Free Republic

Former President Clinton's office declined to comment today on reports that he managed to lose the personal identification code needed to confirm nuclear launches and never told anyone about it. Gen. Hugh Shelton, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the last few years of Clinton's term, writes about the episode in his new autobiography. Shelton is especially sensitive to the proper authentication procedures, having served as deputy commander of the National Military Command Center (NMCC), through which all nuclear launch progression action chains are processed. The National Command Authority (NCA), as the process and the person of the...

<p>The power was restored Friday at a key Turkish base used by U.S. strike aircraft, defense officials said, nearly a week after an attempted overthrow of the Turkish government by a faction of its military spun the country into chaos.</p>

http://www.trunews.com/article/Is-Incirlik-Air-Base-being-held-hostage-by-Turkey Is Incirlik Air Base being held hostage by Turkey? July 20, 2016 Is Incirlik Air Base being held hostage by Turkey? Vero Beach, FL - (TRUNEWS) For a fifth consecutive day, Turkey has intentionally withheld power and vital supplies from the U.S.-NATO joint installation Incirlik Air Base. According to our sources, verified by TRUNEWS as parents and spouses of U.S. airmen currently stationed at Incirlik Air Base, no supplies have been flown or driven into the installation since Saturday, food and water are being strictly rationed, and only one week of fuel reserves remain to power their electric generators....

The United States runs its air operations against ISIS in Iraq from Incirlik Air Base in Turkey. The base, used by other NATO forces as well, is not American. It is Turkish, and the U.S. needs government permission to fly from there. Since the 15 July coup attempt in Ankara, U.S. forces at Incirlik are essentially hostages to the Turkish government. The Turkish base commander and his aides have been arrested; U.S. personnel are confined to base; outside power has been cut off; and while the U.S. has been permitted to resume operations over Iraq and Syria, it is working...

Key restrictions on Iran's nuclear program imposed under an internationally negotiated deal will start to ease years before the 15-year accord expires, advancing Tehran's ability to build a bomb even before the end the pact, according to a document obtained Monday by The Associated Press. The document is the only text linked to last year's deal between Iran and six foreign powers that hasn't been made public, although U.S. officials say members of Congress have been able to see it. It was given to the AP by a diplomat whose work has focused on Iran's nuclear program for more...

After a tumultuous few weeks in British politics, Theresa May officially became Britain's prime minister on Wednesday. The day was full of tradition and pomp. Her predecessor, David Cameron, traveled to Buckingham Palace to formally tender his resignation to Queen Elizabeth II and announce May as his successor. The queen then met May at the palace, asked her if she can form a government and then formally asked her to do so. May became the 13th prime minister to air-kiss the hand of the queen, who is 90 years old. But aside from all the pageantry, there's some serious weight...

.... Several U.S. officials briefed on the options told me they include declaring a “no first use” policy for the United States’ nuclear arsenal, which would be a landmark change in the country’s nuclear posture. Another option under consideration is seeking a U.N. Security Council resolution affirming a ban on the testing of nuclear weapons. This would be a way to enshrine the United States’ pledge not to test without having to seek unlikely Senate ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. The administration is also considering offering Russia a five-year extension of the New START treaty’s limits on deployed...

EmailGate is very, very bad. The mere presence of SAP material on her "private" email server is a federal offense -- and should be. Sometimes described as "above top secret" these programs are no-BS "need to know" and you must be read into each one individually, then you must access whatever material is involved in a secured facility from which that material may not leave. There is no such thing as "having access to them" on a general basis, no matter who you are. These programs typically deal with human intelligence of some form -- an agent on the ground...

Three years into the tenure of Hassan Rouhani who himself and many in the West promised to be a “moderate” and “reformist” poised to bring about change in Iran, we have only witnessed an unprecedented spike in human rights violations, including horrendous public floggings and especially executions. Overt 2,400 executions in the past three years is the report card Iran and Rouhani carry, with Amnesty International and many other international human rights organizations registering Iran sent nearly 1,000 people to the gallows in 2015 alone. Various religious minorities, including Arabs, Baha’is, Christians, Jews and others have also been targeted...

Nearly one year ago, the United States and its international partners reached a landmark agreement with Iran that would curtail Tehran’s nuclear program in exchange for robust sanctions relief. In multiple speeches, interviews, and congressional hearings that followed, U.S. officials defended the accord, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), by hailing its intrusive inspections regime, pledging to continue sanctioning Iran for non-nuclear misbehavior, and asserting that the deal may spur the regime to moderate its policies. This FPI Analysis evaluates these claims by compiling the administration’s own statements in defense of the agreement, and comparing them...

