Tag: National Security

Veteran: DOD Withholds Documents on Whether DEI Hiring Improves National Security

The Center Square
James Fitzpatrick

The U.S. Department of Defense is under scrutiny for refusing to release records about exactly how spending on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion helps with national security.

The Center to Advance Security in America in May filed with the DOD a Freedom of Information Act Request, the legal pathway to obtain government documents. The FOIA sought to find out what DOD officials estimate is the real impact on national security of DEI spending, for which Congress approved $86.5 million in fiscal year 2023.

Read More

Retired Border Patrol Chief Sounds the Alarm on Kamala Harris Border Crisis ‘Fix’

Minnesota Sun Staff
Rodney Scott and Kamala Harris (composite image)

Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign is attempting to cast her as a tough-on-the-border candidate, but a former leader of the Border Patrol is warning the public not to buy it.

The Harris campaign has released a slate of advertisements that claim the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate would “fix the border” and crack down on illegal immigration by increasing the number of Border Patrol agents. However, retired Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott, who led the agency while Harris served as “border czar,” says voters must look at her record to understand how she would really handle border security.

Read More

Commentary: With His Amnesty Order, President Biden Is Making Illegal Immigration, Legal

Minnesota Sun Staff

550,000.

That is the estimated number of illegal aliens who will receive amnesty under President Biden’s latest executive action, which will make many of the migrants eligible for green cards, work permits, and a pathway to U.S. citizenship.

Read More

Commentary: China’s Land Purchases in U.S. Spark Outcry for Federal Solution

Minnesota Sun Staff
Smithfield Foods factory farm

Over the past two years, nearly half the states in America acted to scrutinize purchases of land linked to China and other foreign adversaries. Concerns focus primarily on national security threats from China, and they’re well-founded.

The federal government has no idea how much real estate Chinese entities own in the United States. The U.S. Department of Agriculture legally is required to track foreign ownership of agricultural land, but underestimates Chinese ownership by at least 50 percent.

Read More

Analysts: Policymakers Must Confront Weaponized Migration to Address Border Crisis

The Center Square
Illegal migrants at a border fence

Unless Congress and policymakers understand how weaponized migration is being used against the U.S., they won’t be able to solve the problem, foreign policy analysts warn.

More than 11 million foreign nationals, including gotaways, illegally entering the U.S. from all over the world is not an accident, military and foreign policy experts have warned. It’s called migrant warfare, The Center Square first reported. The European Commission, United Nations, NATO, and foreign policy institutes have identified hybrid warfare being used in Europe, including migrant warfare, to shape national and international policies.

Read More

Special Counsel Robert Hur Says Biden ‘Willfully’ Kept, Shared Classified Memos but Won’t Be Charged Because of His Poor Memory

Just the News

Special counsel Robert Hur concluded in a stinging report released Thursday that President Joe Biden willfully kept classified documents from his time as vice president, shared them with an author and knew he had them as far back as 2017, but he recommended against prosecution.

Read More

Mayorkas Mails Letter to GOP House Saying Impeachment Allegations ‘False,’ Won’t Testify in Process

Just the News

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Tuesday issued a fiery defense against the impeachment articles he faces, calling the allegations “false” and urging Congress to fix the U.S. immigration system through legislation.

Read More

House GOP Reveals Articles of Impeachment Against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas

Just the News

House Republicans on Sunday released their articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. The first article alleges Mayorkas participated in a “willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law,” while the second article says he breached the public’s trust for his handling of the southern border amid record illegal immigration numbers.

Read More

FBI Luminaries Starkly Warn Congress that U.S. Being Invaded at Border: ‘Alarming and Perilous’

Just the News

With a constitutional crisis brewing in Texas and voters nationwide alarmed by the toll of illegal immigration, some of the FBI’s most famous retired executives are issuing a stark warning to Congress that President Joe Biden’s border policies have unleashed an “invasion” of military-aged male foreigners who pose “one of the most pernicious ever” threats to American security.

