OBAMA TAKES CENTER STAGE: President Obama holds his last news news conference of the year at 2:15 today before departing on his annual vacation to Hawaii, and there are two big topics that are sure to dominate: Russia and Syria. In an interview that aired on NPR this morning, the president said if the review he’s ordered shows conclusively that Russia was behind hacks that were intended to influence last month’s election, he will respond. “I think there is no doubt that when any foreign government tries to impact the integrity of our elections that we need to take action. And we will, at a time and place of our own choosing,” Obama said. “Some of it may be explicit and publicized; some of it may not be, but Mr. Putin is well aware of my feelings about this because I spoke directly with him about this,” Obama said in the exit interview.
Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, says she’s seen the evidence so far, and has found it persuasive. “I’ve been on the committee for 15 years. I’ve been chair for six, vice chair for two. I’ve never seen a more specific top level briefing with statements of high confidence when questions were asked,” Feinstein told CNN. The briefings to members of Congress are classified so she could not share any details. “What I can say is what my belief is as a product of those briefings. And my belief is that this was a major covert influence campaign,” Feinstein said, and she urged the president to declassify the assessment. “I think it’s most important that the facts get out. Right now, different people are talking, different intelligence officials are quoted. But the American people don’t really believe what happened.”
Republican Rep. Chris Stewart says he didn’t get that briefing, and is out with an op-ed in the Washington Examiner in which he says the current debate is simply playing into Russian President Vladimir Putin’s hands by sowing distrust of the system. As a member of the House Intelligence Committee, Stewart said there’s no doubt the Russians did it. But argues their goal wasn’t to elect Donald Trump.
Russia is likely to come up in Obama’s new conference as well in the context of Syria, where thousands of civilians and remnants of rebel forces are finally making their way out of Aleppo, and where reports of atrocities by Syrian troops, including summary executions of women and children, have shocked the world. Obama no doubt will decry the tragedy, blame Russia’s support of Bashar Assad, and insist there was nothing the U.S. could have done without being drawn into an intractable civil war. That’s what the president told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria in a review of his eight years in office. Obama called the situation in Syria heartbreaking. “It’s one of those things that has kept me up at night a lot,” he said, suggesting that perhaps if the U.S. had not gone into Iraq in 2003 it might have been in a better position to intervene in Syria. “But, the idea that under any circumstances we would be in a position to take over Syria and do in Syria what we have done in Iraq. And then maybe go to Yemen and do the same thing there, and maybe go to Libya and — it would be endless.”
HOW OBAMA LOST SYRIA: Two of Obama’s senior military advisers dispute the idea that the shame of Syria was inevitable. Former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told CNN yesterday there were good options, short of sending troops to Syria, that Obama rejected. “There was really never any really serious conversation about putting 100,000 or 50,000 troops in Syria,” Hagel said. “Nobody was for that, by the way. No one. But there were other options that were significant that, in fact, we had agreed on to go forward with.” Former Supreme NATO commander retired Adm. James Stavridis told MSNBC this week that Obama missed his chance to turn the tide, and prevent Russia from gaining its foothold in Syria, when the president wavered on his infamous empty “red line” threat four years ago. “It was not taking out Assad’s air force as part of the move to get rid of the weapons of mass destruction, AKA the red line,” Stavridis said. “That was the moment where we could have made a difference in the facts on the ground. It was before Russia came in, in significant ways. That was, I think, the crucial military mistake.”
In a speech in Hershey Pennsylvania last night, Trump promised to “build safe zones in Syria so people will have a chance,” while also promising to stop “trying to build new nations in far off lands, you have never heard of.”
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TRUMP THREATENS WASHINGTON’S REVOLVING DOOR: In that raucous “thank you” rally in Pennsylvania last night, Trump renewed his attacks on Boeing’s Air Force One (“I don’t want a plane to fly around that costs $4.2 billion. Believe me, not going to happen.”) and Lockheed Martin’s F-35 (“a disaster, out of control”). But he also took aim at the people at the Pentagon who signed the contracts. “I will impose a five-year ban on executive branch officials becoming lobbyists, and a lifetime ban on officials becoming lobbyists for a foreign government,” Trump said as part his “drain the swamp” ethics reform. “And I’ll tell you what else I’m going to ban: when we have our purchasing agents giving out billions, and billions, and billions of dollars of contracts to the military and to all of these people who are buying airplanes, where you see these tremendous cost overruns.” Trump zeroed in specifically at the F-35 program. “The people who gave out those contracts, give me a break, we are going to impose a lifetime ban on people that give these massive contracts out or even small contracts. You wanna work for the United States? You work for the United States. You are not going to go to work for the people who built these planes.”
