Free Republic

Former Obama national security adviser General James Jones (2009-2010) isn’t going to make Democrats happy with what he has to say about the dangers Iran presents and what he thinks about President Donald Trump taking out IRGC Qasem Soleimani. Many Democrats have been pushing the talking point that there was no real reason to take out Soleimani, this despite all his past killing of Americans and the attack on our embassy in Baghdad. The Democrats even tried to handcuff the president’s actions with a War Powers resolution, although it’s symbolic only. It’s an astonishing position to take, especially after...

Gen. James Jones is not a “useful idiot.” He’s a well-educated respected military professional. He’s also a highly decorated Marine. He is President Obama’s National Security Adviser. Ordinarily, that would be good news for all Americans. That cynical “useful idiot” phrase comes to us from Vladimir Lenin, the Bolshevik revolutionary who overthrew Russia’s democratic government in 1917. Lenin set up the world’s first Communist regime. Soon after taking power in Moscow, the Communists saw famine overtake their new Soviet Union. Everything was rationed. All property was owned by the proletariat—and soon everything was in short supply. Beset by shortages, invading...

Judging by the rhetoric coming out of Tehran, John Bolton’s appointment as America’s National Security Advisor is the worst thing that ever happened. The Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council labeled Bolton’s appointment “a matter of shame.”  The Chairman of the Iranian Parliament's Committee on National Security and Foreign Policy declared,  "The use of hardline elements against the Islamic Republic of Iran shows that the Americans seek to exert more pressure on Iran.”First Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri opined, “They (US officials) are wrong to assume that the Iranian nation will give in to their threats against the Islamic Republic.”  ...

The key to all of this is the Atlantic Council. The vehemently anti-russian think tank that Dr. Farkas is a senior fellow. Most people think that the FBI analyzed the DNC servers and came to the conclusion based on their analysis that Russia hacked the DNC. That is not true. The DNC refused to let the FBI look at their servers. Instead the DNC hired a private company, Crowdstrike, to do an analysis of their servers. It was Crowdstrike that concluded that Russia hacked the DNC. They then turned over those findings to the FBI. If this sounds incredibly shady...

Sen. Barack Obama designated a personal aide (who is now the Ambassador who was slashed in S. Korea, Mark Lippert) as his direct contact for the 2007 Kenyan presidential campaign of Raila Odinga, who later was appointed prime minister after his election loss was followed by widespread, deadly violence that destroyed or damaged 800 Christian churches, according to e-mails obtained by WND senior staff writer Jerry Corsi during a trip to Kenya...

Sources say White House cadre bypassing agencies, jeopardizing security JERUSALEM – A small group of officials working mostly from the White House are tightly controlling U.S. foreign policy, bypassing other government agencies and making decisions without employing the expertise of those agencies, according to diplomatic sources speaking to WND. The sources said some of the decisions may be jeopardizing U.S. security. A senior Middle East diplomatic source said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently apologized to a Mideast leader, explaining to him U.S. policy regarding his country is being dictated by the White House and not her agency. The diplomatic...

"My time in the Obama administration turned out to be a deeply disillusioning experience." It was close to midnight on Jan. 20, 2009, and I was about to go to sleep when my iPhone beeped. There was a new text message. It was from Richard Holbrooke. It said, "Are you up, can you talk?" When I called, he told me that Barack Obama had asked him to serve as envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan. He would work out of the State Department, and he wanted me to join his team. "No one knows this yet. Don't tell anyone. Well, maybe...

On paper, it was a promotion. But Central Intelligence Agency Director Leon Panetta turned down a White House offer to become the next director of national intelligence anyway. President Barack Obama last week fired his intelligence chief, Dennis Blair, without an immediate successor teed up. People familiar with the matter said the White House had expected Mr. Blair would stick around until a replacement was found. Mr Blair declined. The struggle to find a successor has highlighted the challenges of filling an ill-defined job fraught with political tripwires. Mr. Panetta is one of a number of people who have turned...

In a blunt assessment, President Obama’s first national security adviser told a private audience this week that there is a “chasm” between the United States and its Gulf Arab allies that has yet to heal since the White House very publicly ushered Egypt’s president out of power in February. Retired Marine Gen. James Jones, who served as national security adviser in 2009-10, told a private meeting at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that the United States’ Persian Gulf allies interpret the president’s handling of the Egyptian revolution as a sign that Washington will dump their monarchies or governments if enough...

President Obama delivered a soaring eulogy for the late Richard Holbrooke today, calling him a "leading light" of U.S. diplomacy. But ... the president's warm remarks belie a far more complex relationship between the President and Holbrooke...Attention also turned to his tumultuous final years, when Holbrooke was portrayed as a disruptive force within the Obama administration, whose relationship with top American and foreign officials had chilled, and whose professional tenure was nearly over... The authors mine interviews with people who knew Holbrooke in Kabul, Islamabad, New York, Brussels, and Washington—including his wife Katie Marton, Gen. David Petraeus, and Secretary of...

