Free Republic

For an army of ethically compromised defenders in politics and the media, Hillary ClintonÂ’s email scandal is being framed as little more than a political attack aimed solely at derailing her presidential candidacy. Yet while each new revelation makes it harder to dismiss Hillary and Bill's seemingly endless effort to monetize the Clinton Foundation by virtually any means possible, most of it is beside the point. WhatÂ’s not beside the point is the reality that Hillary Clinton is a walking, talking national security disaster. The Daily BeastÂ’s John R. Schindler, who wonders if other officials in the Obama administration, including...

Solomon reports part of concern about the information being unsecured on Clinton’s home server is that it could have been hacked by the North Koreans–who would then know more about U.S. spying capabilities. Solomon reports the information was likely summarized from a secure site and sent in unclassified systems up the chain to Clinton. “One of the most serious potential breaches of national security identified so far by the intelligence community inside Hillary Rodham Clinton’s private emails involves the relaying of classified information concerning the movement of North Korean nuclear assets, which was obtained from spy satellites. “Multiple intelligence sources...

When President Obama declared earlier this year that “climate change” represents “an immediate risk to our national security” he was absolutely right. Only, the key detail he forgot to mention is precisely why it represents such a risk: because his administration’s crazed faith that renewable energy represents a solution to “climate change” is severely impacting the defensive capabilities of the US military. Consider the case of two giant wind projects scheduled imminently for development near vital US defense facilities. Both ... accord with the Obama administration’s green priority commitments — which apparently take precedence over trivial issues like hurricane predictions,...

WASHINGTON (CBSDC/AP) — The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee warns that America is dealing with “the highest threat level we have ever faced in this country.” Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., told CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday that the threat is coming from the radicalization of young people and foreign fighters heading to Iraq and Syria to join terror groups. “They’re very good at communicating through separate avenues where it’s very difficult to track,” Nunes said. “That’s why when you get a young person who is willing to get into these chat rooms, go on the Internet and get...

The Office of Personnel Management will notify many more individuals their personal information was compromised than the 4.2 million current and former federal employees the agency initially informed, officials said on Tuesday. The timing of the second round of notifications, as well as the number of employees who will receive them, is still unknown by OPM. The agency’s director, Katherine Archuleta, confirmed to a congressional panel that OPM discovered, in the course of looking into the initial hack it uncovered in April, a second hack that targeted background investigation and security clearance data. Archuleta said it will notify the those...

A second major cyber breach that might reveal far more personal and damaging information appears to have hit the U.S. government's Office of Personnel Management (OPM). The breach was apparently carried out by hackers with connections to China and targeted a database containing copies of the government's Standard Form 86, according to news reports citing unnamed government officials. The form, available online, is a 120-page questionnaire that's answered by people seeking a national security clearance.

Only a week after Russian "crime syndicates" hacked the IRS database and stole information on the tax returns of more than 100,000 people, China was blamed for "one of the largest thefts of government data ever seen," the Wall Street Journal reports. The data breach allowed Chinese hackers to steal the personal records of about four million people — all either government employees, contractors, or their families. The cyber-attack by Russian hackers is not the first of its kind. The New American reported last year that Russian hackers broke into networks at the White House, and in a separate cyber-attack...

The Secret Service has had a bad couple of years, with prostitution scandals and security gaps that have embarrassed the agency — and in one instance, had an intruder running through the White House. As part of the effort to bolster security around the President, the agency has gone on a hiring spree, bringing in fresh talent to address some of the recent failures. The Washington Post’s Carol Leonnig, who has reported more than a few of those failures, now reports that the rush to man the posts has resulted in agents working in sensitive areas without the proper...

How badly the Secret Service was being run You’ve got problems. You’ve got a guy jumping the White House fence, running up the steps and actually making it to the stairway that leads to the residence - with a knife on him. That’s a problem. You’ve got a drunk agent crashing into a White House barricade. You’ve got prostitutes in agents’ hotel rooms . . . yeah, you’ve got problems, Secret Service. So you get a new director. OK. You pretty much had to do that. And then you start hiring a bunch of new agents as quickly as you...

President Barack Obama has spent six years getting pilloried by his opponents for his cautious and collaborative leadership on the world stage. But if his second National Security Strategy is any guide, he hasn’t lost faith in his approach. The document, which was signed by the president and released Friday, is used to direct and prioritize the administration’s actions around the world. It analyzes a range of threats and challenges, from the expected (terrorism) to the less so (defending the rights of gays and lesbians). And it reflects how much the world has changed since Obama’s first strategy was released...

