On Monday, the U.S. Department of Justice announced federal charges against four Chinese military/intelligence officials for their role in the infamous Equifax data breach scandal of 2017. In one of the greatest data theft operations in global history, hackers in 2017 pilfered from Equifax trade secrets and personal data belonging to up to 150 million Americans.
&#8220;A federal grand jury in Atlanta returned a nine-count indictment last week that accused members of China’s People’s Liberation Army of conspiring to steal reams of data as part of a sophisticated hacking operation that exploited a major vulnerability in the software used by Equifax’s online dispute portal,&#8221; The Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/four-members-of-china-s-military-indicted-for-massive-equifax-breach-11581346824">reported</a>. &#8220;The breach into Equifax, disclosed in 2017, compromised data belonging to about 145 million Americans and has been viewed as one of the largest hacks on record. It prompted prolonged public outrage and led to a series of hearings in Congress that led to the resignation of the company’s former chief executive, Richard Smith.&#8221;
Attorney General William Barr was unequivocal in his denunciation of the malign activities: &#8220;This was a deliberate and sweeping intrusion into the private information of the American people,&#8221; Barr said earlier today.
&#8220;The hack was viewed as alarming both because of its size and the richness of the data that was stolen, which included Social Security and driver’s license numbers, addresses, birthdays and other information. The breach began in May 2017 at the latest and continued through July 2017,&#8221; the Journal continued. &#8220;The indictment alleges that the defendants used 34 servers located in nearly 20 countries to infiltrate the company’s network.&#8221;
According to <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/10/us-charges-chinese-spies-with-massive-equifax-hack-113129">Politico</a>, the formal charging instrument was a nine-count that charged the Chinese officials with &#8220;wire fraud, economic espionage, conspiracy to commit computer fraud and other offenses.&#8221;
“At the FBI we’ve been saying for years that China will do anything it can to replace the United States as the world’s leading superpower,” FBI Deputy Director David Bowdich said in connection with the formal indictments, as Politico reported. “This indictment is about more than targeting just an American business. It’s about the brazen theft of sensitive personal information of nearly 150 million Americans.”
The revelations of the alleged origins of the Equifax breach come at a time of increasingly escalating tensions between the U.S. and China. In a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-china-americas-greatest-21st-century-threat-josh-hammer">Daily Wire op-ed</a> last May, I described China as America&#8217;s &#8220;greatest 21st century threat&#8221;:
<blockquote>Calling China the number one 21st century geopolitical threat to the United States ought to not be a particularly controversial claim. As far back as 2011, The Economist <a href="https://www.economist.com/node/21527010/all-comments?page=10">noted</a> that, “[w]ith its rapidly improving military capability … China has the wherewithal to challenge the security status quo in the Pacific as well as potential motives to do so.” That trend has only exacerbated in recent years. In January, for instance, the Pentagon expressly <a href="https://wtkr.com/2019/01/16/pentagon-warns-about-rise-in-chinas-military-power/">warned</a> about China’s recent “series of ambitious military reforms and acquired new technology.” In March, the Chinese government assertively <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/04/asia/china-military-xi-jinping-intl/index.html">pronounced</a> an astonishing 7.5% annual rise in military spending — which was actually a mild decrease from the previous year’s military spending increase. Over just the past couple months, China has <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2019-04-06/djibouti-needed-help-china-had-money-and-now-the-u-s-and-france-are-worried">fortified</a> its military presence in the highly strategic Horn of Africa, and has even made <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2019/05/06/pompeo-arctic-china-russia-1302649">expansionist overtures</a> in the Arctic. &#8230;
The upshot is that everywhere from <a href="https://nationalinterest.org/blog/korea-watch/power-problems-china-wants-control-north-korea-conundrum-54057">North Korean denuclearization</a> to the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2018/04/17/why-japan-is-making-a-big-fuss-over-tiny-islands-4-things-to-know/">Senkaku Islands</a> territorial sovereignty dispute in the East China Sea to the deeply combative <a href="https://ustr.gov/sites/default/files/enforcement/301Investigations/301%20Report%20Update.pdf">forced technology transfer</a> and <a href="http://ipcommission.org/report/IP_Commission_Report_Update_2017.pdf">intellectual property theft</a> that the Chinese Communist Party claims as an allegedly necessary “cost” of doing business in China, China is a deeply adversarial geopolitical actor. This is a nation with rapidly escalating hard military power, the world’s second largest GDP, a huge landmass, the world’s largest population, ownership of a massive <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/heres-who-owns-a-record-2121-trillion-of-us-debt-2018-08-21">reserve</a> of U.S. sovereign debt, a grossly <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/charleswallace1/2018/07/21/chinas-currency-manipulation-is-a-response-to-trumps-tariffs/">manipulated currency</a>, an aggressive regional foreign policy that seeks to undermine key U.S. allies, a desire to dictate the rules of trade from a hostile, communist perspective, a reflexive urge to publicly shame and embarrass Western corporations into toeing the Chinese Communist Party line on geographical disputes, and an unhinged zealotry in committing acts of cyberwarfare upon and pilfering the intellectual property of sundry Western corporations.</blockquote>
Read the <a href="https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/chinese-hackers-charged-in-equifax-breach-021020">FBI&#8217;s full press release from earlier today here</a>.

Attorney General William Barr Makes Announcement On Cyber-Related Law Enforcement Action

DOJ Charges Chinese Military Officials In Connection With Infamous Equifax Data Breach

China

cybersecurity

Department of Justice

National Security

William Barr

The Trump administration reportedly removed Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman&#8217;s brother, National Security Council attorney Yevgeny Vindman, on Friday from the White House, which came as the administration <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-alexander-vindman-fired-escorted-from-white-house-brother-goes-with-him-report-says">also fired Alexander Vindma</a>n.
Bloomberg News reporter Jennifer Jacobs wrote: &#8220;Alex Vindman’s twin brother Army Lt. Col. Yevgeny Vindman, an ethics lawyer for the NSC, was also dismissed from his job today, sources tell me.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
NEWS: Alex Vindman’s twin brother Army Lt. Col. Yevgeny Vindman, an ethics lawyer for the NSC, was also dismissed from his job today, sources tell me.
&mdash; Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) <a href="https://twitter.com/JenniferJJacobs/status/1225901065394171907?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 7, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Vindman&#8217;s attorney David Pressman, &#8220;indicated that the Iraq War veteran&#8217;s twin brother Yevgeny, who serves as a senior lawyer on the NSC, was also removed from his post and exited the White House alongside his brother,&#8221; Politico <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/07/donald-trump-pressure-impeachment-witness-alexander-vindman-111997">reported</a>. &#8220;Yevgeny Vindman was not a witness in the impeachment process. His lawyer didn&#8217;t respond to a request for comment.&#8221;
CNN had <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-alexander-vindman-fired-escorted-from-white-house-brother-goes-with-him-report-says">reported</a> earlier in the afternoon that Alexander Vindman was escorted out of the White House after he was fired and that his brother also left with him but that it was not clear at the time whether he had been fired.
PBS reporter Yamiche Alcindor noted: &#8220;Where are the Vindman brothers heading? Lieutenant Colonel Yevgeny Vindman is going to Office of General Counsel at Army at the Pentagon. Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman is going to work at the Pentagon until he heads to war college on July 1.&#8221;
&#8220;A reminder: Both Vindman brothers are in the Army were on detail to the White House,&#8221; Alcindor added. &#8220;They have been reassigned out of the White House but they aren’t losing their jobs completely.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
A reminder: Both Vindman brothers are in the Army were on detail to the White House. They have been reassigned out of the White House but they aren’t losing their jobs completely.
&mdash; Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) <a href="https://twitter.com/Yamiche/status/1225915098063163395?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 7, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) supported the Trump administration&#8217;s decision, <a href="https://twitter.com/RepThomasMassie/status/1225764572981846017">writing</a> on Twitter on Friday morning: &#8220;I’d fire him. I listened to his testimony in the SCIF. He’s a leaker, not a whistleblower. Vindman was upset that @realDonaldTrump didn’t follow the script Vindman prepared for the phone call. Current Commander in Chief doesn’t take orders from a Lt. Col.!&#8221;
Reaction to the firing of the two brothers largely depended on whether those who were commentating were supporters or opponents of the president.
Former White House adviser Andrew Surabian wrote on Twitter: &#8220;The extent to which the media and their approved talking heads sincerely believe that an unelected national security bureaucracy should be deciding policy &amp; running the country over the elected President is truly disturbing. Before Trump, I didn&#8217;t realize how bad it really was.&#8221;
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The extent to which the media and their approved talking heads sincerely believe that an unelected national security bureaucracy should be deciding policy &amp; running the country over the elected President is truly disturbing. 
Before Trump, I didn&#39;t realize how bad it really was. <a href="https://t.co/Z9tnn7BBTE">https://t.co/Z9tnn7BBTE</a>
&mdash; Andrew Surabian (@Surabees) <a href="https://twitter.com/Surabees/status/1225889805252296705?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 7, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Former White House adviser Cliff Sims wrote: &#8220;There are NSC aides who faithfully serve numerous presidents, working diligently to execute for their Commander in Chief. But there are also NatSec bureaucrats who view themselves as the REAL power, outlasting presidents, undermining &amp; executing their own agenda. DRAIN THE SWAMP.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
There are NSC aides who faithfully serve numerous presidents, working diligently to execute for their Commander in Chief. But there are also NatSec bureaucrats who view themselves as the REAL power, outlasting presidents, undermining &amp; executing their own agenda. DRAIN THE SWAMP.
&mdash; Cliff Sims (@Cliff_Sims) <a href="https://twitter.com/Cliff_Sims/status/1225911223675490305?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 7, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Donald Trump Jr. added: &#8220;On the bright side, he may still be able to take the defense minister position in the Ukraine that he was offered a few times.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
On the bright side, he may still be able to take the defense minister position in the Ukraine that he was offered a few times. <a href="https://t.co/xcFxaziD8r">https://t.co/xcFxaziD8r</a>
&mdash; Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) <a href="https://twitter.com/DonaldJTrumpJr/status/1225912031930462208?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 7, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Trump Jr.&#8217;s remarks came in <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/vindman-testifies-ukraine-repeatedly-asked-him-to-work-for-their-government">response</a> to Alexander Vindman&#8217;s testimony during House Democrats&#8217; impeachment investigation when he said under oath that Ukraine had repeatedly offered him a top military position in their government.
Here is the exchange:
<blockquote>GOP Counsel Steve Castor: You went to Ukraine for the inauguration.
Vindman: Correct.
Castor: At any point in that trip, did [Ukrainian Defense Council Oleksandr] Danylyuk offer you a position of defense minister with the Ukrainian government?
Vindman: He did.
Castor: How many times did he do that?
Vindman: I believe it was three times.</blockquote>
While Vindman said that it would have been a ‘great honor’ to serve in the position” he turned down the offer “every single time,” adding that “upon returning, I notified my chain of command and the appropriate counterintelligence folks about this offer.”
This is a breaking news story, refresh the page for updates.

