Tag: National Security

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Obama not briefed on FBI’s Clinton probe

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By Julian Hattem – 12/09/15 01:12 PM EST

President Obama does not receive briefings about the FBI’s investigation into the personal email setup Hillary Clinton used as secretary of State, bureau Director James Comey said on Wednesday.

As a result, Obama should have no way of knowing how the inquiry is proceeding, Comey told the Senate Judiciary Committee, despite the president’s apparent dismissal of concerns about impropriety.

The FBI’s examination of Clinton’s server, which held her private email account and has drawn intense criticism from Republicans and transparency advocates, has put the FBI in a tight spot.

In response, Comey has repeatedly attempted to shoot down concerns about political motivation in his bureau’s probe and fears that investigators will undermine evidence against Clinton or another Obama administration official.

“I hope the American people know the FBI well enough and the nature and character of this organization,” Comey told the Senate panel on Wednesday.

“As I’ve said many times, we don’t give a rip about politics,” he added. “We care about finding out what is true and doing that in a competent, honest and independent way. I promise you that’s the way we conduct ourselves.”

Conservatives expressed worry in October when Obama said that Clinton had made “a mistake”by using the private email address throughout her time at the State Department but that the behavior did not compromise official secrets.

“I can tell you that this is not a situation in which America’s national security was endangered,” Obama told CBS’s “60 Minutes.”

According to reports, Obama’s comments upset some FBI officials, who worried that it amounted to meddling in their investigation.

https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/262639-obama-not-briefed-on-clinton-investigation

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Christie says he’ll ‘never’ approve giving drivers licenses to undocumented N.J. residents

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Drivers Licenses For Undocumented Immigrants Clears Assembly Panel

Legislation that would grant driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants passed the Assembly Homeland Security and State Preparedness Committee in a 3-2 voteon Monday. Alyana Alfaro, PolitickerNJ.com Read more

Christie on Drivers’ Licenses for Undocumenteds: ‘Dangerous and Irresponsible’

As the Assembly Homeland Security and State Preparedness Committee considers drivers’ licenses for undocumented workers, Gov. Chris Christie issued qa statement in opposition. Max Pizarro, PolitickerNJ.com Read more

 

By Claude Brodesser-Akner | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com TRENTON

TRENTON — As Gov. Chris Christie mulls a bid for the White House, some of his positionson immigration may be evolving. But one remains steadfastly the same.

“I’m not giving driver’s licenses to people who are undocumented. That’s it,” Christie said flatly, speaking on his monthly radio show on New Jersey 101.5.

Christie called the state-issued driver’s license “the single most important form of identification. It gets you onto airplanes. … I cannot give driver’s licenses to people who I cannot be sure who they are … and I’ve had that position right from the beginning.”

Christie was named U.S. Attorney for New Jersey on September 10, 2001. The 9/11 terrorist attacks occurred on his second day on the job.

“When it first happened … all I could think about was the job — what is this going to mean?” Christie told The Associated Press on the 10th anniversary of the terror attacks in 2011.

https://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2015/04/christie_says_hell_never_approve_giving_drivers_li.html

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High stakes for Hillary, lawmakers in Benghazi panel showdown

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By Scott Wong and Julian Hattem – 10/19/15 06:00 AM EDT

Hillary Clinton isn’t the only one with a lot riding on this week’s Capitol Hill hearing on the 2012 Benghazi terrorist attacks.

The 12-member Select Committee on Benghazi is loaded with ambitious lawmakers from both parties looking for a breakout moment on the national stage with the Democratic presidential front-runner.

More than half the Republicans serving on the panel have been mentioned as potential candidates to replace Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio). And the committee’s chairman, GOP Rep. Trey Gowdy (S.C.), is widely viewed as having a bright political future back home in South Carolina.

Clinton’s Democratic allies on the panel include one declared Senate candidate, Rep. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, and another potential one, veteran Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland.

