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From the SitRoom to the E-Ring, the inside scoop on defense, national security and foreign policy. | | | | |  | | By Nahal Toosi, Alexander Ward and Quint Forgey | | 
Jared Kushner, left, and Jason Greenblatt, right, listen as former American Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley speaks during a Security Council meeting in 2018. | Mary Altaffer, File/AP Photo | Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Alex | Email Quint Former aides to former President DONALD TRUMP are watching President JOE BIDEN’s upcoming Middle East trip very closely, not least because Trump’s decisions dramatically affected the region. Among them is JASON GREENBLATT, a Trump special envoy whose book about his experience working on Israel and Middle East issues, “In the Path of Abraham ,” comes out July 19. Greenblatt was a major architect of a Trump policy that appeared to dramatically favor Israel over the Palestinians, but he insists he’s committed to the latter’s welfare. Our own NAHAL TOOSI recently caught up with Greenblatt, who agreed to share some thoughts on Biden’s visit next week to Israel and Saudi Arabia, and his broader views on U.S. policy toward the Middle East: What is your sense of what Israeli officials want from the Biden administration, and is the administration delivering? “I think the Israeli administration is looking for unequivocal support from the Biden administration; non-involvement in Israeli politics; not pushing the Israelis on anything regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict other than helping the Palestinian economy; and not making any controversial steps, such as trying to reopen directly or indirectly the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem or things of that nature. … I think the Biden administration is being cautious. I think what they’re doing on the consulate indirectly is a mistake. But generally speaking, they’re acting cautiously, which is a good thing.” If you were giving Joe Biden advice about how to build on the Abraham Accords, what would you tell him to do? Where would you tell him to go? “I would tell him: ‘Ditch the Europeans in the Iranian negotiations.’ Bring all of our Arab and Israeli allies together, and bring a united front to negotiate with the Iranians to see if any appropriate secure deal can be done with the Iranians. The second thing I would tell him is, ‘Stop alienating some of the Arab countries, such as Saudi Arabia.’ Embrace them all. Because at the end of the day, whether we want to reduce our footprint in the Middle East or not, we need the Arab countries close to us, we need them to protect our allies there, and we need them for world stability. And I think on both of these, he’s fallen short.” There is some fear that maintaining and building upon the Abraham Accords will become an excuse for the United States to look away from human rights abuses in the countries involved. How can that be avoided? “You have to build on the positive and work on whatever we think we need to work on, but we can’t say, ‘Don’t build on the positive because there are things that we need to work on.’ So these should be two entirely different conversations. Embrace our allies, stand by our allies, work with them on the many positive things that exist, including the Abraham Accords, full stop. In a separate conversation, we could discuss issues, such as human rights and everything else and see whether or not we can make any progress there. But people make the mistake of combining everything, and that yields not only to generally not solving the issues they want to solve but little progress even on the positive stuff.” Israel is proud of being a democracy in the Middle East. Now it is establishing relationships with a number of autocratic regimes. Should it encourage these regimes to democratize? “The same could be said for the United States, right? We have ties with countries that aren’t democracies like ours, and I would say the same position that I have for the U.S. is for Israel. It’s not for the United States or for Israel to tell others how to live. We can make suggestions, we can encourage, we can try to help. But every country is its own country and allowed to make its own sovereign decisions, as long as they’re not attacking other countries, for example, Russia-Ukraine … Israel is not the police or the governor of the world, nor is the United States.” There is a sense in some corners that former President Donald Trump, intentionally or not, paved the way for an eventual “one state, equal rights” situation in Israel where Palestinians will — eventually — have full citizenship. Do you see that as realistic? “Well, I’d argue that he didn’t pave the way — that one-state solution movement has been percolating for a long time. My impression, from three years of studying the conflict across the board, is very, very few people are interested in a one-state solution. And there are many reasons for that. Neither side sort of gets what they want or what they need. I think the noise is still out there about the potential for a one-state solution, but I think it’s an unrealistic solution and a generally unwanted solution.” Should President Biden do more to hold Saudi Arabia accountable for the death of journalist JAMAL KHASHOGGI? “I don’t think there’s more to do. I think the crown prince took responsibility for the country for what happened. They had trials. I know there’s a lot of criticism that those trials were not real but we weren’t in the room. I think the criticism of the trials comes from a place of trying to hate on Saudi Arabia. President Biden did what he did and was clear in his position. What happened to Khashoggi was terrible, horrific, but I think that conversation is over at this point. We cannot allow all of our relationship with and view of Saudi Arabia to be defined by this.”
