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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 Matt Berg | | 
Elizabeth Whelan reports that Paul is feeling frustrated, still wondering why he remains in Russia when others have come back to the United States. | Patrick Semansky/AP Photo | With help from Daniel Lippman Subscribe here | Email Alex | Email Matt PAUL WHELAN’s sister has a message for members of Congress: Put up or shut up. After the Biden administration secured basketball star BRITTNEY GRINER’s release in exchange for Russian arms dealer VIKTOR BOUT, several lawmakers bashed the president for failing to bring PAUL WHELAN home after four years of wrongful detention. Some Republicans called Whelan a hero who should’ve been included in the deal, while others voiced their discontent with how long he has been locked up and the inability to negotiate for his release. Some Democrats stressed their commitment to getting Whelan home. But in our second breakfast interview, again over eggs and fruit salad near the White House, ELIZABETH WHELAN said that none of the lawmakers who invoked her brother’s plight in those days has reached out to her family about Paul’s situation. “We haven’t heard from any of them. No one has called. None, as far as I know, have approached the NSC with better ideas to get him home,” she told NatSec Daily, without calling out any lawmaker specifically. “They’re using Paul’s name to get clicks and likes, but they’re not actually doing anything for him.” Whelan met Tuesday with ROGER CARSTENS, the special presidential envoy for hostage affairs, and JAKE SULLIVAN, the national security adviser. She’ll then meet Thursday with congressional staffers of the SFRC and House Foreign Affairs Committee, as well as aides to Reps. BILL KEATING (D-Mass.) and HALEY STEVENS (D-Mich.), who respectively represent Elizabeth and Paul’s districts. (Both those lawmakers have recently called the Whelans, Elizabeth said.) Her message to them will be to bring new ideas to the State Department and White House to free Paul. If they have nothing constructive to offer, they should at least not chastise President JOE BIDEN for partisan or fame-seeking reasons. “We’re just playing [Russian President VLADIMIR] PUTIN’s games,” she claimed, insisting the Kremlin is happy to see the division in Washington over Paul’s wrongful detention. “I’m a little fired up,” she admitted, sipping her coffee as blood rushed to her face. “I don’t want to see my brother’s worth discussed like he’s a sack of potatoes.” Elizabeth’s brother has been in Russian custody since December 2018 and faces hard labor in prison. She’s seen former Marine TREVOR REED and Griner returned during the Biden years by not Paul. She’s confident the administration is doing all it can — Russia is to blame, she repeated often — but her family is now preparing for Paul’s sentence to end on Dec. 28, 2034. That irks Elizabeth, not only because she may have to wait another decade to embrace her brother, but because her and Paul’s parents are elderly and may never see their son freed. “It’s an overwhelming thing for my parents,” Elizabeth said, “but they’re resigned to that fact.” Meanwhile, Elizabeth reports that Paul is feeling frustrated, still wondering why he remains in Russia when others have come back to the United States. She then turned to how that made her feel toward the lawmakers who aren’t helping: “A little vengeful,” Elizabeth said.
| | | | STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING: What's really happening in West Wing offices? Find out who's up, who's down, and who really has the president’s ear in our West Wing Playbook newsletter, the insider's guide to the Biden White House and Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details that you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today. | | | | | | | | BALLOON NO SURPRISE: The United States had been tracking the Chinese spy balloon for nearly a week before it crossed into American airspace,The Washington Post’s ELLEN NAKASHIMA, SHANE HARRIS and JASON SAMENOW report. U.S. monitors watched as the balloon took off from its home base on Hainan Island near China’s south coast, tracking it as it settled into a path that would have brought it over Guam. But the aircraft took an unexpected northern turn, several U.S. officials told the Post, leading analysts to investigate whether its eventual path over America was a mistake. The downing of the balloon over the Atlantic on Feb. 4 should not have an impact on diplomatic relations between the two global superpowers, Vice President KAMALA HARRIS told our own EUGENE DANIELS. Since then, the U.S. has been on high alert for additional unknown aircraft, shooting down three objects over North America later in the week. But U.S. officials believe it’s unlikely the three downed objects were from China or posed a national security threat, as Matt reported late Tuesday. “We don’t see anything that points right now to being part of [China’s] spy balloon program,” National Security Council spokesperson JOHN KIRBY told reporters yesterday. It’s unlikely the objects were used in “intelligence collection against the United States of any kind — that’s the indication now,” he added. On Wednesday, Defense Secretary LLOYD AUSTIN said the skies were clear above the U.S., our own PAUL McLEARY reports. “I’m not aware of any additional objects that have been reported operating in the space of the last 48 hours,” he said following a meeting in Brussels with NATO allies. Intelligence officials believe the objects, which were shot down a week after a Chinese spy balloon was downed off the coast of South Carolina, could be “tied to some commercial or benign purpose,” he said. HEAD HONCHO: The United Nations in a report identified SAIF AL-ADEL as the new “de facto and uncontested” leader of al-Qaida. The report shows that many countries have identified Adel, who is wanted