National Security News

The Daily Signal provides reports on national and homeland security issues, including military readiness, intelligence operations, border protection, and global conflicts. Featuring news, analysis, and commentary, this section explores how security policy decisions affect America’s national defense and freedom.
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  • opinion

    7 Reasons Why the Current Marriage Debate Is Nothing Like the Debate on Interracial Marriage
    Is opposition to same-sex marriage at all like opposition to interracial marriage? One refrain in debates over marriage policy is that laws defining marriage as the union of male and female are today’s equivalent of bans on interracial marriage. Some further argue that protecting the freedom to act publicly on the basis of a religious…
    Ryan T. Anderson
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  • news

    Pentagon Broke Law on Bowe Bergdahl Prisoner Swap, Government Audit Finds
    The Pentagon broke the law when it swapped Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, a former prisoner in Afghanistan, for five Taliban leaders, government investigators said Thursday. The nonpartisan Government Accountability Office said the Defense Department failed to notify the relevant congressional committees at least 30 days in advance of the exchange—violating a provision of the National…
    Josh Siegel
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  • opinion

    Missile Defense Symposium Measures Missile Threat
    Last week, Huntsville, Alabama, hosted the 17th annual space and missile defense symposium. The symposium is always a good barometer of the mood within the ballistic missile defense community. And while the mood this year was better than in previous years, it is clear that the ballistic missile threat is growing and that sequestration undermines…
    Michaela Dodge
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  • news

    Where Did ‘Military-Style’ Police Gear in Ferguson Come From? Hint: It’s Not Necessarily the Pentagon
    Much of the weaponry and apparel on display during police action to quell riots and looting in Ferguson, Mo., doesn’t look like surplus equipment supplied by the Pentagon but rather hardware purchased elsewhere, a Heritage Foundation expert says. “The ‘cool guy,’ load-bearing gear is frankly a lot better than we give soldiers,”  Steven Bucci, director…
    Melissa Quinn
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  • news

    Local Law Enforcement Defend Use of Armored Military Vehicles
    Amid heightened attention about the militarization of police, law enforcement agencies across Mississippi are continuing to stock up on military-grade armored vehicles from federal surplus. Two sheriffs in Mississippi who are beefing up their vehicle fleets with armored vehicles say they’re doing so to protect officers and save tax dollars by acquiring the vehicles at little…
    Steve Wilson
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  • news

    ‘Thunderstruck?’: Missouri Governor Helped Ferguson Get Surplus Military Equipment
    Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon, who yesterday said he was “thunderstruck” to learn how militarized police in Ferguson had become, signed off  as recently as January on statewide participation in a Pentagon program providing local police departments with surplus equipment. In authorizing Ferguson police and other local law enforcement agencies to apply for firearms and other equipment, Nixon…
    Melissa Quinn
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  • news

    These Veterans Served in Iraq. They Sound Off About What’s Going on There Today.
    It’s hard for Americans who fought in the war in Iraq to watch the rapid advances being made there by the brutal terrorist force that calls itself the Islamic State. Military veterans of the Iraq War told The Daily Signal that they were heartened that President Obama ordered airstrikes against the Islamic State. But, most…
    Melissa Quinn
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  • news

    Two Questions on Iraq and the Islamic State for Bush’s National Security Adviser
    Stephen Hadley, national security adviser for President George W. Bush from 2005 to 2009, has experienced insight into what U.S. strategy in Iraq should entail. In a brief interview with The Daily Signal after a Heritage Foundation event yesterday on President Obama and Iraq, Hadley commended the administration for taking action against the terrorist force known as the Islamic State…
    Melissa Quinn
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  • opinion

    Krauthammer: Wrong and Right on Border Security
    On Fox News, conservative commentator Charles Krauthammer rightly took President Obama to task for his tragic mismanagement of border security and immigration reform. With the numbers of those attempting to enter the U.S. illegally swelling and matched by more border violence, criminal activity, and public health risks, the president’s answer is to hold out the…
    James Carafano
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  • news

