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Welcome to the final edition of our very first week here at National Security Daily (it’s Friday!), POLITICO’s newsletter on the global events roiling Washington and keeping the administration up at night. I’m Alex Ward, a national security reporter at POLITICO and your guide to who’s up, who’s down and what’s happening inside the Pentagon, the NSC and D.C.’s foreign policy machine. National Security Daily will arrive in your inbox Monday through Friday by 4 pm; please subscribe here.
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Polarization. Misinformation. Bigotry. Racism. All fuel the growing threat of domestic extremism in the United States. But a top White House official says there’s one more key component complicating the administration’s efforts to thwart attacks: guns.
“Easy access to firearms — especially certain types of firearms — can make acts of domestic terrorism more feasible to undertake and more lethal once they happen,” JOSHUA GELTZER, the deputy homeland security adviser at the NSC, told NatSec Daily in his first on-the-record interview since assuming that position this month. “As this administration works … to address some of the challenges associated with the widespread availability of firearms in this country, we are doing so with the knowledge that that is a priority in and of itself — as well as one that relates to the stepped-up efforts that we’re undertaking to address domestic terrorists.”
Geltzer piloted the first-ever “National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism,” bringing together experts from across the government to understand the threat and plan for it. One aspect of the strategy includes “reducing access to assault weapons and high-capacity magazines and enforcing legal prohibitions that keep firearms out of dangerous hands.”
Geltzer was more explicit on the administration’s link between gun control and quashing domestic terrorism during his interview with NatSec Daily. Asked if gun reforms were imperative to stopping domestic terrorism, Geltzer replied: “I think tackling things that feed into the domestic terrorism challenge is an imperative, and there are a lot of things that feed into it. Easy access to certain types of firearms feeds into it. But so does, for example, polarization fueled by disinformation. That can make recruitment to domestic terrorism causes easier and more likely.”
In a sense, these comments aren’t too surprising, as President JOE BIDEN has repeatedly pushed for gun reform measures since taking office. It’s to be expected that his deputies would echo those sentiments, and gun control as a check on the lethality of domestic extremists isn’t a new concept.
But the administration’s view of America’s domestic terrorism challenge exposes the already wide rift between Democrats and Republicans on the issue of firearms. For GOP lawmakers, guns aren’t part of the problem — while the White House clearly thinks they are. When it comes to handling the challenge at home, then, it’s unlikely the two parties will read from the same script.
The Inbox
TOP JAN. 6 COMMITTEE STAFFER UNDER FIRE: Just after yesterday’s newsletter went live, Democrats announced the staff of their House Jan. 6 select committee. A NatSec Daily tipster was troubled by the hiring of DAVID BUCKLEY as staff director, since the former CIA inspector general had a deeply troubled tenure in government.
Just read this 2019 piece by Yahoo! News’ JENNA MCLAUGHLIN, citing a DHS inspector general report: Buckley and other CIA OIG officials “opened a ‘retaliatory investigation’ into an employee who was cooperating with a separate review of the office.” That employee was ANDREW BAKAJ, and CIA OIG officials put him on administrative leave as part of an effort “to expose and ferret out whistleblowers inside the office.”
“Bakaj’s problems began in 2014 when his colleagues approached him about concerns that multiple senior employees at the CIA inspector general’s office were involved in facilitating or covering up evidence mishandling in one of its investigations of a contractor. Bakaj ended up speaking with colleagues at the intelligence community inspector general’s (ICIG) office about the concerns, some of which made their way to Congress,” McLaughlin wrote.
Bakaj didn’t return a request for comment. But a former CIA employee who filed an official complaint against Buckley — and whose lawyers recommended they speak only on background — did, and they’re incensed by the appointment.
“The Democrats should know about Buckley’s wrongdoings. He’s completely unqualified” to lead the committee. Plus, his hiring “puts the entire result of the committee in question. This is an unforced error … and could seriously taint the results,” the former CIA official told NatSec Daily.
Not only did Buckley create a “hostile work environment,” they said, but he also pushed the legal boundaries of what the office could do. “He wanted investigative staff to be armed and have arrest powers” like FBI special agents, “but CIA inspectors don’t do that because we don’t want people to think we’re the SS.”
The Committee speaks. In response to NatSec Daily’s questions about Buckley’s officially reported misconduct, a spokesperson for the Jan. 6 select committee sent along this statement: “Mr. Buckley raised this matter during the staff director interview process and denies taking any action against the complainant in retaliation for the employee’s claimed whistleblowing. In his role as CIA Inspector General, Mr. Buckley had no choice but to place the complainant on administrative leave after the CIA’s Office of Security suspended the employee’s clearance.”