by the U.S. for his alleged part in the bombings of its embassies in Tanzania and Kenya in 1998, as the leader. Many U.N. member states believe he’s currently located in Iran. A former member of the Egyptian military, Adel fought the Soviets in the late 1970s before becoming a charter member of al-Qaida. There, he was an OSAMA BIN LADEN loyalist before the leader’s death. ALL IN: U.K. officials believed Moscow has deployed nearly all of its troops into Ukraine, an indication that Russia’s renewed spring offensive may have begun even though it has yet to show many battlefield gains, U.K. Defense Secretary BEN WALLACE told BBC’s “Today” show. “We now estimate 97 percent of the whole Russian army is in Ukraine,” Wallace said. Russia has launched numerous missile attacks across Ukraine and intensified its efforts to take the key eastern city of Bakhmut in recent weeks. Some Western officials believe the new offensive is unlikely to be one major attack, and as Moscow’s troops fight to advance on the frontline, it has come at a deadly cost with few big payoffs. IT’S WEDNESDAY: 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 mberg@politico.com, and follow us on Twitter at @alexbward and @mattberg33. While you’re at it, follow the rest of POLITICO’s national security team: @nahaltoosi, @woodruffbets, @politicoryan, @PhelimKine, @laraseligman, @connorobrienNH, @paulmcleary, @leehudson, @magmill95, @johnnysaks130, @ErinBanco and @Lawrence_Ukenye.
| | A message from Lockheed Martin: Our mission is to prepare you for the future by engineering advanced capabilities today.
Many of today’s military systems and platforms were designed to operate independently. Through our 21st Century Security vision, Lockheed Martin is accelerating innovation, connecting defense and digital to enhance the performance of major platforms, to equip customers to stay ahead of emerging threats. Learn more. | | | | | | HALEY TO FOCUS ON CHINA, RUSSIA: NIKKI HALEY is expected to focus on China and Russia Wednesday during her first official address of her 2024 presidential bid, Reuters’ GRAM SLATTERY reports. The former U.N. ambassador already singled out both countries in a campaign video released Tuesday, saying the powers were “on the march.” Foreign policy will be a strength and a weakness for Haley during the campaign. She left the U.N. job after two years with fairly positive reviews, especially after helping to pass through historic sanctions on North Korea over its long-range missile testing. But she’ll have to defend her record working for former President DONALD TRUMP while competing against him in a field that also features a former VP, secretary of state/CIA director and more. Haley heads to Iowa and New Hampshire after her South Carolina address today.
| | | CYBER SNEAK PEEK: The Defense Department’s new cyber workforce strategy will create dozens of updated roles, including specializations in artificial intelligence and data, as it attempts to recruit workers. While the new cyber strategy hasn’t been released, Breaking Defense’s JASPREET GILL found slides on the AFCEA WEST 2023 conference agenda website that outline the strategy. It includes 39 updated work roles regarding cloud development, security and operations, and 71 work roles involving artificial intelligence, data and software engineering roles. The four broad goals of the strategy involve “performing capability assessments and analysis processes to stay ahead of force needs; establishing an enterprise-wide talent management program; facilitating a cultural shift within the department; and developing partnerships ‘to enhance capability development, operational effectiveness and career broadening experiences,’” he writes.
| | | NO HELICOPTERS FOR NIGERIA: Two Africa-focused lawmakers are calling on Biden to “rescind” a nearly $1 billion weapons deal for Nigeria over the country’s human rights abuses. “Reuters completed a series of investigations into the Nigerian military’s conduct, which revealed an alleged secret mass forced abortion program since 2013 and apparent systemic targeted killings of children, in addition to a consistent record of human rights abuses and civilian casualties,” Reps. CHRIS SMITH (R-N.J.), who chairs the global health subcommittee, and SARA JACOBS (D-Calif.), the top Dem on HFAC’s Africa panel, wrote in a letter to the president. Because of that report, and the Nigerian government’s other alleged misconduct, Smith and Jacobs believe transferring 12 AH-1Z Attack Helicopters to the West African country would be “highly inappropriate.” They also called on the administration to conduct a review of security assistance to Nigeria and requested a briefing on that review 30 days after receiving the letter.
| | | | DOWNLOAD THE POLITICO MOBILE APP: Stay up to speed with the newly updated POLITICO mobile app, featuring timely political news, insights and analysis from the best journalists in the business. The sleek and navigable design offers a convenient way to access POLITICO's scoops and groundbreaking reporting. Don’t miss out on the app you can rely on for the news you need, reimagined. DOWNLOAD FOR iOS– DOWNLOAD FOR ANDROID. | | | | | | | | JUST GIVE ME A REASON: The Chinese spy balloon has given defense hawks in Congress a new reason to keep money flowing to the Pentagon, our own LEE HUDSON and CONNOR O’BRIEN report. Lawmakers and lobbyists are pouncing on a Chinese spy balloon’s seven-day incursion over North America this month to push back against possible defense budget cuts — and make the case for even more funding — as Congress grapples with the growing threat from Beijing and doubts about the military’s ability to detect similar objects. “I don’t think there’s one U.S. senator who has been going to these briefings that thinks that the message out of this is less defense spending,” said Sen. DAN SULLIVAN (R-Alaska). His state has been at the center of two of the recent flights.
