The D Brief: U.S. reassessing Syria policy; If GOP wins, what happens?; Bob Hale to Booz, Allen; Ebola’s secret killer; and a bit more.

Yes it’s election day, but meantime, American officials are weighing whether to broaden the air campaign in Syria. A militant group that is a rival to the Islamic State and is poised to take over a “strategically vital corridor” from Turkey may be in the U.S. military’s sights after members of the Free Syrian Army were driven out of towns they controlled. This could raise questions about how the U.S. may have to expand its tenuous campaign inside Syria and may potentially raise more questions about how far the U.S. can do without making a heavier commitment across the board. The WaPo’s Karen DeYoung on Page One: “…Extremists from the al-Qaeda-linked Jabhat al-Nusra group were said Monday to be within a few miles of the Bab ­al-Hawa crossing in northwestern Syria on the Turkish border, one of only two openings through which the moderate Free Syrian Army receives military and humanitarian supplies provided by the United States and other backers.

… Apart from one attack by Tomahawk missiles against an ­al-Qaeda cell within Jabhat al-Nusra in late September, when the Syrian airstrikes began, U.S. and Arab warplanes have been targeting the Islamic State, a separate group that the administration has made clear is its primary target in Iraq and Syria.

The recent fighting in northwestern Syria has been taking place a long way from areas farther east where U.S. and Arab warplanes have been pounding Islamic State positions.

“But U.S. concern has grown rapidly in recent days amid fears about the border crossing, according to senior administration officials who spoke about internal discussions on the condition of anonymity.” More here.

The U.S. recruit-and-train mission in Syria was just dealt a major setback by an al-Qaeda affiliate in the north. WSJ’s Nour Malas and Mohammad Nour Alakraa reporting from Beirut: “Al-Nusra fighters over the weekend seized at least seven tanks, 12 armored vehicles and a number of heavy machine guns from warehouses at the village headquarters of Haraket Hazzm, the main U.S.-backed rebel group that has received U.S.-made TOW missiles, said activists and rebels in the area. From the headquarters of a second Western-backed group also based in Idlib, Syrian Revolutionary Front, they seized Chinese-made antitank missiles provided by Qatar.” The rest on that very fluid situation, here.

Remember Camp Bucca, the U.S. detention facility in Iraq? Some believe it was the delivery room for the Islamic State. The WaPo’s Terrence McCoy: “…The camp now represents an opening chapter in the history of Islamic State—many of its leaders, including Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, were incarcerated and likely met there. According to former prison commanders, analysts and soldiers, Camp Bucca provided a unique setting for both prisoner radicalization and inmate collaboration—and was formative in the development today’s most potent jihadist force.” More here.

In another life, at the Christian Science Monitor, in December 2007, we wrote about this very issue, here.

Want to get the Islamic State where it hurts? Go after the folks doing business with it. Zachary Goldman for Just Security, here.

The slaughter of tribesman in Iraq’s Anbar Province points up weaknesses in U.S. policy. McClatchy’s Jonathan Landay, with a Baghdad dateline, here.  

But of course it is election day, and there’s a lot on the line: Openings at SASC and HASC aren’t the only leadership changes on the horizon for U.S. defense policy. Molly O’Toole for Defense One covers nearly every corner of the musical chairs game over at Armed Services, Foreign Relations and Intel committees in this critical post-midterm outlook.

Here’s a few bits from Molly’s story:

If Republicans take the Senate, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a former presidential nominee and the GOP’s best-known face on defense, would at last take the gavel he’s long coveted. (McCain maxed out his 6-year term as ranking member in 2013, but he is the most senior Republican on the committee.)

Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., is in line to take over the committee if the Democrats keep the Senate, and Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla, would likely remain ranking member.

If Republicans win the majority, Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., is next in line for the Intelligence chairmanship, since Ranking Member Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., is retiring.

Noting: Runoffs in Louisiana and Georgia could delay by weeks whether anyone knows if the GOP takes over the Senate. The WSJ, here.

Welcome to the Tuesday edition of The D Brief, Defense One's new, first-read national security newsletter, where we toot our horn in good-bye for Tom Magliozzi, whose love of old Dodge Darts rivaled our own. His quotables, here. If you like what you see and you want us to subscribe a friend or colleague, we're very happy to do that. Subscribe here or send us a holler at glubold@defenseone.com and we'll put you on the list. Please send us your tips, your tidbits, your scoops and stories, your think tank reports and best of all your candy, but send it to us early for maximum tease. And whatever you do, we hope you'll follow us @glubold and @natsecwatson.

