Free Republic

It's time to update our national security strategy to stay one step ahead of the terrorists - to see clearly the emerging threats of our young century, and to take action to make the American people more safe and secure. It's time to look ahead — at the dangers of today and tomorrow rather than those of yesterday. America cannot afford another president who doesn't understand the threats that confront us now and in the future.

Billboards bearing a photo of the Twin Towers burning and a plea not to vote for Democrats has sparked controversy in Orlando, Florida. The person behind the billboard, Mike Meehan, is holding the Democrats responsible for the 9/11 attacks: "I'm holding the entire Democratic Party responsible for the attacks on 9/11," said Meehan, who wrote, sang, produced and recorded the song. He said people should not vote for Democrats because they are too focused on solving the problems in the economy when they should be focused on the war on terrorism. [. . .] "Democrats are relaxed on fighting the...

I'm here today to discuss with you several issues that worry you and most Americans, our slumping economy, job loss, rising_gas and food_prices, and what we need to do to get our economy growing again, create jobs and reduce our dangerous dependence on foreign oil. But there is another urgent issue I want to address before I take your questions, which I know concerns you because brave Americans are risking their lives right now to deal with it. Over the last year, Senator Obama and I were part of a great debate about the war in Iraq. Both of us...

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. -- A controversial billboard in Orange County has a picture of the burning World Trade Center and the message, "Please Don't Vote for a Democrat." The man who paid for the ad says he's trying to help Republicans, but officials with both political parties are calling the billboard inappropriate. There are billboards up and down busy Orange Blossom Trail, but this at John Young Parkway (see map) one sticks out. "Just looking at it, I'm not thinking about Democrat or Republican, I'm thinking about the twin towers and all the people killed," resident Mary Anderson told Eyewitness...

EMP is electromagnetic radiation from an explosion (especially a nuclear explosion). The worst of the pulse lasts for only a second but any unprotected electrical equipment - and anything connected to electrical cables, which act as giant lightning rods or antennas - are affected by it. If a nation with a nuclear bomb and the ability to explode it high above an American city were to do so, it would have a massive effect in all directions. Almost immediately all communications systems in the country would be disrupted completely. No radio. No television. No internet. Indeed no electricity at all....

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. -- A controversial billboard in Orange County has a picture of the burning World Trade Center and the message, "Please Don't Vote for a Democrat." The man who paid for the ad says he's trying to help Republicans, but officials with both political parties are calling the billboard inappropriate. There are billboards up and down busy Orange Blossom Trail, but this at John Young Parkway (see map) one sticks out. "Just looking at it, I'm not thinking about Democrat or Republican, I'm thinking about the twin towers and all the people killed," resident Mary Anderson told Eyewitness...

Who read Free Republic? Apparently the U.S. Secret Service does!This past weekend, I posted an article alerting the Secret Service that members of the terrorist supporting group Code Pink were using fake presses to gain access to events headlined by Secret Service protectees like presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (AZ).This morning, McCain spoke at the LULAC convention in Washington, D.C. Usually when he speaks at an event in D.C., McCain can expect to have his speech disrupted by Code Pink activists who rush the stage and heckle him from the audience and the press section.That didn't happen today....

How does the pro-terrorist group Code Pink infiltrate closed events where the U.S. Secret Service is in charge of security? One way is with fake press credentials made by a diarist at the Daily Kos.Code Pink has made a habit of infiltrating events and getting close to officials under the protection of the U.S. Secret Service.Yesterday Code Pink member Desiree Farooz rushed the stage and came dangerously close to President Bush at Monticello. The weekend before she rushed John McCain. Last fall she got close enough to Condoleeza Rice to place her hands around the Secrtary of State's head.At the...