Read More

Biden Admin Watered Down Vetting Process for Chinese Illegal Immigrants, Email Shows

Admin

The Biden administration drastically simplified the vetting process for Chinese illegal immigrants in April 2023, according to an internal U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) email obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation. The April 2023 email, which was sent by a CBP supervisor to a “master list” of about 500 Border Patrol agents, instructs CBP officials to radically reduce the number of interview questions for Chinese migrants apprehended after illegally crossing into the country from roughly 40 to just five. The “headquarters guidance” came as border agents were overwhelmed with near-record numbers of illegal crossings.

Read More

Journalists, Medical Groups, Big Business Emerge as Biden Allies in Social Media Censorship Case

Just the News
Journalists Press

President Joe Biden’s administration is getting some big-name allies as it defends against a landmark free speech infringement lawsuit. Their argument: protecting Americans from indirect censorship by government officials undermines the First Amendment, national security, and public health.

Advocacy groups for journalists, academics, doctors, technologists, and big business, and a powerful senator, made various forms of these arguments in friend-of-the-court briefs to the Supreme Court in the days before and after Christmas. 

Read More

CCP-Tied Battery Firm’s Dominance Could Pose Major National Security and Espionage Threats, New Report Warns

Minnesota Sun Staff

A battery firm with considerable ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could pose significant espionage and national security risks to the U.S. as policymakers move to electrify American life, according to a new report by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), a non-partisan research institute focused on issues of national security and foreign affairs.

CATL, a battery manufacturing firm headquartered in Fujian, China, is a major player in the global battery market, as it already holds a dominant position in the global electric vehicle (EV) battery market and is poised to supply crucial large-scale energy storage systems to American utility companies to help them provide the decarbonized power grids of the future, according to the FDD report. CATL, which has subsidiaries based in the U.S. and several European countries, has already had equipment installed within a U.S. military base, and the burgeoning dependence on the Chinese company’s products may leave essential American infrastructure vulnerable to espionage and malware attacks, according to the FDD report.

Read More

Feds Flagged Nearly 75,000 Illegal Migrants as Potential National Security Risks

Minnesota Sun Staff

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) authorities flagged 74,904 illegal migrants nationwide for potentially posing risks to national security between October 2022 and August, according to CBP data obtained exclusively by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Certain illegal migrants are deemed to be “special interest aliens” because they may have travel patterns that “possibly have a nexus to terrorism” or may come from countries with such ties, according to a 2019 Department of Homeland Security (DHS) fact sheet. Border Patrol agents encountered 25,627 “special interest” illegal migrants in fiscal year 2022, compared to 3,675 encounters in fiscal year 2021, according to internal agency data previously obtained by the DCNF; however, this data doesn’t account for all CBP encounters of special interest aliens.

Read More

Illegal Migrants from Mexico Assault Northern Border Agent, Official Says

Minnesota Sun Staff

Three illegal migrants from Mexico assaulted a Border Patrol agent along the northern border on Aug. 20, according to an Instagram post from Swanton sector Chief Robert Garcia.

The three illegal migrants crossed the northern border from Canada illegally before assaulting the agent near Churubusco, New York, according to Garcia’s post. Border Patrol agents in the Swanton sector, which includes areas of New York, Vermont and New Hampshire have made more than 4,900 arrests of illegal migrants from 68 countries between October 2022 and July, amounting to more apprehensions than the last eight years combined in the region.

Read More

Commentary: Don’t Let a Movie Be Your Only Involvement in the Fight to End Modern-Day Slavery

Minnesota Sun Staff

The Sound of Freedom is a wonderful and eye-opening movie. We’ve constantly urged people to see the movie and if you haven’t yet, go grab your tickets to see it right now.

For many, it has become similar to the Sinner’s Prayer moment in the life of a Christian.

Read More

Tennessee U.S. Rep Mark Green Says He Has Evidence That Some Chinese Migrants Are Tied To CCP, PLA

Admin

House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green possesses evidence that some Chinese migrants that crossed the southern border illegally and were released into the U.S. under the Biden administration are connected to the Chinese Communist Party and China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA), he told the Daily Caller News Foundation during a press conference Wednesday.

