The president observed a "double standard" in the treatment of Hillary Clinton and the former NSA contractor, who was sentenced to 63 months on Thursday for leaking top-secret information.
The president observed a "double standard" in the treatment of Hillary Clinton and the former NSA contractor, who was sentenced to 63 months on Thursday for leaking top-secret information.
Drones are an evolving security threat, from intel gathering to targeting individuals. Is the U.S. prepared?
The tech titan uses faulty reasoning to end a Pentagon relationship.
President Trump threatened to impose tariffs on the European Union, in what would be an economic counter-strike to Europe’s expected response to impending steel tariffs.
Lawmakers in the House of Representatives are expected to vote Thursday on whether to renew a controversial surveillance power that Trump officials say is vital for protecting against terrorism and other national security threats.
Today on the Daily Standard Podcast, senior writer Michael Warren talks with host Eric Felten about the president's national security speech.
The three technology media giants absorbing most of the spotlight for Russian influence in 2016 election on their respective platforms are poised to testify in open hearings next week before Congress.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Friday that U.S. global counter-terrorism operations are set to expand and become more aggressive following a meeting with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis about troop deaths in Niger.
Unmasking. Leaks. Wiretaps. The mounting surveillance scandals of 2017 are suddenly threatening one of the most effective intelligence-gathering programs in U.S. history.
Unmasking. Leaks. Wiretaps. The mounting surveillance scandals of 2017 are suddenly threatening one of the most effective intelligence-gathering programs in U.S. history.
The man in charge of internal security of the nation's intelligence services says there is so much leaking of classified information right now that "we’re not dealing with it." Bill Evanina, the director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center made the admission in a recent…
Former national security adviser Rice reportedly continued getting classified information.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Tuesday that President Trump has indicated to him that the administration is prepared to strike North Korea to prevent an attack against the U.S.
The firm that created the now-infamous "Russian dossier" on President Trump published before his inauguration is stonewalling investigators who want to know more about its connections to the Democratic Party and the FBI is refusing to confirm if it has documents showing a relationship with the firm.
The Senate voted Thursday to impose new sanctions against Russia for its efforts to disrupt last year's presidential election through cyberattacks against the Democratic party and state election rolls.
House Speaker Paul Ryan said Tuesday that special counsel Robert Mueller should be allowed to proceed in his investigation of Russia's election meddling, and said he'd advise President Trump not to fire him, a step some of Trump's close allies have said he is considering.
President Trump's defense budget proposal for 2018 essentially follows Obama administration plans and adds only slightly more funding, the Republican chairman of the House Armed Services Committee said Monday.
Note: Fox News retracted the story upon which this report was based on May 23.
What's the holdup? Deputy national security advisor K.T. McFarland is waiting to leave the White House to prepare for her new assignment as the U.S. ambassador to Singapore. An administration official confirmed back on April 9 that McFarland, a veteran of the Reagan administration who was a Fox…
Lawmakers may be coming to an agreement to fund defense through September after a frenetic week of debate and negotiations, but any deal will only bring them out of the budgetary woods and into the political fire.
A senior U.S. official says the United States has concluded that Russia knew in advance of Syria's chemical weapons attack last week.
On Wednesday afternoon, the National Security Council convened in the White House, with President Donald Trump in the chair, to discuss how the United States would respond to Bashar al-Assad. Just a couple of hours earlier, in a press conference in the Rose Garden, Trump had denounced in strong…
Busting terrorist charities here in the United States was a low priority for the last eight years under Barack Obama. It's time for the Trump administration to instruct the bureaucracy to get back into this important fight.
The top U.S. general in Afghanistan said he is a few thousand NATO troops short to meet his mission to train, advise and assist local forces.
Donald Trump issued an executive order Friday suspending the U.S. refugee program for 120 days and barring U.S. entry for 90 days for people from seven countries: Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen. Trump's order also states that after the refugee program restarts, Syrian refugees…
The United States military has confirmed what previously was only hinted at: the Islamic State, otherwise known as ISIS, is producing its own drones—and they are weaponized. A "rocket and unmanned aerial vehicle factory" was among the many targets hit by the coalition near Mosul, Iraq this week.
Russian president Vladimir Putin is already waging a war against the West and American hegemony—if only leaders in the United States would look at the evidence. That's what Molly K. McKew argues in a new feature at Politico magazine.
