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Washington (CNN)White House officials pressured Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel to increase the pace of detainee transfers from the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, the outgoing secretary acknowledged to CNN's Barbara Starr in an interview Friday. "Not everyone at the White House has agreed with me," said Hagel of his methodology for deciding on detainee releases. Disagreements between Hagel and officials in the President's inner circle have been widely reported during his short tenure as secretary of defense. But in his interview with CNN, Hagel spoke with uncharacteristic candor about friction related to the prisoner release. "We've had a lot...

IRS Cover-Up Expands to Justice Department Exchanging Terrorists for an Army Deserter? Will Senate Endorse Obama’s Lawlessness?IRS Cover-Up Expands to Justice Department In an interview with Bill O’Reilly of Fox News about a year ago, President Obama said that President Richard Nixon was actually more liberal in his policies than Obama is. But, while comparing their policies, Obama conveniently left out one chilling similarity: Both presidents used the virtually unbridled power and authority of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to target their political opponents. In fact, in many respects Obama’s IRS abuses actually have been much worse than Nixon’s. As...

Chuck Hagel has only about a week to go on his tenure as Secretary of Defense, and CNN’s Barbara Starr finds out that a man on the verge of retirement doesn’t have a lot of reason to keep his mouth shut. Hagel makes it clear, although still with some caution, that the Obama administration put pressure on him to increase the frequency of releases from the detention center at Guantanamo Bay. In doing so, Hagel has handed the new Republican majority on the Senate Armed Services Committee a perfect opening to demand answers on Barack Obama’s efforts to empty...

This week, multiple news outlets independently reported that Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl would be charged with desertion. It was a charge that almost everyone saw coming and one that comported with what the soldier’s former colleagues had told media outlets. Within hours of this report, the Pentagon insisted that no formal decisions had been made with regards to Bergdahl’s case. It is a relatively safe bet, however, that the Pentagon will not be reiterating National Security Advisor Susan Rice’s claim that Bergdahl served with “honor and distinction” on the battlefield in Afghanistan. Bergdahl’s release from captivity was controversial. Not because,...

The good news: The discomfort over the embargo of Cuba has led to a good bargaining position in talks with the US. The bad news: Raul Castro’s the one that thinks so. Far from being grateful for the diplomatic overture from Barack Obama, Castro wants the US to pay reparations for the economic damage that Castro says the embargo caused, plus the immediate return of control over Guantanamo Bay, as the opening ante for normalizing relations: Cuban President Raul Castro demanded on Wednesday that the United States return the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay, lift the half-century trade embargo on...

SAN JOSÉ, Costa Rica—Cuban President Raúl Castro demanded Wednesday that the U.S. return the base at Guantanamo Bay, lift the half-century trade embargo on Cuba and compensate his country for damages before the two nations re-establish normal relations. Mr. Castro told a summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States that Cuba and the U.S. are working toward full diplomatic relations but “if these problems aren’t resolved, this diplomatic rapprochement wouldn’t make any sense.” Mr. Castro and U.S. President Barack Obama announced on Dec. 17 that they would move toward renewing full diplomatic relations by reopening embassies in...

U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Loretta Lynch, who has been nominated by President Obama to replace outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder, will testify in front of the Republican controlled Senate Judiciary Committee as part of her confirmation process today on Capitol Hill. Lynch will be forced to address a number of controversial topics and will field tough questions from lawmakers. Some of the topics on the tape for discussion: -President Obama's executive amnesty. -The Department of Justice role in the IRS targeting scandal. -Closing of GITMO and release of GITMO detainees . -The broken relationship between...

Transparency: The administration is said to be hiding for reasons of damage control a report on the soldier we traded five Taliban leaders for. Bowe Bergdahl's lawyers have already been given a charge sheet for desertion. Both Fox News and now NBC News have reported that Sgt. Bergdahl will be charged with desertion. "I have been told and confirmed by two other sources that his attorney has been given what we call a charge sheet," retired Army Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer, a respected military analyst, told Fox's Bill O'Reilly on Monday. NBC's Jim Miklaszewski quoted senior defense officials on Tuesday...

NBC cited defence officials and said the charges could come against the soldier within a week. But Lt Col Alayne Conway, spokeswoman for Army public affairs, said no decision had been made yet in the Bergdahl case. She said: "We are aware of the inaccurate media reporting. To be clear there have been no actions or decisions on the Sgt Bergdahl investigation.  "The investigation is still with General Mark Milley, commanding general of Forces Command, who is reviewing now the Army's facts and findings to determine, impartially, any appropriate next steps and possible actions - which ranges from no further action to convening...

