the army. A Reuters reporter in the northern suburbs of the riverside capital said the rebels had taken control of the neighborhood around Bozize’s private residence, known as PK12. Rebels in civilian clothes had infiltrated other areas, residents said.

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Crisis, Flashpoints, GeoPolitics, Paramilitary March 22, 2013

Muslim Brotherhood Sets Up ‘Brown Shirts’ to Enforce Rule

Protests against the Muslim Brotherhood continue to rock Egypt without a word being said from the White House. Now, the Brotherhood and allied Islamists are taking a cue from their Shiite counterparts in Tehran and have announced they are setting up a civilian force with the power to arrest those they deem to be criminals.

At around the same time, Jama’a al-Islamiya threatened to set up a pro-Brotherhood militia to “protect private and public property and counter the aggression on innocent citizens.”

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GeoPolitics, Paramilitary March 18, 2013

‘Smoking gun’ memo proves Pope Francis collaborated with junta

The Vatican has dismissed the allegations against the new Pope as a “left-wing anti-clerical attack on the church.” Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi insisted there has never been a “concrete or credible accusation” against Bergoglio.

On Sunday, an Argentinian newspaper published a government memo that seems to definitively prove that Bergoglio did indeed provide information to the murderous dictatorship. Furthermore, Gregoglio is alleged to have sold the priests out even while he personally promised them his protection.

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Intelligentsia, Military, Paramilitary March 14, 2013

Former CEO reveals Blackwater worked as ‘virtual extension of the CIA’

“Blackwater’s work with the CIA began when we provided specialized instructors and facilities that the Agency lacked,” Prince told me recently, in response to written questions. “In the years that followed, the company became a virtual extension of the CIA because we were asked time and again to carry out dangerous missions, which the Agency either could not or would not do in-house.”

A prime example of the close relationship appears to have unfolded on March 19, 2005. On that day, Prince and senior CIA officers joined King Abdullah of Jordan and his brothers on a trip to Blackwater headquarters in Moyock, North Carolina, according to lawyers for the company and former Blackwater officials.

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Military, Paramilitary March 13, 2013

Trinidad: Uproar over phantom private army

Desperate to keep a 2010 election campaign to significantly reduce violent crimes and prevent murders, the administration of Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has turned to a brigade of retired cops and private volunteers to form a new phantom force to ferret out gangs, secretly investigate crime and run intelligence operations for the Ministry of National Security without telling the police high command and the public.

But when some of the new Flying Squad members began to surface and speak out, National Security Minister Jack Warner and other cabinet colleagues steadfastly denied its existence, the millions channeled to the squad, its daily interface with the ministry and the payment for vehicles rented from private dealers.

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Conflict, Paramilitary March 7, 2013

Hundreds of Russian Islamists Fighting Assad in Syria

At least 200 Russian-speaking Salafi Muslims are fighting against Bashar Assad’s regime in Syria, according to an expert at a state-run think tank. Rais Suleimanov, head of the Kazan-based Volga Center for Regional and Ethno-Religious Studies, said he got this number from Russian militants themselves, who he said have “no interest in exaggerating it.”

He said the militants come from CIS countries including Ukraine and from different regions of Russia, among them Tatarstan and the volatile North Caucasus, where Russian law enforcement is battling an intractable insurgency of separatist Islamist militants.

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Conflict, Flashpoints, Paramilitary February 13, 2013

Thai insurgents attack southern army base, troops kill 16

A pre-dawn raid on a Thai military base ended with 16 Muslim insurgents killed on Wednesday in the deadliest violence in the country’s south in nine years, marking a dangerous escalation in one of Asia’s least-known conflicts.

Acting on a tip-off, marines lit flares and opened fire as up to 60 insurgents wearing military fatigues approached the base at about 1 a.m. in Narathiwat province on the Malaysian border, said Internal Security Operations Command spokesman Pramote Phromin. He revised the death toll to 16 from an earlier 17. None of the Thai military defenders of the base was hurt, he said.

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Conflict, Flashpoints, Paramilitary February 12, 2013

Iran ‘trying to build militias inside Syria’

Citing unnamed US and Middle Eastern officials, the Washington Post said Iran’s goal appears to be to have reliable operatives in Syria in case the country fractures into ethnic and sectarian enclaves.

Iran claims to be backing as many as 50,000 militiamen in Syria. Efforts to find a political solution to the nearly two-year-long conflict, which has killed more than 60,000 people, appear to be deadlocked.

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Flashpoints, News, Paramilitary February 11, 2013

Bigger than the army: South Africa’s private security forces

There are nearly 9,000 companies and 400,000 registered active private security guards. That’s more than the police and army combined, according to South African officials.

“The security industry is bigger than what it has ever been in South Africa,” says Zinn. “I think the growth in the industry is definitely attributed to the fact that, let’s call it a weak policing or ineffective policing, and it created the opportunity for private individuals to move into the market.” Some of those individuals have a military background.

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Crisis, Flashpoints, Paramilitary January 28, 2013

In Mexico, self-defence squads are springing up against drug-fueled violence

Vigilantes patrol a dozen or more towns in rural Mexico, the unauthorized but often tolerated edge of a growing movement toward armed citizen self-defence squads across the country.

“The situation Mexico is experiencing, the crime, is what has given the communities the legitimacy to say, ‘We will assume the tasks that the government has not been able to fulfil,’” said rights activist Roman Hernandez, whose group Tlachinollan has worked with the community forces.

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Economy, Paramilitary January 24, 2013

Military contracting: our new era of corporate mercenaries

In early 1995, Sierra Leone was on the brink of collapse. A violent civil war had ravaged the country, leaving thousands dead and countless others wounded. The insurgent rebels, infamous for recruiting child soldiers, were just weeks from the beleaguered capital, Freetown, and appeared unassailable.

Several months later, however, the tide had turned: the government’s authority was strengthened, rebel forces were repelled, and control over the country’s major economic assets was restored. Executive Outcomes, a private military contractor armed with helicopters and state of the art artillery, helped change the course of the war.

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Flashpoints, News, Paramilitary January 7, 2013

Chiquita’s Banana Republic: Paramilitary Abuses In Colombia

In the late 1990s, in one of many chapters in the Colombian government’s decades-old dirty war with leftist guerrillas, more than 15,000 people in the northern region of Curvaradó were forced from their land. First came the army, they recall. And they told us to leave. ‘Don’t be afraid of us,’ the soldiers said. ‘Be afraid of those that follow us.’

Those that followed were las mocha cabezas—the beheaders—paramilitary death squads fighting as the military’s proxies. Thousands fled their massacres, bombardments and executions.Behind the beheaders came the agribusinesses, which converted the territory into African palm plantations and cattle ranches under paramilitary protection.