In other words, Democrats on the committee accept Buckley’s denials over the conclusions of the official, unclassified DHS report.
As for the comments by the complainant, the spokesperson said: “Mr. Buckley worked tirelessly for over four years to conduct rigorous oversight of the CIA and to transform his Office into a respected and competent organization. He instituted federal investigative standards and demanded more training and oversight of his staff. Unfortunately, some people rejected and fought the changes.”
BIDEN’S HAITI DELEGATION: Biden announced who he’s sending to Haiti “to pay respects'' after the assassination of President JOVENEL MOÏSE this month. Notables in the six-person delegation include U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations LINDA THOMAS-GREENFIELD, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair GREGORY MEEKS (D-N.Y.) and JUAN GONZALEZ, the top NSC official for the Western Hemisphere.
Gunshots rang out at the start of the funeral today, forcing Thomas-Greenfield and others to be rushed to vehicles and to safety. Per Reuters, it seems those noises came from crowd control measures being used on protesters outside the funeral. White House press secretary JEN PSAKI told reporters this afternoon that the delegation “is safe and accounted for.”
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Blowing Up
TALIBAN’S CONDITIONS FOR PEACE: If the Afghan government and the Taliban are to make peace, then the militants say President ASHRAF GHANI must go.
That’s what their spokesperson SUHAIL SHAHEEN told the Associated Press in a Friday interview, with the AP summarizing his comments this way: “[T]he Taliban will lay down their weapons when a negotiated government acceptable to all sides in the conflict is installed in Kabul and Ghani’s government is gone.” Psaki responded to that saying the president "supports the leadership of the Afghan people."
NatSec Daily followed up with Shaheen to see if he’d expand on his remarks to the AP. “We will continue to have negotiations with the other side … even though Ashraf Ghani may be staying [in] power,” said Shaheen. “But the ultimate outcome should be replacement of the current Kabul administration by an Islamic government acceptable to all Afghans.”
When we asked why anyone should trust the Taliban when it says it wants a diplomatic end to the conflict, Shaheen answered: “We are practically continuing negotiations in Doha to reach a peaceful solution. We are not using our full military force for military takeover,” claiming the militants only respond to attacks by the Afghan government against them without providing specific evidence.
BILL ROGGIO, who tracks the war closely for the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, called Shaheen’s comments “a complete lie” — noting that the Taliban has overtaken many districts since the foreign troop withdrawal. “That’s an offensive operation,” Roggio said.
NS2 DEAL ON THE ROCKS?: Our colleagues DAVID M. HERSZENHORN, AMERICA HERNANDEZ and LAURENZ GEHRKE deliver a stunning paragraph about the pact: “A day after the U.S. and Germany announced a deal allowing the completion of the controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, top officials conceded that neither the White House nor the Chancellery have the authority to implement some of its most crucial components.”
Why? Partly due to political and legal challenges from the government of Ukraine — and because if Nord Stream 2 doesn’t violate EU law, the bloc can’t stop its construction.
“I am glad that we have succeeded so far” in brokering an agreement, German Chancellor ANGELA MERKEL said at a recent news conference. “And we also have a lot of tasks ahead.”
Keystrokes
CHINA’S ROCKY PATH TO “CYBER POWERHOUSE” STATUS: A new report by the Center for Security and Emerging Technology at Georgetown University pours some cold water on Beijing’s ambitions to lead the world in cyberspace. “[T]hree issues China’s military must overcome to build an effective cyber force: talent, innovation, and indigenization. These cyber-specific challenges likely extend to China’s civilian intelligence service, the Ministry of State Security, and its internal security agency, the Ministry of Public Security.”
NO HACK IN INTERNET BLACKOUT: The downing of thousands of websites yesterday wasn’t because of a cyber attack, reports CyberScoop’s TIM STARKS. “Akamai can confirm this was not a cyberattack against Akamai’s platform,” the company at the center of the blackout said in a statement. “A software configuration update triggered a bug in the DNS system, the system that directs browsers to websites.… This caused a disruption impacting availability of some customer websites.”
