Oriental Review

CIA in Honduras: the Practice of Selective Terror

Nil NIKANDROV (Russia) President of Honduras Manuel Zelaya was displaced slightly over a year ago in a coup staged by the local oligarchy and the US intelligence community. The coup came as a punishment for Zelaya’s alignment with H. Chavez and other populist Latin American leaders. Since the time, the news flow from Honduras abounds [...]

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The United States Did the Iranian Opposition a Disservice

Evgeny VELIYEV (Russia) Sanctions have strengthened Ahmadinejad. Turkey intends to continue supplying Iran with petroleum products despite the threat of sanctions from the United States, according to an article in the Israeli newspaper Jerusalem Post referring to an announcement by Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz. “If the preference of the private sector is to sell [...]

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The Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant and the New Countdown

Eldar KASAYEV (Russia) The Bushehr nuclear power plant—the first one in Iran and the entire Middle East—achieved criticality on August 21. A ceremony celebrating the event was attended by major Russian and Iranian officials, including Rosatom chief Sergei Kiriyenko and Iranian Atomic Energy Organization head Ali Akbar Salehi. In fairness we should note that it [...]

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Russia and Pakistan After the Sochi Fourlateral Summit

Sergei KAMENEV (Russia) The August 18-19 Sochi summit attended by the leaders of Russia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan – the second fourlateral one after the July, 2009, Dushanbe meeting – showed that the format indeed helps to address the geopolitical problems of Central Asia and to strengthen peace and security in the region. The Sochi [...]

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Why Was Hitler’s Defeat a Defeat for the West?

Vladimir TIMAKOV(Russia) Conventional wisdom says that the traditional Western values are democracy, humanism, tolerance and human rights. Against that background, Hitler’s Third Reich looks like a strange mutation, an evolutionary deviation that could not have been predicted. Alexei Arbatov, a ideologue of pseudo-right Yabloko party, expresses surprise about that in a way that is rather [...]

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Iran: Why Did the CIA Get It Wrong?

Evgeny KIRSANOV (Russia) The leak of secret documents about the US war in Afghanistan gave rise to a flood of articles about the US intelligence community’s effectiveness against Islamic terrorism and about its Middle East operations overall. The Washington Post is preparing a series of articles on the subject, and Edward J. Epstein’s articles in [...]

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Episode 4. Who ignited the First World War? (II)

Nikolay STARIKOV (Russia) Part 1 And the Germans bought it. The icy distrust of Britain’s traditionally hostile policies was melted by the radiant charm of Sir Grey. Admiral Tirpitz noted «On July 9, those in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs maintained the sober view that if, contrary to expectations, peace in Europe could not be [...]

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Hiroshima 65 Years Later

Alexander Dobrovolsky (Russia) Sixty five years have passed since Aug 6, 1945 when the American B-29 flown by Air Force Colonel Paul Tibbets dropped the first atomic bomb on the Japanese city Hiroshima. According to various estimates, it exploded with an energy equivalent to 15-18 thousand pounds of TNT, about 2000 times greater than any [...]

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What Do the Wikileaked Documents Say?

Nikita MENDKOVICH (Russia) The recent leak of thousands of secret documents from US intelligence in Afghanistan has aroused intense interest throughout world, both in the fact of the leak itself and in the content of the published information. After studying the matter, I would like pass on my understanding of the situation. First of all, [...]

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Economic Justification For America’s Next War

Gulam Mitha (Canada) December 2007 was the start of the global recession which after 21 months would be termed as the Great Recession. The consensus of a recovery is in doubt in spite of the massive stimulus from USA, Europe, Japan and Canada. Bernanke on 21 July 2010 “warned” Congress that the economic outlook remains [...]

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Don’t Blame Pakistan For The Failure Of The War

Imran Khan (Pakistan) It is unfortunate that the US was unable to use the window of opportunity that it had in the immediate aftermath of the removal of the Taliban Government in late 2001. It could have brought in a truly broad-based Afghan government and invested in the development of the country. Instead, it continued [...]

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