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News, Paramilitary January 7, 2013

US-Backed Indonesian ‘anti-terror’ death squad criticized for extrajudicial killings

Indonesia’s U.S.-funded police anti-terror squad has killed seven suspected militants recently, reviving allegations that the force is not trying to take suspects alive – a trend that appears to be fueling the very extremism the predominantly Muslim country is trying to counter.

Haris Azhar, chairman of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence, an independent human rights group, said it appeared that the suspected militants were victims of “extrajudicial killings” and called for an independent investigation. He said Densus 88′s tactics were driving militancy because they added to feelings among some Muslims that they were under siege.

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Flashpoints, GeoPolitics, Paramilitary January 1, 2013

US-trained Iraqi Special Forces aid al-Maliki’s repression as ‘private army’

The US helped to train and now equips the Iraqi Special Operations Forces (ISOF). The forces are used by Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki to help him centralise power and repress opposing Sunni politicians.

Robert Tollast in The National Interest maintains that even as the US prepared to drawn down its forces “elements of ISOF were already being used as a private army by Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki.”

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Flashpoints, Paramilitary January 1, 2013

300 Balochistan insurgents being trained in Afghanistan: report

ISLAMABAD: At least three hundred Baloch insurgents are getting training across the border to spread unrest in Pakistan, a report stated. According to Daily Dunya, Pakistani intelligence officials handed over a secret list to Central Investigation Agency (CIA) during a meeting in Washington. The report published by Rauf Klasra states that insurgents are getting $300 a month as their salary.

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Conflict, Paramilitary December 28, 2012

Central Africa’s leader asks US, France for help as rebels advance

“We ask our French cousins and the United States of America, the great powers, to help us to push back the rebels … to allow for dialogue in Libreville to resolve the current crisis,” President Francois Bozize told thousands of supporters at a rally in Bangui.

“There is no question of allowing them to kill Central Africans, of letting them destroy houses and pillage, and holding a knife to our throats to demand dialogue,” said Bozize, who himself seized power in a coup in 2003. “It is a plot against the Central African Republic, a plot against its people.”

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Black Market, Flashpoints, Paramilitary December 18, 2012

New paramilitary force to battle narco gangsters in Mexico

President Enrique Pena Nieto laid out a security strategy Monday that creates a new national force, or gendarmerie, to combat organized crime and restore law to the most distant corners of Mexico.

The paramilitary force will be set up with 10,000 members but may grow to 40,000 in coming years, following models like those of Spain’s Civil Guard or the Italian Carabinieri.

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Paramilitary, Resources December 14, 2012

Colombian armed rebels tighten control over gold mining

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and a new generation of drug gangs (known locally as “Bacrims”) are increasingly turning to gold mining to finance their terrorist acts, reveals a report released Thursday by political risk firm Exclusive Analysis.

“FARC and drug gang involvement in gold mining increases extortion and property damage risks, particularly in Antioquia and Putumayo,” said Carlos Caicedo, head of Latin America forecasting. The expert says that funds coming from mining operations are now the main income source for the revolutionary groups.

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News, Paramilitary December 14, 2012

Russia ‘wakes up’ to Syria reality

Syrian rebels are gaining ground and might win, Russia’s Middle East envoy said Thursday, in the starkest such admission from a major ally of President Bashar Assad in 20 months of conflict.

“One must look the facts in the face,” Russia’s state-run RIA quoted Mikhail Bogdanov as saying. “Unfortunately, the victory of the Syrian opposition cannot be ruled out.”

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Analysis, Flashpoints, Intelligentsia, Paramilitary, SpecOps December 1, 2012

Why the CIA should get out of the killing business. Again.

With the new vacancy on the fifth floor at Langley, a robust debate has resumed over whether the Central Intelligence Agency should continue trending toward paramilitary activity and targeted killings, or return to its traditional focus on sending spies to recruit agents and collect human intelligence.

The controversy was foreseen as early as 2003, when Robert Kaplan essentially argued one side of the discussion now underway. He pointed to the “old rules” whereby small groups of men overthrew large governments, and asserted that future technological developments will “make assassinations far more feasible…”

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Conflict, Paramilitary November 27, 2012

Syrian Free Army creates their own police force

Members of the FSA and its Syrian supporters now say that the group is no longer composed of those purely interested in overthrowing Assad. Criminal opportunists have entered its ranks or taken up its name, forcing the group to police its own.

“Revolutionary Security was founded two months ago and it’s main mission is to observe the FSA and work with the civilians,” says Capt. Abu Hamdu, chief of Revolutionary Security in Aleppo. “We’re watching and observing the FSA fighters to make sure they don’t make any mistakes dealing with the civilians.”

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Development, Flashpoints, Paramilitary November 27, 2012

Blackwater Founder Erik Prince Seeks Asian Investors For South Sudan Defense Projects

“Africa is so far the most unexplored part of the world, and I think China has seen a lot of promise in Africa,” Prince said. In an interview with the South China Morning Post, Prince said his new company, Frontier Resource Group, was seeking Asian investors. Earlier this month, Prince arrived in Hong Kong for meetings with potential Chinese investors and partners. In 2012, Beijing said it would provide $20 billion in loans to Africa by 2015.

“But the problem is if you go alone, you bear the country risk on your own,” Prince said. “You have to get support and maintenance there.”

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Analysis, Flashpoints, GeoPolitics, Paramilitary November 25, 2012

Qatar and Iran compete over control of Hamas

The courtship of Hamas between rivals Iran and Qatar has been one of the Middle East’s intriguing subplots of the Arab Spring. The bloodshed in Gaza has now sharpened their competition for influence with the Palestinian militant group and the direction it takes in the future.

Qatar has sought to use its vast wealth to win over Hamas with investments and humanitarian aid and encouraging Arab partners to do the same — part of the hyper-rich U.S. allied nation’s broader campaign to bring under its wing Islamist movements that have risen to power

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Border Incursion, Conflict, Paramilitary November 21, 2012

Fear of regional war as Goma falls to Rwanda-backed M23

REBELS backed by Rwanda have seized the strategic provincial capital of Goma in Congo, raising the spectre of a regional war.

The M23 rebel group, created just seven months ago, took the city of one million people in the east of the country and its international airport yesterday. Explosions and machine-gun fire rocked the lakeside city as the M23 fighters pushed forward on two fronts: toward the city centre and along the road that leads to Bukavu, another provincial capital to the south.

