Free Republic

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) kicked off the new campaign on Thursday to create a national security push to pass climate change legislation. Climate change, Kerry argued, will likely trigger some of the most critical threats to national security in the future, and should be addressed with aggressive action this year. His speech was the keynote address at a conference that the American Security Project, a bipartisan national security think tank, hosted at The George Washington University. The event was titled, not so subtly, “The Day Before,” and marks the eve of the eighth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Kerry, chair...

SNIPPET: "If September is to be governed by presidential instincts and an over-valued view of the role of the United Nations, it may mark a significantly bad turn for American power, particularly economically. And that would inevitably translate into an eventual high surcharge on American security on many levels and in many places." SNIPPET: "Obama's instincts are all wrong on security matters and his bloated budgets (except for Defense, naturally) in times of funding shortfalls combined with massive money printing at US mints have China pushing to replace the dollar as the world reserve currency. And their argument resonates, fueled...

September 04, 2009, 4:00 a.m. A Dangerous DelusionWe go to war to defend our interests, not to encourage democracy. By Andrew C. McCarthy Right after 9/11, Pres. George W. Bush made a succinct demand of the Taliban: Hand over Osama bin Laden and his cohorts or face horrific consequences. The demand, the president emphasized, was non-negotiable. The Taliban refused, insisting that the U.S. produce evidence against al-Qaeda. Because Islamists — not just terrorists but all Islamists — believe the United States is the enemy of Islam, the Taliban also floated the possibility of rendering bin Laden to a third...

Besieged by leaks of several closely held secrets, the CIA has asked the Justice Department to examine what it regards as the criminal disclosure of a secret program to kill foreign terrorist leaders abroad, The Washington Times has learned. Two U.S. intelligence officials, who spoke on the condition that they not be named because of the sensitivity of the case, said the leak investigation involved a program that CIA Director Leon E. Panetta told Congress about in June and that surfaced in news reports just a month later. The vice chairman of the the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence declined...

ARLINGTON, Va. — President Barack Obama is reviewing the long-awaited Afghanistan assessment, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday, and the two will meet early next week to discuss strategy. The assessment from the top U.S. and NATO commander in the country, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, did not call for sending more troops to Afghanistan, but that could come soon. “I would expect that any request for additional resources would follow after this process and be similarly discussed by the president’s national security team,” he said. The U.S. troop strength in Afghanistan is expected to reach 68,000 this year, and McChrystal could...

Note: The following text is a quote: TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2009 National Preparedness Month Check out the Secretary's White House Blog post from this morning about National Preparedness Month. Building a Ready and Resilient Nation Today marks the beginning of National Preparedness Month, an opportunity for our nation’s families and communities to discuss their plans if they were faced with an emergency. Protecting the United States from threats like terrorism, natural disasters, and infectious diseases is a shared responsibility and everyone has an important role to play. This effort starts in our own communities. By talking to your neighbors, friends...

It is not a good sign when, more and more, political news in Washington (more than what we are doing overseas) drives the administration’s grade for national security. But, that’s what seems to be happening. Last week, attention focused on the decision of Attorney General of the United States to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate charging CIA investigators with the crime of torturing terrorist suspects. His announcement came on the heels of releasing a Bush-era CIA Inspector General report detailing alleged abuses by agency interrogators. The White House also announced that from now the investigation of “high-value” suspects would...

ONTARIO — Three men were charged Saturday with second-degree reckless endangerment after shots were fired — apparently with an AK-47 — on Lake Road and Ontario Center Road. State police found shell casings from ammunition used for an AK-47 about two-tenths of a mile from Robert E. Ginna Nuclear Power Plant property. But State Police Investigator Jeff Miller said no connection had been found between the gunfire and the plant.

