White House says Trump rebuked Erdogan. Turkey says no way

TURKEY’S RESPONSE: As if we needed another reminder that Turkey and the U.S. don’t see eye-to-eye on much of anything these days, Turkish officials are sharply disputing the U.S. characterization of the phone call. The White House version of the call, which portrays Trump as taking a tough line with Turkey, does not “accurately reflect” the discussion, Ankara said.

The Associated Press quotes Turkish officials as insisting Trump did not voice concern about “escalating violence” in Turkey’s offensive against U.S.-backed Kurds in Afrin, and did not use the phrase “destructive and false rhetoric coming from Turkey” in reference to anti-U.S. statements by Turkish government officials. Instead, the unnamed officials told the AP Trump provided assurances the U.S. would no longer supply weapons to the Syrian Kurdish militia, which Turkey says includes “terrorists” from the YPG group.

IF AT FIRST YOU DON’T SUCCEED: The United States has pinned its hopes for an eventual peace agreement for Syria on U.N.-brokered talks, and the latest installment begins today in Vienna. Eight previous rounds in Geneva have failed to produce any meaningful progress and there’s little reason to think this two-day session will be different.

“It’s a very critical moment. Very, very critical,” said Staffan de Mistura, the U.N. special envoy for Syria, according to Reuters. Both the Syrian government and opposition forces have agreed to send full delegations to the meeting in the Austrian capital with the stated goal of working on a new constitution. In Paris, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian called the talks the “last hope” for a political solution to end the seven-year-old war that has killed more than 300,000 people.

NORTH KOREA ‘OLIVE BRANCH’: Is North Korea’s latest call for reunification an “olive branch” or a “wedge?” In a break with its fiery rhetoric of the past year, Pyongyang has issued a rare announcement calling for “all Koreans at home and abroad” to make a “breakthrough” to try to unify without assistance of other countries. According to state media, Koreans should “promote contact, travel, cooperation between North and South Korea.” North Korea also noted that it will “smash” any opposition to reunification of both Koreas.

The announcement came during a Winter Olympics thaw that has helped South Korea President Moon Jae-in to achieve his goal for a peaceful and tension-free Olympic games in Pyeongchang next month.

On Tuesday, CIA Director Mike Pompeo said North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s ultimate goal is “reunification of the peninsula under his authority.”

NOT JUST NUKES: Meanwhile the Trump administration has unveiled a new set of sanctions aimed at North Korea’s chemical weapons program. “We are sanctioning additional oil, shipping, and trading companies that continue to provide a lifeline to North Korea to fuel this regime’s nuclear ambitions and destabilizing activities,” said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

The sanctions underscored the Trump administration’s concerns about China and Russia failing to fully implement U.N. sanctions, failures that undercut Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s efforts to galvanize the international campaign to exert “maximum pressure” on Pyongyang. But the new sanctions also shine a spotlight on the North’s chemical weapons program, which has received less public attention.

THANK YOU, VIETNAM: Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is in Hanoi, where he met today with his Vietnamese counterpart Defense Minister Ngo Xuan Lich. It’s the second and last stop on his Asia trip, and his first visit to the country. Mattis, a legendary Marine commander, enlisted in the reserve in 1969, but he did not serve in Vietnam during the war that ended in 1975.

Speaking to reporters on the flight from Indonesia, Mattis said the U.S. owes the former foe a debt of gratitude for siding with the United States against North Korea. “Have to pay my respects there and thank them for their support,” Mattis said to reporters traveling with him Wednesday. “They have been supporting the United Nations sanctions at some cost to them, and so we appreciate the leadership on that leading by example and stepping up.”

CARRIER VISIT: During the visit, the Vietnamese Defense Ministry announced the United States will send an aircraft carrier to visit Vietnam, the first since the war four decades ago. The prospect of a carrier visit was first agreed to in principle last summer when Lich met with Mattis at the Pentagon.

Good Thursday morning and welcome to Jamie McIntyre’s Daily on Defense, compiled by Washington Examiner National Security Senior Writer Jamie McIntyre (@jamiejmcintyre), National Security Writer Travis J. Tritten (@travis_tritten) and Senior Editor David Brown (@dave_brown24). Email us here for tips, suggestions, calendar items and anything else. If a friend sent this to you and you’d like to sign up, click here. If signing up doesn’t work, shoot us an email and we’ll add you to our list. And be sure to follow us on Twitter @dailyondefense.

