Free Republic

The Chinese military's unsafe intercepts of U.S. Air Force aircraft and Navy vessels have occurred "more frequently than we'd like," White House National Security Council coordinator John Kirby said. There have been two unsafe intercepts in the last couple of weeks, according to U.S. defense officials. A Chinese military aircraft flew in front of a U.S. Air Force RC-135 over the South China Sea, causing the U.S. aircraft to jostle as it flew through its wake turbulence. U.S. Indo-Pacific Command described it as “an unnecessarily aggressive maneuver,” while more recently, a Chinese navy vessel crossed in front of the USS...

Ooooooh brother. Massive surveillance…that’s what’s been found. “MASSIVE” is the way it was sent to me. — Adam Housley (@adamhousley) May 12, 2020 Former Fox News reporter Adam Housley who originally broke the unmasking story in 2017… There will be multiple releases I’m told and as I reported and it’s now been confirmed…they started gathering intel on Flynn in 2014. — Adam Housley (@adamhousley) May 12, 2020

President Donald Trump has said he knows something of the North Korean leader’s condition – but he won’t disclose it. NORTH KOREA THIS WEEK provided halting signs that leader Kim Jong Un remains in power and control as sensational reports circulated unabated across the world claiming he is grievously ill or perhaps even dead. Though their significance is disputed, a series of dispatches were reportedly issued in Kim's name to Syria, Cuba and South Africa as well as a letter of praise for local workers. But, as is historically the case when issues arise about its leader's fitness, signals from...

The report of the I.G.'s findings on the use of FISA in the FBI Crossfire Hurricane investigation is an outrage. As a 22 year FBI Agent, I have personally conducted multiple investigations using both Title III "wiretaps" and FISA authorized intercepts. From this perspective, I can only see two possible interpretations of the actions of the FBI and DOJ. Either scenario should anger and frighten every fair minded citizen who takes the time to read the report and understand its implications. . . snip If the heinous abuses documented in the I.G.s report result in a weakening or loss of...

The Greek air force has intercepted a Turkish military drone that violated Greece’s national airspace in the southeastern Aegean, Kathimerini has learned. The Turkish Anka unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV ANKA) twice entered Greek airspace above the Dodecanese island of Rhodes, at an altitude of 19,000-20,000 feet on Thursday. The drone was intercepted by Greek F-16 fighter jets that took off from Kasteli air base on Crete. On Thursday, Greek and Turkish fighter jets engaged in two dogfights over the Aegean, after the Turkish jets violated Greek airspace 16 times in the northeast, central and southeastern Aegean.

Saboteurs in the U.S. intelligence community posing as patriots have been working hard to drive President Donald Trump from the White House. Former National Security Agency intelligence analyst and former War College professor John R. Schindler bragged on Twitter last week about the spy-led plot his friends are conducting against the president. “Now we go nuclear,” he tweeted. “IC [intelligence community] war [is] going to new levels. Just got an [email from] senior IC friend, it began: ‘He will die in jail.'” “US intelligence is not the problem here,” Schindler added. “The President’s collusion with Russian intelligence is. Many details,...

The current scandal surrounding President Donald Trump’s tweeted accusations that his predecessor wiretapped Trump Tower is proof of what might be called the Salena Zito rule. Zito, of course, wrote the essay in the Atlantic how Trump’s supporters took him “seriously, but not literally,” whereas the press took him “literally, but not seriously.” This is a good way to understand the current state of the investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 election and Trump’s wild accusations against Barack Obama. Barring an unexpected turn of events, FBI director James Comey will confirm on Monday before the House Intelligence Committee that...

In its final days, the Obama administration has expanded the power of the National Security Agency to share globally intercepted personal communications with the government’s 16 other intelligence agencies before applying privacy protections. The new rules significantly relax longstanding limits on what the N.S.A. may do with the information gathered by its most powerful surveillance operations, which are largely unregulated by American wiretapping laws. These include collecting satellite transmissions, phone calls and emails that cross network switches abroad, and messages between people abroad that cross domestic network switches. The change means that far more officials will be searching through...

Just days before leaving office Loretta Lynch secretly signed an order to allow any branch of government, including local law enforcement, access to the NSA’s data mine on the American people. She created a mechanism by which the Fourth Amendment can be circumvented by law enforcement agencies of any type and description, foreign and domestic, in the area of digital information.

An IDF spokesman said Monday morning that after careful deliberation and exhaustive diplomatic efforts, Israeli security forces acted to prevent the flotilla Marianne av Göteborg from breaching the the shores of Gaza, violating Israel's naval blockade of the coastal enclave. According to the IDF, Israeli security forces boarded the vessel without incident after passengers made it clear after numerous attempts that they would not acquiesce to the Army's demands and were subsequently force to proceed towards the port of Ashdod. The vessel is currently being escorted to Ashdod Port and is expected to arrive within 12-24 hours. Participants are protesting...

