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Presented by Lockheed Martin: From the SitRoom to the E-Ring, the inside scoop on defense, national security and foreign policy. | | | | | |  | | By Alexander Ward and Quint Forgey | | | With help from Lara Seligman, Betsy Woodruff Swan, Eric Geller, Daniel Lippman and Paul McLeary FIRST IN NATSEC DAILY: Top House Democrats signed a letter to President JOE BIDEN urging him to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay — adding pressure on the administration to follow through on its promised shuttering of the controversial military facility. “The prison at Guantanamo represents a fundamental betrayal of our values and our commitment as a country to the rule of law,” the 75 Democratic lawmakers wrote in the letter, exclusively obtained by NatSec Daily. “You have our full support in your efforts to close the prison once and for all.” This is no run-of-the-mill missive. Four of the signatories include House Intelligence Chair ADAM SCHIFF (D-Calif.), House Foreign Affairs Chair GREGORY MEEKS (D-N.Y.), House Armed Services Chair ADAM SMITH (D-Wash.) and House Judiciary Chair JERROLD NADLER (D-N.Y.). That amount of firepower ensures Biden and his team can’t ignore the document — slow-walking the prison’s closure might not be an option for the White House. The good news is that the letter — organized by Schiff, Rep. DAVID PRICE (D-N.C.) and Rep. ILHAN OMAR (D-Minn.) — will be read by a friendly administration. Biden already started an under-the-radar effort to close the infamous prison, including transferring to Morocco one detainee who had been held without charge for nearly two decades. The administration keeps indicating there will be more movement, though 39 prisoners still remain. “Since earlier this year, the Biden administration has been involved in an interagency review of detentions at Guantanamo Bay,” a senior administration official told NatSec Daily. “Now, the administration is engaged in a deliberate and thorough process focused on responsibly reducing the detainee population and closing of the Guantanamo facility,” echoing what other Biden staffers told reporters last month. That makes House Democrats happy. “After nearly two decades, it is past time to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay," Schiff told NatSec Daily. "I’m pleased that President Biden has made clear his commitment to finally close the detention center while protecting our security." Still, Dems want to see more action. “I would call the letter more support than pressure,” Price told NatSec Daily in an interview, “but still there's every reason, I think, to keep the issue prominent in our minds and the things we’re advocating for.” Price didn’t want to put a timetable on the prison’s closure, noting the logistical and political complications. The biggest challenge the administration and its Democratic allies will face, of course, is Republicans. GOP lawmakers torpedoed former President BARACK OBAMA’s effort to shutter the prison and now are gearing up for another fight with Biden. “For years I have pushed to keep the terrorist prison at Guantanamo Bay active and use it for the counterterrorism tool that it is,” Sen. JIM INHOFE of Oklahoma, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, told NatSec Daily. “Closing Guantanamo Bay, whether by shutting its doors or sidestepping Congress and releasing detainees to any country that will take them, would seriously jeopardize national security, and efforts to do so are not only misguided but also dangerous.” Simply put, the Guantanamo fight cometh. | | A message from Lockheed Martin: Zeroed in on affordability.
The F-35 team is working together across government and industry for greater affordability. Lockheed Martin invested $400 million, driving a 44 percent reduction in our share of cost per flight hour. Another 40 percent reduction is forecasted. Learn More | | | | | | ISRAEL EXPOSES IRGC UAV CHIEF: Israel’s Minister of Defense BENNY GANTZ and Minister of Foreign Affairs YAIR LAPID named the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’ UAV Command chief and blamed him for the fatal attacks on the Mercer Street vessel last week. “For the first time ever, I will also expose the man who is directly responsible for the launch of suicide UAVs — his name is SAEED ARA JANI and he is the head of the IRGC’s UAV Command. The UAV command conducted the attack on Mercer Street. Saeed Ara Jani plans and provides the training and equipment to conduct terror attacks in the region,” Gantz told ambassadors of U.N. Security Council member nations at a briefing today. “It is time for diplomatic, economic and even military deeds — otherwise the attacks will continue.” COLD TURKEY: If the Biden administration even considered Turkey a possible destination for at-risk Afghans who helped the United States during the war, it needs to think again. “The U.S. may directly transport these people by plane. Turkey will not take over the international responsibilities of third countries,” Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesperson TANJU BILGIC said today, insisting Ankara won’t agree to host Afghans as they go through the adjudication process for their American visas. The statement represents yet another crack in the already fragile relationship between the two NATO allies. “BODIES FLOAT DOWNRIVER INTO SUDAN”: SIMON MARKS and DECLAN WALSH of The New York Times have a harrowing story about the human toll of Ethiopia’s civil war. “The bodies floated over the border in ones and