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Conflict, Flashpoints, Paramilitary November 18, 2012

Private Soldiers: Bullets For Hire Now A Global Trade

The industry’s growth has been paid for by Western governments, keen to limit the political cost of military boots on the ground. Supply has also come mostly from the West: 70% of firms are British or American. As the big conflicts of the past decade come to an end, however, private armies are beginning to chase new business, according to Sean McFate of America’s National Defence University. Industrial firms, which are increasingly setting up shop in unstable places, are expected to be a growing chunk of the customer base.

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Analysis, Intelligentsia, Paramilitary November 16, 2012

CIA’s paramilitary role overshadows spy work

The first question to ask: Has the CIA become too much of a paramilitary organization? The second: Should this be the time to put the agency’s main emphasis on being the premier producer and analyst of intelligence for policymakers, using both open and clandestine sources?

That doesn’t mean losing its counterterrorism role. Terrorists remain a threat, but the rest of the world is changing so fast that the president and policymakers down the line need the best information available.

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Conflict, News, Paramilitary November 15, 2012

Strangulation By Triangulation: ‘Rebels Seize Villages in Israel-Syria Buffer Zone’

Syrian rebels have seized control over two towns in the buffer zone with Israel, The Daily Telegraph reported late on Tuesday. According to the report, which cites an Israeli military intelligence source from the Northern Command, 200 or more rebels took control of Be’er Ajam and Bariqa.

Earlier in the month, the Syrian military caused a stir when three of its tanks entered Be’er Ajam, prompting Israel to raise its alert levels and complain to the United Nations.

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Conflict, Flashpoints, Paramilitary November 6, 2012

Syria’s Kurds: Civil Wars Within a Civil War

Syria’s opposition needs to be more representative and inclusive, say U.S. officials mindful of the dangers of an increasingly sectarian civil war. But the scale of the challenge in creating an opposition that draws in ethnic and religious minorities sometimes more fearful of the rebellion than they are of the regime was highlighted in last week’s clashes in Aleppo, between units of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and a local Kurdish militia.

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Conflict, Flashpoints, Paramilitary October 24, 2012

Hezbollah Prepares for a Wider War Than It May Want

The group’s possession of so sophisticated a craft (which was assembled from Iranian-made parts) is further evidence that Hezbollah is the most advanced and best-equipped militia of its kind the world has ever seen. Ever since it forced the Israelis’ panicky retreat from Lebanon in 2000, Hezbollah has been building up an immense military force, with firepower that 90 percent of the world’s countries don’t possess

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Analysis, Flashpoints, Intelligentsia, Paramilitary, Regime Change, Stratagem October 22, 2012

The Engineered Fall of Syria: Extensive Intelligence and Paramilitary Network Exposed

At this stage, the “battle for Syria” is a specific role for foreign intelligence agencies, which in the summer of this year, significantly expanded its operations in the country. American, British, Turkish, French and Qatari and Saudi secret services are particularly active on the weakening of the regime of Bashar al-Assad. Their subversive work is multifaceted. Until recently, Western intelligence agencies have shown themselves very carefully. This was explained by fears of the U.S. and its European allies to help to strengthen the Islamist component of the Syrian opposition.

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Analysis, Intelligentsia, Paramilitary October 15, 2012

Taliban’s Secret Weapon in Afghanistan – Intelligence “Moles”?

It is unlikely that the recent U.S. and NATO setbacks in the war and the Taliban successes could have occurred without enemy “moles” within the Western forces. An eventual history of this Afghan war will likely highlight the successful espionage efforts of the Taliban and its allies within Pakistan’s Inter-Service Intelligence agency (ISI).

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News, Paramilitary October 11, 2012

British mercenary firms muscle in on Middle East

The government wants big companies working in the Middle East to use British private armed security firms where possible. They are promoting a private security strategy that was disastrous in Iraq and Afghanistan after discussions with a security company whose director is a Tory donor.

Trade Minister Lord Green runs a “Middle East task force” of company bosses to advice on government policy in the region.

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Flashpoints, Paramilitary October 5, 2012

Private Army Formed to Fight Somali Pirates Leaves Troubled Legacy

It seemed like a simple idea: In the chaos that is Somalia, create a sophisticated, highly trained fighting force that could finally defeat the pirates terrorizing the shipping lanes off the Somali coast. It involved dozens of South African mercenaries and the shadowy security firm that employed them, millions of dollars in secret payments by the United Arab Emirates, a former clandestine officer with the Central Intelligence Agency, and Erik Prince

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Conflict, GeoPolitics, Paramilitary September 26, 2012

MEK: Our Favorite Terrorists

You should know that MEK was only taken off of the US’ terrorist list after years of high pressure lobbying by a veritable galaxy of the some of the biggest and most expensive stars in Washington. Bill Clinton placed them on the terrorist list in 1997, and this decision was reaffirmed by the Bush administration in 2007.

It’s a sad commentary on the way things get done in DC, but it’s extremely doubtful whether the terrorist designation change on MEK could have been accomplished any other way. Political celebrities were hired by the dozens to sing the praises of MEK. If you want Democrats, you could find Howard Dean, former Congressman Patrick Kennedy, or Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell.

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News, Paramilitary September 20, 2012

Private Military Companies May Appear in Russia – Rogozin

Russia’s significant economic interests abroad often operate in “difficult” conditions, and such companies would facilitate their work, said Rogozin, who oversees Russia’s military-industrial complex.

“We are thinking about whether our money should go toward financing foreign private security [and] military companies, or whether we should consider the feasibility of such companies in Russia itself,” he said.

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News, Paramilitary September 19, 2012

Nicaragua formalizes pullout of School of Assassins

The ‘School of the Americas’ (SOA) occupies a very dark place in Latin American history.

The U.S. military academy, based in Fort Benning, Georgia, has been training Latin American soldiers for well over half a century. More than 64,000 have passed through its doors, a significant number of which have been accused and convicted of human rights abuses. It has educated 11 dictators, including Panama’s former drug-dealing strongman, Manuel Noriega, and El Salvador’s Roberto D’Aubuisson, who controlled that country’s infamous death squads.

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Conflict, Flashpoints, Paramilitary September 5, 2012

Russian troops are prepared for combat operations in the North Caucasus

The Ministry of Defense considered plans to connect the army for participation in anti-terrorism operations currently under way in the North Caucasus by the secret services and the Ministry of the Interior. According to sources from the Defense Ministry “NG”, plans are due to increased losses incurred in the security forces, including the army. Only for the last week of August in the North Caucasus, killed 15 and wounded 11 soldiers and law enforcement officers and Ministry of defence. Such losses were in the early nineties, when troops fought in Northern Caucasus active hostilities.