While all the military services are concerned about operational security and compromising the mission, each branch has its own rules for servicemembers who want to sound off in the blogosphere. Army An April 2007 operational security policy mandated that soldier blogs get "eyes on" by a blogger’s immediate supervisor and OPSEC officer before publication. The policy also covered (but was not limited to) "letters, resumes, articles for publication, electronic mail, Web site postings, discussion in Internet information forums, discussion in Internet message boards or other forms of dissemination or documentation." The free-speech firestorm was fast and furious, and the Army...

Now that Sen. Barack Obama has become the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee for president, the media and punditocracy has focused their attention on the veepstakes. Speculation about Obama’s running mate reveals an enormous deficiency in the Democrats' standard bearer. Most suggest that Obama needs someone with a military background, such as retired General Wesley Clark or Sen. James Webb to “balance the ticket.” However, it would take military men like George S. Patton or Douglas MacArthur to make up for Obama’s shortcomings on national security. I find it amusing that Democrats find no hypocrisy in essentially turning over the responsibility...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate John McCain wants the U.S. military to be much larger than current expansion plans envision, an adviser to the Arizona senator said this week. The Bush administration has begun expanding the U.S. Army and Marine Corps to create a combined strength of around 750,000 active duty troops -- a process backed by McCain's Democratic rival, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois. But McCain believes an Army and Marine Corps with a combined strength of up to 900,000 troops is necessary, said Randy Scheunemann, an adviser to the candidate on foreign policy and national security. "Sen....

It now has been four years since Dr. William Graham, Science Advisor to President Ronald W. Reagan and Chairman of the General Advisory Committee on Arms Control and Disarmament, and a distinguished panel completed a study of High Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) and its potential effects upon this country. The conclusions of this study are the most frightening I have seen concerning modern-day threats. Few have heard of it because the report has yet to be made public. The reason it has not been made public is simple: if EMP were understood by the American people, the next logical question...

In describing the reasons he believes the Republicans' presumptive nominee for president would be better prepared than the Democrats' to lead the nation next January, Sen. Joe Lieberman said that history shows the United States would likely face a terrorist attack in 2009. "Our enemies will test the new president early," Lieberman, I-Conn., told Face The Nation host Bob Schieffer. "Remember that the truck bombing of the World Trade Center happened in the first year of the Clinton administration. 9/11 happened in the first year of the Bush administration." "But here's the point. We're in a war against Islamist extremists...

Defense: The Supreme Court has agreed to decide if the safety and security of whales trumps that of the United States. Protecting Shamu may make both the California Coastal Commission and the Iranian navy happy.In 2006, the U.S. Navy settled a lawsuit filed by the National Resources Defense Council seeking to permanently halt the use of active sonar in training exercises. This temporary reprieve let the Navy practice and train in anti-submarine warfare exercises against some of the most modern and quiet diesel-electric submarines in the world. The RIMPAC 2006 exercise was one of the rare opportunities the Navy had...

FRESNO, California (Reuters) - A top adviser to Republican presidential candidate John McCain apologized on Monday after he was quoted as saying a September 11-type attack before the November election would benefit McCain. The campaign of Democrat Barack Obama condemned the remark by McCain political adviser Charlie Black, calling it a "complete disgrace." "I deeply regret the comments, they were inappropriate," Black said in a statement after McCain said that if Black had made such a comment, "I strenuously disagree" with it. "I recognize that John McCain has devoted his entire adult life to protecting his country and placing its...

By going public last week about hack attacks by China on computers in his congressional office, Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) put the spotlight on a growing trend of cyber attacks on U.S. and foreign government officials. U.S. defense officials confirmed that Chinese military hackers had broken into computers at the Pentagon used for email within the office of Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel complained directly to Chinese President Hu Jintao about Chinese attacks on German government computers, and European and Asian governments from France and Britain to Japan and South Korea have identified widespread Chinese hacking. U.S....

Security fears over food and fuel crisis By Carola Hoyos and Javier Blas in London Published: June 20 2008 22:02 | Last updated: June 20 2008 22:02 Western countries have upgraded the food and fuel crisis into a national security concern as they fear record high energy and agriculture commodity costs are destabilising key developing regions of the world. The concerns come as the world suffers for the first time since 1973 from the confluence of record oil and food prices. Corn, soyabean and meat prices jumped this week to all-time highs, while oil prices hit a record of almost...

