Free Republic

Rising sea levels and other effects of climate change will pose major challenges for America's military, including more and worse natural disasters and the threat that food and water shortages could fuel disputes and instability around the world, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Monday. […] “Climate change is a ‘threat multiplier’ because it has the potential to exacerbate many of the challenges we already confront today—from infectious disease to armed insurgencies—and to produce new challenges in the future,” Hagel said. He spoke during the opening session of the conference, which was attended by defense ministers and military chiefs of more...

Only a madman would gamble with our lives…our children’s lives…and the entire American economy. Why would President Obama play “Russian Roulette” with the future of our country? It’s a gamble no sane leader would take. The life and death issue is Ebola. The President is more concerned with political correctness (and golf) than taking common sense precautions to prevent a deadly pandemic. Why does this President not see his responsibility is to keep the odds as low as possible? There are three simple, common sense actions any President who cared about American citizens would take:

The head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said there was "clearly" a breach in protocol that led to a Texas health care worker contracting Ebola after treating a Liberian man who later died from the virus, although authorities do not yet know what that breach was. "We're deeply concerned about this new development," Dr. Thomas Frieden said in an interview on CBS' "Face the Nation" Sunday. "I think the fact that we don't know of a breach in protocol is concerning because clearly there was a breach in protocol. We have the ability to prevent the...

A growing number of Democrats are pressuring President Obama to ban flights to Ebola-ravaged countries despite repeated warnings from global health leaders that closing borders could accelerate the crisis. A group of 27 lawmakers, including three Democrats, signed a letter Wednesday urging Obama to ignore health officials and immediately halt flights from the West African countries worst-affected by Ebola. The lawmakers accused Obama of attempting to “pass the buck” onto organizations like the World Health Organization (WHO), which have advised against travel bans. Obama has said he would not ban travel unless the WHO reversed its position. “[The WHO] has...

U.S. Border Patrol agents say an incident along the Texas-Mexico border Wednesday night is a clear warning that they are not prepared to deal with the threat of people infected with Ebola and other communicable diseases trying to cross into the United States. Agents in the Rio Grande Valley border sector apprehended a man from the eastern African nation of Eritrea who was trying to cross illegally into the U.S. Agents told TheBlaze it isn’t the first time they’ve apprehended someone from Africa or “special interest aliens” – persons from nations with known terrorist ties – trying to cross the...

WASHINGTON — The Coast Guard has stepped up screening of crews arriving in Texas from West Africa for possible Ebola symptoms. The new measures are for any vessel that has visited West Africa within its last five ports of call. They also require that any crew member with symptoms of Ebola be quarantined. In Houston, one of the world’s busiest ports, some dockworkers say they’re fearful. But no Ebola cases have been found yet, and Coast Guard officials say there’s little need to panic. “Ships from other countries, we want to be aware of where they’ve been,” said Coast Guard...

David Nieland, who led the investigation for the DHS inspector general’s office, later told Senate aides examining the investigation that his superiors had asked him to keep those details out of the report. He also said that the request to leave the information out came from his superiors shortly after they met with Janet Napolitano, then the secretary of homeland security.Nieland also said that he had been told to delay the release of the report until after the election. A Washington Post story published Wednesday night alleges that the White House did not rigorously investigate information linking a volunteer for...

Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has lobbed a series of damning accusations against his old boss, President Barack Obama. In his new book, Panetta says that Benghazi was always an obvious terrorist attack. He says that Obama approaches the world like a law professor, meaning that he does not usually see reality if it does not comport with his preconceived notions. Panetta writes that Obama’s decisions on Syria and Iraq have paved the way for the rise of of the Islamic State. Panetta writes that Obama has given up on the job, rather than continue to try working with Republicans...

Those looking for good news on the fight against Ebola will not find much encouragement from Marine Corps Gen. John F. Kelly, the commander of the U.S. Southern Command. As Jim Garamone of Department of Defense News reports, Kelly told an audience at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday that, if the disease reaches Central America, "it’s literally, ‘Katie bar the door,’ and there will be mass migration into the United States." He also said with certainty that "there is no way we can keep Ebola [contained] in West Africa." “By the end of the year, there’s...

Sex could keep the Ebola epidemic alive even after the World Health Organization (WHO) declares an area free of the disease, one of the discoverers of the deadly virus said on Tuesday. The WHO is hoping to announce later this week that Nigeria and Senegal are free of Ebola after 42 days with no infections. The 42 days is the standard period for declaring an outbreak over, twice the maximum 21-day incubation period of the virus. However, it appears the disease can last much longer in semen. 'In a convalescent male, the virus can persist in semen for at least...

