During the night of July 17-18 in the Lebanese Bekaa Valley, a kidnapping took place that has turned into a strange, suspense-filled drama with international dimensions involving Beirut, Washington, Prague and Kiev.

On the night of July 17, five Czechs — Jan Svarc, Adam Homsi, Miroslav Dobes, Merlin Pesek and Pavel Kofron — arrived at Beirut's international airport, where a vehicle was waiting to pick them up. A couple of hours later, the van was found on the side of the road in Kefraya, about 60 kilometers (37 miles) east of Beirut in the Bekaa Valley. Their passports, papers and other personal belongings had been left in the car, but there were no other traces of the men or their possible whereabouts.


Lebanese security agencies launched an investigation immediately after the vehicle's discovery that night and soon found that it belonged to a Lebanese man, Munir Saeb Taan, who had picked up the Czechs. The following day, July 18, the father of the car's owner reported his son's disappearance to security officials, telling them that he had been unable to contact him. He had no idea where his son might be.

The investigation soon revealed that Taan is the half-brother of Ali Fayyad, a Lebanese man who had been arrested in April 2014 in Prague. At this point, interpretations of the Czechs' disappearance began to change, with Lebanese media outlets speculating that their kidnapping had probably been orchestrated to pave the way for a swap for Fayyad.

Illusions are at play in the modern tragedy that is the Greek economic system, particularly when it comes to notions of who benefits most from the latest bailout

Modern Greek tragedy is at play, and so are illusions.

The big myth is that Greece overspent and the Greek government was reckless with its budgets, ultimately indebting Athens. It is true that Greek officials tried to gain influence and political support through spending. It's also true that they signed lucrative contracts with local businesses.

Athens, however, is no exception here; this type of conduct has been displayed by politicians throughout the European Union and around the world.

The fact is that this is not what created the economic crisis in Greece. What is really taking place in Greece and the eurozone is something altogether different. The Greek bailouts appear to be part of a rigid restructuring of the EU that is placing other members under the control of Germany.

Banker bailouts versus national bailouts

We are not dealing with national bailouts for failing economies, but with banking sector bailouts. Almost all the money that has been given to Greece, Cyprus, Ireland, and Portugal has gone to the banks of the creditor lenders.

In his 2013 documentary The Secret Bank Bailout, German investigative journalist Harald Schumann documents how the peoples of Ireland, Cyprus and Spain were not bailed out. The biggest recipients of the Irish bailout that saved Anglo-Irish Bank were British, French and German banks, including Union Investment Privatfonds, Rothschild et Compagnie Gestion, and Deutsche Bank. German and French banks accounted for 50 out of the 80 bondholders. The blogger Guido Fawkes revealed that the Irish government was protecting German investors when he published a list of the bondholders that he had obtained from an insider.

Surprise! In what must be the most predictable geopolitical event in recent days, WSJ reports that Iran has refused to let United Nations inspectors interview key scientists and military officers to investigate allegations Tehran maintained a covert nuclear-weapons program. This comes hours after CNN reported that the intelligence community believes Iran has been attempting to clean up the suspected nuclear site at Parchin prior to the arrival of international inspectors based on new satellite imagery. While the administration attempts to 'clear up' any misunderstandings, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker told reporters."It was not a reassuring meeting...I would say most members left with greater concerns about the inspection regime than we came in with."

For now, the landmark nuclear agreement forged between world powers and Iran on July 14 in Vienna is on hold. As The Wall Street Journal reports, Iran's stance complicates the International Atomic Energy Agency's investigation into Tehran's suspected nuclear-military program - a study that is scheduled to be finished by mid-October, as required by the treaty.

The IAEA and its director-general, Yukiya Amano, have been trying for more than five years to debrief Mohsen Fakhrizadeh-Mahabadi, an Iranian military officer the U.S., Israel and IAEA suspect oversaw weaponization work in Tehran until at least 2003.

Mr. Amano said Tehran still hasn't agreed to let Mr. Fakhrizadeh or other Iranian military officers and nuclear scientists help the IAEA complete its investigation. The Japanese diplomat indicated that he believed his agency could complete its probe even without access to top-level Iranian personnel.

Tehran has repeatedly denied it ever had a secret nuclear weapons program.

But Mr. Amano said in a 25-minute interview in Washington that Iran still hasn't agreed to provide access to Mr. Fakhrizadeh or other top Iranian military officers and nuclear scientists to assist the IAEA in completing its probe.

"We don't know yet," Mr. Amano said about the agency's interview requests. "If someone who has a different name to Fakhrizadeh can clarify our issues, that is fine with us.

President Barack Obama has warned that without the Iran nuclear deal, there will be another war in the Middle East. He said that those who voted for the War in Iraq are now opposing diplomacy with Iran.

"The choice we face is ultimately between diplomacy and some sort of war, maybe not tomorrow, maybe not 3 months from now, but soon. Military action will be far less effective than this deal in preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon," the President said.

President Obama argued that the deal with Iran is the best way to prevent the country from acquiring a nuclear weapon and to prevent war, and that the deal being rejected by Congress would be bad for the security of the United States.

In a column I wrote in early July, based on research by my colleagues and my own analysis of government documents and eyewitness statements, I argued that in 2011 and 2012 then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton waged a secret war on the governments of Libya and Syria, with the approval of President Obama and the consent of congressional leadership from both parties and in both houses of Congress.