Impeachment Hearing

Trump Administration Removes Alexander Vindman’s Brother, Yevgeny Vindman

Alexander Vindman

Trump Administration

Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman was fired from his job on the National Security Council on Friday and was escorted from the White House and his brother reportedly left with him, although it was not clear whether he was also fired.
&#8220;Vindman, the top Ukraine expert at the National Security Council, was pushed out of his role Friday months earlier than expected, according to a statement from his attorney,&#8221; CNN <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/07/politics/alex-vindman-donald-trump-impeachment/index.html">reported</a>. &#8220;Vindman was not slated to leave until July, but had been telling colleagues in recent weeks he would likely leave soon. It was not his decision to leave, however, according to one person familiar with the situation.&#8221;
&#8220;We do have one remaining question which is about the future of [Alexander Vindman&#8217;s] brother, Eugene, who is an attorney for the National Security Council who we are told also walked out with Vindman today but it&#8217;s unclear if he received the same message about his services no longer being needed,&#8221; CNN&#8217;s Kaitlan Collins said on CNN&#8217;s &#8220;The Lead&#8221; with Jake Tapper.
Collins added: &#8220;I’m told Vindman walked out with his brother, who is an attorney for the NSC. It’s unclear if he was also fired but that was the expectation.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
I’m told Vindman walked out with his brother, who is an attorney for the NSC. It’s unclear if he was also fired but that was the expectation.
&mdash; Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) <a href="https://twitter.com/kaitlancollins/status/1225886222121390083?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 7, 2020</a></blockquote>
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During Vindman&#8217;s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/excerpts-from-alexander-vindmans-testimony-to-congress-raises-questions-about-credibility">testimony</a> it was revealed that he did not know basic facts about U.S. aid to the country and, when the subject came up at his job, he apparently was not interested in wanting to know more about Hunter Biden joining the corrupt Ukrainian gas company Burisma.
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Top Ukraine guy at NSC apparently thought Obama administration had provided Javelins to Ukraine. <a href="https://t.co/Gd1830At3K">pic.twitter.com/Gd1830At3K</a>
&mdash; Byron York (@ByronYork) <a href="https://twitter.com/ByronYork/status/1193255269918216197?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 9, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Corrupt Ukrainian company owned by corrupt Ukrainian oligarch hires vice president&#39;s son and top Ukraine guy on NSC doesn&#39;t want to know about it. From Vindman deposition: <a href="https://t.co/yy3QLX0dqd">pic.twitter.com/yy3QLX0dqd</a>
&mdash; Byron York (@ByronYork) <a href="https://twitter.com/ByronYork/status/1193533402273787905?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 10, 2019</a></blockquote>
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<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/timothy-morrison-alexander-vindmans-boss-reveals-problems-they-had-with-vindman">The Daily Wire previously reported</a> that during the impeachment hearings, Senior National Security Council official Timothy Morrison, who was the former boss of Lt. Colonel Alexander Vindman, testified that Vindman’s bosses had numerous concerns and problems with him.
GOP counsel Steve Castor asked, “You had indicated in your deposition that when you took over the [Ukraine] portfolio for Dr. Hill July 15 that you were alerted to potential issues in Colonel Vindman’s judgement?”
“Yes,” Morrison responded.
“Did she relay anything specifically to you why she thought that?” Castor asked.
Morrison responded that the concern apparently came from multiple officials and was an overall general concern about his judgment.
“Did any other NSC personnel raise concerns with you about Colonel Vindman?” Castor asked.
“Yes,” Morrison responded.
“Morrison later confirmed that multiple other officials were concerned that Vindman was potentially leaking sensitive information to the media,” The Daily Wire reported. “Morrison also confirmed that Vindman did not keep him in the loop about all the things that he was doing in the job and that Vindman went behind his back and did not inform him about the concerns that he had about President Donald Trump’s July 25 phone call with the president of Ukraine.”
“If he had concerns about something about the content of the call, that’s something that I expected that I would have been notified of,” Morrison said. “I also think as a matter of practice, since we both went to the lawyers, we didn’t both need to.”
“At any point subsequently, did [Vindman] become frustrated that he felt cut out of some of the Ukraine portfolio?” Castor asked.
“Yes,” Morrison responded, adding that Vindman was upset that he was not invited on a trip to Ukraine.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Top official Tim Morrison said Alexander Vindman&#39;s bosses had a lot of concerns about him:
-Judgement -Potential leaker -Did not keep his bosses in the loop on what he was doing -Went around his bosses&#39; backs -Was mad he was cut out of working on Ukraine <a href="https://t.co/Z9qgSVs9dt">pic.twitter.com/Z9qgSVs9dt</a>
&mdash; Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) <a href="https://twitter.com/RealSaavedra/status/1196925677481521153?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 19, 2019</a></blockquote>
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US-POLITICS-CONGRESS-TRUMP-IMPEACHMENT

Alexander Vindman Fired, Escorted From White House, Brother Goes With Him, Report Says

White House

In its latest annual <a href="http://www.islamophobia.org/reports/228-2018-civil-rights-report-bias-incident-data.html">hate crimes report</a>, the <a href="https://www.adl.org/education/resources/profiles/the-council-on-american-islamic-relations-cair">Council on American-Islamic Relations</a> (CAIR) vilified U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials as the nation’s greatest perpetrators of anti-Muslim discrimination. So, when as many as 60 Iranian and Iranian-American travelers were delayed for hours earlier this month at the U.S.-Canada border, CAIR was quick to accuse the federal agency of living up to its purported reputation. Has the U.S. government decided to make life difficult for Iranians living in America, as CAIR contends? Or are the nonprofit’s actions part of an enduring campaign to subvert U.S. border security?
In response to a January 2 air strike which <a href="https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2020/01/10/opinion/soleimani-iran-tom-cotton.amp.html">killed</a> Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) <a href="https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/ntas/alerts/20_0104_ntas_bulletin.pdf">published</a> a bulletin warning that Hezbollah and other Iranian loyalists could carry out homeland-based plots by targeting “critical infrastructure.” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo deployed the national guard to protect public transportation, while <a href="https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-01-03/us-cities-on-alert-after-killing-of-iran-leader-qassem-suleiman">government officials</a> in California, Washington, and Massachusetts ordered increased police patrols or warned citizens to remain extra vigilant.
Meanwhile, the Peace Arch Border Crossing in Blaine, Washington became congested on January 4 after as many as 60 Iranian natives were allegedly selected for additional screening and detained, in some cases, for several hours. The travelers, who were returning from a pop concert in Vancouver, put a <a href="https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.bellinghamherald.com/news/local/article238985213.html">strain</a> on CBP resources as customs agents struggled to keep up with the sudden increase in cross-border traffic. However, CAIR officials explicitly alleged that delays and mistreatment were premised solely on national heritage.
Soon after, CAIR’s Washington chapter issued a <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cair-wa-assisting-iranian-americans-detained-at-us-border-300981286.html">press release</a> accusing CBP officials of treating Iranians and Iranian-Americans to prolonged interrogations at the U.S.–Canada border. “A source at CBP reported that the [DHS] has issued a national order to CBP to ‘report’ and detain anyone with Iranian heritage entering the country who is deemed potentially suspicious or ‘adversarial,’ regardless of citizenship status,” CAIR wrote.
CBP <a href="https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/us-border-protection-denies-reports-that-iranian-americans-were-detained-at-washington-canada-border/281-e276b43b-21a1-46d3-8de7-f1e700b0016a">rejected</a> these allegations. &#8220;Social media posts that CBP is detaining Iranian-Americans and refusing their entry into the U.S. because of their country of origin are false. Reports that DHS/CBP has issued a related directive are also false,” said CBP spokesperson Michael Friel.
So far, CAIR has failed to produce any evidence supporting its discrimination claims. Instead, the nonprofit denigrated CBP personnel based on the testimony of frustrated tourists who experienced delays while crossing an international border during a period of heightened geopolitical tension.
What can’t be known about the recent cross-border controversy, because it falls beyond the public purview, is whether there was specific intelligence from the Terrorist Screening Center that indicated a need to conduct a more robust screening operation at the Peace Arch crossing. It is telling that <a href="https://www.thenorthernlight.com/stories/order-to-detain-iranian-american-travelers-likely-originated-in-blaine-say-lawyers,9173">no other enhanced security measures</a> were enforced at other U.S. entry points around the same time.
Even public knowledge of the threats posed by Shi’ite Islamism suggests that it was credible national security risks, and not uninformed profiling, that guided CBP’s actions. The agency must contend with Hezbollah’s elite external operations unit, known as the Islamic Jihad Organization (IJO), whose members have been <a href="https://thefederalist.com/2020/01/07/iran-has-terrorists-embedded-inside-the-united-states-and-across-our-border/">trained</a> to &#8220;maintain ostensibly normal lives” until they are activated to serve the Iranian regime&#8217;s interests.
<a href="https://thefederalist.com/2020/01/07/iran-has-terrorists-embedded-inside-the-united-states-and-across-our-border/">FBI reports</a> indicate that Canada serves as a staging area for future homeland attacks. Ali Kourani, a Hezbollah sleeper agent <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/hizballah-operative-sentenced-40-years-prison-covert-terrorist-activities-behalf-hizballah-s">convicted</a> in 2019 of planning attacks in the U.S., <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/06/14/hezbollah-isnt-just-in-beirut-its-in-new-york-too-canada-united-states-jfk-toronto-pearson-airports-ali-kourani-iran/">told </a>FBI agents that IJO is “even more active in Canada than they were in the United States.” Kourani’s Iranian handlers discussed the strategic advantages of cultivating familial ties to Canada, so that “it wouldn’t appear suspicious or odd if he were to make travel to Canada with some regularity or frequency.”
Iran is a country that is regularly <a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/u-s-state-department-iran-remains-world-s-worst-state-sponsor-of-terrorism-/30248755.html">cited</a> as a state sponsor of terrorism, with a track <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/06/14/hezbollah-isnt-just-in-beirut-its-in-new-york-too-canada-united-states-jfk-toronto-pearson-airports-ali-kourani-iran/">record</a> of penetrating U.S. borders. For instance, between 1995 and 2000, Lebanese immigrant Mohammed Youssef Hammoud oversaw a vast “<a href="https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/mohamad-youssef-hammoud-sentenced-30-years-terrorism-financing-case">criminal enterprise</a>” in Charlotte, North Carolina, which accumulated millions of dollars in capital intended for Hezbollah leaders in Lebanon.
In 2011, Soleimani’s Quds Force was implicated in a clandestine <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/">plot</a> to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the U.S. and bomb the Saudi embassy in Washington D.C. Then there is Alexei Saab, a New Jersey resident charged in September with a <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/manhattan-us-attorney-announces-indictment-new-jersey-man-terrorist-activities-behalf">nine-count indictment</a> for surveilling targets on behalf of IJO, probing for “soft spots” throughout New York City.
CAIR’s position on screening for terrorists, however, has been to <a href="https://www.cair.com/cair_to_announce_complete_victory_in_constitutional_challenge_to_federal_terror_watchlist">undermine</a> the process wherever possible. Indeed, the organization exerts a great deal of <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cair-asks-federal-court-in-mich-to-prohibit-fbi-border-agents-from-interrogating-muslim-travelers-about-religious-beliefs-and-practices-300858541.html">effort</a> challenging the government’s immigration and border security policies.
In September, CAIR proclaimed “complete victory” in a <a href="https://www.cair.com/cair_to_announce_complete_victory_in_constitutional_challenge_to_federal_terror_watchlist">lawsuit</a> that challenged the constitutionality of the <a href="https://apnews.com/f8abc66af1a64cc7a5f4fba0420cfc54">terrorist watch list</a>, a security protocol that subjects implicated airline passengers and border transients to additional screening. (Fewer than 0.5% of watch list suspects are U.S. citizens or legal residents.) For more than a year, CAIR filed lawsuits and amicus briefs that <a href="https://www.cair.com/fighting_the_unconstitutional_muslim_ban">stalled</a> Trump administration efforts to implement a <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/presidential-proclamation-enhancing-vetting-capabilities-processes-detecting-attempted-entry-united-states-terrorists-public-safety-threats/">travel ban</a> affecting visitors from select high-risk countries
CAIR has even directed Muslim Americans who are detained by customs officials to <a href="https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wtsp.com/amp/article/news/politics/muslim-rights-groups-urge-passengers-to-refuse-secondary-questioning/67-395025140">obstruct</a> the screening process whenever possible, perhaps explaining the delays experienced at the Peace Arch Border Crossing. “Whether you wait an hour or four hours, remain silent until they let you out,” advised CAIR-Florida executive director Hassan Shibly.
National-level law enforcement efforts must be led by consulting relevant intelligence <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/all/law-enforcement-guard-iran-retaliation-u-s-after-commander-killed-n1109826">sources</a>. Given the geopolitical context, the enhanced security posture at the U.S.-Canada border can be attributed to due diligence, and not some nefarious desire to pester Iranian-Americans. Yet, CAIR is far too eager to paint American security personnel as aggressors. CBP was merely taking reasonable precautions in the face of escalating hostility from a rogue nation that has spent decades building powerful Islamist infrastructure across North America.
&nbsp;
David Firester is a writer for Islamism in Politics, a project of the <a href="https://www.meforum.org">Middle East Forum</a>. He is the founder and CEO of TRAC Intelligence, LLC, an Adjunct Lecturer at Hunter College, and a former U.S. Army Intelligence Analyst.