Barack Obama and Congressional Democrats find themselves in a no-win situation. We awoke this morning to the reports that a compromise has been reached between the Bush Administration and Congress on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The best reporting that I've seen on this so far is from the Wall Street Journal's Siobhan Gorman (Deal Set on Domestic Spy Powers). The best (and most humorous) analysis that I've see is at RedState by Moe Lane (The FISA Controversy, in tedious Question and Answer form). It really is a win for the Bush Administration, and a loss for the Democrats,...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - White House hopeful Barack Obama Wednesday said Republican policies on national security had left Americans less safe and less respected as he fended off an onslaught over terrorism from John McCain. McCain, the Republican standard-bearer for November's election, meanwhile won backing from President George W. Bush for his demand to open the US coasts to offshore oil drilling at a time of sky-high fuel prices. Obama convened a new group of advisers on security policy that included prominent backers of his defeated primary rival Hillary Clinton, including former secretaries of state Madeleine Albright and Warren Christopher. The...

What word does Barack Obama and his supporters keep chanting? "Change!" Like a drumbeat, Obama's chant for change runs nonstop in an endless loop. But how does Obama want to change America if he becomes president? Here are six different areas he would like changed. For starters, Obama received a 100 percent rating from NARAL (a pro-abortion group) in 2005, 2006, and 2007. Why do they hold him in such high esteem? Because he supports every pro-abortion bill that comes along. He wants tax dollars for abortions, he voted against notifying parents of minors about abortions, he supports partial-birth abortion,...

The open borders of the United States amount to a national security exposure. This is a fact that cannot be debated. One has only to look at the number of foreign nationals attempting to illegally enter the U.S. through Mexico over the last several years. Since 2005, the Department of Homeland Security reports that more than 331,000 people from countries other than Mexico have been apprehended trying to cross the Southern land border. These individuals came from virtually every country in the world, including some with whom we have an adversarial relationship, such as Communist China, Iran and North Korea....

Policies they espouse now will have to adapt to political reality when either Obama or McCain gets into the White House. We'll see if Obama quits pandering to labor unions and stops threatening to weaken the North American Free Trade Agreement. We'll see if either of them comes up with realistic plans for change that the nation can afford. Croesus is not too terribly optimistic that they will. As Sherry Cooper, an insightful economist puts it: "The economy is now suffering from not only cyclical weakness, but structural problems in housing, health care, welfare, education and Social Security, while we...

"I grew up in San Rafael, in a household where we competed to see how many dishes we could fit in a dishwasher, to not be wasteful of water and energy. My mother was a relatively celebrated local environmentalist in Marin County in the 1970s, before it was hip. She was on the board of Save the Whales.... My colleagues at the Academy of Sciences are incredible experts at identifying and describing new species. My job is to map the knowledge they have provided about life on earth into patterns.... If we don't have a place for species to go,...

Good morning! First full week in June, and rumors swirl around a possiblity: video of Michelle Obama giving a racist speech.For further info, check out Townhall's blog.

(CNSNews.com) - Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) is facing renewed criticism regarding his national security policies as he continues his campaign for his party's presidential nomination. In a YouTube video Obama made for a liberal pacifist organization last year, the senator called for major cuts in defense spending, slowing the development of future combat systems, and cutting investments in America's ballistic missile defense program. Some conservatives have expressed surprise at the degree of Obama's proposals on the video, and this past weekend, Sen. Hillary Clinton's (D-N.Y.) campaign released an ad criticizing Obama's alleged national security inexperience and trumpeting her as the...

