Free Republic

Wyden: NSA Must Answer Whether it is Buying Americans’ Location Data and Web Browsing Records Before New Director Is Confirmed Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, D-Ore., announced he will place a hold on the nomination of Lt. Gen. Timothy Haugh to serve as director of the National Security Agency (NSA) until the NSA discloses whether it is buying Americans’ location data and web browsing records. In a statement placed in the Congressional record this afternoon, Wyden said the Defense Department has refused to make public important information about purchases of Americans’ personal data — information that the government...

ALLUM BOKHARI: Michael Hayden has been in the news lately after he called for Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville to be "removed from the human race," a comment the senator condemned as a call for assassination. This wasn't the first partisan outburst from Hayden. He's also compared Trump supporters to the Taliban, called the Trump movement "more dangerous than al Qaeda," and even said that unvaxxed MAGA supporters should be given a "one-way ticket to Afghanistan." But who is Michael Hayden and why should we care? Hayden is currently an advisor to NewsGuard, an organization that claims to offer nonpartisan assessments...

McMaster had purged Derek Harvey, one of the NSC's best people on the Middle East, for trying to fire Obama holdovers. "In the late 1980s, Harvey traveled throughout Iraq by taxicab—500 miles, village to village—interviewing locals, sleeping on mud floors with a shower curtain for a door. He [was] full of questions, intensely curious and entirely nonthreatening. After the 1991 Gulf War, when the CIA was predicting the inevitable fall of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, Harvey, then a major, insisted that Hussein would survive because members of the Sunni community knew their fortunes were tied to his. He was right....

For this week's Big Ideas with Ben Weingarten podcast, my guest was Rich Higgins. Higgins, an expert in unconventional warfare and combatting terrorism with over 20 years experience at senior levels of the Defense Department, and early supporter of President Trump, served as director for strategic planning in President Trump's National Security Council (NSC). That all changed when a memo that he produced for President Trump warning of the political warfare he was to face internally from the Deep State, and externally from the media and like-minded interest groups in collusion with the administrative state, leaked out to the public....

No President of The United States ever before faced anything comparable to the organized effort of officials within his administration to sabotage Donald J. Trump’s presidency and drive him from office. The Memo by Rich Higgins [216 pp, Kindle 9.99 Hard Copy 22.34 ISBN‎-0999705938‎ Washington D.C. Calamo Press 2020] is a first and only book by an American soldier and patriot who exposes the deep state and the anti-Trump coup activities. Rich Higgins earned his early reputation as an ordnance (explosives) expert in Iraq during and after the War for Iraqi Freedom of 2002 and 2003. Higgins went from being...

A data scientist named Tony Seruga said that his team tracked January 6 “ghost buses” and found instigators coming from Department of Justice vans. These claims add more context to recent allegations that January 6 was strategized in advance on Antifa discord servers, and they should alarm every freedom-loving American. Congressman Clay Higgins of Louisiana called attention to alleged ghost buses when he was grilling FBI director Christopher Wray. Christopher Wray, seemingly terrified, chose his words carefully to try to discredit Higgins, but since their exchange more information has come to light. CLICK ABOVE ARTICLE LINK FOR THE VIDEO...

A senior CIA official this week said Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is "absolutely wrong" to oppose placing all components of the intelligence community -- including those now under the authority of the Pentagon -- under the centralized control of the director of central intelligence. James Simon, assistant director of central intelligence for administration, said he supports a recommendation advanced by retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Brent Scowcroft, head of the president's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, to transfer the National Security Agency, National Imagery and Mapping Agency, and National Reconnaissance Office from the purview of DOD to direct DCI control. "Brent...

The shooting took place in Tehran. Speculations that the ambush is part of Israel's response to the Hamas attack. The response is not limited to the Gaza Strip. A senior intelligence official of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Mohammad Akiki, was ambushed and is in critical condition. The assassination attempt took place in Tehran, Iran. [Translated from Italian.]

@Sprinter99800 Tucker Carlson was called to Washington because of a possible interview with Putin. Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson said the US National Security Agency hacked into his Signal account and read correspondence about a planned interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin. According to the presenter, he received a call and was summoned to Washington to clarify the situation. When he arrived, the question was asked if he was planning a trip to meet with Putin. “How did you know, I didn’t tell anyone. Not at all. Not to my brother, not to my wife, not to anyone at...

US personal savings are being exhausted as The Fed raises rates to fight inflation. I call this phenomenon “low riding” where consumers are being punished by The Federal Reserve and Biden Administration. Meanwhile, large bank loan volumes are shrinking. With money-market fund assets hitting new highs, and banks’ usage of The Fed’s emergency funds facility at record highs, we wonder how much longer The Fed can keep the dream of rising deposits alive (after last week’s massive NSA inflows). On a seasonally-adjusted basis, The Fed says that total deposits dropped $11BN last week (the first decline in 4 weeks). We...

