WHAT, WHEN DID DOD KNOW?: The National Center for Medical Intelligence issued a rare public denial of a report by ABC News, which alleged that “concerns about what is now known to be the novel coronavirus pandemic were detailed in a November intelligence report” by the NCMI, which is part of the Defense Intelligence Agency.
“Analysts concluded it could be a cataclysmic event,” according to an unnamed source who told ABC the reports were then “briefed multiple times,” to the DIA, the Pentagon’s Joint Staff, and the White House.
‘NO SUCH PRODUCT’ EXISTS: The ABC News report, which alleged that 2019 intelligence depicted an “American government that could have ramped up mitigation and containment efforts far earlier to prepare for a crisis poised to come home,” sent Pentagon officials scrambling to find the report in question.
“NCMI and the Defense Intelligence Agency spent considerable time over the last 24 hours examining every possible product that could have been identified as related to this topic and have found no such product,” said a defense official last night.
That, in turn, prompted Col. R. Shane Day, a medical doctor and director of the DIA’s National Center for Medical Intelligence, to issue a rare public statement.
“As a matter of practice, the National Center for Medical Intelligence does not comment publicly on specific intelligence matters,” Day said. “However, in the interest of transparency during this current public health crisis, we can confirm that media reporting about the existence/release of a National Center for Medical Intelligence Coronavirus-related product/assessment in November of 2019 is not correct. No such NCMI product exists.”
ESPER WOULD HAVE KNOWN: Defense Secretary Mark Esper was questioned about the purported November intelligence assessment by ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on last Sunday’s episode of This Week.
“Did the Pentagon receive an intelligence assessment on COVID in China last November from the National Center for Medical Intelligence of DIA?” Stephanopoulos asked.
“Oh, I can’t recall, George,” said Esper, who didn’t seem to know what Stephanopoulos was referring to. “But,” he said, “we have many people who watch this closely.”
“This assessment was done in November, and it was briefed to the NSC in early December to assess the impact on military readiness, which, of course, would make it important to you, and the possible spread in the United States,” pressed Stephanopoulos. “So, you would have known if there was briefed to the National Security Council in December, wouldn’t you?”
“Yes,” Esper agreed, adding, “I’m not aware of that.”
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HAPPENING TODAY: Esper, along with Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley, and Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Ramon “CZ” Colón-López, senior enlisted adviser to the chairman, will be holding a “virtual town hall meeting” for U.S. military personnel, DOD civilian employees, and their families.
Military members are invited to post questions on the Pentagon’s Facebook page, which will broadcast the event live at 10:30 a.m. It will also be streamed live on Defense.gov.
ALSO TODAY: Deputy Defense Secretary David Norquist and Joint Chiefs Vice Chairman Gen. John Hyten are scheduled to brief reporters at the Pentagon at 9 a.m. Many reporters are working from home and will be calling in by phone. The briefing will also be livestreamed on Defense.gov.
COVERING THE GUARD: At a Pentagon briefing yesterday, Gen. Joseph Lengyel, the chief of the National Guard Bureau, was at a loss to explain why many National Guard troops mobilized under Title 32 authority were called up for 30 days, one day short of what would qualify them for full federal benefits, including medical coverage under the military’s TRICARE system.
“I don’t really know the answer to that question. We recommended a longer period of time at the beginning,” Lengyel said, adding that the oversight was being corrected, at least in the 31 states covered by a new presidential memorandum issued Tuesday.
“I am directing the Federal Emergency Management Agency of the Department of Homeland Security to fund 100 percent of the emergency assistance activities associated with preventing, mitigating, and responding to the threat to public health and safety posed by the virus that these States undertake using their National Guard forces,” says the memo signed by President Trump.
Under the Title 32 pay authority, Guard troops are under state control but get federal pay. “And now, because those memorandums allow them to be covered for up to 31 days, they will have full insurance and full medical benefits,” Lengyel said.
MODLY’S COSTLY RANT: USA Today is reporting that U.S. taxpayers paid nearly a quarter of a million dollars so that Thomas Modly could fly halfway around the world to vent his anger to the crew of the USS Theodore Roosevelt, insult the ship’s popular commanding officer, expose himself to the coronavirus, and end his tenure as acting Navy secretary.
“Cost of Navy secretary’s trip to Guam? $243,000, his job and isolation after exposure to coronavirus,” tweeted reporter Tom Vanden Brook. “Costly trip to Guam. Very costly.”
“Modly flew aboard the C-37B, a Gulfstream business jet modified for military use. The per-hour cost of flying it is $6,946.19 per hour, according to the Navy official who was not authorized to speak publicly. Flight time for the Guam trip was about 35 hours for a cost of $243,116.65,” Vanden Brook reported.
NATO’S VIRTUAL MEETING: On the other hand, the Pentagon will be saving travel expenses for next week’s NATO defense ministerial, which will be held via secure teleconference, with only NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg actually in Brussels.
NATO’s sprawling headquarters building is on lockdown as a precautionary measure to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Topic A, says a NATO release, will be the alliance’s response to COVID-19.
Stoltenberg has promised to hold a press conference after the Wednesday virtual meeting, with reporters invited to email in their questions.