When it was announced recently that National Security Advisor, James Jones, was leaving the White House, the name caused my thoughts to turn to another James Jones. No, not James Earl Jones the actor. Actually my mind focused on James R. Jones the novelist. Although most people have forgotten about James Jones the novelist or remember him only for his groundbreaking novel, "From Here To Eternity" or, perhaps, "The Thin Red Line," he also wrote what can only be described as THE Great American Novel, "Some Came Running." Perhaps you saw a movie of the same name starring Frank Sinatra,...

Hey where’s everyone going? Defense secretary Robert Gates, and senior adviser David Axelrod, The White House press secretary, Robert Gibbs, national security advisor General James Jones, the entire economics team, of whom Peter Orszag and Christina Romer have already gone, they’re all leaving. Then there’s Larry Summers, the director of the National Economic Council and the dead fish himself, White house chief of staff Rahm Emanuel who also doubled as political strategist to president Barry Hussein Soetoro, all high level advisers all jumping ship. But don’t worry it’s all good! I’m sure the spin that media and Democrats will put...

Four weeks before the mid-terms and Barack Obama fires General Jim Jones as National Security Adviser and appoints Tom Donilon in his place. So what on earth is going on and what does this mean? Here are 10 reasons to be worried: 1. Donilon has a poor relationship with Bob Gates, the Pentagon chief. Gates has issued a statement lauding his “very productive and very good working relationship” with Donilon. But Bob Woodward reported that Gates once told Jones that Donilon would be a “disaster” as National Security Adviser. Gates, Washington’s Mr Steady, is hardly likely to have used that...

The news is coming so thick and fast these days one can hardly keep up with it, let alone comment intelligently. But we should at least note that Marine General Jim Jones resigned as President Obama's National Security Adviser today, and will be replaced by political operative Tom Donilon. It is hard to remember now, but shortly after his election, Obama's selection of Gen. Jones as national security adviser, along with a handful of similar appointments, caused us and other observers who are ( even more knowledgeable) to hail what seemed to be a reassuringly moderate trend in Obama's nascent...

Donilon's résumé: Policy, law and Fannie Mae By: Josh Gerstein and Abby Phillip October 8, 2010 08:17 PM EDT To many in the foreign policy community, Tom Donilon’s selection Friday as national security adviser to President Barack Obama was a deserving reward for a consummate professional, a corporate lawyer who worked his way up through the foreign policy ranks over the years and is credited with holding the National Security Council together during the uncertain leadership of James Jones. But one part of Donilon’s résumé that went unmentioned in the Rose Garden Friday — the six years he spent as...

The exodus of senior aides from the White House continued as Gen James Jones, Barack Obama’s head of National Security, resigned. His departure, which comes a week after Rahm Emanuel, the chief of staff, resigned, removes one of the few senior officials not belonging to the US president’s coterie of long-time advisers. Brought in originally for his vast experience and independent voice, it had been clear for some time that the former Nato supreme commander had failed to gel with the president’s inner circle. Gen Jones is being replaced by one of those close aides, his former deputy Thomas Donilon....

Thomas Donilon, named by Barack Obama as an adviser to his transition team, oversaw lobbyist efforts to undermine OFHEO’s regulatory efforts over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. ABC News reports on Donilon’s history and his participation in painting a much rosier picture than reality provided for Fannie Mae’s board. The Obama rebuttal will sound familiar to those who recall Jim Johnson’s involvement with Obama’s campaign: One of Obama’s top transition team members, Thomas Donilon, oversaw an aggressive, backdoor lobbying campaign by mortgage giant Fannie Mae to undermine the credibility of a probe into the firm’s accounting irregularities, according to a...

Donilon, who contributed $4,600 to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in March 2007 (and gave the maximum $2,300 to Obama for the general election in July), has a long resume in Democratic politics. He headed the Clinton-Gore transition effort and Clinton’s 1992 debate prep. He also served as an aide to Sen. Joe Biden in his failed 1988 presidential bid. More recently, he served as Fannie Mae’s executive vice president for law and policy from 1999 until 2005, giving him control of Fannie Mae’s legal, regulatory and public policy activities and government and industry relations. Donilon was one of several executives...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama will name close aide Tom Donilon as his new national security adviser on Friday in a move that could have implications for the struggli

Change we can believe in? Last week, the Obama transition team announced that it had tapped veteran Beltway Democrat Thomas Donilon to help lead its review of operations at the State Department. As multiple news outlets quickly pointed out, until 2005 Donilon helped oversee the aggressive lobbying operation of troubled mortgage giant Fannie Mae. Now, ABCNews.com has fleshed out the picture a bit, reporting that Donilon oversaw what it describes as a "backdoor lobbying campaign ... to undermine the credibility of a probe into the firm's accounting irregularities." The details, which center on a campaign to discredit an agency charged...