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Conflict, Development, Flashpoints, Paramilitary August 31, 2012

Georgia informs NATO about armed clash with militants on Georgian-Russian border

A meeting of the NATO-Georgia Commission on the situation in the Georgian-Russian border was held at NATO headquarters in Brussels.

Head of Georgian representation in NATO Nugzar Mgaloblishvili informed the commission about the situation in Dagestan section of the Georgian-Russian border, where law enforcement conducted an operation to neutralize militant group penetrated from Russia.

The sides expressed concern over the situation and called for a solution to all the problems on the basis of internationally accepted norms. NATO officials declared inadmissibility of intensity export of the North Caucasus to Georgia.

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News, Paramilitary August 28, 2012

Turkey’s private security guards outnumber armies of six countries in Europe

Turkey has roughly 217,000 private security guards who are employed in public offices and private companies, a figure that outnumbers the soldiers in the armies of six countries in Europe — Austria, Belgium, Portugal, the Netherlands, Norway and the Czech Republic.

Federation of Private Security Associations (TÖGF) President Bülent Perut told the Hürriyet daily on Tuesday that the number of private security guards in Turkey is rapidly increasing. Private security guards maintain security in various institutions, such as banks, hospitals and shopping malls. Counting those carrying the title of private security guard but not currently working as such, the number of such personnel is as high as 604,000 in Turkey.

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GeoPolitics, Paramilitary, Powerplay August 24, 2012

Inside the Free Syrian Army’s Turkish HQ

Even though Turkey continues to deny reports that it has been setting up bases for the Syrian opposition — for example in Adana — it is no longer a secret that it is providing military support to the Syrian opposition.

One of the centers in Turkey used as a military base for the Syrian opposition is the Reyhanli “military” refugee camp, located in Hatay province. This camp is exclusively reserved for Syrian officers, among them generals and colonels, and their families who have defected to Turkey. This camp, which hosts around 1,000 Syrians, is tightly guarded by Turkish security forces. Even foreign diplomats who want to meet the camp residents are not allowed to enter.

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News, Paramilitary August 24, 2012

“Hezbollah” is preparing for war

Lebanese newspaper “Al-Jumhuriya” reports last week that the terrorist organization “Hezbollah” had the most extensive maneuvers in its history, in the event of a possible new military conflict with Israel.

The publication notes some important points of these maneuvers is the total number of participants reached 10,000 fighters, and among them were many young terrorists, aged 16 to 20 years who have not participated in the Second Lebanon War in the summer of 2006. In addition, some of the stages maneuvers Secretary General of “Hezbollah” Nasrallah personally inspected.

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Conflict, Paramilitary August 22, 2012

Uzbeks jihadis join Syrian guerrilla fighters

Scores of foreign jihadists have crossed into Syria from Turkey in the past two weeks, some of them telling Syrians that they are planning to travel to Aleppo to join a decisive battle against regime troops, says Martin Chulov, correspondent of The Guardian.

According to locals who have dealt with them, the new arrivals embrace a global jihadist worldview that sets them apart from most leaders in the armed Syrian opposition and is stirring deep discontent among the rebel leadership.

Rebel leaders inside Syria say about 15-20 foreign fighters have been crossing each day since mid-July, trying to join up with an estimated 200-300 foreigners in Syria.

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Paramilitary, Resources August 22, 2012

Is Oil Giant Shell Spending Nearly $65 Million on ‘Private Army’ in Nigeria?

Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell plc spent nearly $383 million, between 2007 and 2009, to protect its oil installations and staff in Nigeria, revealed London-based oil watchdog Platform on Sunday, with part of the money alleged to have gone into a 1,200-member private security force, which has been accused of human rights violations in the past.

According to a Guardian report, the world’s largest company by revenue had spent nearly $1 billion on worldwide security between 2007 and 2009; while 40 percent of the total cost had gone into security in Nigeria’s volatile Niger Delta region.

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Military, News, Paramilitary August 17, 2012

Pakistan nuclear stockpile not ‘endangered’ by Kamra attack

The US on Thursday said Pakistan’s nuclear stockpile was not ‘endangered’ following a daring terrorist attack on the key Kamra Air Force base, believed to house atomic weapons.

“I do not have any indication that this particular attack (Kamra) has endangered the Pakistani nuclear stockpile,” Pentagon Press Secretary George Little told reporters during an off camera news conference.

He was responding to news reports coming from Pakistan that the attack on the military base in Kamra had threatened the safety of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons.

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Conflict, Flashpoints, Paramilitary August 15, 2012

Rent-A-Thug: Libyan fighters join Syrian revolt against Assad

Veteran fighters of last year’s civil war in Libya have come to the front-line in Syria, helping to train and organise rebels under conditions far more dire than those in the battle against Muammar Gaddafi, a Libyan-Irish fighter has told Reuters.

Hussam Najjar hails from Dublin, has a Libyan father and Irish mother and goes by the name of Sam. A trained sniper, he was part of the rebel unit that stormed Gaddafi’s compound in Tripoli a year ago, led by Mahdi al-Harati, a powerful militia chief from Libya’s western mountains.

Harati now leads a unit in Syria, made up mainly of Syrians but also including some foreign fighters, including 20 senior members of his own Libyan rebel unit. He asked Najjar to join him from Dublin a few months ago, Najjar said.

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Flashpoints, Military, Paramilitary August 14, 2012

Tensions again rising between Afghanistan, Pakistan

The continuing rocket attacks from Pakistan on eastern provinces of the country have cost two high-ranking officials their jobs and threaten to further destabilize the country’s fragile central government.

Early last month, Abdul Rahim Wardak, the country’s defense minister, was forced to step down after members of parliament called for his removal because of the ongoing shelling. Interior Minister Bismillah Khan Mohammadi, who controls the Afghan National Police, was also forced to step down.

President Hamid Karzai said he would respect parliament’s views and remove the two ministers, but he asked the two to stay on until replacements could be found. Wardak refused the president’s request.

Meanwhile, there is growing anger in Kabul as rockets continue to fall on the eastern Kunar province.

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Crisis, Flashpoints, Paramilitary August 6, 2012

Turkey trains rebels near Armenian-populated city

The Turkish armed forced have launched military exercises in Qamishli, an Armenian-populated Syrian city lying 1km off the country’s north-eastern border.

According to Svobodanews.ru, the trainings involve 30 tanks, armored cars and missile stations. The Turkish forces are reportedly active at night hours too. They are deployed along the borders of the Qamishli and Nusaybin. Both cities are said to be under Kurdish control.

