Free Republic

After Donald Trump was elected in 2016, former Vice President Joe Biden became Penn professor Joe Biden, returning to the campus that awarded him an honorary degree in 2013 so he could have panel discussions on politics and foreign affairs, headline major events, drop in on classes, and establish his namesake center. His immersion in the city’s intellectual and academic life and his family ties — daughter Ashley, granddaughter Naomi and late son Beau all graduated from Penn — set up a sturdy network of local connections for the politician from neighboring Delaware.

On Saturday, President Donald Trump shook the world by accusing former President Barack Obama of wiretapping Trump Tower in the final weeks of the 2016 presidential election — a scandal comparable to "Nixon/Watergate." While news outlets reported that Trump cited "no evidence" to support his claims, there is a disturbing trail of breadcrumbs suggesting that the Obama administration did indeed do this. Kevin Lewis, a spokesman for the former president, denied these allegations, but the very denial was disingenuous at best. In fact, one might even call it Orwellian. Here it is: .....A cardinal rule of the Obama Administration was...

This story, from the Jan. 12, 2017, edition of the New York Times, was little-remarked upon at the time, but suddenly has taken on far greater significance in light of current events: In its final days, the Obama administration has expanded the power of the National Security Agency to share globally intercepted personal communications with the government’s 16 other intelligence agencies before applying privacy protections. The new rules significantly relax longstanding limits on what the N.S.A. may do with the information gathered by its most powerful surveillance operations, which are largely unregulated by American wiretapping laws. These include collecting satellite...

For years Americans' right to privacy, as granted by the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, has come under threat as the country's surveillance systems have grown. After intelligence leaks by former National Security Agency employee Edward Snowden, however, the NSA's domestic dragnet is finally getting the attention that many people feel it deserves.

If President Obama didn't know about the IRS targeting of Tea Party groups, and Hillary didn't know about security lapses in Benghazi, ...— Joseph Curl (@josephcurl) May 21, 2013 ... and Holder didn't know a thing about Justice tapping phones and reading emails of reporters, don't you wonder what ELSE they don't know?— Joseph Curl (@josephcurl) May 21, 2013

With US crude prices already down 16 percent from their April high, pundits and politicians everywhere were asking Thursday: "Why would President Obama tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve when oil prices were already falling?” The answer is simple: Obama knew this would have the maximum impact, hitting speculators on the chin, according to traders. “Arguably the timing of the release is genius,” said Stephen Weiss of Short Hills Capital. “If the SPR had been released as crude worked higher, the effect would have been relatively momentary, but releasing it now, with the momentum on crude prices turning down, will add...

A MINNESOTA teenager had to have his testicle amputated after being punched in the groin by a classmate. KARE11.com said David Gibbons, 14, was changing classes in his Crosby high school when he was attacked by another student playing a game called "sack tapping". David’s mother, Christy Gibbons, said it wasn't until hours later that they realised something was wrong. "One o'clock in the morning he woke me up and told me he was in excruciating pain," she said. David was taken to St Joseph's Hospital in Brainerd, Minnesota where surgeons removed his right testicle. And David is not the...

Whether they came down with an attack of common sense or were just finally bludgeoned into submission in a fight they were not going to win, House Democrats have given the White House pretty much the electronic surveillance bill it has demanded for many months. Why, even Barack Obama, heretofore an immutable opponent of the measure, has now decided he's fine with it - much to the howling dismay of the anti-war left that likes to think of him as their main man. The House action moves U.S. intelligence closer to full and unquestioned authority to eavesdrop on conversations in...

WASHINGTON, March 14, 2006 – With high operational tempos and multiple deployments increasingly becoming the norm, more servicemembers and their families are seeking counseling services, the Pentagon's family policy chief said. DoD started expanding its array of counseling services shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, to help counter the stress military service places on servicemembers and their families, particularly during wartime, Barbara Thompson, director of DoD's Office of Family Policy said, told American Forces Press Service. The result is a vast family-assistance counseling network that emphasizes problem solving and communications skills that help individuals and families get through difficult times....

Al Gore sure was full of righteous indignation the other day in his speech denouncing the Bush administration for selectively eavesdropping on phone calls to Americans by suspected foreign terrorists....[snip] He suggested this was one of the worst abuses by federal officials in the history of our country. But while Gore denounced the selective and limited use of wiretaps by law enforcement officials on calls generated by suspected foreign terrorists, he had no problem – just a decade ago – calling for wholesale, mandatory surveillance on the phone calls and secure computer communications of every single American. In fact, beginning...

Gal Luft is executive director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security in Washington, D.C. He is a specialist on strategic issues and energy policy with a PhD in strategic studies from Johns Hopkins University. A former lieutenant colonel in the Israel Defense Forces, his writings have appeared in Commentary, Foreign Affairs, the Los Angeles Times, Middle East Review of International Affairs, the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal. Mr. Luft addressed the Middle East Forum in Philadelphia on October 27, 2004. Introduction In both World War Two and the Cold War, the side best deploying scientific...