RUSSIA SANCTIONS: Congress is poised this week to force President Trump‘s hand, as well as handcuff him in the future, by passing a sweeping Russian sanctions bill that would not only punish Moscow for meddling in the U.S. elections, but would sharply limit the president’s ability to grant sanctions relief down the road. The bill passed the Senate by a near unanimous 98-2 vote, and is expected to pass easily in the House tomorrow. That will puts Trump in a tight spot. If he vetoes the bill, he risks feeding the perception that’s he too eager to please Russian President Vladimir Putin. If he signs it, he’ll be allowing Congress to limit his flexibility in dealing with Russia as he tries to forge a new relationship with Putin.
MIXED MESSAGE: While White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders signaled Trump will sign the sanctions bill in her appearance on ABC yesterday, her boss White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci said on CNN that the president hasn’t yet decided. “He hasn’t made the decision yet to sign that bill one way or the other,” Scaramucci said. But he also said Trump remains unconvinced Russia interfered in the election, despite the consensus of the U.S. intelligence community. “If, in fact, he makes a decision that it’s 100 percent true, he is going to be super tough on Russia. But let him — let him — let him do it at his own time and pace.”
Sanders was on a different page entirely, telling ABC that now that the bill focused on Russia’s annexation of Crimea, Trump was ready to sign the sanctions into law. “The original piece of legislation was poorly written but we were able to work with the House and Senate. And the administration is happy with the ability to do that and make those changes that were necessary,” Sanders said. “We support where the legislation is now, and will continue to work with the House and Senate to put those tough sanctions in place on Russia until the situation in Ukraine is fully resolved.”
NOT JUST RUSSIA: The House votes tomorrow on the sanctions, which now includes Iran and North Korea as well as Russia. “North Korea, Iran and Russia have in different ways all threatened their neighbors and actively sought to undermine American interests,” said House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and House Foreign Affairs Chairman Ed Royce said in a statement. “The bill the House will vote on next week will now exclusively focus on these nations and hold them accountable for their dangerous actions.”
IRAN DEFIANT ON SANCTIONS: Iran says it will launch a new missile production line despite new U.S.-imposed sanctions over its ballistic missile program. Iranian Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan told people attending a ceremony Saturday that the Sayyad 3 missile will be able to travel up to 74 miles at an altitude of 16 miles, according to Iranian state media. The missile could be used to target fighter planes, helicopters, and cruise missiles, according to a Reuters report of the remarks. Dehghan cited a $110 billion weapons deal between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia as Iran’s reason for developing new missile technologies.
‘STAR WARS’ REDUX: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s successful test of an intercontinental ballistic missile, theoretically capable of hitting Alaska, has Congress again looking to space for the high ground in defending the U.S. Both the House and Senate want the Pentagon to pursue what Sen. Dan Sullivan calls the “unblinking eye,” an array of orbiting satellite sensors that could collect high-quality launch data on future ballistic missiles from North Korea. But the House is poised to go further, resurrecting a vision of space defenses first envisioned by former President Ronald Reagan.
Rep. Trent Franks sponsored the legislation in the House version of the National Defense Authorization Act calling for research and prototyping of the controversial space-based missile interceptors. Franks called it a “true paradigm shift” and the “biggest step since Reagan” in preventing a nuclear strike. The bill puts $30 million into creating a “test bed” to try out hardware in space that could shoot down incoming North Korean ballistic missiles, similar to the United State’s existing ground-based interceptors at Fort Greely in Alaska, and Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
KABUL ATTACK: The Taliban claimed responsibility for a suicide car bombing in the Afghan capital of Kabul. The bomber drove a car packed with explosives into a bus carrying government employees in an upscale neighborhood during morning rush hour. Afghan officials said 24 people were killed and 42 wounded.
Good Monday 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: President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner is scheduled to meet with Senate Intelligence Committee staff behind closed doors today to answer questions about contact between the Trump campaign and Russian officials. In December, Kushner met with a leading Russian diplomat, and also attended a June 2016 meeting with Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., and his former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, and a Russian lawyer who Trump Jr. believed had damaging information on Hillary Clinton. Kushner’s attorney said his client’s appearance before Congress is voluntary and he is cooperating fully.
The Washington Post said it has obtained an 11-page prepared statement Kushner will submit for the record, which he details four meetings with Russian officials, but denies any improper contacts or collusion.
Tomorrow Kushner will talk privately to members of the House Intelligence Committee, and on CBS yesterday Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the panel, said they have a lot of unanswered questions. “We want to know whether those meetings took place, whether other meetings took place. We have a lot of ground to cover. His counsel has said they will only make him available for two hours,” Schiff said. “So, we expect this is just going to be the first interview.”