CHINA’S “GREAT WALL OF SAND” Yesterday’s item about China’s installation of weapons on man-made islands in the South China Sea got Armed Services Committee Chairman Sen. John McCain fired up. “China is militarizing the South China Sea, its leaders continue to lie about that fact, and Beijing is paying little to no price for its behavior,” McCain said in statement following the revelations from CSIS’s Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative. “It appears China is intent on transforming these features into operational bases that will allow its military to project power and assert control of one of the most vital international waterways. This is unacceptable,” McCain said, calling for a “determined response from the United States and its allies.” China’s territorial claims have been dubbed by pundits a desire to build “Great Wall of Sand.”
SACEUR VISITS UKRAINE: Army Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, supreme NATO and U.S. European Command chief, is just back from Ukraine, which is not a NATO member. Scaparrotti met with Ukrainian Minister of Defense Stepan Poltorak and Chief of the General Staff Viktor Muzhenko to discuss “military reform, and continuing efforts to build on the strong relationship between the United States and Ukraine,” according to a U.S. military statement. Scaparrotti also made a trip to the front lines where the Ukrainian military is fighting Russians and their proxy forces. The U.S. has about 350 Americans training Ukrainian Armed Forces. “The United States continues to call for an immediate end to Russia’s occupation of Crimea and for Russia to cease its destabilizing actions in Ukraine and honor its commitments in the Minsk agreements,” the statement says.
MORE ON THE RUSSIAN HACKS: Freshly snubbed Rep. Brad Wenstrup said on Thursday that the House Intelligence committee asked the CIA, the FBI and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence for a briefing on the hacks into the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager. But, the agencies canceled the briefing because the investigation into the hacks is ongoing, reports indicate. Wenstrup said they’re shirking their responsibilities to the American people. “There’s grave concern as to why they denied us access to them and their information,” he said. “This is our job, and this is their job as well.”
WHO KNEW WHAT AND WHEN? White House press secretary Josh Earnest on Thursday defended his claim that Trump knew about Russia’s effort to hack into Democratic emails during the campaign, after a senior Trump transition official accused Earnest of making irresponsible statements, Gabby Morrongiello writes. Earnest told reporters on Wednesday that Trump was “obviously aware” of Russia’s meddling in the election but feigned ignorance in order to boost his campaign, a comment Kellyanne Conway called “remarkable” during a Thursday morning appearance on MSNBC. “That is breathtaking. I guess he’s auditioning to be a political pundit after his job is over soon,” Conway said of Earnest. She said his comments were “incredibly disappointing to hear from the podium of the White House press secretary.” But Earnest fired back by telling reporters his initial comment was “just a fact.”
And Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said the White House has been out in front of the issue all along, Sarah Westwood writes. “President Obama did speak to this. I think it was a powerful thing to have the intelligence community, in that statement, verify Russian meddling in our election,” Rhodes said on MSNBC. He was referring to an Oct. 7 statement by the director of national intelligence and the Department of Homeland Security that blamed Russian-backed groups for executing cyberattacks against “U.S. persons and institutions,” which included the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign chair John Podesta. “We blew the whistle on Russian meddling. It was available to the media and the American people to evaluate that information,” Rhodes added.
HUNTER’S ETHICS PROBLEM: The House Ethics Committee acknowledged Thursday the Office of Congressional Ethics told them in August that California Rep. Duncan Hunter may have violated House rules, Nicole Duran writes. The panel said it received the complaint Aug. 31 and needs more time to determine whether it should open an investigation. The San Diego Union Tribune reported that Hunter, a Republican, may have violated House rules when he secured a loan to repay his campaign almost $50,000 for personal expenses that he billed in possible violation of campaign finance laws.
MATTIS CONFLICT? Defense Secretary nominee retired Gen. James Mattis may have to recuse himself some some big Pentagon contracts because of his service on the board of General Dynamics, the fifth-biggest U.S. defense supplier with $10 billion in contracts last year. Bloomberg broke the story, reporting the potential conflict of interest could take Mattis out of the loop on billion-dollar decisions across the military services for at least a year. “The Pentagon may buy ground-warfare vehicles from General Dynamics for the 65,000 Army troops Trump has promised to add, and it may benefit from his pledge to expand the Navy to 350 vessels by supplying its Arleigh Burke-class destroyers and Virginia-class nuclear submarines,” according to the report.