HAPPENING TODAY: Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Robert Neller speaks this morning at 9 a.m. at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Live-streamed on the CSIS webpage.

At 10 a.m., Air Force Gen. James “Mike” Holmes, head of Air Combat Command, is at Brookings to discuss the “future of warfare and multi-domain battlespaces.” The Brookings website says, “This is an in-person event only.” Holmes is also scheduled to meet with Pentagon reporters in the afternoon in an on-the-record but off-camera setting.

THEY’RE BACK: The Pentagon has been promising a regular weekly Thursday briefing from its chief civilian spokesperson, but it hasn’t quite been standard practice yet. But spokesperson Dana White will be joined by Joint Staff Director Lt. Gen. Kenneth McKenzie at noon to take questions from reporters in the Pentagon Briefing Room. You can watch live at www.defense.gov/live.

CONFERRING WITH KISSINGER: Retired statesman and famed geopolitical brain Henry Kissinger will advise the Senate Armed Services Committee at 10 a.m. on the path ahead for U.S. national security. The committee is seeking the advice from a panel of experts as it lays the foundation for the fiscal 2019 National Defense Authorization Act. The 94-year-old former secretary of state, who served under presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, will be testifying alongside George Shultz and Richard Armitage. Shultz was secretary of state in the Ronald Reagan administration and is now at the Hoover Institution think tank. Armitage served as deputy secretary of state under President George W. Bush.

FLYIN’ RYAN: House Speaker Paul Ryan on Wednesday continued his trip through the Middle East with Rep. Mac Thornberry and other House members. His office has not provided an itinerary but is sending updates along the way. After a layover with U.S. troops in Spain, the congressional delegation flew to meet with a key U.S. ally. “I’m pleased to be back in Saudi Arabia to discuss our important relationship and shared interest in defeating terrorism and rolling back Iranian aggression in the region,” Ryan said. The delegation met with King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud and received a briefing at the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh. Ryan said last week he will also visit Iraq during the trip.

SMITH BASHES TRUMP’S ‘BIG BUTTON’ STRATEGY: The top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Adam Smith, says the U.S. should not be basing its new nuclear weapons strategy on Trump’s recent Twitter boast to North Korea that he has a superior nuclear launch button. “A nuclear posture that implements the president’s view that his nuclear button is ‘bigger and more powerful’ is short-sighted and ill-advised,” Smith said.

The administration’s Nuclear Posture Review is expected to be released Feb. 2. A recently leaked draft suggested the U.S. may add low-yield tactical nuclear missiles to provide a more credible deterrent to China and Russia. The administration provided a classified briefing on the review to the Senate Armed Services Committee Tuesday.

Smith’s House committee is expected to be briefed this week. But the HASC ranking member called the review “a missed opportunity to introduce realism into our nuclear weapons planning, enhance our security, and reassure our allies.” A move by the administration to expand the nuclear arsenal would feed an international arms race, increase the possibility of nuclear war, and add unknown cost to the “completely unrealistic” $1.2 trillion price tag for modernizing existing weapons, he said. “How President Trump plans to pay for these programs remains a mystery,” Smith said.

CONFIRMATION VOTE: The Senate is set to vote this afternoon on the nomination of R.D. James, who is Trump’s pick to head the Army Corps of Engineers. If approved, James would be the 34th Pentagon confirmation since Trump took office and the first since John Rood was approved as undersecretary of policy on Jan. 3. The Pentagon has 57 civilian positions that must be confirmed through the Senate, meaning the chamber and the president are filling the empty seats, but still have work to do.

POWERFUL CMO POST GETS NOMINEE: Congress’ armed services committees created a new Defense Department chief management officer position two years ago and have since bolstered the job’s authority. On Monday, Trump told the Senate he wants the CMO slot — the building’s third most senior position — filled by John Gibson. It could be a bit of business card whiplash for Gibson, who was confirmed in November as deputy CMO. Now, with Senate consent, he could move up to the higher position, which will be officially established on Feb. 1.

