Free Republic

The IDF publishes a summary of Operation Rising Lion, ... According to the report, for months leading up to the operation, Military Intelligence gathered evidence that Iran was rapidly enriching uranium to 60% - a level sufficient to produce several nuclear bombs in a short time. Intelligence also revealed a covert regime plan involving advanced nuclear weapon research and experimentation in key areas. In parallel, the Iranian regime was preparing to triple its production of precision missiles, expanding its arsenal from 2,500 to 8,000 missiles. This was part of a broader strategy that included a multi-front attack against Israel, beginning...

ChatGPT can harm an individual’s critical thinking over time, a study released this month suggests. Researchers at MIT’s Media Lab asked subjects to write several SAT essays and separated subjects into three groups — using OpenAI’s ChatGPT, using Google’s search engine and using nothing, which they called the “brain‑only” group. Each subject’s brain was monitored through electroencephalography (EEG), which measured the writer’s brain activity through multiple regions in the brain. They discovered that subjects who used ChatGPT over a few months had the lowest brain engagement and “consistently underperformed at neural, linguistic, and behavioral levels,” according to the study. The...

In a report reviewed exclusively by Breitbart Texas, human intelligence developed by frontline Border Patrol intelligence officers reveals the possibility of a formal covert operation being conducted by the Maduro regime. The operation is designed to infiltrate the United States using released inmates and pairing them with Venezuelan intelligence operatives to “neutralize” human targets within the United States. The report’s narrative, generated by the Rio Grande Valley Sector Intelligence Unit (SIU), indicates that released inmates from Venezuelan prisons have been directed to travel to the United States alongside Venezuelan intelligence officers to track down former Venezuelan military members, politicians, and...

* Former CIA official accuses govt of ignoring warnings of post-invasion violence in Iraq WASHINGTON: A former CIA official who coordinated US intelligence on the Middle East has accused the Bush administration of “cherry-picking” intelligence on Iraq to justify a decision it had already reached to go to war, The Washington Post reported Friday. The newspaper said Paul Pillar, who was the national intelligence officer for the Near East and South Asia from 2000 to 2005, also accused the administration of ignoring warnings that the country could easily fall into violence and chaos after an invasion to overthrow Saddam Hussein....

If someone uses big words to sound smart, they’re probably not. If someone speaks in clichés, they might be lacking original thought. Understanding human communication isn’t always simple. In fact, navigating the labyrinth of human conversation requires more than just a good ear. It also requires an understanding of certain speech patterns and phrases. Now, some folks have a knack for this. They can hear a few words and immediately gauge the intelligence of the speaker. In this article, let’s delve into 8 phrases that, more often than not, are used by people with below-average intelligence in everyday conversation.

What if stupidity isn’t about intelligence at all, but about surrendering the will to think? In this chilling and timely video essay, we explore Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s theory of stupidity — a terrifying insight into how smart, well-meaning people can become blind instruments of destruction. Drawing on Bonhoeffer’s life, the psychology of conformity, Milgram’s obedience experiments, social media echo chambers, and the rise of AI-driven misinformation, we reveal why stupidity isn't a lack of intellect — it's a surrender of critical thought. 👉 Why do intelligent people support dangerous ideas? 👉 How does groupthink override personal judgment? 👉 What does it...

Anthropic said its latest artificial intelligence model resorted to blackmail when told it would be taken offline. In a safety test, the AI company asked Claude Opus 4 to act as an assistant to a fictional company, but then gave it access to (also fictional) emails saying that it would be replaced, and also that the engineer behind the decision was cheating on his wife. Anthropic said the model “[threatened] to reveal the affair” if the replacement went ahead. AI thinkers such as Geoff Hinton have long worried that advanced AI would manipulate humans in order to achieve its goals....

Have you ever just had a family dinner conversation over a group holiday or spoken with friends about going to Ibiza to party, and minutes later, relevant ads appear on Facebook or other applications or websites? More than likely you answered yes, and that’s simply because all smart devices are permanently listening in on everything you say and keep track of everything you do. They are constantly gathering behavioural data, mostly for commercial and marketing purposes. In the case of vehicles with built-in smart devices, including sensors, they build complete profiles of the drivers and their passengers. They map their...

U.S. intelligence chiefs ordered agencies to tighten surveillance on Greenland, the first tangible step toward President Donald Trump’s oft-stated goal of bringing the Arctic island under American control, sources leaked to The Wall Street Journal. The directive instructed the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), National Security Administration (NSA) and the CIA to identify Greenlandic and Danish figures who might back U.S. objectives and to gauge public sentiment toward American resource extraction, the outlet reported Tuesday. Its emergence triggered immediate pushback from Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who accused unnamed officials of leaking in order to thwart the administration. “The Wall...