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — After losing a seven-year legal battle, James Risen, a reporter for The New York Times, reluctantly took the witness stand in federal court here on Monday, but refused to answer any questions that could help the Justice Department identify his confidential sources. Mr. Risen said he would not say anything to help prosecutors bolster their case against Jeffrey A. Sterling, a former C.I.A. officer who is set to go on trial soon on charges of providing classified information to Mr. Risen for his 2006 book, “State of War.” The Justice Department first subpoenaed Mr. Risen to testify...

Finally, some good may come from the Valerie Plame kerfuffle -- if President Bush and Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez have the stones to do what's right. A grave crime was exposed Dec. 16th when New York Times reporters James Risen and Eric Lichtblau published a story revealing President Bush authorized the National Security Agency to listen in on conversations between al Qaida suspects abroad and people in the United States without first obtaining a warrant. "We're seeing clearly now that (President) Bush thought 9/11 gave him license to act like a dictator," wrote Newsweek's Jonathan Alter. But the scandal was...

Is The New York Times about to be indicted? That would be a fair inference from the strange exchanges that have gone back and forth over the past few days between the Justice Department and the editors of the paper. On Sunday, during the ABC news program, "This Week," Attorney General Gonzales was asked if the federal government might prosecute journalists who published classified information. "There are some statutes on the books," he answered, "which . . . would seem to indicate that this is a possibility." He went on to suggest that such prosecutions were implicitly authorized by the...

BAGHDAD, July 21 (UPI) -- Iraqi security reportedly discovered three missiles carrying nuclear heads concealed in a concrete trench northwest of Baghdad, official sources said Wednesday. The official daily al-Sabah quoted the sources as saying the missiles were discovered in trenches near the city of Tikrit, the hometown of ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. "The three missiles were discovered by chance when the Iraqi security forces captured former Baath party official Khoder al-Douri who revealed during interrogation the location of the missiles saying they carried nuclear heads," the sources said. They pointed out that the missiles were actually discovered in...

Gerhard Schindler, told German lawmakeers last week, that they had intercepted many messages to the presidential palace in Damascus, asking for permission to use sarin gas, all of which Assad refused. This is a direct contradiction of the White House talking memos that claimed we had proof positive that Assad was behind the attacks. Gerhard Schindler is the head of the German Foreign Intelligence agency. Schindler, expressly told lawmakers that Assad did not order, nor did he approve of using sarin gas.

Gerhard Schindler, told German lawmakeers last week, that they had intercepted many messages to the presidential palace in Damascus, asking for permission to use sarin gas, all of which Assad refused. This is a direct contradiction of the White House talking memos that claimed we had proof positive that Assad was behind the attacks. Gerhard Schindler is the head of the German Foreign Intelligence agency. Schindler, expressly told lawmakers that Assad did not order, nor did he approve of using sarin gas.

....Even before the attack on the U.S. compound, according to an Oct. 2, 2012 report in The Washington Post, the White House held a series of secret meetings that came out of a growing concern that "al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb" (AQIM) was gaining strength after it took control of the northern parts of the African state of Mali, where it created a new Afghan-like sanctuary. In the last year it has begun to spread its influence across the Sahara. AQIM's weaponry came from post-Gadhafi Libya, whose arsenal was boosting the arms trade from Morocco to Sinai. Israeli sources have...

At least twelve rockets launched into Israel this morning; Beersheba school hit by Grad; three fired at Ashkelon, one at Beersheba are intercepted; southern Israel hit by nearly 100 Gazan rockets over the weekend. Rocket fire from the Gaza Strip that killed one man over the weekend continued Sunday morning as at least six Grad rockets were fired at Beersheba, one of which hit an empty school building. At least one other of the Grads was intercepted by the Iron Dome rocket defense system. Earlier Sunday morning, four mortar shells landed in the Eshkol Regional Council area and six Kassam...

The Iron Dome defense system intercepted three Grad rockets aimed at Ashkelon Sunday morning as Israel debates how to react to Hamas’ war. The Iron Dome defense system intercepted three Grad rockets aimed at Ashkelon Sunday morning while Israel debates how to react to Hamas’ latest escalation in its war on the country. The new system has proved effective but is far from offering Israelis total protection from missile attacks.

US intelligence analysts misunderstood intercepted Iraqi communications, believing the orders were meant to deceive UN weapons inspectors searching for chemical or biological agents, a new report says. Instead, the conversation between two Iraqi Republican Guard Corps commanders that included the order to remove reference to "nerve agents" from "wireless" communications was intended to ensure the regime was in compliance with international demands to disarm, the Foreign Affairs magazine reported in its online edition this week. That conversation was intercepted by the United States in 2002. The article was based on a recently declassified US Joint Forces Command report assessing Iraqi...