The debate over Iraq and the war on terror rages, even amid signs we're winning. John Hinderaker of powerlineblog.com recently posted a blog entry answering the perennial question, "Are We Safer?" We rerun it here with his permission.On the stump, Barack Obama usually concludes his comments on Iraq by saying, "and it hasn't made us safer." It is an article of faith on the left that nothing the Bush administration has done has enhanced our security, and, on the contrary, its various alleged blunders have only contributed to the number of jihadists who want to attack us. Empirically, however, it...

An engineer and energy authority says the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) led by Saudi Arabia wants to drive the world into an economic depression with the eventual goal of establishing a worldwide Islamic caliphate Dr. Robert Zubrin has a Ph.D. in nuclear engineering and is president of Pioneer Astronautics, an aerospace engineering firm. He recently published Energy Victory: Win the War on Terror by Breaking Free of Oil. He believes the OPEC cartel has consciously decided to restrict the production of oil in the face of growing world demand, and that this year the U.S. is going to...

National Security Platform for Paul Hollis, Candidate for US Senate in Louisiana The most important Constitutional role of the federal government is to keep our nation safe and secure. Since the time of George Washington, this role has been entrusted to our military leaders in the armed forces. The role of our civilian political leadership is to ensure that our military has the resources it needs to protect our nation, and that the men and women who defend our country are properly trained, equipped and compensated for their sacrifice. Our leaders are also entrusted to guarantee that the financial resources...

National Security A Strong Military in a Dangerous World In a dangerous world, protecting America's national security requires a strong military. Today, America has the most capable, best-trained and best-led military force in the world. But much needs to be done to maintain our military leadership, retain our technological advantage, and ensure that America has a modern, agile military force able to meet the diverse security challenges of the 21st century. John McCain is committed to ensuring that the men and women of our military remain the best, most capable fighting force on Earth - and that our nation honors...

1) To be the Candidate of National security: a) Victory in Iraq b) Fully support NSA, Patriot act, tough interrogations, keeping Gitmo open c) A Candidate that pledges to NOT demean our military while they are fighting for their Country. eg Harry Reid: "the surge has failed", "the war is lost" d) Candidate that promises to ensure that our veterans can live out their lives in dignity. 2) The Candidate who pledges to oppose Appeasement: a) The Candidate will oppose any and all efforts to negotiate with dictators of the world in places like Iran, Syria, N.Korea, Cuba, and Venezuela...

A University of Tennessee professor emeritus is accused of giving two graduate research assistants - one from Iran and another from the People's Republic of China - unfettered and unauthorized access to sensitive military arms information and lying about it.

Inside the Left's War on Reality By Christopher CookIf the fabric of reality were represented as an infinite black plain with white grid-lines (the way they depict space in black hole demonstrations), the left would be the heavy ball bearing, distorting the lines of that grid so that all nearby objects risk getting caught within its gravity well. And to carry the metaphor further, just as a black hole is theorized to have the potential to tear a hole in space if it gets heavy enough, so too the left's constant false propaganda risks the very integrity of the fabric...

An FBI presentation states that China has counterfeited Cisco Systems network routers and may be using the equipment to penetrate U.S. government and private sector computer networks. Federal authorities in February seized some 400 counterfeit Cisco Systems knockoffs worth $76 million. The equipment included routers, switches, gigabit interface converters and WAN interface cards. Among the purchasers of the fake equipment were the U.S. Naval Academy, U.S. Naval Air Warfare Center, U.S. Naval Undersea Warfare Center, U.S. Air Base at Spangdahelm, Germany, the Bonneville Power Administration, General Services Administration, and the defense contractor Raytheon, which makes key missile and weapons systems....

It took a former soldier — columnist Jack Kelly — to catch something characteristically ignored by most of the media. But just after his victory in the North Carolina primary, Sen. Barack Obama defended his oft-declared intent to negotiate freely with our adversaries by invoking the examples of Roosevelt and Truman, sacred names in the Democratic pantheon. Kelly suggested a “breathtaking ignorance of history” to skewer reporters who ignored the obvious: that Roosevelt prosecuted World War II under a policy of unconditional surrender, not profligate negotiations. Truman dropped two atomic bombs to reinforce the point and later backed up his...

