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Even before the F.B.I. conducted 550 interviews of officials and seized the phone records of Associated Press reporters in a leak investigation connected to a 2012 article about a Yemen bomb plot, agents had sought the same reporters’ sources for two other articles about terrorism. In a separate case last year, F.B.I. agents asked the White House, the Defense Department and intelligence agencies for phone and e-mail logs showing exchanges with a New York Times reporter writing about computer attacks on Iran. Agents grilled officials about their contacts with him, two people familiar with the investigation said. And agents tracing...

An obscure November 2012 Wikileaks email dump points to former White House counterterrorism adviser and now-CIA chief John Brennan as the person behind the “witch hunt” of journalists who reported unflattering Obama administration leaks. A little over a week after President Barack Obama’s reelection, Wikileaks released an email dump of global intelligence files from the private intelligence company Stratfor. One particular email, dated September 21, 2010 discussed President Obama’s “Leak Investigations.”

CIA director John Brennan arrived in Israel Thursday evening and held consultations on the situation in Syria, amid fears that Israel could get drawn into the fighting there. Upon landing in the country, Brennan, whose visit was not announced ahead of time, went directly to the army’s headquarters in Tel Aviv for a meeting with Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, Channel 10 reported. During the meeting, the two shared intelligence assessments, and Ya’alon reiterated Israel’s refusal to let advanced weapons make their way from Syria to Hezbollah, vowing to continue carrying out strikes against arms shipments. According to Israel Radio, the...

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, told President Obama Thursday he’d like to interview seven current and former administration officials who may know something about a spate of national security leaks. The request follows suggestions by lawmakers a day earlier that they’re interested in potentially pursuing a congressional investigation into the leaks, on top of the Department of Justice-led probe. “Concern about these leaks knows no party line. When national security secrets leak and become public knowledge, our people and our national interests are jeopardized. And when our enemies know our secrets, American lives are threatened,” Smith said in...

Earlier today the President heard from key national security principals on our preparedness and security posture on the eve of the eleventh anniversary of September 11th. Over the past month, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism John Brennan has convened numerous meetings to review security measures in place. During the briefing today, the President and the Principals discussed specific measures we are taking in the Homeland to prevent 9/11 related attacks as well as the steps taken to protect U.S. persons and facilities abroad, as well as force protection. The President reiterated that Departments and agencies must...

New evidence reveals the Obama administration’s version of the events that took place in Benghazi on September 11, 2012 was based on a tissue of lies. The Weekly Standard’s Steven Hayes has obtained a timeline and a series of emails revealing the self-serving efforts made by administration officials, who heavily edited CIA talking points about the attack that cost four Americans, including ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens, their lives. Also revealed is who made the changes and why they made them. The revelations are part of a report published by the five Republican Committee chairmen that has been largely dismissed...

Back in March 2008, the State Department launched an investigation of improper computer access to the passport records of Barack Hussein Obama, and days later those of Hillary Clinton and John McCain. The investigation centered on one employee: a contract worker for a company that was headed by John O. Brennan, a key Obama campaign adviser who later became assistant to the president and deputy national security adviser for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism. Then, a month later, the key witness in this case was murdered. Leiutenant (sic) Quarles Harris, Jr., 24, was shot in the head in his car, in...

Several posts on what is believed to be the Twitter profile of accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev indicate that that the 19-year-old Chechnyan immigrant was a supporter of Barack Obama in the 2012 presidential election.

We can drop this debate over his birth certificate because we have something even more valuable. We have his mother’s passport files. Snip~ When Obama was young, children traveled as an addition to their parents’ passports. Passport regulations required a photo of parent and child together, as well as a certified copy of a hospital birth certificate. State-issued IDs came much later. If Obama was born in the United States, as everybody says, then there should be a photo of little Barack Obama with his mother, as well as a certified copy of his Hawaiian birth certificate in her file....

The U.S. drone war remains cloaked in secrecy, and as a result, questions swirl around it. Who exactly can be targeted? When can a U.S. citizen be killed? Another, perhaps less frequently asked question: What happens when innocent civilians are killed in drone strikes? In February, during his confirmation process, CIA director John Brennan offered an unusually straightforward explanation: “Where possible, we also work with local governments to gather facts, and, if appropriate, provide condolence payments to families of those killed.” There’s little documentation of where and how such payments are being made. The government has released almost no information...