At the Washington Free Beacon, Aaron MacLean writes about the false narratives about the state of the economy and the world under the Obama administration. MacLean suggests the alternative reality presented by Obama and propagated by a compliant media led the country to revolt against it and reject…
While serious foreign policy debate, like any kind of serious policy debate, has been virtually absent in this election, not talking about problems doesn't make them go away. In fact, the world has gotten much more dangerous under President Obama, and dealing with it will be a key challenge of the…
The prominence of climate change has risen to the point that the issue is discussed in the White House Situation Room, President Obama said during a State Department forum for oceanic matters Thursday morning.
The Washington Examiner editorial board has declared the legacy of Barack Obama to be a transformed America—one that trusts its government and institutions less than it did when he became president. Here's an excerpt from the magazine's editorial:
Florida senator Marco Rubio would not say Tuesday whether he still believes Donald Trump should not be trusted with the country's nuclear weapons codes.
Wednesday night, NBC hosted a presidential forum on issues related to national security and the military where Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump were interviewed and took selected questions from military personnel in attendance. Today host Matt Lauer served as moderator.
Donald Trump's speech on national security at the Union League of Philadelphia Wednesday may have been his best imitation of a traditional, conservative Republican to date, particularly on his proposals to rebuild the U.S. military. When The Donald cites the 2014 National Defense Panel report, he's…
There's an old joke that goes "for sale–French rifle, never fired and only dropped once." It comes from an ugly old stereotype about the French military, one of white flags, hands thrust aloft, tails tucked in retreat. There's nothing wrong with good natured ribbing between military forces (just…
Cleveland
Senator Marco Rubio said Monday that he didn't want "politics to intrude" upon discussion of this weekend's terrorist attack in his home state. But when pressed by conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, the Florida Republican suggested he is rethinking his decision not to run for reelection to the…
The State Department inspector general’s conclusion that Hillary Clinton violated federal records law should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with the controversy. The IG report, released in late May, is devastating to Clinton's constantly shifting defenses of her misconduct. And while the…
Administration critics are slamming Secretary of State John Kerry's globetrotting in recent weeks to drum up investment in Iran with international banking and business leaders, and say Tehran has a responsibility to clean up its financial act in order to attract investment on its own.
A year before Hillary Clinton apparently asked one of her top aides to remove the classification markings from a sensitive document and send it to her over an unsecured network, she pushed the same aide to remove a different document from the State Department's classified system and email it to her…
The Obama administration is set to release another 17 detainees from Guantánamo Bay. The New York Times reports that the defense secretary has notified Congress of the iminent transfers:
President Barack Obama says his administration will continue releasing terrorists from the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, so long as those released are less dangerous than the jihadists currently fighting against the U.S. and its interests.
President Obama used the terror attack in California this week to push gun control. In his weekly address, Obama called the massacre an "act of terror" but then pivoted to talking about American gun laws.
The New Hampshire Union Leader has endorsed Chris Christie for president. The state's largest daily newspaper, which has a conservative-leaning editorial board, published the endorsement Saturday. Here's an excerpt:
Secretary of State John Kerry believes that al Qaeda’s “top leadership” has been “neutralize[d]” as “an effective force.” He made the claim while discussing the administration’s strategy, or lack thereof, for combating the Islamic State (ISIS), which is al Qaeda’s jihadist rival. Kerry believes…
One of the most durable arguments for not responding as forcefully as possible to al Qaeda, the Islamic State, and jihadi groups in general is that they do not pose an “existential” threat to America. Indeed, this lies at the core of the Obama administration’s strategy for the Middle East. As the…
While their fireworks have earned Carly Fiorina and Donald Trump the most attention after Wednesday night’s Republican debate in California, the winner for the most detailed and substantive performance may go to Marco Rubio.
A new Pew poll finds shrinking support among the American people for the nuclear deal with Iran. The poll found 49 percent are opposed to the deal, with 21 percent in support and 30 percent who say they don't know.
Over the weekend, the Washington Post’s editorial page editor Fred Hiatt argued that Syria may be “the most surprising of President Obama’s foreign-policy legacies: not just that he presided over a humanitarian and cultural disaster of epochal proportions, but that he soothed the American people…
In a Labor Day speech, Hillary Clinton promised that, when she is president:
When Donald Trump botched a question Thursday about General Qassem Suleimani, head of Iran’s Quds Force, it wasn’t the first time. He did the same thing last month during the Fox News debate, but his answer was largely overlooked in the post-debate hysteria over Trump’s answers to questions on a…
Hugh Hewitt’s interview with Donald Trump has received a fair amount of attention, mainly because Trump didn’t know the answers to some of Hewitt’s supposed “gotcha” questions.
