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Following his long-awaited announcement detailing a proposal for massive defense spending cuts and an overall reduction in military personnel, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta revealed his list of the risks and the most pressing threats to America's security. "This is going to be tough," Panetta told reporters Thursday. "Obviously it will be a smaller force, and when you have a smaller force there are risks associated with that in terms of our capability to respond." So in the near future where will the world’s strongest military need to respond? Panetta says there's a long list of potential problems. Among his top...

... In November of 2011, the Washington Post reported that the Iranian government had mastered the critical steps needed to build a nuclear weapon after receiving assistance from foreign scientists. The Post went on to say: An intelligence update will be circulated among International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA] members... It is expected to focus on Iran's alleged efforts towards putting radioactive material in a warhead and developing missiles... Julian Borger of the Guardian-UK reported in November of 2009: The UN's nuclear watchdog has asked Iran to explain evidence suggesting that Iranian scientists have experimented with an advanced nuclear warhead design......

We Stand for Principle Over Politicsand the Establishment Can't Stand It December 21, 2011 BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: "House Democrats tried Wednesday to force a vote on the Senate’s two-month extension of the payroll-tax cut, but Republicans gaveled the House closed to prevent them from having a chance, as top GOP leaders huddled down the hall to try to figure a way out of the mess. The House was set to hold a pro forma session, but two top Democrats, Reps. Steny H. Hoyer and Chris Van Hollen, demanded to be recognized to try to force a vote on the...

Iran is a year or less from “N-Day,” but the United States will stop it – no matter what, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told CBS Monday night. His comments were far stronger than those of President Barack Obama, who has said that Iran must not reach nuclear capability but has not categorically stated that his administration will prevent it. Concerning the “military option,” Panetta told interviewer Scott Pelley, “There are no options off the table.” Asked if the Ahmadinejad regime can produce a nuclear weapon by the end of 2012, Panetta answered, “It would probably be about a year before...

Mideast: Our premature departure from Iraq tells the world that the U.S., as in Vietnam, can't finish big jobs. But far worse, it opens the door to a nuclear-armed, pan-Islamist empire led by Iran. Why, as Fox News correspondent Jennifer Griffin reported Thursday, did Iraqi leaders opt out of the official end-of-war ceremony in Baghdad? Well over 4,000 U.S. servicemen and women gave their lives to free Iraq from Saddam Hussein, and some 32,000 were wounded over nearly a decade of war. Shouldn't the elected representatives of the Iraqi people have been there to express their personal thanks? After all,...

BAGHDAD (AP) — After nearly nine years, 4,500 American dead and 100,000 Iraqi dead, U.S. officials formally shut down the war in Iraq — a conflict that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said was worth the American sacrifice because it set Iraq on a path to democracy. Panetta stepped off his military plane in Baghdad Thursday as the leader of America's war in Iraq, but departed as one of many U.S. and global officials who hope to work with the struggling nation as it tries to find its new place in the Middle East and the broader world. Bombings and gun...

The former House speaker doesn't like Panetta pressuring Israel to 'get to the damn table' for peace negotiations Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich continues to rail against the Obama administration for its Israel policy, saying it is "actively and materially harming Israel" after a speech by the administration's Pentagon Chief Leon Panetta. In a post on his campaign website yesterday, Gingrich attacked the three pillars of U.S. policy toward the Middle East that Panetta laid out in his speech at the Brookings Institution on Friday, suggesting the policies are actually hurting, rather than helping. Gingrich's position is no surprise, as...

Israeli government ministers have reacted with fury to comments made by Hillary Clinton expressing her concern for the state of democracy in Israel and the status of Israeli women. The US Secretary of State reportedly criticised legislation proposed by Benjamin Netanyahu's government that would curb funding from international bodies to organisations working to promote human rights withn Israel. She told the audience of US and Israeli officials on Saturday of her shock on hearing reports of gender segregation on buses operating in Jerusalem, which she claimed was "reminiscent of Rosa Parks", the African American woman who refused to give up...