Here’s a look at seven members of the Benghazi panel who could shine in the spotlight during Thursday’s showdown

 

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/257218-high-stakes-in-benghazi-showdown

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New battle over claim that Clinton mishandled CIA secrets

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By Julian Hattem – 10/19/15 07:26 AM EDT

Congressional Democrats are accusing Republicans on the House Select Committee on Benghazi of falsely claiming that Hillary Clinton improperly handled some of the government’s most closely kept secrets, days before the former secretary of State appears before the panel.

An email revealed by committee Republicans earlier this month made it seem as if Clinton received and then forwarded the name of a CIA source as part of a 2011 memo from longtime associate Sidney Blumenthal.

The name of that source “is some of the most protected information in our intelligence community,” committee Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) said at the time, “the release of which could jeopardize not only national security but also human lives.”

According to the committee’s top Democrat, Rep. Elijah Cummings (Md.), however, the CIA told lawmakers this weekend that “they do not consider the information … classified.”

“Specifically, the CIA confirmed that ‘the State Department consulted with the CIA on this production, the CIA reviewed these documents, and the CIA made no redactions to protect classified information,’” Cummings said in a scathing letter to Gowdy.

A State Department official confirmed that Cummings’s letter “describes ‎the situation accurately.” A spokesman with the CIA declined to comment on the matter.

Gowdy insisted that the presence of the name in one of Clinton’s emails is nonetheless damaging, regardless of the CIA’s stance.

 

https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/257276-gop-hit-over-claims-that-clinton-mishandled-cia-secrets

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Dozens of Clinton emails were classified from the start, U.S. rules suggest

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NEW YORK | BY JONATHAN ALLEN

For months, the U.S. State Department has stood behind its former boss Hillary Clinton as she has repeatedly said she did not send or receive classified information on her unsecured, private email account, a practice the government forbids.

While the department is now stamping a few dozen of the publicly released emails as “Classified,” it stresses this is not evidence of rule-breaking. Those stamps are new, it says, and do not mean the information was classified when Clinton, the Democratic frontrunner in the 2016 presidential election, first sent or received it.

But the details included in those “Classified” stamps — which include a string of dates, letters and numbers describing the nature of the classification — appear to undermine this account, a Reuters examination of the emails and the relevant regulations has found.

https://www.reuters.com/article/2015/08/21/us-usa-election-clinton-emails-idUSKCN0QQ0BW20150821

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Clinton Pressured at Press Conference on Emails

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Clinton pulls plug on testy presser over server questions
August 18, 2015, 06:22 pm
By Ben Kamisar

Hillary Clinton dismissed the controversy surrounding her private email server and defended her conduct as legal during a press conference Tuesday in Las Vegas.

A visibly aggravated Clinton repeatedly insisted that she had done nothing wrong and seemed frustrated by questions about the issue.

“What I did was legally permitted, number one, first and foremost,” the Democratic presidential candidate said in response to a question from Fox News reporter Ed Henry. “We turned over everything that was work-related, every single thing.”

She added that in “retrospect,” it had not turned out to be convenient to have the private server during her years as secretary of State.

“I regret that this has become a cause celebre. But that does not change the facts, and no matter what anybody tries to say, the facts are stubborn,” she said.

“I know there is a certain level of anxiety or interest in this, but the facts are the facts.”

Asked if the server, which has been turned over to the Department of Justice, had been wiped clean, Clinton initially shrugged and later joked: “Like with a cloth or something?”

https://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/251413-clinton-pulls-plug-on-testy-presser-over-server-questions

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Hillary’s email firm was run from a loft apartment with its servers in the BATHROOM, raising new questions over security of sensitive messages she held

