Free Republic

An IT specialist employed by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) was arrested today for attempting to transmit national defense information to an officer or agent of a foreign government. Nathan Vilas Laatsch, 28, of Alexandria, was arrested in northern Virginia and will make his initial court appearance tomorrow. According to court documents, Laatsch became a civilian employee of the DIA in 2019, where he works with the Insider Threat Division and holds a Top Secret security clearance. In March, the FBI commenced an operation after receiving a tip that an individual - now known to be Laatsch - offered to...

Former Treasury Department official Natalie “May” Edwards said she is a whistleblower who sent suspicious activity reports to BuzzFeed News after trying in vain to work through lawful channels. Her actions became the basis for the global FinCEN Files investigation.. Natalie “May” Edwards has made a pact with her 16-year-old daughter: Every night before bed for the next six months, each will say a quiet prayer at the exact same time. Her daughter will be doing so from home in Virginia. Edwards will be doing so from a women’s federal prison in West Virginia. “I am emotionally prepared as far...

FBI agents have made an arrest in their investigation into leaked classified documents, Fox News has learned, as the bureau focuses on a Massachusetts Air National Guardsman. Police vehicles were seen at a Massachusetts location believed to be connected with the guardsman. The guardsman's security clearance and access to classified government systems have been revoked, according an internal government document reviewed by Fox News.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Experts said on Saturday they were worried by a leaked report that describes an outbreak of smallpox in the Soviet Union -- one they say may point to the testing of a smallpox biological weapon.Seven people became ill in the 1971 outbreak and three died of what appeared to be the more fatal, and more rare, hemorrhagic form of the infection, said Dr. Alan Zelicoff of the Monterey Institute of International Studies, one of the authors of the report."Someone has successfully disseminated smallpox as an aerosol," Zelicoff said in an interview."It has been talked about and it...

MI6 hired Al Qaeda men to kill Gaddafi: ex-official By Martin Bright LONDON: The British government will this week go to unprecedented lengths to stop a renegade counter-intelligence officer, David Shayler, from making his most devastating claim yet : that the Libyan Islamic cell paid by British intelligence agents to assassinate Colonel Gaddafi in February 1996 were members of Al Qaeda. The Libyan cell is believed to have included one of Osama bin Laden's most trusted lieutenants, Anas al-Liby, who remains on the US government's most wanted list with a reward of $25 million for his capture. Al-Liby lived in...

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...

The Pentagon Inspector General expanded his investigation into Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s use of the double-encrypted app Signal. Steven Stebbins took over as Acting Inspector General after President Trump fired the previous IG and 17 other inspectors general. Stebbins was first appointed to his position in 2015. Pete Hegseth has been under heavy attack since before his confirmation hearing and the leaks keep coming.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed apparently classified details about the pager operation against Hezbollah, when he publicly referred to an intelligence operation that preceded the pager attack.The remarks were made during his speech at the JNS International Policy Summit in Jerusalem, and reportedly caused great surprise in the defense establishment, according to Israel's Channel 12 news....Netanyahu shared that the decision to eliminate Nasrallah was made while he was flying to the U.S., after receiving intelligence that Nasrallah would likely leave the place he was staying within the next couple days, and that Israeli intelligence did not know where he would...

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange was among the mourners attending Pope Francis’s funeral in St. Peter’s Square, Vatican City, on Saturday. Pope Francis had been a supporter of Assange and had even suggested giving him asylum in the Vatican. “Now Julian is free, we have all come to Rome to express our family’s gratitude for the Pope’s support during Julian’s persecution. Our children and I had the honor of meeting Pope Francis in June 2023 to discuss how to free Julian from Belmarsh prison. Francis wrote to Julian in… pic.twitter.com/1B4iNp31Is — WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) April 26, 2025 “Now Julian is free, we...

An attorney for Trump, Jay Sekulow and his senior counsel Carly Gammill appeared in a Washington D.C. federal court last week to find out when they will be receiving documents related to the Obama unmasking scandal. The ACLJ (American Center For Law and Justice) filed a FOIA lawsuit last summer and they are just now beginning to receive documents. Sekulow revealed the first batch of unmasking documents on his radio show Jay Live on Tuesday. The ACLJ received heavily redacted emails from former US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power that show unprecedented unmasking and political bias in the final...

The O’Keefe Media Group on Wednesday released undercover video of a Defense Department Branch Chief attacking President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Nicolas Turza, a Department of Defense Branch Chief, called President Trump “illegitimate” and vowed to “resist him, everything he does.” Turza also attacked Hegseth and said the 44-year-old is “insanely young” and unfit to lead. “The same guy who tried to overthrow an election is just, like, truly setting us down a path of dictatorship. He’s illegitimate. He’s terribly immoral, breaking every norm. We’re going to resist him. Everything he does,” Turza said about Trump.