Vice President Dick Cheney said yesterday that he has doubts that President Obama, “understands and is prepared to do what needs to be done to defend the nation.�Cheney -- speaking forcefully to Fox News’ Chris Wallace -- stopped a brief step short of accusing Obama of intentionally harming the nation. Cheney exudes a restorative candor, like a lifeline to sanity in a world where up is now down, good is now bad, and the majority politicians hardly make believe they’re telling the truth anymore. Cheney gave hard-hitting answers about CIA documentation released last week that showed that enhanced interrogation techniques...

With Attorney General Holder’s investigation of CIA operatives who utilized enhanced-interrogation techniques on detainees, including 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the Obama administration’s downgrade of the War on Terror to “overseas contingency operations,” and the administration’s release of terrorists captured by heroic U.S. military personnel, what should be a preposterous question to ask the President of the United States, now needs to be asked. In the interest of America’s national security, how will President Obama treat the terrorists in America? According to a previously disclosed 2009 Virginia Terrorism Threat Assessment, prepared by Virginia’s Fusion Center, “Al-Qa’ida, Al-Shabaab, HAMAS, Hizballah, Jama’at...

Here is video of Vice-President Dick Cheney talking with Chris Matthews on Fox News Sunday where he said he does believe that Democrats are soft on National Security. He also said that they have become so partisan that the pro-defense wing of the Democratic Party has "faded," which Cheney said "worries me." . . . . . (Watch Video)

SAN DIEGO — They say the older you get, the smarter your parents get. Likewise, it seems, the deeper President Barack Obama gets into his first term, the smarter President George W. Bush gets. Hard-line liberals will never accept this. They have too much invested in the narrative of Bush-as-incompetent-dolt to make room for the possibility that the Texas Republican got one or two things right in eight years. Nor do they want to believe that the supposedly more enlightened Obama is emulating his predecessor. Yet the Obama administration has — on issues both foreign and domestic — adopted as...

Justice Department officials argue in a newly released 2006 memo that al-Qaeda captives must be confined to detention facilities with extraordinarily tight controls, citing previously unknown incidents in which detainees plotted to stage protests and create disturbances. The memo contends that al-Qaeda members held in Colorado's federal "supermax" facility developed a crude communications network to coordinate a hunger strike and other group protests. The strike, which appears to have occurred earlier in 2006, was not made public. "Even those terrorists kept in physical isolation within maximum security facilities can often find ways of communicating and thereby compromising institutional security," states...

In the game of political football that is today national security, spare a thought for CIA Director Leon Panetta. Quarterbacking is hard enough without getting sacked by your own team. President Barack Obama fought hard for the former California congressman during his uncertain February confirmation fight. That's about the last thing the president has done for his spy chief. Quite the opposite: If the latest flap over CIA interrogations shows anything, it's that Mr. Panetta has officially become the president's designated fall guy. The title has been months in the making. Mr. Obama is contending with an angry left that's...

...The back story to Monday's appointment of a career prosecutor to review CIA interrogation methods illustrates Attorney General Eric Holder's influence and sheds light on the emerging and delicate relationship between the White House and the Justice Department. In this and other big battles, including the decision to release memos this year by Bush administration officials giving the green light to harsh interrogation tactics, Holder and his Justice Department have prevailed over strong objections from the CIA and the intelligence community. Holder hasn't won every one of those battles, but he has won many. In this case, on a matter...

Washington may relocate the controversial missile defense system planned for Eastern Europe to the Balkans, Turkey or Israel, a Polish newspaper reports. The U.S. plan included 10 long-range interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar station in the Czech Republic. That plan will almost certainly be scrapped, Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza reports. Washington is now looking for alternative locations including in the Balkans, Israel and Turkey, the daily says, citing U.S. administration officials and lobbyists based in Washington. "The signals that the generals in the Pentagon are sending are absolutely clear: as far as missile defense is concerned, the current...