POLITICIZING THE MILITARY? At Saturday’s commissioning of the USS Gerald R. Ford, the president ad libbed into his remarks a call for political action. After promising the crowd in Norfolk, Virginia, that the military would get the additional funding he has promised, he asked predominantly military audience to “call that congressman and call that senator and make sure you get it.” After a burst of applause he added, “And by the way, you can also call those senators to make sure you get healthcare.”
Setting aside that members of the military already have healthcare, that rubbed some people, particularly Democrats, the wrong way, accusing Trump of urging members of the military to take sides on a highly partisan political issue.
“I condemn President Trump’s remarks. We need to be one-hundred percent clear that it is utterly beyond the pale for the commander in chief to publicly tell members of the armed services that they should lobby Congress on his behalf,” said Rep. Adam Smith, ranking members on House Armed Services Committee. “Doing so puts them in an untenable position and disrespects their longstanding professional practices as well as their duty to remain apolitical. President Trump has done this before, and he cannot be allowed to keep doing it.”
DON’T BLAME US: The New York Times is crying foul after a Trump tweet blaming the newspaper for compromising a mission to capture or kill Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Early Saturday morning Trump tweeted, “The Failing New York Times foiled U.S. attempt to kill the single most wanted terrorist,Al-Baghdadi. Their sick agenda over National Security.” The tweet followed a report on one of the president’s favorite shows “Fox and Friends,” which was headlined: “NYT Foils U.S. Attempt To Take Out Al-Baghdadi.”
That in turn was based on an interview Fox News’ Catherine Herridge conducted with U.S. Special Operations Commander Gen. Raymond Thomas at Aspen Security Forum in Colorado. Asked if the U.S. was ever close to getting Baghdadi, Thomas said. “There were points in time when we were particularly close to him. Unfortunately, there were some — some leaks about what we were up to at that — at that time, you know, when — when we went out after Abu Sayyaf, the oil minister, who was very close to him, one of his personal confidants. He didn’t live, but his wife did, and she gave us a treasure trove of information about where she had just been with Baghdadi in Raqqa, you know, days, if not, you know — within days prior, and so that was a very good lead. Unfortunately, it was leaked in a prominent national newspaper about a week later, and that — that lead went dead.’
The Times is pushing back on the account, and asking for an apology from Fox News. “A review of the record shows that information made public in a Pentagon news release more than three weeks before the Times article, and extensively covered at the time by numerous news media outlets,” the Times reported.
On Friday Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said so far as he knows Baghdadi is still alive, despite numerous reports recently saying he died. Mattis said he has seen no evidence that Baghdadi is dead, although Russia claimed in June it killed him during an airstrike in Syria a month earlier. The Pentagon has said the group’s “caliph,” who last appeared publicly in 2014 in Mosul, does not appear to be involved in command-and-control operations over Islamic State forces fighting in Iraq and Syria. “I think Baghdadi’s alive,” Mattis said. “I think that he is alive, and I’ll believe otherwise when we know we’ve killed him.”
MATTIS ON THAT PUTIN DINNER MEETING: In speaking with reporters, Mattis scoffed at all the fuss over Trump’s dinner meeting with Putin at the G-20 summit in Hamburg, Germany. I’ve been to hundreds of these dinners, ladies and gentlemen, and you just walk around talking because you don’t want to be bored sitting there just eating your pâté de foie gras,” Mattis said in another semi-regular Friday session with the Pentagon press corps. “People do get up and go see their wife at dinner, and if they’re sitting next to the other country that just had a two-hour talk or whatever it was, of course they are going to talk,” Mattis said. “If you watched me at dinner, you’d find me talking to some ne’er-do-wells, just the way I do business,” Mattis said. “You talk to people who agree, but mostly you try to talk to people who disagree with you when you’re in a social setting because that’s when you can probably get into more than superficial things.”
“I’m not trying to make fun of you guys in the press.” Mattis said. “My God, he talked to Putin. Give me a break.”
NOT THE BEST TIME: At the Aspen forum Saturday National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers expressed minimum high enthusiasm for the idea of a joint U.S.-Russia cybersecurity unit. It seemed like the idea was dead when Trump tweeted after his Putin meeting, “The fact that President Putin and I discussed a Cyber Security unit doesn’t mean I think it can happen. It can’t.” But a Russian presidential envoy said this week that Moscow and Washington were still talking about creating a joint cybersecurity working group. “I’m not a policy guy here,” Rogers said, according to Reuters. “I would argue now is probably not the best time to be doing this.”
NICE TRY: It turns out that an intrepid student journalist in Washington State is not the only one who gave Secretary Mattis’ private number a shot. You may recall Mattis’ cellphone number was scrawled on a sticky note that showed in photograph published in the Washington Post. High School student Teddy Fischer used the number to score an exclusive interview with Mattis, and Friday Mattis revealed that Michael Gordon of the New York Times has also texted his private phone. Mattis said he saw the message but didn’t read it, and seemed to indicate his old phone had been “impounded.”
“I just noticed you sent me a text message like a week ago,” Mattis said. “Oh, wow. OK. You can still answer it,” Gordon replied. “I don’t even know what it is about.” To which Mattis said, “I don’t either.”
Hey. It was worth a shot.
THE RUNDOWN
Washington Post: How ISIS nearly stumbled on the ingredients for a ‘dirty bomb’
Reuters: As U.S. weighs Afghan strategy, hopes set on fledgling Air Force
New York Times: Terror suspect brought to U.S. for trial, breaking from Trump rhetoric
USA Today: Does Trump really have ‘complete power to pardon?’
Stars and Stripes: Taliban capture two more districts as summertime fighting continues
Defense News: Senators sending lofty Space Corps hopes down to Earth
CNN: Scaramucci: Trump still doesn’t accept intelligence conclusion on Russia
Defense One: Trump’s special ops pick says terror drones might soon reach the U.S. from Africa. How worried should we be?
AP: Turkish leader wades into Qatar dispute with Gulf tour
New York Times: U.S. Army sergeant is charged with trying to aid Islamic State
DoD Buzz: Quadcopter that swims and flies could be used for Navy special ops
Wall Street Journal: Countering China proves tall order for Japan and India
Calendar
WEEK AHEAD
MONDAY | JULY 24
2 p.m. 1152 15th St. NW. Release of the report “Higher, Heavier, Farther, and Now Undetectable? Bombers: Long-Range Force Projection in the 21st Century” with Jerry Hendrix. cnas.org
TUESDAY | JULY 25
10 a.m. Rayburn 2172. Authorization for the Use of Military Force and current terrorist threats with former Attorney General Michael Mukasey. foreignaffairs.house.gov
10 a.m. 1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW. Future of vertical lift and forging a new paradigm with David Dowling of Northrop Grumman; Keith Flail with Bell Helicopter; Richard Koucheravy with Sikorsky; Dave Schreck of Rockwell Collins Government Systems; H. Eric “Delta” Burke of Harris Corporation; and Col. Robert Freeland with the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics. csis.org
12 p.m. 214 Massachusetts Ave. NE. Lessons from Rome: Civic virtue and the empire’s decline with Hugh Liebert, associate professor at the United States Military Academy. heritage.org
2 p.m. Rayburn 2212. Evaluating DOD equipment and uniform procurement in Iraq and Afghanistan with John Sopko, special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction. armedservices.house.gov
2 p.m. Rayburn 2172. Held for ransom: The families of Iran’s hostages speak out. foreignaffairs.house.gov
2:30 p.m. Dirksen 419. Assessing the maximum pressure and engagement policy toward North Korea with State Department acting Assistant Secretary Susan A. Thornton. foreign.senate.gov
2:30 p.m. Russell 222. Options and considerations for achieving a 355-ship Navy from naval analysts. armed-services.senate.gov
WEDNESDAY | JULY 26
9 a.m. 214 Massachusetts Ave. NE. What a North Korean ballistic missile threat means for the U.S. missile defense system with Sen. Dan Sullivan. heritage.org
10 a.m. Rayburn 2172. U.S. cyber diplomacy with Christopher Painter, coordinator for cyber issues at the State Department. foreignaffairs.house.gov
2 p.m. Rayburn 2172. Assessing the U.S.-Qatar relationship. foreignaffairs.house.gov
2 p.m. 1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW. History of U.S. alliances in the Asia-Pacific region. csis.org
4:30 p.m. 800 17th St. NW. 2017 Women In Defense HORIZONS Scholarship celebration. ndia.org
THURSDAY | JULY 27
9:30 a.m. 1152 15th St. NW. Economic levers of U.S. policy toward North Korea. cnas.org
10 a.m. 1300 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. Hostilities in the Himalayas? Assessing the India-China border standoff. wilsoncenter.org
12:30 p.m. 529 14th St. NW. Luncheon with Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley. press.org
2 p.m. Rayburn 2154. Subcommittee hearing on combating homegrown terrorism. oversight.house.gov
2:15 p.m. Rayburn 2172. Hearing on a bill to prohibit travel-related transactions to, from, and within North Korea by persons subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. foreignaffairs.house.gov
2:30 p.m. Rayburn 2172. U.S. interests in the Asia-Pacific region, a Fiscal Year 2018 budget hearing. foreignaffairs.house.gov
FRIDAY | JULY 28
12 p.m. 1030 15th St. NW. The ramifications of Rouhani’s reelection. atlanticcouncil.org
2:30 p.m. 1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW. Retired military leaders from Japan and the U.S. discuss the results of the Military Statesmen Forum. csis.org
MONDAY | JULY 31
10 a.m. 1775 Massachusetts Ave. NW. NATO at a crossroads and the next steps for the trans-Atlantic alliance. brookings.edu
12 p.m. 5000 Seminary Rd. iFest 2017 with a keynote by Major Gen. Thomas Deale, vice director of Air Force Joint Force Development. ndia.org