Texas Border Coalition Members to Meet During Global Border Security Conference on Border Alternatives at Technology Expo AUSTIN, Texas, May 13 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- With security technology highlighted at the Global Border Security Conference & Expo as its backdrop, members of the Texas Border Coalition will meet May 21 to discuss issues that directly affect the Texas-Mexico border region and build on strategies to recommend technological alternatives to erecting a physical border fence, which coalition members say will cede privately owned land to Mexico and disrupt economic development in the region. Eagle Pass Mayor Chad Foster, chairman of the Texas Border...

Some of the media elites gave old-fashioned patriotism a clout to the jaw on May 1, May Day.  When a reporter for a major American television network calls Fidel Castro “Cuba’s revolutionary hero,” without a hint of irony, you know that somebody’s confused about what’s honorable and patriotic.In May Day reports from Havana, CBS correspondent Liz Palmer managed to utter the oxymoronic phrase not once but twice, on CBS’s The Early Show and again on the CBS Evening News.  Palmer also praised new dictator Raul Castro’s efforts to “improve workers’ lives.”Leaders of communist revolutions are not heroes.  Without exception,...

For over a year, we have been waging a relentless, nearly solitary battle in apprising the Congress and the American public about a billion dollar boondoggle and scandal: the lack of credible Arabic translators for our national security and intelligence agencies. As a result hundreds have been killed in Iraq from infiltration of our military and civilian intelligence agencies by agents of Islamist terrorists. Our FBI and CIA have been infiltrated by Muslim linguists who have successfully evaded polygraph tests and been able to pass on vital information to terror groups in the Middle East such as Hezbollah. Tens of...

History dictates that protecting and maintaining a nation's industrial base is critical to its national security and to winning wars. This is why taking out an enemy's manufacturing infrastructure, as America did to Germany and Japan during World War II, is the first step in rendering it defenseless.Yet today in America, despite the menace of terrorism and threats from assorted despots around the globe, we are neglecting — and in some cases damaging — our own military industrial base. America has shed 3 million manufacturing jobs since 2001, many in our military supply chain. The average age of today's factory...

Recently I asked a group of future leaders in a rural Nebraska community whether they were familiar with the term “rule of law.” A couple of hands went up, half-heartedly. The theme for Law Day 2008 is “The Rule of Law: Foundation for Communities of Opportunity and Equity.” The importance of the rule of law is apparently not well understood, lacks support and there even may be hostility toward it. For some, notably politicized faith communities, the rule of law means the loss of their values agenda. So I posed this to a friend: Suppose you had a strong values-based...

The Air Force and Lockheed Martin are giving a secret retirement send-off to the world's first radar-evading fighter.They were born shrouded in mystery in a windowless building in Burbank. They flew combat missions over Serbia and Iraq virtually invisible to enemy radar. And today, the black, bat-like F-117A Night Hawks will fly quietly into the night as stealthily as they came. The last four of the world's first stealth fighters will make their final flights from Palmdale to a secret desert base in Nevada, where they will be locked up indefinitely in a secure concrete hangar. But unlike the passing...

It's always a pleasure to come back to Heritage. An invitation from The Heritage Foundation, obviously, is always very special--only more so when it provides an opportunity to talk about Ronald Reagan's visionary Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). I'm sure [Heritage President] Ed Feulner thought, "Well, if we're going to talk about Star Wars, we might as well invite Darth Vader." I'm happy to accept.I see many friends in the room tonight. I'm reminded of a tribute once given to Ed and the supporters of The Heritage Foundation--comments that are still apt today. We are "unlucky in many things in...

To All,Lt. Col. Allen West is a candidate for the U.S. Congress,  22nd District of Florida.  I have been very impressed with what I have learned about Col. West and think he may have a real chance against his one-term opponent.  Here are some links and information to introduce you to this hero and to someone whom I believe will make an outstanding Congressman:  ALLEN WEST FOR CONGRESS-website (Note Col. West not only served in the military in Afghanistan and Iraq, but  was also a teacher!)  Meet Lt. Col. West through this VIDEO  There’s a case to be made against...