Donald Trump and Joe Biden officials ‘improperly shared’ sensitive documents with over 11,000 federal workers, The Washington Post reported on Sunday, citing internal records. These documents included classified White House floor plans. The lapse by the General Services Administration, which supports the basic functioning of the government and manages its real estate portfolio, triggered a cybersecurity incident report and investigation last week, the report added. WaPo added that the internal records showed that a Google Drive folder was shared with the entire GSA staff, more than 11,200 people. It included sensitive documents and the White House floor plan. Details of...

What a big surprise that a few leakers get fired and suddenly a bunch of hit pieces come out! They take anonymous sources from disgruntled former employees, and then they try to slash and burn people and ruin their reputations. NOT going to work with me, because we're changing the Defense Department, putting the Pentagon back in the hands of war fighters and anonymous smears from disgruntled former employees on old news doesn't matter.

I would not be surprised to see a denial of this report, probably before I'm done writing about it. NPR is reporting that, according to an anonymous US official, the White House is now looking for a new Secretary of Defense to replace Pete Hegseth. The White House has begun the process of looking for a new secretary of defense, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to speak publicly... This comes as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth continues to find himself mired in controversy. NPR has also confirmed with the same official that Hegseth shared details ahead of...

Laura Loomer @LauraLoomer Why do we still have Biden holdovers and career anti-Trump bureaucrats at the National Intelligence Council undermining President Trump and his agenda? Perhaps some folks over at the National intelligence council need to be replaced if they want to promote open borders. How embarrassing for the administration. Donald Trump deserves better. It all comes down to vetting. Cc: @realDonaldTrump @JDVance @DNIGabbard @TulsiGabbard 3:22 PM · Apr 20, 2025

Israel will prepare for possible action against Iran’s nuclear facilities after a series of secret meetings between the prime minister and leaders from the defense and intelligence ministries, according to a leaked report. "Israel will not allow Iran to become nuclear," Brigadier-General (Reserves) Amir Avivi, founder and chairman of the Israeli Defense Security Forum, told Fox News Digital. "As we are witnessing the continued unhindered progress of the Iranian military nuclear program with weapons-grade enrichment, Israel is readying its credible military option." Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held five meetings with his defense and intelligence chiefs, as well as the...

Secretary Pete Hegseth has placed Deputy Chief of Staff Darin Selnick on administrative leave. This action follows an ongoing investigation into unauthorized disclosures of sensitive military information. Selnick, an Air Force veteran and former senior adviser to Concerned Veterans for America, was escorted from the Pentagon on Tuesday, according to Politico. Politico reported: Darin Selnick, the Pentagon’s deputy chief of staff, was also suspended as part of the same probe and escorted out of the building, according to one of the officials. The leaks under investigation include military operational plans for the Panama canal, a second carrier headed to the...

Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, has said the inadvertent leak of classified military plans by senior US officials means that allied nations must increasingly “look out for ourselves” as trust frays with a once-close ally. Speaking a day after it was revealed that a journalist was accidentally included in a group chat discussing airstrikes against Yemeni rebels, Carney said the intelligence blunder was a “serious, serious issue and all lessons must be taken”. He said it would be critical to see “how people react to those mistakes and how they tighten them up”.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is under attack once again. Anonymous sources told The Wall Street Journal that Pete Hegseth brought his wife, Jennifer Hegseth, to two meetings with foreign military officials, during which they discussed sensitive information. According to The Wall Street Journal, Jennifer Hegseth, a private citizen, was present at a meeting at the Pentagon when Pete Hegseth met with U.K. Secretary of Defense John Healey in early March. Hegseth’s wife was also present at a meeting last month at NATO headquarters in Brussels. Spouses of high-ranking presidential administration officials usually have a low-level security clearance, at minimum. The...

A second member of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth's inner circle has been placed on leave after an investigation into leaks of potentially sensitive information. Darin Selnick, the Defense Department's deputy chief of staff, was suspended from duty and escorted out of the building. This came on the heels of another Hegseth aide, Dan Caldwell, being escorted out of the Pentagon; see Hegseth Advisor Who Was Included in Leaked Signal Text Chain Escorted From Pentagon, Placed on Leave – RedState.Selnick is a retired Air Force officer and, like Caldwell, was part of a group Hegseth brought with him from Concerned...