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From the SitRoom to the E-Ring, the inside scoop on defense, national security and foreign policy. | | | | |  | | By Alexander Ward and Quint Forgey | | 
State Department spokesperson Ned Price speaks during a briefing at the State Department in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2022. | Susan Walsh, Pool/AP Photo | With help from Paul McLeary, Maggie Miller and Daniel Lippman Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Alex | Email Quint When it comes to matters of war, the Biden administration’s current stance is “trust us” — and if you disagree, you’re VLADIMIR PUTIN's or ISIS’ talking puppet. Thursday should have been a blemish-free day for President JOE BIDEN and his team to tout a couple rare wins in the contested national security and intelligence arenas — the death of ISIS leader ABU IBRAHIM AL-HASHIMI AL-QURAYSHI and the “discovery” of a Russian disinformation plot in Ukraine. But instead it bumbled the message, raised the hackles of a skeptical press and bullied the conversation into a Bush-era “you’re either with or against us” false dichotomy. It speaks to a communications shop that seems frustrated when journalists don’t buy their line and that’s straining against a real current of Russia-friendly positions spouted by right-wing figures in the U.S. It also gets to the challenge of declassifying sensitive intelligence for a skeptical public when keeping quiet to protect sources and methods is paramount. When Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) suggested Wednesday that the U.S. shouldn’t offer Ukraine membership in NATO and should focus more on China, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said he was “ digesting Russian misinformation and parroting Russian talking points.” Then Thursday, NPR’s Ayesha Rascoe asked Psaki if the U.S. could provide evidence supporting President Joe Biden’s statement that al-Qurayshi detonated a suicide bomb and killed civilians during the U.S. military raid “[b]ecause there may be people that are skeptical of the events.” “Skeptical of the U.S. military’s assessment when they went and took out … the leader of ISIS? That they are not providing accurate information and ISIS is providing accurate information?” Psaki responded , not-so-subtly implying that questioning the administration’s readout of the raid means someone believes ISIS is a more truthful actor. Psaki did go on to address Rascoe’s question, reiterating “that the individual who was the target detonated himself, killing his entire family,” though she didn’t offer any additional evidence beyond the administration’s repeated statements. The White Helmets, a Syrian civil defense and humanitarian group, reported that they had recovered the bodies of six children and four women from the site of the raid. Moments later at the State Department, spokesperson Ned Price sparred with the Associated Press’ Matthew Lee , who pressed Price to show evidence for the allegation that the Russians planned a false flag operation as a pretext for a Ukraine invasion. “If you doubt the credibility of the U.S. government … and want to find solace in information that the Russians are putting out, that’s for you to do,” Price responded at the end of a testy five-minute exchange. Just six months ago, the administration called the bombing of 10 innocent people, including seven children, in Afghanistan a “righteous strike” before The New York Times proved otherwise. This is the same administration that confidently backed intelligence assessments indicating it would take over a year, maybe two, for Kabul to fall. And yet, Biden officials seem dumbfounded when journalists ask probing questions before filing to their editors an official summary or raw collected intelligence doled out by the administration No Biden officials would speak on the record about their remarks. But Psaki and Price were once official-statement skeptics before reentering government. After former President Donald Trump in 2017 bombed Syrian targets in response to a chemical weapons attack on civilians, Psaki asked on Twitter: “ what is the legal authority for strikes?” Price also openly questioned the Trump administration’s 2019 release of intelligence that Iran planned attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria. “[O]ur antennas should go up every time we hear this administration characterize intelligence as the basis for escalating against Tehran--especially militarily,” Price tweeted at the time. (Though in fairness to Price, he worried Trump’s team aimed to start a war while this administration aims to stop one.) As for this piece, one Biden official did offer a statement on background. “We welcome good faith scrutiny. Our spokespeople hold daily briefings where they answer tough questions from smart journalists to the best of our ability — as Jen and Ned tweeted,” a National Security Council spokesperson emailed. “A day when we kill the leader of a terrorist organization threatening Americans, and call out the efforts by another country to lay the predicate for war is a good day for the United States and the American people. We will let others prognosticate if they would like to the contrary.” Read Alex’s full story.