| | | BYE-BYE BORIS: British Prime Minister BORIS JOHNSON announced today his plans to resign after a wave of government resignations and a revolt from his own Cabinet, per POLITICO Europe’s ELENI COUREA, MATT HONEYCOMBE-FOSTER and EMILIO CASALICCHIO. But Johnson said he intended to serve until a new leader of the governing Conservative Party is in place — a process likely to take at least six weeks. “It is clearly now the will of the parliamentary Conservative Party that there should be a new leader of that party and therefore a new prime minister,” Johnson said in a speech outside 10 Downing Street. He added: “I want you to know how sad I am to be giving up the best job in the world. But them’s the breaks.” Johnson said he’d tried to persuade colleagues that it would “be eccentric to change governments when we’re delivering so much and when we have such a vast mandate.” His party, he contended, remained “only a handful of points behind in the polls, even in mid-term after quite a few months of pretty relentless sledging” and amid a bleak economic picture at home and abroad. “I am immensely proud of the achievements of this government,” Johnson said, pointing to Britain’s exit from the European Union, its “fastest vaccine rollout in Europe, the fastest exit from lockdown” and the U.K.’s response in “standing up to [Russian President VLADIMIR PUTIN’s] aggression in Ukraine.” Ukrainian President VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY was saddened by the resignation. "We all heard this news with sadness. Not only me, but also the entire Ukrainian society, which is very sympathetic to you. My entire Office and all Ukrainians are grateful to you for your help. We have no doubt that Great Britain's support will be preserved, but your personal leadership and charisma made it special," he said in a call with Johnson today. In a statement this afternoon, Biden said: “I look forward to continuing our close cooperation with the government of the United Kingdom, as well as our Allies and partners around the world, on a range of important priorities. That includes maintaining a strong and united approach to supporting the people of Ukraine as they defend themselves against Putin’s brutal war on their democracy, and holding Russia accountable for its actions.” GRINER PLEADS GUILTY: Russian news agencies reported today that BRITTNEY GRINER pleaded guilty today to charges of drug possession and smuggling, per the Associated Press’ JIM HEINTZ . The American basketball star has been detained in Russia since February, when authorities arrested her at an airport near Moscow and said they found vape cartridges containing hashish oil in her luggage. According to the AP, the Russian media reports “quoted Griner as saying through an interpreter at the court hearing that she had acted unintentionally because she was packing in haste.” Griner’s detention was recently extended for another six months; her trial began last Friday and resumed today. The reported plea comes after Biden and Vice President KAMALA HARRIS spoke Wednesday to Griner’s wife, CHERELLE GRINER, who has criticized Biden and Harris for their lack of personal outreach. On that call, Biden read a draft of the letter he sent to Brittney Griner later Wednesday; that correspondence was in response to a handwritten letter Griner transmitted Monday to Biden, urging him to do more to bring her home. CONGRESS REBUFFS BIDEN’S NUCLEAR ROLLBACK: Progressives are poised to lose one of the few things they liked about the White House’s budget blueprint, report our own LAWRENCE UKENYE and CONNOR O’BRIEN , as Democrats have joined Republicans in supporting the continued development of a sea-launched nuclear cruise missile. Proponents of the program say the missile’s benefits — and the need to match gains made by China and Russia — outweigh high costs that have alarmed progressives and arms control groups. Biden proposed canceling the missile, which arms control advocates say is redundant, costly and potentially destabilizing. But testimony from top military leaders, including Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. MARK MILLEY , prompted members of the president’s party to break with his plans. The situation represents a retreat from the campaign pledges of then-candidate Biden, who long advocated for reducing reliance on nuclear weapons, only to turn around and dedicate tens of billions of dollars to the modernization of all three legs of the triad for two years in a row. Arms control advocates also called on him to establish a “no first use” policy and cancel two weapons added by the Trump administration: the cruise missile and a low-yield submarine-launched missile, which has already entered the fleet. IT’S THURSDAY: 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, @ChristopherJM, @BryanDBender, @laraseligman, @connorobrienNH, @paulmcleary, @leehudson, @AndrewDesiderio and @JGedeon1 — plus our summer interns, @Lawrence_Ukenye and @nicolle_liu.