I did err in that column with respect to an arms dealer named Marc Turi. I regret the error and apologize for it. I wrote that Turi sold arms to Qatar as part of Clinton's scheme to get them into the hands of rebels. A further review of the documents makes it clear that he applied to do so but was denied permission, and so he did not sell arms to Qatar. Other arms dealers did.

I also erred when referring to Qatar as beholden to Washington. In fact, Qatar is in bed with the Muslim Brotherhood and is one of the biggest supporters of global jihad in the world — and Clinton, who approved the sales of arms to Qatar expecting them to make their way to Syrian and Libyan rebels, as they did, knew that. She and her State Department caused American arms to come into the possession of known al-Qaida operatives, a few of whom assassinated U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens.

When Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., asked Clinton in January 2013 at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing whether she knew of any weapons coming from the U.S. and going to rebels in the Middle East, she denied such knowledge. She either has a memory so faulty that she should not be entrusted with any governmental powers, or she knowingly lied.

It gets worse.

70 years after the US dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the real reasons behind the decision still divide historians. Recently declassified documents from the time suggest the nuclear strikes may have been performed not out of military necessity but to intimidate the USSR. RTD's Peter Scott travels to the two Japanese cities that were devastated by the attacks, where he visits a victims' memorial and meets nuclear blast survivors still haunted by their memories. He also interviews President Truman's grandson, Clifton Truman Daniel, on the subject of his grandfather's controversial legacy.

Watch the Russia Today 28 minute documentary 'Atomic Message' below for details.

It's so ridiculous, no intelligent and informed person would give it any serious consideration whatsoever. It insults the public's intelligence.

Here's a typical example of the ridiculousness of U.S. propaganda: On July 16th, the U.S. State Department issued a «Ukraine Travel Warning». It says:

The Department of State warns U.S. citizens to defer all travel to Crimea and the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, and recommends those U.S. citizens currently living in or visiting these regions to depart...

Russia-backed separatists continue to control areas in the Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts. Despite the signing of a ceasefire agreement by representatives of Ukraine, Russia and the OSCE, violent clashes between combined Russian separatist forces and Ukrainian forces continue in parts of the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, resulting in thousands of injuries and deaths. The ceasefire agreement established a de facto dividing line between Ukrainian government-controlled and separatist-held areas of Ukraine, with numerous checkpoints controlled by government and separatist forces. Individuals, including U.S. citizens, have been threatened, detained or kidnapped for hours or days after being stopped at separatist checkpoints...

The Department of State also warns U.S. citizens to defer all travel to the Crimean Peninsula, which is occupied by Russia. The Russian Federation is likely to take further actions in Crimea throughout the remainder of 2015 consistent with its attempted unlawful annexation and occupation of this part of Ukraine. The international community, including the United States and Ukraine, does not recognize this purported annexation. The Russian Federation maintains an extensive military presence in Crimea and along the border of eastern Ukraine...

Russian Historical Society has published a report of the Soviet ambassador to Japan on the aftermath of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki from the Archive of Foreign Policy of Russia in time for the 70-th anniversary of the attacks. The report was recorded a month after the attacks.

The following are the highlights of the report:

The train terminal and the city of Hiroshima were destroyed so much that there was no shelter to hide from the rain.

The city was a scorched plain with 15-20 cement buildings left standing.

Several dozen thousand people huddled in the dugouts on the outskirts of the city.

People who came to help the victims during the first 5-10 days died.

A month after the bombing grass began to grow and new leaves appeared on the burned trees.

Glass windows in the cement building of police department, which was left standing, blew out inward. The ceiling was bulging upwards.

A couple of weeks ago a group of influential German figures, the members of Willy Brandt Circle, have signed an Open Letter to SPD (German Social-Democrats) Bundestag delegates and cabinet ministers urging them to abandon the confrontational course in relations with Russia. The authors reviewed the degrading EU-Russia ties in the context of Ukraine's crisis which was the direct result of mutual misunderstandings and controversies. Hereby ORIENTAL REVIEW publishes an exclusive English translation of the Letter in full:

***
Europe is experiencing the worst crisis since the end of the East-West conflict. Not only dealing with Greece and the thousands of refugees heighten tenses across the continent, but also the ceasefire negotiation process in Ukraine remains fragile. As long as the conflict over the future of Ukraine is unsolved, the real danger of escalation is on the table.

A comprehensive peace treaty for Europe, envisioned by the Charter of Paris 1990, is still needed. Europe has no interest in aggravating old controversy between the United States and the USSR, bringing Russia to its knees. There is a difference between the European and the American interests: pan-European problems cannot be solved without Russia or even against Russia. Recent history shows: Russia and the peoples of the Soviet Union contributed more than anyone to the liberation of Europe from fascism and later to the unification of Germany. Therefore, Germany has a special responsibility to win Russia as a negotiating partner in the European peace order.

The Iraqi Security Forces (ISF), supported by U.S.-led Coalition, have continued to report advances north and south of Ramadi while simultaneously repelling ISIS's attacks east of the city. ISIS employs a mobile defense and deploys SVBIEDs against the ISF south and east of the city. These attacks are aimed to reverse the ISF's momentum. ISIS uses the same strategy of a mobile defense, which it tried in the east of Tikrit earlier this year.

While the Iraqi government and ISF remained focused on Anbar, attacks by ISIS on civilians continued in Diyala. Moreover, the tensions are currently running high in allareas recaptured from ISIS, where Sunni communities were divided in terms of whether they resisted or cooperated with ISIS. It indicates that the US-backed Iraq government's attepmts to gain support of the Sunni groups in recaptured territories are far from a success.