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Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) on Friday said Donald Trump’s temporary ban on Muslim travel into the U.S. would not survive Constitutional scrutiny. “If I had to pick a particular position that would concern me the most, it would be the ban on Muslims,” Cole, a lawmaker close to GOP leadership, said Friday on MSNBC. "I think it’s clearly, you know, unconstitutional, it’s ill-advised, it would really hurt the U.S. “We need a lot of Muslim friends to deal with what we’re dealing with overseas, and we have some great Muslim friends. And we ought to recognize that and be sensitive.”

WASHINGTON -- Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is blaming an exhaustive White House vetting process for the fact that the Obama administration has not yet named a person to run the U.S. Agency for International Development. Six months into the administration's tenure without having appointed someone to the agency's top spot, Clinton told USAID employees on Monday that several people had turned down the job due to overly burdensome financial and personal disclosure requirements that she called a "nightmare," "frustrating beyond words" and "ridiculous."

Some U.S. intelligence officials are worried about providing a routine intelligence briefing to Donald Trump once he becomes the official Republican presidential nominee, according to a report. Eight senior security officials told Reuters they were concerned that Trump's "shoot from the hip" style could pose national security risks, as they prepare to give him a routine pre-election briefing for presidential nominees. They also cited his lack of foreign policy experience, and his little known team of foreign policy advisers. "People are very nervous," one senior U.S. security official said. However, the officials, who requested anonymity to discuss a political domestic...

Retired Army Col. Peter Mansoor plans to vote for Hillary Clinton for president this year, but not because the longtime Republican and former top aide to then-Gen. David Petraeus has had a political conversion. He just thinks Republican Donald Trump is too dangerous to be president. “It will be the first Democratic presidential candidate I’ve voted for in my adult life,” said Mansoor, a professor of military history at Ohio State University. Clinton’s campaign hopes that there are many more national-­security-minded Republicans and independents who would vote for her, even grudgingly, rather than see Trump win the White House.

<p>As China continues to posture in the South China Sea, tensions rise between China, Vietnam, Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia and other regional powers such as Japan and India.</p> <p>At the defense blog War is Boring, US Naval War College Professor James Holmes discusses recent developments in the South China Sea and the risk of regional conflict.</p>

General Odierno Says ISIS was AvoidableGen. Raymond Odierno said he believes the Islamic State’s creation was avoidable during an interview on MSNBC’s Morning Joe. Host Joe Scarborough asked Odierno, who commanded the Multi-National Forces in Iraq for about two years, if ISIS and the current state of Iraq were avoidable when the United States ended formal combat operations there. “Did it ever have to begin? Was ISIS avoidable?” Scarborough asked. “I think it is, and I’m not one for revisionist history,” Odierno said. “Actually, I was, on 1 September 2010, that’s when I gave up command in Iraq and that...

Lawmakers want company to stay away from terror regimeMembers of Congress have summoned the heads of airplane giant Boeing to a meeting to encourage the company to stop spearheading efforts to reenter the Iranian marketplace, a business pursuit that is jointly backed by the Obama administration, according to a letter sent Friday to Boeing leadership and obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.Boeing, like its French rival AirBus, has been working to woo the Iranian government following last summer’s comprehensive nuclear agreement.Officials at Boeing—a top U.S. government contractor—opened discussions with Iran last month. The company is hoping to sell its aircraft...

Here is a quick pop quiz. What happens if we lie to the government? What happens if the government lies to us? Does it matter who does the lying? Last year, the Obama administration negotiated an agreement with the government of Iran permitting Iran to obtain certain materials for the construction of nuclear facilities. It also permitted the release of tens of billions of dollars in Iranian assets that had been held in U.S. banks and that the courts had frozen, and it lifted trade sanctions. In exchange, certain inspections of Iranian nuclear facilities can occur under certain circumstances. During...

The Army's active force has shrunk to its lowest level since before World War II, Army Times reported Saturday. According to the military's headcount by the Defense Manpower Data Center, nearly 2,600 soldiers left active duty in March without being replaced, the news outlet reports, adding that during the past year, the size of the active forced has been reduced by 16,548 soldiers. At the end of March, there were 479,172 active-duty soldiers – 154 fewer than when the Army halted its post-Cold War drawdown in 1999, the smallest force since the 1940 count of 269,023 soldiers, Army Times reports.

As a longstanding Reagan conservative, my initial preference was Ted Cruz; yet I would have voted for any of the candidates over Hillary. I held my nose for McCain and Romney, and hope some at least hold their noses and vote for Trump. However, I’d rather you do more than that, I’d rather you consider actually voting FOR Donald Trump. The case for Trump is a good one. ..... I found I liked what he said, but not him. Then the earthquake happened: Hillary attacked him as a misogynist and a sexist. Oh no, he’s done for now. But no,...

I am friendly with Donald Trump’s son-in-law and daughter, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump. They are both extremely fine people. Jared is a leading advisor to his father-in-law on Israel and is rock-solid on all matters pertaining to the Jewish state. He stems from a famously philanthropically Jewish family who are devoted in every way to the interests of the Jewish community. I am in accordance with Mr. Trump on his strong position on issues of national security, fighting ISIS and terrorism, and tearing up the disastrous Iran nuclear deal which has already been breached by the Iranian government, making...

WASHINGTON Even with the Republican nomination seemingly locked up, Donald Trump remains radioactive to the party’s top national security strategists, who warn that his “incoherent” approach to world affairs could prove dangerous for the United States. In March, 121 members of the GOP’s national security brain trust signed on to a scathing open letter opposing Trump for president, calling his sense of U.S. influence around the globe “wildly inconsistent and unmoored in principle.” This week, in interviews and on social media after Trump’s decisive win in Indiana, more than a dozen of those signatories reiterated that stance, leaving Trump with...

Nearly half a million individuals overstayed visas in 2015, fewer than 2,500 deportedThe Obama administration deported less than one percent of the nearly half a million foreign nationals who illegally overstayed their visas in 2015, according to new statistics published by the Department of Homeland Security.Of the 482,781 aliens who were recorded to have overstayed temporary U.S. visas in fiscal year 2015, just 2,456 were successfully deported from the United States during the same period, according to DHS’s figures, which amounts to a deportation rate of around 0.5 percent.The sinking rate of deportations by the Obama administration is drawing criticism...

I was told yesterday that Trump is a liberal Democrat. My reply: Build the wall. Enforce the law. Deport them all. End sanctuary cities. End anchor babies. Slap a moratorium on muslim immigration. Cut the taxes. Cut the spending. Cut the regulations. Cut the government. Cut the debt. Cut the EPA. Repeal ObamaCare. Get the feds out and allow health insurance to be sold over state lines. Send education back to states. Get a handle on trade. Make trade deals in our own best interests. Bring back capital. Bring back manufacturing. Bring back jobs. Strengthen the economy. Defend the second...

Zero women at the table. #shocking

A flurry of significant stories broke on Friday, including the Obama administration's belated capitulation on executive privilege assertions pertaining to the Fast and Furious gunrunning scandal, as well as the release of a large document dump to the House Select Committee on Benghazi. Another potentially-meaningful revelation came via Fox News' Catherine Herridge and Pamela Browne, who reported that the timing and context of US officials' extradition of a Romanian hacker is "not a coincidence" vis-a-vis the FBI's ongoing criminal investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's national security-compromising email scheme. Let's follow the breadcrumbs: The extradition of Romanian hacker “Guccifer” to the...

The US military is in mortal danger as I write this article. Americans have no idea that vast social changes forced upon the military are on the verge of destroying it. Americans will no longer sleep peaceably in their beds at night because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf. We are in serious jeopardy of losing the one institution that has enabled us to maintain our freedom for 240 years. We are in serious danger of losing the one institution that successfully defeated and destroyed the world’s thugs, maniacs and sociopaths that teed off against us....

President Obama boasted Friday about his administration's exemplary record on transparency related to nuclear materials, and cited as an example his decision to share U.S. security protocols with the world, along with information about the size of the U.S.'s highly enriched uranium stockpile. As of Sept. 30, 2013 the nation had 585.6 metric tons of highly enriched uranium, a fact that hasn't been declassified in 15 years, Obama noted during the summit's opening session. The last public figure was 740.7 metric tons, and the difference shows the U.S. has reduced its stockpile by more than 20 percent. "This type of...

Closing the border for national security is crucial, but it is critical that America's life-blood, water, not be released through a porous financial dam Murderous terror strikes by islamist organizations, mostly related to ISIS, are clear assaults against West-influenced civilization… Paris late last year, San Bernardino at Christmas, Brussels last week, and Lahore, Pakistan on Easter Sunday are all separate fronts in the ongoing war. Over the centuries, battles pitting Islam against the Infidel—virtually every instance instigated by muslims—go all the way back to Mohammed’s seventh century rampage across the Arabian peninsula, the sale of Africans into slavery, pirating merchant...

Lobbyists in Washington say they are being flooded with questions and concerns from foreign governments about the rise of Donald Trump. Officials around the globe are closely following the U.S. presidential race, to the point where some have asked their American lobbyists to explain, in great detail, what a contested GOP convention would look like. The questions about Trump are “almost all-consuming,” said Richard Mintz, the managing director of Washington-based firm The Harbour Group, whose client list includes the governments of Georgia and the United Arab Emirates. After a recent trip to London, Abu Dhabi and Beijing, “it’s fair to...