MISSILE DEFENSE HIT: Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance is touting the U.S. Navy’s successful test of the Aegis destroyer-based ballistic missile defense system two days ago. In case you missed it, USS John Paul Jones, equipped with the newest fire control baseline-9 processor and SM-6 interceptors, tracked and intercepted the most capable and maneuverable ballistic missile deployed in the Pacific today, a target missile, representing the Dong-Feng 21 Chinese “carrier killer.” The MDAA, a non-profit which as its name implies advocates for missile defenses, called the test historic. “Three years ago, Russian military analysts said the only way to counter the DF-21 was through electronic counter measures. However, today there are over 300 SM-6 interceptors in the U.S. Navy Fleet with a capability to produce thousands more, that have now been proven to be capable of intercepting the DF-21,” the group said in a statement.
UNLIKELY ALLIES: Sen. Elizabeth Warren will be joining the Senate Armed Services Committee next year, and one expert predicts her penchant for targeting waste and abuse will lead to an unlikely friendship with McCain. Warren is also expected to focus on bringing more innovation into the Defense Department, drawing from the industrial base in Massachusetts that focuses on robotics, among other things.
TROUBLE FOR TILLERSON: It’s “quite possible” Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson won’t be confirmed due to concern over his ties with Russia, a Democratic senator said Thursday, Kyle Feldscher reports. Sen. Chris Coons said on CNN Tillerson may face an uphill battle due to concerns expressed by GOP Sens. Marco Rubio, Lindsey Graham and McCain, among others. He said Tillerson’s nomination speaks to Trump’s problem of seeming to be moving closer to Russia, an openly adversarial state in recent years. “We don’t know enough about President-elect Trump’s relationship with Russia,” Coons said. “He’s the only president in the modern era who hasn’t released his taxes, so we don’t know if Russian oligarchs have invested in his properties.” Graham, meanwhile, has said that if Tillerson doesn’t support sanctions and against Putin, his vote will be a no vote.
IRAN SWITCHEROO: In a surprise reversal, Obama has decided against signing legislation to extend the Iran Sanctions Act for another 10 years, but the White House said it was allowing the bill to become law even without his signature, Pete Kasperowicz writes. The White House said on Dec. 2 that it saw the bill that easily passed the House and Senate as “unnecessary,” but said Obama would sign it anyway. But in an early Thursday morning statement, the White House said Obama wouldn’t sign it after all.
ANOTHER GENERAL FOR TRUMP: The transition team on Thursday announced retired Army Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg will join the National Security Council as its chief of staff and executive secretary. That brings Trump’s retired general count to four. Trump also named Fox News analyst Monica Crowley as the NSC’s senior director of strategic communications. She’s had some tough things to say about Putin, which could make things interesting on the council. Along with her opinion on walls.
RHETORIC ON ALEPPO: Secretary of State John Kerry reiterated his call on Thursday for Russia and Assad to stop attacking rebels in Aleppo, even after Syria has consistently ignored those plans and was on the verge of kicking out the rebels, Joel Gehrke writes. “The only remaining question is whether the Syrian regime with Russia’s support is willing to go to Geneva prepared to negotiate constructively and whether or not they’re willing to stop this slaughter of their own people,” Kerry said at the State Department. “I call on the entire international community to join in exerting pressure on all parties to go forward with the process that has been laid out for some period of time now, to abide by the cessation of hostilities, and to bring the killing and the cruelty,” he said.
APPROVAL OF SEAL: Trump on Thursday formally announced he wants Rep. Ryan Zinke to lead the Interior Department, vaulting the Iraq war veteran into a crucial Cabinet post for western Americans just eight years after he began his political career, Joel Gehrke writes. “I am pleased to nominate Congressman Ryan Zinke as our Secretary of the Interior. He has built one of the strongest track records on championing regulatory relief, forest management, responsible energy development and public land issues,” Trump said in a statement. He added, “As a former Navy SEAL, he has incredible leadership skills and an attitude of doing whatever it takes to win. America is the most beautiful country in the world and he is going to help keep it that way with smart management of our federal lands.”
STOPPING SEXUAL ASSAULT AGAINST MEN: The Pentagon quietly released its latest initiative to stop sexual assault in the military, and this one is aimed at encouraging more men to report abuse. The “DoD Plan to Prevent and Respond to Sexual Assault of Military Men” is designed to “enhance outreach to military men and increase efforts to help them recover,” said a story on the Pentagon’s web page. “Unfortunately, most men would rather be silent than report a sexual assault,” said Army Maj. Gen. Camille Nichols. “We are working to encourage men by emphasizing that warriors show strength by seeking help,” said Nichols, director of the Pentagon’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office.
IT’S THAT TIME OF YEAR: …when NORAD tracks Santa like an incoming missile. Paul Bedard has the charming story behind the beginning of the holiday tradition, which has the folks at Peterson Air Force Base fielding calls from around the world, but mostly updating its online Santa tracker. Last year, NORAD logged 22 million visits to its website, www.noradsanta.org. And 1,500 volunteers answered 2,841 emails and took 140,833 calls. But the big audience was on Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus and YouTube, where millions followed Santa’s ride around the globe.
