THE FINAL SHOWDOWN: Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton square off tonight in Las Vegas for the third and final presidential debate, this one moderated by Chris Wallace, anchor of “Fox News Sunday.” Tonight’s announced topics: debt and entitlements, immigration, the economy, the Supreme Court, foreign hot spots, and fitness to be president. Each will be discussed in six 15-minute segments. That last category, fitness, could cover the issues that have dominated the news cycles: Trump’s treatment of women and disclosures about Clinton in the hacked emails released by WikiLeaks. You can brush up on the most interesting revelations in the leaked emails here. And you can review Trump’s past complaints about Wallace, and get a preview of the key debate issues here. The latest Fox News poll, out last night, shows Clinton holds a 45 to 39 percent lead, but that Trump got a nano bounce of 1 point following the second presidential debate, while Clinton broke even. The 90-minute debate begins at 9 p.m. Eastern.
MOSUL ADVANCE: Iraqi and Kurdish forces are continuing to close in on the Islamic State’s last major stronghold in Iraq, the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. Reports this morning are that some of the advancing Iraqi forces have been attacked from the rear by ISIS fighters who may have hidden when small villages were liberated on the way to Mosul. The Pentagon charged yesterday that Islamic State fighters are using the civilian population as human shields and in some cases are executing civilians in an attempt make it appear as though Iraqi soldiers have been captured and killed. “It’s going to be a tough fight and a difficult fight,” President Obama said yesterday. “There will be ups and downs in this process, but my expectation is that ultimately it will be successful.”
This morning we will hear from the American ground commander coordinating the U.S. support for the Mosul offensive, Maj. Gen. Gary Volesky, who is commander of the 101st Airborne Division. He briefs reporters at the Pentagon live from Baghdad at 10 a.m. Volesky told NBC yesterday the U.S.-backed Iraqi forces have momentum on their side, and expressed confidence ISIS will be driven out of Mosul. “ISIS has said, this is the crown jewel of Iraq and its idea of a caliphate,” Volesky said. “There’s not going to be a caliphate, if there ever really was one. So for ISIL, this is going to be a key loss for them and it will be a loss.”
CARTER TRAVELS TO REGION: Defense Secretary Ash Carter leaves tomorrow night for an extended trip to the region, with stops in Turkey, United Arab Emirates, France and Belgium. In Turkey, Carter will try to smooth relations with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is angry that Turkey has been cut out the battle for Mosul. Erdogan insists his country has a “historical responsibility” in the region. Turkey has about 500 troops in Northern Iraq. In Paris, Carter meets with the major players in the counter-Islamic State coalition, and he ends his trip with a NATO Defense Ministerial in Brussels, returning to Washington Oct. 27.
By the way, U.S. defense deals with Turkey, both current and potential, are not insignificant. They include missile defense, fighter jets and helicopters.
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F-35 FIGHTERS: Seventy lawmakers have gone to bat for Lockheed Martin’s joint strike fighter, urging the leaders of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee to approve 11 more jets than the administration asked for in its fiscal 2017 request. The requested total of 74 jets year would match the number in the House appropriations bill, but is short of the Senate’s appropriations plan for just 67.
LOSING A HAT: Adm. Mike Rogers, who serves as the head of U.S. Cyber Command as well as the National Security Agency, said Tuesday that he supports splitting his dual-hatted role into two jobs, but that it needs to be done in the right way. “The challenge in my mind is what’s the right time? What’s the right process? So that we do it in the right way,” he said at the FedTalks 2016 event put on by FedScoop.
The admiral appeared alongside former Michigan Rep. Mike Rogers, so jokes about the two men’s identical names abounded. Brian Dye, the corporate VP of Intel Security Group who moderated panel, joked that he wasn’t sure how to introduce the men without offending anyone, since it was usually done by alphabetical order. The event tried to channel the laid-back vibe of TED Talks. Speakers sat in modern white chairs on stage at the Sidney Harman Hall theater around a pink orchid, and attendees were treated to Georgetown Cupcakes.