The Obama administration says it is "in a war against al Qaeda." But at the same time, it is trying to release 54 more Gitmo detainees, 47 of them from Yemen, which is one of the "dark corners" where al Qaeda operates. "We say we're in a war against al Qaeda," White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough told CBS's "Face the Nation" on Sunday. "We have just never said we have been in a war against terrorism, which is a tactic...We are, however, at war against al Qaeda, its manifestations in Yemen, its manifestations in South Asia, its manifestations...

The Obama administration's nominee for a senior legal position at the Pentagon is one of the congressional staffers accused by Republicans and intelligence officials of stealing classified documents from the Central Intelligence Agency, Fox News has learned -- and the controversy could imperil her shot at a major career promotion. Sources on Capitol Hill and in the intelligence community say Alissa Starzak, a majority staffer on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) who has been nominated for the position of general counsel to the U.S. Army, is one of two SSCI employees accused by the panel's Republicans, and by...

The officer in charge of the U.S. Naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has been fired for a “loss of confidence” after he allegedly had an affair with a woman whose husband was recently found dead in the waters off the base. Captain John Nettleton was relieved of command on Wednesday by Rear Adm. Mary M. Jackson, commander of Navy Region Southeast, “due to loss of confidence in Nettleton's ability to command,” according to a statement from the Navy. The statement declined to give additional details because of an ongoing investigation by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS), which is...

On Tuesday, Barack Obama adamantly defended his policy of emptying the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, demanding that Congress get on board with it as well. As Jim Hoft noted at the time, the military leadership present at the State of the Union address didn’t appear too enthusiastic about it:CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO Perhaps the New York Times has an explanation for that stone-faced reaction. At the same time that Obama bragged about “turning the page” on war and the end of combat operations in Afghanistan, one of the men transferred from Gitmo worked to establish a...

The commanding officer of the Navy base at Guantanamo Bay was relieved of duty Wednesday due to a loss of confidence in his ability to command, the Navy said. Officials reportedly said he’s under investigation in connection with an alleged affair with a woman on the base and the recent death of her husband. Capt. John R. Nettleton has been temporarily reassigned to the staff of Commander, Navy Region Southeast in Jacksonville, and replaced on an acting basis by Capt. Scott Gray, the chief of staff of that installation, the Navy said in a statement. …

Long War Journal reports that the Obama administration has released Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri from a U.S. prison – not from Gitmo, but from a civilian jail after a federal terrorism conviction. Al-Marri is an al-Qaeda operative who was planted as a “sleeper” in the United States by Khalid Sheikh Mohamed to await instructions on carrying out a second wave of attacks after the 9/11 atrocities – against water reservoirs, the New York Stock Exchange, U.S. military academies, and other targets. The Justice Department quietly sprung him on Friday so he could return to his native Qatar, a country the...

The Navy captain in charge of the naval station at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has been fired and is being investigated in connection with an alleged affair with a woman on the base and the recent death of her husband, U.S. officials said Wednesday. Capt. John R. Nettleton was relieved of duty Wednesday due to a loss of confidence in his ability to command, the Navy said in a press release. The Navy would not comment on the details of the investigation. But U.S. officials said Nettleton is under investigation in connection with the death of Christopher Tur, who was found...

According to the Wall Street Journal, a district judge has ordered Mohamedou Slahi – a known al Qaeda recruiter who worked for Osama bin Laden – freed from Guantanamo. The Journal’s account does not explain the judge’s reasoning and the decision was not immediately available online. But the decision is inexplicable in light of Slahi’s notorious track record. There is no doubt that Mohamedou Slahi is one of the worst terrorists held at Gitmo. (See here for a previous summary of Slahi’s dossier.) Recruiter for the September 11 attacks Among Slahi's most notorious recruits were four of the September 11...

On Friday, March 30, 2012, Hisham Y. Altalib visited the White House. According to visitor logs, Altalib was received by Joshua DuBois, the director of President Obama's Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Four days later, White House officials welcomed a foreign delegation of the radical Sharia-enforcing Muslim Brotherhood from Egypt. The White House meeting with overseas Muslim Brotherhood leaders was reported in April by a few mainstream journalists and questioned loudly by conservative media. But the White House confab in March with U.S.-based Altalib -- which appears to be a prep session with the global Muslim Brotherhood's American...

President Barack Obama has been making progress on his pledge to shut down the prison at Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba, having transferred out more than 20 prisoners since last fall, leaving fewer than 60 the administration considers eligible for release if countries can be found to accept them. That would leave some 70 hard-core terrorists at the base. The president is reported to believe that Congress will then reject the high cost of keeping the facility open for these 70 prisoners, including the man who organized the aircraft attacks of 9/11, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, and agree to transfer them...