‘ACT OF WAR,’ NOW WHAT?: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stated the obvious yesterday, referring to last week’s drone and cruise missile attack on Saudi Arabia’s oil infrastructure as “an act of war.” Generally speaking, any time one country deliberately targets and bombs another, it is considered an act of war.
But five days after the attack, there is no clarity about whether Iran will be blamed directly, what will be done about it, and who will do it. Pompeo spoke to reporters en route to Saudi Arabia to consult with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman about “deterring,” not attacking, Iran.
“We are working to build out a coalition to develop a plan to deter them. And this is what needs to happen,” Pompeo said.
MORE SANCTIONS: As Pompeo was in Saudi Arabia conferring with the crown prince, President Trump was announcing more economic pressure on Tehran. “We’ll be adding some very significant sanctions onto Iran. … We’ll be announcing it over the next 48 hours,” Trump said and then added his standard disclaimer: “We’ll see what happens.”
THE EVIDENCE MOUNTS: Saudi Arabia displayed remnants of what it said were 18 drones and 7 cruise missiles fired at its oil processing facility Saturday — all made by Iran.
Pompeo told reporters on his plane that the U.S. intelligence community has “high confidence” that those kinds of weapons would not have been in the possession of Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who have claimed to be behind the strike.
In addition, the flight patterns of the missiles and drones showed they didn’t come from the south, he said, noting Yemen is due south of most of all of Saudi Arabia. “It didn’t come from the Houthis,” Pompeo said. “This was an Iranian attack.”
BETTER DEFENSE: Saudi Arabia’s multi-billion-dollar air defenses, which include U.S. Patriot missiles, proved wholly ineffective in detecting and defeating the low-flying drone and cruise missiles, something Pompeo acknowledged needs to be addressed.
“Look, we’ve seen air defense systems all around the world have mixed success. Some of the finest in the world don’t always pick things up,” Pompeo said. “We want to work to make sure that infrastructure and resources are put in place such that attacks like this would be less successful than this one appears to have been.”
WAS IRAN EMBOLDENED?: Sen. Lindsey Graham attempted to get back on the right side of President Trump yesterday after the two traded tweets about Trump’s “weak” response to Iran’s downing of a $130 million RQ-4 Global Hawk three months ago.
“I think it’s a great sign of strength. It’s very easy to attack,” Trump said yesterday. “But if you ask Lindsey, ask him: How did going into the Middle East — how did that work out? And how did going in Iraq work out?”
“I appreciate the effort of the president to be measured when it came to the drone attack, but the point that I am trying to make is not what I think — it’s what the Iranians think,” Graham said, trying to minimize his disagreement with Trump. “Clearly, they have not gotten the message that this attack on the oil refinery, by any reasonable definition, is an act of war.”
KINZINGER’S 3 OPTIONS: Illinois Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger, an Iraq and Afghanistan war veteran and Air Force pilot, was also critical of Trump’s failure to punish Iran militarily for shooting down the sophisticated unmanned spy plane that is the size of an airliner back in June.
“It’s like losing 10 F-16s in terms of that impact,” he said on CNN yesterday. Kinzinger laid out three “proportional” options he thinks Trump should consider.
- Strike an Iranian oil facility.
- Strike some military assets that actually carried out the attack.
- Strike Iranian targets and proxies in Syria, including members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Kinzinger says the last option “actually makes the most sense” because he notes Iran has a lot of troops in Syria. “Israel strikes Iran and Syria almost weekly. And it — obviously, Iran doesn’t respond to that,” Kinzinger said. “I think that may be the most appropriate.”
Good Thursday morning and welcome to Jamie McIntyre’s Daily on Defense, written and compiled by Washington Examiner National Security Senior Writer Jamie McIntyre (@jamiejmcintyre) and edited by Kelly Jane Torrance (@kjtorrance). 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.
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HAPPENING TODAY — THE RETURN OF THE PENTAGON BRIEFING: After a 15-month interregnum, the Pentagon has scheduled a “routine,” non-subject-specific briefing featuring a civilian and a military spokesman on camera in the Pentagon briefing room to answer reporter questions.
The last such briefing was in May 2018, when Dana White was chief spokeswoman for Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.
Today’s briefing comes after months of complaints from the Pentagon press corps about the death of the routine briefings and after new Defense Secretary Mark Esper promised more transparency and engagement with the news media.
According to the Pentagon’s daily listing of live events, Jonathan Hoffman, assistant to the defense secretary for public affairs, and Air Force Col. Patrick Ryder, special assistant for public affairs to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will take reporters’ questions at 12:00 p.m.
