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The Chinese Academy of Sciences said Saturday's intended touchdown was due at 1300 UTC on the Moon's plain known in Latin as Sinus Iridum, or the Bay of Rainbows. It would be the world's first soft lunar landing in nearly four decades. Statements from the Chinese mission on Sina Weibo – China's short-messaging system - said the landing craft known as Chang'e-3 would make a "free fall" landing using an automatic system for the final few meters of descent. Thruster jets would first be deployed 100 meters (330 feet) above the lunar surface. "At this stage, the Earth base is...

In 1958, U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater framed his opposition to the National Defense of Education Act (NDEA) in the form of an old Arabian proverb: “If the camel once gets his nose in the tent, his body will soon follow.” Goldwater, the grandfather of the modern conservative movement, understood government at its most basic. Through my years spent inside the federal government, as a former analyst for the CIA, a Reagan-appointed federal prosecutor, and then as a U.S. Congressman -- I can personally vouch for the accuracy of Goldwater’s observation about the true nature of government: No matter how much...

Not many foreign policy experts would argue with the proposition that the country with which the United States has the most problematic relationship is Pakistan. Most Americans, when they have thought about it, have taken a similar view since Osama bin Laden was killed in a raid by Navy SEAL Team Six in May 2011. Bin Laden was hiding in plain sight in Abbottabad, Pakistan, just a few miles from Pakistan's military academy. It is hard to believe that his whereabouts weren't known to Pakistan's military or its intelligence agency, the ISI. It has been apparent for some time to...

President Obama will formally present a new national security strategy early next year, identifying his foreign policy priorities for the remainder of his time in office, the White House said Friday. The new policy document will be the second of Obama's administration and will likely update the previous one, released in May 2010, in several important areas. Those include policies for fighting the next phase of the war against al-Qaeda, the shift of national security resources to Asia and a plan to manage declining defense budgets amid fiscal strain.

".............Within 24 hours of Beijing’s announcement of the new ADIZ and rules, civilian airlines from Singapore, Australia, South Korea, and Japan accepted the new conditions. This was a prudent move, given that the lives of their thousands of passengers are suddenly in the hands of 25-year-old Chinese fighter pilots with no record of dealing with fast-moving crises. Yet it also was a huge victory for China, giving legitimacy to its claims to have administrative control over huge swaths of the skies of Asia. Again, if reports are to be believed, Japan requests information only if undocumented flights appear to be...

Iranian missile technicians secretly visited North Korea as part of joint development of a new rocket booster for long-range missiles or space launchers at the same time nuclear talks took place in Geneva, according to U.S. officials. Several groups of technicians from the Shahid Hemmat Industrial Group (SHIG), a unit in charge of building Iran’s liquid-fueled missiles, traveled to Pyongyang during the past several month, including as recently as late October, to work on the new, 80-ton rocket booster being developed by the North Koreans, according to officials familiar with intelligence reports. The booster is believed by U.S. intelligence agencies...

 When word came that Secretary of State John Kerry was winging his way back to Geneva, there was little doubt a deal had been reached with Iran for some nuclear concessions in exchange for a modicum of sanctions relief.  Reaction was predictable from most quarters, with those concerned about Iran’s bona fides slamming the de minimis requirements of the agreement — particularly a failure to secure Iran’s agreement to cease all enrichment, a key demand of all relevant U.N. Security Council resolutions.  Naturally, both Iran’s and Obama’s friends in Washington were equally quick to praise the “historic agreement”. The good in...

Former CIA Director Gen. Michael Hayden on Sunday criticized the Obama administration's deal with Iran saying it will only delay, not derail the country's nuclear program. Hayden told CNN's "State of the Union" that Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry "hit the pause button, rather than delete button." "Practically the worst of all possible outcomes, because now what you have here is a nuclear capable state," Hayden said. Urgent: Do You Approve Or Disapprove of President Obama's Job Performance? Vote Now in Urgent Poll "I think frankly that is Iran's bottom line, so what we're negotiating on is...

The Senate's decision to invoke the "nuclear option" and limit Republican opportunities to use the filibuster had the side-effect of blowing up work on the annual Pentagon policy legislation the body was considering Thursday. Senators debated the defense bill into the evening on Wednesday, but the work came to an abrupt halt Thursday morning when Democrats moved to change the rules of the Senate. The move puts into doubt the fate of the National Defense Authorization Act, the one piece of legislation that has been signed by the president for 51 consecutive years. "This [nuclear option] blew it up," said...

The Times Of Israel is reporting that a team of negotiators led by White House adviser Valerie Jarrett has been conducting secret talks with Iran about it's nuclear weapons program for the past year. The report states the deal submitted in Geneva earlier this month was a direct result of these secret year-long negotiations between teams headed by Jarrett and Iran's Ali Akbar Salehi. That deal was ultimately rejected when France and Israel raised strong objections,and talks are expected to resume this Wednesday. The White House was very quick to issue a categorical denial of the report. According to White...