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Lockheed Martin employees and customers are bound by a common cause. Ennobled by our shared patriotism, we will do all that is necessary to protect American and allied interests. Together, we will strengthen deterrence and help ensure mission readiness today. Learn more. | | | | | | POST-PEACE CLASHES: Presidential-level talks between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda led to a deescalation in tensions over the revival of the M23 rebel group, both leaders said Wednesday. The DRC accuses Rwanda of supporting the rebels as they take towns in the big country, an accusation Kigali denies. But clashes between the DRC’s military and M23 continued today, Al Jazeera reported. M23 spokesperson WILLY NGOMA described the results of Wednesday’s talks as “an illusion,” adding that “only the M23 can sign the ceasefire with the government.” Per Al Jazeera: “The fresh clashes took place around the localities of Kanyabusoro and Kazuba in Rutshuru territory, pushing residents to flee their homes, said the president of a local civil society group, JEAN-PIERRE KARABUKA. Ngoma said there was an exchange of fire after Congolese troops attacked a rebel position around Kanyabusoro.” As of now, there’s no real sign of an imminent resolution, meaning violence — which could spread beyond the DRC’s borders — is likely to continue.
| | | SET A PASSWORD: The massive hack of the Shanghai police database wasn’t apparently that difficult to perpetrate, as the database “had been left online, unsecured, for months,” report the New York Times’ AMY QIN, JOHN LIU and AMY CHANG CHIEN. “Two cybersecurity researchers said that they had separately verified the anonymous user’s claims that the database included over 23 terabytes of data covering as many as a billion individuals, noting that one of the leaked files appeared to contain nearly 970 million records. They did not rule out the possibility of duplicate entries,” they wrote. “In addition to addresses and ID numbers, the database also included information on ‘key persons’ identified by the police as requiring heightened surveillance, as well as police reports.” The data leak happened in large part because it wasn’t protected with a password online. But news of the breach hasn’t permeated Chinese society due to intense censorship. Per the NYT: “As of Thursday, hashtags such as ‘Shanghai data leak,’ ‘data leak of one billion citizens’ and ‘data leak’ remained blocked on Sina Weibo, a popular Chinese microblogging service.”
| | | F-16V ASSEMBLY ORDER: CPI Aerostructures received a $2.7 million order from Lockheed Martin to make structural assemblies for the F-16V fighter jet, the company announced today. According to a news release: “This order funds additional quantities of Rudder Island and Drag Chute Canister (“RI/DCC”) assemblies for the F-16V. The RI/DCC is a large structural sub-assembly that is installed on the tail section of the aircraft. This order brings the total funding authorized to date on this multi-year contract to $20.6 million. Deliveries on this follow-on order are expected to begin during the fourth quarter of 2023 and continue through mid-2024.” HII 2Q EARNINGS RELEASE DATE: Huntington Ingalls Industries will release its second quarter 2002 financial results on Aug. 4, the company announced today. The call will be webcast live on its website. HII President and CEO CHRIS KASTNER and Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer TOM STIEHLE will participate.
| | | FIRST IN NATSEC DAILY –– HOUSE BILL TO BLOCK RELEASES FROM GITMO: A House Republican and Democrat have introduced a bill to halt the repatriation of prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay to Afghanistan. The Preventing Terrorist Transfers to Afghanistan Act, put forward by Reps. MICHAEL TURNER (R-Ohio) and MARC VEASEY (D-Texas), would prohibit the use of funds for the transfer of a GITMO prisoner to Afghanistan. It’s the House companion to a Senate version introduced in June by Sen. MARCO RUBIO (R-Fla.). The House bill comes two weeks after the Biden administration sent ASADULLAH HAROON GUL back to his home country after a federal court ruled he was unlawfully detained. The lawmakers say this is a dangerous practice. “Allowing the transfer of individuals suspected of connections with terror organizations to Afghanistan is a detriment to our national security. This move would only benefit non-state actors who pose a threat to Americans and our troops overseas,” said Turner, the ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee. SENATORS VISIT KYIV: Sens. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-S.C.) and RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D-Conn.) traveled to Kyiv today and met with Zelenskyy, in what is believed to be the first bipartisan congressional delegation to Ukraine since the war began. “The Ukrainian leader specifically appealed to Graham and Blumenthal for air defense systems, which Zelenskyy said would be critical as he tries to send children back to school by Sept. 1.,” writes our own ANDREW DESIDERIO. Their visit follows separate CODELs to Ukraine led by Senate Minority Leader MITCH MCCONNELL and Speaker NANCY PELOSI. Last week, Sen. JIM RISCH (R-Idaho), the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, traveled to Ukraine and toured the war-torn outskirts of Kyiv.