Border Wall As House Investigates $400 Million Contract

FIRESTER: CAIR’s Fight To Undermine U.S. Border Security Continues

Border Wall

CAIR

Canada

Illegal Immigration

Immigration

Iran

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps

Muslim Immigration

Muslims

It turns out that an Iranian student who was recently denied entry upon his arrival in the U.S. and was subsequently deported has some pretty shady ties, according to a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official who <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/iranian-student-whose-deportation-spurred-dem-outcry-has-family-ties-to-irgc-hezbollah-dhs-official">spoke to Fox News</a>. That the deported student has such problematic links — to Iran&#8217;s murderous Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the Iranian regime&#8217;s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-defund-lebanon-and-do-it-yesterday">Lebanon-based Hezbollah proxy</a>, in particular — ought to serve as a wakeup call for the Democratic Party officials, left-wing activists, and open-borders advocates who trotted out the normal hue and cry upon the student&#8217;s denial and deportation.
&#8220;An Iranian student who was denied entry to the United States on arrival and deported this week, amid objections from top Democrats and left-wing activists, has family ties to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and Lebanon-based terror group Hezbollah, a Department of Homeland Security official told Fox News,&#8221; the outlet <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/iranian-student-whose-deportation-spurred-dem-outcry-has-family-ties-to-irgc-hezbollah-dhs-official">reported</a>.
&#8220;Mohammad Shahab Dehghani Hossein was denied entry to the U.S. and detained on Sunday when he arrived on a student visa at Boston Logan International Airport,&#8221; Fox News continued. &#8220;His detention sparked outrage from activists, who flooded the airport demanding his release. It also drew objections from Northeastern University, where [Hossein Abadi] was due to be enrolled, and the American Civil Liberties Union.&#8221;
Some very prominent Democrats, such as 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), responded indignantly. Warren, taking up Hossein Abadi&#8217;s cause, casually accused President Donald Trump&#8217;s administration of &#8220;xenophobia[a].&#8221;
&#8220;Shahab Dehghani is an Iranian student with a valid F1 visa, returning to finish his education,&#8221; Warren tweeted. &#8220;[U.S. Customs and Border Protection] already held him overnight. His deportation must be halted, and we must fight the Trump administration&#8217;s xenophobic policies.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Shahab Dehghani is an Iranian student with a valid F1 visa, returning to finish his education. CBP already held him overnight. His deportation must be halted, and we must fight the Trump administration&#39;s xenophobic policies. <a href="https://t.co/ZCKVo5fwvM">https://t.co/ZCKVo5fwvM</a>
&mdash; Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) <a href="https://twitter.com/ewarren/status/1219457019729588224?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 21, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
A judge in Massachusetts had initially stayed Hossein Abadi&#8217;s deportation, but U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) then promptly executed his deportation. CBP issued a statement on the incident, as <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/01/22/iranian-student-bound-northeastern-removed-us-despite-court-order">reported</a> by Insider Higher Ed.
&#8220;Every applicant for admission is subject to inspection upon arrival in the United States,&#8221; CBP said. &#8220;The issuance of a visa or participation in the visa waiver program does not guarantee entry to the United States. Upon arrival at Logan Airport on Sunday, January 19, [Hossein Abadi] was deemed inadmissible and processed for expedited removal and return to his place of departure. During today’s hearing, the court ruled that the matter is now moot as the subject was never admitted into the United States, the subject is no longer in custody, and the court does not have jurisdiction to order his return.&#8221;
Hossein Abadi had first applied for a U.S. visa in 2018 and &#8220;[h]is visa was granted approximately a week ago,&#8221; Insider Higher Ed reported. But the DHS official who spoke to Fox News told the outlet that &#8220;the case was more complicated than some were letting on, and that there were legitimate reasons for rejecting [Hossein Abadi]&#8221; — in other words, his ties to the IRGC and Hezbollah.
Hezbollah, the Iran-funded and -trained proxy militia that has <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/lebanon-is-gone">all but overrun Lebanon</a>, is uniquely poised to cause immense trouble for Israel. As I explained last month in a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-defund-lebanon-and-do-it-yesterday">Daily Wire op-ed</a> calling for the full defunding of all U.S. taxpayer foreign aid to Lebanon:
<blockquote>Bear in mind that Hezbollah currently maintains scores of Iranian-funded, <a href="https://www.idf.il/en/minisites/hezbollah/hezbollahs-precision-guided-missile-project/">precision-guided missiles</a> currently stationed in southern Lebanon and aimed straight at the hearts of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Israel’s next war — and it is a matter of when, not if — with Hezbollah is going to be a <a href="http://www.thetower.org/article/the-new-hezbollah-israels-next-war-will-be-a-godawful-mess/">long, bloody mess</a>. And foreign aid to Israel aside, the U.S. taxpayer presently also funds the horrifically wrong side of that inevitable war.</blockquote>

Department of Homeland Security

Deported Iranian Student Linked To IRGC And Hezbollah, DHS Says

Radical Islam

Radical Islamic Terror

U.S. Customs and Border Protection

On November 24, 2019, Michael Rubens Bloomberg announced his formal entrance into the Democratic Party&#8217;s 2020 presidential primary. To date, he is the latest candidate to enter the primary field.
Michael Bloomberg served three full terms as mayor of New York City, from 2002 through the end of 2013. He was New York City&#8217;s mayoral successor of the failed 2008 Republican presidential candidate and current private attorney for President Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani. Bloomberg is also the co-founder, CEO, and majority owner of financial services conglomerate Bloomberg L.P., which is perhaps best known for its flagship Bloomberg Terminal hardware. As of November 2019, Bloomberg&#8217;s net worth was <a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/michael-bloomberg">estimated</a> at $58 billion dollars, which makes him one of the wealthiest individuals in the world. He has been a prolific donator to various charitable and political causes.
Born in Boston in 1942, Bloomberg has degrees from Johns Hopkins University and Harvard Business School. A registered Democrat earlier in his career, Bloomberg actually ran for and successfully sought the New York City mayoralty office as a registered Republican before re-registering as an independent in the midst of his second mayoral term. He re-registered as a Democrat in 2018. Since joining the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primary field, Bloomberg News — an international news outlet operating as a legal subsidiary of Bloomberg L.P. — has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/bloomberg-news-wont-investigate-bloomberg-democrats-its-journalists-go-to-work-on-bloombergs-campaign">announced</a> that it will not journalistically investigate Bloomberg or his fellow 2020 Democratic Party primary campaign rivals.
Electoral History: Bloomberg&#8217;s only experience in elected office is his three terms as New York City mayor. In 2001, shortly following the 9/11 jihadist attacks, Bloomberg sought to replace outgoing Mayor Rudy Giuliani as a fellow Republican and defeated his Democratic opponent, Mark Green, by a 50.3%–47.9% margin. In 2005, Bloomberg once again ran as a Republican and was re-elected by a nearly 20-point margin over his opponent, Fernando Ferrer. In 2009, after having successfully lobbied the New York City Council to change its mayoral two-term limit to a three-term limit, Bloomberg was narrowly elected to a third mayoral term while running as a Republican Party-endorsed registered independent.
On The Issues: Bloomberg&#8217;s general political profile is that of a fiscal and national security centrist, although he positions himself far to the left on social issues — with his <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2019/12/05/bloomberg-unveils-expansive-gun-control-plan-076376">anti-gun advocacy</a> perhaps emerging as the political issue with which he has become most closely identified. The latter stages of Bloomberg&#8217;s mayoral tenure were marked by odd flirtations with nanny state-style progressive governance, with the infamous <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2013/03/11/the-new-york-city-soda-ban-explained/">&#8220;soda ban&#8221;</a> as the most prominent example. Furthermore, in terms of hot-button leftist issues, Bloomberg&#8217;s current 2020 presidential campaign is aggressively <a href="https://www.mikebloomberg.com/policies/international-climate-priorities">advertising</a> his commitment to combatting global warming. But on bread-and-butter issues pertaining to fiscal prudence and foreign policy — perhaps especially with respect to Israel and the Middle East — Bloomberg is generally <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-michael-bloomberg-would-have-no-chance-at-the-democratic-presidential-nomination">far more centrist</a> than most of his other primary opponents.
Constitution: Bloomberg&#8217;s career in the financial services industry and his tenure as New York City mayor provide little in the way of concrete guidance as to what he may believe about constitutional interpretation and judicial philosophy. However, following the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, Bloomberg expressed support for &#8220;chang[ing]&#8221; prevailing constitutional jurisprudence so as to allow for easier mass domestic surveillance. His far-left stances on most cultural issues might also portend a belief in leftist &#8220;living constitutionalism.&#8221; Similarly, his nanny state governing proclivities likely augur in favor of an expansive view of the Constitution&#8217;s Commerce Clause — a provision that has justified decades of progressive economic regulatory overreach, going back to the New Deal.
Economy: Bloomberg has self-described as a fiscal conservative, pointing to his balancing New York City&#8217;s budget as his most supportive data point. Bloomberg may indeed be fiscally conservative to the extent fiscal conservatism means cutting deficits and balancing budgets, but his mayoral tenure and public statements also evince a willingness to raise various taxes toward achieving those ends. Bloomberg is also a firm proponent of free trade and opponent of protectionist policies. Out of all the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates, it is possible that no one better personifies the decades-long post-Reagan/Clinton bipartisan neoliberal economic consensus than Bloomberg.
Health Care: Bloomberg&#8217;s nanny state governing tendencies, as best seen with the now-infamous &#8220;soda ban,&#8221; are perhaps most evident in the health care context. Despite his self-identification as a fiscal conservative, then, Bloomberg has long demonstrated a willingness to extend the reach of government to regulate both health care and the health of those citizens under his governing watch. His 2020 presidential campaign now <a href="https://www.mikebloomberg.com/getting-stuff-done">emphasizes</a> the pursuit of universal health care, and how &#8220;expanding Obamacare and Medicare is the best way to achieve universal coverage.&#8221;
Immigration: Bloomberg has previously been very critical of border hawks who call for deportations of illegal aliens, suggesting a personal view that mass amnesty is proper. To that end, he was supportive of the U.S. Senate&#8217;s failed 2007 &#8220;comprehensive immigration reform&#8221; push, which included amnesty for millions of illegal aliens as one of its underlying goals. As mayor of New York City, Bloomberg was fairly lax on immigration enforcement and largely shirked meaningful steps to crack down on illegal immigration plaguing the city. His current campaign <a href="https://www.mikebloomberg.com/getting-stuff-done">website</a> hails Bloomberg&#8217;s erstwhile formation of &#8220;pro-immigration organization New American Economy,&#8221; and he is generally seen as a staunch advocate of large-scale legal immigration.
Foreign Policy: Bloomberg assumed the New York City mayoralty in the near-term aftermath of the 9/11 jihadist attacks, and he is generally considered to be more hawkish on foreign policy and national security matters than most of his 2020 Democratic presidential rivals. He previously supported the PATRIOT Act, was an initial supporter of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and publicly endorsed President George W. Bush&#8217;s re-election campaign at the New York City-hosted Republican National Convention in 2004. Bloomberg is much more pro-Israel than most of his 2020 Democratic rivals: In 2014, when President Barack Obama oversaw a temporary <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/transportation/213288-obama-defends-israel-flight-ban">U.S. flight ban</a> to Israel amidst the jihadist rocket fire that rained down on the Jewish state that summer from the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-israel-must-destroy-hamas-once-and-all-josh-hammer">Hamas</a>-controlled Gaza Strip, Bloomberg personally <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2014-07-23/why-i-flew-to-israel">flew to Israel</a> solely to demonstrate to his fellow Americans that it was safe to do so. In September 2019, Bloomberg conducted an odd interview on the issue of China, in which he <a href="http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/12/michael-bloomberg-china-pbs-climate-xi-dictator.html">defended</a> Chinese Communist Party strongman Xi Jinping against charges that he is a &#8220;dictator.&#8221;
Abortion: Bloomberg is emphatically pro-abortion.
Guns: Bloomberg&#8217;s anti-gun advocacy is perhaps the single most defining issue of his recent private citizen activism — and perhaps the single most defining issue of his 2020 presidential bid. He is very closely affiliated with and has <a href="https://everytown.org/press/new-gun-violence-prevention-group-everytown-for-gun-safety-unites-mayors-moms-and-millions-of-americans-on-new-paths-to-victory-state-capitols-corporate-responsibility-voter-activation/">helped</a> <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/amberjamieson/bloomberg-gun-violence-moms-demand-action-volunteers">fund</a> Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action, which are both groups deeply hostile to Second Amendment rights. He also co-founded Mayors Against Illegal Guns while he was mayor of New York City. Bloomberg supports <a href="https://www.mikebloomberg.com/policies/gun-safety">“universal” background checks</a>, which often serve as a rhetorical euphemism for the government serving as an intermediary in all private firearms transfers. Bloomberg believes that every gun owner should need a permit before making a gun purchase. He <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/cory-booker-wants-a-ban-on-assault-weapons-and-yes-it-means-putting-gun-owners-in-jail" data-reader-unique-id="49">supports a ban</a> on the undefinable sub-class of firearms referred to as so-called “assault weapons” — a line of thought that, if taken to its logical conclusion, could <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/42837/hammer-kamala-harriss-flirtation-banning-all-semi-josh-hammer" data-reader-unique-id="50">lead to the banning of all semi-automatic firearms in America</a>.

Michael Bloomberg

Where Does Michael Bloomberg Stand On The Issues? Here’s Everything You Need To Know.