Cat's Paw: "One used by another as a tool" (Merriam-Webster) With news of Eric Holder deciding to appoint a special prosecutor (based on a CIA inspector general's 5-year old report on allegations that Agency interrogators may have handled a few Al-Qaeda baddies a little roughly) to root around the CIA's undies drawer, the mask is finally fully off the Attorney General's radical leftist ideology, not that it really came as a surprise to many of us. … Attorney General Holder has a long history of sympathy for radical causes and beliefs and there just doesn't seem to be any other...

A large blast ripped through the centre of Afghanistan's capital Kabul on Saturday, Reuters witnesses said, and smoke could be seen rising above the city's diplomatic quarter. . .

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - Former President George W. Bush called on America's partners in negotiations on North Korea's nuclear program to send a strong and clear message to the regime to stop its atomic activity, a news report said Saturday. The U.S., South Korea, China, Japan and Russia should tell the North it will continue to face economic sanctions and other consequences if it insists on defying U.N. resolutions, Bush said in a speech to an economic forum on the South Korean southern resort island of Jeju, according to Yonhap news agency. North Korea conducted its second nuclear test...

President Barack Obama has put some miles on Air Force One. He and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have made major foreign policy speeches. The national security team is in place. It’s time to make a preliminary judgment about Mr. Obama and the world. Just how different is this administration’s foreign policy from its predecessor? And will such departures where they exist make much difference? Set aside the administration’s conceit of “smart power,” since only fools (read: Team Obama’s predecessors) would prefer stupid power. Continuity is the dominant note. The Iraq drawdown moves more quickly and definitively than the Bush...

Well, it looks like President Obama has finally decided to take a side in the "Who's it gonna be boy, us or them?" contest of wills between Leon Panetta's Central Intelligence Agency and the rest of the executive (and parts of the Democratic-dominated legislative) branch. Yesterday's decision by Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint a special prosecutor to look into alleged abuses of captured Al Qaeda leaders by CIA interrogators seems to completely contradict President Obama's earlier reassurances of no action to be taken against those CIA employees. At the time, it was clear that polls showed the public had...

A new interrogation unit will be created and will report to the White House-based National Security Council. President Obama has approved the creation of a specialized interrogation unit that would focus on key terror suspects, the White House confirmed Monday. Deputy Obama press secretary Bill Burton told reporters that even though the new unit will be supervised by the White House,

In hopes of preventing terrorist attacks, 2010 Olympic organizers will deploy 8,000 security personnel, spend as much as $1 billion in Canadian government funds and elicit help from the North American Aerospace Defense Command. NORAD leaders are finalizing plans with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to provide fighter jets and radar support in Vancouver, where 5,500 athletes from 80-plus countries, including about 215 Americans, will converge in February. About 4,000 Canadian soldiers are expected to oversee ground operations, with air patrol handled primarily by CF-18 Hornets from NORAD and Canadian Forces helicopters. On the water, the U.S. will complement Canadian...

So we’re hearing that ACLU attorneys allegedly showed photos of CIA agents to Guantanamo Prison terrorist detainees (Ed Morrissey, “ACLU, Gitmo Lawyers, exposed CIA agent identities to terrorists,” August 21, 2009, http://hotair.com/archives/2009/08/21/aclu-gitmo-lawyers-exposed-cia-agent-identities-to-terrorists/). If they did, it’s one of the most blatant examples of protecting the criminal instead of the innocent. It’s also an act of treason. Morrissey reports that some photographs of CIA agents were shown in front of their homes. It’s hard enough to fathom a hostile world, but to know that Americans who possess a warped version of liberalism are threatening our country’s safety is especially disheartening –...

WASHINGTON -- The Justice Department is investigating whether Guantanamo Bay detainees charged with roles in the Sept. 11 attacks were improperly given photos of CIA officers or contractors, according to a person familiar with the investigation. The investigation, headed by the Justice Department's counterespionage chief, John Dion, is trying to determine if military lawyers defending the detainees divulged classified information or compromised covert CIA officers, according to the person, who was not authorized to discuss the investigation and spoke only on condition of anonymity. It is a violation of federal law to identify CIA covert personnel, and it is a...