So how classified really are those NVGs that are at least part of what has former SEAL Matt Bissonnette in hot water? Defense One’s Patrick Tucker and Marcus Weisgerber tackled the question here in case you have an extra $35k laying around.

An uptick in U.S. drone strikes in Yemen. Reuters from the restive capital of Sanaa: “U.S. drone strikes killed a least 10 suspected al Qaeda militants on Tuesday in central Yemen, where fighting between members of Ansar al-Sharia and Shi'ite Muslim rebels also killed 10 people, local tribesmen said. Fighting has been taking place in central and western Yemen since the Houthis, officially known as Ansarullah, captured the capital Sanaa on Sept. 21, propelling the group into power brokers in the U.S.-allied country next door to Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter.” More from Reuters this hour, here.

The guy who seized power in Burkina Faso is an Army officer who received training from the U.S. military. The WaPo’s Craig Whitlock, here.

American officials are in reassessment mode over Ebola policy. The WaPo’s Lenny Bernstein: “The rate of new Ebola infections here has declined so sharply in recent weeks that even some of the busiest treatment facilities are now only half-full and officials are reassessing the scale of the response needed to quell the epidemic.

“The turnaround has occurred without the provision of a single treatment bed by the U.S. military, which has promised to build 17 Ebola facilities containing 100 beds each across Liberia.” More here.

Seen in the Pentagon: Ebola’s secret killer. Hanging off a desk of a Marine in the Pentagon is the official portrait of Marine Gen. Jim “No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy Mattis. Somebody got creative: above his head, it reads: “Gets Ebola.” Below him it reads: “Virus Dies.” See it here.

Who’s doing what today? Chuck Hagel meets John Kerry at 8am at State… and then Hagel meets President Barack Obama and VP Joe Biden at 4 p.m.

The Air Force just fired two nuclear commanders. AP, here.

A little tooo much? A question like this is why some service members are offended by DoD’s new sexual assault survey: “Before 9/18/2013, had anyone made you insert an object or body part into someone's mouth, vagina or anus when you did not want to and did not consent?"

Jill Loftus, director of the Navy's sexual assault prevention program: “We've had a number of complaints.”

Read AP’s Lita Baldor’s exclusive, ICYMI, from last week, here.

Arrested Development: The Navy said it just made aviation history. An F-35C Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter conducted its first “arrested landing” aboard the carrier Nimitz off the coast of San Diego yesterday. Navy test pilot Cmdr. Tony Wilson is walking just a bit taller today as the pilot who brought the plane down on the plane’s flight deck. From Wilson: “Today is a landmark event in the development of the F-35C… It is the culmination of many years of hard work by a talented team of thousands. I'm very excited to see America's newest aircraft on the flight deck of her oldest aircraft carrier, the USS Nimitz." Find that story and more from the Navy, here.

What can U.S. planners do within the constraints of international law to ease future tension in the South China Sea? Retired Navy Rear Adm. Michael McDevitt penned an exhaustive report that went live over at CNA Corporation this morning, here.

Full page ad this morning for the book by Starbucks’ Howard Schultz and the WaPo’s Rajiv Chandrasekaran’s new book: “For the Love of Country: What our Veterans Can Teach Us About Citizenship, Heroism, and Sacrifice,” in the NYT today. Bob Gates: “This splendid book should be read by every American. It is a story of heroes, of sacrifice, of valor. But it is also a story of resilience, recovery and a continuing desire to serve our country and its citizens. (Gates, the former SecDef, is also a member of the Starbucks Board of Directors, FYI).

Nice work if you can get it: Bob Hale, the Pentagon’s former comptroller, has been selected by Booz Allen to be a Booz Allen Fellow and will serve as an advisor to the firm. From a press release from the firm: “The Booz Allen Fellows program recognizes the highest level of achievement and impact, denoting the absolute best in industry and at Booz Allen.”

More here.