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Conflict, Flashpoints, Paramilitary July 29, 2012

Classic armed insurgency taking shape in Syria

Insurgencies are Darwinian contests where failure by either side to evolve and adapt to changing battlefield circumstances almost guarantees eventual defeat. Furthermore, the grueling nature of insurgencies means they can last a long time before one side or the other can proclaim victory. It took 22 years before Lebanese resistance groups were able to drive Israeli troops from Lebanese soil. In Sri Lanka, it took government forces 26 years before finally defeating the Tamil Tiger insurgency.

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Crisis, News, Paramilitary July 27, 2012

Hired assassins force Philippine massacre witnesses to live in fear

Hired assassins are stalking witnesses to a Philippine massacre in which a political warlord allegedly led the slaughter of 57 people, victims’ relatives and a rights group said almost two years into a complex trial.

Three witnesses and three relatives of others who planned to testify have been killed in what locals regard as chilling messages for anyone speaking out against the politician and other clan members on trial for the massacre.

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Development, Flashpoints, Paramilitary, Risks July 21, 2012

Syrian rebels forming squad to secure country’s chemical weapons

Syrian rebels are forming a special unit to secure the country’s chemical weapons, a rebel leader said in an interview published Saturday in Britain’s Daily Telegraph newspaper.

“We have a group just to deal with chemical weapons. They are already trained to secure sites,” said General Adnan Silou, the most senior member of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime to have defected and joined the Free Syrian Army, DPA reported.

According to the newspaper, analysts believe Syria has the world’s largest stocks of chemical weapons, consisting principally of sarin, mustard gas and cyanide.

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Conflict, Crisis, Intelligentsia, Paramilitary July 20, 2012

Shadowy CIA men vetting rebels’ suitability

On Turkey-Syria Border: There is much talk here of shadowy CIA men vetting rebel brigades’ suitability for US taxpayers’ largesse. Everyone seems to want a piece of that action, but how to get in on the game seems to baffle many.

“It’s all very foggy,” agreed Mahmoud Shaikh Al Zor, a slim, bespectacled former heavy-equipment salesman in Atlanta who gave up selling Caterpillars and returned to his homeland to fight. He, like others, came to Turkey seeking help for his battalion, known as the Brave.

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Military, News, Paramilitary July 12, 2012

United Nation’s use of mercenaries ‘out of control,’ warns watchdog

The forum said that the increasing UN use of these companies is “dangerous,” may increase rather than reduce threats and attacks on UN buildings and personnel and suggests the system is “unaccountable and out of control.”

Even incomplete UN data shows a steady rise in the number of security contracts, with the value increasing from $44 million (£28.8m) in 2009 to $76m (£48.8m) in 2010, the latest data available.

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Conflict, Flashpoints, News, Paramilitary June 24, 2012

Saudi officials preparing to finance Free Syria Army

Saudi officials are preparing to pay the salaries of the Free Syria Army as a means of encouraging mass defections from the military and increasing pressure on the Assad regime, according The Guardian.

Officials in the Saudi capital embraced the idea when it was put to them by Arab officials in May, according to sources in three Arab states, around the same time that weapons started to flow across the southern Turkish border into the hands of Free Syria Army leaders.

Turkey has also allowed the establishment of a command centre in Istanbul which is co-ordinating supply lines in consultation with FSA leaders inside Syria.

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Economy, News, Paramilitary June 21, 2012

G4S chief predicts mass police privatisation

Private companies will be running large parts of the UK’s police service within five years, according to the world’s biggest security firm.

David Taylor-Smith, the head of G4S for the UK and Africa, said he expected police forces across the country to sign up to similar deals to those on the table in the West Midlands and Surrey, which could result in private companies taking responsibility for duties ranging from investigating crimes to transporting suspects and managing intelligence.

The prediction comes as it emerged that 10 more police forces were considering outsourcing deals that would see services, such as running police cells and operating IT, run by private firms.

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Conflict, Flashpoints, Paramilitary June 20, 2012

Arms training or political inspiration: Why are Syrian rebels in Kosovo?

Why on earth have the Syrian rebels been hanging out in Kosovo?

The tiny southeast European ethno-state created in the wake of the Balkan wars is not an obvious destination for the ragtag fighters seeking to oust Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad: Kosovo is probably the least influential or wealthy country in Europe; in fact, half of Europe doesn’t even recognize it as a country.

But there’s no question the rebels have been staying in Pristina, Kosovo’s capital, and that has led to dark suspicions that the fighters are being trained by veterans of the Kosovo Liberation Army, the ethnic-Albanian force that battled Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic and whose former fighters now dominate Kosovo’s administration.

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Conflict, Development, Flashpoints, Paramilitary, Risks, Territorial Dispute June 11, 2012

After Gaddafi, Libya splits into disparate militia zones

National flags from around the world flutter in the bright sunshine by a city gate made of shipping containers painted in the Libyan national colours. A uniformed militiaman examines my passport, then waves me through with a smile. Welcome to the Republic of Misrata.

Libya’s third largest city, recipient of a six-month pummelling during last year’s revolution against the regime of Muammar Gaddafi, has transformed itself into what is an independent state in all but name. Libya is due to hold national elections in 10 days, but these look like they may be delayed as any sense of post-Gaddafi national unity dissipated long ago.

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Conflict, Crisis, Flashpoints, Military, Paramilitary May 28, 2012

Russia: Syrian Opposition is Massacring people to spark intervention

Are Syrian rebels ready to kill their own just to get attention and possible military intervention from the US and NATO? Russia says “Yes”.

The U.N. Security Council met on Sunday to discuss the recent massacre in the Syrian town of Houla, which the US, UK and most NATO allies have blamed on the Syrian government but Damascus and Moscow suggested was due to a rebel attack.

At least 116 people, including many children, were killed in the Houla attack, the head of the U.N. observer mission in Syria General Robert Mood told the 15-nation council, according to a diplomat who was in the closed-door meeting. The diplomat spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity.

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Crisis, Paramilitary, Systemic Abuse May 24, 2012

China: ‘X-men’ para-police force condemned for brutality

Human Rights Watch yesterday condemned the Urban Management Law Enforcement agency, known as the chengguan, and urged Beijing to reform or even abolish the force.

The force, nicknamed X-Men by the media, has been accused of rampant brutality and illegal detentions for even minor offences.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch issued a 76-page report documenting abuses by the chengguan.

“In numerous recent Chinese state media editorials, the chengguan have been … derided as law-breaking X-Men,” the group said in the report, entitled “Beat Him, Take Everything Away”.

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Conflict, Crisis, Flashpoints, Military, Paramilitary May 23, 2012

AU, Somali troops launch offensive against al-Shabab

AMISOM and Somali government troops have vowed to flush out al-Shabab militants from their major stronghold of Afgoye. Clashes launched by AMISOM on Tuesday left several militants dead and caused civilians to flee.

Hundreds of Somali troops backed by AU forces (AMISOM) and tanks launched attacks on Somali millitant group al-Shabab in Afgoye town, which is home to 400,000 internally displaced people (IDPs).

The attack left scores of militants dead, while many civilians fled.

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Conflict, Crisis, Flashpoints, Paramilitary, Powerplay May 16, 2012

US helps coordinates arms for Syria rebels: report

Syria’s rebels have seen an influx of arms including anti-tank weaponry for their fight against President Bashar al-Assad regime, in an effort coordinated with the help of the United States, a report said today.

Officials in President Barack Obama’s administration insist it is not directly supplying the weapons or providing funding, with Gulf states paying for the new arms, the Washington Post said, citing US and foreign officials.

But Washington has stepped up links with the rebels and regional militaries allying with them, playing a role in the rebel’s foreign support network, the report said.

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Conflict, Diplomacy, Flashpoints, Paramilitary, Risks April 27, 2012

New armed group takes control of Timbuktu

A new armed group on Friday tightened its grip on the Malian city of Timbuktu as the Tuareg rebels reached the center.

Members of the National Liberation Front of Azawad (FLNA), which was set up this month, on Thursday arrived in vehicles and seized control of entries to the east and south of the ancient city.

On Friday the group, which says it has neither a secessionist nor Islamist agenda, moved into Timbuktu’s central area.

“Around 100 vehicles full of armed FLNA fighters came today to the (central) Sans Fil area of Timbuktu. They are armed to the teeth,” said a Malian security source in the town.

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Flashpoints, Paramilitary, Powerplay, Risks April 20, 2012

The New Hungarian Secret Police

TEK was created in September 2010 by a governmental decree, shortly after the Fidesz government took office. TEK exists outside the normal command structure of both the police and the security agencies. The Prime Minister directly names (and can fire) its head and only the interior minister stands between him and the direct command of the force. It is well known that the head of this force is a very close confidante of the Prime Minister.

TEK was set up as an anti-terror police unit within the interior ministry and given a budget of 10 billion forints (about $44 million) in a time of austerity. Since then, it has grown to nearly 900 employees in a country of 10.5 million people that is only as big as Indiana.

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Crisis, Paramilitary April 18, 2012

Macedonia: Mysterious ‘army’ threatens ‘liberation of Albanian lands’

Tensions were high in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia on Tuesday, less than a week after the murder of five Macedonians near the capital of Skopje, as a mysterious “army” threatened a “liberation of occupied Albanian lands”

Recently unknown “The Army for Liberation of Occupied Albanian Lands”, in a statement published by Macedonian media, gave the government an ultimatum to withdraw in two weeks from what it called “occupied Albanians lands” or face reprisals.

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Border Incursion, Conflict, Crisis, Flashpoints, Paramilitary April 16, 2012

Balochistan being pushed to civil war: Raisani

Balochistan Chief Minister Sardar Aslam Raisani has said the province is being pushed to civil war through a plan.

While chairing a meeting to review law and order situation in the province, Aslam Raisani said that the government would launch a targeted operation in Quetta for the restoration of peace.

Provincial Home Minister Zafarullah Zahri, Ali Madad Jatak, religious leaders and representatives of law enforcement agencies were also present on the occasion.

Raisani urged the religious leaders to play their role to normalize the situation in the province.

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Conflict, Development, Flashpoints, Paramilitary April 12, 2012

Sudan, South Sudan war fears loom

Sudan and South Sudan on Wednesday ordered mass civilian mobilisations for defence as their armies battled along their contested border, raising the spectre of a return to all-out war.

A day after Southern troops seized the contested oil-producing Heglig region from Khartoum’s army amid heavy artillery bombardments and air strikes, the parliaments in Juba and Khartoum called for preparation for conflict.

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Conflict, Development, Flashpoints, Paramilitary April 11, 2012

History Repeating Itself: Afghanistan Fighters Shoved Under The Bus Again!

Afghanistan’s defense minister said Tuesday that his government and the international coalition paying for the war effort had agreed in principle that Afghan security forces would undergo a significant reduction to about 230,000 personnel after theNATO mission ends in 2014.

Under current plans, Afghan security forces are to reach a peak of 352,000 by late this year. Afghan and alliance officials agree that it would be unwise to begin reducing that number before the end of 2014, because in the coming months the number of foreign forces will be reduced and Afghans will be taking over the leading role in defending their nation.

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Conflict, Crisis, Flashpoints, Military, Paramilitary April 8, 2012

Mali: Ecowas Ready to Send Troops to Mali Against Breakaway Tuareg State

Mali’s west African neighbours are threatening to send a military force to the north of the country after the military junta in Bamako agreed to return the country to civilian rule Friday.

An Ecowas communiqué warned armed groups in the north that Mali is “one and indivisible” and that it “shall take all necessary measures, including the use of force, to ensure the territorial integrity of the country”.

The regional grouping “will never recognise” any breakaway state, the statement said.

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Analysis, History, Paramilitary, Regime Change April 6, 2012

Our Men in Iran?

It was here that the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) conducted training, beginning in 2005, for members of the Mujahideen-e-Khalq, a dissident Iranian opposition group known in the West as the M.E.K. The M.E.K. had its beginnings as a Marxist-Islamist student-led group and, in the nineteen-seventies, it was linked to the assassination of six American citizens. It was initially part of the broad-based revolution that led to the 1979 overthrow of the Shah of Iran. But, within a few years, the group was waging a bloody internal war with the ruling clerics, and, in 1997, it was listed as a foreign terrorist organization by the State Department. In 2002, the M.E.K. earned some international credibility by publicly revealing—accurately—that Iran had begun enriching uranium at a secret underground location.

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Conflict, Crisis, Flashpoints, Paramilitary April 4, 2012

Mali’s north feared new Sahara “rogue state”

Tuareg fighters are celebrating the seizure of key towns in Mali’s north as a historic victory in their half-century battle for a desert homeland.

But for the Sahel region and wider world, their lightning advance, made as the distant southern capital Bamako struggled with the aftermath of a coup, poses a security nightmare.

The rebel success has swept with it a collection of other gunmen, including Islamists, al Qaeda and others with criminal links, widening an area of lawless instability on the Sahara’s edge.

“If the situation was delicate before the coup, it is now a total defeat,” said one senior diplomat following the situation.

