A nation is its institutions. If those institutions are overrun and no longer exist, so too does the nation itself cease to exist. Institutions range from the offices of government, to education, to agricultural and economic development, to the management of natural resources, national infrastructure including energy and transportation, and security. These are the things we think about when we think about the concept of a modern nation-state.

Contrary to popular belief, the invasion and occupation of any particular nation is not a mere exercise of military might. It also, by necessity, involves the destruction or overrunning and eventual replacement of all the above mentioned institutions.

The most extreme modern-day example of this was the US invasion of Iraq, where Iraqi institutions from top to bottom were either entirely destroyed and replaced, or taken over by the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA). The CPA was literally headed by an American, Paul Bremer, who, far from being a military man, was instead drawn from the US State Department and a background of chairing corporate-financier boards of directors.

The CPA assumed responsibility for all aspects of life in Iraq, from the privatization of Iraq's economy, to "reconstruction," to reorganizing the nation socially, politically, and economically.

The average onlooker will remember US President George Bush's "shock and awe," and may remember several of the more notorious battles of the invasion and subsequent occupation. What they rarely recall is the all encompassing dominion the US assumed over the nation through the CPA which was merely underpinned by US military forces. Yet despite the relatively dull nature of the CPA's work versus security operations carried out by American forces, the CPA is what essentially "occupied" and ultimately conquered Iraq.

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov is seeking to take advantage of the thaw in Russian-Turkish relations occasioned by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's formal expression of regret late last month for the death of a Russian pilot in connection with the shooting down in November by Turkish fighter aircraft of a Russian bomber that Ankara claimed had entered Turkish airspace from Syria.

In an Instagram post on July 5, Kadyrov demanded that Erdogan order the handover to the Russian authorities of 12 Chechens he identifies as "terrorists," some of whom allegedly played key roles in the wars of 1994-96 and 1999-2000 and the subsequent low-level insurgency. Kadyrov further lent credence to suspicions that another former Chechen militant, Akhmad Chatayev, masterminded the June 28 suicide bombings at Istanbul airport in which 45 people died and hundreds more were injured.

The men whose handover Kadyrov is demanding include Movladi Udugov, the ideologue and press spokesman first of the Chechen Republic Ichkeria (ChRI) and then of the Caucasus Emirate proclaimed in 2007 by then-ChRI President Doku Umarov; Umarov's brother Akhmad; and Shirvani Basayev, the brother of renegade field commander Shamil Basayev, who was killed in 2006. All three have lived openly in Turkey for many years.

FBI Director Comey's announcement that he doesn't think Hillary Clinton should be prosecuted for sharing government documents on her private, unsecured email server is very troubling ...

The FBI Re-Wrote 6 Criminal Laws to Let Clinton Off the Hook

Former FBI director Chris Swecker said Comey should have brought charges against Clinton:

He seemed to be building a case for that and he laid out what I thought were the elements under the gross negligence aspect of it, so I was very surprised at the end when he said that there was a recommendation of no prosecution and also given the fact-based nature of this and the statement that no reasonable prosecutor would entertain prosecution, I don't think that's the standard.

Andrew McCarthy - former assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, who led the 1995 terrorism prosecution against Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman and eleven others, obtaining convictions for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing - notes:

In essence, in order to give Mrs. Clinton a pass, the FBI rewrote the statute, inserting an intent element that Congress did not require. The added intent element, moreover, makes no sense: The point of having a statute that criminalizes gross negligence is to underscore that government officials have a special obligation to safeguard national defense secrets; when they fail to carry out that obligation due to gross negligence, they are guilty of serious wrongdoing. The lack of intent to harm our country is irrelevant. People never intend the bad things that happen due to gross negligence. I would point out, moreover, that there are other statutes that criminalize unlawfully removing and transmitting highly classified information with intent to harm the United States. Being not guilty (and, indeed, not even accused) of Offense B does not absolve a person of guilt on Offense A, which she has committed. It is a common tactic of defense lawyers in criminal trials to set up a straw-man for the jury: a crime the defendant has not committed. The idea is that by knocking down a crime the prosecution does not allege and cannot prove, the defense may confuse the jury into believing the defendant is not guilty of the crime charged. Judges generally do not allow such sleight-of-hand because innocence on an uncharged crime is irrelevant to the consideration of the crimes that actually have been charged. It seems to me that this is what the FBI has done today. It has told the public that because Mrs. Clinton did not have intent to harm the United States we should not prosecute her on a felony that does not require proof of intent to harm the United States.