| | | | DON’T MISS CONGRESS MINUTES: Need to follow the action on Capitol Hill blow-by-blow? Check out Minutes, POLITICO’s new platform that delivers the latest exclusives, twists and much more in real time. Get it on your desktop or download the POLITICO mobile app for iOS or Android. CHECK OUT CONGRESS MINUTES HERE. | | | | | | | | CHINA JOINS RUSSIA ON NATO EXPANSION: Chinese leader XI JINPING backed the Kremlin’s stance on ending NATO expansion during a meeting with Russian President Putin today — Xi’s first in-person meeting with a foreign leader in two years. “The sides oppose further enlargement of NATO and call on the North Atlantic Alliance to abandon its ideologized cold war approaches,” reads a 5,300-word joint statement. “The sides stand against the formation of closed bloc structures.” Russia backed some of China’s own stances, too, namely Beijing’s crackdown on Hong Kong and aggressions toward Taiwan. “Russia and China stand against attempts by external forces to undermine security and stability in their common adjacent regions, intend to counter interference by outside forces in the internal affairs of sovereign countries under any pretext, oppose colour revolutions, and will increase cooperation in the aforementioned areas,” the statement says. The highly choreographed meeting as China hosts the Olympics continues the trend of Moscow and Beijing inching closer together. In a somewhat comedic side note to the tension, cameras caught Putin nodding off during the Opening Ceremonies, right as the Ukrainian athletes were parading. FRENCH AND GERMAN LEADERS TO VISIT RUSSIA, UKRAINE: In more foreign-leaders-meeting-other-foreign-leaders news, French President EMMANUEL MACRON and German Chancellor OLAF SCHOLZ are headed to Moscow and Kyiv for diplomatic talks. Macron’s trip is next week, followed by Scholz the following week. “Macron is following a French tradition of striking a separate path from the United States in geopolitics, as well as trying to make his own mark on this crisis and defend Europe’s interests,” The Associated Press’ ANGELA CHARLTON, GEIR MOULSON and DASHA LITVINOVA wrote. “Germany has emphasized the importance of various diplomatic formats in tackling the tensions and has refused to send weapons to Ukraine, irking some allies. Scholz also has faced criticism at home lately for keeping a low public profile in the crisis.” Macron and Scholz have kept in touch with Biden on the crisis. The American and French leaders spoke by phone Wednesday to identify ways to deescalate tensions. The German chancellor will come to Washington, D.C., on Monday for a meeting with Biden. FIRST U.S. TROOPS TO DETER RUSSIA ARRIVE IN EUROPE: The first set of 3,000 troops Biden sent to Eastern Europe and Germany to deter Russia have arrived in Germany, per U.S. European Command. "Soldiers from the 18th Airborne Corps arrived in Wiesbaden today," a spokesperson said in a statement , also noting that 1,700 paratroopers headed to Poland would have a support headquarters in Germany. "These are the first of 2,000 soldiers to arrive in Europe following the Pentagon's announcement of additional forces moving from the United States to Europe in support of our NATO allies," the statement said. About 1,000 U.S. troops based in Germany will move to Romania, per the Pentagon. DRINKS WITH NATSEC DAILY: At the end of every long, hard week, we like to highlight how a prominent member of Washington’s national security scene prefers to unwind with a drink. Today, we’re featuring JUSTIN LOGAN, a Cato Institute senior fellow and one-time owner of South American wine-centric restaurant “Ruta del Vino.” We figured he’d have a good suggestion, and we were right. His favorite drink is “probably the ‘Barda’ pinot noir from Bodega Chacra in Patagonia. Gorgeous pinot under $30 is hard to find, but this is killer juice from a really remote region of Argentina. They shouldn't be able to produce this wine from that place at this price, which makes it special.” And where to drink the vino? “On our patio with my wife, if the weather ever breaks!” Logan is a proponent of restraint in foreign policy. But when it comes to good wine, he’s as anti-restraint as they come. Cheers, Justin! IT’S FRIDAY. WELCOME TO THE WEEKEND: Thanks for tuning in to NatSec Daily. This space is reserved 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 gets made. Aim your tips and comments at award@politico.com and qforgey@politico.com, and follow us on Twitter at @alexbward and @QuintForgey. While you’re at it, follow the rest of POLITICO’s national security team: @nahaltoosi, @woodruffbets, @politicoryan, @PhelimKine, @BryanDBender, @laraseligman, @connorobrienNH, @paulmcleary, @leehudson and @AndrewDesiderio.
| | A message from Lockheed Martin: LMXT: America’s next strategic tanker.