50,000 UNTOLD STORIES: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has been singing the praises of his department’s massive airlift of stranded Americans around the globe in recent weeks.
“We had tens of thousands of Americans that were stranded all across the world, some of them on church mission trips, some of them there on business, some of them there with families on vacation,” Pompeo told Fox News Radio’s Guy Benson yesterday. “We began to get calls saying, ‘Hey, we’re stuck,’ and we started to build out infrastructure to get them all back home.”
Pompeo says the effort is not over, but so far, the State Department has managed to rescue more than 50,000 stranded Americans with some 490 flights from more than 70 countries.
“We had folks stranded near Mount Everest; we had people in mountainous terrain in Peru — all across the world,” he said. “We set out to build out an infrastructure where we could take in messages from people who were trapped or stranded or needed to get home and translate that into our workload and then deliver buses, medicine, transportation, the things they needed to be safe and healthy, and then ultimately to get them back home. It’s been quite an undertaking.”
SO LONG, ALYSSA: After eight months at the Pentagon, Alyssa Farah is going back to the White House. “Farah is joining the White House as Director of Strategic Communications from her current role as Press Secretary for the Department of Defense,” said the official announcement yesterday.
“Honored to join the @WhiteHouse as Director of Strategic Communications. This is a critical moment in our nation’s history & @realDonaldTrump is the leader we need to get us through it, keep us safe, & recharge our economy on the other side. Grateful to join the incredible team!” Farah tweeted after the announcement.
The Rundown
Washington Examiner: National Guard suffers PPE shortages as plans begin for state sharing
Washington Examiner: Syrian Air Force responsible for 2017 chemical weapon attacks: International watchdog
Washington Post: Saudi Arabia announces cease-fire in Yemen war
Politico: Esper Lobbies Senate To Quickly Confirm New Navy Secretary
USNI News: Navy Leaders Sink Ship Names Proposed in SECNAV Modly’s Last Days
Military Times: Pentagon Reports Nearly 1,000 New Troops With Coronavirus In Last Five Days
Breaking Defense: COVID-19: Army ‘Running Out Of Time’ To Start New Hospitals
CNN.com: Military Sending Doctors Into New York Hospitals Hard Hit By Coronavirus As New Facilities Sit Mostly Empty
Stars and Stripes: USS Theodore Roosevelt Sailors Comprise More Than Half Of Navy’s Coronavirus Cases
San Francisco Chronicle: Coronavirus Cleanup Crews On Infected Navy Ship Using T-Shirts For Masks
Task & Purpose: Corps Says Marines Won’t Be Allowed To Wear N95 Or Surgical Masks, Even If They Own Them
Washington Post: Navy Prepares To Send USS Nimitz To Sea As Coronavirus Surfaces Among Its Crew
San Diego Union-Tribune: Sailor Aboard Hospital Ship Mercy Tests Positive For COVID-19
Just the News: The launch will go on: Amid pandemic, U.S., Russian crew to blast off for space
Defense One: Putin Takes Another Step in Bid to Control Russia’s Internet
AP: Philippines Backs Vietnam After China Sinks Fishing Boat
Military.com: Pentagon Extends ID Card Expiration Dates, Allows Mail Order for Some
Calendar
THURSDAY | APRIL 9
8 a.m. — Defense Writers Group audio conference call with Gen. Timothy Ray, commander, Air Force Global Strike Command, and commander, Air Forces, U.S. Strategic Command. https://nationalsecuritymedia.gwu.edu
9 a.m. Pentagon, Briefing Room 2E973 — Deputy Defense Secretary David Norquist and Joint Chiefs Vice Chairman Gen. John Hyten brief reporters at the Pentagon. https://www.defense.gov/Watch/Live-Events/
10:30 a.m. Pentagon, Briefing Room 2E973 — Defense Secretary Mark Esper, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley, and Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Ramon “CZ” Colón-López, senior enlisted adviser to the chairman, hold a “virtual town hall meeting” for U.S. military personnel, DOD civilian employees, and their families. https://www.defense.gov/Watch/Live-Events/
11:10 a.m. Pentagon, Briefing Room 2E973 — Air Force Col. Mark Larson, 914th Air Refueling Wing commander, and Maj. Alevante Marte, 914th public health emergency officer, host a virtual town hall. Livestream at: https://www.dvidshub.net/webcast/23798.
WEDNESDAY | APRIL 15
All Day, Brussels, Belgium — Meeting of NATO defense ministers, including U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper, via secure teleconference. Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg’s press conferences will be broadcast live on the NATO website, as well as on social media platforms Twitter and Facebook. No physical access to NATO headquarters will be allowed for news media, which will be able to ask questions remotely.
WEDNESDAY | APRIL 29
8 a.m. — Northrop Grumman Corporation webcasts its first quarter 2020 conference call, with Kathy Warden, chairman, chief executive officer, and president, and Dave Keffer, chief financial officer. http://investor.northropgrumman.com
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“In this new environment of coronavirus, we’re all learning, adapting, and improving by the hour. There is no better example of this than USS Theodore Roosevelt — staring down an invisible enemy, dedicated in their efforts, making phenomenal progress, and providing lessons for the Navy and beyond. America. Has. A. Great. Navy. Our nation counts on you, and so do I.”
Message to the fleet from Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday.