Jeb Bush delivered a thoughtful and clear-eyed speech on Tuesday about the threat posed by ISIS and radical Islamic terrorism. It was a forward-looking speech that offered a compelling strategy to deal with this growing threat (something we haven’t heard from Hillary Clinton).
“We have already cut defense … about 30 percent over the last 10 years, and we’re still at war. We’re actively involved on multiple continents in real combat operations. We should not be drastically reducing our troop levels.” That, as Bradford Richardson of The Hill reports, is the position taken…
Tonight's debate was full of fireworks. And somewhat surprisingly, Donald Trump was arguably not the most confrontational candidate on stage. Senator Rand Paul provided some of the more memorable moments of the night by challenging the other candidates on stage. Here is a transcript of Paul's…
Julian Hattem at The Hill reports that:
According to National Security Council (NSC) chief of staff Suzy George, the NSC is "downsizing," but not "for its own sake." George calls it "right-sizing," a way for the White House to "align our staffing with our strategic priorities."
A review conducted by the Office of the Inspector General for the Department of Homeland Security found that two and a half years after a scathing report on the state of intra-agency communications in the event of an emergency, "DHS components’ inability to communicate with each other persists."…
While the country slept Friday night and into Saturday morning, the U.S. Senate debated and voted on whether to alter substantially the NSA’s bulk telephone meta-data collection program, extend it for a short period, or simply let it die on June 1 when the “sunset” provision governing the relevant…
The early Cold War period might be called the Age of the Treaty Organization. The United States, scrambling furiously to respond to the fact that it had become the guarantor of the “Free World,” had discovered a surprising interest in entangling alliances of all sorts and in all parts of the…
Bloomberg's Eli Lake reports Tuesday that the Obama administration kept secret until the beginning of April Iran's two to three month breakout time for a nuclear weapon, saying "the administration only declassified this estimate at the beginning of the month, just in time for the White House to…
At a conference this evening in Panama, President Obama announced after meeting with Cuban leader Raul Castro that "the Cold War is over."
At an event today at Howard University in Washington, D.C., President Obama warned of the public health risks assocaited with global warming.
Matthew Continetti, writing at the Washington Free Beacon, explains why Jeb Bush has a problem in his foreign policy adviser James Baker. Baker recently spoke at a conference for the left-wing group J Street. Here's an excerpt from Continetti's column:
"A matriarchy is a social organizational form in which the mother or oldest female heads the family. . . . It is also government or rule by a woman or women,” runs the entry in Wikipedia, adding helpfully that it can be a description for a society in which “the culture centers around values and…
Former Texas governor Rick Perry said he was "alarmed" by reports the Obama administration is considering not supporting the state of Israel at the United Nations. Perry, who may run for president in 2016, said he urged Obama to "turn away from such a path."
Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas delivered his maiden speech from the floor of the Senate on "Ending America’s Retreat, Restoring America’s Military Dominance," as the speech was titled. Watch here:
Barack Obama wants us all to simmer down about Iran. He wants Senator Bob Menendez, a fellow Democrat, and the donors he represents to butt out of the sanctions debate. He wants Republicans to quit crying wolf about Iran’s nuclear weapons program. He wants the media to stop hyping terror threats.…
Lost in much of the reporting about CPAC is that almost all of the likely presidential candidates—really, all of them, with the exception of Rand Paul—seemed to place themselves at the Reaganite hawkish-internationalist end of the foreign policy spectrum. The much-heralded return of Republican…
The crisis between the United States and Israel has been manufactured by the Obama administration. Building a crisis up or down is well within the administration’s power, and it has chosen to build it up. Why? Three reasons: to damage and defeat Netanyahu (whom Obama has always disliked simply…
This week's three-day White House summit on "countering violent extremism" ended Thursday, but the community-focused spirit of the summit lives on. In a Friday blog post at the State Department's "Dip Note," the Obama administration asks readers a question: "What Solutions Do You Think Are Most…
The Obama adminstration begins its three-day summit on countering violent extremism with a "roundtable discussion" Tuesday afternoon led by Vice President Joe Biden and including "representatives from cities working to address the spread of violent extremism." President Barack Obama will join the…
David Frum at the Atlantic explains the root of President Obama's insistence on downplaying the Islamic element inherent in the terrorism haunting America and the West:
House speaker John Boehner criticized President Obama's ISIS war authorization, saying that it does not go far enough.