The stunning showing by Salafist parties in the first round of Egypt's parliamentary elections surprised Israeli officials as much as the rest of the world. The estimated 40 percent of the vote that went to the Muslim Brotherhood, the party that founded modern political Islam, was about in line with pre-election polls. But the unexpectedly strong showing by the Salafis -- fundamentalist Sunni Muslims who hold that the only true Islam was practiced around the time of the Prophet Mohammad, 1,300 years ago -- could put a group that rejects modernism in a pivotal position in Egypt's new democracy. “This...

(Reuters) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on Monday for a snap leadership vote in his Likud party, a contest he is expected to win and which could pave the way for an early national election in Israel. Some commentators said Netanyahu was quietly preparing for the possibility that President Barack Obama, with whom he has had a testy relationship, will win a second and final term in November, a year before Israel's currently scheduled ballot. Freed of campaigning interests if he wins, the Democratic president could redouble pressure on the rightist premier to accommodate the Palestinians in peacemaking, deepening...

Howard Gutman, the U.S.ambassador to Belgium created a firestorm with his comments suggesting “new” anti-Semitism stems from the failure to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. This is balderdash and only emphasizes the lack of sympatico between this administration and the Jewish state. Early Sunday Mitt Romney released a statement: “President Obama must fire his ambassador to Belgium for rationalizing and downplaying anti-Semitism and linking it to Israeli policy toward the Palestinians. The ambassador’s comments demonstrate the Obama administration’s failure to understand the worldwide campaign to delegitimize Israel and its appalling penchant for undermining our close ally.” By the end of the...

There is a lot of anger all around in recent days over various remarks made by Obama administration officials. The Anti-Defamation League is angry about Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s remarks at this year’s Saban Forum: We are deeply troubled by the message sent by Secretary Panetta at precisely a moment when the region is so volatile and uncertain. The Defense Secretary emphasized the shared U.S. and Israeli interest in deepened strategic cooperation and in countering the Iranian threat. But he undermined the sense of assurance that this could have projected by using a prestigious public platform to focus disproportionate responsibility...

In recent days, there has been a truly frightening articulation of the US administration’s perception of Israel vis-à-vis the Muslim world. On Friday, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta essentially blamed Israel for its own “increasing isolation,” urging the Jewish state to reach out to its neighbors. He suggested that Israel make diplomatic inroads with the Muslim Brotherhood’s Egypt, Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s increasingly Islamist and anti-Israel Turkey, and vulnerable Jordan, a country whose leadership – for the sake of self-preservation – has been making concessions to its own Muslim Brotherhood. And when asked at the end of his speech at the Brookings...

The United States has pointedly ramped up its public warnings over the last few weeks about the risks of military action against Iran, accompanied by private words of caution to Israel, which sees Tehran’s nuclear push as a direct threat. But so far, at least, comments by U.S. and Israeli officials suggest that Washington's private lobbying has yet to convince Israeli hard-liners and even some moderates that alternatives, like sanctions and diplomatic pressure, will ultimately succeed in curbing Iran’s nuclear ambitions. It is unclear whether the differing views are any indication about whether Israel might be moving closer to a...

Just when you think that the Obama administration hasn’t annoyed the American Jewish community quite enough or publicly insulted our democratic ally Israel sufficiently, along comes an administration figure willing to stick his finger in the eye of the Jewish state. On Friday, that task fell to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. Speaking at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institute, Panetta mouthed some nice words about the two countries’ relationship. Platitudes were not in short supply: “[I]n this time of understandable anxiety, I would like to underscore one thing that has stayed constant over the past...

Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta spoke sternly on Friday to America’s closest ally in the Middle East, telling Israel that it is partly responsible for its increasing isolation and that it now must take “bold action” — diplomatic, not military — to mend ties with its Arab neighbors and settle previously intractable territorial disputes with the Palestinians. “I believe security is dependent on a strong military, but it is also dependent on strong diplomacy,” Mr. Panetta said.

