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The US military dealing with a Lost in Translation case in Italy

When in 2006 US Navy engineers started thinking where they should place the four ground stations for their bright new communications system, in their minds Italy was one of the best spots. Sicily, where the US military has a strong presence, is closer to Tunis than Rome. The MUOS would cover not just the Middle East but also Africa where the lacking of communications coverage made AFRICOM particularly vulnerable in that sector.

At the time, Italy was a also one of the US greatest ally. The close relationship between George W. Bush and the Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi made everything easier, smoother, as described in the Wikileaks cables. So the two governments signed a Memorandum to build the fourth ground station in Niscemi, where the US Navy had already a base. The then Ministry of Defense, Ignazio La Russa, acted as guarantor for the deal, although now he refuses to talk publicly about MUOS.

The US and Italian government didn’t expect  such a fierce opposition. NO MUOS activists they first stopped the work at the station and then started suing the government for a breach in the Italian laws.

I wrote about it for Quartz. And this is the link.  Enjoy

On April 13 Syria will hold parliamentary election, but who is going to vote?

Homs has been completely destroyed
The city of Homs

While the civil war continues with no possible solution ahead, the Syrian government has scheduled parliamentary  election for April 13. I found it pretty surreal. Citizens are asked to choose 250 members of the People’s Council  from 15 multi-member constituencies but nearly half of those are not under the government control.

As we well know Raqqa is occupied by the Islamic State which recently partly lost control of Deir ez-Zor. Homs is completely destroyed, and in Aleppo the ongoing fight makes it almost impossible to vote. Latakia is also partly controlled by the Syrian Army. The Kurds who established an autonomous region, known as Rojava, will not hold the elections.

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Women who join ISIS, are they really just victims?

The teenager who joined ISIS

Marlin was 15 years-old when she decided to travel to Syria last May.  She grew up in Boras,  Sweden. She wanted to join the Islamic State with her boyfriend and be part of the jihad. According  to Swedish press, when she traveled to the Islamic State, she was also pregnant. Allegedly she got “mislead” by an ISIS recruiter in Sweden who convinced her to make the journey.

On February 17 she got rescued by Kurdish anti-terrorist force, CTD, during a raid in Mosul. The girl, who is now 16,  is in Kurdistan and she will be hand over to Swedish authority. Her boyfriend, most probably at this point husband, got killed by a Russian airstrike. It is unclear what the girl was doing in Mosul, and why she was moved there.

A statement from the Kurdistan Region Security Council (KRSC) said the family was informed of the human rescue mission.

Most of the articles that have been published so far emphasis the “misleading” part, treating this girl as a victim. There is a sense of pity around them, as if we are unable to process their choice, so we tend to believe someone else forced them into the jihad. Some girls maybe so, but not all of them.

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How far from reality is the TV show Okkupert? Maybe not that much

okkupert

In a near future, Norway will elect a Green Party Prime Minister who wants to cut off all fossil fuel production, and replace it with a Thorium-based nuclear energy. When Jasper Berg announces it his plans, he couldn’t imagine the EU reaction: they have him kidnapped and forced him to sign an agreement for maximum capabilities of the oil production. To make sure Norway will honor this agreement, the EU asked Russia to operate a velvet glove invasion of the country and overlook the productivity.

From that moment on the TV show Occupied — or Okkupert — plays off an intriguing plot. The Russia and the EU representatives are bad guys, who show no remorse on misleading, cheating and try to manoeuvre the Norwegian PM on their advantage, while occupying the country. Berg tries to be positive and believes that his allies such as the US will eventually help him out. He could not be more mistaken.

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Benedetta Argentieri

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