Turkish military and naval attaches at the Athens Embassy are suspected to have fled to Italy after last month's coup attempt in Turkey, Greek media reported.

Col. Ilhan Yasitli and Halis Tunc went missing a few days after a military faction staged a putsch in Istanbul and Ankara on July 15, sources told Greek news website Onalert.gr.

Their absence was noticed after they did not turn up for several events at the diplomatic mission in the Greek capital.

Scientific American recently ran a feature on Israel's desalination industry, hailing it as a miraculous feat of ingenuity of a small nation in the midst of burning, backward nations.

To quote the article's romanticised language, the author refers to Israel as "a galvanised civilisation that created water from nothingness" where just a few miles away, alluding to Syria and Iraq specifically, but also Arab nations in general, "water disappeared and civilisations crumbled".

It is surprising to see such blatant promotion of Israeli exceptionalism and the mendacious resurrection of "making the desert bloom" mythology on the pages of Scientific American. It is important to inject facts, history and reality into this water fairytale.

The author brazenly claims 900 years of Palestinian history is Israeli. In fact, Israel is a 68-year-old country established by European Jewish immigrants who conquered Palestine, expelled most of the indigenous population and laid claim to all their land, farms, homes, businesses, libraries and resources.

Beyond that gratuitous appropriation of Palestinian history, the article provides no historic context to climate, rainfall and natural water resources, giving the impression of a naturally inhospitable arid land.

In fact, throughout history, northern Palestine boasted a Mediterranean climate, having hot and dry summers with abundant rainfall in winter. And in fact, Ramallah's rainfall exceeds that of London, as does Jerusalem's rainfall.

The southern half of Palestine becomes desert around the Beersheba district, where the Naqab Desert expands to the tip of Palestine. When Israel was established, Palestinians were already sustainably cultivating 30 percent of their country. Excluding Beersheba district, that figure rises to an average of 43 percent, reaching as high as 71 percent in Gaza.

The US National Security Archives has declassified previously secret material related to a series of nuclear bomb tests on Bikini Atoll in the Pacific in 1946 that exposed many US servicemen to radiation and left the island uninhabitable forever.

The bulk of documents, photos and unedited film footage related to the Operation Crossroads nuclear tests was published on July 22, on the eve of 70th anniversary of the operation's second nuclear explosion.

Operation Crossroads was planned as a series of three nuclear explosions that would allow observers to study the damage caused by nuclear explosions at sea in imminent proximity to warships.

Trump and Clinton have come out with the obligatory "economic plans." Neither them nor their advisors, have any idea about what really needs to be done, but this is of no concern to the media.

The presstitutes operate according to "pay and say." They say what they are paid to say and that is whatever serves the corporations and the government. This means that the presstitutes like Hitlery's economic plan and do not like Trump's.

Yesterday I listened to the NPR presstitutes say how Trump pretends to be in favor of free trade but really is against it, because he is against all the free trade agreements such as NAFTA, the Trans-Pacific and Trans-Atlantic partnerships. The presstitutes don't know that these are not trade agreements. NAFTA is a "give away American jobs" agreement, and the so-called partnerships give away the sovereignty of countries in order to award global corporations immunity from laws.

As I have reported on many occasions, the Oligarchs' government lies to us about everything, including economic statistics. For example, we are told that we have been enjoying an economic recovery since June, 2009, that we are more or less at full employment with an unemployment rate of 5% or less, and that there is no inflation. We are told this despite the facts that the "recovery" is based on the under-reporting of the inflation rate, the unemployment rate is 23%, and inflation is high.

Former CIA Acting Director Michael Morell has written a New York Times op-ed entitled "I Ran the CIA. Now I'm endorsing Hillary Clinton." Morell's story begins with the flat assertion that "Mrs. Clinton is highly qualified to be commander in chief. I trust she will deliver on the most important duty of a president - keeping our nation safe...Donald J. Trump is not only unqualified for the job, but he may well pose a threat to our national security."

Morell arrived at his judgement regarding the upcoming election based on his four years of interaction with Hillary Clinton when she was Secretary of State. He admired her preparation, diligence and her willingness to "change her mind if presented with a compelling argument." Morell "also saw the secretary's commitment to our nation's security: her belief that America is an exceptional nation that must lead in the world for the country to remain secure and prosperous; her understanding that diplomacy can be effective only if the country is perceived as willing and able to use force if necessary; and - her capacity to make the most difficult decision of all - whether to put young American women and men in harm's way."

"I Ran the CIA" Morell goes on to cite how Hillary was a "proponent of a more aggressive approach [in Syria], one that might have prevented the Islamic State from gaining a foothold..." and he credits her with not politicizing national security when she rejected moving the raid to kill bin Laden back one day so it would not conflict with the White House Correspondents Dinner. Throughout his piece Morell implies that Hillary's "keeping us safe" policies will somehow actually benefit the country, but he does not explain why and never once mentions what actual American national interests might be served through global "leadership" backed up by force majeure.