... Obama has turned out to be the war president, choosing to empower his Islamist friends at the expense of American interests -- policy that promises to enslave millions of people in Egypt and other countries where the Islamic contagion is sweeping through the region. Mr. Panetta, how can this be good for America and the world? I realize that you do not care what impact your views and directives have on Israel because your administration is in a punishing mood with regard to Israel, where every new home and business there being scrutinized and stopped because you have decided...

Charlie:: “You coulda been another Billy Conn, and that skunk we got you for a manager, he brought you along too fast.” Terry: “It wasn’t him, Charley, it was you. Remember that night in the Garden you came down to my dressing room and you said, `Kid, this ain’t your night. We’re going for the price on Wilson.’….I coulda taken Wilson apart! So what happens? He gets the title shot outdoors on the ballpark and what do I get? A one-way ticket to Palooka-ville! You was my brother, Charley, you shoulda looked out for me a little bit. You shoulda...

Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul said that, if the congressional supercommittee fails to reach a deficit-reduction agreement before Thanksgiving, that might be the best way to force the government to cut spending. "It's sort of like telling your children that, if you don't clean up your mess — or else," Paul said today on CNN's "State of the Union." "Really, maybe we need the ‘or else’ because Congress isn't behaving the way they should be behaving. Maybe sequestration is our only way we will get any kind of cuts." Sequestration, the term used for automatic spending cuts that will be...

Open Letter to Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and President Barack Obama Gentlemen, For the last seven years I have written about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I have covered the US Army, Marines, Air Force and Navy. I’ve also covered the British, Lithuanian, Afghan and Iraqi forces, among others, in places ranging from Iraq to the Philippines and beyond. My most recent embed in Afghanistan was at personal invitation from then-General David Petraeus. It is said that I have spent more time with American combat forces than any writer in US history. I do not know if this...

Leon Panetta visited Israel to warn about its "growing isolation" and he is half right. Right about the isolation and wrong about the growing part. Israel is isolated in the Middle-East, but its isolation is a constant reality, not a growing phenomenon. It is not isolated because of its policies, as its critics claim, but because its identity is at odds with a region dominated by Arab-Muslims whose national identities is closely tied to ethnicity and religion. Israel is isolated in the same way that the United States and Canada are isolated among a hemisphere of Latino states or they...

President Obama’s new defense secretary, Leon Panetta, has bought into the myth that Israeli inflexibility is the source of the Palestinian conflict. He is publicly saying that the ball is in Israel’s court, and it is now the Jewish state’s responsibility to advance the peace process. He warns that it is becoming more isolated, and Israel must be a better partner in the region. In other words, Israel is to blame. On Sunday, Panetta said, “[T]he question you have to ask: Is it enough to maintain a military edge if you’re isolating yourself in the diplomatic arena? Real security can...

Catherine Ashton Wikimedia CommonEuropean Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton raced to assure Palestinian Authority officials they were still on the EU dole. “Ashton informed Abbas that the EU projects to the PA and the Palestinians which are carried out in the Palestinian Territories, won’t be frozen due to the PA Leader move at the UN,” the Arabic-language Al-Quds newspaper reported, citing sources close to PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas. Ashton's assurances come on the heels of reports the United States Congress was blocking the transfer of $200 million to cash-strapped officials in Ramallah due to Abbas' statehood gambit at the...

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta warned Sunday that Israel is becoming increasingly isolated in the Middle East, The Associated Press reported. Panetta added Israel must restart negotiations with the Palestinian Authority and work to restore relations with Egypt and Turkey. Panetta made the comments as he was traveling to Israel, saying the ongoing upheaval in the Middle East makes it critical for the Israelis to find ways to communicate with other nations in the region in order to have stability. “There’s not much question in my mind that they maintain that (military) edge,” AP quoted Panetta as having told reporters...

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is in the Middle East to assess Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts and also take the temperature of Egypt. Panetta left Sunday on his trip, which also will take him to Brussels, where he’ll meet with NATO defense ministers. First, Panetta is sitting down with Israeli and Palestinian leaders. "There's not much question in my mind that they maintain that (military) edge," he told reporters, the AP reported. "But the question you have to ask: Is it enough to maintain a military edge if you're isolating yourself in the diplomatic arena?