2020 Election

Abortion

Bloomberg News

Constitution

Democratic Party

Economy

Foreign Policy

Gun Buybacks

Gun Control

Gun Laws

The news that the deceased suspect of this morning&#8217;s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-active-shooter-at-pensacola-naval-air-base-at-least-5-rushed-to-hospital-shooter-confirmed-dead">horrific shooting spree</a> at Naval Air Station Pensacola was a Saudi aviation student here to <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/news/authorities-identify-pensacola-naval-base-shooter-as-saudi-national">train with the Saudi military</a> ought to serve as a wakeup call for American elected officials.
The suspect appears to have been a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-attacker-at-florida-military-base-was-member-of-saudi-military-was-an-act-of-terrorism-congressman-says">student officer</a> with the Saudi Air Force and, while it is unclear right now which U.S. visa he obtained to arrive here, an <a href="https://twitter.com/RMConservative/status/1203012127952449541">A-2 visa</a> — <a href="https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/other-visa-categories/visas-diplomats.html">described</a> by the U.S. State Department as appropriate for those &#8220;traveling to the United States on behalf of [his/her] national government to engage solely in official activities for that government&#8221; — is perhaps likely . As The Daily Wire has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-active-shooter-at-pensacola-naval-air-base-at-least-5-rushed-to-hospital-shooter-confirmed-dead">reported</a>, there are at least ten victims injured, including three dead.
There is a lot to unpack and unravel here — especially for <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-us-must-side-saudi-arabia-against-iranian-josh-hammer">those of us</a> who have generally encouraged closer U.S.-Saudi military ties in order to help deter the far greater Middle East terrorism threat, Iran. This developing story has many moving parts, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia ought to be prepared for a Jamal Khashoggi-level public relations blowback when even a stalwart pro-Israel/anti-Iran conservative such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has an <a href="https://twitter.com/NBCNightlyNews/status/1203029174753153025">immediate reaction</a> that the Saudi government &#8220;needs to [financially] make things better for these victims.&#8221; Indeed, it is hard to disagree with the governor.
But the focus here must be on immigration policy. As The Daily Wire&#8217;s Ryan Saavedra already <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-attacker-at-florida-military-base-was-member-of-saudi-military-was-an-act-of-terrorism-congressman-says">reported</a>, hardline conservative Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) has opined that today&#8217;s naval base tragedy &#8220;represents a serious failure in the vetting process and in the way in which we invite &#8230; people into our community.&#8221; Gaetz vowed to help &#8220;ensure that we have extreme vetting for the people that come into our country on our bases and in our communities.&#8221;
This is obviously correct. And it is important that this, and not a short-sighted hard diplomatic pivot away from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman at a time when the uniquely evil Iranian regime is yet again on the proverbial ropes and facing an increasingly restive population, become the preeminent takeaway from today&#8217;s horrific incident.
Why, as I <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-never-forget-911-we-need-rethink-how-we-josh-hammer">lamented</a> on the most recent anniversary of the 9/11 jihadist attacks, has the U.S. continued to implement an exceedingly generous and lax immigration policy for prospective immigrants from the broader Islamic world? While there will always be dispensations for legal immigration from the Islamic world, why are we not starting from a default baseline level of effectively zero? Our much-ballyhooed &#8220;vetting&#8221; procedures are oftentimes, as was tragically the case today, revealed to be exceedingly inadequate. But hey, in fairness, <a href="https://twitter.com/josh_hammer/status/1203010783958982657">how would we ever have known</a> to keep a close eye on Saudi aviation students? It&#8217;s not like we&#8217;ve had <a href="https://twitter.com/Sultanknish/status/1203014470525542400">previous noteworthy incidents</a>, right?
Policymakers ought to heed the unassailable wisdom of the <a href="https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1213676/m1/6/?q=cornerstone">9/11 Commission Report</a>: &#8220;It is perhaps obvious to state that terrorists cannot plan and carry out attacks in the United States if they are unable to enter the country.&#8221; Heck, does anyone even remember that 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, according to former CIA contractor James Mitchell, <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/307362-9-11-mastermind-al-qaeda-to-use-immigration-to-end-us">allegedly believes</a> that &#8220;the &#8216;practical&#8217; way to defeat America [is] through immigration?&#8221;
Immigration policy is national security policy. And that extends to both illegal immigration and legal immigration. Our policymakers ought to not forget that.

US visa, vintage map and passport background

HAMMER: REMINDER: Immigration Policy IS National Security Policy

Florida

Matt Gaetz

Ron DeSantis

Saudi Arabia

Shooting

Daily Wire Editor-at-Large Josh Hammer has the following piece today at the <a href="https://nypost.com/2019/11/19/alexander-vindman-condemned-himself-in-his-impeachment-testimony/">New York Post</a>.
The commander in chief ought to fire Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who serves on the National Security Council, for rank insubordination. That <a href="https://nypost.com/2019/11/19/trump-impeachment-hearings-livestream-watch-day-3-of-public-testimony/" data-reader-unique-id="2">is the key take­away</a> from Tuesday’s hearings in the Democratic impeachment push.
Vindman, unlike other Democratic “star witnesses,” was at least on the July 25 phone call between President Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, that set off the inquiry.
But Vindman was unreliable and had questionable judgment, according to his own outgoing superior, Tim Morrison, the National Security Council’s senior director for European affairs.
In fact, Morrison viewed Vindman as so untrustworthy that he opted to exclude him from his conversations with William Taylor, the senior US diplomat in Ukraine.
Vindman had an “unfortunate habit,” Morrison thought, of defying the sprawling executive branch’s carefully delineated chain of command. Vindman’s testimony vindicates Morrison’s dripping disdain for his former subordinate.
The officer, who testified that he has never spoken directly with the president, nonetheless admitted to advising Zelensky as to how to comport himself in his communication with Trump. Vindman testified that he did not have time to express his concerns directly to Morrison, but he apparently found the time to express his concerns to both Deputy Assistant Secretary of State George Kent and an unnamed individual in the intelligence community.
As The Federalist’s Sean Davis noted, it is about as plausible an interpretation as any that the nation is now slogging through this imbroglio because Vindman opted to work in tandem with a Deep State whistleblower to jump-start impeachment proceedings over a disagreement with a phone call’s ethics.
Suffice it to say, this is not how our <a href="https://nypost.com/2019/11/18/how-the-left-is-trashing-the-constitution-to-fight-trump/" data-reader-unique-id="10">constitutional republic is intended to operate</a>.
Article II, Section 1, Clause 1 of the US Constitution is remarkably straightforward: “The executive power shall be vested in a president of the United States of America.”
Leftists may invariably decry constitutional law’s “unitary executive theory,” but as Attorney General William Barr noted last Friday, the notion that the president of the United States, and only the president of the United States, is responsible for carrying out “the executive power” of which Article II speaks is not a mere “theory.”
It is, as Barr said, a “description of what the Framers unquestionably did in Article II.”
When anyone else in the executive branch — be it Deep State, Shallow State or anywhere in between — attempts to undermine and thwart the president’s executive power, such action is not merely insubordinate or morally problematic. It is outright unconstitutional.
And as law professors Saikrishna Prakash and Michael Ramsey explicated in a 2001 Yale Law Journal article on the topic, the executive power incontrovertibly includes within its ambit all “residual” foreign-affairs powers, meaning all foreign-affairs powers not legislatively vested in Congress in Article I, Section 8.
To be sure, it is appropriate for top-level national-security advisers to offer substantive opinions to the president. But Vindman has testified that he never even directly communicated with Trump.
<a href="https://nypost.com/2019/11/19/alexander-vindman-condemned-himself-in-his-impeachment-testimony/">Read the rest here.</a>

Alexander Vindman testifying

Hammer At The ‘New York Post’: Alexander Vindman Condemned Himself In His Impeachment Testimony

Impeachment

Ukraine

One of the few points of unbounded bipartisan agreement in Washington has for decades been that U.S.-Israel security cooperation is right, good, mutually beneficial, and worth every nickel spent on it. It is well–grounded in facts and has acknowledged benefits to both sides.
However, at the J Street Conference last week, left-of-center political candidates and hostile-to-Israel speakers questioned the utility of American aid to Israel except, perhaps, as “leverage” to force Israel to meet their left-of-center and hostile-to-Israel demands. Candidates were willing to “explore” the issue. But it was left to J Street president, Jeremy Ben-Ami, to get to the heart of the conversation – Ben Ami isn’t interested in “leverage,” but in de-legitimizing the aid. “American aid is not intended to be a blank check. As Israel receives that $3.8 billion in aid, what is it being used for?”
Actually, it’s not, a secret. The United States is Israel’s ally of first choice. And Israel remains the one country the United States can rely upon to defend itself by itself and in coordination with American interests. And most of the money is then spent by Israel in the U.S.
The origins of U.S.-Israel security cooperation are in the Cold War understanding that the United States could not engage all the adversaries of all its allies and friends around the world. It was embraced warily at first — the Americans were unconvinced they would receive anything of value and the Israelis were concerned about continued freedom of action. But it worked. Israel went from being considered a net security consumer to a net security producer, meaning the United States did not have to expend resources to defend Israel. And Israel participated in making the Middle East and eastern Mediterranean regions more secure due to its presence.
The following list of Israeli assets was developed in 1979 as a “quick reference guide” to security cooperation:
<ul>
<li>A secure location in a crucial part of the world</li>
<li>A well-developed military infrastructure</li>
<li>The ability to maintain, service, and repair U.S.-origin equipment</li>
<li>An excellent deep-water port in Haifa</li>
<li>Modern air facilities</li>
<li>A position close to sea lanes and ability to project power over long distances</li>
<li>A domestic air force larger than many in Western Europe and possessing more up-to-date hardware</li>
<li>Multilingual capabilities, including facility in English, Arabic, French, Farsi, and the languages of the (former) Soviet Union</li>
<li>Combat familiarity with Soviet/Russian-style tactics and equipment</li>
<li>The ability to assist U.S. naval fleets, including common equipment</li>
<li>The ability to support American operations and to provide emergency air cover</li>
<li>A democratic political system with a strong orientation to support the United States and the NATO system</li>
</ul>
Added in 1996: Israel’s military research and development capabilities complement those of the U.S. Its intelligence services cooperate closely with ours — to our benefit. And large numbers of American troops train in Israel.
Added in 2006: The establishment of police-to-police counterterrorism training in Israel.
Nothing has ever been removed.
Not a single American serviceperson needs to be stationed in Israel. Aside from training missions, there have been American soldiers stationed in Israel since 2009, only working with the American/Israeli co-designed X-band radar system — a deployment that helps the U.S. and Israel monitor threats from the east.
Israel’s missile defense capabilities — developed and produced in conjunction with American industry — not only protect Israel from Hamas and Hezbollah missiles, but protect the United States from emerging threats from North Korea and Iran. Various branches of the U.S. military have purchased a variety of Israeli-developed systems and participated in joint development of anti-tunnel defenses, the Arrow Missile Program, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Plane, THEL Laser Program, the Advanced Urban Combat Training Facility, as well as Iron Dome.
Israel has been a partner in U.S. and multi-lateral military exercises for years; interestingly, Israel and the United Arab Emirates flew together in one. Combined exercises have taken place on NATO territory, in the U.S., in Israel (where the Luftwaffe flew above Israeli territory, making a few people blink), and the Pacific Ocean. Not a single country has opted out due to Israel having opted in.
The two countries are drawn together by common values and common threats. The bipartisan support of our ally Israel has been a testament to those values, as well as to the practical recognition that the threats require cooperation in intelligence, technology, and security policy.
The volatility of the Middle East is unlikely to be constrained. The United States, desirous of removing its soldiers from the region even as it understands the risk attendant to a resurgent Russia and increasingly desperate Iran, is as much in need of capable allies now as it ever was.  It would be a shame if rampant J Street politicization of the relationship were allowed to do damage.
&nbsp;
Shoshana Bryen is senior director of <a href="https://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/">The Jewish Policy Center</a>. Portions of this article appeared in the Jewish Policy Center magazine, inFOCUS Quarterly.