ALSO TODAY — KHALILZAD BRIEFS CONGRESS: With peace talks declared “dead” by President Trump and the Taliban increasing its deadly attacks on civilians and U.S. troops in Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad is scheduled to appear before the House Foreign Affairs Committee at 10 a.m. — behind closed doors.
Khalilzad, the special representative for Afghanistan reconciliation, was on the verge of delivering a deal for the withdrawal of U.S. troops after 18 years of war in return for a pledge from the Taliban to begin peace talks with the Afghan government when Trump called off a meeting at Camp David, outraged over a Taliban attack that killed civilians and a U.S. soldier.
The committee sent a subpoena to Khalilzad a week ago, after his repeated refusals to brief members. Last night, the State Department and the committee announced they had reached a deal for Khalilzad to testify in a classified briefing. Then Alice Wells, the acting assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian affairs, will testify before Congress and the public.
“While I would have preferred to hear from Ambassador Khalilzad in an open setting, I’m glad our members will have this long overdue opportunity to press for answers on the peace plan,” committee chairman Eliot Engel said in a statement. “It shouldn’t have taken a subpoena to get the State Department to work with this committee and allow us to perform our oversight duties.”
Since vowing that more Amerivcans will die, the Taliban has carried out nearly daily attacks ahead of Afghan presidential elections set for Sept. 28 and killed another U.S. soldier.
Today the Taliban claimed responsibility for a suicide truck bomb attack on a hospital in southern Afghanistan that killed as many as 20 people and wounded more than 90.
LET THE CONFERRING BEGIN: House and Senate conferees meet this morning to “pass the gavel” and then try to reconcile differences over the separate versions of the FY 2020 National Defense Authorization Act.
The chairmanship of the conference committee alternates each year, and this year the Senate Armed Services Committee will pass the gavel to the House Armed Services Committee. The negotiations will be conducted behind closed doors, but the chairmen and ranking members of the armed services committees will hold a media availability at 9:50 am, before they get to work.
House members Adam Smith and Mac Thornberry and Senate members Jim Inhofe and Jack Reed are scheduled to make brief remarks.
DEMOCRATS FLEXING THEIR MUSCLE: Senate Democrats, unhappy about various provisions in a bill to fund about 75% of the federal government, including the Pentagon, denied the bill the 60 votes needed for passage. Among the objections: An amendment that would have required congressional approval for President Trump to divert military construction funds to the border was rejected by the Republican majority.
Armed Services Committee Chairman Inhofe accused the Democrats of playing politics. “It is irresponsible for Democrats to hold this bill hostage to their liberal agenda at the expense of projects that would benefit military families,” Inhofe said in a statement.
“The Democrats’ obstruction today pulls us closer to a potential continuing resolution, something our military leaders have told us time and time again is detrimental to the men and women who wear the uniform and our overall military readiness.”
A vote on a continuing resolution to fund the government through Nov 21 could come to a vote on the House floor today.
DEMOCRATS PRESS ON THE TURNBERRY STOPOVERS: Democrats on the House Oversight and Reform Committee have fired off a letter to Defense Secretary Esper pressing for more details on the taxpayer money spent to house military air crews at President Trump’s Turnberry golf resort in Scotland.
“It appears that U.S. taxpayer funds were used to purchase the equivalent of more than 650 rooms at the Trump Turnberry just since August 2017 — or the equivalent of one room every night for more than one-and-a-half years,” write committee chairman Elijah Cummings and Jamie Raskin in the letter dated yesterday. “That estimate does not include ‘an additional $59,729.12’ in unspecified charges to government travel cards, which would boost total military spending at Trump Tumberry to more than $184,000.”
The Democrats argue that even if taxpayers are getting a good rate at the Trump property, the expedindures are illegal.
“In order to ensure compliance with the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, the Department of Defense should not allow any of its officials to stay at Trump properties using taxpayer funds. It does not matter if they pay the government rate or a discounted rate. The Constitution prohibits taxpayer dollars from going to President Trump unless they are for his salary, including when those taxpayer funds are funneled through his businesses.”