U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta will arrive in Israel on Monday and meet with Defense Minister Ehud Barak. The two are due to discuss several issues including security ties between the U.S. and Israel, the Palestinian drive for independence, the "Arab Spring" and the Iranian nuclear program. This will be the second meeting between Barak and Panetta within two weeks. The last meeting took place when Barak visited Washington just before the opening session of the United Nations' General Assembly that dealt with the Palestinian application. Barak also held meetings with General David Petraeus, who replaced Panetta as director...

US Secretary of defense, Leon Panetta, just came to town and warned that Israel is becoming “increasingly isolated” and must restart negotiations with the Palestinian Authority and work to restore relations with Egypt and Turkey. Why? According to Fox News, he said the ongoing upheaval in the Middle East makes it critical for the Israelis to find ways to communicate with other nations in the region in order to have stability. His remarks come on the heels of Bill Clinton's attack on Netanyahu for the failure of the peace process and Gates’ parting shot according to Elliot Abrams “Gates argued...

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta warned Sunday that Israel was at risk of becoming isolated and more vulnerable if it did not take steps to repair ties with neighboring countries and restart negotiations with the Palestinians. The U.S. remains committed to helping Israel maintain its "qualitative military edge" in the Middle East, Mr. Panetta said. But he added that genuine security would not come through military hardware, but by returning to peace negotiations. "The question you have to ask is: 'Is it enough to maintain a military edge if you are isolating yourself in the diplomatic arena?'" he said. "Real...

According to an explosive document, investigators from the U.S. military’s top investigative office found evidence that a Pentagon survey pivotal to the [DADT] repeal was engineered months prior to its release, and was deliberately skewed in later media leaks, with the intention of swaying Congress towards repeal despite opposition from combat troops. An unredacted version of the April 2011 report by the Defense department’s Inspector General was leaked to the conservative Center for Military Readiness, and a slightly redacted version was confirmed as authentic by a Defense spokesperson to LifeSiteNews.com. The authors found that Jeh Johnson, a co-chair of the...

Obama officials decry Tehran’s culpability for U.S. troop deathsThe United States is engaged in a deadly but seldom mentioned proxy war with Iran. In a rare act of candor, two senior Obama administration defense officials have addressed the open secret of Iran’s active support for insurgent groups fighting U.S. troops overseas. Earlier this week, during a visit to Iraq, newly confirmed Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta strongly denounced Iranian support for increasingly violent Shiite militia groups in that country. “We are very concerned about Iran and the weapons they are providing to extremists here in Iraq,” he said. “We’re seeing...

Leon Panetta In 1983, then Congressman, Leon Panetta, placed a tribute in the Congressional Record to two of his Santa Cruz, California constituents. The couple, Hugh DeLacy and his wife Dorothy Baskin DeLacy, both had long histories with the Communist Party USA and were very active in the Santa Cruz “progressive” movement that had helped nurture Congressman Panetta’s career. Phrases like “social justice” and “dark forces of McCarthyism” rolled from Rep. Panetta’s pen, in a piece that would not have been out of place in the Communist Party’s Peoples Daily World. Panetta makes it very clear he sympathizes with...

The Senate unanimously confirmed Leon E. Panetta as secretary of Defense on Tuesday, putting the Pentagon in the hands of a former Democratic congressman and budget expert amid growing political discontent over the cost and reach of President Obama's military engagements. Panetta, who spent two years as director of the Central Intelligence Agency, will replace Robert M. Gates, who is retiring after serving in two consecutive administrations. In a statement, Panetta thanked the Senate "for the strong vote of confidence" and said he was "deeply honored" by the 100-0 tally and the president's nomination. His confirmation comes as Obama is...

Media blackout: CIA director accused of links to Communist spy contact -- scandal ignored Wes Vernon June 13, 2011 If you have been depending on the mainstream media for your news the past few days, you are probably learning here for the first time that CIA Director Leon Panetta has been called out for his links to an important open member of the Communist Party. Some background When this writer first arrived in Washington, D.C., as a reporter in 1968, one of my assignments was to cover the congressional delegation from Washington State. Occasionally, both Democrat and Republican members of...