“The fundamental mission of the CMO will be to manage the enterprise business operations, or ‘shared services,’ of the department,” Sens. John McCain and Jack Reed, who lead the Senate Armed Services Committee, wrote about the position last year. The National Defense Authorization Act passed last month also gives the CMO authority to direct the civilian secretaries of each military service. “The expanded authority of the CMO includes oversight, direction, and control of business-focused defense agencies and field activities … with a goal of improving their management to ensure effective and efficient performance,” McCain and Reed wrote.

SASC MOVES MORE NOMINEES: Meanwhile, the Senate Armed Services Committee has moved four Pentagon nominees closer to confirmation. Members voted by voice to refer the latest batch of candidates to the chamber floor where they may be scheduled for a final up-or-down vote. Here are the names:

• Michael Griffin to be undersecretary of defense for research and engineering;
• Phyllis Bayer to be assistant Navy secretary for energy, installations and environment;
• John Henderson to be assistant Air Force secretary for installations, environment and energy;
• Will Roper to be assistant Air Force secretary of acquisition, technology and logistics.

ALLEGED NIGER AMBUSH VIDEO: U.S. Africa Command is examining images posted on Twitter that allegedly show soldiers killed during an ambush in Niger last year. Tweets began showing up Wednesday with the images and claims that they were part of a video of the ambush released by a jihadist terror group in Africa. “We are reviewing the post and determining the veracity of the tweet and the assertions that there is an associated video,” Africa Command said in a statement. “We cannot comment further on this issue, or the ongoing investigation related to the Oct. 4 ambush until the investigation is complete.” Four Army special operations soldiers were killed when their group was overrun by Islamic State-affiliated fighters. Military investigators traveled to Niger last year to figure out what led to the ambush and deaths. The Pentagon has said the findings of the investigation will be released this month.

The first tweets about the alleged video came from accounts that monitor terrorism and Africa. One post by a self-described blogger contains an apparent video still of what appears to be a U.S. soldier lying in the dirt. Another similar image shows what appears to be the view from a helmet camera and a U.S. soldier curled on his side on the ground was tweeted by Mohammad Mahmoud Abu Al Ma’al, an author and expert on terrorism in West Africa. In a series of posts, he wrote that the Islamic State in Mali released a video that lasted more than 10 minutes and showed a “screaming wounded soldier” as well as the bodies of three other American soldiers. Footage was recorded on the helmet camera of a soldier who was killed, he wrote.

RUMSFELD’S ‘SNOWFLAKE’ ARCHIVE: After a five-year Freedom of Information Act fight and lawsuit, the National Security Archive has managed to pry out of the Defense Department a tranche of former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s famous management memos, known as “snowflakes,” because they fell from above, and each was unique. For anyone who read Rumsfeld’s account of his Pentagon days, Known and Unknown: A Memoir, there’s not a lot of new insight. But the memos can make for fun reading, and you get a feel for what it was like working for a man who fired off requests as soon as they crossed his mind from his stand-up desk.

Rumsfeld wants to know about a news account that says it takes 40 hours of maintenance to keep an F-16 in flight, requests that he be able to sit down during TV interviews “so I can lean forward,” tells his deputy that “homeland defense” sounds more German than American, wonders if Islam should be pronounced with an “s” not a “z” sound, and questions why other services don’t outsource their mess halls like the Marines do.

On a personal note, this reporter is also mentioned in a particularly mysterious Rumsfeldian rumination. In a Sept. 22, 2001, snowflake, Rumsfeld writes: “At some press conference when we are going up to the Hill for money and I am doing a press briefing, I want to make a point of saying to Jamie McIntyre that we need every hundred dollar bill we can get and see if he’ll throw one.” Such is immortality. For the record this particular Rumsfeld idea was among the snowflake suggestions that were never implemented.