Vietnam has discreetly fortified several of its islands in the disputed South China Sea with new mobile rocket launchers capable of striking China's runways and military installations across the vital trade route, according to Western officials.

Diplomats and military officers told Reuters that intelligence shows Hanoi has shipped the launchers from the Vietnamese mainland into position on five bases in the Spratly islands in recent months, a move likely to raise tensions with Beijing.

The launchers have been hidden from aerial surveillance and they have yet to be armed, but could be made operational with rocket artillery rounds within two or three days, according to the three sources.

Vietnam's Foreign Ministry said the information was "inaccurate", without elaborating.

With three months to go until decision day, the presidential election campaign in the United States is in full-swing — but there's an unfortunate reality facing many American voters: They're not really too fond of either major party candidate.

In one recent poll, more American voters viewed Hillary Clinton unfavorably (55 percent) than favorably (44 percent). In the same poll, Donald Trump fared even worse. Only 36 percent of voters had a positive opinion of him, while 63 percent expressed a negative opinion.

In that climate, both candidates' strategies seem to rest not on proving how worthy they are of the top job, but how unworthy their opponent is. As a result, many voters will pull the lever for one candidate on November 8 simply so they can attempt to prevent the other one from winning. Voting for the 'lesser evil' seems to be the general theme.

But polls have also shown something else: American voters are increasingly open to the idea of third-party candidates — and some are actively looking for an alternative. About 44 percent are looking for an option beyond Trump and Clinton. In this focus group, a whole room full of undecided voters raised their hands when asked if they felt "embarrassed for the country" by Trump and Clinton. Sure, it's only one example, but it's not a great sign. The election is turning into a serious conundrum for voters who favor neither candidate.

Given that, wouldn't it make sense to let people know that they are not simply restricted to voting Republican or Democrat? Plenty of Americans do know this, of course, but many don't. And how could they? Neither the media nor the major parties really want to acknowledge that there are viable alternatives — and over time they've done everything in their power to maintain the two-party system. One of the ways they've done it is through the Commission on Presidential Debates.

US military officials pressured lower-level analysts to downplay threats from Islamic State and Al-Qaeda in an intelligence report, a House Republican task force has found, sources told the Daily Beast. Three "officials familiar with the task force's findings" have told the Beast that the nearly 10-page report is going to confirm last year's complaints by dozens of intelligence analysts that their reports were changed by CENTCOM higher-ups.

The accusations prompted the Pentagon's inspector-general to launch a probe into an alleged cover-up of the US military's failures in order to paint a more optimistic picture than was warranted by the facts on the ground. However, the report that is expected to be released next week contains no evidence that senior Obama administration officials ordered the findings on Islamic State and Al-Qaeda's branch in Syria to be altered, the Beast said. "The investigation is ongoing but the report substantiates the claims," one of the unnamed House Republican task force officials told the news outlet.

Peace River BC

Site C Dam is a proposed 60-metre high, 1,050m length dam on the Peace River on Treaty 8 territory in northeastern British Columbia, a project that if built, would create an 83km reservoir submerging 78 First Nations heritage sites in violation of the Constitution Act, but how does it connect to continental water diversion?

To date, much has been said in the media regarding the issue of Site C Dam, but very little has touched on the matter of NAFTA and water.

The spin behind the necessity of the project has largely concentrated on exaggerated claims of the energy needs of Vancouver, to the BC Liberals' power requirements for the LNG and Fracking industry, to providing below-market value energy to Alberta in exchange for agreeing to their pipelines. Recently, the Justin Trudeau Government approved two additional permits for Site C Dam despite recommendations against the project by the Royal Society of Canada and 250 of Canada's top scientists on the basis that Site C Dam is an ecological catastrophe and gross violation of rights under the United Nations Declaration of Indigenous Rights and violates our own Constitution.

Little, however, has been noted by the media about the NAWAPA (North America Water Power Alliance) connection to Site C Dam, and that is something all Canadians should be seriously concerned about.

NAWAPA is a continental water diversion plan drafted by the US Army Corps of Engineers during the 1950s -1960s. Essentially the plan involved diverting (stealing) water from Canada via the Rocky Mountain Trench to Southern California. The rivers of Canada in British Columbia and the Yukon were an integral part of this plan.

The Taliban and ISIS don't have solutions for Afghanistan, neither does the US. It only exacerbates religious, sectarian and tribal differences, says Sara Flounders of the International Action Center. The US arms one group against another to keep war going, she adds.

Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) reportedly forged an alliance with the Afghan Taliban, which the US says it remains committed to appeasing.

IS also has a foothold in neighboring Pakistan and claimed responsibility for Monday's suicide bombing there, which killed at least 70 people and wounded over 100. The Pakistani Taliban was the first group to take responsibility, but IS claimed the attack, shortly after.