For as long as there has been war, there has been a need to reveal what the enemy is planning. This was no less true in ancient Greece where generals and statesmen relied on espionage to reveal the intentions and capabilities of their adversaries. The philosopher Plato believed that the ancient Greek states were in a constant state of war, whether declared or undeclared. It was within this grey zone that the subtleties of espionage took place, a dimension of foreign affairs that remains true to this day. Like the practice of spying itself, the sources regarding espionage in ancient...

The big names in artificial intelligence—leaders at OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and others—still confidently predict that AI attaining human-level smarts is right around the corner. But the naysayers are growing in number and volume. AI, they say, just doesn’t think like us. The work of these researchers suggests there’s something fundamentally limiting about the underlying architecture of today’s AI models. Today’s AIs are able to simulate intelligence by, in essence, learning an enormous number of rules of thumb, which they selectively apply to all the information they encounter. This contrasts with the many ways that humans and even animals are able...

I confess to being a troglodyte or cave man or idiot or whatever metaphor you'd like to use but I'm very skeptical of AI...

Ambassador Charles W. "Chas" Freeman Jr.'s nomination as chairman of the National Intelligence Council (NIC) has quickly become the Obama administration's most controversial appointment to date. Mr. Freeman's two post-government activities involved being a de facto employee of Saudi Arabia. In exchange, he received lavish support for his Middle East Policy Center (MEPC) and lucrative contracts for the consulting firm he founded to guide international companies into finding royal family-connected partners within the Saudi elite. This raises the reasonable questions as to whether Ambassador Freeman acted as an unregistered Saudi agent. This role has created significant concern about his impartiality...

Newly declassified documents show informant Stefan Halper was motivated in part by "monetary compensation" and was paid nearly $1.2 million from FBI over three decades. ********************************************************************** Akey FBI informant in the widely-debunked Russia collusion case was paid nearly $1.2 million over three decades, was motivated in part by "monetary compensation," and continued snitching even after agents concluded he told them an inaccurate story about future Trump National Security Advisor Mike Flynn, newly declassified documents show. The nearly 700 pages of once-secret documents, obtained by Just the News, were recently turned over by FBI Director Kash Patel to House Judiciary Committee...

Monday, on CNN’s “The Lead,” Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, claimed European allies would hold back intelligence sharing because of the Trump administration’s “reckless” Signal chat among senior national security officials. Goldberg said, “Why would they just have one conversation on Signal? They were obviously feeling like this is a good place to to talk. It’s not. It’s an it’s an open access commercial app.” Host Jake Tapper said, “The Israelis are upset about this story because some of the classified information apparently came from them. Senator Warner said, what happens if the Israelis are this mad and the...

In a survey of 475 Artificial Intelligence (AI) researchers, 76% said that as currently practiced, AI research was “unlikely” or even “very unlikely” to achieve Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). AGI is the hypothetical milestone where machines have advanced enough in order to learn as well or better than can humans. Thus, cold water is being thrown on predictions made early in the AI boom that current AI models only need more data, hardware, energy and money to eventually reach the goal of surpassing human intelligence. But current state-of-the-art AI models aren’t making much progress. In fact, most researchers from the...

Washington -- As President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk work to overhaul the federal government, they are forcing out thousands of workers with insider knowledge and connections who now need a job. For Russia, China and other adversaries, the upheaval in Washington as Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency guts government agencies presents an unprecedented opportunity to recruit informants, national security andintelligence experts say. Every former federal worker with knowledge of or access to sensitive information or systems could be a target. When thousands of them leave their jobs at the same time, that creates a lot of targets, as...

The United States is tonight poised to lift its ban on military aid and intelligence support for Ukraine after a plea by Sir Keir Starmer. The Prime Minister spoke to US President Donald Trump for 20 minutes ahead of peace talks in Saudi Arabia to end the three-year conflict. Downing Street sources said the PM raised the US’s suspension of intelligence-sharing and military aid in their call today. UK officials have also been convincing Ukrainian officials of the need to meet US requirements for its military backing to resume. Following his discussion with President Trump, a spokesman for the Prime...

Berlin (dpa) - Russia intends to test Western unity, especially with regard to NATO's collective defence clause, according to Bruno Kahl, the head of Germany's BND intelligence service. In an interview with Deutsche Welle broadcaster, he said Russia was considering testing the reliability of NATO's Article 5, which states that an attack on one ally must be treated as an attack on all. .... "It is also possible that a concrete threat or blackmail attempt from Russia against Europeans could occur earlier than previously calculated," Kahl said.

Fears President Zelensky’s forces may be left unable to defend the country from Russian missile attacks without American input... America has severed intelligence-sharing with Kyiv in what could be a huge blow to Ukraine’s ability to fight back against the Russians and defend itself from incoming missiles. The UK has also reportedly been blocked from sharing any intelligence provided by the US with its Ukrainian allies. There are fears such a decision could make it difficult to use weapons supplied by Britain and Europe, in addition to hampering Ukrainian efforts to carry out strikes behind Russian lines with US weapons...