Here is the full text of the proposed war authorization bill sent to Congress by President Obama:
Kayla Mueller, an American aid worker who became a hostage of the Islamic terrorist group ISIS, has been killed while being held by her captors. President Obama released an official statement Tuesday morning on Mueller's death, asserting that the "future belongs not" to terrorists like those…
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has a new TV ad, which features the Likud party leader babysitting (or "Bibi-sitting") for a family. Watch the ad below:
Lt. General Michael Flynn, former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, blasted the Obama administration’s approach to the War on Terror in a hard-hitting speech to a meeting of intelligence professionals. “The dangers to the U.S. do not arise from the arrogance of American power, but from…
In April, the Obama administration announced plans for financial aid, advisers, and 'non-lethal' security assistance for Ukraine in its struggle against Russian encroachment on its territory. Eight months later, citing the "urgent and compelling need to establish security and stability," the White
The White House won't be calling jihadists adherents to "radical Islam." At least, that's the reasonable take away from this extraordinary exchange the White House press secretary had today with a reporter:
White House press secretary Josh Earnest explained to reporters today that the United States needs to "redouble" efforts to explain "what the tenets of Islam actually are." He made the comments in response to a question about how the U.S. might respond to the terror attack today in France.
In remarks from the Oval Office, President Obama warned that the kind of terror attack that took place earlier today in Paris can "happen anywhere in the world."
The resignation of Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel creates a golden opportunity for the new Republican majority in the Congress: not only will the hearings on Hagel’s replacement be a natural venue for reviewing the defense reductions and many retreats of the Obama years, but they provide a forum for…
Democratic senator Jeanne Shaheen told reporters Friday that issues regarding national security and the threat from Islamic terrorist groups like ISIS don't "come up very often" when she campaigns across New Hampshire.
The WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with executive editor Fred Barnes on national security and the 2014 elections.
President Barack Obama addressed the growing Ebola crisis today in the Roosevelt Room of the White House.
Colin Kahl has just been named Vice President Joseph Biden's national security adviser. Kahl previously served in the Obama administration at the Department of Defense, and left in December 2011 when he moved to the Center for New American Security.
President Barack Obama said last night at a Democratic fundraiser in Rhode Island that the terrorism from ISIS "doesn’t immediately threaten the homeland." The reason? The security measures taken by President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, according…
Noemie Emery, writing at the Washington Examiner:
Secure America Now, a non-profit national security organization, has a new ad reminiscent of Lyndon Johnson's 1964 "Daisy" ad, updated for the security challenges of the modern era. Using the original ad's imagery of a little girl in a field and a massive explosion, the spot urges the United States…
At the Washington Examiner, Noemie Emery pinpoints why Hillary Clinton is sounding so hawkish these days:
The boss was on the set of MSNBC's Morning Joe Friday to discuss Iraq, the Tea Party, and the midterm elections. Watch the videos below:
This week senior officials from the Pentagon will testify before Congress on their request for emergency appropriations, known as the Overseas Contingency Operations funding (OCO in military speak). A decision to maintain troop presence in Afghanistan, a resurgence of radical Sunni terrorism…
President Obama announced the resignation of National Counterterrorism Center director Matt Olsen.
Addressing a Center for Strategic and International Studies forum earlier this week, Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence Michael G. Vickers detailed a laundry list of national security threats that the United States faces today, the American Forces Press Services reports, including:
Former Obama administration national security official Michael Leiter called the release of five top Taliban leaders from Gitmo a "big win" for the Taliban:
A video of a large al Qaeda gathering in Yemen has raised eyebrows in the press. Nasir al Wuhayshi, the head of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), as well as general manager of al Qaeda’s global network, can be heard saying to a crowd of more than 100: "We must eliminate the cross. ... The…
My review of former top CIA lawyer John Rizzo’s book Company Man appears in the current issue of this magazine. A friend in a high place who read the review pointed out to me that the book adds something significant to our understanding of the Valerie Plame, Scooter Libby, Richard Armitage, Judith…
A White House official emailed some reporters to say that President Obama's team met today to discuss the ongoing situation on Ukraine. It appears President Obama did not attend.