She got the call: Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, a Dem who represents the second district in Hawaii but who also serves as a military police captain in the Hawaii National Guard, has been called up for activation by the Guard to support it’s assistance to the Kilauea lava flow. She will join about 80 other Guardsmen already on the ground. A press release from her office made it clear to reporters: don’t be calling her: “During this time, she will be unable to accept media requests or make public statements related to her official congressional duties.”   

The Army has a new Sergeant Major of the Army. His name is Daniel Dailey, er, Sergeant Major Daniel Dailey. Read Stripes’ Chris Carroll’s profile of him here.

Jon Withington is now the director of public relations at MOAA. Withington, a retired Army public affairs officer, a colonel, who is well-known within the Pentagon, at the Office of the Secretary of Defense before serving for AHK-PA – (JK, it’s really the Office of the Chief of Public Affairs, or OCPA) before retiring, joined the Military Officers Association of America, or MOAA, just a few weeks ago.

And Cynthia Smith, another former public affairs officer at OSD, just left that office to join OCPA. Cynthia, whose first day was yesterday, is the new George Wright. Big shoes to fill but we wish her the best of luck.

Meantime: J.C. Campbell is reassessing the U.S. withdrawal timeline. FP’s Gopal Ratnam: The top commander overseeing the international military effort in Afghanistan, U.S. Army Gen. John Campbell, is assessing whether more coalition troops should stay in the country to train Afghan troops for longer than would be allowed under the Obama administration's current plans for a complete withdrawal in 2016.

“In a phone interview from Kabul, Campbell said he was "beginning now to take a hard look" at what effect delays in concluding a bilateral security agreement between the United States and Afghanistan and the months of uncertainty over the country's presidential elections have had on the preparedness of the Afghan military.” Via Stripes, here.

Also this: “Helmand is where I came to know the world, my fellow man, myself and the messy realities of all three.” Former Army social scientist Ryan Evans over at War on the Rocks with this dutiful, nostalgic look back at the violent, southwestern Afghan province, here.

Phil Breedlove said there’s no such thing as 4,000 Russians inside Ukraine. Gen. Breedlove, the NATO and EUCOM commander, briefed the Pentagon press corps yesterday and debunked reports that there were as many as 4,000 Russians inside Ukraine.

Breedlove, on the reports of 4,000 Russians: “I've never heard that reported…For some time now, we've been reporting about the same number of Russians inside Ukraine, and that is between 250 and 300 forces inside Ukraine. These are not fighting formations. These are formations and specialists that are in there doing training and equipping of the separatist forces. And that has been largely static now for some time, about seven battalion task groups on or about the border, and somewhere between 250 and 300 actual Russian troops inside of Ukraine doing the training and equipping of the separatist forces.”

Also, Breedlove said he’s working hard to hold the line on the number of U.S. troops in Europe. Stripes’ Chris Carroll with that angle, here.

Full transcript of his remarks, here.

Pentagon story, here.

From Moscow, with love: “Here’s why NATO fears Russian exercises.” Arms Control Wonk Jeffrey Lewis tweeted out this one yesterday from Russian naval blog “7 Feet Beneath the Keel,” and translated from the Russian government daily, Rossiyskaya Gazeta: “The [April 2014] encounter of a Russian bomber with the U.S. Navy destroyer DONALD COOK is worthy of a place in military training manuals as an example of an effective psychological attack… But in place of bombs or missiles, the SU-24s approaching DONALD COOK carried a container with a Khibina radio-electronic warfare system. After approaching the ship, the Khibina systems turned off its [the destroyer’s] smart radar, combat control links, and data transfer systems—in a word, the entire Aegis, like we turn off a television with the push of a button on a remote. Afterwards, the fighter-bombers conducted a simulated missile attack on the blind and deaf destroyer. Then another and then... a total of 12 combat approaches. DONALD COOK never approached Russian waters again. Nor did NATO ships that relieved it in the Black Sea.” The rest on Moscow’s alleged PsyOps victory, here.  

Kiev may scrap portions of the cease-fire today after OCSE’s “peace drone” was fired upon during separatist elections held over the weekend. WaPo’s Michael Birnbaum from Moscow, here.

The financial scrutiny of NSA chief-turned-entrepreneur Keith Alexander just got a little more intense. In Shane Harris’ first piece at The Daily Beast, he turns a spotlight on possible shady investments with AT&T tech provider Synchronoss while Alexander headed up the agency. Read about Alexander’s alleged conflicts of interest, here.