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From the SitRoom to the E-Ring, the inside scoop on defense, national security and foreign policy. | | | | |  | | By Alexander Ward, Connor O’Brien, Matt Berg and Eric Bazail-Eimil | |  Democratic leaders could hold one-off votes on certain high level nominees to get around Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s procedural hold. But they’ve largely rejected that approach, instead labeling it as a problem for GOP honchos to solve. | J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo | Subscribe here | Email Alex | Email Matt It’s hot in Washington, and the unending standoff between Defense Secretary LLOYD AUSTIN and Sen. TOMMY TUBERVILLE (R-Ala.) is only adding to the heat. On Tuesday, DOD spokesperson SABRINA SINGH said there was no room for compromise with Coach on the dispute over the Pentagon’s policy to pay troops for travel to receive abortion and other reproductive services. “We've been very clear we don't have anything to negotiate with here.” Tuberville is equally immovable. His spokesperson, STEVEN STAFFORD, blasted a transcript of Singh’s remarks to reporters this morning, along with a dig at the Pentagon chief: “Secretary Austin could end the holds TODAY if he wanted to. But the Biden administration seems to think that illegally spending taxpayer dollars on abortion is more important than getting their senior military nominees confirmed.” It’s true that Austin could end the policy put in place shortly after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. But it’s also true that Tuberville is singlehandedly preventing the speedy confirmation of senior military officers. The blockade has now ensnared more than 300 general and flag officer nominees, including President JOE BIDEN’s picks for top officers in the Army, Navy and Marine Corps, who are all now performing those jobs on an acting basis. Adm. LISA FRANCHETTI, who could become the first Senate-confirmed woman to serve in the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is currently leading the Navy. It has turned into a full-blown crisis that no one NatSec Daily talked to can see ending soon. The Senate left D.C. in July without resolving the issue, meaning none of the nominees will get on the job until Congress returns after Labor Day. Democratic leaders could hold one-off votes on certain high level nominees to get around Tuberville’s procedural hold. But they’ve largely rejected that approach, instead labeling it as a problem for GOP honchos to solve. Senate Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER blasted his Republican counterpart MITCH McCONNELL for not getting Tuberville to back down. “If one of my Democrats was doing this, I'd call him into my office and I'd say, you are going to stop doing this or you're going to pay a price,” he said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” today. “McConnell has not done this with Tuberville.” And on Monday, a typically reserved Senate Armed Services Chair JACK REED (D-R.I.) ripped Tuberville for making "culture war plays" and treating long-uncontroversial promotions like "a partisan game." To paraphrase THOMAS HOBBES, this fight is nasty and brutish, but it’s certainly not going to be short.
| | A message from Lockheed Martin: Innovating at hypersonic speed.
Lockheed Martin is innovating with urgency to solve today’s hypersonic strike and defense challenges. We’re investing in the American hypersonic workforce and supplier base, to ensure our customers stay ready for what’s ahead. Learn more. | | | | | AZERBAIJAN WAIVER DELAYED: The Biden administration continues to review the renewal of a long-standing military assistance program to Azerbaijan that has traditionally been granted each year by early July, Eric and our own GABRIEL GAVIN report. The delay in granting a waiver under Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act comes as the U.N. Security Council will hear an appeal from Armenia to respond to the worsening situation today as international observers warn of a worsening humanitarian situation in Nagorno-Karabakh. It also comes as the Biden administration continues to pursue an elusive peace deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the future of the contested territory. “These competing political pressures are creating a delicate landscape in the South Caucasus for the Biden administration, which is caught in a struggle between its values and the pragmatic realities of geopolitics,” Eric and Gabriel write. POLITICO EXPELLED FROM RUSSIA: EVA HARTOG, POLITICO Europe’s reporter in Moscow, has been expelled from Russia after 10 years reporting in the country, our own CLAUDIA CHIAPPA reports. Russia’s foreign ministry told Hartog on Monday that her visa would not be extended and gave her six days to leave the country. Hartog was told the decision had been made by the “relevant authorities,” but was given no additional information about how the ruling was made. Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began last year, foreign journalists have been required to reapply for their visa and media accreditation every three months, as opposed to once a year before the war started. Hartog’s expulsion is the first known time a foreign journalist based in Russia has been kicked out by Russia since the Kremlin escalated hostilities in Ukraine. “Thankfully, Eva is safe and was able to leave Russia — however EVAN GERSHKOVICH of the Wall Street Journal remains unjustly imprisoned for committing fair and accurate journalism and should be released immediately,” JAMIL ANDERLINI, POLITICO Europe’s editor-in-chief, said in a statement. While the U.S. has 25 federally imprisoned Russians that could theoretically be traded for Gershkovich, Moscow hasn’t shown any interest yet, WSJ’s DUSTIN VOLZ and LOUISE RADNOFSKY report. Washington hasn’t succeeded in looping another country in to trade a valuable Russian prisoner for Gershkovich, U.S. officials said. Officials also told WSJ that they believe the Kremlin might consider an asymmetric deal, such as several low-level criminals and hackers in exchange for imprisoned journalist and former Marine PAUL WHELAN. The U.S. would be interested in such a deal if it were on the table, the officials said. But they believe Russia might be more willing to trade after the 2024 presidential election so that it can continue to sow discord ahead of the vote. UN ACTION IN HAITI: U.N. Secretary General ANTONIO GUTERRES is calling for the international community to deploy a support mission to Haiti as worsening gang violence and ongoing political instability continues to grip the impoverished Antilles country, according to the Miami Herald’s JACQUELINE CHARLES. In a twelve-page letter to U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations LINDA THOMAS-GREENFIELD, who currently serves as president of the Security Council, Gutierres outlined a “full-range of support options” for a mission and steps the U.N. would need to take to ensure its success. The mission would not resemble a typical peacekeeping operation and would work to support the country’s beleaguered police forces with policing and military support. The U.S., which has intervened during similar periods in its Caribbean neighbor’s history, is backing a Kenyan bid to lead the U.N. mission. Kenyan officials will be traveling to New York and Port-au-Prince in anticipation of the force’s deployment. 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, @PhelimKine, @laraseligman, @connorobrienNH, @paulmcleary, @leehudson, @magmill95, @johnnysaks130, @ErinBanco, @reporterjoe, @JGedeon1 and @ebazaileimil.