Vice President Dick Cheney ripped President Obama's defense drawdown in a phone conversation with Sean Hannity:
Al Qaeda is not on the run. And John Kerry, according to a report in Bloomberg, is finally admitting it.
In the immediate days leading up to President Obama’s January 17 speech on the National Security Agency, news stories and leaks from the White House suggested the president would largely ignore the set of overhauls that had been put forward by his own presidential review panel—Peter Baker’s New…
In the wake of all the “leaks” by Edward Snowden of the National Security Agency’s collection programs and the resulting debate over those programs, one constantly hears from elected officials and the commentariat about the need to strike the right balance between privacy and security. More often…
In a little noticed interview President Obama did with German media last weekend, he defended his positioning on the NSA by saying, "I am one figure, one man in this broader process."
Not that long ago, one could assume that a judge with an activist approach to interpreting the Constitution was probably left-of-center politically and, accordingly, believed that overturning precedents was often necessary in order to make the Constitution relevant to present issues and alive to…
When the “President’s Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technology” issued its report (Liberty and Security in a Changing World) this past week, an honest and objective newspaper headline the next day would have read: “Rogue Panel Reports on Non-Rogue NSA Program.”
A future historian would describe the Budget Control Act of 2011 (BCA) as having a profound effect on the United States. The BCA, he would write, was a critical step toward making America into a social democracy while ensuring its decline as a global military power. He would conclude that the law…
A new study from the Cato Institute asks the question many travelers have pondered after a pat-down gone awry: Can’t we replace the TSA? The agency’s embarrassing record of waste and mismanagement makes a compelling case.
House Armed Services Committee chairman Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon doesn’t look like an insurgent. The quintessential Californian – a man of Reaganesque optimism whose congressional district now includes the Gipper’s presidential library – McKeon has been a steadfast supporter of House speaker John…
Next month’s meeting of the U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade in China will feature a familiar ritual. American negotiators will face intensified pressure for Washington to lift restrictions on the sale of military and dual-use technology to China. Over time, the perennial drip-drip…
The president will "nominate former Pentagon attorney Jeh Johnson as the next secretary of homeland security," USA Today reports. "Johnson, general counsel for the Defense Department during Obama's first term, will be introduced by the president at a ceremony on Friday."
Caroline Glick, writing for the Jerusalem Post, looks at the U.S.-Russia negotiation over Syria and its effect on Iran, and sees parallels with the nuclear build-up in North Korea:
As soon as I heard about the Navy Yard shooting in Washington D.C. this week I was sickened and appalled. I lived in that neighborhood for over a decade, and coming from a military family, I used venture on to Navy Yard a few times a month to do my banking at the Navy Federal Credit Union branch. I…
Although the White House posted its annual Presidential Proclamation of National Days of Prayer and Remembrance commemorating September 11th, 2001, there is no mention of the Benghazi attacks of 2012. One day before the 12th anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks and the first anniversary…
Lately, the Obama administration has taken to referring to "phony scandals" that have distracted Washington from the important issues--namely, the White House's domestic agenda. But a new poll from Fox News shows that the majority of Americans believe each of the four of the administration's…
New Jersey governor Chris Christie, asked on Tuesday to respond to an ongoing back and forth between himself and fellow Republican Rand Paul of Kentucky, said he was "asked a question" about national security and answered it.
In a Sunday evening statement, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence Public Affairs Office released this statement, meant to clear up information on the National Security Agency’s data program.
Friday evening, the State Department released a joint statement from the June 10-11 "U.S.-Germany Cyber Bilateral Meeting." The meeting was held in Washington.
THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with editor William Kristol on Susan Rice's promotion, the nomination of Samantha Power to be the next ambassador to the United Nations, and Congress's investigation into the Internal Revenue Service scandal.
Former Obama intelligence official Dennis Blair, an admiral, blamed leaks on the "trend" being set "at the top of this administration":
During his counterterrorism speech on Thursday, President Obama defended the use of drones by saying the following:
The full text of President Obama's "Future of our Fight against Terrorism" address, as prepared for delivery:
President Obama is using his national security address today to reject the "Global War on Terror."
