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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    • News

    Obama Holdovers Still in Key National Security Council Jobs

    Several Obama holdovers who led initiatives at odds with President Donald Trump’s foreign policy remain on the staff of national security adviser H.R. McMaster, The Daily Caller News Foundation Investigative Group has learned. About 40 of the National Security Council’s 250 officials—nearly 1 in 6—are Obama administration holdovers, according to The Daily Caller News Foundation's…
    Richard Pollock
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    • News

    Underreported: Meet 2 Political Prisoners From Socialist Venezuela

    In recent months, Venezuela has spiraled into a full-blown humanitarian and political crisis. Politicians with criminal backgrounds run the country, employing violence and arresting peaceful, anti-government protesters. In The Daily Signal’s feature series, “Underreported,” we interview Francisco Marquez, an ex-political prisoner who now lives in the United States, and Wuilly Arteaga, who recently was thrown…
    Kelsey Bolar
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    • News

    Venezuela’s Socialist Leader Asks for UN Meeting With Trump as His Nation Crumbles

    Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro says he is ready to meet with President Donald Trump, just days after Washington hit the ruling socialist regime with sanctions. Speaking Thursday to the newly installed National Constituent Assembly, an all-powerful legislative body packed with Maduro loyalists, the socialist leader called on Venezuela’s foreign minister to arrange a phone call or face-to-face…
    Will Racke
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    • Opinion

    McCain-Reed Proposal Would Help Reform the Military’s Infrastructure. Here’s Where It Still Needs Improvement.

    For the past 12 years, Congress has resisted calls from the Department of Defense to authorize another round of base realignment and closures. A new round is needed and is the best way for the Pentagon to objectively evaluate its infrastructure and shed capacity it no longer needs. Base realignment and closures have emerged as…
    Andrew Nagode
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    • Opinion

    Why FEMA Must Be Reformed Before Disaster Strikes

    As Tropical Storm Franklin prepares to make landfall in Mexico, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is preparing to respond to similar situations that impact the United States. FEMA is tasked with leading the response to these devastating disasters, but since the 1980s, its involvement in small, local disasters has been on the increase. This…
    Max Morrison
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    • News

    Trump Hasn’t ‘Given Any Thought’ to Firing Special Counsel in Russia Probe

    President Donald Trump said he doesn’t intend to fire special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating Russia’s interference in the 2016 election and possible ties between the Kremlin and the Trump campaign “I haven’t given it any thought. Well, I’ve been reading about it from you people,” Trump said Thursday during an impromptu press conference…
    Fred Lucas
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    • Opinion

    Defense Conference Underscores the Importance of Research and Development for Missile Defense

    While North Korea reportedly achieved another milestone in developing a nuclear-tipped ballistic missile capable of reaching the U.S. homeland, The Heritage Foundation visited the annual Space and Missile Defense Symposium in Huntsville, Alabama, a city that lives and breathes ballistic missile defense. The conference is a gathering for policy experts, the military, industry representatives, on…
    Michaela Dodge
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    • Opinion

    These Special Appointees Often Undermine US Foreign Policy Goals. Here’s How to Fix the Problem.

    There’s an age-old rule of family gatherings that still holds true today: Stay out of grandma’s way in the kitchen. She has a meal to prepare and knows exactly what she’s doing, and how to do it. Too many cooks causes inefficiency, miscommunication, and a confusion of leadership roles. This “too many cooks” problem applies…
    Ben Roper
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    • Opinion

    I Was a Transgender Soldier. Gender Dysphoria Poses Real Problems for the Military.

    As a transgender military veteran, an Army retiree, and the first person in the United States to have their sex legally declared as nonbinary, I have a vested interest in the outcome of the transgender military service ban. In the days when transgender military service was banned, I spent 18 years of torment fearing that…
    James Shupe
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    • Opinion

    Continued US Leadership Requires Military Reinvestment

    The current House and Senate versions of the National Defense Authorization Act both seek welcome increases in the Pentagon’s defense budget. Unfortunately, the law of the land is the Budget Control Act and the limits and consequences imposed by it. This means that in 2018, the defense budget is legally limited to $551 billion. Any…
    Andrew Nagode
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    • Opinion

    Our Mission in Afghanistan Is Not About Nation Building. It’s About Self-Defense.