Lockheed Martin’s LMXT is built in America by Americans for Americans. The LMXT leverages 60 years of experience producing tanker aircraft for the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Navy, and multiple operators around the world. Learn more. | | | | | | UKRAINE RELEASES VID OF TROOPS USING JAVELINS: Ukraine’s Defense Minister OLEKSII REZNIKOV released a video on Twitter showing his nation’s troops training with U.S.-made Javelin missiles. The message is clear: Bring it on, Russia. “Weapons from our partners are already on the shooting range,” the minister tweeted. “[W]e are waiting for the next bird.” The sizzle reel shows troops shooting at targets and carrying the Javelins in snowy conditions, all over a booming, action-movie-style soundtrack. Britain’s Minister for the Armed Forces, JAMES HEAPPEY, did a roundtable Wednesday night with a couple reporters and said he expects fighting. “I am absolutely convinced that if the Russians put one foot over the border, it is going to be the most brutally bloody conflict … there's going to be a quagmire and there's going to be enormous loss of life on both sides,” he said. “This is major peer-on-peer armed conflict on the European continent. Absolutely nobody in Moscow, in Kiev anywhere around Europe, here in Washington should be anything but enormously concerned about what might happen and people need to be very realistic about just how brutally bloody it can all be.”
| | | BAD NEWS DAY: The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that its parent company News Corp was hit by a cyberattack last month that has been linked to China, our own MAGGIE MILLER writes in. The hacking incident compromised the Journal, along with other News Corp publications including the New York Post, Dow Jones, News Corp’s headquarters and its British news operation. According to the Journal, the attackers accessed article drafts, reporter emails and Google Docs from as early as February 2020. Cybersecurity firm Mandiant was brought in to investigate the incident. David Wong, the vice president of consulting for Mandiant, said in a statement provided to POLITICO that the company “assesses that those behind this activity have a China nexus, and we believe they are likely involved in espionage activities to collect intelligence to benefit China's interests.” News Corp detailed the compromise in a report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday, writing that one of its cloud-based systems that supports business operations had been the “target of persistent cyberattack activity,” and that the activity had been “contained.” “The Company’s preliminary analysis indicates that foreign government involvement may be associated with this activity, and that data was taken,” News Corp wrote in the filing. “To the Company’s knowledge, its systems housing customer and financial data were not affected.” This is not the first time The Wall Street Journal has been targeted by China. The publication was compromised by Chinese hackers in 2013, the same month China expelled three Wall Street Journal reporters in retaliation for an op-ed entitled “China is the Real Sick Man of Asia.” The new hack will likely only exacerbate U.S.-China tensions, which are at a high this week as U.S. diplomats boycott the Beijing Winter Olympics.
| | | ROMANIA WANTS THE F-35: Our friends at Morning Defense (for Pros!) report that Romania is looking to buy the F-35 warplane and want a permanent U.S. military presence stationed in the country. “We're ready to buy the F-35,” Romania’s U.S. Ambassador ANDREI MURARU told our own PAUL McLEARY, echoing Romanian President KLAUS IOHANNIS’ comments this week. Those F-35s, which could carry out policing missions over the Black Sea, where Russian naval and air activity has picked up, likely won’t come soon. But they’ll be needed to replace Romania’s current fleet of aging F-16s. (Bucharest is currently negotiating to buy 32 used F-16s that Norway is looking to get rid of now that they have their own F-35s. The Norwegian planes would be a bridge capability until Romania can place an order for their own 5th-generation planes later this decade.) Muraru also listed off other elements of Romania’s decadelong $10 billion spending spree, like Patriot air defense systems, HIMARS artillery, Naval Strike Missiles and F-16s. He said that when Russia seized Crimea in 2014, “it was obvious from that moment that credible deterrence can be ensured only through solid presence and major defense capabilities.”
| | | SENATORS WANT TANKS SENT TO POLAND: A bipartisan group of 14 senators sent a letter Thursday to Secretary of State ANTONY BLINKEN and Defense Secretary LLOYD AUSTIN demanding that they expedite a sale of 250 Abrams M1A2 tanks to Poland to help shore up NATO’s eastern flank against Russia, reports our own CONNOR O’BRIEN (for Pros!). “We urge you both to take the necessary actions to expedite and finalize this sale so the United States can assist a key ally before the end of this year,” the senators wrote. “This action would be in line with our long standing policy of equipping allies with advanced defense technologies in a manner compatible with our national security concerns.” The senators also requested a briefing on the status of Poland’s request for tanks by the end of the month. Their letter follows a similar effort by House Republicans to expedite the sale.