    Military Bases to Stop Holding Border-Crossing Children
    As fewer unaccompanied children cross the southern border to enter the United States, officials say they no longer need to house them at military facilities. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced Monday that it will suspend operations at three temporary shelters for young illegal immigrants on military bases, beginning with Fort Sill…
    Josh Siegel
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  • opinion

    Q&A: Ebola in Africa Not Yet a National Security Issue
    This latest outbreak of the Ebola virus is getting a great deal of attention, as it should. Here are some questions that need to be asked and some answers you need to know: What is Ebola? The Ebola virus is a severe, often fatal disease that is in the hemorrhagic fever category. The symptoms include…
    Charlotte Florance | Steven Bucci
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  • opinion

    The Fall of a Former Chinese Domestic Security Chief Is a Major Event
    Reports from China indicate that retired senior leader Zhou Yongkang is under investigation by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the equivalent of the “Internal Affairs” division of a police force. The investigation into Zhou constitutes a major event in Chinese politics. No other Politburo Standing Committee member has…
    Dean Cheng
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  • opinion

    Portman Proposes Reforms for Social Security and Medicare
    Senator Rob Portman (R–OH) proposed reforms to Social Security and Medicare in The Wall Street Journal last week. Reforms to both programs “can not only help close the debt, it can also create a stronger economy,” Portman argues. He specifically proposes “adjusting Social Security and Medicare’s retirement ages, means-testing benefits for upper-income retirees, and supporting…
    Caleb Zimmick
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  • opinion

    VA Compromise Bill Ignores Budget Rules and Employs Gimmicks
    The chairs of the House and Senate Veterans Affairs committees made a deal on Monday to authorize $15 billion in additional spending in response to recent revelations of scandals at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). All spending in the bill would be authorized as “emergency spending,” despite several of the bill’s provisions failing to…
    Romina Boccia
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  • opinion

    Can Higher Payroll Taxes Fix Social Security?
    The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analyzed several different payroll tax proposals to shore up Social Security’s finances, and the results are not very appealing. The Social Security trust fund ran a $71 billion deficit in 2013 that is on pace to quadruple by 2032. Some have called for a payroll tax increase, but CBO found…
    Michael Sargent
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  • opinion

    Excessive Oversight Harms U.S. Homeland Security
    On the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 Commission report, the former commission members released a new analysis of U.S. homeland security that listed Congress as the greatest obstacle to homeland security. Excessive congressional oversight hinders the ability of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to protect the American people. On Sunday, distinguished homeland security experts…
    Andrew Tucker | David Inserra
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  • opinion

    Social Security Report: Massive Deficits Increase Unfunded Obligation by $1.1 Trillion
    Today’s release of the 2014 Social Security Trustees Report shows its programs’ finances are in dire need of reform if the programs are to provide to seniors and the disabled protection from poverty and do so in an affordable and sustainable manner. Social Security paid out nearly $71 billion more to retirees and other beneficiaries…
    Romina Boccia
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  • opinion

    The CIA’s Twitter Is Not #Winning
    Carl Colby grew up in a family where no one talked about what dad did. Even family outings were mysterious. “We’d go somewhere — family trip on the weekend, picnic basket in the back — and he’d meet somebody. Have a conversation, deliver something,” Carl recalls in the fascinating documentary, “The Man Nobody Knew: In…
    James Carafano
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  • news

    Newt Gingrich: ‘Turn the Pentagon Into a Triangle’
    Former speaker of the House Newt Gingrich said Wednesday that he would like to “turn the Pentagon into a triangle.” “I always tell people I’m a hawk,” Gingrich said. “But I’m a cheap hawk.” Gingrich honored the 20th anniversary of his “Contract with America” by pointing conservatives back to a key point in his Republican…
    Natalie Johnson
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  • opinion

    Do You Want Your Private Financial Information Automatically Shared with Russia or China?
    On Monday, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development released the full version of the global standard for automatic exchange of information. The Standard for Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information in Tax Matters calls on governments to obtain detailed account information from their financial institutions and exchange that information automatically with other jurisdictions on…
    David Burton
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