HERE WE GO AGAIN: North Korea yesterday fired another missile over the northern tip of Japan, which Tokyo denounced as an “extremely provocative act.” South Korea responded by releasing released video of two missiles of its own fired into the sea from mobile launchers in a “show of force.” The U.S. Pacific command says it tracked what appeared to be another intermediate range ballistic missile fired from North Korea’s capital Pyongyang. It was quickly determined that it did not threaten Guam or any other U.S. territory, so the U.S. military issued another statement that its commitment to defend U.S. allies in the region remains “ironclad.”
STRONGLY WORDED STATEMENT: “North Korea’s provocative missile launch represents the second time the people of Japan, a treaty ally of the United States, have been directly threatened in recent weeks,” Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in statement. “These continued provocations only deepen North Korea’s diplomatic and economic isolation.” Tillerson said if North Korea is asking for even tougher sanctions, it will get its wish. “United Nations Security Council resolutions, including the most recent unanimous sanctions resolution, represent the floor, not the ceiling, of the actions we should take.”
MATTIS REACTS: Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who just happened to be visiting U.S. Strategic Command headquarters in Omaha, Neb., yesterday, told reporters traveling with him that the launch “put millions of Japanese into duck and cover” before the missile landed in the Pacific.
“We have just got done with the calls we always make to coordinate among ourselves. Steady as she goes,” he said, according to Reuters.
TRUMP’S TAKE: Even before the latest launch, President Trump was talking about doing more to punish Kim Jong Un and to pressure China to step up its efforts. “We are working on different things,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One returning to Washington after inspecting hurricane damage in Florida yesterday. “I can’t tell you, obviously, what I’m working on. But believe me, the people of this country will be very, very safe,” Trump said.
Just a week after the U.N. slapped the toughest sanctions to date on North Korea, Tillerson called on the international community to back new measures against the Kim regime. “China supplies North Korea with most of its oil. Russia is the largest employer of North Korean forced labor,” Tillerson said. “China and Russia must indicate their intolerance for these reckless missile launches by taking direct actions of their own.” Russia and China have opposed U.S. efforts to impose an oil embargo on the North, and to freeze Kim’s assets.
KIM PRESSES ON: The latest commercial satellite imagery shows activity at a different tunnel at North Korea’s Punggye-ri nuclear test site, suggesting the Sept. 3 nuclear test may have rendered that location unusable for future tests. The overhead photos show numerous landslides on the slopes of Mt. Mantap, according to the website 38 North. Scientists writing on the site also say the magnitude of North Korea’s sixth test was more than twice as powerful as initially calculated, in the range of 250 kilotons, or 12 times the yield of the fifth test a year ago, and well within the range of what would be expected from a powerful hydrogen bomb.
“I‘m not a nuclear scientist, so I can’t tell you this is how it worked,” U.S. Strategic Commander Air Force Gen. John Hyten told reporters visiting STRATCOM with Mattis. “But I can tell you the size that we observed and saw tends to me to indicate that it was a hydrogen bomb and I have to figure out what the right response is with our allies as to that kind of event.”
THE OTHER NUCLEAR THREAT: The Trump administration let yesterday’s congressionally-imposed deadline go by without reimposing sanctions on Iran, even as Trump expressed continued dissatisfaction with the nuclear deal negotiated by the Obama administration and other world powers. “Certainly, at a minimum, the spirit of the deal is just atrociously kept, but the Iran deal is not a fair deal to this country. It’s a deal that should have never, ever been made,” Trump told reporters yesterday. “You’ll see what we’re doing in a couple of weeks. It’s going to be in October,” he said.
Iran is “in default” of the expectation that the nuclear agreement would improve regional security, Tillerson told reporters during a Thursday press conference. Tillerson is in London to discuss the crisis in North Korea and Libya with British officials, and maintained “no decision has been made” about whether Trump will step back from the nuclear agreement.
The CIA is worried that Iran could shortcut its path to a bomb by covertly supporting the Kim regime in North Korea, with the one thing it desperately needs: Money. “As North Korea continues to improve its ability to do longer-range missiles and to put nuclear weapons on those missiles, it is very unlikely if they get that capability that they wouldn’t share it with lots of folks and Iran would certainly be someone who’d be willing to pay them for it,” said CIA Director Mike Pompeo this week. “The North Koreans have a long history of being proliferators and sharing their knowledge, their technology, their capacities around the world,” he told Fox.