| | | |   | | | | | | IOC PRESIDENT URGES PEACE WITH PUTIN WATCHING: International Olympic Committee President THOMAS BACH offered a subtle rebuke of Russia’s aggression toward Ukraine during his remarks today at the opening ceremony of the Winter Games, Quint reports — all while Putin looked on from his seat inside Beijing’s National Stadium. “In our fragile world — where division, conflict and mistrust are on the rise — we show the world, yes, it is possible to be fierce rivals while at the same time living peacefully and respectfully together,” Bach said. He added: “In this Olympic spirit of peace, I appeal to all political authorities across the world: Observe your commitment to this Olympic truth. Give peace a chance.” Bach’s remarks came after Putin — one of the most high-profile world leaders in attendance at the Olympics — met on the sidelines of the Winter Games with Chinese President XI JINPING. Their governments later issued a joint statement expressing opposition to the “further enlargement of NATO” and calling on the military alliance to “abandon its ideologized Cold War approaches.”
| | | — JENS STOLTENBERG, NATO’s secretary general and a former Norwegian prime minister, has been appointed Norway’s new central bank chief. He has said he will fill out his term at the military alliance, which expires on Oct. 1, before taking over as governor of Norges Bank. — KATHRYN MITCHELL THOMAS is now chief of staff for Rep. JIM LANGEVIN (D-R.I.). She most recently was team chief for research and engineering in the office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Legislative Affairs.
| | | — DILIP HIRO, The Nation: “ Protests in Kazakhstan Rattle Russia and China” — COLIN P. CLARKE, POLITICO Magazine: “ Opinion: Biden Just Took Out ISIS’ Top Leader. What’s Next?” — SAMANTHA SCHMIDT and DIANA DURÁN, The Washington Post: " Bloody Fighting Between Guerrilla Groups is Terrorizing Colombian Border Communities"
| | A message from Lockheed Martin: LMXT: America’s next strategic tanker.
Improved range and fuel offload, INDOPACOM base flexibility, automatic air-to-air refueling, and enhanced defensive systems come together in our next strategic tanker. Learn more. | | | | | | — Blinken leaves for the Indo-Pacific: He will travel to Australia, Fiji and Hawaii on Feb. 7-13 “to engage with Indo-Pacific allies and partners to advance peace, resilience, and prosperity across the region and demonstrate that these partnerships deliver,” per the State Department. — Counselor of the State Department DEREK CHOLLET leaves for Europe: He will lead an interagency delegation to Bulgaria, Romania and Belgium on Feb. 7-11 “to engage with our partners in Europe on a range of issues, and to consult with NATO Allies and the European Union partners on Russian aggression towards Ukraine,” per the State Department. — The German Marshall Fund of the United States, 9 a.m.: “ A Conversation with Latvia's Defense Minister on Implications for NATO — with HEATHER A. CONLEY and ARTIS PABRIKS” — The Brookings Institution, 10 a.m.: “ Iraqi Civil Society and Democratization — with MARSIN ALSHAMARY, SIMONA FOLTYN, LAHIB HIGEL and SHAMIRAN MAKO” — The Center for Strategic and International Studies, 10 a.m.: “ Complex Air Defense: Countering the Hypersonic Missile Threat — with GILLIAN BUSSEY, MARK LEWIS, KELLEY SAYLER, STAN STAFIRA and STEVE TRIMBLE” — The Hudson Institute, 12 p.m.: “ Righting the Ship: Restoring American Seapower in Tough Times — with BRYAN CLARK and ELAINE LURIA” — The Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, 12:30 p.m.: “ New Challenges to Transatlantic and European Security — with ANTONIO MISSIROLI and MICHAEL G. PLUMMER” — ExchangeMonitor, 1 p.m.: “ Nuclear Deterrence Summit — with JASON R. ARMAGOST , WENDY BACA, MICHAEL BAKER, KELLY BEIERSCHMITT, CHERYL D. CABBIL and more” — The Center for Strategic and International Studies, 2 p.m.: “ Experts Preview the FY 2023 Defense Budget Request — with MACKENZIE EAGLEN, STACIE PETTYJOHN, TRAVIS SHARP and THOMAS SPOEHR” — The Wilson Center’s History and Public Policy Program, 4 p.m.: “ Uncertain Allies: Nixon, Kissinger, and the Threat of a United Europe — with KLAUS LARRES”
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