Read More

North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum Launches Bid for White House, Joining Crowded Field of GOP Contenders

M.D. Kittle

At a Fargo events center packed with family, friends and neighbors, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum stressed his small-town roots, his success in building a multi-billion dollar software business on the Great Plains, governing a growing state, and his vision for an innovative America in announcing his bid for the White House.

Read More

‘These Numbers Are Staggering:’ Chinese Migrants Continue to Surge Across Southern Border

Admin

The influx of Chinese migrants crossing the southern border continued through April, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data.

Border Patrol encountered 3,182 migrants from China at the U.S.-Mexico border in April alone, according to CBP data. Chinese migrants often pay hefty smuggling fees to reach the U.S., where they have been found with large sums of U.S. currency, according to Border Patrol agents who recently spoke with the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Read More

More Than 100 Known, Suspected Terrorists Apprehended at Southern Border Fiscal Year to Date

The Center Square

An Afghan national on the federal Terrorist Screening Dataset (TSDS) was apprehended attempting to enter the U.S. illegally near the Otay Mesa Port of Entry in San Diego, California.

The TSDS is the federal government’s database that includes sensitive information about terrorist identities. It originated as a consolidated terrorist watch list “to house information on known or suspected terrorists (KSTs) but has evolved over the last decade to include additional individuals who represent a potential threat to the United States, including known affiliates of watch listed individuals,” CBP states.

Read More

U.S. Officials Admit Losing ‘Operational Control’ of Border, Drug Cartels Poised to Seize it

Just the News

With just two words, the top uniformed officer in the Customs and Border Protection agency sent shockwaves across official Washington two months ago when asked whether his agency has operational control of the southern U.S. border.

“No, sir,” Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz told Congress in a shocking admission that exposed just how badly border security has deteriorated under President Joe Biden.

Read More

Biden Administration Loses Track of Tens of Thousands of Migrant Children

Just the News
Group of immigrants at border

Four years after Democrats made political hay out of migrant children being separated from their parents at the border, Republicans have turned the tables on the issue amid evidence the Biden administration has lost track of as many as 85,000 minors it allowed to enter the country unaccompanied by parents, leaving many prey to cartel extortion, forced labor, abuse and trafficking.

The extraordinary political boomerang will be on full display Tuesday when Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) Director Robin Dunn Marcos is grilled by a House Oversight subcommittee on the failure of the Department of Health and Human Services to vet, monitor and track unaccompanied migrant children, whose arrival at the border has grown more than 10-fold since Joe Biden took office.

Read More

Commentary: After Decades of Outsourcing to China, the U.S. is Running Out of Children’s Antibiotics

Minnesota Sun Staff

Acute shortages of orally delivered amoxicillin, penicillin and other children’s antibiotics throughout the 2022 and 2023 cold and flu season have made it difficult for doctors to treat normal childhood illnesses like ear infections, bronchitis, strep throat and rarer cases of infections caused after suffering Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), and also sickle cell disease—for months.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a warning about the amoxicillin shortage in Oct. 2022 just at the start of the cold and flu season. But since then, no statement has been issued by President Joe Biden about what appears to be an underreported public health crisis.

Read More

Florida Attorney General Calls on Congress to Impeach DHS Secretary Mayorkas

The Center Square

Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody is urging Congress to “begin impeachment proceedings immediately” of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. She cites several reasons to justify her request, including claiming he’s violated federal law, lied multiple times under oath before Congress, and is endangering American lives.

In a letter addressed to five Republican congressional leaders Tuesday, she urged them “to act to protect the American people and impeach Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Secretary Mayorkas is directly responsible, and his actions have caused our unprecedented border crisis.”

Read More

Commentary: The Border Isn’t Just a Crisis, It’s Also a Grift

Minnesota Sun Staff

There was a time not long ago when Americans would read news stories about obscene levels of corruption in other countries and feel justified in a sense of superiority. Things might not be perfect here, but at least we weren’t that bad. No more. We have now reached the point here where it is that bad. We have surrendered the right to look down our noses at any other country.
One of the most glaring examples of this today can be found in the crisis raging at the U.S.-Mexico border. There have been endless videos of hordes of migrants traversing the Rio Grande and walking into the United States, but that is just a part of the total picture.