| | | DECLASSIFY DOCS: Sen. TODD YOUNG (R-Ind.) called on Biden or Harris to speak publicly about the Chinese spy balloon intelligence senators were briefed on this week, saying most of the information could be declassified and released to the public. Biden needs to “clarify what the heck is going on and what intelligence gaps are,” Young said on Fox News on Wednesday. “If he needs additional resources from Congress to empower him to clamp down on these unidentified aerial phenomena, let us know. But he has a lot of questions to answer.” If the president’s unable to speak to the issue, the vice president should be given the necessary materials to speak about it at the Munich Security Conference this week, he said, adding that the focus needs to be on “reestablishing deterrents” to China. While the briefings eased his worries that the objects shot down posed a threat, the U.S. policy on shooting down aircraft remains unclear, the senator said. “I’m much more concerned about the inability of our national security leadership to even get in touch with the Chinese leadership after all of this happened,” Young said. “The risk of miscalculation and escalation and future military conflict is great.”
| | | |   | | | | | | –– FIRST IN NATSEC DAILY: BILL RUSSO will be announced by the White House as the next State Department assistant secretary of public affairs. Russo, who’s been with the administration since Day 1 and with key Biden administration officials for much of his career, is currently the acting principal deputy assistant secretary for public affairs. –– FIRST IN NATSEC DAILY: SARAH DONILON has left the White House where she was Indo-Pacific policy adviser on the National Security Council, DANIEL LIPPMAN has learned. She is now finishing a graduate degree at Oxford where she is studying history. — NICOLA STURGEON, leader of Scotland’s government, suddenly announced her resignation Wednesday. She served in office for more than eight years. — CATHERINE ASHTON, former E.U. chief diplomat, joins Eurasia Group as senior adviser. — BENJAMIN MOSSBERG is now deputy director of the Africa Center at the Atlantic Council. He previously was senior policy adviser for Africa at Treasury and is a State department alum. — Retired Army Gen. WESLEY CLARK has joined Vaya Space as a senior adviser.
| | | — IVO DAALDER, POLITICO: Consequences of Putin’s war go beyond its implications for Russia — Behnam Ben Taleblu, Foundation for Defense of Democracies: Assessing the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Ballistic Missile Program — MACKENZIE EAGLEN, The Hill: For better defense spending, split the Pentagon’s budget into two
| | | — The United States Institute of Peace, 9 a.m.: Reflections on the 50th Anniversary of the Vietnam Peace Settlement: How Do the 1973 Paris Peace Accords Influence Today's U.S.-Vietnam Partnerships? — Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 9:30 a.m.: Clearing the Air: Russian Disinformation and the War in Ukraine — The Center for International Policy, Democracy for the Arab World Now and the Forum on the Arms Trade, 10 a.m.: The Changing Arms Trade - Regional Impacts of the War in Ukraine — The Wilson Center's Middle East Program, 10 a.m.: Leading for Change: Women in Iran and the Journey to Freedom — Washington Post Live, 11 a.m.: Rising Concerns About White Supremacists Targeting Electric Infrastructure — The Heritage Foundation, 12 p.m.: China and Ukraine: A Time for Truth — The Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, 12:30 p.m.: Russia and the West: All Bridges Burned? — New America, 1 p.m.: Book discussion on "Terror in Transition: Leadership and Succession in Terrorist Organizations" — The Atlantic Council, 2:30 p.m.: Objectives and Strategy for Engagement with the African Continent in 2023 — The Wilson Center Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies, 3 p.m.: The Implications of Russia's War on Ukraine: Identity, Politics, Governance — The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 4:30 p.m.: Inside Look at Biden's Ukraine Strategy — The Institute of World Politics, 4:30 p.m.: The North Korean Threat and Allied Policy Options — The Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, 4:30 p.m.: Entering a New Era for U.S.-Japan Defense Integration Have a natsec-centric event coming up? Transitioning to a new defense-adjacent or foreign policy-focused gig? Shoot me an email at award@politico.com to be featured in the next edition of the newsletter. Thanks to our editor, Heidi Vogt, who always seeks “vengeance” against us. We also thank our producer, Kierra Frazier, who should get all the helicopters.
| | A message from Lockheed Martin: Our mission is to prepare you for the future by engineering advanced capabilities today.
Many of today’s military systems and platforms were designed to operate independently. Through our 21st Century Security vision, Lockheed Martin is accelerating innovation, connecting defense and digital to enhance the performance of major platforms, to equip customers to stay ahead of emerging threats. Learn more. | | | | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |  |