Thought FReepers would want a heads up as to the next tactic by climate change activists. Liberals think their best tactic in expanding support for cap and trade and renewable energy is to make global warming a military issue. Called Operation Free,The idea is to use this as a wedge to get policy makers who support a strong military to support liberal energy initiatives as well. From their site: We need to get America running on clean energy. Clean energy reduces our dependence on oil. Oil ties our hands in foreign policy, funds terrorists, and entangles America with hostile regimes....

(IsraelNN.com) Leading United States Republican and former Governor of Arkansas Mike Huckabee toured Jerusalem neighborhoods on Monday. In response to questions regarding the Obama administration's push to end Jewish construction in majority-Arab neighborhoods, Huckabee said forced segregation between Jews and Arabs would make peace impossible. "We tried that in the United States. We had neighborhoods that were all white, black people couldn't go there. It didn't work out real well for us,” he explained.

Willis Hawley and Reed Smoot thought they had a great idea. Hawley chaired the House Ways and Means Committee. Smoot oversaw the Senate Finance Committee. Faced with a national economic meltdown, they brainstormed ways to jump-start the economy. Their solution was new tariffs. The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 slapped duties on about 20,000 imports. Rather than spur consumption and production of American goods, it sparked an international trade war. By 1932, American exports to Europe were just one-third of what they had been in 1929. Worldwide trade fell two-thirds as other nations retaliated. The protectionist measure protected nothing. Jobs...

It’s been more than half a century since American soldiers were killed by hostile aircraft. Let's keep it that way.The United States relies on the Air Force, and the Air Force has never been the decisive factor in the history of war. —Saddam Hussein, before Desert Storm High-end conventional war is characterized by the clash of industrial forces. It’s armored, mechanized and increasingly air-power centric. Few are equipped by training or temperament to understand the phenomenon, especially as it concerns air warfare, a relatively recent aspect of the human experience. (In this regard, Saddam Hussein had plenty of company.) But...

"Secretary Napolitano called on the American people to help in the fight against homegrown terrorists. She said that even children could be educated on what to look out for in airports and other key locations. She was quoted as saying in a speech today, “There’s actually an important role we can play in educating even our very young about watching for, and knowing what to do, if you’re in an airport and you see a package left with no one around.”"

Power Shortages Loom by: Evan Sumortin, August 10, 2009 William Forstchen’s latest New York Times bestseller, One Second After, is a cautionary tale that explores the consequences of an Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) attack on the United States. An EMP explosion over the continental United States would have devastating consequences for our country. According to General Eugene Habiger, Former Commander-in-Chief of the U. S. Strategic Command, “Our technologically-oriented society and its heavy dependence on advanced electronic systems could be brought to its knees with cascading failures of our critical infrastructure. Our vulnerability increases daily as our use and dependence on electronics...

If it takes shutting down the Senate to block the Obama administration from moving prisoners from Guantánamo Bay to U.S. soil, that's exactly what some Republican senators plan to do. Following several reports Aug. 3 that the White House was debating two distinct proposals for dealing with more than 250 prisoners still housed at the detention facility at the U.S. military base in Cuba, senators from various parts of the country pledged to fight any attempt to move the terrorism suspects to the United States, severely complicating President Obama's plan to close the prison by January. One proposal, according to...

Cheney is far and away the most effective, persuasive Republican on the issue of national security. And, as noted by Ben Smith, she is sounding more and more like a candidate. Just let me know where to send the check.

GEORGETOWN, S.C. -- They don't look like al-Qaida terrorists. Their photos in the local newspaper look menacing enough -- but more like a crew that might knock over a convenience store or an ATM at a gas station. Their apprehension this week by FBI agents in Raleigh, N.C., has their neighbors here talking about "homegrown jihadis" and has prompted the O-Team Department of Homeland Security to warn about "American extremists" once again. The seven men were arrested Monday, the same day President Barack Obama tendered his much-acclaimed invitation to Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates and Cambridge, Mass., police Sgt. James...