Read More

Pentagon’s ‘Strategic Management Plan’ Devotes Roughly One Out of Every Six Pages to Diversity, Climate Change

Minnesota Sun Staff

Nearly one of every six pages of a document detailing the Pentagon’s management strategy are devoted to combating climate change and fulfilling Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives.

The Strategic Management Plan for 2022 to 2026, released Tuesday, covers 124 pages and underscores the actions the Department of Defense (DOD) is taking to fulfill the Biden administration’s broader national defense strategy. It lays out high-level, long term goals and steps the department will take to accomplish those objectives and overcome anticipated challenges, as well as performance metrics for so-called Agency Priority Goals (APGs) that include climate and diversity targets.

Read More

Texas Sheriff: We’re Experiencing ‘Silent Invasion’ of Military Age Men

The Center Square

What’s happening at the southern U.S. border with Mexico is in fact an invasion, Kinney County Sheriff Brad Coe says.

“We’re experiencing a silent invasion of military age men,” Coe told The Center Square when describing what his deputies have been increasingly facing over the past two years.

Read More

Three in a Week: Two Objects Shot Down by Fighter Jets Believed to Be Balloons, Officials Say

Just the News

U.S. fighter jets shot down two objects believed to be surveillance balloons over the weekend, according to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and other U.S. officials on Sunday.

Schumer, a New York Democrat, told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday that national security advisor Jake Sullivan told him that “they believe” the objects shot down Friday and Saturday over Canada and Alaska were surveillance balloons.

Read More

Commentary: The Unacceptable Cost of Open-Border Mission Creep

Admin

One of the pitfalls of political extremism is that a few bad foundational ideas beget a host of even worse ideas and results. Such is the case with our immigration crisis, as what began with faculty lounge bull sessions has become accepted government policy that now threatens America’s future.

The idea that America’s borders should be softened to the point that any noncitizen could enter the country on his own terms was always problematic. From that flawed logic has come an intricate web of problems that most in our government have no will, no courage, and no competence to repair.

Read More

Senators Cruz, Hagerty, and More Slam Biden’s First-Ever Border Visit as ‘Too Late,’ ‘Propaganda’

Just the News

President Joe Biden on Sunday landed in the border town of El Paso, Texas, and his visit is being criticized as “too late” and a “propaganda event,” as record numbers of illegal migrants have entered the United States since he entered office.

“Biden’s promise to secure the border is too little, and two years late. Irreversible damage has been done,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) tweeted. “Over 313,000 illegal aliens flooded the border last month. 5.3M illegal aliens since Biden took office.”

Read More

Biden Blamed by Own Ex-Border Chief for Soaring Asylum Cases, Record Immigration Court Backlog

Admin

The Biden administration is to blame for soaring asylum cases that have created a record years-long backlog in U.S. immigration courts, according to President Joe Biden’s own former Border Patrol chief.

“Several factors have contributed to this backlog, but the massive increase that we’re seeing today can be directly attributed to the Biden administration’s border and immigration policies,” said Rodney Scott, who headed the Border Patrol in both the Trump and Biden administrations.

Read More

Florida AG Moody Calls on Biden to Restore Top Drug Post to Address National Fentanyl Crisis

The Center Square
Ashley Moody

Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody on Monday called on President Joe Biden to reverse an Obama-era decision to make the Director for the Office of the National Drug Control Policy a cabinet-level position again.

Moody sent a letter to the president asking him to take action immediately before the public health authority Title 42 ends this week, “which will fuel a massive border surge and allow even more deadly fentanyl to flood into the country,” she said.

Read More

Marsha Blackburn Commentary: Firing Servicemembers over the COVID-19 Shot Threatens Our National Security

Admin

President Biden said it himself: the pandemic is over. So why is his Department of Defense (DoD) willing to look at the brave men and women who volunteered to serve our nation and say, “you’re fired” – all because they chose not to get the COVID-19 shot?

In the United States, the number of new servicemembers joining the military has reached a record low. Every single branch struggled to hit its recruitment goals this year, including the U.S. Army, which fell 10,000 soldiers short. At this rate, they will face a deficit of 21,000 soldiers next year. The National Guard also missed the mark by about 12,000 recruits, and expects to discharge up to 14,000 more by 2024 for refusing the COVID-19 shot.

