Free Republic

Did NYT tried to warn Suleimani? In the 11th paragraph says, What if the former commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, Qassim Suleimani, visits Baghdad for a meeting and you know the address? The temptations to use hypersonic missiles will be many.

Reps. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., expressed outrage Friday after a report said the Trump administration was considering an expansion of the nation's travel ban to cover more countries. **SNIP** “What do 5 out of 7 of these countries have in common? They are Muslim-majority countries the President already tried to ban,” Omar tweeted. It wasn't clear whether she was referring to the currently banned countries or a potential list. “We need to pass the #NoBanAct immediately to stop this madness," she added. Tlaib called the ban “Straight up racism!” “No more waiting,” she tweeted. “Too many Muslims...

More than a dozen Saudi servicemen training at US military installations will be expelled from the United States after a review that followed the deadly shooting last month at a Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida, multiple sources told CNN. The Saudis are not accused of aiding the 21-year-old Saudi Air Force second lieutenant who killed three American sailors in the December shooting, two sources said, but some are said to have connections to extremist movements, according to a person familiar with the situation. A number are also accused of possessing child pornography, according to a defense official and the...

The Trump administration is barring Iran’s top diplomat from entering the United States this week to address the United Nations Security Council about the U.S. assassination of Iran’s top military official in Baghdad, violating the terms of a 1947 headquarters agreement requiring Washington to permit foreign officials into the country to conduct U.N. business, according to three diplomatic sources. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif requested a visa a “few weeks ago” to enter the United States to attend a Jan. 9 Security Council meeting on the importance of upholding the U.N. Charter, according to a diplomatic source familiar with...

In sections of my novels, words and sentences are blacked out courtesy of the Department of Defense Office of Pre-Publication and Security Review. Most former-military thriller authors do not submit their work to the DoD for good reason: the government can’t adhere to their contract that states they will review in a time “not to exceed 30 working days from date of receipt.” The language employed in a myriad of conflicting contracts and policies is broad by design, intentionally giving the federal government the greatest leeway over who they can target for alleged violations. In documents obtained by the Knight...

If these predictions come to pass, their fulfillment will have lasting effects upon America in the 2020s and beyond. In 2008, as the Obama administration prepared to take control in Washington, retired Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey offered a list of bold predictions for the coming five years. Some of them bore out: The economy performed well globally despite the Great Recession, relations with Russia became more hostile without devolving into outright dysfunction, and the United States withdrew from Iraq right at the 36-month mark, which McCaffrey specified. Other predictions, such as a North Korean collapse, improved prospects for success in...

A bipartisan defense budget agreement will authorize the creation of the Space Force. The Space Force will be, like the Army or Air Force, a distinct military service under the Pentagon. The service will take over space functions from existing services, wielding them into a single independent branch overseen by a Chief of Space Operations. It’s really happening. A bipartisan budget agreement for 2020 will see the creation of a new branch of the military specifically oriented towards space. The United States Space Force will be the first new service branch in more than 60 years, tasked to ensure America’s...

WASHINGTON — A pair of documentary film organizations sued the Trump administration on Thursday over its requirement that foreigners disclose their social media accounts — including pseudonymous ones — when they apply for visas. The lawsuit, which raises novel issues about privacy and surveillance in the social-media era, challenged a rule the State Department put into effect this year. The requirement grew out of President Trump’s campaign promise of “extreme vetting” and his early executive orders that barred travel into the United States from several Muslim-majority nations. In particular, the lawsuit argues, forcing people from authoritarian countries to disclose the...

While public discussions of U.S.-China relations focus overwhelmingly on tariffs, threats tied to cyberespionage also are getting increased attention from commentators and government officials. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), for example, is tackling problems associated with Chinese firm Huawei, particularly its equipment’s use in next generation (5G) communications networks. Security concerns, however, go well beyond Huawei and beyond 5G. Any process that incorporates computer chips as well as any process that occurs at the direction of an electronically transmitted instruction is potentially vulnerable to cyber-espionage and cyber-warfare. In the internet age, this covers virtually everything that relies on communication or...

Former Trump administration advisor John Bolton said that the United States’ commitments to national security are “under attack from within” in a tweet Tuesday. “It probably goes without saying, that our country’s commitment to our national security priorities is under attack from within. America is distracted. Our enemies are not,” Bolton wrote. “We need to make U.S. national security a priority. #JohnBolton” The former U.N. ambassador, who left the White House earlier this year, returned to Twitter this month with a strange tweet telling people to “stay tuned.” “Glad to be back on Twitter after more than two months. For...