BREAKING THIS MORNING: Authorities in London are treating a small explosion on a commuter rain as a possible terrorist incident. The explosion sent commuters running in panic, and drew a heavy response from law enforcement. No deaths were reported, but some commuters reported being burned by a device, which appeared to be in a white plastic bucket inside a supermarket shopping bag. Eighteen people are being hospitalized. Reports say 18 people were hurt, but none with serious or life-threatening injuries.
Trump tweeted: “Another attack in London by a loser terrorist. These are sick and demented people who were in the sights of Scotland Yard. Must be proactive! Loser terrorists must be dealt with in a much tougher manner. The internet is their main recruitment tool which we must cut off & use better!”
He continued: “The travel ban into the United States should be far larger, tougher and more specific-but stupidly, that would not be politically correct! We have made more progress in the last nine months against ISIS than the Obama Administration has made in 8 years.Must be proactive & nasty!”
Good Friday morning and welcome to Jamie McIntyre’s Daily on Defense, compiled by Washington Examiner National Security Senior Writer Jamie McIntyre (@jamiejmcintyre), National Security Writer Travis J. Tritten (@travis_tritten) and Senior Editor David Brown (@dave_brown24). 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.
HAPPENING TODAY, POW/MIA RECOGNITION: A pair of F/A-18 Hornets will pass over the Pentagon’s parade field shortly after 10 a.m. today, as the Department of Defense marks National POW/MIA Recognition Day. Remarks will be delivered by Deputy Defense Secretary Pat Shanahan; Army Maj. Gen. Michael Howard, commanding general, Military District of Washington; and Sen. John Boozman.
MATTIS IN MEXICO: Mattis is in Mexico City today to participate in the Mexican Independence Day activities. Mattis told reporters traveling with him he will reaffirm the U.S.-Mexico commitment to the bilateral defense relationship and to the North America community. He said the military-to-military relationship remains strong with America’s southern neighbor, as the Mexicans battle internal enemies, in Mattis’ words “primarily the narco guys.”
NDAA IN THE HOME STRETCH: The Senate is wrapping up debate on the National Defense Authorization Act, meaning senators expect to take a final vote on passing the $700 billion annual defense policy bill on Monday. Yesterday’s 84-9 vote clears the way for a bill authorizing a major hike over current military spending and over the $639 billion defense budget requested by Trump for 2018, aiming for more troops, aircraft and ships than the president. Once passed, Senate Armed Services led by Sen. John McCain and top Democrat Sen. Jack Reed, and House Armed Services led by Rep. Mac Thornberry and ranking member Rep. Adam Smith will start their conference to hammer out differences and negotiate a final version of the legislation over the next few months. The House passed its $696 billion NDAA bill in July and it also calls for increasing soldiers, ships and aircraft.
BUT NO AMENDMENT DEAL: The vote to end debate on the NDAA, which the Senate calls invoking cloture, also scuttled any last efforts to bring at least four controversial bill amendments to the floor. After more than a day of negotiating, the Senate could not reach a consensus. “I had hoped to debate and vote on a number of other amendments from senators of both parties, especially the proposal to end sequestration,” McCain said. Sen. Tom Cotton’s sequestration amendment would have eliminated the mandatory, arbitrary cuts, often portrayed as a budget meat cleaver, that have enforced budget spending caps since 2013. It could have allowed Congress to move ahead with the major hikes in McCain’s and Thornberry’s 2018 defense bills and McCain wanted a vote, but Democrats opposed it. Still, 104 less controversial amendments were added to the bill and more could come. “Between now and final passage, it is my hope that we can agree on another package of amendments to strengthen this legislation even further,” McCain said.
SPENCER GOES TO SASC: Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer is set to testify Tuesday before a Senate committee on two deadly ship collisions that killed 17 sailors this summer in the Pacific. The appearance by Spencer and the Navy’s top uniformed officer, Adm. John Richardson, before the Senate Armed Services Committee at 9:30 a.m. comes after service officials testified in the House last week.
TRAINING ACCIDENTS: The Army’s Special Operations Command confirmed yesterday that one soldier was killed and seven others injured in a training accident at a range at Fort Bragg, N.C. The shadowy command was tight-lipped about details, insisting everything surrounding what was described as a “demolitions training incident” was under investigation and could not be released. The injured troops were “students and cadre” at the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School at Bragg. The soldier who succumbed to his injuries, was identified as Staff Sgt. Alexander P. Dalida, 32, of Dunstable, Mass.