By Ann Shibler Published: 2008-04-07 New "anti-terrorism" rules ordered up by DHS for those who fish the Great Lakes are causing a wave of dissent. While still leaving our southern border wide open, the northern border will be protected by stricter security rules heavily enforced by the DHS, particularly for those tall-tale-telling anglers. Follow this link to the original source: "Going fishing? Pack your passport" COMMENTARY: Starting with the 2008 charter fishing season on the Great Lakes, and particularly impacting Lake Erie because of its geography and popularity among anglers, fishermen will now have to have their passports or two...

While there is plenty of room for robust debate about Iraq, what concerns me is that the direction of this discussion has, ironically, taken our eyes off the real ball, which is our national security. Don't get me wrong. I believe the Iraq war has everything to do with our national security. How we proceed -- whether we maintain sufficient forces there to ensure the nation's long-term stability or prematurely withdraw with reckless disregard for the consequences -- is critically relevant to our national security. But instead of focusing on the national security implications, we are perennially bogged down in...

By LTC(RET) Dave Grossman, RANGER, Ph.D.,author of “On Killing.” Honor never grows old, and honor rejoices the heart of age. It does so because honor is, finally, about defending those noble and worthy things that deserve defending, even if it comes at a high cost. In our time, that may mean social disapproval, public scorn, hardship, persecution, or as always,even death itself. The question remains: What is worth defending? What is worth dying for? What is worth living for? - William J. Bennett - in a lecture to the United States Naval Academy November 24, 1997 One Vietnam veteran, an...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Two men attempting to board a plane to China with nearly a dozen sensitive infrared cameras in their luggage were arrested on Saturday, a federal official said. Federal agents stopped the pair on the jetway as they were preparing to board the flight to Beijing. The men had been in the United States for about a week, said Rick Weir, assistant special agent in charge of the Los Angeles office of the Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security. Yong Guo Zhi, a Chinese national, and Tah Wei Chao, a naturalized U.S. citizen, were arrested...

After 50 years, an American state secret has been revealed, about the arrest of 12,000 people because of Hoover’s “red” paranoia. The former director of the FBI, Edgar Hoover made plans for the arrest of 12,000 American citizens which he considered to be threats to national security – documents reveals that no longer bear the status of state secret. Hoover sent this request to the president at the time Harry Truman at the beginning of the Korean war during the 50s. He justified the move as necessary for protection from “treason, spies and sabotage”. For now there is no evidence...

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) - President Bush won NATO's endorsement Thursday for his plan to build a missile defense system in Europe over Russian objections. The proposal also advanced with Czech officials announcing an agreement to install a missile tracking site for the system in their country. NATO leaders were adopting a communique stating that "ballistic missile proliferation poses an increasing threat to allied forces, territory and populations." It also will recognize "the substantial contribution to the protection of allies ... to be provided by the U.S.-led system," according to senior American officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of...

War On Terror: Shockingly, the CIA warns that America is wide open to another 9/11-style terrorist attack from the Afghan-Pakistani border. Is this August 2001 all over again?n a rare public interview, CIA Director Michael Hayden said al-Qaida's central command is training a more cunning generation of terrorists in the badlands of northern Pakistan. They "look Western," he said, and "wouldn't attract your attention if they were going through the customs line at (Washington) Dulles (International Airport) with you when you're coming back from overseas." These new recruits, Hayden told NBC's "Meet the Press," "would be able to come into...

The Justice Department is asking the Supreme Court to review a federal appeals court decision limiting the Navy's use of sonar off the Southern California coast because of potential harm to dolphins and whales. In a petition filed Monday, the Justice Department argues that the decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco jeopardizes the Navy's ability to train sailors and Marines for service in wartime.