Read More

China Poses ‘Most Comprehensive and Serious Challenge’ to America, New Defense Strategy Says

Minnesota Sun Staff

The Pentagon identifies China as the No. 1 threat to U.S. national security in the latest version of the National Defense Strategy, released just days after the leader of the communist regime secured a third five-year term.

“The key theme … is the need to sustain and strengthen U.S. deterrence with the People’s Republic of China as our pacing challenge,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Thursday during a press conference on the new document.

Read More

House Republicans Request Government Watchdog Investigate Foreign Investments in American Farmland

Admin

More than 100 House Republicans are asking a government watchdog to probe foreign investments in U.S. farmland, including those by China, which they say may present national and food security concerns.

Led by Reps. Glenn Thompson of Pennsylvania and James Comer of Kentucky, the lawmakers on Saturday called on the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to study foreign farmland ownership and how the U.S. government is monitoring acquisitions, a letter shows. There has been an uptick in foreign investments and ownership, which may be “underreported” due to the U.S. Agriculture Department’s (USDA) unreliable data, the Republicans say.

Read More

Victor Davis Hanson Commentary: How to Erode the World’s Greatest Military

Admin

The U.S. Army has met only 40 percent of its 2022 recruiting goals.

In fact, all branches of the military are facing historic resistance to their current recruiting efforts. If some solution is not found quickly, the armed forces will radically shrink or be forced to lower standards—or both.

Read More

Jack Maxey: Contents of Hunter Biden’s Laptop Point to Chinese Communist Ties, Include 80K Images Due for Legal Scrutiny

Admin

Neil W. McCabe, the national political editor of The Star News Network, about his work mining Hunter Biden’s laptop. Maxey said his next step is to partner with law enforcement to review sensitive national security and other materials that would be illegal for a private citizen to view without the color of law.

Read More

Foreign Investment in U.S. Farmland May Be a National Security Issue, According to Expert

The Center Square

Foreign investment in U.S. farmland has tripled in the past 10 years, reporters at a non-profit investigative journalism group found.

Investigate Midwest used U.S. Department of Agriculture data to call attention to this trend. Farmer Joe Maxwell, co-founder of the group Farm Action, told The Center Square that control of U.S. farmland by foreign investors is worrisome on a number of fronts.

Read More

Commentary: Onshoring Semiconductor Capacity Is Crucial to National Security

RealClearWire
semiconductor

When you think about national security, you probably don’t immediately think about semiconductors. These tiny chips are the “brains” enabling all the computational capabilities and data storage that we take for granted today. Chips power virtually every sector of the economy – including data centers, automotive, healthcare, banking, and agriculture. As a consequence of their widespread use, semiconductors have grown to become a $555 billion global industry, and are the world’s fourth most traded product. Semiconductor manufacturing and advanced packaging have been cited frequently as one of the main critical supply chain priorities for the nation.

A steady source of uninterrupted, trusted chips is necessary for the security of the nation – supporting the readiness of the U.S. military and protecting critical infrastructure like the electric grid. The problem is that most chips are fabricated outside of the U.S., in the vulnerable region of Southeast Asia – hence the security issues. Around three quarters of global chip production capacity comes from Southeast Asia.

Read More

Commentary: Gas-Price Change, Not ‘Climate Change,’ Is What Matters to Americans

Minnesota Sun Staff

There are few more easily observable measures of the cost of everyday living than the price of gasoline at the pump. As has been widely reported, gas prices in the United States recently hit a seven-year high. The striking thing, however, is not just how high gas prices have gotten, but how fast and far they have risen.

Based on statistics from the U.S. Energy Information Administration—the statistical arm of the Department of Energy—weekly average retail prices for regular unleaded gasoline in the United States increased 94 percent in less than two years. Average gas prices rose from $1.77 per gallon during the week ending April 27, 2020, to $3.44 per gallon during the week ending February 7, 2022—nearly doubling in the process.

That was the largest percentage increase in gas prices within a two-year window since October of 2005, more than 16 years ago. In the election of 2006, Republicans—then the party in power—lost 30 House and six Senate seats, thereby losing control of both chambers, before losing the presidency two years later.