U.S. and Israel flags

BRYEN: U.S.-Israel Security Cooperation Is A Win-Win

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Israel Defense Forces (IDF)

J Street

Military

United Arab Emirates (UAE)

The United States government has reportedly opened a national security investigation into the Chinese-owned company TikTok over concerns of how the company stores the personal data of its users and whether it is censoring politically sensitive content.
Last week, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) asked U.S. intelligence officials to look into whether the social media app TikTok presented a threat to the U.S. national security.
&#8220;With over 110 million downloads in the U.S. alone, TikTok is a potential counterintelligence threat we cannot ignore,&#8221; the senators <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/10/24/tiktok-raises-national-security-concerns-congress-schumer-cotton-ask-federal-review/">wrote</a>. &#8220;Given these concerns, we ask that the Intelligence Community conduct an assessment of the national security risks posed by TikTok and other China-based content platforms operating in the U.S. and brief Congress on these findings.&#8221;
On Friday, Reuters <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tiktok-cfius-exclusive-idUSKBN1XB4IL">reported</a> that U.S. officials have launched a probe into &#8220;TikTok owner Beijing ByteDance Technology Co’s $1 billion acquisition of U.S. social media app Musical.ly&#8221; even though &#8220;the $1 billion acquisition was completed two years ago.&#8221;
&#8220;The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which reviews deals by foreign acquirers for potential national security risks, has started to review the Musical.ly deal, the sources said,&#8221; Reuters added. &#8220;TikTok did not seek clearance from CFIUS when it acquired Musical.ly, they added, which gives the U.S. security panel scope to investigate it now.&#8221;
In April, Digiday <a href="https://digiday.com/media/tiktok-publishers-comedic-clips/">reported</a> that, &#8220;according to TikTok’s pitch deck to U.S. agencies, about 60% of its monthly active users in the U.S. are between 16 and 24 years old. Also like Snapchat, users are heavily engaged with the app, spending 46 minutes per day on TikTok, on average.&#8221;
Earlier this month, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg slammed TikTok for allegedly censoring sensitive political content that Beijing deems to be offensive.
“While our services like WhatsApp are used by protesters and activists everywhere due to strong encryption and privacy protections, on TikTok, the Chinese app growing quickly around the world, mentions of these protests are censored, even in the U.S.,” Zuckerberg <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/17/facebook-ceo-zuckerberg-calls-out-tiktok-censorship-in-china.html">said</a> in regards to the Hong Kong protests. “Is that the internet we want?”
A September report from The Washington Post highlighted that while the Hong Kong protests were gaining significant traction on other social media platforms, it was not gaining traction on TikTok.
&#8220;Researchers have grown worried that the app could also prove to be one of China’s most effective weapons in the global information war, bringing Chinese-style censorship to mainstream U.S. audiences and shaping how they understand real-world events,&#8221; The Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/09/15/tiktoks-beijing-roots-fuel-censorship-suspicion-it-builds-huge-us-audience/">reported</a>. &#8220;Compounding researchers’ concerns are TikTok’s limited public comments about the content it removes and its purported independence from censors in Beijing.&#8221;
On October 9, 2019, Sen. Marco Rubio wrote a <a href="https://www.rubio.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/9ba023e4-2f4b-404a-a8c0-e87ea784f440/FCEFFE1F54F3899795B4E5F1F1804630.20191009-letter-to-secretary-mnuchin-re-tiktok.pdf">letter</a> to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin expressing his concerns over TikTok.
&#8220;These Chinese-owned apps are increasingly being used to censor content and silence open discussion on topics deemed sensitive by the Chinese Government and Communist Party,&#8221; Rubio wrote. &#8220;These topics include Tiananmen Square, Tibet, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and other issues.&#8221;
&#8220;I therefore request the Committee of Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to exercise its authority and launch a full review of the national security implications of TikTok&#8217;s acquisition of Musical.ly,&#8221; Rubio continued. &#8220;There continues to be ample and growing evidence that TikTok&#8217;s platform for Western markets, including those in the U.S., is censoring content that is not in line with the Chinese Government and Communist Party directives.&#8221;
Rubio added,  &#8220;The Chinese government&#8217;s nefarious efforts to censor information inside free societies around the world cannot be accepted and pose serious long-term challenges to the U.S. and our allies.&#8221;

TikTok

U.S. Opens National Security Investigation Into TikTok

Social Media

A new bipartisan piece of legislation, the <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/4189/text?r=4&amp;s=1">Homeland and Cyber Threat Act</a>, seeks to amend the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) to allow U.S. citizens to sue foreign governments for injuries sustained from foreign government-sponsored cyberattacks. As explained yesterday in an op-ed in <a href="https://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/politics/467226-americans-deserve-protection-from-foreign-sponsored-hacking">The Hill</a> from the bill&#8217;s sponsors, Reps. Jack Bergman (R-MI) and Andy Kim (D-NJ), the bill &#8220;carves out a cyberattack exception to the blanket immunity of foreign governments — including foreign officials, employees, or agents — provided by FSIA with regard to money damages sought by a national of the United States for personal injury, harm to reputation, or damage to or loss of property resulting from cyberattacks.&#8221;
The congressmen point out how, under extant law and federal courts&#8217; interpretation of that law, foreign governments are generally immune from U.S. plaintiffs&#8217; legal actions. Accordingly, the Homeland and Cyber Threat Act would close this legal safe harbor and endeavor to hold hostile foreign governments accountable for their destructive actions against American citizens. The congressmen <a href="https://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/politics/467226-americans-deserve-protection-from-foreign-sponsored-hacking">argue</a> that times have sufficiently changed since the passage of the FSIA so as to make necessary such a legislative tweak:
<blockquote>
This legislation would go a long way towards providing much-needed legal protection to victims of foreign-sponsored cyberattacks. Foreign governments have been hacking into private data systems to influence politics and policy in the United States for a long time; it is time for Congress to enact a cyberattack exception to FSIA that protects the privacy and property of Americans. The bill would give victims of foreign-sponsored cyberattacks effective recourse to the courts for the first time, and it will hold foreign governments and their agents responsible for these harmful activities.
</blockquote>
As of now, the bill has <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/4189/cosponsors?r=4&amp;s=1">10 cosponsors</a>: Five Democrats and five Republicans apiece. The cosponsors include some notable far-left progressives, such as Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX), and some notable hard-right conservatives, such as Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL).
The FSIA was <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Sovereign_Immunities_Act">passed in 1976</a>, which was well before the commercial and popular rise of the Internet.
The new bill <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/4189/text?r=4&amp;s=1">lists each of the following</a> as foreign government-sponsored activities that could potentially justify a lawsuit, assuming also that a U.S. citizen has sustained &#8220;personal injury, harm to reputation, or damage to or loss of property&#8221;:
<blockquote>
(1) Unauthorized access to or access exceeding authorization to a computer located in the United States.
(2) Unauthorized access to confidential, electronic stored information located in the United States.
(3) The transmission of a program, information, code, or command to a computer located in the United States, which, as a result of such conduct, causes damage without authorization.
(4) The use, dissemination, or disclosure, without consent, of any information obtained by means of any activity described in paragraph (1), (2), or (3).
(5) The provision of material support or resources for any activity described in paragraph (1), (2), (3), or (4), including by an official, employee, or agent of such foreign state.
</blockquote>
Truly bipartisan pieces of legislation are undoubtedly rare, in today&#8217;s Congress. But much like the issue of holding Big Tech accountable, it seems that the issue of holding hostile foreign governments accountable for cyberattacks could be another issue that gains bipartisan acclaim.

Network security system

Bipartisan Bill Seeks To Hold Foreign Governments Accountable For Hacking Americans

Cyberattack

Lawsuit

As of right now, most national head-to-head polls for the 2020 presidential general election show President Donald Trump losing to his Democratic Party presidential primary rivals. This trend generally holds, regardless of whether the nominee is any of the leading top three Democratic candidates: Former Vice President <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2020/president/us/general_election_trump_vs_biden-6247.html">Joe Biden</a>, Sen. <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2020/president/us/general_election_trump_vs_warren-6251.html">Elizabeth Warren</a> (D-MA), or Sen. <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2020/president/us/general_election_trump_vs_sanders-6250.html">Bernie Sanders</a> (I-VT).
While the Trump campaign might be tempted to rest on its laurels and sneer at the polls based upon a look back at the perceived polling debacle that was the 2016 presidential election, such a move would be just as haughty as it is myopic. As Harry Enten&#8217;s <a href="https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/trump-is-just-a-normal-polling-error-behind-clinton/">article</a> from November 4, 2016 — that would be four days before the general election — presciently pointed out, in retrospect, polling from the 2016 election cycle was not actually irreconcilable with a Trump victory. Trump obviously trailed Hillary Clinton in the polls, but his victory was actually not outside the realm of polling feasibility — or even outside the realm of polling reasonableness.
As such, the 2020 Trump re-election campaign would be wise to focus on what it can do to win over a larger share of independent, moderate, and suburban voters. In doing so, the Trump campaign would be wise to look back to a much-ballyhooed part of Karl Rove&#8217;s 2004 blueprint for George W. Bush&#8217;s re-election: Specifically, that campaign&#8217;s ingenious focus on the &#8220;<a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/security-moms-bushs-secret-election-weapon-gl6jc8cxr7j">security mom</a>.&#8221; The mythical &#8220;security mom,&#8221; at the time, was symbolized by the proverbial suburban mother who was worried about revanchist Islamist terrorism and sought to protect her home and family against those who would seek to kill us.
Although some of the specific animating issues have changed over the past 15 years, there is tremendous potential this election cycle for Trump to deploy similar messaging and reach out to a similar sect of voters.
Violent crime in America, despite overall dramatically declining since the 1990s, has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-in-defense-of-prosecutors">unfortunately spiked</a> over the past few years. Why isn&#8217;t Trump formally renouncing the <a href="https://www.providencejournal.com/news/20191004/he-was-released-early-from-prison-in-february-now-hes-wanted-for-murder-on-federal-hill">harrowing</a> First Step Act jailbreak law, the passage of which he apparently already <a href="https://www.conservativereview.com/news/trump-reportedly-regrets-passage-jailbreak-first-step-act-gullible-conservatives-supported/">regrets</a>, and doubling down on &#8220;Willie Horton&#8221;-style anti-crime messaging?
Left-wing Democrats are campaigning harder than ever on anti-Second Amendment, gun-grabbing policy proposals. Why isn&#8217;t Trump leading Republicans on a 2020 platform of cracking down on the gun felons that <a href="https://www.city-journal.org/html/decriminalization-delusion-14037.html">light-on-crime</a> jurisdictions like California seem <a href="https://calmatters.org/gun-violence/2019/10/felons-firearms-california-federal-charges-gun-control-newsom/">hellbent on unleashing</a> upon the general public?
The global jihad — as embodied both by the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-designating-muslim-brotherhood-terrorist-josh-hammer">Muslim Brotherhood</a>, the mother&#8217;s milk of Sunni jihad, as well as more public-facing Islamist outfits like al-Qaeda and Islamic State — continues, 18 years after 9/11, to pose a threat to the U.S. homeland. Why isn&#8217;t Trump running on a platform of discussing not just the wall and border security, but also the arguably even more indispensable issue of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-border-wall-nice-interior-enforcement-nicer-josh-hammer">interior visa enforcement</a>? What about the need to radically <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-never-forget-911-we-need-rethink-how-we-josh-hammer">restructure our immigration policy</a> away from letting in largely unvetted populations of Middle Easterners?
Across the nation, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-who-will-stand-for-the-forgotten-american">neo-Confederate</a> &#8220;sanctuary&#8221; jurisdictions employ anti-<a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/articlevi">Supremacy Clause</a> erroneous legal &#8220;reasoning&#8221; to defy <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;rct=j&amp;q=&amp;esrc=s&amp;source=web&amp;cd=1&amp;ved=2ahUKEwiHsv7v4LXjAhWTHM0KHZKMB7gQFjAAegQIAxAB&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.law.cornell.edu%2Fuscode%2Ftext%2F8%2F1324&amp;usg=AOvVaw2EunpYa249SvA-oBwwFrS2">federal immigration law</a>, ignore ICE detainers on <a href="https://www.conservativereview.com/news/another-illegal-alien-arrested-brutal-rape-notorious-sanctuary-montgomery-county/">violent criminal aliens</a>, and aid and abet the work of the transnational Mexican cartels that traffick drugs and criminals alike into the homeland. Why isn&#8217;t Trump proposing more aggressive policies to strip federal funding away from sanctuary jurisdictions and effectively message to suburban voters that the government will act to help prevent MS-13 thugs from terrorizing their neighborhoods?
There are a myriad other examples, to be sure. But to maximize its 2020 re-election chances, the Trump campaign ought to focus more intensively on appealing to moderates and suburban swing voters. In order to do so, there is no better platform than a safety and security agenda tailored to the very &#8220;security moms&#8221; that President Bush so effectively courted in 2004.