The incident happened a day after the Marine Corps reported that 14 Marines and a Navy sailor were injured when an amphibious assault vehicle caught fire in a land-based training accident at Camp Pendleton, Calif., prompting McCain to once again tie the training mishaps to budget cuts. “In the past few months, we have seen far too many reports of death and injury to service members due to accidents during training. Four times as many service members died during routine training in the last three years than in combat,” McCain said. “These incidents demonstrate the current over-taxed state of our military both at home and overseas, and the failure of Congress and the president to give our troops the training, resources and equipment they need.”
AMERICAN ISIS: An American citizen who joined the Islamic State in Syria has been captured by advancing U.S.-backed partner forces, the Pentagon confirmed yesterday. “Syrian Democratic Forces turned over an American citizen who surrendered to SDF on or around Sept. 12 to U.S. forces,” said Maj. Adrian Rankine-Galloway, a Pentagon spokesman. “The U.S. citizen is being legally detained by Department of Defense personnel as a known enemy combatant. We refer further questions on this matter to the Department of Justice.”
The American jihadist was captured by SDF, an umbrella group that includes Syrian Kurd and Arab fighters, who have been among of the most effective local fighting forces working to destroy the self-proclaimed caliphate. As a condition of U.S. support, the SDF has agreed to turn over any captured foreign nationals. “SDF, as our partner, has, you know, taken note to make sure that any fighters that they capture, that they maintain them and bring them to the proper authorities,” said Col. Ryan Dillon, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad.
“As a U.S. government, we say: Don’t go do that!” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told reporters at a press briefing. “You can’t be very bright if you’re going to go over there and do that.” That jibe stood as a placeholder for direct comment on an issue that could create tension between the Trump administration’s stated goal of killing every foreign fighter who joined the Islamic State, and the constitutional due process rights of American citizens.
GETTING AWAY WITH CYBER: Cyberattacks that might have constituted an “act of war” went unpunished by the U.S. over the last decade, leading to a more dangerous cyber environment, according to a top Navy admiral.
“We’ve had an awful lot of examples of what, 10 years ago, we assumed would be construed as an act of war,” Vice Adm. Jan Tighe said Thursday. “And, in a lot of cases, there has not been a response, either a military response or a diplomatic response.”
Tighe, the deputy chief of naval operations for information warfare, suggested that policy makers in recent years failed to develop international standards due to a belief that cyber technology was too nascent. But the danger of hacking threats grew quickly, leaving U.S. officials uncertain of how to respond.
HARVARD’S MANNING MISSTEP: Harvard University has withdrawn its invitation to Chelsea Manning to be a visiting fellow at the Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School amid intense backlash over the controversial decision. In a statement issued around midnight, Douglas Elmendorf, dean of Harvard Kennedy School, admitted that naming Manning a visiting fellow for the fall semester was “a mistake.” Manning is still invited to speak at the school, but won’t be a visiting fellow, which Elmendorf said carries with it a “perceived honor” to “some people.”
Former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell announced yesterday that he would step down as a senior fellow at the Ivy League school in response to Manning being named a visiting fellow. “Manning was found guilty of 17 serious crimes, including six counts of espionage, for leaking hundreds of thousands of classified documents to WikiLeaks, an entity that CIA Director Mike Pompeo says operates like an adversarial foreign intelligence organization,” wrote Morell in his resignation letter.
Pompeo also backed out of a speaking engagement scheduled for last night over the Manning issue. “My conscience and duty to the men and women of the [CIA] will not permit me to betray their trust by appearing to support Harvard’s decision with my appearance at tonight’s event,” Pompeo wrote.
Manning accused Harvard of caving to pressure from the CIA, in a series of emoji-filled tweets early this morning, “honored to be 1st disinvited trans woman” from Harvard’s visiting fellowship program, “they chill marginalized voices under @cia pressure.”
THE RUNDOWN
Wall Street Journal: U.S. Renews Iran Sanctions Waiver, But Adds Others
Reuters: Kremlin accuses West of ‘whipping up hysteria’ over Russian war games
Defense News: BAE joins race for new U.S. frigate with its Type 26 vessel
Reuters: North Korea Threatens To ‘Sink’ Japan, Reduce U.S. To ‘Ashes And Darkness’
Daily Beast: Did the Marines’ 40-year-old ‘amphibious tractor’ just strike again?