Nek Muhammad knew he was being followed. On a hot day in June 2004, the Pashtun tribesman was lounging inside a mud compound in South Waziristan, speaking by satellite phone to one of the many reporters who regularly interviewed him on how he had fought and humbled Pakistan’s army in the country’s western mountains. He asked one of his followers about the strange, metallic bird hovering above him. Less than 24 hours later, a missile tore through the compound, severing Muhammad’s left leg and killing him and several others, including two boys, ages 10 and 16. A Pakistani military spokesman...

Editor's Note: This column was coauthored by Bob Morrison. President Obama's choice to be Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) was approved by the Senate on a vote of 63-34, with thirteen Republicans voting to confirm him. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) created quite a stir with his 13-hour filibuster against the Brennan nomination. Not until he received written assurances from Attorney General Eric Holder that U.S. citizens would not be targeted for killing by drones on U.S. soil would the doughty Kentuckian stand down. Good for him. John Brennan then proceeded to take the Oath of Office, as administered by Vice...

Vice President Joe Biden swears in CIA Director John Brennan at the White House, March 8, 2013. This is probably not the symbolism the White House wanted. Hours after CIA Director John Brennan took the oath of office—behind closed doors, far away from the press, perhaps befitting his status as America's top spy—the White House took pains to emphasize the symbolism of the ceremony.

Oh, dear. This is probably not the symbolism the White House wanted. Hours after CIA Director John Brennan took the oath of office—behind closed doors, far away from the press, perhaps befitting his status as America's top spy—the White House took pains to emphasize the symbolism of the ceremony. “There's one piece of this that I wanted to note for you,” spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters at their daily briefing. “Director Brennan was sworn in with his hand on an original draft of the Constitution that had George Washington's personal handwriting and annotations on it, dating from 1787.” Earnest said...

John Brennan was sworn in today at the White House. He was confirmed as the new CIA director yesterday. ... He does not appear to have placed his hand on a Bible, a Torah, a Koran, or other sacred religious text as he said the oath.

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Rand Paul, ladies and gentlemen, is actually doing a filibuster as we speak. He's doing a talking filibuster. He's actually on the floor of the Senate trying to shut it down. This is over the nomination of John Brennan to be the next CIA director. What Rand Paul is upset about is the domestic drone program that everybody in the regime says is perfectly fine. Obama and Eric Holder say, "Yeah, we're perfectly content with a program of having drones in the air domestically." Eric Holder, the attorney general, refused to say that Americans cannot be killed...

On Wednesday afternoon, Christopher Anders, Senior Legislative Council at the American Civil Liberties Union in Washington D.C., spoke with Breitbart News exclusively about Senator Rand Paul’s filibuster of the John Brennan nomination to CIA director over the administration’s failures to answer questions about domestic use of drones. Anders backed Paul to the hilt, and was highly critical of the Obama administration.

YESSen. Paul filibuster: 8 hours, 20 minutes

Senator Rand Paul (R., Ky.) took to the Senate floor today to filibuster President Obama’s nominee for CIA director, John Brennan, as well as to challenge the administration’s policy on drones. Paul began speaking at approximately 11:47 this morning, and we will keep updating this post with highlights from the senator and others.

On the eve of Tuesday afternoon’s vote by the Senate Intelligence Committee on the confirmation of John O. Brennan as director of the Central Intelligence Agency, the White House agreed to provide more information both on the legal basis for targeted killings and on the terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans last September. With a committee vote set for a closed session beginning at 2:30 p.m., senators will get access to all Justice Department legal opinions on the targeted killing of Americans, the committee’s Democratic chairwoman, Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, said in a statement. Two such...

John Guandolo : President, Guandolo Associates Robert Spencer Jihad Watch

Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee finally received yesterday what they had demanded for months — and it may have turned into an anti-climax. The White House allowed access to internal e-mails of the Obama administration regarding the preparation of talking points for Susan Rice after the attack on our Benghazi consulate, which some suspected would show that the Obama administration had changed the information to downplay terrorism as the basis of the attack. According to Chad Pergram at Fox, though, the e-mails don’t show anything like that (via Kevin Glass): Members of the Senate Intelligence Committee today received a...