| | | WHELANS WANT MORE ANSWERS: After ELIZABETH WHELAN — the sister of PAUL WHELAN , the former U.S. Marine detained in Russia since 2018 — tweeted Wednesday that she was “crushed” by Biden’s call to CHERELLE GRINER, Paul’s brother DAVID WHELAN told CNN today that he was “thrilled” by the call, saying: “I don’t think that there is anything more valuable to the family of wrongful detainees than to hear from the government.” But David Whelan went on to acknowledge that “the frustration, to the extent that it is out there, is directed toward the inconsistency of how the U.S. government interacts with wrongful detainee families — how they communicate with us, how they give us updates or let us know what the reality is of what is and what isn’t possible.” David Whelan added that “it would be useful to understand exactly what we need to do. When we get messages from the State Department that we need to make more noise … we need to know that that’s actually having an impact. And so things like presidential calls can be meaningful to some families.” He also expressed disappointment with the government’s efforts over the past three and a half years to secure his brother’s freedom: “We really still haven’t seen any forward movement to get Paul released. We haven’t seen the U.S. government create a framework or an environment in which they will preempt the sort of wrongful detentions going forward. So we sort of feel like we’re not going anywhere.” Paul Whelan was detained at a Moscow hotel in December 2018 on espionage charges — charges he firmly denies.
| | | |   | | | | | | — FIRST IN NATSEC DAILY: BISHOP GARRISON is stepping down from his position as the Pentagon’s chief of staff for the Selective Service, where he’s been detailed for the last five months. His next move is forthcoming. — TONY JOHNSON has joined the Defense Department as a special adviser to the undersecretary of Defense for intelligence. Johnson returns to the Pentagon after having served in the Obama administration as a policy adviser for special operations and irregular warfare. — JOE CIRINCIONE announced his resignation from the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft “over the institute’s position on the Ukraine War,” the now-former distinguished non-resident senior fellow wrote on Twitter. In a subsequent phone call, the former Ploughshares Fund chief said “You cannot find a word on the website or in the analysis about the horrors and crimes that Russia is doing. If the US were doing this, there would be a river of posts denouncing that behavior.” — SEAN MULLEN and ROELA SANTOS have been appointed to Amentum’s senior leadership team. Mullen has been named executive vice president of business development; he previously served as senior vice president for U.S. public sector at Perspecta. Santos has been named senior vice president of marketing and communications; she previously served as chief communications and marketing officer at Science Applications International Corporation.
| | | — URI FRIEDMAN, The Atlantic: “How the U.N. Security Council Can Reinvent Itself” — THOMAS GIBBONS-NEFF, VALERIE HOPKINS and JANE ARRAF, The New York Times: “For Foreign Fighters in Ukraine, a War Unlike Any They’ve Seen” — CHARLOTTE GREENFIELD and MOHAMMAD YUNUS YAWAR, Reuters: “Isolating the Taliban: How Young Landmine Victims May Be Collateral Damage”
| | | — The Atlantic Council, 12:30 p.m.: “China’s Role in Russian Energy: What’s Changed Since Feb. 24? — with EDWARD CHOW, ERICA DOWNS , JOHN HERBST, AMY MYERS JAFFE and BRIAN O’TOOLE” 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. And thanks to our editor, John Yearwood, who is now setting up a password for his database on our indiscretions.
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Lockheed Martin is helping you outpace evolving threats by accelerating our digital transformation. That means simulating wear-and-tear with digital twins so you can anticipate maintenance and reduce downtime. It means deep knowledge of your missions. It means industry-wide experience and next-gen technologies. We do it all to help you prevent and deter emerging threats sooner and faster than ever. Learn more. | | | | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |  |