Congressman Tom Cotton talked about the threat facing America yesterday on Meet the Press:
As conservatives wrestle with the question of their movement’s commitment to national security, one young war veteran made the case for a strong national defense and Ronald Reagan’s entreaty that America pursue “peace through strength.” Speaking Thursday morning at CPAC, freshman congressman Tom…
THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast, hosted by Michael Graham, with Jim Swift on Senator Rand Paul's filibuster of John Brennan's nomination to be director of the CIA..
Adam Kredo reports that Senator Jim Inhofe is urging his colleagues to vote against cloture for Chuck Hagel:
Four years ago today, on January 22, 2009, President Barack Obama signed "EXECUTIVE ORDER -- REVIEW AND DISPOSITION OF INDIVIDUALS DETAINED AT THE GUANTÁNAMO BAY NAVAL BASE AND CLOSURE OF DETENTION FACILITIES." In particular, the executive order stated:
What should the United States do about Iran?
In response to a report that classified information had been leaked to the makers of the Hollywood movie Zero Dark Thirty, Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal, Congressman Peter King, chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, says he's concerned.
THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with Bill Kristol, hosted by Michael Graham:
During an appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, Congressman Mike Rogers, who is the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, accused political appointees in the intelligence community of spinning the September 11 terrorist attack in Benghazi.
Robert Kagan, writing in the Washington Post:
A few thoughts on the resignation of David Petraeus as CIA director: Few American leaders had a stronger reputation for integrity and honor, so the reason he cited for his departure – an extramarital affair – comes as a shock to the nation and to those who know him best.
The Foreign Policy Initiative provides this fact-sheet to debunk President Obama's false defense spending claims:
There's an interesting article on Benghazi in the Wall Street Journal, with some useful information, and lots of finger pointing and back-and-forth between the State Department and the CIA, and between Hillary Clinton and David Petraeus. Guess who's nowhere mentioned in the piece: The person who's…
Obama administration officials are feeling the pressure to answer some basic questions about their responsibility for what happened September 11 in Benghazi. As has become very clear, the administration doesn't want to answer the questions, such as what the president did and didn't do that evening;…
Friday, in response to questions regarding the events of September 11 in Benghazi, President Obama said this: "Nobody wants to find out more what happened than I do. But we want to make sure we get it right, particularly because I have made a commitment to the families impacted as well as to the…
After the debate last night, Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz said that Israel is "one of our strongest allies" in the Middle East:
Mitt Romney’s aim was to present himself with the demeanor and grasp of foreign and national security issues of a president of the United States. He succeeded. President Obama sought to make Romney appear unqualified to be president and commander in chief. He failed. And that was the story of the…
Maryland Democrat Elijah Cummings, the ranking member on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, told CBS's Bob Schieffer Sunday that the committee's hearings into the September 11, 2012, terrorist attack in Libya were "turning into a witch hunt."
A campaign spokesman for President Barack Obama suggested this morning on national television that there are no plans for the president to update the nation on what happened in Libya:
During his acceptance speech last night, President Obama claimed, “I promised to refocus on the terrorists who actually attacked us on 9/11, and we have.”
Tonight in Charlotte, at the Democratic convention, the Obama administration is expected to trumpet its foreign policy and national security record. It’s therefore worth taking a look at what President Obama has actually done.
At a campaign stop in Virginia this afternoon, vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan talked national security and Iran.
Here's an intelligent if speculative piece by Foreign Policy's Josh Rogin about what a Romney administration foreign policy team could look like. Full disclosure: Yes, I was one of those with whom Josh spoke for this article. (Unlike everyone else, apparently, I didn't insist on speaking off the…
During the 2008 presidential campaign, Barack Obama famously said that the U.S. should negotiate with Iran without any preconditions. Obama’s notion of diplomacy with the mullahs was widely ridiculed at the time, including by his then rival for the Democratic nomination, Hillary Clinton. More than…
A memo released from the Republican Policy Committee in the U.S. Senate is suggesting that Barack Obama's White House is responsible for "yet another leak of sensitive intelligence information directed at bolstering the national security bona fides of the Obama Administration, as both Reuters and…
Patrick Caddell, writing at Breitbart.com, asks, "White House Leaks: What Does Axelrod Know, And How Does He Know It?"