| | | | 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. | | | | | | | | ‘TERRITORIAL DISPUTE’ LINGERS: It’s been nearly five months since Florida Gov. RON DeSANTIS walked back his characterization of the war in Ukraine as a “territorial dispute,” but his opponents aren’t letting him forget about it. “We need a president who understands the threats we face abroad. Too much is at stake to think the Russian war is just a ‘territorial dispute,’” former U.N. Ambassador NIKKI HALEY tweeted today. “The war in Ukraine is not a territorial dispute. Rolling tanks & troops into a free country while murdering thousands of civilians is an authoritarian act that we have to oppose,” former New Jersey Gov. CHRIS CHRISTIE also tweeted on Monday. It’s an interesting strategy, given that DeSantis isn’t the one to beat in the race. While he’s ahead of Haley, Christie and all other GOP hopefuls, DONALD TRUMP still holds a commanding lead over the field. Most candidates (other than Christie) have been somewhat hesitant to batter Trump, while DeSantis has proved a popular target. For his part, the Florida governor has had his focus on the Biden administration, blasting the Afghanistan withdrawal as the “worst foreign policy failures in U.S. history” in a Tuesday night post on X, adding that Afghanistan “has once again become a terror safe haven as the Taliban eliminates rights for women under its tyranny.” He plans to give a major address on China policy in the days ahead, per Foreign Policy’s JACK DETSCH. ‘BOTTLE UP’: VIVEK RAMASWAMY will propose a deal with India on Thursday to “bottle up the Malacca Strait” in a bid to complicate China’s buying and selling of energy and goods. During a speech at the Nixon Library, Ramaswamy will advocate for an America he leads to “develop a partnership with India that will make it possible to use India’s strategic holdings in the Andaman Islands to blockade the Andaman Sea and bottle up the Malacca Strait,” per preview points sent by his team. Those islands are on the northern part of the strait, which carries around 40 percent of the world’s trade. The speech preview notes that “as of 2021, more than 70 percent of Chinese oil and gas imports and 60 percent of their trade flowed through the straits.” He will presumably clarify which “strategic holdings” he wants India to use (most likely missiles New Delhi launches from those islands) and how their usage would make China think twice about traveling via the strategic throughway. The proposal is another indicator that Ramaswamy’s largest foreign policy goal is weakening China by pulling its partners away and harming its economy — though he’s not for defending Taiwan after the U.S. gets access to enough semiconductors.
| | | | DON’T MISS POLITICO’S TECH & AI SUMMIT: America’s ability to lead and champion emerging innovations in technology like generative AI will shape our industries, manufacturing base and future economy. Do we have the right policies in place to secure that future? How will the U.S. retain its status as the global tech leader? Join POLITICO on Sept. 27 for our Tech & AI Summit to hear what the public and private sectors need to do to sharpen our competitive edge amidst rising global competitors and rapidly evolving disruptive technologies. REGISTER HERE. | | | | | | | | PLAN FOR JAM: The Army is planning to test a weapon that combines its cyber, jamming and signals intelligence capabilities in September, C4ISRNet’s’s COLIN DEMAREST reported. The weapons, known as the Terrestrial Layer System-Brigade Combat Team, will be mounted on Strykers. During the test, the Army will see “how it performs against those threat emitters, and an ability to conduct mission threads,” Brig. Gen. ED BARKER, the program executive officer for intelligence, electronic warfare and sensors, told Demarest.
| | EXTREME PROBLEM: Now here’s a lede from the Boston Globe’s HANNA KRUEGER: “U.S. military recruiters consistently fail to ask enlistees about potential extremist or gang ties, regularly bungle applications, and routinely turn a blind eye to red flags that could root out troubling recruits.” We took a look at the recent Pentagon report in question and it states that “military service recruiters may not have identified all applicants with extremist or criminal gang associations during the screening process, increasing the potential for future security risks and disruptions to good order, morale, and discipline.” See the chart below for yourself. In the reviewed sample size, there were multiple instances in which applicants weren’t properly screened. In an indicative finding, the report notes how military recruiters didn’t “annotate that 53 (41 percent) of 129 applicants were asked and responded to initial appointment interview questions about extremist or criminal gang affiliation.”