AP: Mnuchin: Plane request was about national security
Wall Street Journal: Tillerson urges Myanmar to end ‘horrors’ against Muslim minority
War on the Rocks: A fleet to do what?
Navy Times: Iran produces propaganda video showing its forces destroying U.S. Navy
DefenseTech: McCain collision investigation a test case for Navy cyber experts
Defense One: The only path to peace is a Kurdistan independent of Iraq
Miami Herald: Military Thins Irma Relief, Aircraft Carrier Goes But 10,000 Guard Troops Stay
Roll Call: Navy reviewing Murphy’s disclosure of affair
New York Times: Japan’s Dennis Rodman? An ex-wrestler, politician and 32-time guest of North Korea
Calendar
FRIDAY | SEPT. 15
9:15 a.m. 1775 Massachusetts Ave. NW. Europe and the U.S.: The old order faces a new world with Victoria Nuland, former assistant secretary of state. brookings.edu
9:30 a.m. 1211 Connecticut Ave. NW. Voices from Japan and visions for Japan’s future defense posture. stimson.org
10 a.m. 1300 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. A united front? U.S.-Japan relations at a time of uncertainty. wilsoncenter.org
MONDAY | SEPT. 18
1:30 p.m 1300 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. “Inside the Battle of Algiers” book discussion about the memories of Algeria’s freedom struggle. wilsoncenter.org
2 p.m. 1211 Connecticut Ave. NW. The impact of the Trump administration on U.S.-Taiwan relations. stimson.org
3 p.m. 214 Massachusetts Ave. NE. U.S. policy toward Lebanon and what comes next. heritage.org
4 p.m. 1300 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. Mobilizing the Russian nation: Patriotism and citizenship during World War I with historian Melissa K. Stockdale. wilsoncenter.org
4 p.m. 1300 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. China’s Arctic and Antarctic ambitions. wilsoncenter.org
TUESDAY | SEPT. 19
8 a.m. 2401 M St. NW. Defense Writers Group breakfast with Air Force Gen. Joseph Lengyel, chief of the National Guard Bureau. defensewriters.gwu.edu
9:30 a.m. Dirksen G-50. Hearing on recent United States Navy incidents at sea with Navy Secretary Richard Spencer, Adm. John Richardson, chief of naval operations, and John Pendleton, director of defense force structure and readiness issues at the Government Accountability Office. armed-services.senate.gov
10 a.m. Dirksen 419. Consideration of the nomination of Jon M. Huntsman, Jr., to be the U.S. ambassador to Russia. foreign.senate.gov
2 p.m. 1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW. U.S.-Canadian defense industrial cooperation with Frank Kendall, former under secretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, and Martin Zablocki, CEO of Canadian Commercial Corporation. csis.org
3 p.m. 1775 Massachusetts Ave. NW. The roller coaster of Turkey-Russia relations. brookings.edu
WEDNESDAY | SEPT. 20
6:30 a.m. 1800 Jefferson Davis Hwy. Special topic breakfast with Rear Adm. Ronald Boxall, director of Navy surface warfare. navyleague.org
4:45 p.m. 1777 F St. NW. A conversation with Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, prime minister of Pakistan. cfr.org
THURSDAY | SEPT. 21
10 a.m. 1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW. Lessons from developing Afghanistan’s security forces with John Sopko, special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction. csis.org
3:30 p.m. 1300 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. Book talk on “Melting the Ice Curtain: The Extraordinary Story of Citizen Diplomacy on the Russia-Alaska Frontier” with author David Ramseur. wilsoncenter.org
FRIDAY | SEPT. 22
10 a.m. 1775 Massachusetts Ave. NW. Meeting U.S. deterrence requirements with Madelyn R. Creedon, former principal deputy administrator at the National Nuclear Security Administration, and Walter Slocombe, former undersecretary of defense for policy. brookings.edu
10 a.m. 1030 15th St. NW. A debate on whether the U.S. should arm Ukraine. atlanticcouncil.org
3:30 p.m. 1777 F St. NW. A perspective from the League of Arab States on restoring stability in a turbulent Middle East with Ahmed Aboul Gheit, Arab League secretary general. cfr.org
