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This story, which broke on Nov. 2, got mighty little attention from the national media. I wonder why: In 2013, hundreds of CIA officers — many working nonstop for weeks — scrambled to contain a disaster of global proportions: a compromise of the agency’s internet-based covert communications system used to interact with its informants in dark corners around the world. Teams of CIA experts worked feverishly to take down and reconfigure the websites secretly used for these communications; others managed operations to quickly spirit assets to safety and oversaw other forms of triage. “When this was going on, it was...

“Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD…” (Psalm 33:12, NIV) Kind of makes me wonder why we export more bombs than bibles. Seems to me that if we were dropping bibles over lands in which multitudes are held in bondage by terrorists, tyrants and false religions, we’d be more likely to see effective national defense while making new brothers and sisters who have an interest in living peacefully along with us even if half a world away. Also, bibles have got to be much less expensive than bombs and I think God approves only bombs He approves, while...

In a combative exchange at a hearing Friday in Washington, D.C., a federal judge unabashedly accused career State Department officials of lying and signing "clearly false" affidavits to derail a series of lawsuits seeking information about former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's private email server and her handling of the 2012 terrorist attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth said he was "shocked" and "dumbfounded" when he learned that FBI had granted immunity to former Clinton chief of staff Cheryl Mills during its investigation into the use of Clinton's server, according to a...

A federal judge this week struck down a controversial set of laws allowing the Federal Bureau of Investigation to seek people's records without a court's approval, saying the strict secrecy orders demanded by the laws are not constitutional. Judge Susan Illston, of U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, said the laws, which underlie a tool known as a "national security letter," violate the First Amendment and the separation of powers principles. In her order, Judge Illston ordered the government to stop issuing national security letters or enforcing their gag orders, although she said enforcement of her judgment...

As hundreds of thousands of desperate Venezuelans flee their country, in many cases on foot, their Latin American neighbors face a critical test: whether they can respond effectively to a crisis that threatens their own stability without the leadership of the United States. So far, they are flunking — and they know it. “The answer is, we can’t,” says Colombia’s ambassador in Washington, Francisco Santos. “It’s sad to say, but we can’t.”

With the launch of its second aircraft carrier, China has enhanced its position in the front ranks of military powers and prompted questions as to the ultimate purpose of its navy. The Chinese navy, formally known as the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), is expanding and will be doing so for years — decades — to come. Some of this is the natural consequence of being the navy of a country in economic ascendancy. Some of this is bureaucratic politics; the PLA is represented on the Communist Party Central Committee, and the PLA answers to the Chinese Communist Party, not...

Get The DEEP STATE Out of America's National Security The August 20, 2018 resignation of retired Navy admiral William McRaven from a U.S. Defense Department advisory board begs the question why an Eric Schmidt-headed Defense Innovation Board (DIB) is still up and running in the Pentagon. McRaven, who oversaw the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, that some say gave President Barack Obama most of the credit, resigned from the DIB on Aug. 20, four days after he wrote in the Washington Post that President Donald Trump’s actions revoking former CIA Director John Brennan’s security clearance “embarrassed us in the...

'This is a clear and present danger to the country.... a soft coup aided and abetted' by the mediaSean Hannity joined President Trump on Friday in urging federal authorities to identify the author of the anonymously written op-ed responsible for rocking the White House this week, calling their conduct a crime worthy of being investigated by the U.S. Secret Service. Discussing the opinion column during his Fox News program, “Hannity,” the conservative commentator and adamant Trump supporter urged the agency responsible for protecting the president to find its author for the sake of national security. “This is a clear and...

The New York Times op-ed page editor Jim Dao on Wednesday described the process behind publishing a bombshell op-ed from an anonymous senior administration official, telling CNN that the official contacted him “through an intermediary.” Dao said the Times also spoke directly with the individual but there are only a "very small number of people within the Times who know this person's identity.” The op-ed, published Wednesday afternoon, described coordinated efforts among Trump administration staff to counter President Trump. The Times described the anonymous author in a note as "a senior official in the Trump administration whose identity is known...

Another profession has closed ranks around a few bad actors. Despite the protestations of almost 200 former intelligence officials, common sense suggests that there was good reason to revoke John Brennan’s security clearance. The notion that revocation infringes upon his First Amendment free-speech rights is belied by Brennan’s subsequent behavior because the former CIA director continues — unchecked by any Trump administration official — to lash out at the president at every opportunity via any available media channel. Brennan fails the first and foremost qualification for a security clearance: the ability to keep a secret. In a New York Times...

