INTERVIEW — AMBASSADOR JOHN BOLTON – Former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations
- Eric Holder says Edward Snowden performed a ‘public service’ — Chicago (CNN) Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder says Edward Snowden performed a “public service” by triggering a debate over surveillance techniques, but still must pay a penalty for illegally leaking a trove of classified intelligence documents. “We can certainly argue about the way in which Snowden did what he did, but I think that he actually performed a public service by raising the debate that we engaged in and by the changes that we made,” Holder told David Axelrod on “The Axe Files,” a podcast produced by CNN and the University of Chicago Institute of Politics. “Now I would say that doing what he did — and the way he did it — was inappropriate and illegal,” Holder added.
- South Korea says North Korea missile launch likely failed. (Fox News) — SEOUL, South Korea – A North Korean missile launch likely failed on Tuesday, according to South Korea’s military, the latest in a string of high-profile failures that somewhat tempers recent worries that Pyongyang was pushing quickly toward its goal of a nuclear-tipped missile that can reach America’s mainland. South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported that the missile was a powerful mid-range Musudan. If true, that would make it the fourth failed attempt by the North to conduct a successful test launch of the new missile, which could potentially reach far-away U.S. military bases in Asia and the Pacific. Yonhap, citing an unidentified government source, said the missile exploded at a mobile launch pad as soon as a launch button was pressed. The report, if confirmed, suggests the missile may have even failed to lift off. Yonhap did not say how its source obtained the information. Seoul defense officials said they could not immediately confirm the report.
- Bolton wrote a NY Post op-ed that was critical of Obama’s Hiroshima visit last week. What did he think of President Obama’s Asia visit?
- Donald Trump reacts to Obama’s visit to Hiroshima: ‘Why doesn’t he discuss Pearl Harbor?’ (Business Insider) — Donald Trump on Saturday invoked the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor in reaction to President Barack Obama’s Friday speech in Hiroshima, the site of the world’s first atomic bombing. In a tweet, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee criticized Obama for visiting the site while neglecting to mention the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor.