MARINE MAJOR CHARGED: Federal law enforcement authorities have arrested and charged an active-duty Marine officer with various crimes after a co-worker identified him from photographs as being among a group of protesters who fought their way into the Capitol on Jan. 6.
Marine Maj. Christopher Warnagiris, who has been stationed at the Marine Corps Base, Quantico since the summer of 2020, was charged with a variety of federal offenses, including assaulting police officers, obstruction of law enforcement, and impeding the orderly conduct of government business.
Warnagiris, 40, is the first active-duty member of the military to be charged in the Jan. 6 insurrection, according to the Pentagon, which says so far the Justice Department has charged four reservists and 41 military veterans in connection with the assault on the Capitol.
WHO KNEW? The Pentagon would not say if any of Warnagiris’s fellow Marines were aware of his alleged participation in the Jan. 6 riot before the FBI showed up at his military command at Quantico with pictures and video frame grabs. Warnagiris was originally identified by a person who saw three pictures posted on an FBI website and called to report him.
Asked at a Pentagon briefing if the Defense Department was investigating whether any of his fellow officers might have known about Warnagiris’s presence at the Capitol and passively condoned it by remaining silent, spokesman John Kirby said, “I’m not aware of any investigation that the department is undertaking with respect to this individual.”
“I think we need to respect the process right now,” Kirby said. “This is a Justice Department action. This individual has been charged, and under our system, you’re innocent until proven guilty, and we need to let the legal process play out.”
STILL NO SOLID DATA ON EXTREMISM: The arrest came the same day President Joe Biden’s nominee to be Army secretary, Christine Wormuth, was questioned at her Senate confirmation hearing about the prevalence of extremist views in the military.
“I know you share my concern about the unacceptable rise of White Nationalism and other extremist ideologies in the military,” said Democratic Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth, an Army veteran.
“The vast majority of our Army soldiers serve with honor. And I think that the numbers of soldiers who hold extremist views is likely small,” said Wormuth. “But as you noted, and as Secretary Austin has noted, extremism in our ranks undermines unit cohesion and can have a disproportionately negative effect. So, it’s very important that we work to identify it and get it out of the ranks.”
Duckworth was followed by Sen. Dan Sullivan, an Alaska Republican, who blamed the media for portraying the military as “a hotbed of extremist racists, at very high levels.”
“There are wild claims, wild claims,” Sullivan said, arguing anecdotal reports of isolated incidents were “besmirching a lot of people,” including “an organization that throughout American history hasn’t been perfect, but it’s probably been on the forefront of bringing the racists together. Again, not perfect.”
“I don’t think that this is a case where there are large numbers of extremists, for example. And I do think it would be useful to have additional data,” said Wormuth. “You know, as you said yourself, there are certainly surveys, I think that show that there are some pockets in some cases of racist behavior.”
SENATORS WARN BIDEN’S ARMY SECRETARY ABOUT ‘WILD CLAIMS’ OF EXTREMISM IN RANKS AFTER CAPITOL RIOT
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HAPPENING TODAY: Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley speaks at Texas A&M University’s ROTC commissioning ceremony at 1 p.m. EDT. Livestream at https://www.facebook.com/TheJointStaff
ALSO TODAY: Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Cyber Policy Mieke Eoyang and Army Gen. Paul Nakasone, commander, U.S. Cyber Command, testify before a House Armed Services Subcommittee at 11 a.m.
SEXUAL ASSAULT REPORT: The Pentagon has released its annual report on sexual assault in the military, and based on 2020 data, reports of assault remain at record highs, while the number of cases that went to trial has dopped along with convictions for sexual assault.
“Reports of sexual assaults have increased virtually every single year and remain at record highs, while prosecution and conviction rates have declined, including a shocking 10% decline in the prosecution rate from last year,” said New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who called the latest data “a clear and disturbing trend.”
Gillibrand, a Democrat who has been working for years to take the authority to decide which sexual assault cases go to trial away from military commanders, also announced yesterday she now has a “filibuster-proof bipartisan majority” backing her bill to shift that responsibility to professional prosecutors.
Her Military Justice Improvement and Increasing Prevent Act now has 61 Senate backers, including 41 Democrats, 2 Independents, 18 Republicans, and the majority of the Senate Armed Services Committee members, which virtually guarantees its passage in the Senate. “With widespread support, the commonsense military justice reform legislation has multiple paths to becoming law this Congress,” said Gillibrand.
A companion measure sponsored by California Democrat Rep. Jackie Speier in the House is also gaining support.
DOD RELEASES REPORT ON SEXUAL ASSAULT IN THE MILITARY AMID INTENSIFIED FOCUS
LESSONS FROM GAZA: The Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance, a private group, which, as its name implies, advocates for increased spending on missile defense, is taking a look at how Israel’s defenses have been performing against the barrage of Hamas rockets in the escalating military conflict in Gaza.
The barrage of hundreds of rocket, artillery, and mortar rounds fired from the Gaza Strip “present the most comprehensive air-defense challenge to Israel, both in terms of depth and scope of the strikes,” an analysis by the group concludes. “On Monday evening alone, Hamas shot over 250 rockets. The intentionally-close proximity of the launch sites to civilian Palestinian population centers and infrastructure, also poses a serious operational dilemma to the Israeli forces attempting to target and strike legitimate targets in heavily-populated areas.”
