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I got married last week. Hence my absence from this space for the first time in seven years. It was a beautiful wedding in Acre, Israel, overlooking the ocean at sunset. My father wrote the music for the processional, which brought everyone to tears. My bride looked stunning, of course. We broke the glass, we danced, we ate and we celebrated until deep into the night. Outside the wedding hall stood a guard. Every wedding in Israel requires an armed guard to prevent terrorist attacks. Only the armed guards prevent the infliction of mass casualties at joyous events; only the...

Washington (CNN) -- President Donald Trump's latest gambit to choke off the flow of information for past spy chiefs who have criticized him is a disturbing move that again exposes an imperious streak out of place in American democracy. The President's threat to rip security clearances from some of the nation's most decorated former intelligence officials may turn out to be a classic Trumpian distraction play that whips up a media storm and drowns out stories that are damaging to the White House. But the idea that it is being seriously contemplated will send a chilling effect throughout Washington. The...

Sen. Rand Paul called Monday for President Trump to revoke former CIA director John Brennan's security clearance, as he questioned whether the Obama-era spy boss was “monetizing” his access to sensitive information in his new role as a pundit. “Is John Brennan monetizing his security clearance? Is John Brennan making millions of dollars divulging secrets to the mainstream media with his attacks on @realDonaldTrump?” ... Today I will meet with the President and I will ask him to revoke John Brennan’s security clearance ... Brennan’s role in the Russia probe “is in some ways more concerning than the FBI’s.” “Mr....

President Trump is looking into revoking the security clearances of several top Obama-era intelligence and law enforcement officials, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said Monday. During the daily press briefing, Sanders told reporters that the president was considering taking away clearances for former FBI Director James Comey, former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, former CIA Director John Brennan, former National Security Adviser Susan Rice and former Director of National Security Michael Hayden (who worked under President George W. Bush).

Senator Rand Paul will be meeting with President Donald Trump on Monday afternoon to request that disgraced former CIA Director John Brennan have his security clearance revoked. Brennan has been working in the media and bashing Trump for airtime, even accusing the president of treason following the meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in a series of unhinged tweets.

Full title.................. Trump is trying to strip Obama's intelligence chiefs of their security clearance in revenge for making 'baseless accusations' including TREASON against him...........Sarah Sanders announced at her press briefing President Trump is exploring ways to remove clearances of those former intelligence officials critical of him Sanders had no details on how they would be removed but she said the administration is 'exploring' options She charged the former intelligence officials with using their clearances for political purposes and financial gain Those officials include former CIA chief John Brennan, former FBI director James Comey, former deputy Director of the Federal Bureau...

For this week’s Big Ideas with Ben Weingarten podcast, my guest was Rachelle Peterson, director of research projects at the invaluable National Association of Scholars, and author of the groundbreaking report "Outsourced to China: Confucius Institutes and Soft Power in American Higher Education." Peterson’s investigation into these Chinese Communist Party-backed purported cultural exchange and language studies centers on U.S. college campuses — which she demonstrated were actually used to propagandize and penetrate our schools — preceded the recent disclosure of an FBI investigation into Confucius Institutes and a legislative effort to probe and counter their malign activities. Given China’s increasingly...

Is building a wall on our border a morally good action? As a professor who has taught biblical ethics for 41 years, I think it is – in fact, the Bible itself repeatedly views protective walls with favor. WALLS GIVE PEACE AND SECURITY In the world of the Old Testament, people built walls around cities to protect themselves from thieves, murderers, and other criminals, and from foreign invaders who would seek to destroy the city. People could still enter the city, but they had to do so by the gate, so that city officials would have some control over who...

The National Security Agency is deleting more than 685 million call records the government obtained since 2015 from telecommunication companies in connection with investigations, raising questions about the viability of the program. The NSA’s bulk collection of call records was initially curtailed by Congress after former NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked documents revealing extensive government surveillance. The law, enacted in June 2015, said that going forward, the data would be retained by telecommunications companies, not the NSA, but that the intelligence agency could query the massive database. Now the NSA is deleting all the information it collected from the queries....

President Donald Trump will meet with Russian leader Vladimir Putin next month in Helsinki, the White House confirmed on Thursday. ​”​President Donald J. Trump and President Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation will meet on July 16, 2018, in Helsinki, Finland​,” the statement said. “The two leaders will discuss relations between the United States and Russia and a range of national security issues.​”​

Reality Winner, the former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor who was accused of leaking a classified report to a news outlet, will reportedly plead guilty as part of a plea deal. ...She was arrested in June 2017... charged, under the Espionage Act.

Here's a first look at the ranks and insignia designs of the new 6th military branch, the United States Space Force. The ranks are right out of Star Trek's Starfleet Command.

Chinese government hackers have stolen a massive trove of sensitive information from a US Navy contractor, including secret plans to develop a new type of submarine-launched anti-ship missile, the Washington Post reported Friday. Investigators told the newspaper that breaches were executed in January and February by a division of the Chinese Ministry of State Security, operating out of the Chinese province of Guangdong. The contractor, which was not named in the report, works for the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, based in Newport, Rhode Island. It conducts research and development for submarines and underwater weapons systems. According to the Post, hackers...

When the Commission to Assess the Threat from Electromagnetic Pulse [EMP] Attack published its report in 2004, coal accounted for roughly half of all power produced in the United States. Today, only a third of US electricity comes from coal, according to the US Energy Information Agency (EIA). This is good news for both environmentalists and natural gascompanies. The formers’ long term dream of a more sustainable source of power is being realized, while the latters’ business is booming. According to the EIA report, natural gas now makes up a third of all power produced – with nuclear and renewables...

hn McCain, typically a supporter of a hawkish foreign policy, told KTAR radio Tuesday that President Trump's threat to rain "fire and fury" down on North Korea was a mistake: "I take exception to the President's comments because you gotta be able to do what you say you're gonna do...In other words, the old walk softly but carry a big stick, Teddy Roosevelt's saying, which I think is something that should've applied because all it's going to do is bring us closer to a serious confrontation. I think this is very, very, very serious…The great leaders I've seen don't threaten...

<p>Back in October, President Donald Trump blocked the release of hundreds of records on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, agreeing to appeals from the CIA and FBI.</p> <p>Now, Trump has accepted a recommendation from the National Archives to keep the lid closed, more than five decades after the 35th president was killed.</p>

The Trump administration began outlining a plan Wednesday to deploy National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border to fight illegal immigration, but will likely not allow the troops to have physical contact with immigrants, according to three administration officials. The planning follows an announcement by President Donald Trump on Tuesday that came as a surprise to many of his advisers. "Until we can have a wall and proper security, we are going to be guarding our border with the military," Trump said on Tuesday. The plans were laid out in a meeting with senior level Department of Homeland Security officials...

The United States has 14,000 troops in Afghanistan, 39,000 in Japan, 34,805 in Germany, 23,000 in South Korea, and around 5,200 in Iraq. Our military protects the borders of countless nations. Except our own. In 1919, we had 18,500 soldiers on the border. “Twice a day every foot of the border line is patrolled by cavalrymen and infantrymen,” the New York Times noted. A hundred years later, President Trump’s proposal to use the military to secure the border is controversial even though Marines fighting drug cartels have come under fire from drug smugglers. El Salvadoran migration has inflicted 207 murderers...

************ BREAKING BOOM: Trump Announces U.S. Military Will Guard Border With Mexico…

President Trump said Tuesday he will use the military to guard the border with Mexico against a “caravan” of illegal immigrants approaching the U.S. “We are going to be guarding our border with our military. That’s a big step,” Mr. Trump told reporters.