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

    GAO Report: U.S. Embassies at Risk Because of Security Gaps
    Security at U.S. diplomatic posts is falling short, and Benghazi is only the most visible example. A new report on “Diplomatic Security” by the Government Accountability Office — GAO-14-655 — demonstrates the problem is systemic, leaving U.S. personnel serving overseas at unnecessary risk. At a time of rising security threats from metastasizing Al Qaeda spinoffs…
    Helle Dale
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  • opinion

    Here’s a Crazy Idea: What About Reforming Transportation Spending Instead of Hiking Taxes?
    Americans know the drill. When Congress faces a gap between its spending wants and available money, it is quick to ask for more money, instead of fixing the spending side of the budget ledger. This time it’s Senate Finance Committee chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who has proposed a rag tag group of revenue provisions, including…
    Emily Goff
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  • opinion

    Ex-Im Bank Isn’t Necessary for National Security
    Who needs that Export-Import Bank? There is healthy debate going on in Washington. The side that wants Washington to agree to extend the bank charter has pulled out the national security card, suggesting that the bank’s continued existence boosts our security. But they can’t provide a convincing argument that promoting the bank provides for the…
    James Carafano
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  • news

    New Mexico Officials Question Border Holding Facility
    SANTA FE, N.M. — Trying to deal with a tide of thousands of undocumented immigrants, as many of 50,000 of them children, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is about to convert a training center for the U.S. Border Patrol in the southern New Mexico town of Artesia into a detention center. But Gov. Susana…
    Rob Nikolewski
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  • opinion

    House Intel Committee Chairman, Member Warn FCC Against Increased Cybersecurity Regulation
    On June 16, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R–MI) and committee member Mike Pompeo (R–KS) sent a letter to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Tom Wheeler warning against regulatory cybersecurity measures. The lawmakers were responding to a speech Wheeler gave at the American Enterprise Institute on June 12 in which he called for a…
    Andrew Tucker
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  • opinion

    This Innovative Education Policy Can Change the Lives of Children With Special Needs
    Erika Hartley has two sons with Autism, which means she can explain in one sentence what being able to customize their education means to her family. “If you’ve met one child with Autism,” she says, “You’ve met one child with Autism.” Fortunately, for her sons, Hunter, 11, and Jackson, 7, they live in Arizona, home…
    Lindsey Burke
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  • opinion

    You Can’t Use the Military to Solve Every Government Problem
    “What’s the point of having this superb military that you’re always talking about if we can’t use it?” —Madeline Albright, 1993, as she argued for sending U.S. troops to Bosnia There’s an undertone to Albright’s quip, one that suggests a sharp distinction between how progressives and realists view the purpose of the people in the…
    James Carafano
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  • opinion

    Second Chinese Military Group Identified in Cyber Attacks
    CrowdStrike, a private security technology firm, released a report last week condemning Unit 61486 of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) for cyber espionage against U.S. corporations. This report follows the Justice Department’s symbolic indictment of five Chinese military officers for similar cyber misconduct, whose crimes were detailed by Mandiant—another security technology firm—in February 2013. Both…
    Drew Tucker
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  • opinion

    Gates Advocates Hitting the Brakes on Consequences Associated with Common Core
    Even Bill Gates is starting to have second thoughts about the consequences associated with Common Core. On Tuesday, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation— the second-largest financial backer of Common Core after the federal government— issued a letter calling for a two-year delay of the full implementation of Common Core, which is set to take…
    Brittany Corona
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  • news

    Veterans Warily Welcome Action in Congress to Cure VA’s Ills
    The head of a reform-minded veterans group today hailed Senate action to speed medical care to waiting veterans, but cautioned that a change allowing treatment at private health facilities must represent “real choice.” “Getting choice is the holy grail of this reform,” said Pete Hegseth, chief executive officer of Concerned Veterans for America. The FBI…
    Josh Siegel
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  • opinion

    Was the California Teacher Tenure Decision Judicial Activism?
    This week, in Vergara v. California, California Superior Court Judge Rolf Treu struck down five state laws governing teacher tenure, layoffs and dismissals as unconstitutional under the California constitution. The result of this ruling is certainly good for children in California, too many of whom are stuck in classrooms with “grossly ineffective” teachers. But was…
    Elizabeth Slattery | John G. Malcolm
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  • news

    As Details Emerge, Hawaii Veterans Voice Outrage at VA’s Waiting Lists
    HONOLULU—Veterans seeking care at the VA Medical Center here wait an average of 145 days. Perhaps more striking, some 64,000 veterans enrolled in the system for at least 10 years have yet to see a doctor, according to a Department of Veterans Affairs audit released Monday. Even before the audit, said Willes Lee, a West…
    Malia Zimmerman
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  • opinion

    How Military Justice Works: The Way the Allegations Against Bergdahl Will Be Handled
    After Sgt Bowe Bergdahl’s physical and mental health issues are dealt with by his medical team, it will be up to the military justice system to deal with the allegations he deserted his unit in Afghanistan. What happens then?  What are the steps along the way, and the possible outcomes? The military justice system is…
    Cully Stimson
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  • opinion

    This Movie Could Teach D.C. Politicians How to Budget Better
    Much of the U.S. budget is flying on auto-pilot and on course to crash. Congress should grab hold of the steering yoke. In the 1980s comedy “Airplane!”, Otto, the inflatable doll, takes over as auto-pilot when the cockpit crew becomes incapacitated because of food poisoning. To prevent a crash and safely land the plane, an ex-pilot…
    Romina Boccia
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