The Pentagon is now hiding the safety records of its nuclear weapons, AP has reported, with experts quoting potential failures as the reason for such secrecy. The reports were previously publicly available.

The reason for the change as cited by the authorities is to avoid disclosing too much about US nuclear capabilities.

"We are comfortable with the secrecy... As long as nuclear weapons exist, the US will maintain a safe, secure and effective nuclear stockpile," Navy Capt Greg Hicks, spokesman for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said, as cited by AP.

Many experts, however, don't see this as a viable reason for keeping the nuclear program under wraps. Steven Aftergood, a government secrecy expert with the Federation of American Scientists, told AP

the situation "smells bad" and the authorities are "acting like they have something to hide, and it's not national security secrets."

"I think the new policy fails to distinguish between protecting valid secrets and shielding incompetence. Clearly, nuclear weapons technology secrets should be protected. But negligence or misconduct in handling nuclear weapons should not be insulated from public accountability," Aftergood added.

The Dutch Foreign Ministry has reacted angrily to the news that Israeli officials seized an array of solar panels that were donated by the Dutch government to a small village in Israel-occupied West Bank territories.

Thought to be a hybrid solar/diesel power generating system, the equipment seizure prompted the Netherlands to lodge a protest with Israel and demand that the equipment — said to be part of a larger humanitarian donation worth some 500,000 euros — be returned, according to the Middle East Monitor. The equipment, installed last year, was seized by Israeli forces on Wednesday in a small isolated village east of Bethlehem, according to Haaretz.

Using the pretext that the power generating equipment was constructed without a specific permit, Israeli officials denied that they had acted wrongly. Permits required by Jerusalem to install power generating equipment in what is known as Area C, the region of the West Bank fully controlled by the Israeli military after the land was seized in the 1967 Six-Day War, are known to be nearly impossible to obtain, according to Haaretz.

Representatives of the Dutch Foreign Ministry are "currently assessing what next steps can be taken," according to a ministry statement.

The Haaretz report noted, however, that the carefully worded Dutch statement hides a deepening anger at Israel by long-time ally the Netherlands, as humanitarian projects in Israeli-occupied territories are regulated to the point of obsolescence, denied permits, or simply removed following their installation.

Wednesday's power equipment seizure occurred near an illegal Israeli settlement that is home to Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, cited by Haaretz.

Israel has filed a lawsuit against the widow and children of a Palestinian man, who killed four IDF soldiers in a truck-ramming attack, demanding compensation of 2 million shekels ($572,000) for each victim, in what authorities say will be a permanent new anti-terrorism tactic.

Proceedings were opened by The District Prosecutor's Office in Jerusalem, in conjunction with the Defense Ministry, against the estate of Fadi Al-Qanbar, who was shot dead after his January attack, in which thirteen people were also injured.

"This lawsuit, which stems from a terrorist incident in which soldiers were murdered, is designed to recover the expenses incurred in events of this kind to the state's coffers, as well as sending a clear message that the state will also settle accounts on a civil level with the perpetrators of hostile acts," read a statement from the District Prosecutor's office, as cited by Haaretz.

The widow of Al-Qanbar, who was an Israeli citizen, and his four children, aged between 1 and 8, are the defendants.

"In light of the fact that the terrorist caused the damage, his legal heirs are the ones who need to bear it and indemnify the state for it," claims the lawsuit.

The overall demanded sum of $2.3 million includes burial expenses, compensation to the families for the dead soldiers' loss of earnings and payback for "the pain and suffering reflected in the cruelty of the acts, and the major suffering of each of those murdered."

Israel says it is leaning on existing 1950 and 1959 military casualty and disability legislation in its case. The prosecutors told Haaretz that further similar lawsuits are in the pipeline.

Just recently, Jeff Davis a Pentagon spokesman has told Reuters that the US is evaluating the option of sending another 4,000 servicemen to Afghanistan..

At the same time, the former Vice Chief of Staff of the United States Army and a retired four-star general Jack Keane would describe the 16-year-long US military campaign in Afghanistan as "a shame," noting that an additional force of another four thousand men will not change the situation in the country. The retired four-star is convinced there's no sense in doing anything that won't tip the scales in Washington's favor, so the Pentagon must send at least 10-20 thousand men if he wants to address the situation, noted the former Vice Chief of Staff.

One can recall that the US military aggression began on October 7, 2001, back then it was described a response to the terrorist attacks of 9/11. At the peak of the US military campaign in Afghanistan, the number of US troops deployed in the country was reaching 100 thousand people, this is a combined armed force of 20 brigades with all weapons and equipment - that's a huge force.

As Independence Day comes around again we should spend a few moments between barbecue and fireworks to think about the meaning of independence. The colonists who rebelled against the British Crown were, among other things, unhappy about taxation. Yet, as economist Gary North points out, the total burden of British imperial taxation was about one-to-two percent of national income.