Remember the unmasking of phone calls of Trump administration members? If not, here's an old article on the subject: https://www.nationalreview.com/2017/04/susan-rice-unmasking-trump-campaign-members-obama-administration-fbi-cia-nsa Since there is "precedence" for this behavior, this technique can be used to reveal exactly what any of the Bidens were discussing with their overseas business partners, possibly including Joe himself. NSA records literally everything transmitted over air and since at least 9/11 has been slurping up everything on overseas lines at the switching equipment. Even if the switch taps are no longer in place, overseas cables are tapped by now (if they haven't been from the get go).

The Daily Signal has been able to get 217 pages from the National Security Administration (NSA) under FOIA. Those pages show the huge effort to “torpedo” the Trump administration before they even took office with an effort to go after Gen. Michael Flynn, the man who would be National Security Advisor for President Donald Trump.Flynn’s conversation with the Russian ambassador in the period between November 2016 and Jan. 2017 was intercepted by intelligence officials for the Obama administration, and then his name was unmasked.The Signal requested the information in March 2021 and didn’t get the documents until June 30, 2023.Some...

I have repeatedly noticed that articles posted on freerepublic are seldom seen in search engine results. When I have searched for article I post on Gun Watch, which is a small blog, the Gun Watch articles appear in search engines. When the identical article is posted on Freerepublic, it does not show up on search engines, unless the search term freerepublic is specifically included. Freerepublic has a much greater circulation than Gun Watch. Has anyone else seen evidence the search engines undervalue freerepublic?

IN BRIEF A US intelligence boss has asked Congress to reauthorize a controversial set of powers that give snoops warrantless authorization to surveil electronic communications in the name of fighting terrorism and so forth. NSA director General Paul Nakasone told the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board yesterday that the loss of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) would mean American spies would "lose critical insights into the most significant threats to our nation" if allowed to lapse on December 31. In his speech, Nakasone said Section 702 is "irreplaceable," and he provided several stories of the...

The National Security Agency (NSA), the secretive domestic spying arm of the federal government, is reportedly looking to hire thousands of laid-off Big Tech workers to expand its intelligence activities. In its biggest hiring spree in 30 years, the NSA began reaching out to Big Tech workers on LinkedIn last fall, running on predictions that mass layoffs would soon come to Silicon Valley. From The Washington Times: The National Security Agency is doggedly courting laid-off Big Tech workers as the spy agency undertakes one of its largest hiring surges in the last 30 years. The NSA began privately reaching out...

The FBI revealed how the bureau uses the CIA and National Security Agency to probe the private lives of Americans without a warrant in its updated rulebook, which is the first version made public since the Obama administration. The handbook, rewritten in 2021, confirms a decade-old leak showcasing the bureau’s collaboration with the CIA and NSA for FBI probes that may involve surveillance without court orders against people not accused of any crimes. Such probes are known as “assessments” at the FBI. The revelations will fuel critics who have long accused the FBI of abusing its national security surveillance powers.

Italian general: US official bragged Benedict would be ‘forced’ to resign weeks after 2005 electionThe Italian general alleges that a US official of 'the highest ranks' had bragged in 2005 that Pope Benedict XVI would be forced to resign.On the eve of Pope Benedict XVI’s burial, Piero Laporta, a retired Italian brigadier general, published a stunning piece on his own blog.This Catholic author, who previously lobbied to have Benedict participate (and influence) the controversial Synod on the Family some eight years ago, is now revealing that in the first weeks after the election of Joseph Ratzinger to the papal throne...

On the eve of Pope Benedict XVI’s burial, Piero Laporta, a retired Italian brigadier general, published a stunning piece on his own blog.This Catholic author, who previously lobbied to have Benedict participate (and influence) the controversial Synod on the Family some eight years ago, is now revealing that in the first weeks after the election of Joseph Ratzinger to the papal throne in 2005, an official of the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) “was bragging about the resignation to which H.H. Benedict XVI of revered memory would soon be forced.”If this story is true, however, “soon” would have to mean...

The Kremlin’s hand isn’t necessarily behind every bit of fake news. But many who write misinformation also interact with people and organizations linked with the Kremlin who use cultural events and diaspora outreach as a guise for lobbying and spreading propaganda. These organizations don't go unnoticed by the law...The Kyiv Independent mapped these connections to allow readers to draw their own informed conclusions about the credibility of these people and organizations. This article profiles several people and groups with alleged ties to the Kremlin. The visual map that accompanies the article displays the people in their orbit and how they’re...

Robert O’Brien, former national security adviser in the Trump administration, says that the Russians were willing to make a deal to release both Paul Whelan and Trevor Reed before Trump lost the 2020 presidential election. The Russians reneged on the deal after Biden was declared the winner of the election, according to O’Brien. The goal for the Russians was to improve relations between Washington and Moscow after a meeting in October 2020. But, when the election was called for Biden in November, the deal was off. The article in The Hill that reports on O’Brien’s comments does not mention an...