KYIV, Ukraine—As the Russian shells and rockets rained down on them in the frontline town of Debaltseve in February 2015, Ukrainian troops began to receive curious, anonymous text messages on their cellphones. “Your comrades nearby already left their positions, so you should leave yours as well,” one message read. The messages also claimed that Petro Poroshenko, Ukraine’s president at that time, as well as Ukrainian military commanders, had “betrayed” their soldiers. The Ukrainian military later concluded that Russian military forces had taken over the local cellphone network with mobile jamming stations. The text messages were part of a psychological operation...

Attorneys for the whistleblower who triggered impeachment proceedings against President Trump see the three-decade "Deep Throat" mystery as a model for keeping his identity secret. The secret of "Deep Throat" was kept from the early '70s until 2005, when former FBI associate director Mark Felt came forward at 91 years old. He died two years later. Whistleblower attorney Mark Zaid, an aficionado of Watergate history, said leaving his client's identity unresolved indefinitely would encourage future whistleblowers. “Our ideal ending is that the identity of the whistleblower is never known and the individual continues on with their personal and professional life...

Full title: What a Head Scratcher: Biden Lectures Crowd About Not Getting 'Do-Overs When It Comes to National Security' 1:40 min. Video at link. Former Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday lectured Iowa voters about the dangers of making the wrong decisions when it comes to international relations, saying there's no "do-overs when it comes to national security." "All the consequences I’ve mentioned, every single one can be laid at the feet of Donald Trump. You know, he green-lighted Turkish invasion. Now he’s left asking Turkey to stop it. But the damage is done," Biden explained to the crowd. "You...

FULL TITLE: The First Illegal Alien To Commit A North American Terrorist Attack Is On Trial, But Don’t Expect The Media To Cover It Trump, after all the media ridicule, was correct in saying that potential terrorists have illegally crossed the United States' southern border. Abdulahi Hasan Sharif of Somalia did. And it could happen again. Many who have professionally worried, as did former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, that violent jihadists might illegally cross the United States’ southern border are often sanctimoniously challenged with this: “Name a single U.S. border-crossing immigrant asylum-seeker who ever committed a terrorist...

Under a long-term deal sealed by the Obama administration, a Chinese Communist company was set to control the second-busiest container port in the United States. In an unreported Trump administration victory, the Communists are out after a drawn-out national security review forced a unit of China-based COSCO Shipping Holdings Co. (Orient Overseas Container Line—OOCL) to sell the cherished container terminal business, which handles among the largest freight of imports into the U.S. It all started with a 40-year container terminal lease between the Port of Long Beach in southern California and Hong Kong. The Obama administration proudly signed the agreement...

Trump’s communications with foreign leader are part of whistleblower complaint that spurred standoff between spy chief and Congress, former officials say The whistleblower complaint that has triggered a tense showdown between the U.S. intelligence community and Congress involves President Trump’s communications with a foreign leader, according to two former U.S. officials familiar with the matter. Trump’s interaction with the foreign leader included a “promise” that was regarded as so troubling that it prompted an official in the U.S. intelligence community to file a formal whistleblower complaint with the inspector general for the intelligence community, said the former officials, speaking on...

Federal prosecutors on Wednesday claimed a former American Airlines mechanic accused of sabotaging a flight’s navigation system had ties to ISIS, according to ABC10. Prosecutors in Miami said Abdul-Majeed Marouf Ahmed Alani admitted to sabotaging the airplane July 17 ahead of a scheduled flight from Miami to Nassau, Bahamas, but said it was out of frustration over stalled union contract talks.

President Trump named Robert C. O’Brien as his new national security adviser, picking a top hostage-affairs official for the high-profile White House role... (President) Trump tweeted the announcement Wednesday morning, writing "I have worked long & hard with Robert. He will do a great job!"... Mr. O’Brien, who currently serves as special envoy for hostage affairs at the State Department, will be Mr. Trump’s fourth national security adviser. He also served under the George W. Bush administration at both the U.S. Mission to the United Nations and the State Department... Most recently, Mr. O’Brien was sent to Sweden to help...

This year's National Defense Strategy heralded the return of peer competitors and the re-emergence of long-term great power competition.  The debate among national security experts that followed its publication mostly focused on whether China or Russia is the bigger long-term threat to the U.S. China is a rising power with national ambitions whose goal is to supplant U.S. atop the global hierarchy.  Russia?  It's a vodka-addled demographic basket case that runs a few troll farms, whose closest economic peers are Italy and Brazil.   But, an increasingly dangerous China is at best the number two national security threat, dwarfed by the much clearer...

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) on Tuesday said the Trump administration should declare racist beliefs a threat to U.S. national security. During a hearing of the House Homeland Security Committee, Jackson Lee said that the attack in her home state of Texas last week displayed the danger of ignoring U.S. residents who foster white supremacist views. "I believe that racism ... should be declared a national security threat," Jackson Lee said. "Racism is a national security threat. Before, we would say, 'you have a right to your racist views. You have a right to believe that slavery was right. That...