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

    Following Agency’s Failures, TSA Reform Takes Center Stage
    The recent shortcomings of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) are not passing problems—there is a need for “fundamental” reform within the government agency, according to a panel of security specialists that convened at The Heritage Foundation on Tuesday. Chad Wolf, the former assistant administrator of the TSA, Ha Nguyen, a former adviser at the Department…
    Ryan Spaude
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  • news

    Home Free: Female Veterans Find Fresh Start in Los Angeles Housing Community
    SAN PEDRO, Calif.—Thirty minutes south of Los Angeles, nestled into a drought-dry San Pedro hillside, sits the small townhome community of Blue Butterfly Village. Named for sharing land with a preserve for the endangered Palos Verdes blue butterfly, it’s the sort of place you’d never know was there unless you were looking for it. Even…
    Madaline Donnelly
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  • opinion

    TSA Approved 73 Airport Workers Who Were “Linked to Terrorism”
    The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) just underwent another round of government inspection, and the results are decidedly not good. The Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a report on Monday stating that the TSA failed to identify 73 individuals with “potential links to terrorism” who work in our nation’s airports. These…
    David Inserra | Ryan Spaude
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  • news

    Rick Perry Pledges to Work for Veterans ‘Until I Take My Last Breath’
    NASHUA, N.H.—Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry promised during a campaign stop today that he would reform the Department of Veterans Affairs if elected president of the United States. Perry, speaking at Nashua Community College in New Hampshire, pledged to work for veterans “until I take my last breath.” “If you elect me your president, there…
    Kate Scanlon
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  • opinion

    Assessing the Future of the US-UK Special Relationship
    The special relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom is a political creation that reflects underlying realities. To assess the future of that relationship, and how the EU will affect it, we need to know how it began. For the relationship to come into being, the U.K. and the U.S. had to meet…
    Ted Bromund
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  • opinion

    National Security Problems Aren’t Caused by Climate
    Earlier this month, the Obama administration released its latest blast on climate change: A cut-and-paste job from its own reports proclaiming that climate change has serious national security implications. This is embarrassingly shoddy stuff. But it’s shoddy for a reason. Now, nothing says credibility like a pile of old federal reports. But these reports do…
    Ted Bromund
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  • opinion

    Cartoon: Where Is the ‘Security’ in TSA?
    According to ABC News, the Transportation Security Administration failed to stop undercover agents in 67 out of 70 recent probes. David Inserra, who specializes in cyber and homeland security policy at The Heritage Foundation, wrote about the issue earlier this week: Importantly, it exposes the reality that government screeners are not necessarily the right answer…
    Glenn Foden
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  • news

    ‘The Last Patrol’: Filmmaker Examines How Veterans Adjust to Civilian Life
    The Heritage Foundation and National Review are co-hosting a screening of “The Last Patrol” on Thursday. “The Last Patrol” is a documentary by Sebastian Junger, an Oscar-nominated filmmaker, journalist and best-selling author. The film explores how combat veterans readjust to civilian life after returning home from war. In an interview with The Daily Signal, Junger…
    Kate Scanlon
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  • news

    Senate Votes to Overhaul NSA ‘Spy’ Program
    The Senate approved legislation Tuesday to scale back the federal government’s collection of personal data in the post-9/11 era. Under the USA Freedom Act, the National Security Agency’s bulk data collection program would be terminated, and phone companies would be responsible for retaining customer data. The legislation amends the USA Patriot Act, which provides legal…
    Kate Scanlon
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  • opinion

    TSA Failures Point to Need for Private Airport Security
    In an exclusive scoop, ABC News is reporting that the Transportation Security Administration failed to stop undercover agents in 67 out of 70 recent probes of TSA screening. These agents carried fake weapons through checkpoints at major airports across the country and were not stopped. ABC reports that Jeh Johnson was “apparently so frustrated by…
    David Inserra
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  • news

    Senate Can’t Strike a Deal on Patriot Act, Forcing NSA Program to Expire
    Portions of the USA Patriot Act expired at midnight after the Senate failed to reach a deal. Supporters of the USA Freedom Act, legislation to amend the Patriot Act, had hoped it would serve as a compromise by striking an appropriate balance between security and civil liberties. Opponents argued it was still too intrusive. The…
    Kate Scanlon
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  • opinion

    Military Should Focus on Solving Real-World Problems
    Over the last several years, there has been a noticeable uptick in terribly confused thinking about military matters that extends to understanding the nature of conflict, the role of military forces, and general thinking about military affairs. Sometimes the confusion emerges in the form of an identity crisis. The U.S. Army seems to have experienced…
    Dakota Wood
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  • opinion

    Stanley McChrystal’s Accidental Exposé About the Military
    Retired Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal has penned a revealing book—but its revelations are not intentional. The combat veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan and his team of co-authors intended to author a guide on how to use small teams to infuse organizations with dynamic and adaptive leadership. Instead they deliver an accidental exposé of what is…
    James Carafano
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  • opinion

    David Axelrod Evaluates Obama’s Handling of Racial Issues, Inner City Problems
    In my first two interviews with former Obama senior advisor David Axelrod, we talked about the growing divide among “Red” and “Blue” America and his predictions for the types of candidates and policy issues most likely to shape the 2016 presidential election. Now, in our final segment, we discuss the impact of racial tensions in places…
    Genevieve Wood
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  • news

    What the Defense Department Learned From the Ebola Crisis
    For most Americans, last year’s Ebola outbreak was a public health concern and cause for a debate over infectious disease practices, safety and travel. For West Africans, it was a real-life crisis with deaths in the thousands and desperate efforts to keep it from spreading. But for those tasked with developing the response for it…
    Leah Jessen
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  • news

    Debate Over NSA ‘Spying’ Program, Explained in Under 2 Minutes
    Congress has less than a week to decide the fate of a government surveillance program that was created after 9/11 to prevent terrorist attacks. The program, enabled by a provision under the Patriot Act, gives the National Security Agency a number of tools to fight terror, such as the ability to collect phone records in…
    Alex Anderson | Kelsey Bolar
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  • opinion

    At Forum Hosted by Federal Agency, Academic Calls for Mandating Number of Women Politicians
    Earlier this month, I predicted that a scheduled hearing at the Federal Election Commission was shaping up to be nothing more than a presentation of “the goofy gender ideology and politics of the progressive left and academia.” And, oh, how right I was. The May 12 forum on “Women in Politics” was organized by FEC…
    Hans von Spakovsky
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  • opinion

    Why Do Politicians Want to End a Program That Actually Works?
    It’s hard to say which is more galling: when politicians want to extend the life of a program that doesn’t work, or when they want to pull the plug on one that does. A prime example of the latter: the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program. It allows children from low-income families to attend the school of…
    Ed Feulner
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  • opinion

    Obama’s Dangerous Thinking About Climate Change and National Security
    The White House has released a new report entitled “The National Security Implications of a Changing Climate,” essentially a summary of the administration’s view that climate change is a primary threat to the nation’s security. President Obama made the issue a central feature of his commencement speech at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. “Climate change…
    Dakota Wood
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  • opinion

    Senate Financial Reform Bill Anything But a Partisan Effort
    The U.S. House has introduced—and even passed—several bills during the past few years aimed at reforming financial regulations, but the Senate has lagged far behind. So it is a positive sign that Senate Banking Committee Chairman Richard Shelby (R–AL) introduced the Financial Regulatory Improvement Act of 2015. The Committee approved the bill today, 12-10, along…
    Norbert Michel
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