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DOD OIG | | | THE OTHER SUEZ CRISIS: Nearly 800,000 barrels of seized Iranian oil are stranded off the Texas coast, but no company wants to offload it out of fear of being targeted by Tehran and losing other business. Lawmakers from both parties want to know what Biden plans to do about it. “We request that you work expeditiously to resolve the delay in the transfer of seized oil from the Suez Rajan and continue to enforce the law against Foreign Terrorist Organizations,” reads a Tuesday letter whose signatories include Sens. JONI ERNST (R-Iowa) and RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D-Conn.), as well as top House Republican ELISE STEFANIK of New York. The Greek ship, seized in a sanctions operation, has remained roughly 50 miles away from Houston since May. In July, a senior commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ navy said Iran would blame the U.S. government if any of the oil was removed from the vessel. The lawmakers don’t want Team Biden to back down from the threat: “It is imperative that the administration make clear that Iran and designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations cannot prevent our government from carrying out legitimate law enforcement operations.” The letter makes clear that the administration is starting to feel bipartisan pressure to do something to resolve the standoff.
| | | |   | | | | | ‘OVERBLOWN’: There’s an interesting tidbit in JULIA IOFFE’s latest at Puck: a senior State Department official indicates that the Biden administration’s worries of escalation by Russia during the war were a bit “overblown” last year. “We’re always mindful of escalation risks, but perhaps they’ve been overblown, at least so far,” the official said. Ioffe notes that this comment, and others by the official, reflected “Washington’s diminished concern that Putin might actually press the nuclear button, which peaked last fall when Kherson fell back into Ukrainian hands.” The downplaying of escalation risks has also been an administration talking point of late. At the Aspen Security Forum in July, national security adviser JAKE SULLIVAN asserted the U.S. had not been timid about its support of Ukraine in the face of increasingly aggressive rhetoric from Russia. “We have been prepared to take risks, and we will continue to be prepared to take risks to provide support to Ukraine,” he said during the conference.
| | — ROB MALLEY will join the faculty of Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs as a visiting professor in the fall. He will remain in his role as special envoy for Iran in the Biden administration, though he is currently on leave over a security clearance issue that includes an FBI investigation. — SAMANTHA POWER is now military legislative assistant for Tuberville. Power, a Navy Reservist, was previously MLA for Rep. NICK LaLOTA (R-N.Y.) and is also an alum of both Sen. RICK SCOTT (R-Fla.) and former Rep. TED YOHO (R-Fla.). — Director of National Intelligence AVRIL HAINES appointed JOHN BALLARD as president of National Intelligence University. Ballard, who started in his new role on July 31, was last academic dean and provost of the United States Merchant Marine Academy.
| | — HARALD HARTVIG JEPSEN and PETER ERBEN, POLITICO: Russia’s ‘elections’ in occupied Ukraine are a charade — ANNA NEMTSOVA, The Washington post: A disastrous strategic failure has Ukrainians discussing politics again — ELAINE McCUSKER and JOHN FERRARI, American Enterprise Institute: Defense authorization highlights and conference issues
| | — The Business Council for International Understanding, 10 a.m.: A virtual discussion with U.S. Ambassador to Rwanda ERIC KNEEDLER. — The Hudson Institute, 10 a.m.: The Chinese Communist Party's cognitive warfare campaign on American college campuses. — The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 10:30 a.m.: Pivotal states: a new era for U.S.-Brazil relations. — The Hill, 2 p.m.: We are not alone; UFOs and national security. — The Government Executive Media Group, 2 p.m.: Tuning technical capabilities to meet the needs of future mission partner environments. Thanks to our editor, Heidi Vogt, who refuses to budge on our extremely reasonable requests. We also thank our producer, Gregory Svirnovskiy, who always gets what he wants. CORRECTION: An earlier version of yesterday's newsletter misstated where Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu snubbed Lloyd Austin. It was at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.
| | A message from Lockheed Martin: Innovating at hypersonic speed.
Lockheed Martin is innovating with urgency to solve today’s hypersonic strike and defense challenges. We’re investing in the American hypersonic workforce and supplier base, to ensure our customers stay ready for what’s ahead. Learn more. | | | | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |  |