The Complex
PENTAGON GETS BIG PAYDAY: Per our own CONNOR O’BRIEN, the Senate’s move to jack up the White House’s budget blueprint by $25 billion could complicate things for the president: “The proposed increase is a bipartisan blow to Biden’s spending plans, as well as to advocates who sought to curb historically high levels of defense spending. The increase could shake up budget talks significantly with House Democrats already endorsing Biden’s $715 billion level for the base Pentagon budget in their annual defense spending bill.”
Another eye-popping element in the bill is that women, for the first time ever, would be required to register for selective service.
On the Hill
SOMALIA STRIKE SETS UP WAR POWERS FIGHT: The three lawmakers who want to claw back war powers from the president — Sens. BERNIE SANDERS (I-Vt.), CHRIS MURPHY (D-Conn.) and MIKE LEE (R-Utah) — aren’t happy Congress wasn’t consulted on the drone strike in Somalia this week.
“We’re troubled that no one in the administration sought the required legal authorization from Congress for Tuesday’s drone strike in Somalia especially with no American forces at risk — and apparently, did not even check with our Commander-in-Chief,” they said in a joint statement. “It’s time to do away with questionable legal justifications claimed by one administration after the next for acts of war like this.”
Since the Somalia strike, NatSec Daily keeps hearing more and more about a greater push from Congress over war powers. Rep. ILHAN OMAR (D-Minn.) even sent Biden a letter about the Somalia strikes. Expect action in the weeks ahead.
Broadsides
AFGHANISTAN WITHDRAWAL BLOWBACK: A House bill authorizing 8,000 more visas for Afghan partners of the U.S. government passed with a 407-16 vote, but some lawmakers didn’t let the moment of comity go by without blasting the administration’s troop drawdown.
“Unfortunately, the Biden administration’s reckless withdrawal is allowing the Taliban to once again seize control of Afghanistan, and the urgency of the situation on the ground is not hyperbole,” Rep. MICHAEL WALTZ (R-Fla.) said on the House floor during debate. “No one is safe from the Taliban reprisal we’ve seen in recent weeks.”
Republicans were also upset with a new manager’s amendment they say would have expanded the program. It’s why Rep. BARRY MOORE (R-Ala.) was one of the 16 members to vote against the bill, his spokesperson MADELINE CORSO explained to NatSec Daily: “Rep. Moore is supportive of efforts to ensure we honor our commitments to Afghan interpreters,” but he worried the new measure was “opening the program to possible fraud and abuse.”
Transitions
JAN. 6 SELECT COMMITTEE COMMS LEAD: TIM MULVEY, formerly the spokesperson for the House Foreign Affairs Committee during ousted New York Rep. ELIOT ENGEL’s time in charge, is now communications director for the Jan. 6 select committee. This morning, he tweeted: “Nice to be back” — accompanied by a photo of a sun-lit Capitol.
NEW PENTAGON TECH CHIEF: The Senate has confirmed HEIDI SHYU to be undersecretary of defense for research and engineering, per O'Brien for Pros — a post from which she’ll lead the Pentagon's cutting-edge technology efforts.
Senators also rubber-stamped CAROLINE KRASS as the Defense Department’s general counsel; ELY RATNER as assistant secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific security affairs; SHAWN SKELLY as assistant secretary of Defense for readiness; GINA ORTIZ JONES as undersecretary of the Air Force; and MEREDITH BERGER as assistant secretary of the Navy for energy, installations and environment.
What to Read
Slate: “The National Security Disaster You Probably Missed Last Week”
The Washington Post: “She leads Estonia’s democracy while keeping an eye on ‘the bully next door’”
The National Institute for Public Policy: “Overselling and Underperforming: The Exaggerated History of Arms Control Agreements”
Claremont Review of Books: "Right Flight: The war between the states"
Monday Today
— Secretary of State ANTONY BLINKEN embarks on his trip to India and Kuwait: He’ll return to Washington on July 29, per the State Department.
— The Middle East Institute, 10 a.m.: “Past as Prologue: Revisiting Bernard-Henri Lévy’s 2002 Report on Afghanistan”
— The Center for Strategic and International Studies, 12 p.m.: “A Navy Admiral’s Bronze Rules: Managing Risk and Leadership”
— The Hudson Institute, 12 p.m.: “The U.S. & Indo-Pacific: A Conversation with Rep. Young Kim”
Have a natsec-centric event coming up? Transitioning to a new defense-adjacent or foreign policy-focused gig? Shoot us an email at [email protected] or [email protected] to be featured in the next edition of the newsletter.
See you again Monday, and have a great weekend.
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Easy access to guns makes domestic terror attacks harder to stop, NSC official says - Politico
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