Handcuffed prisoner

HAMMER: Trump Needs To Focus On A Safety And Security Agenda For 2020

Al Qaeda

Crime

Donald Trump

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MS-13 Gang

President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that he dismissed national security adviser John Bolton from the administration on Monday night.
&#8220;I informed John Bolton last night that his services are no longer needed at the White House,&#8221; Trump tweeted. &#8220;I disagreed strongly with many of his suggestions, as did others in the Administration, and therefore I asked John for his resignation, which was given to me this morning. I thank John very much for his service. I will be naming a new National Security Advisor next week.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">&#8230;.I asked John for his resignation, which was given to me this morning. I thank John very much for his service. I will be naming a new National Security Advisor next week.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1171452881729228802?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 10, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Bolton came out and offered a different account of what happened, tweeting: &#8220;I offered to resign last night and President Trump said, &#8216;Let&#8217;s talk about it tomorrow.'&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">I offered to resign last night and President Trump said, &#8220;Let&#8217;s talk about it tomorrow.&#8221;
— John Bolton (@AmbJohnBolton) <a href="https://twitter.com/AmbJohnBolton/status/1171455806069305346?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 10, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Bolton reportedly told Washington Post reporter Robert Costa: “Let’s be clear, I resigned, having offered to do so last night.”
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Ambassador Bolton sends me a text message just now: “Let’s be clear, I resigned, having offered to do so last night.”
— Robert Costa (@costareports) <a href="https://twitter.com/costareports/status/1171457513834696704?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 10, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
The Washington Post noted that key details in the president&#8217;s statement about Bolton do not add up.
&#8220;But just an hour before the announcement, the White House announced that Bolton would be appearing at a 1:30 p.m. Eastern time news conference alongside Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin,&#8221; The Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/09/10/something-is-fishy-about-trumps-john-bolton-announcement">reported</a>. &#8220;It seems unlikely Bolton would agree to show up after effectively being fired. If Bolton was on his way out as of Monday night, why did the White House press office not seem to know about it at 11 a.m. Tuesday morning?&#8221;
The news comes after Trump planned on meeting with the Taliban, which was ultimately canceled after Bolton and others protested, in an attempt to secure a peace deal in Afghanistan.
&#8220;The idea raised Sept. 1 during a Situation Room meeting with the president was vehemently opposed by national security adviser John Bolton, even as officials at the State Department argued it could move the parties closer to an agreement,&#8221; NBC News <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/secret-taliban-peace-talks-camp-david-floated-scrapped-within-week-n1051286">reported</a>. &#8220;Bolton had an ally in Vice President Mike Pence, who also made the case against a meeting at Camp David, a location Trump suggested.&#8221;
&#8220;Trump’s impromptu plan to invite leaders of the Afghan insurgent group to the presidential retreat at the same time as the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks set off heated deliberations last week between the members of his national security team, with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo supporting the move and National Security Advisor John Bolton arguing against it,&#8221; Foreign Policy <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/09/09/esper-pompeo-bolton-trumps-national-security-team-splinters-over-taliban-meeting-peace-talks-details-afghanistan-pompeo-bolton-state-department-national-security-council-pentagon/">reported</a>. &#8220;The internal discussions leading up to the president’s last-minute decision to scrap the meeting this weekend shed light on the evolving dynamic among the members of Trump’s national security team since Defense Secretary Mark Esper was confirmed to the top Pentagon job in July.&#8221;
The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/10/us/politics/john-bolton-national-security-adviser-trump.html">added</a> the following details, &#8220;But if Mr. Trump’s original national security team was seen as restraining a mercurial new commander in chief, the president found himself sometimes restraining Mr. Bolton. Behind the scenes, he joked about Mr. Bolton’s penchant for confrontation. “If it was up to John, we’d be in four wars now,” one senior official recalled the president saying. Mr. Trump also grew disenchanted with Mr. Bolton over the failed effort to push out President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela.&#8221;

John Bolton

BREAKING: Trump Boots National Security Adviser John Bolton From White House

According to sources who spoke to The Daily Wire from both inside and outside the administration, the Trump administration will not implement any policy that allows countries to import Iranian oil — thus apparently closing the door on a <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2019/07/03/trump-china-iran-oil-1396052">proposal being circulated among State Department hands</a> that would have allowed China to use an obscure legal loophole to avoid U.S. sanctions on Iranian oil imports.
Last Wednesday, Eliana Johnson of Politico <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2019/07/03/trump-china-iran-oil-1396052">reported a very interesting scoop</a>: &#8220;The State Department is seriously considering using an Obama-era loophole to allow China to import oil from Iran,&#8221; which would &#8220;violat[e] the Trump administration’s pledge to bring Iranian oil exports to zero.&#8221; Specifically, Johnson cited &#8220;three U.S. officials&#8221; who claimed that the U.S. is considering &#8220;granting China a waiver to a 2012 law [the Iran Freedom and Counterproliferation Act] intended to kneecap the Iranian oil industry.&#8221; The proposal would have effectively allowed China to avoid paying directly for Iranian oil while nonetheless still acquiring it.
For close observers of the Trump administration&#8217;s foreign policy and national security apparatus, this might have seemed more than a little strange. Why would this administration, which famously removed the U.S. from the harrowing capitulation to fundamentalist jihadist evil that was President Barack Obama&#8217;s Iran nuclear deal and has infamous Iran hawk John Bolton as its national security advisor, undercut the thrust of its own <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/arielcohen/2019/04/29/trump-ends-waiver-grace-period-for-irans-oil-customers/">hardline Iran oil waivers policy</a> by granting an obscure legal loophole to the U.S.&#8217;s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/47057/hammer-china-americas-greatest-21st-century-threat-josh-hammer">number one 21st century geopolitical threat</a>?
To be sure, Politico almost assuredly did not get the story wrong. Rather, leakers in the famously Arabist/anti-Israel State Department bureaucracy were likely candid about internal deliberations in Foggy Bottom.
But reading Johnson&#8217;s scoop, one is forced to ponder the distinct possibility that the State Department could be wildly out of line with administration officials in and around the White House national security apparatus. Sure enough, a senior Trump administration official contacted by The Daily Wire categorically ruled out implementation of any proposal that would grant the Chinese such a waiver for Iranian oil imports.
&#8220;There will be no waivers issued to any country for the import of Iranian oil, in accordance with the President’s direction,&#8221; the senior administration official stated. &#8220;Importing Iranian oil is a sanctionable activity under U.S. law. U.S. secondary sanctions will be fully enforced.&#8221;
Well.
This is what a brutal inter-agency fight looks like. Hawkish Iran hardliners in the administration are battling — quite publicly now, as of this writing&#8217;s publication — with dovish State Department mandarins.
Contacted by The Daily Wire, a U.S. official familiar with the inter-agency Trump administration battle over Iranian oil waivers put it bluntly: &#8220;The president is under enormous pressure to give Iran a face-saving off-ramp and look the other way at sanctions busting. The Europeans and their friends inside the administration are selling him the delusion that the ayatollah is ready to make a deal, if only he&#8217;ll bribe Iran with a few hundred million dollars. It hasn&#8217;t worked yet. They&#8217;re still trying.&#8221;
This will be a fascinating inter-agency fight to watch unfold. Iran hawks have a very clear rooting interest — and it is surely not with the State Department. Suffice it to say there is no world whatsoever in which China ought to be granted any waivers at all for importing Iranian oil.

HAMMER: INTER-AGENCY FIGHT: White House Closes Door On Plan To Give China ‘Get-Out-Of-Jail’ Free Card For Iran Oil

Barack Obama

Mike Pompeo

Nuclear Weapons

Politico

State Department

At this point, any fair-minded observer of our contemporary politics who does not conclude that our <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/48281/hammer-trump-has-unilateral-power-stop-migrant-josh-hammer">full-on border security and migrant influx crisis</a> is anything other than the most urgent and dire national issue is, to be blunt, delusional. We are experiencing monthly border crossing/apprehension numbers <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/dhs-secretary-reveals-startling-stat-on-asylum-seekers-who-skip-hearings-disappear">not seen in decades</a>, and our political elite&#8217;s failure to properly deter, <a href="https://www.conservativereview.com/news/deter-defend-demagnetize-10-ideas-trump-stop-illegal-mass-migration/">demagnetize</a>, and ultimately secure our beleaguered southern border ultimately serves the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/46609/report-smugglers-and-cartels-profited-23-billion-josh-hammer">financial interests</a> of the <a href="https://www.conservativereview.com/news/armys-response-incident-mexican-soldiers-send-cooks-lawyers/">paramilitary</a> transnational criminal organizations that the mainstream press generally still refers to as &#8220;Mexican drug cartels.&#8221;
Hold aside for a second the absolutely horrific recent revelation that up to 80% of women trafficked from the Central American &#8220;Northern Triangle&#8221; up through Mexico are <a href="https://amgreatness.com/2019/03/09/where-is-metoo-for-women-at-the-border/">abused and raped by the piggish cartel thugs</a> &#8212; the broader reality, as Judge Andrew Hanen of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas <a href="https://www.conservativereview.com/news/government-data-shows-the-entire-family-separation-crisis-was-built-of-lies/">wrote way back in 2013</a>, is that our liberal asylum regime and mass catch-and-release status quo &#8220;successfully complete[s] the mission of the criminal conspiracy&#8221; fostered by the cartels, human smugglers, and trafficking rings. Our porous border &#8212; and all the accompanying deadly <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/42908/breaking-record-fentanyl-seizure-made-border-ryan-saavedra">narcotics</a>, <a href="https://www.conservativereview.com/news/illegal-immigrant-health-crisis-enough-reason-shut-border-migration/">infectious diseases</a>, and <a href="https://www.meforum.org/57569/trump-and-the-gop-were-hardly-the-first">Special Interest Aliens from the Middle East</a> that flood over that border daily &#8212; literally finishes the work of <a href="https://www.politico.com/interactives/2017/obama-hezbollah-drug-trafficking-investigation/">Hezbollah-linked</a> paramilitary rapists lurking south of the Rio Grande.
But from a broader perspective, the reality is that border security is always among the most solemn duties of the federal government. And it is important to understand why.
When the states formed the new federal government &#8212; it was not, of course, the other way around &#8212; following the 1787 constitutional convention that sweltering Philadelphia summer, the states delegated to the new government carefully delineated powers. As James Madison, in <a href="http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed45.asp">The Federalist No. 45</a>, famously phrased it: &#8220;The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite.&#8221; But the totality of <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/articlei">Article I, § 8&#8217;s</a> carefully prescribed congressional powers that deal with &#8220;calling forth&#8221; and &#8220;disciplining&#8221; the militia, combined with <a href="https://www.yalelawjournal.org/article/the-executive-power-over-foreign-affairs">&#8220;the executive power&#8221;</a> and commander-in-chief prerogative of which <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/articleii">Article II</a> speaks, makes clear that the predominant responsibility for securing the republic against foreign foes falls in the hands of the unifying federal government that the states created. As a purely logical matter, this ought to make a great deal of intuitive sense: The government primarily responsible for defending the collective security of the entire United States must, by definition, be the government expressly established to govern on behalf of that same collective entity.
But what is border security if not a mere extension of national security? It is true that, in our federalist system of dual sovereignty, the states are quasi-sovereign actors: As Justice Antonin Scalia <a href="https://www.conservativereview.com/news/harrowing-pronouncement-scalia-make-president-trumps-authority-secure-border/">noted</a> in his brilliant 2012 dissent in <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/11-182">Arizona v. United States</a>, an individual state&#8217;s sovereign status necessarily means that it retains an ability to secure its own borders and exclude unwanted aliens, regardless of whether the federal government also secures that individual state&#8217;s own borders. But the responsibility to secure our nation&#8217;s international borders falls, first and foremost, with the federal government. The primary responsibility to secure our ranchers against the predations of transnational paramilitary criminal organizations and human smuggler thugs falls to our federal government. The primary responsibility to preclude the smuggling in of lethal contraband, like the de facto chemical warfare that is fentanyl, falls to the federal government. The primary responsibility to thwart the cartels&#8217; &#8220;criminal conspirac[ies]&#8221; &#8212; rather than to &#8220;complete[]&#8221; them, as Judge Hanen warned &#8212; falls to the federal government. The primary responsibility to handle the nuanced underlying diplomacy and hard-nosed tactics alike that come with dealing with the venal Mexican narco-state is something that falls to the federal government.
Above all else, the primary responsibility to ensure that the United States &#8212; for which We the People that the Constitution&#8217;s Preamble references are the ultimate sovereigns &#8212; remains a distinct and sovereign nation-state falls to the federal government. And, by very definition, a country with insecure and/or undefined borders not only cannot be sovereign &#8212; it is hardly a country at all.
If we do not secure our borders &#8212; if we do not secure ourselves, more generally &#8212; then what do we have left as a nation?
The federal government is presently failing to properly counter the hitherto unprecedented Central American migrant deluge that inundates our border daily. That is nothing short of tragic, because our continuing status as a nation-state depends on rectifying that glaring deficiency. And it is the federal government&#8217;s solemn responsibility to take the lead in securing our sovereign viability as a nation-state. Let&#8217;s hope they get it right sooner rather than later.

HAMMER: The Federal Government Has NO More Important Function Than Border Security. Here’s Why.

