BOMBINGS IN THAILAND: A series of apparently coordinated explosions has rocked some of Thailand’s most popular resort cities and beach towns. At least four people have been killed and dozens more wounded, according to the AP, which reports police ruled out links to international terrorism or a low-level insurgency in the country’s Islamic south that has killed more than 5,000 people over a decade. The attacks come days after a referendum in which Thai voters approved a military-backed constitution.
RUSSIA’S WORRYING WAR GAMES: Moscow announced new war games in the Black Sea as President Vladimir Putin accused Ukraine of trying to provoke a conflict over Crimea, which Moscow seized and annexed in 2014. Reuters characterized Putin’s statements as “some of his most aggressive rhetoric against Kiev since the height of the war two years ago, and says it heightened worries that Russia may plan to ramp up fighting in a war between Ukraine and pro-Russian eastern separatists.
TURKEY-RUSSIA ALLIANCE: Comments from Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu sound a lot like an invitation for Russia to carry out joint operations in Syria against the Islamic State. “We have always called on Russia to carry out anti-Daesh [ISIS] operations together,” Cavusoglu said on the private NTV television, adding that the proposal was still “on the table,” according to Al Jazeera. The statements came after a meeting this week between Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in which the countries are seeking to repair frayed relations.
Good Friday morning and welcome to Jamie McIntyre’s Daily on Defense, compiled by Washington Examiner National Security Senior Writer Jamie McIntyre (@jamiejmcintyre), National Security Writer Jacqueline Klimas (@jacqklimas) 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 be sure to add you to our list.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT, check out my attempt to make sense of Donald Trump’s somewhat vague pronouncements on nuclear weapons. It’s the first of our WEXplainer series of videos.
SKEWED INTEL: A House GOP task force released its report yesterday looking into accusations that senior officers in U.S. Central Command distorted intelligence to make the Islamic State look like less of a threat than it already is. Joel Gehrke has the story.
Senior officials at CENTCOM “regularly provided line-in/line-out edits and wording changes” to intelligence reports that were provided to then-CENTCOM commander Army Gen. Lloyd Austin and “other senior customers.” The edits rendered the final versions of those reports “consistently more optimistic” than analysis provided by career CENTCOM experts, the report said. The lawmakers make clear that the intelligence problems arose while Austin led CENTCOM and Maj. Gen. Steven Grove led the CENTCOM Intelligence Directorate under Austin, although the report doesn’t mention their names. You can read the full report here.
The lawmakers on the task force — Reps. Ken Calvert, Mike Pompeo and Brad Wenstrup — decried the tactic and said the Pentagon needs to come clean and make sure this never happens again.
Asked for comment, the Pentagon declined, saying it was awaiting the results of the Defense Department’s inspector general investigation. CENTCOM had a similar response: “U.S. Central Command has seen the Congressional Joint Task Force initial report and we appreciate the independent oversight provided. We are reviewing the findings of the initial report; since the Joint Task Force investigation is ongoing, as is the DoD IG’s investigation, we will refrain from further comment at this time.
House Democrats did their own investigation into the claims, and while it also came to the conclusion the intel reports were overly optimistic, it found no evidence that intel suffered due to pressure from the White House.
BOMBS TO EUROPE: The Defense Department announced the possible sale of $231 million worth of precision-guided munitions to Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Greece, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and Spain. The package would include Joint Direct Attack Munitions and Paveway bombs. Boeing and Raytheon are the prime contractors.
THE FOUND AND THE FURY: When Trump referred to President Obama as “the founder of ISIS” and branded Hillary Clinton as co-founder during a rally Wednesday night, he set off yet another round of outrage, followed by accusations, followed by fact-checking and double-downing, sure to be followed by whatever he’s going to say today or this weekend.
As Eddie Scarry pointed out, this wasn’t the first time he’s made such an accusation. More people just happened to notice this time. But radio host Hugh Hewitt sympathetically gave Trump a way out Thursday morning, saying “I know what you meant. You meant that he created the vacuum, he lost the peace.” But Trump poked a giant hole in Hewitt’s life raft and refused to back off his original claim.
