President Trump Declares National Emergency Over Telecoms Threats

CNBC: Trump declares national emergency over threats against US technology amid campaign against Huawei

* President Donald Trump on Wednesday declared a national emergency over threats against American technology, the White House said.
* The move, done via executive order, is expected to precede a ban on U.S. firms doing business with the Chinese telecommunications company Huawei.
* The announcement comes as the U.S and China remain locked in a trade dispute.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday declared a national emergency over threats against American technology, the White House said.

The move, done via executive order, authorized the Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, in consultation with other top officials, to block transactions that involve information or communications technology that “poses an unacceptable risk to the national security of the United States.”

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More News On President Trump Declaring A National Emergency Over Telecom Threats

Trump order clears way for barring Huawei from U.S. telecommunications networks -- Reuters
Trump declares national emergency over IT threats -- BBC
Trump declares a national emergency, which could set up a huge blow to China's Huawei -- Business Insider
Trump effectively bans Huawei with national security order -- CNET

White House Purging Key Officials In The National Security Council

Joshua Roberts / Reuters

New York Times: White House Purging Michael Flynn Allies From National Security Council

WASHINGTON — The White House has engaged in a slow-motion purge of hard-line officials at the National Security Council in recent weeks, angering conservatives who complain that the foreign policy establishment is reasserting itself over a president who had promised a new course.

The latest to go was Ezra Cohen-Watnick, who ran the N.S.C.’s intelligence division and, like others who have left, was originally appointed by Michael T. Flynn, President Trump’s first national security adviser. Mr. Flynn resigned in February after it was disclosed that he misled Vice President Mike Pence and others about a telephone call with Russia’s ambassador.

Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster succeeded Mr. Flynn and has slowly tried to move out some of Mr. Flynn’s appointees. He initially tried to fire Mr. Cohen-Watnick earlier this year, only to be rebuffed by Stephen K. Bannon, the president’s chief strategist, and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser. But Mr. Kushner dropped his opposition this week, according to someone with knowledge of the decision.

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WNU Editor: It looks like the National Security establishment is asserting itself.

More News On The White House Purging Key Officials From The National Security Council

McMaster ousts second official on National Security Council -- Washington Post
White House fires a top intelligence adviser -- AP
NSC official Ezra Cohen-Watnick removed -- CNN
McMaster ousts another National Security Council aide -- FOX News
McMaster dismisses another Flynn hire from National Security Council -- Politico
HR McMaster removes Ezra Cohen-Watnick from National Security Council – reports -- RT
Trump’s allies in the National Security Council are being taken out -- VOX News

The Most Pressing National Security Issue That Nobody's Talking About

Epic Times: America’s “China Trade Deficit” Reaches Critical Mass

The most pressing national security issue that nobody's talking about

The US trade deficit with China hit a critical milestone in 2015. It now stands at a mind-numbing $1 billion a day, and that $365 billion annual trade deficit continues to rise with the lift of China’s illegal export subsidies, sweatshop labor, pollution havens, and undervalued currency.

The failure to understand that America’s Chinese import dependence has now reached critical mass as a national security issue comes from the very mind-numbing magnitude of the numbers involved. Let’s see, however, if we can put the size of the US trade deficit with China into some perspective; and let’s start with the F-22 – the only US fighter jet with the agility, speed, and stealth to overcome the latest Russian air defense systems and newest Chinese and Russian fighters.

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WNU Editor: All international conflicts are determined by industrial capacity, wealth/money, know-how, and population. If current trends continue (the next decade or two) .... the U.S. will definitely be subordinate to China on all four points in the future. Fortunately for the U.S. .... China does have a lot of problems .... economic/political/ethnic tensions/corruption/etc. .... and the U.S. also has many allies in Asia who are very wary of China and will align amongst themselves and with the U.S. to counter a rising a China.

President Obama And His Executive Orders Pertaining To National Security

Executive Tyranny: Executive Orders Of President Obama Are Downright Scary. -- Alan Caruba, Canada Free Press

The use of Executive Orders (EO) goes back to the first President, George Washington. Every chief executive has issued them since then. Some have been historic, but the latest Executive Orders of President Obama are downright scary.

The Executive Order signed on June 25 is titled “Russian Highly Enriched Uranium” and offers as its justification the fact that “the accumulation of a large volume of weapons-usable fissile material in the territory of the Russian Federal continues to constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States, and hereby declare a national emergency to deal with that threat.”

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Update: Executive Order -- Assignment of National Security and Emergency Preparedness Communications Functions -- White House

My Comment: This reminds me of the movie The Ten Commandments and Yul Brunner's famous line.

National Security Adviser Downplays N. Korea Threat

NSC Director James Jones with President Obama (Photo from The Atlantic Council)

From The Hill:

President Obama’s national security adviser on Wednesday said that North Korea’s recent nuclear detonation and missile tests are not “an imminent threat” to the safety and security of the United States.

Retired Marine Corps Gen. James Jones, in his first speech on the administration’s approach to national security, said that the “imminent threat” posed by North Korea is that of the proliferation of nuclear technologies to other countries and terrorist organizations.

North Korea still has “a long way” to “weaponize” and work on the delivery of its nuclear missiles before they pose a threat to U.S. security, Jones said in a discussion hosted by the Atlantic Council.

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My Comment: Do not worry about North Korea and their nuke tests. No problem here .... nothing to worry .... everything is under control .... if there is a problem it will be in the far future .... no imminent threat .... shhheeeehhhhh.

Our national security is in these hands.