The Rundown
Washington Examiner: Trump names Robert C. O’Brien to replace John Bolton as national security adviser
Washington Examiner: New national security adviser attacked Trump for being ‘chummy’ with Putin
Washington Examiner: John Bolton trashes Trump a week after ouster
Washington Examiner: The Pentagon is taking on ISIS ‘clandestine insurgency’
Washington Examiner: ISIS video found on phone of airline mechanic accused of sabotaging airplane in Miami
Reuters: Iran to Hold Annual Gulf Drills With 200 Frigates, Speedboats
CNN: Zarif threatens ‘all-out war’ in case of military strike on Iran
Wall Street Journal: Trump Steers Clear of War Footing Toward Iran
USNI News: HASC Chair, Members Against U.S. Strike Against Iran for Refinery Attack
Military Times: Former SEAL, SOCOM Boss McRaven Says We’re Going to Be Iin Afghanistan ‘For a Very Long Time’
Washington Post: Pentagon Has Warned of Dire Outcomes if Military Projects Canceled for Wall Don’t Happen
Reuters: U.S. Reassessing Aid to Solomon Islands After Taiwan Ties Cut
The Diplomat: South Korea to Publicly Display F-35A Stealth Fighter for First Time in October
CNN: The U.S. Navy just confirmed these UFO videos are the real deal
Calendar
THURSDAY | SEPTEMBER 19
7:45 a.m. 701 N. Fairfax St., Alexandria. Defense Strategies Institute annual Cyber Operations for National Defense Symposium, with Gen. James Holmes, commander of U.S. Air Combat Command, delivering remarks at 8:15 a.m. Closed to news media. cybersecurity.dsigroup.org
9:50 a.m. SD-G50 Foyer, Dirksen. News conference by Rep. Adam Smith, Rep. Mac Thornberry, Sen. Jim Inhofe, and Sen. Jack Reed ahead of NDAA conference committee meeting. www.armed-services.senate.gov/press
10 a.m 2172 Rayburn. House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on the Trump administration’s Afghanistan policy, with Zalmay Khalilzad, special representative for Afghanistan reconciliation, testifying behind closed doors. gop-foreignaffairs.house.gov/hearing
11 a.m. 2301 Constitution Avenue N.W. United States Institute of Peace discussion on “Reintegrating Taliban Fighters in Afghanistan,” with Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction John Sopko; Kate Bateman, project lead for reintegration in the SIGAR Lessons Learning Program; Erica Gaston, nonresident fellow at the Global Public Policy Institute; Laurel Miller, program director for Asia at the International Crisis Group; Timor Sharan, deputy minister for policy and technical affairs at the Independent Directorate of Local Governance; and Scott Worden, director of Afghanistan and Central Asia programs at USIP. www.usip.org/events
12 p.m. Pentagon briefing room. Jonathan Hoffman, assistant to the secretary of defense for public affairs, and Air Force Col. Patrick Ryder, special assistant for public affairs to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, conduct a news conference with reporters in the Pentagon. Streamed live at www.defense.gov/Watch/Live.
12 p.m. 1107 Van Munching Hall, College Park, Md. University of Maryland’s Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland forum on “Total Defense in a Cyber Era: A Whole of Society Approach to National Cybersecurity Challenges,” with Melissa Griffith, public policy fellow at the Wilson Center. cissm.umd.edu/events/cissm-global-forum
4 p.m. National Harbor, Md. Defense Secretary Mark Esper delivers remarks on “Today’s Military: Critical to a Collective Defense” at the Department of Homeland Security Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s 2nd Annual National Cybersecurity Summit. Streamed live at www.defense.gov/Watch/Live-Events.
5:30 p.m. 1201 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W. American Security Project discussion on “Military Base Resilience,” focusing on climate security, with Alice Hill, senior fellow for climate change policy at the Council on Foreign Relations; retired Marine Corps Brig. Gen. Stephen Cheney, CEO of ASP; and retired Lt. Gen. John Castellaw, co-founder and CEO of Farmspace Systems. www.americansecurityproject.org/event
6 p.m. 1619 Massachusetts Ave. N.W. Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies discussion on “Tensions with Turkey,” with Alan Makovsky, senior fellow for national security and international policy at the Center for American Progress. sais.jhu.edu/campus-events
FRIDAY | SEPTEMBER 20
8:30 a.m. 701 N. Fairfax St., Alexandria. Day 2 of the Defense Strategies Institute annual Cyber Operations for National Defense Symposium, with remarks by Deputy Assistant Defense Secretary for Cyber Policy Burke Wilson at 9 a.m. and Ian Crone, project manager at DARPA, at 2:15 p.m. Closed to news media. cybersecurity.dsigroup.org
7:30 p.m. CDT. 3000 Mountain Creek Pkwy., Dallas. World Affairs Council of Dallas conversation with former defense secretary Jim Mattis. www.dfwworld.org/events
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“We’re going to be there for a very long time. … Is it forever? I don’t think anything’s for forever. … And people have asked me before, ‘Well, we can’t be the policemen of the world.’ The hell we can’t. … I think this is what American leadership is about.”
Retired Adm. Bill McRaven, speaking at the New America Special Operations Forces Policy Forum in Washington, as quoted by Military Times.