ANTI-U.S. PROTESTS IN MANILA: Street protests against the presence of U.S. troops in the Philippines turned violent today when a police van rammed into demonstrators outside the American Embassy in the Philippine capital, according to the AP. President Rodrigo Duterte, who has railed against the U.S. for weeks now, was on a state visit to China, where he is seeking closer relations with Beijing as he moves away from his country’s long-time reliance on Washington.
CLIMATE OOPS: Rising seas may damage an important base tracking space debris in the coming decades after the Air Force ignored the potential ramifications of climate change, Kyle Feldscher writes. The almost $1 billion Space Fence project in the Marshall Islands is placed on an atoll that could be damaged by intruding saltwater years from now. The AP reported that the military and its contractor, Lockheed Martin, didn’t give serious consideration to the effects of climate change when choosing a location for the base, despite warnings from local officials. But the base is supposed to last only 25 years, so it may not matter.
THE NEED FOR LONG-RANGE STRIKE: Several airmen who conducted the longest-ever bombing run 15 years ago this month say the new Northrop Grumman B-21 is vital to provide the president the options to strike stealthily and quickly from afar. Five former B-2 pilots spoke on Capitol Hill about the first days of strikes in response to 9/11, where they spent 40-plus hours airborne flying from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri to strike targets in Afghanistan. Asked about the need for a three-seat bomber, Col. Tony Cihak, who now serves as the director of flight operations at the Liberty University School of Aeronautics, said two people was plenty for the missions he flew at the beginning of Operation Enduring Freedom.
QUID PRO NO: State Department spokesman John Kirby on Tuesday rejected allegations that the department tried to offer the FBI an incentive to declassify one of Clinton’s private emails, and instead said that idea came from just one FBI official, and has been debunked by both agencies, Mariana Barillas writes. The deal never happened, and Kirby downplayed it further by saying that idea was found in a “summary of an interview with one FBI employee who gave these views.” “We looked into this and the FBI looked into this,” he said. “It is just not true.” When asked on Fox if the FBI official got it wrong, Kirby said, “What I’m saying is the FBI as an institution said there was no bargain suggested.”
SO THAT’S WHY: The State Department insisted Tuesday that Undersecretary of State Patrick Kennedy was not trying to declassify that email in order to minimize the appearance of classified information in her private server, but instead to ensure the public could see as much of her emails as possible. “We always operated under the … mindset that we wanted to make as much possible public as we could,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner told reporters. “I think that was the intent behind the FOIAs.” Pete Kasperowicz has the rest of the story here.
The FBI official at the center of the controversy, Brian McCauley, who is now retired, talked to the Washington Post, which reports “he offered to do a favor in exchange for another favor, but before he had any inkling of what Kennedy wanted.” McCauley said he turned him down and they moved on.
A BUSY DAY FOR DENIALS: The State Department also denied it had anything to do with Ecuador’s move to cut off WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s access to the Internet this week just as the anti-secrecy website was in the middle of its massive dump of internal emails from Clinton’s campaign, Sarah Westwood writes. Assange has been holed up in Ecuador’s embassy in London, and WikiLeaks claims Secretary of State John Kerry requested Ecuador’s president take the action to stop the hemorrhaging of embarrassing revelations. Toner insisted, “That’s just not true. He didn’t raise that.”
SENTENCED IN IRAN: An Iranian-American businessman and his father have each been sentenced to 10 years in prison in Iran, according to that country’s state-owned judicial news service, Mariana Barillas writes. Mizan judicial agency announced Siamak Namazi and his father Baquer Namazi, a former UNICEF representative who was once governor of an oil-rich province when the U.S.-supported shah was in power, were sentenced. It is believed the younger Namazi was arrested in October 2015 and his father was detained after he traveled to the country as part of an apparent attempt to get his son released.
And the State Department isn’t pleased, Pete Kasperowicz writes. Toner admitted Tuesday that Iran is not treating the U.S. with the respect it deserves, even though the U.S. continues to seek a “respectful” relationship with Iran. “I think you’re correct in stating that parts of the Iranian government are not necessarily acting in a respectful way toward the United States,” Toner told reporters.