Meanwhile, although there may have been profound harm to national security caused by her grossly negligent mishandling of classified information, we've decided she shouldn't be prosecuted for grossly negligent mishandling of classified information. I think highly of Jim Comey personally and professionally, but this makes no sense to me. Finally, I was especially unpersuaded by Director Comey's claim that no reasonable prosecutor would bring a case based on the evidence uncovered by the FBI. To my mind, a reasonable prosecutor would ask: Why did Congress criminalize the mishandling of classified information through gross negligence? The answer, obviously, is to prevent harm to national security. So then the reasonable prosecutor asks: Was the statute clearly violated, and if yes, is it likely that Mrs. Clinton's conduct caused harm to national security? If those two questions are answered in the affirmative, I believe many, if not most, reasonable prosecutors would feel obliged to bring the case.

Fifteen "secret warrants" are in force to enable British intelligence services to collect bulk data about online and phone traffic, the Interception of Communications Commissioner's Office (IOCCO) has revealed. The number of orders imposed on telephone and internet companies under Section 94 of the Telecommunications Act has been published for the first time by the surveillance watchdog. A further eight warrants are in place to provide for emergency services, civil contingencies and to protect security personnel. The directions were acquired by the government's electronic monitoring agency GCHQ and the national security service MI5.

The watchdog says all Section 94 directions are subject to secrecy restrictions, which severely limits what it is able to say about the directions and the actions taken as a result of them. They are related to traffic data and do not include the content of calls or emails.

Parliament does not have to be notified of Section 94 directions. Until last year they were not subject to formal oversight from any watchdog. Their operation will be recognized under the Investigatory Powers Bill, also known as the 'snoopers' charter,' which is currently under review in the House of Lords.

What bothers me is not that we are unable to find the solution to our problems, what bothers me more is the fact that neoliberals are so utterly unaware of the real structural issues that their attempts to sort out the tangential issues will further exacerbate the main issues. Religious extremism, militancy and terrorism are not the cause but the effect of poverty, backwardness and disenfranchisement.

Empirically speaking, if we take all the other aggravating factors out: like poverty, backwardness, illiteracy, social injustice, disenfranchisement, conflict, instability, deliberate training and arming of certain militant groups by the regional and global players, and more importantly grievances against the duplicitous Western foreign policy, I don't think that Islamic State, al-Qaeda and the likes would get the abundant supply of foot soldiers that they are getting now in the troubled regions of Middle East, North Africa and South Asia.

Moreover, I do concede that the rallying cry of "Jihad in the way of God" might have been one reason for the abundant supply of foot soldiers to the jihadists' cause, but on an emotional level it is the self-serving and hypocritical Western interventionist policy in the energy-rich Middle East that adds fuel to the fire. When Muslims all over the Islamic countries see that their brothers-in-faith are dying in Palestine, Syria, Iraq, Libya, Yemen and Afghanistan, on an emotional level they feel outraged and seek vengeance and justice.

A fake intelligence source fooled MI6 with false reports based on the action movie 'The Rock', which ended up being used to justify Britain's invasion of Iraq in 2003, the Chilcot report has revealed.

The Chilcot report into Britain's involvement in the invasion of Iraq is highly critical of the UK intelligence services, claiming it provided the government with "flawed" information, including about Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction (WMD) - the basis for going to war.

In September 2002, MI6 chief Sir Richard Dearlove reported the agency was on the edge of a "significant breakthrough" after finding a new source inside Iraq with "phenomenal access" to information about suspected WMDs.