The CIA and Pentagon have been trying to halt a State Department plan to let Russia’s space agency (Roscosmos) construct within the United States a handful of monitor stations, according to American officials, the New York Times reported. The fear is that the stations could aid Russian efforts to spy on the U.S. and bolster the accuracy of Russian weaponry, the officials told the Times, adding that the Russians said the monitor stations would dramatically improve their version of the Global Positioning System. The CIA and other U.S. spy agencies, along with the Pentagon, believe the monitor stations would provide...

Senior military officials are leaning towards removing the National Security Agency director’s authority over U.S. Cyber Command, according to a former high-ranking administration official familiar with internal discussions. Keith Alexander, a four star general who leads both NSA and Cyber Command, plans to step down in the spring. No formal decision has been made yet, but the Pentagon has already drawn up a list of possible civilian candidates for the next NSA director, the former official told The Hill. A separate military officer would head up Cyber Command, a team of military hackers that trains for offensive cyber attacks and...

A member of the Department of Homeland Security Advisory Council is under fire for tweeting that America is “an Islamic country.” After a Twitter user asked Mohamed Elibiary on Thursday to “show me just ONE example of an Islamic country where non Muslims are treated with equality,” he responded with the controversial tweet, which was first reported by the Washington Free Beacon: “America and yes I do consider the United States of America an Islamic country with an Islamically compliant constitution. Move On!” The back-and-forth between Mr. Elibiary and the Twitter user, who identified himself as Tim Lee, started when...

A draft regulation by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) would lift a 30-year-ban on Libyan nationals coming to the United States to work or train in “aviation maintenance, flight operations, or nuclear-related fields.” In a statement on his congressional website, Rep. Chaffetz said that he and Rep. Goodlatte obtained the internal DHS rule and that this “draft final regulation could go into place without prior notice and comment. The administration justifies lifting this ban by claiming the United States’ relationship with Libya has been ‘normalized.’” “However, the terror threat continues and numerous news reports document recent terror-related stories coming...

The traditional American posture as the guarantor of freedom and protector of allies, and the scourge of Nazis, Communists and al Qaeda is headed toward a less manageable, every-man-for-himself series of ad hoc arrangements that portend greater international instability in which terrorism and warfare thrive. Here is what happens when the United States is weakened in the eyes of the world: China derides U.S. economic leadership, posits itself a "source of financial stability," and suggests the yuan as a replacement for the dollar. China also announces plans to sell Pakistan two more nuclear reactors. Russia doubles down by offering Iran...

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper admitted that furloughing "nearly three-quarters of the workers at the government's intelligence agencies" due to the shutdown "put the United States at greater risk of terror attacks."According to McClathcyDC, "lawmakers, former intelligence officials and national security experts say they were shocked that the administration furloughed the bulk of federal workers at 16 intelligence agencies, many of them tasked with the most important job in government: safeguarding lives."Former CIA Director Leon Panetta said a justification for the furloughs was "difficult for [him] to understand." He added: "People that are involved in our intelligence are critical....

The Air Force on Friday fired the general in charge of all land-based nuclear missiles, the second time in a week that a senior commander of the country’s nuclear arsenal has been let go for allegations of personal misconduct. Maj. Gen. Michael Carey, commander of the 20th Air Force, was removed from his job “due to a loss of trust and confidence in his leadership and judgment,” said Brig. Gen. Les Kodlick, an Air Force spokesman. Air Force officials said Carey has been under investigation since this summer for allegations of “personal misbehavior” but would not specify what prompted his...

The same company that scrutinized former spy agency contractor Edward Snowden for a U.S. government security clearance said on Thursday it also checked the background of the Navy Yard shooter, allowing him to obtain a "secret" clearance. USIS, working as a contractor for the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), conducted a background review of Aaron Alexis, identified by law enforcement authorities as the shooter who killed 12 people at the Navy Yard before he was shot dead. "Today we were informed that in 2007, USIS conducted a background check of Aaron Alexis for OPM," USIS spokesman Ray Howell said in...

1. Transparency uber alles. One of the main reasons that Barack Obama's approval ratings are in the crapper is because of his epic failure to live up to his promise to run what he guaranteed would be the most transparent administration EVAH. That's especially true when it comes to national security issues. Even the most hardened anti-terror hawks have been shocked by revelations of widespread secret drone strikes, extra-judicial kill lists, a war on leakers and journalists, and ubiquitous snooping on Americans.... 2. Legal authority is not optional. Whether we're discussing the use of drones, metadata dragnets, or anything else...

[UPDATED BELOW] Three times on Tuesday morning, CNN mentioned sequester cuts as a possible culprit behind the security breach at the Navy Yard that led to Monday's shooting there. A CNN headline actually read "Did Government Cuts Put Lives at Risk?" This came AFTER a former Navy commander warned on CNN that blaming the sequester was "very premature." And just before noon, correspondent Dana Bash reported that "what I've been told is the answer is absolutely not" as to the sequester having a role in the security breach.