twos, bloated and bearing knife or gunshot wounds, carried on waters that flow from the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia. At least 40 bodies have washed up on a riverbank in eastern Sudan in the past week, in some cases just a few hundred yards from the border with Ethiopia, according to international aid workers and doctors who helped retrieve the corpses.” In May, Biden said he was “ deeply concerned by the escalating violence and the hardening of regional and ethnic divisions in multiple parts of Ethiopia.” Secretary of State ANTONY BLINKEN spoke with Sudanese Prime Minister ABDALLAH HAMDOK on Wednesday about facilitating “steps toward a peaceful resolution of the conflict in Ethiopia, as well as full humanitarian access to those in need.” WELCOME BACK. Thanks for tuning in to POLITICO’s newsletter on the national security politics roiling Washington. NatSec Daily is for the top U.S. and foreign officials, the lawmakers, the lobbyists, the experts and the people like you who care about how the natsec sausage is made. Please share this subscription link with a colleague or friend. Follow the whole team here: @alexbward, @nahaltoosi, @woodruffbets, @politicoryan, @PhelimKine, @BryanDBender, @laraseligman, @connorobrienNH, @paulmccleary, @leehudson and @QuintForgey. PUT YOUR INBOX TO WORK FOR YOU: Coming at Pro s bright and early every a.m., if you’re not getting Morning D, you’re missing out. Learn more about our best-in-class insider reporters and sign up here. Don’t let your competition be the first to act on industry scoops, breaking Pentagon news, the latest aerospace developments, defense acquisitions and influence plays.
| | | MORE U.S. AIRSTRIKES IN AFGHANISTAN POSSIBLE: America’s war against the Taliban may persist even after all U.S. troops have gone and the mission officially ends. “[A]dministration officials say the Pentagon will most likely request authorization from the president for another air campaign in the next months, should Kandahar or Kabul, the capital, appear on the verge of falling,” report HELENE COOPER, THOMAS GIBBONS-NEFF and ERIC SCHMITT of The New York Times. CENTCOM spokesperson Capt. BILL URBAN had this to say to our own LARA SELIGMAN today about the recent bombing in the Afghan capital: “I’m aware of the high profile attack in Kabul, but there’s no enemy forces on the ground there that would necessitate airstrikes." Urban also said the U.S. military has recently been conducting airstrikes in support of the Afghan security forces fighting the Taliban in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province. MADE IN CHINA: A cornerstone of Biden’s economic message is “Buy American.” Looks like Chinese President XI JINPING secretly boosted a similar mandate in his country. “China’s government quietly issued new procurement guidelines in May that require up to 100% local content on hundreds of items including X-ray machines and magnetic resonance imaging equipment, erecting fresh barriers for foreign suppliers,” three people told Reuters’ ANDREA SHALAL. The directive was “[s]ent to Chinese hospitals, companies and other state-owned buyers [and] sets local content requirements of 25% to 100% for 315 items. They include medical equipment, ground-based radar equipment, testing machinery, optical instruments; items used for animal husbandry; seismic instruments, and marine, geological and geophysical equipment.” ISRAEL RESPONDS TO ROCKET ATTACK: Israel’s army is answering with sustained artillery fire after three rockets were launched from Lebanon into Israeli territory Wednesday, per LAURIE KELLMAN of The Associated Press. Sirens warning of a possible attack had sounded near Kiryat Shmona — a city in Israel’s Northern District near the Lebanese border with a population of about 20,000. Witnesses said the retaliatory Israeli shells landed between the towns of Khiam and Marjayoun in southern Lebanon. LATEST ON IRAN’S SHIP SEIZURE: The British Navy confirmed Wednesday that the suspected hijacking of a tanker off the coast of the United Arab Emirates — reportedly seized by Iranian-backed forces Tuesday — has now concluded, per ANTHONY DI PAOLA and VERITY RATCLIFFE of Bloomberg News. A U.S. official confirmed to Lara Seligman that Iranian gunmen seized the vessel “for a period of time.” The gunmen appear to have left, and the ship now continues on its course. It’s unclear what the Iranians were doing onboard at this time, the official said. The announcements mark the end of the latest Iran-related incident in the Gulf of Oman, after the United States, the United Kingdom and Israel all blamed Tehran for the deadly drone strike last week against the Mercer Street. BELARUS OPPOSITION FIGURES GO ON TRIAL: Two leading members of the Belarusian opposition movement — protest organizer MARIA KOLESNIKOVA and lawyer MAXIM ZNAK — began their trial Wednesday before a closed-door court in Minsk, per BBC News. Both of them belong to the Coordination Council that opposition leader SVETLANA TIKHANOVSKAYA founded following President ALEKSANDER LUKASHENKA’s election last August. Kolesnikova and Znak are accused of conspiring to seize power, creating an extremist organization and calling for actions damaging state security, according to The Associated Press. | | | |   | | | | | | COASTIES ONLINE: The U.S. Coast Guard posted its new “Cyber Strategic Outlook ,” which will guide the maritime service’s responses to ransomware attacks, hacks and other cyberthreats. The main three “lines of effort” outlined in the document are: “Defend and Operate the