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Border Incursion, Paramilitary, Powerplay April 4, 2012

Backstory: India denies LTTE terrorists trained in Tamil Nadu sent to destabilize Sri Lanka

India today rejected a news item carried by a local newspaper that Tamil Tiger terrorists have been given training in Tamil Nadu state of Southern India and sent back to destabilize Sri Lanka.

Referring to a news item in today’s The Island newspaper titled “Tigers return from India on a destabilization mission – SL intelligence, three arrested, others at large”, the Indian High Commission in Colombo said in a statement that “The suggestion contained in the news item regarding the training of terrorists at three secret camps in Tamil Nadu, India is entirely erroneous and baseless.”

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Analysis, Flashpoints, History, Paramilitary April 4, 2012

Silence kills, in Sri Lanka and Syria

Riding the tiger is an art that isn’t easy to master in the best of circumstances. While a tiger’s back may be the safest place to be when you are riding it, you should be ready for what comes when the ride inevitably ends.
There was a time when many in India, including the Tamil, identified with Tamil Tigers with the establishment and Indian agencies offering every possible support to “our boys.” The LTTE training camps in Tamil Nadu were a secret that no one bothered to hide.

This support proved crucial in the Tigers’ transformation into one of the deadliest and successful insurgent forces in recent history.

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Crisis, Flashpoints, Paramilitary April 2, 2012

Inching Towards Civil War: Rival militias exchange fire in western Libya

Rival militias fought skirmishes in western Libya on Monday, with one local fighter saying his town was coming under fire from mortars and anti-aircraft guns.
There were though no reports of anyone killed or seriously wounded in the clashes, which were happening around the town of Zuwara, on the Mediterranean coast about 120 km (75 miles) west of the capital, Tripoli.

The fighting was the latest in a series of incidents that have underlined Libya’s volatility since a revolt last year ended Muammar Gaddafi’s rule. In another confrontation, about 150 people were killed in clashes between rival tribes in the southern city of Sabha.

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Conflict, Flashpoints, Paramilitary, Regime Change April 1, 2012

Gulf States to Pay Salaries for Syrian Free Army

Representatives of 60 countries pledged financial assistance to the main Syrian opposition group on Sunday, in an effort to encourage further defections from President Bashar al-Assad’s forces.

International envoys gathered in Turkey for the “Friends of the Syrian People” conference.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the U.S. has agreed to pledge an additional $12 million for a total of $25 million and to provide communications equipment to help the Syrian Free Army organize.

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Conflict, Diplomacy, Flashpoints, Paramilitary, Regime Change March 30, 2012

Foreign Policy Junta: Trained in The U.S.A.

The United States has a long history of inadvertently (and sometimes not so inadvertently) training future coup plotters around the world.

AMADOU HAYA SANOGO

Country: Mali

Training: U.S. military officials have acknowledged that Sanogo “participated in several U.S.-funded International Military Education and Training (IMET) programs in the United States, including basic officer training,” though it’s not yet clear which courses he took. He has affirmed receiving U.S. training in several interviews, but has declined to elaborate. Until this month’s events, the United States allocated $600,000 per year for military training in Mali as part of an effort to combat Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

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Conflict, Crisis, Flashpoints, Paramilitary, Regime Change March 30, 2012

Western Powers And Their Mideast Partners Lay Their Syrian Cards On The Table

The Kofi Annan Syrian peace plan has made the gears of the war machine move faster than originally planned. Russia and China have become impatient and want to see this come to an peaceful end ostensibly but their interests are in Syrian and Iranian oil, infrastructure and military sales. U.N. envoy Kofi Annan has met with China’s senior officials and this had led to pressure being put on Assad to agree to the peace plan. Their hope is that their businesses in those respective countries remain the same and they don’t want to lose their investments like they did in Libya after the invasion.

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Analysis, Border Incursion, Flashpoints, Paramilitary, Resources, Risks, Stratagem March 30, 2012

Mali Coup a New Step towards Global Resources Grab

The media uniformly stress that Mali is among the world’s poorest countries, which is basically true considering that it ranks 127th in the global GDP listing and 168th (of 179) (6) in terms of the index of human development (7). The ratings, however, should not overshadow the strategic importance and the economic potential of the territory of Mali. It borders seven other countries – Algeria, Mauritania, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Burkina Faso, and Senegal – and sits on considerable natural reserves of gold, uranium, bauxites, iron, manganese, tin, and copper. According to fresh reports, the northern part of Mali is found to be rich in oil and, importantly, contains a usable underground water ecosystem.

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Conflict, Crisis, News, Paramilitary March 28, 2012

They Didn’t Get The Memo: Mali northern rebels fight on despite coup in capital

Despite a ceasefire call from the military junta now ruling Mali, northern Tuareg rebels have shown no signs of halting their offensive, their boldest and most successful campaign yet.

The coup leaders who ousted Mali’s President Amadou Toumani Toure on March 22 said they were partly motivated by the government’s incompetent response to the fresh Tuareg assault, launched two months ago.

The Tuaregs — who have for years demanded autonomy for their nomadic tribes — have over the past two decades launched several uprisings against Mali’s government.

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Conflict, Crisis, Development, Paramilitary, Resources March 28, 2012

Sudanese border region sees second day of fighting over oil fields

South Sudan has accused its neighbour Sudan of waging war against it after a second day of fighting in the oil-rich border region – the worst confrontation since the countries split last year.

Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, appealed for calm between the antagonists, which fought a long civil war before South Sudan gained independence in July last year. Oil is still the main source of hostility between the countries, which continue to spar over the border demarcation and other unresolved issues.

In a trade of claim and counter-claim, South Sudan alleged that Antonov warplanes dropped at least three bombs near oil fields in the town of Bentiu, Unity state, on Tuesday. “They are hovering and dropping over the northern part of town in the oil fields, the main Unity oil fields,” Gideon Gatpan, information minister for Unity, told the Associated Press. Sudan denied any air strikes.

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News, Paramilitary March 25, 2012

Leader of Mali coup received officer training from AFRICOM

The leader of the military coup that toppled the democratic government of the West African nation of Mali this week underwent basic officer training in the United States, the Obama administration acknowledged Friday.

Capt. Amadou Sanoga, who is the apparent leader of the group of junior officers that toppled the government of President Amadou Toumani Toure, “participated in several U.S.-funded International Military Education and Training (IMET) programs in the United States, including basic officer training,” the U.S. military’s Africa Command said in an email to McClatchy Newspapers.