By Oscar De Los Santos We’ve heard a lot about Henry Louis Gates, Jr’s, arrest in Cambridge last week. Why? Because President Obama wedged his way into the incident. Michelle Malkin asserts that Obama weighed in on Gatesgate because he’s a “racial opportunist” (“Today Show,” July 29, 2009). The president will soon be playing bartender to fix his gaffe – but the truth is that even after the Obama-Gates-Sgt. Crowley summit, Gatesgate will continue to draw attention from more pressing matters. Let’s not forget that an American soldier is still being held hostage in Afghanistan and seven men were recently...

Do you remember that 2007 U.S. National Intelligence Estimate which concluded -- to virtually everyone's astonishment -- that four years earlier Iran had suspended its nuclear weapons program? Publication of that NIE cut the ground out from under the Bush administration's efforts to prevent Iran from getting its hands on a nuclear bomb.  After all, why pressure the mullahs in Teheran to stop a program they'd already abandoned?  And, of course, the NIE's conclusion was cited by President Bush's political enemies as (further) evidence that the President and his team were so driven by their hard-line ideology that they (as...

Note: The following text is a quote: Former President Clinton Visits CIA July 27, 2009 Former President Bill Clinton visited the Central Intelligence Agency today to thank the men and women of CIA for their essential work in protecting the United States from foreign threats. Welcoming the former President back to CIA, Director Leon E. Panetta said: “President Clinton understood very well the role of intelligence and its vital importance in the post-Cold War era. He relied on this Agency for information and insight, as he and his team confronted an array of foreign challenges.” In remarks to hundreds of...

When the 9/11 Commission issued its report, it complained that federal agencies had a colossal "failure of imagination." Nobody could accuse Newt Gingrich of suffering from that shortfall. When he delivered a major address on national security last week, the former House speaker went after Defense Secretary Robert Gates for planning for the future the Pentagon wants, rather than dealing with the many serious problems it may actually face. Gingrich mentioned one challenge that many find too terrible to contemplate--which is why our government should spend a lot more time doing exactly that. I'm referring to the electromagnetic pulse (EMP)....

Pew Environment Group Launches Project to Highlight Link Between National Security, Energy, Climate Change The Pew Charitable Trusts has announced a new project designed to gather and share with the public viewpoints on the critical links between national security, energy, and global warming. Former Senator John Warner (R-VA) will work the Pew Environment Group on the Pew Project on National Security, Energy, and Climate, which will bring together science and military policy experts to examine new strategies for combating climate change, protecting national security, increasing energy independence, and preserving the nation's natural resources. Warner will work exclusively with state and...

REAL ID or Pass by: Anthony Kang, July 24, 2009 In 2005, REAL ID was enacted in direct response of, and to comply with the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission. 18 of the 19 hijackers who took part in the September 11th attacks obtained numerous driver’s licenses and state identifications (many of them duplicates), thereby convincing the Commission of a long overdue, stricter and stringent identification standards. “Americans understand today that the 9/11 hijackers obtained 30 drivers licenses and ID’s, and used 364 aliases,” said former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff upon releasing a finalized 2008 REAL ID report. “For...

WASHINGTON -- Federal agencies are facing a severe shortage of computer specialists, even as a growing wave of coordinated cyberattacks against the government poses potential national security risks, a private study found.

Amidst all the congressional to-ing and fro-ing associated with the President's controversial health care, cap-and-trade and "hate crimes" initiatives, it would be easy for most legislators to overlook a hearing the House Homeland Security Committee has scheduled for Tuesday afternoon. If Congress fails to address the subject of that hearing, however, it literally will not matter whether the government addresses any of those other, disproportionately prominent agenda items. The title of the hearing - "Securing the Modern Electric Grid from Physical and Cyber Attacks" - fails to communicate the magnitude of the danger, and the imperative for urgent corrective action....