New research from writers and researchers Trevor Loudon and Cliff Kincaid shows that Leon Panetta, the CIA director being considered on Thursday for the position of Secretary of Defense, had a previously undisclosed personal and friendly relationship with Hugh DeLacy, a prominent member of the Communist Party USA. DeLacy visited such countries as China and Nicaragua and was himself a personal contact of identified Soviet spies Solomon Adler and Frank Coe and accused spy John Stewart Service. Panetta spoke at DeLacy’s memorial service, directed a series of letters to him personally as “Dear Hugh,” and placed a tribute to him...

Gutsy? Please. A White House insider offers a peek behind the scenes regarding the no-brainer decision to take out bin Laden: President Obama was, in this case, as in all others, working as an absentee president. … [T]here had been a push to invade the compound for several weeks if not months, primarily led by Leon Panetta, Hillary Clinton, Robert Gates, David Petraeus, and Jim Clapper. The primary opposition to this plan originated from Valerie Jarrett, and it was her opposition that was enough to create uncertainty within President Obama. … Every time military and intelligence officials appeared to make...

San Francisco, May 2: The reward came before its reason. When President Barack Obama announced five days ago that his replacement for defence secretary Robert Gates, a high-profile Republican, would be the current director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Leon Panetta, there were raised eyebrows in Washington over his surprise choice. More than ever before, Obama needed Republican support to keep his administration functioning in the face of recent Opposition control of the House of Representatives and a loss of “filibuster-proof” majority for Democrats in the Senate. Obama’s opponents had continued to lambast him in early preparations for his re-election...

Report: Petraeus 'seriously considered' for CIA director By Jordan Fabian - 04/05/11 09:34 AM ET Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of allied forces in Afghanistan, is under consideration to become the next CIA director, according to a report. NPR reported Monday evening that several insiders say that Petraeus is being "seriously" considered for the key intelligence post. Under the proposed plan, CIA Director Leon Panetta could also move over to the Pentagon to serve as the next Defense secretary. He would replace Robert Gates, who wants to step down at the end of the year after serving in the Bush...

I think it is fair to say that a lot of the higher-echelon government jobs, particularly in the Federal Government, are sui generis. ...

It’s hard to overstate how bad February 10, 2011, will rank among the worst days of Barack Obama’s administration. Earlier today CIA Director Leon Panetta told Congress that Mubarak would announce his departure today. That didn’t happen. Now our intelligence agencies are scrambling to understand what all this means. This catastrophic intelligence failure is the worst since 9/11 (rivaling even the 2007 Iran National Intelligence Estimate). Then Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said in response to a question by Rep. Sue Myrick (R-NC) that the Muslim Brotherhood was “largely secular,” despite the fact that the Muslim Brotherhood lists as...

The CIA has recalled it top officer from Pakistan after his cover was blown and his life threatened. The alleged name of the CIA's station chief in Islamabad was revealed by a Pakistani man, Kareem Khan, who has threatened to sue the intelligence agency over the death of his son and brother in a U.S. missile strike. Khan and his lawyers told a news conference in November that they would seek a $500 million payment for his family members' deaths and warned they may sue CIA director Leon Panetta, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and the man they identified as...

In a June 27 interview on ABC's "This Week," CIA Director Leon Panetta warned that it could be a mere two years before Iran is able to threaten other states with nuclear warheads mounted on ballistic missiles. When discussing the new U.S. sanctions against Iran recently signed into law by President Barack Obama, Mr. Panetta said, "Will it deter them from their ambitions with regards to nuclear capability? Probably not." Three months ago the Defense Intelligence Agency reported that by 2015 Iran, with help from North Korea or Russia, could field an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of reaching the...