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Crisis, News, Paramilitary March 23, 2012

Al Jazeera obtains secret Syria files

Al Jazeera has gained access to confidential documents prepared for the Syrian president by the country’s intelligence and security chiefs on the current conflict.

The files provide an insight into President Bashar al-Assad’s strategy to suppress anti-government protests, including the lengths the government went to for protecting its strongholds.

The documents, running into hundreds of pages, pointed to a government that was desperate to keep control of the capital Damascus and included clear orders to stop protesters from getting into the city

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Intelligentsia, News, Paramilitary March 22, 2012

80 French ‘training with Pakistan Taliban’

More than 80 French nationals are training with the Pakistan Taliban in the lawless north-west of the country, according to a militant commander, raising fears of a renewed campaign against Western targets.

Mohammed Merah, the man believed to have killed seven people in south-western France, was trained by al-Qaeda in Waziristan on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, according to the French prosecutor.

His visits, thought to be in 2010 and 2011, highlight again Pakistan’s reputation for jihadi tourism and raise the chilling prospect of more attacks.

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Conflict, Crisis, Flashpoints, Paramilitary March 22, 2012

Syrian rebels form ‘military council’ to conduct operations around Damascus

The Free Syrian Army has set up a military council to coordinate operations around Damascus, as it brings the year-old conflict to the capital, it announced in an online video on Thursday.

“I, Colonel Khaled Mohammed al-Hammud, announce the creation of the military council for Damascus and the region that will be in charge of FSA operations in this region,” an army deserter said in the video.

He invited other “noble officers still in the ranks of Bashar’s army” to join the rebel force, referring to President Bashar al-Assad.

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Conflict, Crisis, Paramilitary March 22, 2012

Mali coup leaders close all borders amid condemnation from Washington and Africa

A Malian junta announced Thursday the closure of the country’s borders after claiming to have seized power from President Amadou Toumani Toure in a coup in the early hours of the morning.

“We have closed all the borders until further notice,” Sergeant Salif Kone said in a statement on state television, surrounded by the band of mutineers who have formed a junta calling itself the National Committee for the Establishment of Democracy, according to AFP.

A source at the airport had earlier confirmed the closure of the airport, saying all flights to and from Mali had been cancelled in the wake of the coup.

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Conflict, Crisis, Flashpoints, Paramilitary, Powerplay, Regime Change March 21, 2012

Thousands of Red Shirts take over ‘richest part’ of Bangkok

Thailand’s “Red Shirts” congregated in their tens of thousands at an up-market Bangkok shopping district on Wednesday, preparing a “final battleground” in their fight to oust army-backed Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.

About 40,000 had gathered by evening as the prospect of further impasse looked set to hit growth in Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy after clashes on Saturday killed at least 22 people, Thailand’s worst violence in 18 years.

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Conflict, Development, Flashpoints, Intelligentsia, Paramilitary, Powerplay, Stratagem March 20, 2012

ISI funding insurgency in North East/Bangladesh, says ex-ISI chief

Pakistan’s former Inter-Services Intelligence chief Assad Durani has made a startling before the Pakistan Supreme Court. Durani told the court that the Pakistan spy agency had been meddling with India’s affairs in the North East.

India has been claiming what the former ISI chief has stated since a very long time. India has also said that the operations in the North East, which have several instances of insurgencies, are all being funded by the ISI. The Harkat-ul-Jihadi in particular has been causing a great deal of trouble in both the North Eastern states. According to Durrani, the ISI had paid Rs 50 crore to former prime minister Khaleeda Zia during the 1991 elections.

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Conflict, Crisis, Flashpoints, Paramilitary, Powerplay March 18, 2012

Saudi sends military gear to Syria rebels: diplomat

Saudi Arabia is delivering military equipment to Syrian rebels in an effort to stop bloodshed by President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, a top Arab diplomat said on Saturday.

“Saudi military equipment is on its way to Jordan to arm the Free Syrian Army,” the diplomat told AFP on condition of anonymity.

“This is a Saudi initiative to stop the massacres in Syria,” he added, saying that further “details will follow at a later time.”

The announcement came two days after the conservative Sunni-ruled kingdom said it had shut down its embassy in Syria and withdrawn all its staff.

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Conflict, News, Paramilitary March 11, 2012

Tuareg rebels demand their own state in Mali’s north

Libyan dictator Gadhafi may be dead, but the aftermath of his wars is still affecting the region. Mali is fighting Tuareg rebels who want an independent region in the north. Al-Qaeda could benefit from the conflict.

The nomadic Tuareg people refer to northern Mali as the “Azawad.” For almost two months, the poor and impassable desert region, which is the size of France, has been the battleground for heavy fighting between Malian armed forces and the new Tuareg rebel group National Movement for the Liberation of the Azawad (NMLA). There’s contradictory information on casualty figures. But the battle for Azawad is a threat to the country’s stability, experts say.

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Conflict, Flashpoints, News, Paramilitary March 8, 2012

‘Arab countries sending mercenaries into Syria’

Arab countries are sending mercenaries to Syria to thwart any chance of a negotiated settlement to end President Bashar Assad’s crackdown on a year-long uprising against his rule, Iran’s ambassador to France said on Thursday.

Iran, a close ally of Assad’s government, was initially very supportive of the way the Syrian authorities were putting down the uprising, but has lately been saying that Assad should enact reforms that take account of popular grievances.

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Flashpoints, GeoPolitics, Paramilitary March 8, 2012

Russia accuses Libya of training Syrian rebels

Russia demanded Wednesday that NATO apologize for civilian casualties during the uprising in Libya last year and accused the Libyan government of supporting a training center for Syrian rebels, provoking a sharp response from the U.S. and Libya’s prime minister.

The sparring was another indication of how deeply divided the international community remains over the turmoil in the Middle East, particularly the bloody uprising in Syria.

Russia and China have accused NATO of overstepping its Security Council mandate to protect civilians in Libya during the uprising last year, and have strongly opposed any similar action in Syria.

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Conflict, Paramilitary, Systemic Abuse March 6, 2012

Tears for Somali’s “Baby Soldiers”

Schools in Somalia are now virtually empty as children, some as young as 10 years are abducted and forced to serve as ‘soldiers or “wives” of al-shabab forces fighting against the government

First it was in Liberia. Later it spread to Sierra Leone. Now, war-ravaged Somalia is the place where the innocence of young children, some as young as 10, are denied by forcing them to become child soldiers to prosecute al-Shabab vicious, long-drawn battles with the central government in the East African country.

Human Rights Watch, HRW, said entire classrooms of Somali children were now being forced to fight for Islamist militants. Majority of the children being forced to join al-Shabab are between 14 and 17 years old, but some are as young as 10.

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