It could have been easy. January 22 was not a good day for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but it could have been far worse. The 2013 parliamentary elections meant that for the first time in his long political career, he would be leading the largest in the Knesset. Though his joint Likud-Beitenu list won only 31 seats — around 23% of the vote — Israel’s center-left was fractured and it always appeared certain that Bibi would keep his job. After all, despite his party’s underwhelming performance, there appeared to be two options for coalitions he could easily form. The...

The White House is preparing to cede more ground to Senate Republican foes and hand over documents related to the Benghazi attacks to try to secure the confirmation of John Brennan to run the CIA, POLITICO has confirmed. After releasing official timelines, an investigation and sending Cabinet officials up to Capitol Hill for hearings, now the Obama administration has agreed to surrender email messages between top national security officials that discuss how to describe the Sept. 11 attack, a Senate aide confirmed Friday evening.

The Obama administration is refusing to hand over full details of its targeted killing programme in order to ensure John Brennan takes up his post as head of the CIA, according to a report. The White House is said to be considering handing over details of the Benghazi scandal to Republicans rather than give up the secrets of its drone strikes. The move is infuriating Democrats who have long called for full disclosure of classified legal memos in relation to targeted killings. nstead President Obama seems content to risk their wrath to win more support for Mr Brennan.

Yesterday Sean Hannity interviewed on his radio show Jack Murphy and Brandon Webb for their new book Benghazi: The Definitive Report. I’ve clipped a portion of their interview below which describes something very different than what we’ve ever heard about what led to the attack on the ‘consulate’ and the deaths of Ambassador Chris Stevens, Sean Smith, Glen Doherty and Tyrone S. Woods. In short there were two operations going on in Benghazi, neither of which Stevens nor the CIA [Petraeus] were made aware, that made the situation on the ground in Benghazi far more dangerous than they even knew....

Senator Rubio, It is my understanding the GOP plans to fold next week and allow Hussein to appoint Hagel as SecDef. I hope I am wrong, and if I am, please disregard. I watched the stumbling fool give non-answers to the Senate Armed Services Committee last week. I know the GOP months ago asked for clarification to his possible contacts with radical Muslim groups. His recorded remarks over the years drip with anti-Semitism. With Hagel at Defense, Brennan at CIA, our military will be eviscerated, Israel will be destroyed and Obama's Muslim Brotherhood allies will reign supreme from Morocco to...

As the details about the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, continue to emerge, a new ebook claims to unveil what it says are the “both uncomfortable and unsatisfying” facts surrounding the events leading up to, during and after the attack. Some have already said the details included in ”Benghazi: The Definitive Report,” which was released Tuesday by authors Jack Murphy, a former Army Ranger and member of the 5th Special Forces Group, and Brandon Webb, a former Navy SEAL, are “shocking but hard to prove.” Webb is the editor-in-chief of SOFREP.com (the Special Operations...

Obama with his “we can’t wait for Congress to act” ... there is one man who wields more power than Obama: CIA appointee John Brennan. ... recently discovered that Brennan, running something akin to a fiefdom with his drone assassination program, has the power to decide who lives and who dies and doesn’t have to provide evidence to any entity that the “target” presents any threat to America—even if they are an American—even if the American is living in the United States ... the United States, leading up to the 2011 Libyan civil war had been flooding Libya with literally...

Folks, don’t look now but the pieces of the Benghazi puzzle are starting to come together. Check out this video from Tom Trento – the same guy who interviewed John Guandolo last week about John Brennan’s alleged conversion to Islam. Before scoffing at the conversion, ask yourself if Brennan HAD converted to Islam, would he have had an interest in shipping weapons from Libya, to Turkey, then on to Syria to help the Brotherhood fight Bashar al-Assad? The answer to that question is an emphatic yes. “The threat of Islam is predicted all over the Bible, read and study Walid...

Sen. Rand Paul told USA Today Wednesday that he is prepared to put a "hold" on John Brennan's nomination to head the CIA and to filibuster it if necessary until the administration responds to his questions about the use of drones in the United States. The Kentucky Republican said he would do "whatever it takes" to block Brennan's confirmation until he directly answers whether American citizens legally can be killed by drone strikes within U.S. borders. ...