In 1979, after a long campaign of political pressure applied by the Carter administration in the United States, the Shah of Iran fell to the Islamic Revolution, ending a tradition of monarchic rule that had persisted in Iran for thousands of years since the rule of Cyrus the Great. The stage was set for the rise of the Ayatollah, and the establishment of a theocracy in Iran that, today, most Iranians do not even want. But what if none of that had ever happened? While a momentous departure from actual history, it is not nearly so far-fetched as it sounds....

America, Japan and China are racing to be the first nation to make nuclear energy completely renewable. The hurdle is making it economic to extract uranium from seawater, because the amount of uranium in seawater is truly inexhaustible. And it seems America is in the lead. New technological breakthroughs from DOE’s Pacific Northwest (PNNL) and Oak Ridge (ORNL) national laboratories have made removing uranium from seawater within economic reach and the only question is – when will the source of uranium for our nuclear power plants change from mined ore to seawater extraction? Nuclear fuel made with uranium extracted from...

Cronyism in Energy Production “Diablo Canyon produces twice as much power as all of California’s solar panels, 24 percent more than all of its wind, and 40 times more than its largest solar farm. Also, Diablo Canyon provides power to 3 million Californians on a patch of land the size of three football fields. Achieving the equivalent from a solar farm would require 145 times more land; from wind, 500 times more.”—Michael Shellenberger, Breakthrough Institute co-founder, and Peter Raven, former Missouri Botanical Gardens head The announcement last week from PG&E that it was closing Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, rudely...

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has alleged that his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton received funds from Indian political leaders and institutions in return for supporting the India-US civil nuclear deal. The Trump campaign has published these allegations in a 35-page booklet, but none of them are new and they have been in the public domain for several years now. Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, has refuted these allegations several times in the past. In a statement, the Trump's campaign said the information provided in the booklet is an in-depth summary of the top 50 facts about Clinton's record that...

March for Environmental Hope A real thing, Jimmy. If truth is stranger than fiction, it should come as no surprise that Friday marks the start of the first-ever pro-nuclear power march — probably in world history — and it all starts in San Francisco. The March for Environmental Hope, a four-day trek from the City by the Bay to Sacramento, is being pitched as a family-friendly event — and in this case that means more than funnel cakes and bounce houses. Organizers are hoping to tug on the collective heart strings of America by making this about the children, as...

Now that many environmentalists and climate scientists have realized that nuclear energy is essential for addressing global warming, a coalition of environmental groups is sponsoring a multi-day March for Environmental Hope in California in support of nuclear power

Searched in Google for G4S "nuclear power plant" and came back with a list of open slots. What's next? Below is an excerpt from one of the open positions (security officer at a nuclear power plant)... I wonder what they've already filled. The world’s leading private security organization, G4S, has an immediate job opportunity for a Custom Protection Officer. G4S is a security provider for the United States government, fortune 500 companies, nuclear power plants, oil and gas companies, airport, ports, banks, hospitals, factories, warehouses, commercial facilities, residential communities and much more. G4S offers job security, excellent pay and benefits,...

Launch unlikely to boost uranium prices in near term************************************************ The U.S. saw a nuclear reactor come online this month for the first time in 20 years, and more are set to follow—proving that nuclear power is alive and well in a post-Fukushima disaster world.

Rather than enacting tougher laws to make it more difficult for terrorists, like Mateen, to purchase guns through additional background checks, Trump has made it clear he would like less oversight, not more, on gun purchases. He says the current background checks on the books are sufficient and also supports the use and sale of military grade weaponry, the type of weapons that are necessary to carry out such a large-scale mass shooting. Trump sees nuclear weapons the same way he sees guns. For both, he believes more is better.

White House Communications Director Jen Psaki said Wednesday that she had nothing to do with the decision to selectively edit a State Department press briefing video to clip out a discussion about the Iran nuclear agreement. Psaki was a spokeswoman for the State Department in 2013, when a video was quietly edited to remove a portion of a press briefing dealing with the Iran deal. On Wednesday afternoon, current spokesman John Kirby said it’s been determined that an official from State’s Bureau Public Affairs directed the video to be edited. But he said it isn’t clear who did it, or...