On paper, it was a promotion. But Central Intelligence Agency Director Leon Panetta turned down a White House offer to become the next director of national intelligence anyway. President Barack Obama last week fired his intelligence chief, Dennis Blair, without an immediate successor teed up. People familiar with the matter said the White House had expected Mr. Blair would stick around until a replacement was found. Mr Blair declined. The struggle to find a successor has highlighted the challenges of filling an ill-defined job fraught with political tripwires. Mr. Panetta is one of a number of people who have turned...

Climate Change: We can't stop terrorists from boarding planes with explosive undies, but the CIA has assets sufficient to monitor Arctic ice and look for signs of global warming? Is al-Qaida recruiting polar bears? One wouldn't think that the increasing polar bear population and the increasing rate of recidivism of former Guantanamo detainees released into the wild were related, but they are. At the urging of Al Gore, the administration is signing on to a plan to task vital intelligence assets to protect not the people of the United States, but the environment. The program, shot down by President Bush,...

Chris Wallace (filling in for Bret Baier)just reported that Fox News confirms that the CIA was tracking Northwest Airlines flight 253 bommber Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab since August. He did not say more than that. No wonder Obama spoke out again today about a systemic failure. He knew tis news was going to come out.This terrorist getting through our defenses is going to be the responsibility of his administration, not President Bush's.

The White House has published an internal memo to calm tension between CIA director Leon Panetta and Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair, who is seeking increased control over covert operations, the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday. The classified order asserts the Central Intelligence Agency's direct authority over secret missions abroad, but also reminds the agency to work closely with Blair, who heads the US intelligence establishment, a US intelligence official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity. According to the LA Times, Blair was seeking more control over missions that include drone strikes and paramilitary operations in Pakistan. Blair...

CIA Director Leon Panetta and National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair squared off in May over Blair's effort to designate his own representative at U.S. embassies to be his personal eyes and ears abroad, instead of relying on CIA station chiefs. Two intelligence officials said Thursday that the CIA won a monthslong turf battle with the Office of National Intelligence, assuring the primacy of CIA station chiefs over other U.S. intelligence operations and personnel around the world. The territorial dispute was resolved only after it got all the way to the office of national security adviser Gen. James Jones. The CIA...

With the appointment of a prosecutor to investigate detainee abuses, long-simmering conflicts between the Central Intelligence Agency and the Justice Department burst into plain view this week, threatening relations between two critical players on President Obama’s national security team. The tension between the agencies complicates how the administration handles delicate national security issues, particularly the tracking and capturing of suspected terrorists overseas. It also may distract Mr. Obama, who is trying to move beyond the battles of the Bush years to focus on an ambitious domestic agenda, most notably health care legislation. The strains became evident inside the administration in...

As Obama’s Presidency sinks, and his healthcare plan continues to fall apart, mention of dropping the ‘public option’ has enraged his far-left base. As a diversion, and as a sop to them, Obama has backed away from previous promises and has thrown the CIA to the wolves. He has named a special prosecutor to investigate, harass and possibly prosecute CIA interrogators who saved us from a dreaded second attack – thus ensuring that no-one will want to serve our country in this role again – to the detriment of all of us and to the deaths of some of us.

Well, it looks like President Obama has finally decided to take a side in the "Who's it gonna be boy, us or them?" contest of wills between Leon Panetta's Central Intelligence Agency and the rest of the executive (and parts of the Democratic-dominated legislative) branch. Yesterday's decision by Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint a special prosecutor to look into alleged abuses of captured Al Qaeda leaders by CIA interrogators seems to completely contradict President Obama's earlier reassurances of no action to be taken against those CIA employees. At the time, it was clear that polls showed the public had...

Panetta orders internal probe of secret spy program after some members of Congress say CIA misled them. ### CIA Director Leon Panetta has ordered an internal inquiry into the agency's handling of a contentious and still highly classified intelligence program that has caused a heated dispute between the CIA and Democrats on the House intelligence committee. The move by Panetta appears to be an implicit acknowledgment by the agency that it should have disclosed information about the post-9/11 secret program to Congress much earlier than it did. *snip* CIA and congressional officials have refused to describe the nature of the...