OUT TODAY: The Atlantic Council is out with a new report this morning on what the next president should do to improve the relationship between the U.S. and Iran and how he or she can build on progress made by Obama with the 2015 nuclear deal. At the heart of the proposed strategy is increasing communication and diplomatic engagement between the two countries, which will reduce the chance for misunderstandings and allow cooperation on a myriad of issues, from the defeat of ISIS to climate change to drug use prevention, Ellen Laipson writes in the report. The report will be released at a 9 a.m. event at the Atlantic Council, or you can read the full report here.
OBAMA ON TRUMP, PUTIN: Obama called Trump’s “flattery” of Russian President Vladimir Putin “unprecedented” on Tuesday when asked what he thinks about Trump’s approach to Russia. “Mr. Trump’s continued flattery of Mr. Putin and the degree to which he appears to model many of his policies and approaches to politics to Mr. Putin, is unprecedented in American politics,” Obama said at the White House. Trump’s admiration of Putin is “out of step … with what, up until the last few months, almost every Republican,” including many of those now endorsing him, thought was appropriate, Obama said. “You have to explain to me how some of the same leaders who were constantly haranguing us for even talking to the Russians, and consistently took the most hawkish approach to Russia,” including Trump’s running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, reconcile their endorsement of Trump with their previous views, Obama said.
THE RUNDOWN
Washington Post: Fear of an imminent terrorist attack runs deep around the world
Military Times: Despite scandals, Trump support grows stronger in latest poll of troops
Wall Street Journal: Retired Military Brass Decry Trump, Citing Attitude Toward Women
Associated Press: Shipbuilders worried about jobs while Navy celebrates ship
Defense One: Should Sailors Be Able to Reprogram Their Ship?
Defense News: Turkey Looks to Enrich Drone Fleet
Associated Press: Robot pilots may someday fly passenger and cargo planes
Task and Purpose: MARSOC Chooses Glock 19s Over .45s For Raiders
Breaking Defense: New Threats Spark DoD Spending Debate: Thinktanks Ponder $2 Trillion In Options
Washington Post: Report proposes slashing U.S. aircraft carriers, investing in lasers to combat Russia and China
Defense One: Why the US Military Still Flies Cold-War Era Planes
Military Times: False Alarm May Have Triggered U.S. Navy Warship’s Missile Defense System
Army Times: Fort Hood helicopter crash reveals major flaws in search and rescue response
Reuters: U.S. expects Islamic State to wield chemical weapons in Mosul fight
Associated Press: Retaken villages show IS increasingly driven underground
USNI News: SOUTHCOM Pitching New, Low-Cost Ideas To Get Ships Operating In U.S. 4th Fleet
Calendar
WEDNESDAY | OCTOBER 19
9 a.m. 1030 15th St. NW. The Atlantic Council presents its new paper on a 10-year plan for U.S.-Iran relations. atlanticcouncil.org
10 a.m. Pentagon Briefing Room. Army Maj. Gen. Gary Volesky, commander, Combined Joint Forces Land Component Command, Operation Inherent Resolve provides an update on the Mosul operations live from Baghdad. www.defense.gov.
2 p.m. 1775 Massachusetts Ave. NW. Retired Gen. Sir Richard Shirreff, the former deputy supreme allied commander for Europe, talks about whether armed conflict with Russia is a real possibility. brookings.edu
4 p.m. 1030 15th St. NW. A panel of experts talks about the cybersecurity threats facing the upcoming presidential election. atlanticcouncil.org
MONDAY | OCTOBER 24
9 a.m. Willard Intercontinental Hotel. Army Secretary Eric Fanning, Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James and Navy Secretary Ray Mabus talk about the transition to the next administration. cnas.org
2 p.m. 1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW. The CSIS Aerospace Security Project hosts its inaugural event on the U.S. military and commercial space industry. csis.org
WEDNESDAY | OCTOBER 26
12:30 p.m. 1211 Connecticut Ave. NW. The Stimson Center release its new report, “Military Budgets in India and Pakistan: Trajectories, Priorities, and Risks”. stimson.org
12:30 p.m. 901 17th St. NW. A group of experts talks about the defense relationship between the U.S. and Sweden, especially amid mounting Russian tension. atlanticcouncil.org
