FIRST IN NATSEC DAILY — FORMER INTEL LEADERS PUSH FOR STATE NOMINEE: Twenty high-profile figures in the intelligence world are urging the Senate to quickly confirm a key State Department nominee, according to an Aug. 30 letter obtained by our own NAHAL TOOSI. In the message to Senate leaders CHUCK SCHUMER and MITCH MCCONNELL, the intel veterans praise BRETT HOLMGREN, the nominee for assistant secretary of State for intelligence and research. Holmgren believes in giving policymakers “apolitical, unvarnished intelligence assessments,” and has relevant private and public sector experience, notes the letter, whose signatories include JAMES CLAPPER, JOHN BRENNAN, and LEON PANETTA. Biden nominated Holmgren in April, and while he’s made it over committee hurdles he has yet to get a full Senate vote. Like dozens of other Biden picks, Holmgren appears to be facing the wrath of Sen. TED CRUZ (R-Texas). The lawmaker has been blocking nearly all State Department nominees because he’s upset that Biden hasn’t imposed more sanctions related to the German-Russian Nord Stream 2 pipeline project. However, Schumer could blow through the hold and force a vote on Holmgren’s nomination if he chose to spend the time doing so. Relatedly... BIDEN OPEN TO SANCTIONING NS2: Biden told Ukrainian President VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY in their one-on-one chat this week that he’s open to sanctioning the Nord Stream 2 pipeline should Russia interfere with Kyiv’s energy security. That’s what YURIY VITRENKO, the newly minted CEO of the state-owned energy company Naftogaz, relayed to NatSec Daily yesterday evening. Vitrenko is traveling with Zelenskyy and his team during their U.S. swing, and called us up while in California to discuss the high-level chat between the two leaders. It’s a “slight change,” Vitrenko said, from the previous Washington stance not to sanction the nearly complete Russia-to-Germany pipeline in order to keep Berlin happy. Kyiv hated that July decision and has since pushed Biden to change course. “That's at least something that our president was able to get from Biden,” Vitrenko told us. What would trigger the renewed sanctions? “If something happens to Ukrainian [energy] transit … like the interruption of gas supplies, stuff like that,” the CEO said without going into further detail. Asked about Vitrenko’s comments, Sen. JEANNE SHAHEEN (D-N.H.), a prominent Senate Foreign Relations Committee member, told NatSec Daily "every effort must be made to prevent the Kremlin from abusing the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to target Ukraine's economic security ... We shouldn’t wait for Putin to threaten Ukraine’s energy security when his track record shows that he does not play by the rules." A NSC spokesperson provided no further details from the tête-à-tête, but did say "we are prepared, including with appropriate tools and mechanisms and in partnership with the E.U., to respond together to Russian aggression and harmful activities, including Russian efforts to use energy as a weapon." TEAMS FOR EACH AMERICAN IN AFGHANISTAN: Secretary of State ANTONY BLINKEN announced today that there will be “case management teams” assigned to each U.S. citizen in Afghanistan who wants to evacuate. The administration has said around 100-200 Americans remain in the country. Blinken also said he would go on travel next week, including stops in Doha, Qatar and Ramstein Air Base in Germany to see the refugee processing centers for himself. While in Germany, he will meet with his counterpart, Foreign Minister HEIKO MAAS. Finally, he added there "needs to be, including across the State Department, a look back at the entire 20 years to understand the entire course of this war and engagement with Afghanistan, and to ask the right questions and to learn the right lessons from that." He said the department is committed to doing that and will announce in the coming weeks what that review will look like. AFGHANISTAN’S NEW LEADER: Taliban co-founder ABDUL GHANI BARADAR will be named the leader of Afghanistan’s new militant-run government, Reuters reported. Other top officials will include MOHAMMAD YAQOOB, the son of the late Taliban co-founder MULLAH OMAR, as well as SHER MOHAMMAD ABBAS STANIKZAI. "All the top leaders have arrived in Kabul, where preparations are in final stages to announce the new government," a Taliban official told Reuters. The new administration will only consist of Taliban members scattered throughout 25 ministries and a shura of 12 Muslim scholars. In his news briefing today, Blinken said he doesn't know what the new Afghan government will look like. But he did say "there is an expectation that any government that emerges now will have some real inclusivity in that it will have non-Talibs in it who are representative of different communities and different interests in Afghanistan." U.S. AND PAKISTAN REMAIN FRENEMIES: Our own NAHAL TOOSI obtained cables and other documents showing the relationship status between Washington and Islamabad remains complicated. “The Biden administration is quietly pressing Pakistan to cooperate on fighting terrorist groups such as ISIS-K and Al Qaeda in the wake of the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan,” Toosi reported. “In response, Pakistan — long accused by U.S. officials of aiding the Afghan Taliban — has hinted that Islamabad deserves more public recognition of its role in helping people now fleeing Afghanistan, even as it has downplayed fears of what Taliban rule of the country could mean.” There’s one tidbit that dropped NatSec Daily’s collective jaw to the floor: Pakistan’s ambassador to the U.S., ASAD MAJEED KHAN, told an American official that his government believes “ground observations” make clear the Afghan Taliban “were not seeking retribution, and in fact were going home to home to assure Afghans that there will not be reprisals.” Nothing says “everything’s fine” like unannounced armed house calls, apparently. SUGA’S BITTER END: Japanese Prime Minister SUGA YOSHIHIDE will resign this month, bringing the leader’s rags-to-riches story to an abrupt and unceremonious end. A failure to control the Covid-19 outbreak in his nation, his plunging popularity and his acerbic reaction to an intraparty challenger made him a liability at the top of the ticket. He’s stepping aside as a result. NatSec Daily asked SHEILA SMITH, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, about who is poised to next lead Japan. She said the succession race is “wide open,” but “the stronger next-generation candidate, KONO TARO, has already made his move. Kono is widely seen as the party’s best hope for the Lower House election.” However, there are “already signs that more will join the race,” Smith said, so this is bound to be a fluid and exciting time in Japanese politics. IT’S FRIDAY. WELCOME TO THE WEEKEND: Thanks for tuning in to NatSec Daily. 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