The source claimed senior scientists in Iraq were working seven days a week on stepping up the production of chemical and biological weaponry, and the regime was concentrating its efforts on the production of anthrax and chlorine gas.

On July 7th, the parliament of Cyprus voted in its majority for a resolution recommending that the EU cancel its sanctions against Russia. The document also mentioned the necessity of restoring previous trade and political ties between countries of the European community and Russia. The demand to lift sanctions has long since started to become a trend in contemporary Europe. Quite recently, on July 5th, the regional parliament of Lombardy, the richest region in Italy, adopted a resolution recognizing Crimea as part of Russia and calling for the anti-Russian sanctions to be lifted.

The head of the committee on international affairs of the State Duma (the lower house of the Russian parliament), Alexey Pushkov, has said that the parliament of Cyprus resolution reflects the growing critical attitude in EU countries towards the sanctions against Russia. Pushkov predicts that other countries' parliaments will follow suit in voting similarly as Cyprus.

Demands to lift sanctions have so far been successful only in the regions of Italy (Veneto, Liguria, Lombardy, and Tuscany). The prospects of bringing a similar resolution to the Italian parliament and ensuring it a majority vote are questionable. But if such does happen, then a positive vote will lead to the resolution being implemented by the Italian government. We should recall how the sensational resolutions of the National Assembly and Senate of France to ease sanctions were of a recommendatory character.

The Government of National Accord-aligned forces from Misrata have been conducting a military operation in the ISIS Libyan stronghold of Sirte. Misrata Brigades have pushed ISIS militants from the city's nearby areas, however, they have faced complexities after entering the city.

The ISIS terrorist group set fortifications in the populated areas and mined the main roads, heading to the city center. Misrata forces can not use their advantage in military equipment and air power in urban areas while a lack of forward air controllers further reduces the effectiveness of air strikes. These factors have slowed down the advance, significantly.

Misrata sources say that some 5000 ISIS militants defend Sirte while experts believes that the ISIS terrorist group has only about 2500 fighters in the city. Many of them have no battle expirience. In the modern situation,it's clear that Sirte will be seized by Misrata Brigades earlier or later.

While Misrata Brigades hold the areas south to the ISIS-controlled Sirte, the Petroleum Facilities Guard (PCG), controlled by Ibrahim Jathran, control the areas at the eastern flank of the city. ISIS militants could retreat from the city to the south. In this case, they will pose a threat to oil infrastructure in the southern parts of Libya. It's hard to expect that Misrata Brigades or PCG will follow up the ISIS force. These groups are interested to show a control of Sirte amid the ongoing standoff for the power in the country.

A joint declaration of the NATO-EU leaders is a "historic decision" which will foster close cooperation between the Alliance and the bloc, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Friday.

Earlier in the day, Stoltenberg, European Council President Donald Tusk and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker signed the joint EU-NATO leaders' declaration ahead of the opening ceremony of the Alliance's Warsaw Summit.

"This historic decision will enable us to work even closer together and closer than ever before," Stoltenberg said at a press conference.

While all eyes have turned to Brexit a major political and economic crisis is mounting in another European nation, Italy, an article in Business Insider read.

"Italy is on the cusp of tearing Europe apart but the economic and political crisis brewing in the nation is largely going unnoticed," the article read.

According to the author, a quick look at the country's economic data, banking crisis and the upcoming constitutional referendum is enough to understand that "Italy is like a bomb waiting to explode."

"Italy is Europe's fourth-biggest economy and one of its weakest. Public debt stands at 135% of GDP; the adult employment rate is lower than in any EU country bar Greece. The economy has been moribund for years, suffocated by over-regulation and feeble productivity," according to The Economist.

Since Britain voted to leave the European Union concerns about both the Italian economy and the entire EU financial system have multiplied. Financial analysts warn that the turmoil in Italy could spread across Europe in a domino effect, an article on Express.co.uk read.

Moreover, in October, Italy will hold a referendum which would be of equal importance to the Brexit vote.