THE RUNDOWN

NBC News: Felons, people under foreign influence got national security clearances

Daily Beast: Taliban’s New Strategy: Attack the Cities

Defense News: US Army wins appeal in Leonardo lawsuit holding Lakota buys hostage

New York Times: Deadly ISIS Attack Hits an Aid Group, Save the Children, in Afghanistan

Defense and Aerospace Report: Work on Strategic Priorities for DoD, Great Power Competition, National Security Strategy

Task and Purpose: Check Out All The Weird Pricey Swag DoD Bigwigs Get From Foreign Dignitaries

Defense News: Interview: Nuke warhead chief talks risk of nuclear war

Wall Street Journal: Top U.S. Sanctions Envoy Presses China to Expel North Korean Agents

Marine Corps Times: Marines firing Stinger missiles used in Kurdish propaganda against Turkey

Foreign Policy: U.S. Sanctions Weapon is Under Threat — But Not From Bitcoin

Stars and Stripes: Navy’s oldest deployable warship comes out of Yokosuka dry dock after 19 months

Navy Times: US Navy names new intel boss, other flag promotions

Defense One: Left-of-Launch Missile Defense: ‘You Don’t Want to Have Just One Solution to the Threat’

Army Times: Six women become the first to earn Army’s Expert Infantryman Badge

Calendar

THURSDAY | JAN. 25

8 a.m. 11100 Johns Hopkins Rd. Undersea Warfare Threat Industry Day. ndia.org

9 a.m. 1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW. Discussion with Gen. Robert Neller, commandant of the Marine Corps. csis.org

9:30 a.m. 1300 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. Women and War: Securing a More Peaceful Future with Sherri Goodman, former deputy undersecretary of defense for environmental security. wilsoncenter.org

10 a.m. Dirksen G-50. Global Challenges and U.S. National Security Strategy with former secretaries of state Henry Kissinger and George Shultz, and Richard Armitage, former deputy secretary of state. armed-services.senate.gov

10 a.m. 1775 Massachusetts Ave. Multi-domain battle: Converging concepts toward a joint solution with Gen. James Holmes, commander of the Air Force’s Air Combat Command. Brookings.edu

12 noon. Pentagon Briefing Room. Briefing from Pentagon Chief Spokesperson Dana White and Joint Staff Director Lt. Gen. Kenneth McKenzie. www.defense.gov/live.

2 p.m. 1616 Rhode Island Ave. Distributed Defense: New Operational Concepts for Integrated Air and Missile Defense with Will Roper, director of the Strategic Capabilities Office; Lt. Gen. James Dickinson, commander of Army Space and Missile Defense Command; and Brig. Gen. Clement Coward, director of the Joint Integrated Air and Missile Defense Organization. csis.org

FRIDAY | JAN. 26

10 a.m. 1201 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. Sustaining U.S. Leadership Against Nuclear Terrorism and Proliferation: Monitoring and Verification in the Digital Age. hudson.org

3:30 p.m. 1030 15th St. NW. President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s Visit to the US and the UN – Assessment and Outlook. atlanticcouncil.org

MONDAY | JAN. 29

10 a.m. 214 Massachusetts Ave. NE. U.S.-Qatari Military-to-Military Relations. heritage.org

11:30 a.m. 1300 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. A Conversation with U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen. wilsoncenter.org

12 p.m. 1201 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. Maritime Strategy in a New Era of Great Power Competition. hudson.org

1 p.m. 1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW. Russia’s Electronic Warfare Capabilities to 2025. csis.org

1 p.m. 1300 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. Korean Unity at Pyeongchang: Prospects for Dealing with North Korea. wilsoncenter.org

TUESDAY | JAN. 30

8 a.m. 2401 M St. NW. Defense Writers Group breakfast with Gen. Paul Selva, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

10 a.m. Rayburn 2118. Readying the U.S. Military for Future Warfare. armedservices.house.gov

10 a.m. Hart 216. Situation on the Korean Peninsula and U.S. Strategy in the Indo-Pacific Region. armed-services.senate.gov

3:30 p.m. 1300 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. Book launch of Vietnam’s American War: A History. wilsoncenter.org

WEDNESDAY | JAN. 31

1 p.m. 529 14th St. NW. Regional Stability: U.S.-Turkey Strategic Alliance and Cooperation under NATO with retired Gen. James Conway, former commandant of the Marine Corps. press.org

2 p.m. 1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW. The Tet Offensive: Lessons from the Campaign After 50 Years. csis.org

THURSDAY | FEB. 1

9 a.m. 1201 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. The Strategic Significance of the South China Sea: American, Asian, and International Perspectives with retired Adm. Gary Roughead, former chief of naval operations. hudson.org

10 a.m. 1030 15th St. NW. The Direction of Russian Politics and the Putin Factor. atlanticcouncil.org