Admiral William McRaven, commander of special operations, warned of the dangers of high-level national security leaks in an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer:
The boss yesterday wrote a post yesterday saying that, contrary to certain things others were saying, President Ronald Reagan did not neglect national security:
President Obama's top political adviser, David Axelrod, came under heavy fire this morning on MSNBC this morning about high-level national security allegedly coming from the White House:
Mitt Romney will hit President Obama for high-level national security leaks coming from the White House, according to excerpts of the speech the Republican presidential candidate will deliver later today at the VFW in Reno, Nevada. Romney will call the leaks "contemptible" and a betrayal of "our…
Senator Dianne Feinstein, a top Democratic from California, accused the Obama White House of leaking national security information at a recent event in Washington, D.C. Here's video of Feinstein's accusation:
In a letter today in the Virginian-Pilot, Mitt Romney blasts President Obama for cutting the military:
The House Intelligence Committee chair, Congressman Mike Rogers, unloaded on the Obama administration for what he calls "probably the most damaging" national security leaks in history, the National Journal reports.
The recent congressional ire over the Obama administration's suspiciously convenient national security leaks reminded me of an unusual bit of political trivia: Defense Secretary -- and prior to that, CIA head -- Leon Panetta is the prime suspect in one of the most notorious political leaks of all…
A sizable group of Republican senators have introduced a resolution in the Senate calling for Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint an independent special counsel to investigate high-level national security leaks to the media.
Yesterday evening, it was announced that Attorney General Eric Holder appointed two prosecutors to investigate alleged national security leaks to the media from the White House. But now two leading Senate Republicans are urging President Obama to appoint independent "outside special counsel" to…
President Obama at a press conference this morning insisted that high-level national security leaks are not coming from the White House. "The notion that my White House would purposefully release classified information is offensive," President Obama said.
A new book reveals that President Obama deferred a major national security decision to his controversial attorney general, Eric Holder. Instead of deciding himself whether 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed would be tried by a military tribunal or in a federal court, Obama pushed the decision…
The New York Times has a very lengthy article today on President Barack Obama's war on terrorism policy. Obama himself, at his weekly "Terror Tuesday" meetings, "[insists] on approving every new name on an expanding 'kill list,' poring over terrorist suspects' biographies on what one official calls…
The Wall Street Journal editorializes:
House of Representatives lawmakers are set to debate an annual bill that authorizes military programs later this week, and a handful of Democrats have set their sights on killing provisions that would support efforts to build missile defenses by 2015 to protect America’s East Coast from future…
It is easy to see why double agents are the source of inspiration for many spy novels and movies. The intrigue involved, including a potentially violent end to their spy games, gives writers low-hanging fruit to pluck. But art frequently mirrors real life when it comes to double agents. Especially…
A joint statement from the defending defense group at the American Enterprise Institute, the Foreign Policy Initiative, and the Heritage Foundation:
Jose Rodriguez, a former National Clandestine Service chief at the CIA, recently made the case that the search for Osama bin Laden was long, hard, and full of twists and turns.
A new poll conducted by the New York Times/CBS finds that "a majority of Americans say they would favor using U.S. military action against Iran to prevent the country from acquiring nuclear weapons," CBS reports. Fifty-one percent of Americans favor a targeted military strike aimed at preventing…
In “Politician-in-Chief,” Steve Hayes writes about President Obama’s frustration with, as Hayes puts it, Republican “criticism of the difficult decisions he is facing as president on matters of war and peace.” In particular, Obama claims that his Republican challengers are simply politicizing the…
As Washington wrangles over the size of the federal budget in a time of fiscal austerity, Congress is debating whether to hold President Obama to his promise of adequately funding the modernization of America’s nuclear arsenal and infrastructure in exchange for the Senate’s passage of the…
Ten years ago this week, the U.S. government opened the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba detention facility. And three years ago this month, shortly after his inauguration, President Barack Obama ordered Guantanamo shuttered within one year. For a variety of reasons, Gitmo remains open, with approximately 171…
Former CIA director R. James Woolsey and Robert McFarlane, national security adviser to President Reagan, have joined Newt Gingrich’s presidential campaign as members of his national security advisory team.
There is a certain irony, as well as much truth, in Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s drumbeat of warnings about the consequences of further cuts to U.S. military budgets of the sort threatened under the current deficit reduction law.