Read More

Latest Durham Revelations Put Biden’s National Security Adviser in Uneasy Light

Minnesota Sun Staff
Jake Sullivan

Special Counsel John Durham’s investigation isn’t just imposing accountability for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 political trick to dirty up Donald Trump with the FBI; it’s also encroaching on the credibility of President Biden’s current chief foreign policy adviser and point man for the current Russia-Ukraine crisis.

National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan was a senior adviser to Clinton’s 2016 campaign and, by his own admission, spread the word to reporters back then that Democrats believed Trump was colluding with Vladimir Putin to hijack the election and had a secret computer channel to the Kremlin. Neither proved true.

But long before that Russia collusion narrative crumbled like a stale Starbucks muffin, Sullivan gave sworn testimony to the House Intelligence Committee disputing that anything the Clinton campaign spread around Washington was misinformation.

Read More

Commentary: U.S. Natural Gas Is Critical to Strengthening America’s National Security

Minnesota Sun Staff

In recent months, European gas prices have risen as much as 700 percent, leaving millions of citizens vulnerable to a dangerously unstable grid and burdened with high electricity costs heading into this winter. Disruptions from this energy crisis have been felt by households and many industries that rely on affordable power to provide goods and services.

Until the recent escalation of Russia’s confrontation with NATO over Ukraine, the Biden administration’s solution to Europe’s energy crisis had been to implore Russia to send more gas to Europe. EU member states are already dependent on Moscow for roughly 40 percent of their gas supply. Initially, the White House made a deal with Germany, letting the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline move forward. As part of an effort to repair relations with Germany, this decision allows Russia to tighten Putin’s grip over European energy security at the expense of our strategic partner Ukraine. Fortunately, German regulators refused to approve the pipeline, effectively delaying the certification of the project before July 2022. As part of the growing confrontation with Europe and the U.S. over Ukraine, Russia has further cut gas exports to Europe.

Read More

Intelligence Agencies Reportedly Hacked Ransomware Group Responsible for JBS Attack

Admin
Aerial view of a man on a desktop computer with three monitors in front of him

National security agencies in multiple countries reportedly succeeded in hacking ransomware gang REvil, the group responsible for the cyber attack on meatpacker JBS, forcing them offline.

Tom Kellermann, head of cybersecurity strategy at cloud computing company VMWare, told Reuters that intelligence officials in multiple countries worked to stop REvil.

“The FBI, in conjunction with Cyber Command, the Secret Service and like-minded countries, have truly engaged in significant disruptive actions against these groups,” Kellermann, who serves as an adviser to the U.S. Secret Service on cybercrime investigations, told Reuters. “REvil was top of the list.”

Read More

Internet Watchdog Says Ex-Intelligence Community Officials Are Echoing Big Tech Talking Points

Minnesota Sun Staff

A warning by former national security officials about the dangers of regulating technology companies is in lockstep with arguments made by Big Tech chief executives, according to a report from an internet watchdog group.

A group of former intelligence community officials sent a letter Wednesday to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy arguing against the passage of a series of antitrust bills advanced in the House Judiciary Committee in June. The warnings echo talking points made by groups lobbying for the tech industry and major tech firms themselves, according to a report by the Internet Accountability Project, a nonprofit conservative advocacy group focused on issues related to Big Tech.

The intelligence community officials argued the bills would make the U.S. less competitive with China and could even compromise America’s national security. 

Read More

44 Afghan Refugees Brought to the U.S. Flagged as Potential National Security Risks

Minnesota Sun Staff
Afghan men

Some 44 Afghan refugees who were brought to the U.S. were flagged as potential national security threats in the last two weeks, The Washington Post reported on Friday.

Over 60,000 Afghans have been evacuated to the U.S. and around 13 of them are waiting to go through additional counterterrorism screening measures in Customs and Border Protection (CBP) custody, according to the Post. Fifteen others were transferred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody and returned to processing stations in Europe and the Middle East or allowed to enter the U.S. after further screening.