Federal Government

Federalist

Southern Border

The Trump administration is planning to bring an end to a National Security Agency bulk metadata collection program first exposed by whistleblower Edward Snowden, an aide to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) told media.
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/04/us/politics/nsa-phone-records-program-shut-down.html">The New York Times reports</a> that Luke Murray, an adivsor to McCarthy, told the Lawfare Podcast last week that the NSA hasn&#8217;t used the metadata collection program for more than six months, essentially proving that the program is and was unnecessary to tracking terrorist activity within the United States. The NSA and the Trump White House believe they program will wrap completely by year&#8217;s end.
The program, authorized by President George W. Bush as part of the PATRIOT ACT passed in the days following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, &#8220;permits the government to collect troves of data from phone companies with a simple court order. No actual warrant required,&#8221;<a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/the-nsa-stopped-collecting-bulk-phone-data-and-nothing-bad-happened"> according to the Washington Examiner</a>.
Then-NSA analyst Edward Snowden leaked details about the government&#8217;s massive metadata collection operation in 2013.
Congress reauthorized the program in 2015 with some subtle changes, but in the last year of the Obama administration, the NSA was revealed to have collected more than 151 million phone records, using 42 secret orders. In the first year of the Trump administration, the Examiner says, use of the progarm exploded, and the government collected around 543 million independent phone records, entirely without warrants.
Although the records don&#8217;t reveal much about the content of each conversation, the call &#8220;metadata&#8221; reveals things like location of the caller and recipient, length of the call, and patterns of behavior &#8212; all of which the NSA, at one time, said was necessary to help track and neutralize terrorist cells operating within the United States.
The NSA argued that Fourth Amendment protections against warrantless wiretaps and searches did not apply to non-specific metadata, which (theoretically) yielded patterns rather than instances of specific behavior, and that obtaining a warrant for each individual investigation would be tedious, expensive, and an unnecessary waste of time.
But as recently as 2018, the NSA expressed concerns that bulk metadata collection was difficult to manage and to use effectively. Data storage was unwieldy, requiring huge warehouses full of servers, and the program had not provided much in the way of useful information. As well, there were technical difficulties with the program &#8220;that led to collection of records on US persons that it didn&#8217;t have authority to collect.&#8221;
The program is due to expire in December, with the expiration of the 2015 USA FREEDOM ACT, and Murray told the Lawfare Podcast that he does not believe the adminstration will reauthorize the program.
&#8220;[T]he administration actually hasn&#8217;t been using it for the past six months because of problems with way in which that information was collected,&#8221; Murray told the hosts. &#8220;Possibly collecting on US citizens in the way that was transferred from private companies to the administration after they got FISA court approval.&#8221;
A spokesperson for Rep. McCarthy did not confirm or deny the administration&#8217;s plans, telling the NYT only that Murray &#8220;was not speaking on behalf of administration policy or what Congress intends to do on this issue.&#8221;
The NSA refused to confirm or deny the reports as well, saying that, rather, they were &#8220;carefully evaluating all aspects&#8221; of the program and would make a recommendation about it to the White House later in the year. Ultimately, the NSA told the NYT, a decision on whether to continue the program is up to the Trump administration.

NSA Ready To End Massive Data Collection Operation Exposed By Edward Snowden

Edward Snowden

National Security Agency (NSA)

On Sunday, Israeli officials <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-starts-construction-on-20-foot-high-fence-surrounding-gaza/">confirmed</a> that the Jewish state&#8217;s Defense Ministry had begun construction of a new 20-foot high steel security barrier. The Times of Israel <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-starts-construction-on-20-foot-high-fence-surrounding-gaza/">reports</a> that Israeli officials claim the new fence &#8220;will completely surround the Gaza Strip.&#8221;
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took to Twitter on Sunday morning to share the news, emphasizing both the prophylactic nature of the barrier and Israel&#8217;s continued resolve to act in Gaza to defend its sovereignty and protect its people, if need be. Netanyahu tweeted, &#8220;Over the weekend, we began building the above-ground barrier along the Gaza border. The barrier will prevent terrorists from Gaza from penetrating into our territory on the ground. If the quiet is not maintained in Gaza, we will not hesitate to act.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Over the weekend, we began building the above-ground barrier along the Gaza border. The barrier will prevent terrorists from Gaza from penetrating into our territory on the ground. If the quiet is not maintained in Gaza, we will not hesitate to act. <a href="https://t.co/vmQWT8g3ZW">pic.twitter.com/vmQWT8g3ZW</a>
&#8212; Benjamin Netanyahu (@netanyahu) <a href="https://twitter.com/netanyahu/status/1092067718990389250?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 3, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
As The Times of Israel reports, the security barrier will enclose all 40 miles of Israel&#8217;s border with the Gaza Strip, which is governed by the Sunni supremacist terror group Hamas. The security barrier, when completed, will sit directly atop Israel&#8217;s previously completed subterranean concrete wall &#8212; built to thwart Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas&#8217;s use of &#8220;terror tunnels&#8221; to infiltrate Israel and attack and/or kidnap Israeli civilians. The Times of Israel notes that Israel began construction on its initial Gaza barrier in 2016:
<blockquote>
In 2016, Israel began construction of the new barrier around the Strip, focusing first on the underground portion, following the 2014 Gaza war in which Hamas used subterranean attack tunnels to deadly effect against Israeli troops.
Over the past two years, work has persisted on the underground sensor-studded concrete wall, despite regular riots and clashes along the border and occasional attacks on the construction sites.
</blockquote>
As The Times of Israel also reports, the newly buttressed security barrier will be completed in 2019 and will cost approximately $833 million.
<blockquote>
The overall Gaza barrier project is due to be completed by the end of 2019, according to the army.
&#8220;On Thursday, we began work on the final component of the Gaza Strip border barrier project. The obstacle is unique and specially designed to protect against the threats from the Strip and to give a superior solution to preventing infiltration into Israeli territory,&#8221; said the head of the project, Brig. Gen. (res.) Eran Ofir.
The barrier project is expected to cost approximately NIS 3 billion ($833 million), with each kilometer of the underground portion of the barrier costing approximately NIS 41.5 million ($11.5 million). The above-ground fence is significantly cheaper, at just NIS 1.5 million ($416,000) per kilometer.
</blockquote>
As The Jerusalem Post <a href="https://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/New-Gaza-security-barrier-in-works-to-stop-terrorist-infiltrations-579535">notes</a>, the Gaza barrier will closely mirror Israel&#8217;s preexisting barrier with Egypt&#8217;s Sinai Peninsula &#8212; a barrier which &#8220;has slashed almost completely the number of illegal African migrants arriving in Israel.&#8221; In 2010, Israel had nearly 15,000 illegal African immigrants enter via the Sinai. In 2016, there were 14 illegal migrants who entered Israel via the Sinai &#8212; and since 2016, there have been zero confirmed illegal crossings.
Israel has a robust history of successfully implementing security walls. Israel&#8217;s security barrier erected around wide swaths of Judea and Samaria, implemented after the bloody Yasser Arafat-induced Second Intifada, is generally <a href="http://www.aei.org/publication/the-places-where-walls-work/">cited</a> as slashing suicide bombings and other direct terror attacks within Israel by approximately 90%.

Walls Work: Israel Begins New Construction On Gaza Security Barrier

Palestinians

Terrorism

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) called President Donald Trump&#8217;s proposed border wall an &#8220;immorality&#8221; earlier this month and has refused to provide funding for such a barrier, prolonging a partial government shutdown that Trump temporarily put the kibosh on earlier this week.
So, wives of United States Border Patrol agents have formally asked Pelosi to the southern border to illustrate the need for a barrier.
&#8220;We the WIVES OF THE RGV (Rio Grande Valley) BP (Border Patrol) would like to cordially invite you to come visit McAllen, TX as President Trump did,&#8221; reads a letter from border agents&#8217; significant others, posted from Jill Demanski&#8217;s Facebook account. The letter was posted last Thursday, just before Trump paused the shutdown.
&#8220;Most of us wives will be home and available,&#8221; the letter continues, noting that they will be available and not &#8220;jetting off to Puerto Rico for a few days.&#8221; Pelosi was one of 30 Democrats to go to Puerto Rico, accompanied by 109 lobbyists, during the shutdown, <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/washington-secrets/30-dems-in-puerto-rico-with-109-lobbyists-for-weekend-despite-shutdown">reports</a> The Washington Examiner.
&#8220;We would like to show you around! You don&#8217;t need to bring any security detail. Our husbands/boyfriends/fiances/wives/significant others are actually very good at their jobs, thank goodness!&#8221; the letter says. &#8220;And since you see no threat here, I&#8217;m sure you can just make a quick flight down here alone. Hey, Trump might even allow you to use his plane for this visit!!&#8221;
The letter from the significant others goes on to rip &#8220;weak&#8221; Pelosi for her refusal to negotiate with Trump and for &#8220;pretending&#8221; to care about federal workers:
<blockquote>
For the record, many of us have saved for these days. We&#8217;ve faced many shutdowns before. But, we also recognize a weak leader when we see one, and we realize you may take awhile to come around.
We&#8217;d also appreciate if you&#8217;d stop pretending that you care about federal workers. If you did, you would care for their safety, not just their paychecks. We can hold out awhile longer, if it means our husbands and communities are safer.
</blockquote>
The brutal letter ends with the wives offering Pelosi a pair of her own &#8220;big girl pants.&#8221;
&#8220;Also, it appears you do not own a pair of big girl pants. Do not worry, us [border patrol] wives own many pairs. In fact, that&#8217;s all we own! We&#8217;d love to give you a pair of ours, you know we&#8217;d buy you your own, but we we&#8217;re trying not to spend right now,&#8221; it says. &#8220;We look forward to seeing you soon!&#8221;
<iframe allow="encrypted-media" frameborder="0" height="282" width="500"></iframe>
On Tuesday morning, Border Patrol wife Renea Perez appeared on &#8220;Fox &amp; Friends&#8221; to echo the concerns in the letter, telling the co-hosts that a wall is &#8220;definitely needed.&#8221;
&#8220;[A wall] will allow them to do their job more efficiently and give them more time &#8211; if they are by themselves &#8211; have another agent meet them. It is definitely needed,&#8221; Perez <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/group-of-border-patrol-wives-invite-nancy-pelosi-to-visit-texas-border-town">said</a>. &#8220;We just want them to come down there on the line and actually see where the argument is all about.&#8221;
&#8220;It gets tough. The bills don&#8217;t stop. We were feeling like we were forgotten,&#8221; she added.
Read the full letter below:
<blockquote>
Dear Ms. Pelosi-
We the WIVES OF THE RGV (Rio Grande Valley) BP (Border Patrol) would like to cordially invite you to come visit McAllen, TX as President Trump did. It appears you are not busy today or any day, until Tuesday when you will return from your 4 day vacation. Since you&#8217;ve closed the House, you should come visit us!!
Most of us wives will be home and available. We will not be grocery shopping, dropping off dry cleaning, taking our cars for oil changes, throwing our children birthday parties, or even jetting off to Puerto Rico for a few days. Heck, some of us didn&#8217;t even sign our kids back up for activities b/c it appears you are unable or unwilling to negotiate. So, like I said, we&#8217;ll be here!!
We would like to show you around! You don&#8217;t need to bring any security detail. Our husbands/boyfriends/fiances/wives/significant others are actually very good at their jobs, thank goodness! And since you see no threat here, I&#8217;m sure you can just make a quick flight down here alone. Hey, Trump might even allow you to use his plane for this visit!!
When you ask Trump to open the Government, then you&#8217;ll negotiate, even though you already said you won&#8217;t secure our border&#8230;.this is kind of like when our kids want to eat dessert first, but they swear they&#8217;ll eat their broccoli after&#8230;this is kind of like that,but no notes dumb enough to play that game! 
For the record, many of us have saved for these days. We&#8217;ve faced many shutdowns before. But, we also recognize a weak leader when we see one, and we realize you may take awhile to come around.
We&#8217;d also appreciate if you&#8217;d stop pretending that you care about federal workers. If you did, you would care for their safety, not just their paychecks. We can hold out awhile longer, if it means our husbands and communities are safer.
You don&#8217;t even need to worry about those MS-13 gang members you&#8217;ll see running across the Border. Our guys and gals catch a lot of them.Like I said, they are good at their jobs!! I mean, if we had a wall we&#8217;d catch way more of them. But thanks to your laws, the ones we do catch we&#8217;ll take to our huge air conditioned building, feed them, let them clean up, offering them clothes/hats/socks, maybe play on the billiard tables, or ping pong, or watch a movie, all while they wait for our charter bus to drive them to their &#8220;family&#8221; that lives in L.A. I mean, you don&#8217;t need to worry about that&#8230;OMG I just realized&#8230;isn&#8217;t L.A. part of your state?? Wow, sorry. My bad!
Also, it appears you do not own a pair of big girl pants. Do not worry, us BP wives own many pairs. In fact, that&#8217;s all we own! We&#8217;d love to give you a pair of ours, you know we&#8217;d buy you your own, but we we&#8217;re trying not to spend right now.
We look forward to seeing you soon!
</blockquote>

