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

    How Serious Is ISIS Threat Against Military Families?

    Our military and their families carry a heavy burden on behalf of all of us. That makes the threat against them by a shadowy outfit claiming affiliation with ISIS particularly heinous. A group, calling itself the “Islamic State Hacking Division,” posted the names, home addresses and photos of one hundred American service members and called…
    James Carafano
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    • Opinion

    Military Exercises Do Not Violate Posse Comitatus Act

    Recent reports that several of the U.S. military’s various Special Operations elements may be participating in exercises in areas that are not on existing military facilities have raised concerns. These are fortunately unfounded. The military in general, and Special Operations in particular, have conducted exercises in civilian areas for decades. To be clear, even if…
    Steven Bucci
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    • News

    Conservative Lawmaker Seeks Answers From the VA on Misleading Statements

    Earlier this week, the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee held a hearing in order to try and answer lingering questions about mismanagement at the Department of Veterans Affairs. During the hearing, Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kan., questioned General Counsel Leigh Bradley about multiple misstatements made by leading VA officials. Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald said…
    Kate Scanlon
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    • Opinion

    Experts Are Unanimous: Visa Waiver Program Is Good for National Security

    During Tuesday’s House Subcommittee on Border and Maritime Security hearing, experts agreed that the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) is beneficial both for the economy and national security. Due to continued concern over the threat of foreign fighters returning home to stage attacks on the U.S. and allied countries’ homeland, the effectiveness of the Visa Waiver…
    Riley Walters
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    • Opinion

    Further Defense Cuts Will Harm National Security

    On February 11, the House Armed Services Committee held a hearing with four think tanks to explore possible alternatives for the fiscal year (FY) 2016 congressional budget. Although different views abounded, all agreed on one thing: The sequestered discretionary caps instituted by the Budget Control Act of 2011 (BCA) severely damage national security. As Congress…
    Mark Febrizio
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    • Opinion

    Obama Administration Wants New Regulations for Your Financial Adviser

    Last week the Obama administration announced it would move ahead with a new Department of Labor rule designed to provide uniform fiduciary rules for anyone providing retirement investment advice. In general, a fiduciary standard requires financial advisers to put their individual client’s interests above their own. Sounds simple enough. But the new rule could impose…
    Norbert Michel
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    • News

    High-Ranking Federal Officials’ History of Using Personal Email for Government Business

    High-level federal executives routinely use personal email for business, in likely violation of the Federal Records Act. That’s according to a recent survey of federal employees. The survey was conducted by the research group Government Business Council just prior to revelations that Hillary Clinton allegedly exclusively used personal email and a private server at her…
    Sharyl Attkisson
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    • Opinion

    The World Is Becoming More Dangerous. So Why Are We Letting Our Military Power Decline?

    The world seems to be becoming more dangerous these days. Not so coincidentally, America’s military power continues to decline rapidly. Before considering how and why, here’s a snapshot of what’s happening around the globe: Russia has annexed Crimea, is dismembering Ukraine, is probing the defenses of Northern Europe, and is again casting a covetous eye…
    Dakota Wood
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    • Opinion

    Labrador on Homeland Security Funding: ‘We Lost Because’ Democrats, White House ‘Outsmarted Ineffective GOP Leadership’

    On Tuesday, 75 Republicans pressured by our leadership and a weak-kneed Senate joined 182 Democrats in abandoning a provision blocking President Obama’s executive actions on immigration in the Fiscal 2015 Department of Homeland Security spending bill. Without a doubt, Congress ceded its constitutional authority when it gave up the fight to ensure the president faithfully executes the…
    Raul Labrador
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    • News

    ‘A Strategy Doomed to Failure’: Conservatives Fault GOP Leadership After Homeland Security Funding Fight

    Days after President Obama delivered his Nov. 20 speech outlining executive actions on immigration, conservatives pressed Republican leaders to wage a fight while the issue was fresh on the minds of voters. “From the onset, we really believed it was a poor strategy,” says @RepMattSalmon Republicans had just made historic electoral gains in the House…
    Robert B. Bluey
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    • Opinion

    Is Our Military Ready?