Another 16 Afghans are waiting to see whether they’ll be cleared for travel at U.S. processing sites in countries overseas, the Post reported. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) documents reportedly show officials raised concerns about multiple refugees for potential ties to terror organizations including suspicious information on their electronic devices.

Read More

Chinese-Owned TikTok Overtakes YouTube in US

Peter D'Abrosca

After former President Donald J. Trump attempted to ban TikTok, a popular video streaming social network, the Chinese-owned company has overtaken Google-owned YouTube in popularity in the United States.

“App users in the UK and US are spending more time on TikTok than on YouTube, a new report suggests,” BBC reported. “Data from app monitoring firm App Annie indicates that average time per user spent on the apps is higher for TikTok, indicating high levels of engagement.”

Read More

Commentary: After Botched Afghanistan Withdrawal, Pro-Biden National Security Experts Conspicuously Quiet

RealClearWire

In the aftermath of any botched U.S. military operation, what inevitably follows are numerous news cycles of noisy recriminations across Washington’s national security and foreign policy establishment. Republican lawmakers and some conservative military and diplomatic hands have blasted President Biden as the Afghanistan withdrawal spiraled out of control over the last two weeks, but there have been glaring exceptions.

Conspicuously absent from the after-action finger-pointing are nearly all of the 500 national security experts — both civilians and former senior uniformed officers — who endorsed Joe Biden for president last fall, while denouncing President Trump as an unfit commander-in-chief.

Read More

Commentary: Biden Gave Up More Than Bagram

Minnesota Sun Staff
Joe Biden

Earlier this week, as covered in a previous column in the American Spectator, the Democrat National Committee bragged about the “achievement” of this alleged president in his “best-run evacuation” of Kabul. Chief among the DNC’s arguments for such ludicrous praise was the lack of American casualties.

The press flacks at the DNC, every one of whom would be fired if that organization had the slightest honor (its chairman, the failed U.S. Senate candidate Jaime Harrison, should similarly resign in disgrace before the weekend), were merely parroting statements the alleged president made about the absence of dead Americans at the time.

Every single credible person with either operational military experience or a knowledge of Afghanistan was warning that casualties were already inevitable by that point. Even the alleged president, in a fit of congratulatory onanism, qualified the alleged safety of the “best-run evacuation” with the proverbial knock on wood.

Read More

Biden Officials Gave the Names of Americans and Afghan Allies Trying to Evacuate to the Taliban

Minnesota Sun Staff
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken meets with President Joseph R. Biden, Jr., Vice President Kamala D. Harris, National Security Advisor to the President Jake Sullivan, and National Security Advisor to the Vice President Nancy McEldowney at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C., on February 4, 2021. [State Department Photo by Ron Przysucha/ Public Domain]

U.S. officials in Kabul have given the Taliban “a list of names of American citizens, green card holders and Afghan allies” who should be granted entry through Taliban checkpoints outside the Hamid Karzai International Airport (HKIA), Politico reported Thursday. This decision to trust the Taliban with this information has reportedly “prompted outrage behind the scenes from lawmakers and military officials.”

The U.S. military has been sharing “information with the Taliban” since Aug. 14 ostensibly to prevent attacks, Gen. Kenneth McKenzie Jr. confirmed during a Pentagon briefing Thursday.

Read More

‘This Is a Massive F*** Up’: Team Organizing Private Flights out of Afghanistan Says the Biden Administration Has Been an ‘Impediment’ to Their Evacuations

Minnesota Sun Staff
Joe Biden

The Biden administration has been an “impediment” to a private effort to get people out of Afghanistan, Robert Stryk, who is arranging privately chartered flights to get Americans and vulnerable Afghans out of the country, exclusively told the Daily Caller News Foundation Monday.

“The Brits and South Africans have been fucking awesome and heroic in getting people through the Mil Gate,” Stryk told the DCNF.

Stryk, whose Washington-based lobbying firm was in 2017 paid by the government of Afghanistan for “US Government affairs and commercial sector advice. Executive Branch and Legislative Branch Engagement; Defense consultation; strategic advice pertaining to extremism/terrorism; and promotion of democracy and foreign direct investment,” said he had reached out to the administration “dozens and dozens” of times and had yet to hear back.

Read More