The Visa Waiver Program (VWP) allows citizens of participating foreign countries to enter the U.S. without a visa for 90 days. In exchange for this benefit, participating countries agree to information-sharing and security cooperation with the U.S., along with reciprocal travel privileges for U.S. citizens. The rise of ISIS has created a heightened threat of foreign terrorists entering the U.S. from European countries that participate in the Visa Waiver Program. Accordingly, some members of Congress are talking about ending the program. Yesterday the Heritage Foundation took up this question. You can watch the program here. Former Secretary of Homeland Security...

The head of the FBI said in an interview broadcast late Sunday that the U.S. is preparing for an imminent terrorist attack. FBI Director James Comey said the Khorasan Group, an al Qaeda affiliate in Syria, may still be working on a plan to hit the United States. “Khorasan was working and may still be working on an effort to attack the United States or our allies, and looking to do it very, very soon,” he said on CBS’s “60 Minutes.” “I can’t sit here and tell you whether it’s their plan is tomorrow or three weeks or three months...

The executive director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons states that restricted entry to the United States will be necessary to stop the spread of the deadly Ebola virus. “The potential for devastating loss of life is real,” wrote Dr. Jane M. Orient on the website of AAPS. “The disease must be stopped before there are millions of persons exposed instead of 100.” Orient said that restricting entry to the United States means that travelers from areas affected by Ebola must be “carefully screened and quarantined when indicated.” Additionally, she warned that to contain the spread of Ebola,...

The federal government is not considering a travel ban to the United States from Africa, thanks to a “sophisticated multi layer screening system" at airports in Africa, according to the White House. “If we can screen through the transportation system to ensure that individuals that are exhibiting symptoms don't have access to a transportation system, then you can keep the transportation system secure,” White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest explained to reporters aboard Air Force One. A travel ban would make it more difficult for professionals to reach Africa to help end the Ebola epidemic, he explained.

(CNN) -- Vice President Joe Biden argued that the Ebola virus is on par with ISIS in Iraq and Syria when it comes to global security threats. Speaking in Boston Thursday at the Harvard Institute of Politics, Biden warned that "threats as diverse as terrorism and pandemic disease" are crossing borders "at blinding speeds," and they demand a global response involving more players "than ever before." "This has all led to a number of immediate crises that demand our attention from ISIL to Ebola to Ukraine -- just to name a few that are on our front door -- as...

For the first time, Russia, which is in the midst of a major strategic nuclear modernization, has more deployed nuclear warheads than the United States, according to the latest numbers released by the State Department. Russia now has 1,643 warheads deployed on intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine-launched ballistic missiles and heavy bombers. The United States has 1,642, said the fact sheet released Wednesday.

The World War Two-era motto “Loose lips sink ships” was meant to save lives and prevent harm to America. It is also an admonition that Barack Obama, Commander-in-Chief, has been wilfully contravening for years when it comes to America’s overseas opponents. Ever since he became President Barack Obama has worked to weaken America’s posture toward our adversaries. Some of these have been obvious: eviscerating American armed forces, betraying ally relationships built up over decades, and empowering foes such as Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood. Others have flown under the radar screen but, like the diminishing fleet of stealth fighters in...

Three Afghan soldiers who vanished during training in Massachusetts last month and resurfaced days later at the Canadian border said they want asylum because returning to the homeland they are sworn to defend could mean death at the hands of the Taliban. “They catch us, they kill us,” Maj. Jan Mohammad Arash, 48, told the Boston Globe of the Taliban, the terrorist government driven into exile by coalition forces. “They tip those who kill us.” Arash and the others, Capt. Mohammad Nasir Askarzada and Capt. Noorullah Aminyar, say the lives of their relatives back home have been threatened. The soldiers...

The world suddenly seemed a lot smaller when news broke Tuesday that the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the U.S. is being isolated and treated at a Dallas hospital. While the outbreak in West Africa has sickened more than 6,000 people and killed 3,083, it was only a matter of time before the virus hit closer to home, experts said. Dr. Edward Goodman, hospital epidemiologist at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, said he was not surprised that the Ebola virus came to his doorstep, given the number of cases in Africa. There is “plenty of opportunity for people to fly...

Secret Service Director Julia Pierson will face questions about how an armed intruder jumped the White House fence and made it as far as the East Room when she testifies before a House committee on Tuesday. Sources confirmed to Fox News on Monday that 42-year-old Omar Gonzalez overpowered a Secret Service officer in the Sept. 19 incident -- this led to a struggle and "wrestling" inside the executive mansion as he darted through. Gonzalez was eventually tackled by a counter-assault agent in the East Room after he reached the doorway to the Green Room, a parlor overlooking the South Lawn....