IT ALL SOUNDS BETTER IN BRENGLISH: Is it the bane of any American politician to have to share the stage with a Brit, because it’s a well-known principle that everything sounds better with a British accent, and the American’s always come off as marble-mouthed by comparison. (Think Tony Blair and George Bush.) Yesterday it was Ash Carter’s turn to be shown up by one of her majesty’s subjects, Sir Michael Fallon, the UK’s Secretary of State for Defence. (Even the British titles have more panache.) It should be noted that Carter, while a Rhodes Scholar, received his doctorate from Oxford in theoretical physics, not elocution.
The first question at the joint London news conference was about Assad’s future.
Fallon: “Well, we don’t see a future of President Assad in Syria. Even if he uh, uh defeats um the opposition in Aleppo, there is no victory in uh bombing hospitals and uh, um restricting humanitarian aid and ending up in a country that you only control 40 percent of and is, you know, half destroyed with millions dispersed and hundreds of thousands killed. That is no victory. We don’t see a future for Syria with uh President Assad. On the contrary, we continue to work for a political settlement in Syria that is genuinely pluralist, that can involve all sectors of Syrian society, but not Assad himself.”
Score: 5 uhs, 2 ums
Carter: “I entirely concur with that. That it uh — and I’ll just uh, uh repeat this — this tragedy reflects an incredible brutality uh on the part of the regime, uh and also their backers, including Russia as uh Michael noted. Uh, uh And willingness to suspend anything like the rules that we apply to ourselves uh when we uh conduct military operations. And um, uh, uh, Michael’s right, the uh, political transition uh is the only way that the suffering — the Syrian people can finally be brought uh to an end. But uh the uh, uh — the standard of brutality employed, it’s just one point that’s worth making as we talk about our counter-ISIL campaign, stands in stark contrast to the way we conduct ourselves uh in Iraq uh and Syria.
Score: 19 uhs, 1 um
Fallon not only won numerically, but also on style points, because Fallon’s ums were slipped in unobtrusively with a refined British flair, whilst Carter’s uhs were drawn out and awkward. And unlike Fallon, Carter had a hard time completing a full sentence without interjecting several disfluencies along the way. Did I mention everything sounds better in Brenglish?
Fallon, by the way, was also able to do something Carter was not, which was express confidence in America’s leadership under a Trump presidency.
THE RUNDOWN
Washington Examiner: Trump names David Friedman his ambassador to Israel
Washington Examiner: Spicer denies claims Priebus made ‘package deal’ with Trump
The Hill: Trump Strikes Fear Into Defense Contractors
National Defense: Pentagon Accelerates Acquisitions Of Ship-Killing Missiles
Defense News: Granger Lobbies for Defense Appropriations Gavel
UPI: Sikorsky contracted for presidential helicopter work
Defense News: BAE Systems Presents First AMPV Prototype to US Army
UPI: Lockheed Martin to continue ICBM sustainment for U.S. Air Force
Military Times: U.S. military set to reach Afghanistan troop target next month
Long War Journal: IRGC officers killed in Palmyra
Marine Corps Times: Libya operation continues despite ISIS defeat
Time: Adm. James Stavridis: Donald Trump’s Top Priority Must Be A Strong China Strategy
Reuters: Philippines Says Won’t Protest China Actions In Spratly Islands
Reuters: ‘Is a Tweet policy?’ State Department officials ponder
Military Times: Trump transition team downplays delay in VA secretary decision
Defense One: Trump’s Bid to Remove NATO Official Could Easily Backfire on the US
Military.com: For Guantanamo Prisoners, Questions Loom as Trump Era Begins
Defense News: The Air Force Is Unworried by Trump’s Fickle Nuclear-Weapons Talk
Wall Street Journal: U.S. Deploys Tanks to Bolster Force in Europe
Calendar
FRIDAY | DECEMBER 16
9 a.m. 1775 Massachusetts Ave. NW. The Brookings Institution holds a panel discussion looking at U.S. and Japanese perspectives toward North Korea and its goals. Brookings.edu
2:15 p.m. The White House. President Obama holds a press conference before leaving for his annual family vacation in Hawaii.
1 p.m. Livestream. The Council on Foreign Relations hosts United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. cfr.org
MONDAY | DECEMBER 19
10 a.m. 1300 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. A panel of think tank analysts talks about what Palestinians and Israelis expect from Trump’s administration. wilsoncenter.org
10:30 a.m. 1030 15th St. NW. Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James delivers remarks at an Atlantic Council event titled “Capabilities, Reassurance & Presence: The US Air Force in Transatlantic Security.” atlanticcouncil.org