House Budget chair Paul Ryan, along with House Committee on Armed Services chair Buck McKeon and Bill Young, chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, have written a letter to Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and OMB director Jack Lew, urging the Obama administration officials not to…
Now that the Great Debt Ceiling Deal has become the law of the land, it’s time to consider what just happened to America, and in particular to America’s armed forces. On the one hand, it’s complicated. On the other hand, it’s ugly.
Here’s the situation with respect to defense spending, which Speaker Boehner fought for yesterday, with some (very limited) success:
John Bolton has just issued a thoughtful statement raising “serious questions ... about the national-security implications of the proposed deal to raise the Federal debt ceiling.” Bolton calls attention to the worrisome short-term defense cuts that the deal makes likely, and to the huge medium- and…
Former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton just released the following statement, highlighting the danger defense spending faces in the budget deficit negotiations:
Jamie Fly, writing at National Review Online:
Former ambassador John Bolton has just released a statement of support for John Boehner’s debt ceiling plan, arguing that the speaker of the House’s plan is good for “all conservatives, especially those concerned with American national security.”
My suggestion that Matthew Olsen answer questions about his work on the Guantanamo Review Task Force during his Senate confirmation hearing has clearly struck a nerve at the Lawfare Blog. There are two posts replying to my original piece – one by Benjamin Wittes and another by Robert Chesney.
On July 1, President Obama announced that he was nominating Matthew Olsen for the position of National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) director. Olsen has served in a number of national security-related government positions, including as the head of Obama’s Guantanamo Review Task Force.
Here’s what we posted on our website shortly after President Obama finished speaking Sunday night, May 1:
Washingtonian editor Garrett Graff recently published his second book, The Threat Matrix: The FBI at War in the Age of Global Terror. THE WEEKLY STANDARD recently had the opportunity to ask Graff a few questions about his book and the FBI's evolving role in national security issues.
In February, Defense secretary Robert Gates and Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, sounded a cautionary note at a congressional hearing on the defense budget. "We shrink from our global security responsibilities at our peril," Gates warned members of Congress. "Retrenchment…
In proposing to cut another $400 billion from U.S. defense budgets over the next ten years as part of his deficit reduction counter-offer, Barack Obama’s words were few. Yet they were revealing.
When there’s nothing better to do (and even when there is), folks in Washington gossip about the human parade passing through the world’s most powerful jobs. For years, the departure date and replacement for Defense secretary Robert Gates has been a prime source of speculative entertainment, but…
Judicial Watch, a conservative foundation that seeks to improve government transparency, has obtained two important Guantanamo-related documents from the Department of Defense via a Freedom of Information Act request. One of the documents is a draft presentation dated February 4, 2004. Reading…
In an editorial published yesterday (“A Right Without a Remedy”), the New York Times complained that the D.C. Circuit Court “has dramatically restricted” the Supreme Court’s Boumediene ruling, which granted Guantanamo detainees the right to petition federal courts for their habeas corpus rights.…
Eric Holder, earlier today at a House hearing, expressed skepticism on whether Gitmo would be closed before the president finished his first term in office:
President Obama’s apparent frustration that he and his senior policymakers were taken by surprise with recent events in Tunisia and Egypt, reminds us of Yogi Berra’s famous line, “It’s like déjà vu all over again.” Some momentous event occurs on the world scene—whether it’s the Soviets putting…
The New York Times reports on a Saudi Arabian man in Texas who "has been arrested by federal agents, who charged him with planning to build bombs for terror attacks inside the United States, the Justice Department announced on Thursday." The alleged plotter is named Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari. He…
Defense secretary Robert Gates says the United States has not had discussions with its NATO partners about how to handle the unfolding crisis in Libya, and he believes that the United States could not quickly enforce a no-fly zone in the country to keep military jets from shooting on the citizens…
Yesterday, CIA director Leon Panetta said that Osama bin Laden, if he were captured by the U.S., would "probably" be sent to Gitmo. On that same day, Jay Carney, Obama's new press secretary, said that “The president remains committed to closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay, because as our military…
Well, it is pretty clear that more than two years after ordering Gitmo closed, the Obama administration still hasn't come up with a better solution for holding high-value detainees. How do we know? Because Obama’s CIA director, Leon Panetta, says that the U.S. would likely send Osama bin Laden or…
The nomination of a scoundrel like Julian Assange for the Nobel Peace Prize is not without precedent – in fact, there’s a good chance he could win it. Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, would join the company of Palestinian terrorist-in-chief Yasser Arafat if he were to be awarded the prize.
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