Raphael Stevens

President Donald Trump on Tuesday refused to state whether he would commit the United States to continued support of the mutual defense provision in the NATO treaty that saw America’s allies come to her aid after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on New York and Washington.Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One while flying to The Hague for the alliance’s annual leader-level summit, the president was asked if he was still committed to Article Five of the North Atlantic Treaty, which states that an attack against one member is considered an attack against all of the organization’s 32 member nations.Trump, who often refused to voice U.S. support for the collective defense pact during his first term — and only did so begrudgingly when pressed on the matter — declined to say for sure.He replied: “It depends on your definition. There’s numerous definitions of Article Five. You know that, right?”The president added that he was nonetheless “committed to being … friends” with the other members of the alliance because he had “become friends with many of those leaders” and was “committed to helping them.”When pressed to explain his comments and given another chance to voice support for mutual defense, he told reporters he was “committed to saving lives” and “committed to live and safety” while promising to give his “exact definition” of Article Five once he arrived in The Hague rather than doing so “on the back of an airplane.”( More

The United States has ramped up its monitoring of Iranian sleeper cells as President Donald Trump’s strikes on three major Iranian nuclear sites decisively propelled the U.S. into Israel’s war. Following Saturday’s strikes, which Trump claimed “totally obliterated” Iran’s nuclear sites of Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan, both White House and FBI officials have been on high alert for Iranian sleeper cells. Sleeper cells comprised of spies or terrorists hiding out in the U.S. or Western countries, remain inactive, often living quiet and unassuming lives working regular jobs until they are ordered to act on a mission. (Think Philip and Elizabeth Jennings, the fictional Cold War-era KGB spies who pose as the typical American couple with kids in suburban DC in FX’s series The Americans.)According to reports, Iran may now try to activate these covert spies after the U.S. joined Israel’s strikes against Iran. Even before Trump ordered U.S. involvement in the strikes, FBI Director Kash Patel increased efforts to surveil potential sleeper agents linked to Hezbollah – a U.S.-designated terror organization backed by Iran, sources told CBS News. U.S. authorities are monitoring potential Iranian sleeper cells in the wake of President Donald Trump’s strikes on three major Iranian nuclear sites on Saturday.The increased surveillance started earlier this month, after Israel’s Operation Rising Lion offensive began, according to the report. Both current and former administrations have worried about the threat of Iranian operatives, especially after Trump ordered Iranian General Qasem Soleimani to be assassinated in January 2020. In the wake of his killing, the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, and other agencies ramped up their resources to counter potential threats. Since then, prosecutors have also charged several U.S.-based individuals with plotting to kill both Trump and his national security adviser John Bolton. A recent U.S. Department of Homeland Security threat assessment found that the intelligence community expects Iran to remain the primary source of terrorism and continue to advance plots against the U.S., according to NewsNation. “As the conflict in the Middle East escalates and Iran is being targeted, the regime thinks to itself, ‘OK, we are on our last throes, and therefore we will go out with a bang, quite literally,’” Barak Seener, a senior fellow at the Henry Jackson Society, told NewsNation before the U.S. joined the strikes. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine speak during a news conference Sunday at the Pentagon after the U.S. military struck three sites in Iran, directly joining Israel’s effort to destroy the country’s nuclear program. More