“Iron Dome, the low-tier, ground-based missile-defense system co-developed with the United States — with coordination between Israel’s Missile Defense Organization and the U.S. Missile Defense Agency — is designed, developed, and deployed to defeat [rocket, artillery, and mortar] strikes,” the analysis states, noting, “the system has shown an 85% to 90% success rate in defending against these threats since 2011.”
No data has been released about the effectiveness of Iron Dome in this latest engagement.
WHAT IS IRON DOME? KEY ISRAELI MISSILE DEFENSE SYSTEM FACING SEVERE TEST
The Rundown
19fortyfive.com: Opinion: How to Possibly Start a War with Russia: Let Ukraine Join NATO
Washington Examiner: DOD releases report on sexual assault in the military amid intensified focus
Washington Examiner: Senators warn Biden’s Army secretary about ‘wild claims’ of extremism in ranks after Capitol riot
Washington Examiner: In this Army vs. Navy contest, the Army risks being sidelined by the Marines
Washington Examiner: Republicans demand answers about Biden administration no-bid contracts for housing migrants
Washington Examiner: H.R. McMaster targeted in planned sting operation by conservative activists: Report
Washington Examiner: US greenlights Security Council meeting as Israeli ground forces attack Gaza
Washington Examiner: Israel announces air and ground troops attacking Gaza Strip
Washington Examiner: Opinion: The War on Terror after Afghanistan
Washington Post: Here’s What A Sprawling Washington Post Investigation Found About The Capitol Riot Arrests
Breaking Defense: Marine Commandant Embraces Flat Budgets For Two Years
National Defense Magazine: Marine Corps Commandant Prioritizing Anti-Ship Missiles
Military.com: Marines Sank a Moving Ship When They Fired a Navy Missile from a Drone Truck
Air Force Magazine: ‘Skyrocketing’ Support Costs Threaten Air Force Modernization
Seapower Magazine: CNO: Three Virginia SSNs Per Year A ‘Challenge’
Air Force Magazine: New Force Design: NGAD Needed Soon, F-22 Sunset Begins in 2030
Reuters: When Biden Meets Putin: Old Foes Could Cool Off But Not Reset
AP: Russian Admiral Frets over ‘Provocative’ NATO Drills
Washington Post: ISIS used chemical weapons on Iraqi prisoners, U.N. investigators find
Financial Times: Pentagon Delays Report On Chinese Companies With Military Ties
Marine Corps Times: Marine Corps To Re-Evaluate Body Composition Standards
AP: Ex-Army Green Beret to be sentenced for Russian espionage
USNI News: U.S. Begins Joint Exercise in Japan with French and Australian Navies
Calendar
FRIDAY | MAY 14
9 a.m. — Atlantic Council webinar: “Transforming the British Army,” with Gen. Mark Carlton-Smith, chief of the general staff of the British army. https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/event
9 a.m. — Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies webinar: “The Future of Afghanistan After U.S. Withdrawal,” former U.S. Ambassador to NATO Douglas Lute, CEO of Cambridge Global Advisers. https://sais.jhu.edu/campus-events
11 a.m. 2118 Rayburn — House Armed Services Subcommittee on Cyber, Innovative Technologies, and Information Systems hearing: “Operations in Cyberspace and building Cyber Capabilities Across the Department of Defense,” with Mieke Eoyang, deputy assistant secretary of defense for cyber policy; and Army Gen. Paul Nakasone, commander, U.S. Cyber Command, director, National Security Agency. https://armedservices.house.gov/hearings
12 p.m. — Hudson Institute virtual event, “A Conversation with David Albright,” with Albright, one of the few nuclear experts granted access to the Iranian Atomic Archive captured by Israel in 2018, and Michael Doran senior fellow at Hudson. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/virtual-event
1 p.m. — Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley speaks at Texas A&M University’s ROTC commissioning ceremony. Livestreamed on https://www.facebook.com/TheJointStaff
TUESDAY | MAY 18
10 a.m. — Brookings Institution virtual discussion: “The Marine Corps and the future of warfare,” with Gen. David Berger, commandant, U.S. Marine Corps; and Michael O’Hanlon, senior fellow and director of research, foreign policy, The Brookings Institution. https://www.brookings.edu/events
WEDNESDAY | MAY 19
11 a.m. — President Joe Biden delivers commencement address at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy’s class of 2021 graduation ceremony New London, Conn. https://player.vimeo.com/video/542198025
THURSDAY | MAY 20
1 p.m. — Center for a New American Security releases new report: “More than Half the Battle: Information and Command in a New American Way of War,” with author Chris Dougherty. https://www.cnas.org/events/cnas-report-rollout
SATURDAY | MAY 22
10 a.m. — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin delivers commencement address at the U.S. Military Academy’s class of 2021 graduation ceremony at West Point, New York. Live stream at https://www.youtube.com/channel
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“For two years, at least, we will not ask for one additional dollar.”
Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger, expressing his willingness to live with flat defense budgets for the first two years of the Biden administration, speaking at the McAleese Defense Programs Conference.