    Most of us take it on faith that our military is the best in the world. But if asked to state in detail how ready we are to face certain challenges from around the globe, few of us would know how to answer. How prepared is each branch—Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines—to handle its…
    Ed Feulner
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    • Opinion

    Government’s Role in the Financial Crisis

    After seven years of hindsight, the conventional explanation for the world’s second greatest financial crisis remains the same: The private banking sector was insufficiently regulated, allowing Wall Street to engage in excessive risk-taking behavior and questionable trading practices, thus triggering the sudden burst of the housing bubble and collapse of housing prices. This narrative is…
    David Allen
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    • Opinion

    How to Reform Social Security Disability So Program Focuses on Needs of Disabled Americans

    What happens when Social Security Disability Insurance, an integral program that provides benefits to the disabled who are unable to work, runs out of money in 2016? All disability insurance beneficiaries currently face a nearly 20 percent benefit cut. Lawmakers are understandably scrambling to find a solution that prevents this indiscriminate and sudden benefit cut,…
    Michael Sargent
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    • Opinion

    New Index of U.S. Military Strength: The Cyber Threat

    The growing number of cyber attacks in recent years has highlighted the risks that U.S. interests, critical infrastructure, and military operations face in cyberspace. Cyber threats, once relatively weak in nature compared to other military offenses, are now potential weapons of war, and considered hard-power tools of armed attack. Yesterday, The Heritage Foundation released the…
    Jennifer Guthrie
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    • Opinion

    Tips for Politicians: How to Not Have an ‘Uh-Oh’ Moment at CPAC

    It’s that time of year again – the week when conservative activists and politicians convene in the Washington, D.C. area for the annual Conservative Political Action Conference. Anyone who has attended CPAC knows it’s a feat of endurance. Only the tried and true politico sits through hours upon hours of speeches. And since the repetitive…
    Beverly Hallberg
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    • Opinion

    As US Grapples With Global Threats, This Is How We Should Approach National Security

    In one of his first actions as secretary of defense, Ashton Carter met over the weekend with top U.S. officials to determine a path forward in the fight against ISIS. While threats have clearly grown, the president has sought to shrink military capability. This radical Islamic group has increasingly shown the gruesome lengths it is…
    Brian Slattery
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    • Opinion

    Patricia Arquette’s ‘Make Believe’ on Women and Equal Pay

    The political diatribe from actress Patricia Arquette about “equal pay” during the Oscars showed Hollywood’s talents for “story-telling” and “make believe” are alive and well.  Sadly, instead of a passionate speech filled with facts, Arquette followed the same old left-wing script that just doesn’t measure up to the truth. Audiences deserve better. Interested in more…
    Genevieve Wood
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    • Opinion

    What Patricia Arquette Got Wrong About the Founders and Women

    In a harried Oscar acceptance speech which culminated in a hackneyed call for wage equality, actress Patricia Arquette blamed the Founders for the so-called gender pay gap. “It’s inexcusable that we go around the world and we talk about equal rights for women in other countries when we don’t have equal rights for women in America,”…
    David Azerrad
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    • News

    Homeland Security Funding Expires Friday. Is Congress Any Closer to a Solution?

    As the Feb. 27 deadline for funding the Department of Homeland Security looms, Congress appears no closer to a resolution to the ongoing funding dispute. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson told George Stephanopoulos today on ABC’s “This Week” that it’s “imperative that we get it resolved.” “Because if we don’t, by Friday at midnight,  the…
    Kate Scanlon
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    • News

    Republicans in Congress Demand Answers About Military Chaplain Disciplined for Referencing the Bible

    A group of 24 Republican lawmakers are demanding an explanation about why the Army disciplined a military chaplain for making references to the Bible during a suicide-prevention seminar. In a letter addressed to Army Secretary John McHugh, lawmakers wrote: We believe this administrative action sets a dangerous precedent for Army suicide prevention initiatives, the role…
    Kelsey Bolar
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