Qatar’s anti-terror laws ‘appear robust but almost never enforced’

Qatar’s anti-terror laws ‘appear robust but almost never enforced’

Special to WorldTribune.com Geostrategy-Direct.com WASHINGTON — Congress has been told that Qatar consistently refused to enforce laws meant to stop funding to Al Qaida and Islamic State of Iraq and Levant. A leading counter-insurgency analyst told the House that Qatar was passing laws that it did not enforce. Matthew Levitt said Doha’s policy was transmitted […]

Israeli intelligence agencies clash over failure to predict Hamas War

Israeli intelligence agencies clash over failure to predict Hamas War

Special to WorldTribune.com Dossier at Geostrategy-Direct.com TEL AVIV — Before being told last week to settle their differences out of the public eye, Israel’s top intelligence agencies had erupted into an open feud over responsibility for the Hamas war in mid-2014. In what reflected growing tension amid official inquiries, Military Intelligence and the Israel Security […]

Tit-for-tat diplomat expulsions by Russia and West recalls Cold War

Tit-for-tat diplomat expulsions by Russia and West recalls Cold War

Special to WorldTribune.com By Miles Yu, Geostrategy-Direct.com A diplomatic war between Moscow and the West has flared up, the old fashioned Cold War way. The exchange occurred on the eve of the European Union’s meeting in Brussels to discuss further sanctions against Russia. A German female diplomat working in Germany’s embassy in Moscow was expelled […]

Gorbachev blames West for post-Cold War monopoly leadership

Gorbachev blames West for post-Cold War monopoly leadership

Special to WorldTribune.com By Miles Yu, Geostrategy-Direct.com On the joyous occasion of the 25th anniversary of the collapse of the Berlin Wall, former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev made a highly-charged speech at the Brandenburg Gate on Nov. 8, which represented an about-face in his worldview. Gorbachev chastised the West in general and the United […]

Azerbaijan’s location enhances value of its growing strategic ties with Israel

Azerbaijan’s location enhances value of its growing strategic ties with Israel

Special to WorldTribune.com Dossier at Geostrategy-Direct.com TEL AVIV — Israel and Azerbaijan have become leading partners in defense and energy, a report said. The Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies said that relations between Azerbaijan and Israel have improved dramatically. In a report, the center said Baku has been a leading energy supplier while Jerusalem was […]

Russian spy plane enters Estonia airspace, triggers NATO alert

Russian spy plane enters Estonia airspace, triggers NATO alert

Special to WorldTribune.com By Miles Yu, Geostrategy-Direct.com Estonia, a NATO member state, is demanding an explanation from Moscow over an incident last week involving a Russian intelligence-gathering aircraft. The plane flew unannounced into Estonian airspace, provoking an emergency scramble by the NATO defense system. NATO confirmed that its F-16s were dispatched after detecting the Russian […]

Moscow, Amsterdam in heated dispute over submarine sightings

Moscow, Amsterdam in heated dispute over submarine sightings

Special to WorldTribune.com By Miles Yu, Geostrategy-Direct.com Russia and the Netherlands have accused each other of sending a submarine into Swedish territorial waters. On Oct. 17, the Swedish military launched a massive search for a mysterious foreign submarine in its territorial waters. The reports led to speculation that the uninvited submarine belonged to Russia and […]

Putin exploits latest Biden gaffe, offers helping hand to Turkey

Special to WorldTribune.com By Miles Yu, Geostrategy-Direct.com When U.S. Vice President openly chastised Turkey for allowing foreign militant fighters to cross its territory into Syria to join Islamist State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL), President Vladimir Putin of Russia picked up the phone. Putin, estranged from the international community for his Ukraine gambit, called Turkey’s […]

ISIL’s stealth plotting against top Shi’ite militia ‘planned for months’

ISIL’s stealth plotting against top Shi’ite militia ‘planned for months’

Special to WorldTribune.com Geostrategy-Direct.com BAGHDAD — Islamic State of Iraq and Levant has targeted Iraq’s leading Shi’ite militia. Officials said ISIL has begun a campaign against the Mahdi Army, deemed the largest Shi’ite militia in Iraq. They said ISIL squads were monitoring and attacking Mahdi strongholds in an effort to sow panic among the ruling […]

N.Y. Times confirms: There were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq

N.Y. Times confirms: There were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq

Special to WorldTribune.com The New York Times reported on Oct. 14 that U.S. troops in Iraq had between 2004 and 2011 repeatedly encountered Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). Meanwhile, voters back home and the world at large had been repeatedly told precisely the opposite by U.S. media reports. The Republican administration of George W Bush […]