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Democratic White House front-runner used Platte River Networks of Denver, Colorado, to maintain her controversial ‘home brew’ server
Up to 60 emails with classified material have been found in a sample of those she did not delete – meaning there could be many more
Now Daily Mail Online reveals new questions over security of her emails when Platte River was involved in maintaining server
‘Mom and pop’ firm used converted residential apartment and had its own servers in a bathroom closet
Links between ‘local’ IT company and Clinton remain unclear but its VP of sales and marketing, who was sued for ‘fraud’ is said to be ‘big Democrat’

By HUGO DANIEL IN DENVER, COLORADO, FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

PUBLISHED: 08:12 EST, 18 August 2015 | UPDATED: 12:03 EST, 18 August 2015

The IT company Hilary Clinton chose to maintain her private email account was run from a loft apartment and its servers were housed in the bathroom closet, Daily Mail Online can reveal.

Daily Mail Online tracked down ex-employees of Platte River Networks in Denver, Colorado, who revealed the outfit’s strong links to the Democratic Party but expressed shock that the 2016 presidential candidate chose the small private company for such a sensitive job.

One, Tera Dadiotis, called it ‘a mom and pop shop’ which was an excellent place to work, but hardly seemed likely to be used to secure state secrets. And Tom Welch, who helped found the company, confirmed the servers were in a bathroom closet.

It can also be disclosed that the small number of employees who were aware of the Clinton contract were told to keep it secret.

The way in which Clinton came to contract a company described as a ‘mom and pop’ operation remains unclear.

However Daily Mail Online has established a series of connections between the firm and the Democratic Party.

Read more: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3201367/Hillary-s-email-firm-run-loft-apartment-servers-BATHROOM-raising-new-questions-security-sensitive-messages-held.html#ixzz3jD6fAUn5

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Garrett vows to keep fighting Iran agreement

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JULY 21, 2015    LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, JULY 21, 2015, 1:21 AM
BY ABBOTT KOLOFF
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD

TEANECK — Rep. Scott Garrett told more than 250 people gathered Monday night for a town hall meeting at Congregation Bnai Yeshurun that he will continue his efforts to block the Iran nuclear arms deal, saying it would be detrimental to the security of both the United States and Israel.

He said that the deal was “woefully short” of President Obama’s promises and that “we essentially will be starting a countdown for Iran to have nuclear weapons” in the future. Garrett, a Republican who represents portions of Bergen, Passaic, Sussex and Warren counties, said he hoped enough Democrats would join Republicans to block the deal, but added that he did not expect that to happen.

The meeting echoed portions of a multifaceted national debate, with a large coalition of organizations planning the Stop Iran Rally in Times Square on Wednesday to oppose the agreement while peace groups and others have been arguing in its favor. Iranians also have not been in complete agreement, with hundreds protesting the agreement in Tehran over the weekend.

Congressional Republicans, including Garrett, have been uniformly against it. However, they would need a two-thirds majority in Congress to prevent the agreement from being finalized. Garrett said he voted against that procedure when it was established with bipartisan support this year, adding, “It puts the Constitution on its head.”

Rabbi Steven Pruzansky of Bnai Yeshurun said the agreement placed the nation “on the verge of a historic capitulation.” He added that “Obama’s America is on a collision course with Israel.”

https://www.northjersey.com/news/world/garrett-vows-to-keep-fighting-iran-agreement-1.1377711

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Why Credit Monitoring Fails to Address the Real Threat Facing Hacked Feds

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By Eric Katz
June 11, 2015

In response to what was one of the largest data breaches in American history, the Office of Personnel Management has offered 4 million current and former federal employees free credit monitoring and identity theft insurance.

That approach may completely miss the mark, experts say.

Media reports and now lawmakers have said that state actors — likely from China – appear to be behind the attack, rather than individuals looking to exploit employees’ financial information. Credit monitoring, therefore, is a nice offer but one that is unlikely to protect federal employees from their adversaries’ true intentions.

“Credit reporting is lip service,” said Richard Blech, CEO of Secure Channels Inc., a cybersecurity firm that provides encryption technology and authentication services. “It means nothing.”