“No, I meant he’s the founder of ISIS. I do,” Trump replied. “He was the most valuable player. I give him the most valuable player award. I give her, too, by the way, Hillary Clinton.” Hewitt replied, “But he’s not sympathetic to them. He hates them. He’s trying to kill them.”
“I don’t care,” Trump answered. “He was the founder.”
The Clinton camp fired back, calling the comments the latest from a know-nothing blowhard, T. Becket Adams writes. “This is another example of Donald Trump trash-talking the United States. It goes without saying that this is a false claim from a presidential candidate with an aversion to the truth and an unprecedented lack of knowledge,” Hillary for America senior policy adviser Jake Sullivan said in a statement. CNN hilariously fact-checked the claim in its chyron, which you can see here.
Then guess what? Buzzfeed dug up comments Trump made in 2007 and 2008, when he called for the immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq, the very same thing he says makes Obama and Clinton the founders. Trump told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that the U.S. should “declare victory and leave” the Middle East, Gabby Morrongiello writes.
“You know how they get out? They get out,” he said. “That’s how they get out. Declare victory and leave, because I’ll tell you, this country is just going to get further bogged down. They’re in a civil war over there, Wolf. There’s nothing that we’re going to be able to do with a civil war.”
U.S. CITIZENS TRIED AT GITMO? In one of those off-the-cuff exchanges in which you can’t be sure Trump actually understood the question, he told the Miami Herald that he’d “be fine” with American terror suspects being tried by the Military Commissions at Guantánamo. “Would you try to get the military commissions — the trial court there — to try U.S. citizens?” a Herald reporter asked. Trump responded, “Well, I know that they want to try them in our regular court systems, and I don’t like that at all. I don’t like that at all,” he said. “I would say they could be tried there, that would be fine.”
POKÉMON GONE: Anyone who works or visits the Pentagon knows that there’s a ban on unauthorized photography, so walking around and pointing your smartphone camera at things in or around the Pentagon is going to draw the attention of the Pentagon Police. But that’s basically how the wildly-popular video game Pokémon Go is played. So a July 19 memorandum warned all officials and defense contractors that playing Pokemon Go poses a potential security risk to secure and sensitive facilities, according to the Washington Times, because the data obtained playing the game could “pinpoint the locations of rooms and other sensitive facilities where secrets are stored.”
THE RUNDOWN
Defense Daily: Littoral Combat Ship Surrogate Undergoes Fire Tests
Defense News: Boeing, Raytheon Assured Half of Surging US Support for Israel Missile Defense
UPI: Navy announces 3-year CH-53E helicopter repair effort
Defense Daily: Navy Awards Pratt & Whitney $152 Million For F-35 Initial Spare Modules, Trainers
USNI News: Interview: CNO Richardson on Innovation and the Navy’s Next Fleet
War on the Rocks: Right ends, wrong means: What Congress is missing on defense reform
Defense One: Don’t Box Retired Generals Out of Politics
Reuters: Exclusive: Congressional leaders were briefed a year ago on hacking of Democrats – sources
Wall Street Journal: U.S. Considers Sanctions Against Russia in Response to Hacks of Democratic Groups
Air Force Times: Air Force relationships with Turkey a concern in wake of coup attempt
New York Times: ISIS Fighters Are Still Lurking in Surt, Libyan Officials Warn
CNN: New footage shows intense firefight in Syria
Associated Press: Russia strikes IS-held city in Syria amid Aleppo fight
CNN: Why is there renewed tension in Ukraine?
Fox News: Former Marine’s religious freedom claims rejected by appeals court
Task and Purpose: It’s Time To Start Building The Next National War Memorial
Calendar
THURSDAY | AUGUST 18
10 a.m. 1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW. CSIS hosts Vice Adm. Mike Shoemaker, commander of U.S. Naval Air Forces in the Pacific Fleet, to discuss the future of naval aviation. csis.org