    As President Donald Trump contemplates the next steps for the U.S. in Afghanistan, it is time to inject a dose of realism into what the U.S. mission is there and what America’s goals should be. For too long, many of our policymakers have explained the U.S. mission in Afghanistan in terms of nation building or…
    Kim Holmes
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    • Opinion

    Socialism Has Destroyed Venezuela

    Friedrich Hayek famously observed that socialist central planning puts countries on the road to serfdom. The latest dead end on that highway to hell—already littered with the human victims of past failed attempts in places like Cuba and the old Soviet Union—is in Caracas, Venezuela. That is where, last weekend, President Nicolás Maduro and the…
    James M. Roberts
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    • Opinion

    Incoming Pentagon Appointee Strongly Supports Base Realignment and Closure

    A new Pentagon appointee is vowing to push for reform within the Department of Defense that reduces long-term costs and closes excess infrastructure. During his July 18 nomination hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee to become the assistant secretary of defense for energy, installations, and environment, Lucian Niemeyer expressed strong support for congressional authorization…
    Andrew Nagode
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    • Opinion

    We Hear You: Facing the Opioid Crisis and Defending the Marriage Views of Farmers

    Editor's note: We were pretty jazzed to publish a commentary on the opioid crisis by William Bennett and Robert DuPont. We've been meaning to run some of your reactions, so let's begin with them, followed by more on the farmers banned from a farmers market . Be sure to write us at [email protected]—Ken McIntyre Dear…
    Ken McIntyre
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    • Opinion

    5 Good Reasons Why Transgender Accommodations Aren’t Compatible With Military Realities

    On Wednesday, President Donald Trump announced that he was reversing an Obama-era policy that opened the military to people who identify as transgender. That policy, announced during the last year of President Barack Obama’s second term, was scheduled to go into effect earlier this month, but Secretary of Defense James Mattis announced a six-month delay…
    Ryan T. Anderson
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    • News

    House IT Aide’s Lawyer Is Longtime Clinton Associate

    Chris Gowen, Imran Awan’s lawyer, is a longtime campaigner for former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and a member of an attorney team that brought a fraudulent lawsuit against energy giant Chevron Corp. Pakistani-born Imran was arrested late Monday at Dulles Airport in Northern Virginia before he could board a…
    Mark Tapscott
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    • Opinion

    Corrupt Mexican Officials Are to Blame for Illegal Human Smuggling Racket

    Florida truck driver James Matthew Bradley isn’t the mastermind of the human smuggling ring that led to the grisly deaths of 10 illegal immigrants in his rig, which authorities found at a San Antonio Walmart over the weekend. He’s just a cog in the machine. Bradley may now face the death penalty for transporting up…
    Michelle Malkin
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    • News

    House Conservatives Try Again to Block Funding for Transgender Treatments in Military

    Some House Republicans are taking another shot at blocking funding for gender transition surgeries in the military, projected to cost about $3.7 billion over the next decade. “We are $20 trillion in debt and the taxpayers … are projected to spend $3.7 billion in the next 10 years for sex-reassignment surgeries,” @RepScottPerry says. Earlier this…
    Fred Lucas
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    • Opinion

    It Is Past Time to Privatize the TSA

    In a recent test at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport, the Transportation Security Administration failed to detect 94 percent of illicit items that actors smuggled through security screening that included fake explosives, weapons, and drugs. This egregious performance comes at the same time that the Department of Homeland Security is requiring international airports around the world…
    Max Morrison
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    • News

    Texas Officials Say Human Smuggling Deaths Show Need for Anti-Sanctuary Law

    The discovery of nine dead bodies and more than 30 injured people inside a sweltering tractor trailer in San Antonio shows that a tough anti-sanctuary city law is needed more than ever, top Texas officials said Sunday. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick wrote on Facebook that sanctuary cities “entice” people to come to the U.S. illegally and place…
    Will Racke
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