The Obama administration looks at climate change as a threat to national security on par with terrorism, weapons of mass destruction and disease outbreaks. President Obama’s national security strategy released Friday updates the previous plan published in 2010, with focuses on Russia, Islamic militants and health. “Climate change is an urgent and growing threat to our national security, contributing to increased natural disasters, refugee flows, and conflicts over basic resources like food and water,” the White House says in the 35-page strategy document. “The present day effects of climate change are being felt from the Arctic to the Midwest. Increased...

Former CBS News Correspondent and senior contributor to The Daily Signal said Border Patrol officers she has spoken to say they are being told to “let as many people go as possible.” “Whether spoken or unspoken, there is a policy coming from the top, that they’re basically to be very lenient and try to let as many people go as possible, that’s what they think, that’s the message they think they’re receiving,” she stated on Thursday’s broadcast of “The Laura Ingraham Show.” She added that agents she has talked to believe “they’re being told not to do the job.” Attkisson...

So much for that fresh start with Latino voters. In a dramatic departure from their determination only months ago to win a second look from that rapidly-growing community, national Republicans have embarked on a sustained campaign to make the immigration crisis a central issue in 2014 and exhort voters to punish the White House for failing to lock down the U.S.-Mexico border. The intensity of their rhetoric has increased as a surge of child migrants has renewed attention to the border and amid anticipation that President Barack Obama will issue a set of executive actions on immigration, including potentially suspending...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's national security team discussed the Ukraine crisis in a session at the White House on Saturday after a last-ditch bid to find a diplomatic solution to the Cold War-style standoff with Russia floundered. Secretary of State John Kerry, who just returned from talks with his Russian counterpart in London, was at the White House meeting along with Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel. Obama did not attend the meeting but was being briefed about it and other developments involving Ukraine, said Laura Lucas Magnuson, a spokeswoman for the White House National Security Council. Crimea's pro-Russia parliament...

As the Obama administration seeks to move beyond a welter of scandals, a new report by investigative journalist Patrick Poole reveals that the frenzy isn’t quite over yet. On top of the IRS’s targeting of conservatives, the DOJ’s seizure of reporters’ phone records and the coverup surrounding the murder of four Americans in Benghazi, the White House’s years-long collaboration with supporters of terrorism is finally getting the scrutiny it deserves. Poole’s comprehensive GLORIA Center article, “Blind to Terror: The U.S. Government’s Disastrous Muslim Outreach Efforts and the Impact on U.S. Policy,” details the Obama administration’s extensive relationship with accomplices to...

Designs for many of the nation’s most sensitive advanced weapons systems have been compromised by Chinese hackers, according to a report prepared for the Pentagon and to officials from government and the defense industry. Among more than two dozen major weapons systems whose designs were breached were programs critical to U.S. missile defenses and combat aircraft and ships, according to a previously undisclosed section of a confidential report prepared for Pentagon leaders by the Defense Science Board. Experts warn that the electronic intrusions gave China access to advanced technology that could accelerate the development of its weapons systems and weaken...

President Barack Obama is set to announce a new round of strategic nuclear warhead reductions in the near future as part of a disarmament agenda that could reduce U.S. strategic warheads to as few as 1,000 weapons. The next round of U.S.-Russian arms talks would follow Obama's expected announcement that the United States' arsenal of strategic warheads can be reduced unilaterally to around 1,000 warheads. That position is expected as part of the Pentagon's long-delayed Nuclear Posture Review implementation study that Obama was expected to sign earlier this year. Recent press reports have indicated that President Obama may make the...

WH photo from @petesouza: Obama meets with natl security team members on #Boston, inc FBI Dir Mueller

Full title: Biden in 2001: ‘I Worry That a Narrow-Minded Pursuit of Missile Defense’ Could Damage ‘Negotiations with North Korea’ (CNSNews.com) -- While the United States now is utilizing its missile defense systems in the wake of saber-rattling by North Korea, back on July 24, 2001, then Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) chaired a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing in which he said in a prepared statement, “I worry that a narrow-minded pursuit of missile defense” would “derail” U.S. negotiations with the Communist-run North Korea. In his statement, Biden criticized the Bush administration proposal for a missile defense system, questioning whether...

This isn't merely a failure of nerve, it's a failure of intelligence and a failure to keep operational secrets. The White House had a "playbook," agreed to by O, Hagel, and John Kerry, on how to rattle its saber at North Korea during the next crisis without rattling it so much that NK would get spooked and do something rash. E.g., first comes some B-52 flights over South Korea, then the B-2s make a cameo, then the F-22s, and so forth. Problem one: Kim's gone further in his bellicosity than U.S. analysts expected and now they’re unsure if they know...