White House Merges National Security, Homeland Security Staffs

Brennan's Role Formalized; Has Walk-In Privileges, No Longer His Own Staff

So far as breaking news goes, this ain't all that broken. But in government, structure often dictates function, which, in turn, heavily influences policy. Who reports directly to the president? Who reports to an assistant? Are staff in one bucket allowed to communicate with staff in another? Today, the Obama administration announced the consolidation of the Homeland Security staff and National Security Council staff at the White House, completing a process that began in the latter years of the Bush administration. A newly-named "national security staff" will serve the president as his principal staff coordinators for all homeland security, counterterorrism, transnational and international policy. The announcement today makes plain that Obama has come to value the services of his chief homeland security adviser, John Brennan, who has direct walk-in privileges. Obama writes that he will retain Brennan's position, which -- and this is important -- DOES NOT report to the national security adviser, but reports directly to the President. Brennan, "as my principal White House advisor on these issues, with direct and immediate access to me. The security of our homeland is of paramount importance to me, and I will not allow organizational impediments to stand in the way of timely action that ensures the safety of our citizens."

Still, the staff merger effectively takes away Brennan's own staff.

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My Comment: John Brennan still has access to the President, but his staff is gone.With his support mechanisms gone, I fail to see what guidance he can now give to the President.

Analysis: Democrats At Odds On National Security

From The San Francisco Chronicle/AP:

Democrats just can't seem to get on the same page on national security — and it could cost them dearly on an issue Republicans have dominated for decades.

Increasingly, President Barack Obama and Democrats who run Congress are being pulled between the competing interests of party liberals and the rest of the country on Bush-era wartime matters of torture, detention and interrogation of suspected terrorists.

The Democratic Party's struggle over how to position itself on these issues is threatening to overshadow Obama's ambitious plans for energy, education and health care. It's also keeping the country looking backward on the eight years of George W. Bush's presidency, much to the chagrin of the new White House. And, it's creating an opening for an out-of-power GOP in an area where Democrats have made inroads.

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Re-Evaluation Of National Security Ordered

Janet Napolitano, the homeland security secretary, shown at her confirmation hearing on Jan. 15, was unhappy about the national security exercise in 2007. Its expense was one complaint. Chris Usher/European Pressphoto Agency

From The New York Times:

WASHINGTON — The homeland security secretary, Janet Napolitano, is re-evaluating the largest federal program for testing the country’s ability to respond to terrorist attacks, one of several Bush administration initiatives she has ordered to come under review.

As governor of Arizona, Ms. Napolitano sent a searing two-page letter to her predecessor as secretary, Michael Chertoff, complaining that a $25 million national exercise in October 2007, which she and 23,000 other federal, state and local emergency workers participated in, was too expensive, too long in planning and “too removed from a real-world scenario.”

Now, in her first weeks as head of the Homeland Security Department, Ms. Napolitano has ordered a review of that program and several others, including cybersecurity, a strategy for protecting the border with Canada, and the vulnerability of power plants and other critical infrastructure.

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My Comment: Not a well written article. It states that people are frustrated and unhappy. OK.

That there should be better coordination. OK to that also.

Disaster drills and emergency planning should be better planned, and it should not be so expensive to run. OK to that.

But there are no details .... this is just an article that is dedicated to bashing President Bush and his policies.

I am not impressed.

National Security Resolutions For 2009

From The Front Page:

The United States should resolve to help make the world a better place with initiatives that keep Americans safe, free, and prosperous in the coming year. Here is a short list of commitments Washington can offer:

1. Finish the Job in Iraq. A stable, secure, and free Iraq remains a worthy long-term U.S. goal, but this project now rests primarily in Iraqi hands. However, America still has a vital role to play in training and supporting Iraqi security forces and building the instruments of governance for a fledgling democracy. Meeting these obligations should be the most important factor in determining the pace of the drawdown of U.S. forces in Iraq.
2. Finish the Long War. Rooting out the al-Qaeda sanctuaries in Pakistan would be a severe--if not fatal--blow to the transnational Islamist terrorist movement. Achieving that end will require an integrated policy that gets Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India working together jointly toward that end.

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Should NSA Whistleblower Be Prosecuted? -- Online Poll

From Wired:

Opinions are divided on whether Thomas Tamm, the original source for The New York Times 2005 story on the NSA's warrantless wiretapping, should be prosecuted for revealing classified information. Tamm is a former justice department prosecutor.

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My Comment: Wired's online poll is at the bottom of the page. I voted yes.

Charlie Rose - National Security/Mumbai Attacks

Charlie Rose Show - A conversation about National Security with Steve Coll, Nic Burns and Fareed Zakaria.

Hat Tip: Small Wars Journal

As President, McCain or Obama Will Face Significant National Security Threats

Barack Obama & John McCain

From U.S. News And World Report

The race between Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain is still in its early days, and Iran's firebrand president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has already taken center stage. Not so much for the threat he represents but as a cudgel for the candidates to whack away at each other's perceived weakness. It began when Obama suggested last year that he would be willing to meet with some of America's biggest enemies, including Ahmadinejad, without preconditions. McCain used Obama's remarks to portray the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee as naive and inexperienced. "It's hard to see what such a summit with President Ahmadinejad would actually gain, except an earful of anti-Semitic rants," McCain told one audience. Obama replies that he would hold such meetings only if he thought they would serve a purpose and has tried to turn these attacks around to link his GOP rival more directly to the unpopular President Bush. "It is time to once again make American diplomacy a tool to succeed, not just a means of containing failure."

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My Comment: The legacy of President Bush will be 9/11 and his response to it. The problems that were present when he first became President are still there today. The only difference is that September 11 made him and the American people focused on what was (and is) a serious threat to America.

The next President will be inheriting this evolving and rapidly changing situation. The next President will not have the luxury of pushing forward his agenda .... like President Bush he will be inheriting the agenda that Al Qaeda forced upon the American people seven years ago.