A new blog discussing energy independence and security and how Kentucky will play an integral part in the coming domestic energy revolution. Join the discussion. Generate ideas.

Since World War II, the U.S. military has used air power as a decisive force multiplier to prevail in peacetime and in combat. In fact, "American ground forces have not come under attack from enemy air forces since the Korean War."[1] Usually, the military with the best and most fighter aircraft achieves air superiority (control of the airspace over the operational zone). Accordingly, Air Force leaders consider their air superiority mission their second highest priority, behind only nuclear deterrence.[2] The U.S. military has consistently gone one step further by establishing air supremacy, in which "the opposing air force is incapable...

Tomahawk may get ship-killer role By Enric Volante ARIZONA DAILY STAR A U.S. Navy missile that cruises hundreds of miles over land to blow up buildings is being redesigned in Tucson to chase down moving targets. Raytheon Missile Systems wants to turn its land-attack Tomahawk missile into a ship killer that can do something never done before: Hit a cruising warship from a thousand miles away. On Friday, the Defense Department announced a $12.8 million contract for Raytheon to engineer and test a new warhead system for the Tomahawk Block IV cruise missile. Ninety percent of the work would be...

Presidential Succession by: Emily Kanyi, July 10, 2009 After the 9/11 terrorist attack it became clear that the U.S. was not immune to acts of violence that could infiltrate the country’s heart of business and power causing massive destruction and loss of life. It also became clear that the country needed to put into place a system that would facilitate an easy succession to the presidency in the “face of a catastrophic attack that would kill or incapacitate multiple individuals in the line of succession,” according to a June 2009 report jointly released by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and...

They're expanding: The years-in-the-making project, which may cost billions over time, got a $181 million start last week when President Obama signed a war spending bill in which Congress agreed to pay for primary construction, power access and security infrastructure. The enormous building, which will have a footprint about three times the size of the Utah State Capitol building, will be constructed on a 200-acre site near the Utah National Guard facility's runway. Congressional records show that initial construction -- which may begin this year -- will include tens of millions in electrical work and utility construction, a $9.3 million...

National Security: If CIA Director Leon Panetta really has claimed to his old friends in Congress that the agency was lying to them, the impact will be unprecedented. Do we have a mole running Langley?Democratic members of the House Intelligence Committee on June 26 fired off a nasty letter to CIA head and former high-ranking Democratic Rep. Leon Panetta. The thrust was that their former House Democratic colleague is a liar. Signed by Reps. Anna Eshoo, Alcee Hastings, Rush Holt, Jan Schakowsky, Adam Smith, Mike Thompson and John Tierney, the curt message said: "Recently you have testified that you have...

By Duncan Hunter, U.S. Rep. (ret.) Chairman, Armed Services Committee, 2002-2006 At the height of the Cold War the United States maintained more than 32,000 nuclear weapons and the Soviet Union deployed more than 45,000 such weapons. Ronald Reagan, having rebuilt U.S. military strength during the l980s, initiated, with Mikhail Gorbachev, a reduction regimen which continued through the break-up of the Soviet Empire. Since the Reagan breakthrough, the strategic armories of the U.S. and Russia have fallen to a few more than 2,000 nuclear weapons apiece. Now, five months before the expiration of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (which was...

WASHINGTON -- Central Intelligence Agency Director Leon E. Panetta has told lawmakers that the agency "concealed significant actions" from Congress, according to a letter released Wednesday from seven Democratic lawmakers. The letter also contends that Mr. Panetta said CIA officials have misled Congress since 2001. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Silvestre Reyes sent a separate letter on Tuesday to the top Republican on his committee saying that Mr. Panetta's appearance led him to conclude that the CIA had "affirmatively lied" to the committee. Mr. Reyes, a Texas Democrat, said the issues Mr. Panetta disclosed to the committee may lead to a...