U.S. Coast Guard Enterprise Mission Platform,” “Protect the Marine Transportation System,” and “Operate In and Through Cyberspace.” FedScoop’s JACKSON BARNETT reports on the plan’s key deliverable: The Coast Guard will be “creating new cyber teams focused on defending networks and conducting cyber operations to thwart malicious attack on critical infrastructure. The first two cyber mission teams have already been stood up, with funding for a third team requested in the fiscal 2022 budget request. Other units, like a cyber support team[,] will also be established.” Developed over the past 18 months, the document is the first update to the strategy since 2015. “It really is about revitalizing the focus of our organization,” Rear Adm. MICHAEL RYAN, commander of the Coast Guard’s Cyber Command, said at the Navy League’s Sea Air Space convention in Maryland. “As your strategy gets older and latent, it becomes less relevant.”
| | | THE NAVY'S LOST STUFF: The Navy can’t account for a significant amount of government equipment thought to be in the hands of its civilian contractors, acting Navy Secretary THOMAS HARKER said Wednesday at the Sea Air Space convention, blaming “sloppy accounting” for the problem. During its annual audits — the Pentagon has never passed an independent audit, BTW — the service found that “data in contractor systems doesn’t match the data in our systems ... so we don’t have accurate inventory information,” Harker said. It’s not clear how large the problem is, but the Navy can’t account for 25 percent of the gear in the hands of its contractors. Overall, the service has about $127 billion worth of inventory, so the problem’s price tag likely has a couple zeros behind it. Read more about it from our own PAUL MCLEARY here. NGAD NEWS: Vice Adm. DEAN PETERS, chief of the Naval Air Systems Command, described the Navy’s new philosophy for high-performance fighter jets. “The most important thing that’s going to happen with this with Next Generation [Air Dominance] is that we’re going to take all of those technologies that we’ve developed — those enabling technologies — and instead of picking a platform and then figuring out how to wedge those enabling technologies into it, or not be able to wedge those into it, we’re going to start with the enabling technologies and make that part of the criteria for what the aircraft looks like on the other end,” Peters told an audience at the Sea Air Space convention. The Next Generation Air Dominance, or NGAD, will eventually replace the F/A-18 Super Hornet, reports Defense One’s MARCUS WEISGERBER.
| | | AUMF VOTE ROLL CALL: The bill to repeal the 1991 and 2002 AUMFs passed the Senate Foreign Relations Committee by voice vote, as expected. But what wasn’t expected was the odd moment that happened afterward. Sen. TED CRUZ (R-Texas) asked that his “no” vote be recorded on the record, leading other Republicans in the room to request the same thing. So Sen. JEFF MERKLEY (D-Ore.) asked that his “yes” vote be recorded, which meant the official record would show the bill passed with one “yes” vote and many more “no” votes. Democrats then insisted there be a roll call to show the official result of 14 to 8. A wacky end to a weird two days of debate on that measure. SFRC’S LEBANON MESSAGE: The top two members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee — Chair BOB MENENDEZ (D-N.J.) and ranking member JIM RISCH (R-Idaho) — are calling on Lebanon’s leaders to make more progress a year after a devastating port blast in the capital city of Beirut killed upward of 200 people. “Political leaders have failed to form a government that can effectively respond to the needs of the Lebanese people. Instead of promoting accountability for the devastating blast, they have prioritized their own narrow interests, kowtowed to Iranian-backed Hezbollah, and failed to respond to the international community’s efforts to help,” the senators said in a joint statement. “The United States stands ready to help the people of Lebanon. It is time that Lebanon’s political leaders do the same.” SWOLE ACT: Despite its funny name, Reps. MIKE GALLAGHER (R-Wis.) and ROB WITTMAN (R-Va.) put forward a serious bill to recruit and retain surface warfare officers in the Navy. Among its provisions, the legislation would establish career paths for SWOs and conduct federally funded research for SWO retention, with an emphasis on keeping female SWOs. “Navy readiness starts with our ability to recruit and retain our country’s best and brightest to serve as SWOs. But the Navy’s struggle to retain female SWOs and lack of opportunities for career specialization have hurt our ability to achieve this goal,” Gallagher said in a statement. | | | EU TO BIDEN: LET US IN! European Commission President URSULA VON DER LEYEN wants the U.S. to stop pussyfooting around and finally lift the U.S. travel ban for European Union citizens. “The epidemiological situation in the [United States] and the EU today is very similar. We need to solve the problem as soon as possible and are in contact with our American friends,” von der Leyen told German outlet RND. “This must not drag on for weeks.” White House press secretary JEN PSAKI said last week that the travel restrictions will remain in place, fueling European anger at the continued ban. But top-level European officials until now had refrained from openly expressing their frustration, even though vaccination rates in the EU and the United Kingdom are higher than in the United States. Now, von der Leyen has opened the floodgates over a closed border.