(CNSNews.com) - Sen. Richard Burr, a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said that the CIA has “flatly refused” to give some Benghazi-related documents to the committee, which is conducting an investigation of the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attacks on the State Department and CIA personnel and facilities in Benghazi, Libya. Sen. Burr made the assertion last week at the confirmation hearing for John Brennan, whom President Barack Obama has nominated to be director of the CIA. Brennan currently serves as the president's counterterrorism adviser. “Mr. Brennan, as you know, the committee's conducting a thorough inquiry into the...

Amid the Administration’s rush to: apologize for and disregard America’s founding principles; financially and militarily support America’s enemies like Hamas and other Muslim Brotherhood entities (read “Egypt”); embrace noxious regimes like Iran; handle the assassination of the U.S. Ambassador in Benghazi in Carteresque fashion; shrink America’s nuclear capabilities as well as the fighting forces of the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps; and host terrorists in the White House while simultaneously allowing known Hamas/Muslim Brotherhood operatives to serve inside DHS, it should be no surprise to readers that President Obama has nominated a John Brennan to be the next Director of...

Watching the members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) question John Brennan — President Obama’s nominee for CIA director — drove home the utter unwillingness of so many elected and appointed senior federal officials to defend the United States. For the most part, each senator used his/her allotted time to pose irrelevant questions to man whose answers in many cases were deceptive and evasive, when they were not outright lies. One senator hit a bull’s eye when he called Brennan to task for publicly divulging a human operation that had penetrated Al-Qaeda-on-the-Arabian Peninsula but then did not follow...

Lindsey Graham threatened to block the confirmations of both Chuck Hagel and John Brennan yesterday on Face the Nation, after last week's hearings on the Benghazi attack forced unanswered questions to the surface --- and the White House provided no answers. Graham told Bob Schieffer that he would place a hold on both candidates and promised "No confirmation without information," which would force Harry Reid to attempt a floor-vote override:CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE REST Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Sunday threatened to hold President ObamaÂ’s nominees to head the CIA and Defense department unless the administration provides him with...

Just when you thought our 'likable' President couldn't get any more insulting to those who actually care about this country and our traditional alliances... And it's a lot worse than you think, more than Obama's blatantly giving normal Americans the finger by nominating Iranophiles and closeted Islamists to head the Defense Department and CIA (!) That's right, we're not talking about the EPA here, this is the very heart of the American security apparatus. Alas, the larger problem for me springs from my own greatest fear of Obama in 2008... that he wouldn't stop Iran from going nuclear. I honestly never...

Obama gave his chief counterterrorism advisor, John Brennan, who is now the nominee to be the next leader of the CIA, a blank check. Brennan could do just about whatever he needed to do in North Africa and the Mideast, contend Murphy and Webb. Brennan chose to conduct a dangerous classified war without looping in Stevens, who paid with his life for his ignorance, according to the book. The Joint Special Operations Command, which Brennan controls, is a collection of special forces outside of the regular military command originally formed as a hostage-rescue team. But in the middle of last...

(Deputy National Security Advisor) John Brennan also ran a highly compartmentalized program out of the White House in regard to weapons transfers, and Stevens would not have been trusted with that type of information. Stevens likely helped consolidate as many weapons as possible after the war to safeguard them, at which point Brennan exported them overseas to start another conflict. Elite counter-terrorist operators from America’s Delta Force were deployed to Libya as 'analysts,' which allowed President Obama to declare that America did not have any boots on the ground but was simply providing air support for the rebels. Behind closed...

Former FBI expert claims John Brennan converted to Islam One of the FBI’s former top experts on Islam has announced that President Obama’s pick to head the Central Intelligence Agency, John Brennan, converted to Islam years ago in Saudi Arabia. As WND has reported, former FBI Islam expert John Guandolo has long warned that the federal government is being infiltrated by members of the radical Muslim Brotherhood. But Guandolo now warns that by appointing Brennan to CIA director, Obama has not only chosen a man “naïve” to these infiltrations, but also picked a candidate who is himself a Muslim. “Mr....

Brandon Webb, a former Navy SEAL, and Jack Murphy, a former Green Beret, reveal the new claims in their book EXCLUSIVE: David Petraeus was brought down after betrayal by vengeful CIA agents and his own bodyguards who made sure his affair was exposed, claims new book 'Benghazi: The Definitive Report' Petraeus was humiliated after a 'palace coup' by high-level intelligence officers who did not like the way he was running the CIA, authors say The book also claims that Petraeus and Ambassador Chris Stevens were caught off guard by Benghazi consulate attack because they weren't briefed about on-going U.S. military...

Unfortunately, President Obama's nominee to head the CIA, Deputy National Security Adviser John Brennan, has shown a tendency to fall for the bait from radical Islamists. Globally, he repeatedly expressed a hope that "moderates" within Iran and its terror proxy Hezbollah would steer their respective constituencies away from terrorism. Domestically, he claims that radical Islam does not pose its own, unique threat to American security. He has helped strip language about "radical Islam" and similar terms from government vernacular, choosing instead to refer to "violent extremism."

On Tom Trento’s radio show today, former FBI agent, John Guandolo, who wrote the first Muslim Brotherhood training manual for the FBI, outs John Brennan, Obama’s nominee for CIA Director, as having converted to Islam while working in Saudi Arabia. (Embedded video: Fast forward to 11 minute mark and watch til the 52 min mark)

Day Two. Asking about targeted killings.

Washington, DC Thursday, February 7, 2013 The President's choice to be the new CIA Director, John Brennan, goes before the Senate Intelligence Committee Thursday for his confirmation hearing. If approved, Brennan will replace Acting Director Michael Morell. Several Committee members are vowing to ask Brennan “tough questions,” including questions on the use of American drones overseas and the Obama administration’s drone strike program. He is also expected to field inquiries about the agency's budget. Brennan, currently Obama’s counterterrorism adviser, is a 25-year veteran of the CIA and served both at the agency's headquarters and overseas, including a tour as station...

BREAKING: Obama to hand over drone documents ahead of Hagel hearing Posted by CNN White House Producer Lesa Jansen Washington (CNN) - Amid new controversy over his administration's targeted killing of American citizens, President Barack Obama has yielded to demands from Congress to turn over to them classified Justice Department legal advice justifying the policy. The president's move comes on the eve of confirmation hearings Thursday for his CIA director-nominee John Brennan, and complaints from senators - including several Democrats - about secrecy surrounding the drone policy.

Mr. Brennan, a former C.I.A. station chief in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, has taken a particular interest in Yemen, sounding early alarms within the administration about the threat developing there, working closely with neighboring Saudi Arabia to gain approval for a secret C.I.A. drone base there that is used for American strikes, and making the impoverished desert nation a test case for American counterterrorism strategy. The first strike in Yemen ordered by the Obama administration, in December 2009, was by all accounts a disaster. American cruise missiles carrying cluster munitions killed dozens of civilians, including many women and children. Another strike,...

To cut to the chase, a country that was serious about its national security would never put John Brennan in charge of its premier intelligence service. Of course, it is by no means clear that the United States is any longer a serious country in this regard. Serious countries do not fund, arm and “partner with” hostile regimes. They do not recruit enemy sympathizers to fill key governmental policy positions. They do not erect barriers impeding their intelligence services from understanding an enemy’s threat doctrine – in conscious indifference to Sun Tzu’s maxim that defending oneself requires knowing one’s enemies....

It’s no surprise that among the first questions White House Press Secretary Jay Carney received at today’s press briefing was one that concerned a recently-leaked Justice Department memo that offered justification for killing U.S. citizens abroad in predator drone attacks. Carney began by clarifying that the memo in question was an “unclassified document” prepared for members of Congress. “The president takes his responsibilities very seriously,” Carney said. “And first and foremost that’s his responsibility to protect the United States.” He continued by saying that the president is dedicated to

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The government has authorized the killing of American citizens as part of its controversial drone campaign against al Qaeda even without intelligence that such Americans are actively plotting to attack a U.S. target, according to a Justice Department memo. The unclassified memo, first obtained by NBC News, argues that drone strikes are justified under American law if a targeted U.S. citizen had "recently" been involved in "activities" posing a possible threat and provided that there is no evidence suggesting the individual "renounced or abandoned" such activities. The document was disclosed as a bipartisan group of U.S. senators...

After four years of pretending there is no jihad against the free world, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton blurted out the truth during her testimony on the Benghazi jihad massacre Wednesday: “We now face a spreading jihadist threat,” she said, adding: “We have to recognize this is a global movement.” We do? Yet the Obama administration has for years steadfastly and repeatedly denied both that there was a jihadist threat at all and that it was a global movement. So far has the Obama administration been from acknowledging that there was a jihad threat that less than two months into...