The 2018 annual Defense Department report to Congress, released last week, for the first time provides official recognition, and extensive coverage of, China’s “third naval force” — the shadowy People’s Armed Forces Maritime Militia (PAFMM). The PAFMM is its own naval entity behind the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) and the Chinese Coast Guard, but the way in which Beijing utilizes the force is what’s noteworthy.

VEN‘s Senior Political Correspondent Alex Reiger caught up with embattled Congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA) as he was being discharged from the exclusive New Beginnings ultra-fabulous rehabilitation facility in Malibu Friday, for this exclusive "Man in the Street" interview.

This week's revocation of the security clearance of former CIA Director John Brennan elicited howls of protest from deep state apparatchiks. Brennan himself characterized the action as "treasonous. My ability to continue protecting this nation by leaking selected classified information to the media in our continuing effort to blunt the influence of President Trump is eviscerated by this cruel and callous act." Former FBI Director James Comey called it "an illegitimate use of executive authority. Nominally, a president has the power to award or remove anyone's access to classified material. But Trump's selective use of this authority against those of...

SAVANNAH, Ga. — A Georgia woman who mailed a secret U.S. report to a news organization faces the “longest sentence” ever behind bars for a federal crime involving leaks to the news media, prosecutors said in a court filing. Former National Security Agency contractor Reality Winner, 26, is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 23 by a U.S. District Court judge in Augusta. She pleaded guilty in June to a single count of transmitting national security information when she worked as a translator at an NSA facility in Augusta. Winner’s plea deal with prosecutors calls for imprisonment of five years and...

Full headline: Disgusting ‘mainstream media’ noise aimed at disrupting POTUS Trump 24/7/365 is a massive national security issue Dangerous Distractions: The ‘mainstream’ media was at it again on Tuesday, doing its level best to ignore the really important things happening in our country and the world to focus on the freak show of the week: Omarosa Manigault-Newman. The fired former White House staffer and reality TV ‘star’ has a ‘tell-all’ book to sell bashing POTUS Donald Trump, and though so much of what she claims in it has already been debunked, it doesn’t matter what’s happening in North Korea, China,...

What the President must do on an expedited basis is cancel both the Port Canaveral and Wilmington deals. Prevent Gulftainer from conducting any further port activity in the U.S. Nearly two years after the election of Donald Trump as president, America is still suffering the consequences of the deterioration of our national security under former President Barack Obama. In a 10 August, 2018 article by Mary Fanning and Alan Jones, they have provided information on Obama’s billionaire Iraqi patron Nadhmi Shakir Auchi, who is now 80 and lives in London. Auchi is being sued for $4 billion for providing chemical...

A former CIA analyst blasted ex-Trump aide Omarosa Manigault Newman on Sunday for secretly recording chief of staff John Kelly in the White House Situation Room. Manigault Newman unveiled the 20-second audio clip on Sunday, depicting Kelly firing her inside the Situation Room — the highly sensitive space where phones and electronic devices are prohibited for security reasons. Ned Price, a former Obama special assistant and CIA official, tweeted that it wouldn’t be that difficult to sneak a phone into the office because the system is “built on trust."“Those are supposed to be the finest public servants we have,” Price...

While it is a normal business practice for former employees to turn in their keys and lose access to their employers' confidential communications, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper says the Trump Administration removing his security clearance would be "a low blow." "I was hired by CNN with the expectation that my continued access to the government's classified information would make my commentary more interesting and credible," Clapper pointed out. "Stripping my clearance from me is a direct attack on my ability to fully monetize my expertise. It will deter my contacts who are current DNI employees from leaking...

I got married last week. Hence my absence from this space for the first time in seven years. It was a beautiful wedding in Acre, Israel, overlooking the ocean at sunset. My father wrote the music for the processional, which brought everyone to tears. My bride looked stunning, of course. We broke the glass, we danced, we ate and we celebrated until deep into the night. Outside the wedding hall stood a guard. Every wedding in Israel requires an armed guard to prevent terrorist attacks. Only the armed guards prevent the infliction of mass casualties at joyous events; only the...

Washington (CNN) -- President Donald Trump's latest gambit to choke off the flow of information for past spy chiefs who have criticized him is a disturbing move that again exposes an imperious streak out of place in American democracy. The President's threat to rip security clearances from some of the nation's most decorated former intelligence officials may turn out to be a classic Trumpian distraction play that whips up a media storm and drowns out stories that are damaging to the White House. But the idea that it is being seriously contemplated will send a chilling effect throughout Washington. The...