| | | DOD ACQUISITION SHAKEUP: The Pentagon announced Tuesday evening that GREGORY KAUSNER, currently the executive director for international cooperation, will assume the duties of undersecretary for acquisition and sustainment. Furthermore, PAUL CRAMER — the principal deputy assistant secretary for sustainment (installations) — will assume the duties of deputy undersecretary for acquisition and sustainment. Read more on the moves from McLeary. LOCKHEED CFO LEAVING: Lockheed Martin’s chief financial officer, KEN POSSENREIDE, has “decided to retire immediately due to personal reasons,” the world’s largest defense contractor said in a statement. JOHN MOLLARD, Lockheed’s vice president and treasurer, who’s been with the company for nearly four decades, has been appointed acting CFO. Our own LEE HUDSON has the details. FIRST IN NATSEC DAILY: National Cyber Director CHRIS INGLIS has recruited a policy veteran to be one of his top advisers as he begins to fill out his new office. JOHN COSTELLO, a former deputy assistant secretary of commerce for intelligence and security, is now Inglis’ chief of staff, per POLITICO's ERIC GELLER and DANIEL LIPPMAN. Costello helped oversee the Trump administration’s approach to issues at the intersection of economic and national security, including supply chain cybersecurity threats posed by Chinese 5G equipment makers, before resigning after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Before joining Commerce, Costello spent two years at CISA, including as a senior adviser to then-Director CHRIS KREBS. He has also held senior roles on the congressionally chartered Cyberspace Solarium Commission, which proposed major cyber policy reforms that lawmakers have begun enacting.Congress still hasn’t funded Inglis’ office, so the White House has been using an “unanticipated needs fund” to pay him and a small staff. The bipartisan Senate infrastructure bill would appropriate $21 million for his team. A White House spokesperson did not respond to an email asking how many other employees Inglis had hired or how many billets remained available through the emergency fund. | | A message from Lockheed Martin: Zeroed in on affordability.
Lockheed Martin ingenuity is fully invested in reducing acquisition and life cycle costs to affordably deliver unrivaled capability. Learn More | | | | | | Politico Magazine: “The Soleimani Assassination Was Supposed to Weaken Iraqi Militias. Instead, They’re Flexing Their Muscles.” Foreign Policy: “ Why Is America Cooperating With Militaries Running Criminal Rackets?” National Review: “It’s Time for Biden to Leave a Bad Deal in the Past” | | | — Australian National University’s Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs, 4 a.m.: “The politics of nuclear commemoration in Asia: The China case” — The Center for Strategic and International Studies, 9 a.m.: “ The Capital Cable: ‘After the Fall: Being American in the World We Made’ with BEN RHODES” — The World Resources Institute, 9 a.m.: “Just 3 Months Until COP26: How Are National Climate Plans Stacking Up?” — Senate Foreign Relations Committee, 10 a.m.: “Nomination Hearing: MICHAEL RAYNOR, MARC OSTFIELD and TROY DAMIAN FITRILL” — The Hudson Institute, 12 p.m.: “ Cancel Culture with Chinese Characteristics” — Department of Defense, 1:30 p,m.: Secretary of Defense LLOYD AUSTIN meets with Palau's President SURANGEL WHIPPS JR. Have a natsec-centric event coming up? Transitioning to a new defense-adjacent or foreign policy-focused gig? Shoot us an email at award@politico.com or qforgey@politico.com to be featured in the next edition of the newsletter. | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |  |