Ken Ammon, chief strategy officer for Xceedium, a network security company that contracts with the government and commercial enterprises, said credit monitoring is fine as a “first step,” though it serves more to protect the infiltrated organization legally than it does the individual from bad actors.

Experts refer to the hack as “cyber espionage,” rather than “cyber crime.” Individuals that illegally obtain data such as Social Security numbers and addresses can use that information for identity theft as it relates to credit card information, for example, but state actors do not hold those same interests.

https://www.govexec.com/defense/2015/06/why-credit-monitoring-fails-address-real-threat-facing-hacked-feds/115090/?oref=relatedstories

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Dominance of national security shakes up race for White House

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By Alexander Bolton

The resurgence of Islamic terrorism and President Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran is shaking up the race for the White House, pushing national security to the forefront of the GOP primary debate.

The primacy of foreign policy could be a problem for Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), the libertarian Tea-Party favorite, who is set to launch his presidential campaign next week in Louisville. He proposed steep defense cuts when he first came to the Senate and has expressed wariness about foreign military interventions.

On the other hand, the new dynamic could help Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who have touted their experience on the Foreign Relations and Armed Services committees, respectively, as they make the case for their candidacies.

https://thehill.com/policy/defense/237910-dominance-of-national-security-shakes-up-race-for-white-house

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Christie’s Ebola Nurse Antagonist goes bike riding as DOD contradicts her!

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Christie’s Ebola Nurse Antagonist goes bike riding as DOD contradicts her!
Oct. 30  2014
By Matt Rooney | The Save Jersey Blog

This lady is a real trip, Save Jerseyans!

I’ve spoken to the nurses in my life since Kaci “the Brat” Hickox‘s story went viral; not one of them thinks it’s unreasonable, after an extended journey to Africa interacting one-on-one with Ebola patients, for a health care worker to spend 3-weeks in a hospital (or at home) to guarantee that this deadly virus doesn’t spread.

It’s not hard for anyone who isn’t a narcissist to understand why.

After all, the CDC was EGREGIOUSLY wrong – time and time again – when it came to this disease (1) coming to America and (2) the risk to health care workers caring for the infected. Ebola isn’t 100% understood and the “experts” continue to contradict themselves; researchers disagree, for example, on a few key points including the all-important incubation period.

But then again, most of nurses in my life aren’t nasty liberals who care more about making political points than protecting the American people. Check out what she did today:

https://savejersey.com/2014/10/christie-ebola-nurse-bike-ride-troops-quarantine/

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Edward Snowden to SXSW: NSA Leaders Have Harmed Our National Security ‘More Than Anything’ Else

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Edward Snowden to SXSW: NSA Leaders Have Harmed Our National Security ‘More Than Anything’ Else

The fugitive leaker, appearing by video conference, attacked virtually every corner of the national security apparatus during a Q&A session at the festival.

America’s most high-profile fugitive visited one of the country’s most popular entertainment festivals in Texas on Monday, drawing thunderous applause from a crowded room filled with his adoring fans.

Edward Snowden, appearing from Russia through a live video stream, told attendees of the South by Southwest Interactive conference in Austin that Congress had fundamentally failed to do its job as an overseer of the government’s bulk surveillance programs, declaring that “we need a watchdog that watches Congress.

The former National Security Agency contractor, in a conversation with the American Civil Liberties Union’s Christopher Soghoian and Ben Wizner, also charged the current and most recent chief of the NSA as the two people most responsible for jeopardizing the country’s national security due to their preference for aggressive collection of data rather than protection of it after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

“More than anything, there are two officials who have harmed our Internet security and national security,” Snowden said, his image backdropped by an enlarged copy of the U.S. Constitution. “Those two officials are Michael Hayden and Keith Alexander.”

https://www.nationaljournal.com/tech/edward-snowden-to-sxsw-nsa-leaders-have-harmed-our-national-security-more-than-anything-else-20140310