Border Patrol Wives Issue Formal Proposal For Nancy Pelosi In Brutal Letter

Nancy Pelosi

As the debate about border security rages, and President Trump has agreed to temporarily end the shutdown, the leaders of the Democratic Party face a new challenge &#8212; agree to funding that includes a physical barrier, or stand firm in their refusal to offer any money for a border wall.
Amongst all the noise, an Obama-era border patrol chief has stepped into the fray to speak out.
Mark Morgan served two decades in the FBI before becoming Chief of the Border Patrol in 2016. Although he was dismissed from his position immediately after Trump&#8217;s inauguration, he believes in the president&#8217;s border policy.
The Daily Wire spoke with Morgan about the proposed southern border wall, its efficacy, and why some politicians are so reluctant to see it implemented.
<blockquote>
DW: Why did the Trump administration let you go?
MORGAN: That&#8217;s always the question, and it&#8217;s one that I want to walk through deliberately. Because this isn&#8217;t about me being removed, and I really don&#8217;t want that to be the story or the narrative. I don&#8217;t have anything negative to say about my removal. But here&#8217;s how it happened in a nutshell.
I was the first Chief of the United States Border Patrol that was appointed from outside of the border patrol in its history. The Border Patrol Council had some issues with that from the start, as did many of the rank and file, and I get that. They have a difficult mission and a proud culture of service to this country. I fully understand their belief that an outsider was not the right fit. Additionally, I made comments during congressional testimony about the need for immigration reform which was misinterpreted as supporting blanket amnesty. Although this was not an element I was supporting through my comments, after reflection, I can understand how my comments could be misinterpreted.
Additionally, during the 2016 campaign, the Border Patrol Council actually went out very publicly and supported then-candidate Trump.
And so when the president won the election, I was informed there were discussions with the White House administration, and told, &#8220;They wanted to go in a different direction.&#8221; So the day after the inauguration, I was removed.
DW: Is the wall (or a barrier) the best solution?
MORGAN: That&#8217;s a good question, and I think that&#8217;s another reason why I decided to break my silence, because the rhetoric is really getting twisted, and it really confuses and misinforms the American people.
The answer is, &#8220;yeah,&#8221; but there&#8217;s a comma. So yes, the wall works. It&#8217;s not needed everywhere, but it is needed in strategic locations along the southwest border. And what do we mean by the wall? The border security experts will tell you that the wall in and of itself is not the solution. The wall is a critical element as part of a multilayer strategy of infrastructure, technology, and personnel. So yes, as part of that multilayer approach, the wall absolutely works and there&#8217;s historical data that can prove that. You can go to San Diego, Nogales, El Paso, anywhere where that multilayered approach has been used, where the wall is part of that, and illegal immigration has drastically reduced by around 90%, and overall crime in those areas has drastically reduced as well. It&#8217;s not hyperbole; it&#8217;s not driven by political ideology. That&#8217;s fact, and data can show that.
DW: What is the proof that a physical barrier would work?
MORGAN: Go talk to the Yuma County Sheriff, and he&#8217;ll tell you that in 2005, 2006 when they started building the wall as part of that multilayer strategy, it works. He&#8217;ll say illegal immigration in that area went down 90%, overall crime in his county went down drastically. It&#8217;s just fact.
DW: What type of barrier would be the most effective? There&#8217;s been a lot of talk about walls versus fences, and we&#8217;ve seen all the different wall prototypes. In the end, what type of barrier would make the most sense, not only financially, but in terms of keeping the United States secure?
MORGAN: That&#8217;s another great question that again gets twisted and manipulated, I believe, for peoples&#8217; personal agenda and their own political ideology. For someone to say that a fence is okay, but a wall is not, that&#8217;s just disingenuous. So the depth and height of the physical barrier is what makes something immoral or not? That&#8217;s just ridiculous.
A quick sidebar &#8212; let&#8217;s go back to 2006 when a bipartisan bill called the Secure Fence Act was passed. The same people who are now saying that the wall is immoral voted for the wall back in 2006.
The experts, who have dedicated their lives to securing the border and protecting the safety and security of this country, will tell you that the type of barrier, wall, fence, whatever you want to call it, that&#8217;s needed is driven by many factors including terrain and differing operational needs. There&#8217;s different terrain and territory along the 2,000 miles of southwest border driving the different types of barrier applications required.
And I&#8217;ll give you an example. If you talk to the experts, they&#8217;ll say that you definitely want a barrier that you can see through, so you can see what&#8217;s coming. There are other areas with levies and other things where really nothing else makes sense except to build a concrete type barrier. So, it really depends on the terrain and the territory. The strategy has never been to build a wall from sea to sea, but rather to build the type of wall, fence, barrier, whatever you want to call it, that is best suitable for that specific terrain.
DW: Why do you believe so many politicians are so vehemently against a physical barrier?
MORGAN: I&#8217;m doing my best to remain apolitical and approach this from a very narrow prism based on my 30 years of federal service in this country. I can&#8217;t even begin to get into the politician&#8217;s head regarding what motivates them to not support the wall, especially those who supported it in 2006 &#8212; but all of the sudden it&#8217;s immoral. I don&#8217;t understand that. What I can tell you is that it&#8217;s not true when they say the wall is ineffective. If somebody says that the wall is ineffective as part of that multilayer approach, they&#8217;re misinformed and they&#8217;re misleading the American people. And I even hate to speculate why they&#8217;re doing that.
DW: Many politicians claim that a wall is &#8220;too expensive,&#8221; but many who say this have voted for numerous things that were much more expensive, including but not limited to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which was projected at that time to cost hundreds of billions of dollars. Why do you think someone would vote for something so pricy and then call the $20 billion southern border wall &#8220;too expensive&#8221;?
MORGAN: When somebody says, &#8220;It&#8217;s not effective,&#8221; the only conclusion I can come to is that it&#8217;s being driven by their personal political ideology because fact, historical data, and expert opinion clearly show that nothing else makes sense.
First, in the past, in a bipartisan way, they&#8217;ve approved a heck of a lot more spending than the $5.7 billion that&#8217;s being asked. Second, $5.7 billion is less than one fourth of 1% of our overall budget. So it&#8217;s disingenuous to say that it&#8217;s &#8220;too expensive.&#8221;
Third, when they talk about the wall in the context of cost, which some do, they know that they&#8217;re misleading the American people because they&#8217;ve been briefed that this isn&#8217;t just a wall, but a wall system. It&#8217;s a smart wall. That comes with technology, it comes with access roads so personnel can access it. A lot comes with that. It&#8217;s not just throwing up some steel and calling it a day &#8212; and that&#8217;s why the cost is what it is. And don&#8217;t forget, it&#8217;s 230 new miles, plus the replacement and upgrading of hundreds of miles of old, ineffective barriers.
To say that $5.7 billion is too expensive to secure the safety of this country, I don&#8217;t understand.
DW: Is there anything that you haven&#8217;t been able to say, that the media hasn&#8217;t touched on, that you would want to get across to a large readership about this issue?
MORGAN: I think what&#8217;s important to hit is that we really do have a dual set of issues along the southwest border. We definitely have a massive security crisis as well as a humanitarian crisis. So just quickly let me dissect this, too. On the national security side, we definitely have bad things and bad people coming in, both through the ports of entry and then in between the ports of entry every single day.
The other element that goes really to the heart of your question as well is this &#8212; a lot of times, they&#8217;ll use a talking point to illustrate how Customs and Border Protection interdicts more drugs at the ports as opposed to in between the ports of entry, and claim that because of that, we don&#8217;t need the wall. And that&#8217;s absolutely a false narrative because the border is so porous, we don&#8217;t know what&#8217;s getting through. But we do know that there is a ton of human trafficking, drugs, and bad people and gang members getting through our borders in between the ports of entry every single day because we need additional miles of wall to effectively secure the border and improve the border patrol&#8217;s operational control and response.
Let me give you an example. So, a little under 400,000 illegal immigrants were apprehended last year. Well, some experts will tell you that thousands more, more than likely double this amount, are getting through unapprehended because again, the border&#8217;s so porous.
But let&#8217;s cut that number in half, just for the sake of argument. Let&#8217;s say it&#8217;s 200,000 getting through because we didn&#8217;t have the resources to effectively enforce our borders. So you take the 400,000 that were apprehended, add another 200,000 that are getting through that we&#8217;re not catching, and we have about 600,000. Well, that&#8217;s bigger than the entire population of the state of Wyoming. How&#8217;s that not a crisis?
Some people want to say that the numbers have been reduced from previous decades. But my first answer is, yeah, part of the reason why the numbers were reduced is because we built 700 miles of wall, and we improved our strategy, and we also implemented consequences, meaning we deported those who were coming into the country.
We need the wall as part of the multilayer approach to shut down the avenues in between the points of entry. Can it be defeated? Yes. But it&#8217;s still 90% effective, and the last time I checked, 90% is a pretty good stat to have.
By building that wall, we&#8217;re going to drastically reduce those avenues for the cartels. We&#8217;re going to shut down, to a great extent, their drug routes, human trafficking routes, and illegal immigration routes, and then we&#8217;ve funneled them to the ports of entry where now we have offensive advantage, and we stand a better chance of interdicting. And by doing that, the patrol&#8217;s operational capacity and control is extremely enhanced so that when things come to the wall, they&#8217;ll have time to actually respond and interdict.
Now, let&#8217;s move to humanitarian side, which is not really talked about enough. Here&#8217;s the thing &#8212; the wall and that multilayer strategy and personnel &#8212; none of that is going to address the humanitarian issue, and here&#8217;s why.
[Morgan went on to speak about the loopholes in the asylum laws that are being exploited.]
All you have to do is say the magic words and you&#8217;re allowed into our country. So you can either do that illegally or you can come to the ports. The same thing happens. If you come to the ports, you just have to wait a little bit longer. Again, that&#8217;s why the incentive is there. It serves as a pull factor.
We need the wall as part of that multilayer strategy to really address the national security system, but then we have the humanitarian issue, and the only fix for that is legislative. We need to fix the asylum laws. We need to fix bad judicial case law such as the Flores decision.
So, why are parents turning their kids over to the cartels to make this dangerous trek, whether they&#8217;re in caravans or at the hands of the coyote, and paying thousands of dollars? The reason why they&#8217;re doing that is because they know the incentive. Once they set one foot on American soil, and say the magic words, they&#8217;re released into the United States never to be heard from again. Think about that. Why wouldn&#8217;t they? This is the broken &#8220;catch and release&#8221; issue.
So, the very people that are against what I&#8217;m saying, who claim they&#8217;re being compassionate, it&#8217;s actually the opposite. They&#8217;re actually facilitating these individuals making this perilous trek. I&#8217;ll give you an example. The Yuma County Sheriff said that during his time with the sheriff&#8217;s department, his deputies recovered over 100 dead bodies of illegal immigrants &#8212; just his county &#8212; who died from exposure or other related things trying to enter the country illegally.
So we have to shut those loopholes in the asylum laws. We have to fix the bad judicial precedent to remove that pull factor, to remove that incentive, because if we don&#8217;t, they&#8217;re going to keep coming. So you really have two dual tracks. You&#8217;ve got one track, which is national security. Then you&#8217;ve got the humanitarian side where the only fix for that is legislative, and both have to be done.
</blockquote>
The Daily Wire would like to thank Mark Morgan for speaking with us about border security.

The Daily Wire Speaks With Mark Morgan, Obama-Era Border Patrol Chief Who Says We Need A Wall

Republican Party

CNN analyst Phil Mudd exploded during a segment on Friday after a conservative commentator expressed support for the Trump administration&#8217;s decision to revoke security clearances of former Obama officials who no longer work in the government and who have been accused of leaking information.
&#8220;A lot of these people that have these security clearances &#8212; and this is the secret in the swampy Washington, D.C. &#8212; they have them and they keep them because it&#8217;s profitable for them after they leave government,&#8221; Paris Dennard said. &#8220;Because if you have a security clearance, especially a high-level security clearance, your contracts and consulting gigs pay you a lot more money because of the access that you have.&#8221;
&#8220;Profitable, Paris?&#8221; Mudd began.
&#8220;When I&#8217;m required to sit on an advisory board, let me ask you one question, how much do you think I&#8217;m paid to do that at the request of U.S. government?&#8221; Mudd screamed. &#8220;Give me one answer, and you&#8217;ve got ten seconds. I have no contracts with the U.S. government. They pay me zero.&#8221;
&#8220;I&#8217;ll ask you a question,&#8221; Dennard fired back. &#8220;How much are you paid for your contracting gig?&#8221;
&#8220;I have no contracts with the U.S. government that pay money,&#8221; Mudd exploded. &#8220;Zero.&#8221;
After continuing to go back and forth, Mudd lost it, screaming &#8220;get out!&#8221; at Dennard.
&#8220;Twenty-five years in the service and this is the sh*t I get!&#8221; Mudd exclaimed.
&#8220;Get out!&#8221; Mudd repeated.
WATCH:
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
&#8220;Zero. I get zero dollars from consulting companies that deal with U.S. government. Are we clear?&#8221;
Counterterrorism analyst Phil Mudd takes exception to commentator Paris Dennard&#8217;s suggestion that he benefits financially from his security clearance <a href="https://t.co/oyEZ3i3gKI">https://t.co/oyEZ3i3gKI</a> <a href="https://t.co/rA2OgcJ0re">pic.twitter.com/rA2OgcJ0re</a>
&#8212; CNN (@CNN) <a href="https://twitter.com/CNN/status/1030637153435484160?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 18, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>

WATCH: CNN Analyst Screams ‘Get Out’ At Republican Strategist, Curses

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