Some 241 years later, Washington claims more of our money as its own than King George could have ever imagined. What do we get in this bargain? We get a federal government larger and more oppressive than before 1776, a government that increasingly views us as the enemy.

While publicly polarizing average-joe America at every opportunity, it appears the 'elites' are having a blast 'together' behind the scenes...
As Politico reports...

OUT AND ABOUT IN THE HAMPTONS -- Lally Weymouth held her annual summer party last night at her house in Southampton.

There was a long gold carpet entrance from where the parking was to a big tent next to her house. She served champagne, rare filet, fried chicken, cornbread, a big chocolate cake, ice cream and cookies decorated as American flags. Brother Don Graham did a big tribute to toast Lally (whose birthday is tomorrow) and shouted out Steven Spielberg's upcoming film about how Ben Bradlee and Katharine Graham challenged the government for the right to publish the Pentagon Papers in 1971 (Tom Hanks is playing Bradlee and Meryl Streep is playing Graham). Don made a big deal that Spielberg was there and jokingly conceived a Spielberg movie about Lally and described the cast (some actors and some in the room).

SPOTTED: Jared and Ivanka chatting with Joel Klein and Alan Patricof, Kellyanne Conway on the dance floor, Boyden Gray, Chris Ruddy, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and wife Iris, Katharine Weymouth, Mary Jordan, Richard Cohen, Margaret Carlson, Gillian Tett, Steven Spielberg chatting with Steve Clemons and Robert Hormats, Carl Icahn, Tom Lee (famous for doing a leveraged buyout of Snapple and now lives in Princess Radziwill's house), David Koch, John Paulson, Dina Powell, Richard Edelman, George Soros and his wife Tamiko Bolton, former Florida Gov. and Sen. Bob Graham (Lally's uncle), her cousin Gwen Graham (who is running for Florida governor), Maria Bartiromo, Ray Kelly, Bill Bratton, Jeff Rosen, William Drozdiak, Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.).

Donald Trump's constituency and his militaristic posturing all suggest he may want to undertake some military action against Pyongyang, which is going to make matters a lot worse, says Sreeram Chaulia from the Jindal School of International Affairs.

North Korea claims it had tested its first intercontinental ballistic missile on Tuesday morning, according to reports it fell into the Sea of Japan, after flying around 535 kilometers.

The Russian Defense Ministry, however, revised that report, stating that North Korea had launched an intermediate range missile, which "did not pose a threat to the Russian Federation."

Japan filed a protest, saying the launch breaches UN resolutions.

Moscow and Beijing have agreed that North Korea should freeze its nuclear and missile programs, while the US and South Korea should abstain from holding war games in the region, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.

"We've agreed to promote our joint initiative, based on Russian step-by-step Korean settlement plan and Chinese ideas to simultaneously freeze North Korean nuclear and missile activities, and US and South Korean joint military drills," Putin said at a press conference after meeting with China's leader, Xi Jinping, in Moscow.

"We believe that the outer world is turbulent, local conflicts are emerging constantly, such issues as the Korean peninsula problem, Syrian question, remain very complex," Xi Jinping said.

As my colleague Adam Garrie has rightly written, the meetings yesterday and today in Moscow between Presidents Xi Jinping of China and Vladimir Putin of Russia are far more important than any of the other bilateral meetings which will be taking place this week during the G20 summit in Hamburg.

Unfortunately that includes the ill-starred meeting between President Putin and President Trump.

This is the 21st meeting between Presidents Xi and Putin since President Xi became China's leader when he was elected General Secretary of China's Communist Party in November 2012 and became China's President in March 2013.

I do not think that there has ever in history been such intense interaction between two leaders of two Great Powers. Moreover we see only the tip of the iceberg. As I have discussed previously, the Kremlin website never publishes details of President Putin's telephone conversations with President Xi, though it is a certainty that they happen regularly. Given the intensity of their other interactions I would not be surprised if they speak at least once a month. Probably there is a regular schedule for their calls.

North Korea successfully launched its first intercontinental ballistic missile on Tuesday morning, the country's state television reported. The Hwasong-14 ICBM flew some 933 kilometers in 39 minutes reaching an altitude of 2,802 kilometers.

The ICBM is capable of reaching any target in the world, North Korean state TV said, as cited by Reuters. The test was reportedly carried out under the supervision of North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Un.


"The test launch was conducted at the sharpest angle possible and did not have any negative effect on neighboring countries,"North Korean state media said, as cited by Reuters.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said earlier that Pyongyang had conducted another ballistic missile test on Tuesday morning. The projectile, described by the South as an "unidentified ballistic missile,"was launched towards the Sea of Japan.