Obama on war and peace; Russia woos Syrian rebels; Industry stock soars under budget caps; Navy ditches aquaflage; and a bit more.
Obama on war and peace in Syria. Last week. we heard U.S. State Secretary John Kerry say the details of a U.S.-Russian cooperation plan could come out as soon as today. But Thursday, President Barack Obama said any such deal isn’t going anywhere until the Assad regime pulls its finger off the trigger at least a little bit, The Wall Street Journal reported after a rare presidential stop at the Pentagon Thursday.
“There are going to be some bottom lines that we expect for us to cooperate with Russia beyond the sort of deconfliction that we’re currently doing—and that means restraint on the part of the regime that so far has not been forthcoming,” the president said.
But he didn’t close the door altogether: “The violations of this cessation [of hostilities] have grown to the point where it just barely exists, particularly up in the northwestern part of the country. So we’re going to test and see if we can get something that sticks, and if not, then Russia will have shown itself very clearly to be an irresponsible actor on the world stage that is supporting a murderous regime.”
With the UN tentatively set to sit down with rebel representatives later this month in Geneva, it’s difficult to see the Russian-backed Assad regime giving up on its renewed offensive on rebel-held Aleppo anytime soon. More from Obama’s Pentagon presser below.
But first: Russia is trying to poach U.S.-backed rebels in Syria with promises of “unlimited weapons,” The Daily Beast’s Michael Weiss reports this morning. “In an exclusive interview with The Daily Beast, Mustafa Sejry of the Liwa al-Mu’tasim Brigade said that he met personally with a Moscow representative the Syrian-Turkish border 10 days ago and was offered ‘unlimited amounts of weaponry and close air support’ to fight both ISIS and Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, the rebranded al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria, in exchange for the Mu’tasim Brigade’s transfer of loyalties from Washington to Moscow.”
Russia’s pitch, according to Sejry: “We’re not stuck to any kind of agenda. What we want to do is go back to 2012 when there was a government and an opposition.”
And Sejry says he’s considering the deal “after what he describes as a year and a half of anemic U.S. support and broken promises. He also said his American patrons do not appear particularly bothered by this power play from a foreign government.”
A bit more on this particular rebel: “Sejry’s relationship with the U.S. military has been fraught, to say the least. He and 1,000 other affiliated rebels—then only applicants to the Pentagon’s train and equip program—threatened to withdraw their candidacy over strict conditions being imposed on them by CENTCOM, namely that they not use their training or U.S.-provided weaponry to fight Bashar al-Assad’s regime and its manifold proxies, only ISIS. Those tensions dissipated, however, as Sejry did ultimately join the program and, against expectation and norm, thrived amidst other institutional failures.”
Middle East analyst Charles Lister backs up Weiss’s report. Lister said he knows of at least 19 groups that have been contacted by the Russians. Lots more drama and accusations (including that the U.S. is short-changing rebels’ pay—a broken record from the American efforts to woo local fighters during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars) over at The Daily Beast, here.
But some Syrian rebels have just made some grisly demands of their own, while attempting to negotiate the handover over the downed Russian helicopter crew from Monday’s crash in Idlib province. A group calling itself the General Foundation for Prisoners’ Affairs demanded the release of prisoners in exchange for the five corpses from the crash site, Reuters reported Thursday. “It wanted the release of prisoners held in Syrian government jails and by Damascus’s Lebanese Shi'ite ally Hezbollah in Lebanon. It did not say who those prisoners were, or how many it wanted released. It also demanded an end to the siege of areas blockaded by the Syrian army and its allies, and for the delivery of significant amounts of humanitarian aid to people living in besieged areas. The statement showed what appeared to be identity cards belonging to those killed in the crash.” No comment yet from Russia or Syria on the demands. More here.
In Iraq, ISIS may have captured some 3,000 Iraqis “from villages in Hawiga District in Kirkuk Governorate trying to flee to Kirkuk city… and subsequently executed 12 of them, the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said,” Reuters reported Thursday night.
On the bright side (so far as there is one for Iraqi refugees), “UNHCR has begun building a site northeast of Mosul for 6,000 people and is preparing another northwest of the city for 15,000,” which Reuters notes is just “a fraction of those expected to need shelter.” More here.
Over to Yemen now, where the Saudis just admitted to “unintended bombings” in its war against Iranian-backed Houthi militants, AP reports this morning from Yemen’s capital of Sana’a. “Spokesman [for the Saudi-led campaign] Mohammed al-Mansour, in comments published Friday by the Saudi Press Agency, chronicled eight incidents which rights groups said killed hundreds of civilians.”
However, AP writes, “Overall, the committee concluded that there was no deliberate targeting of civilians and therefore no violation of international laws. The coalition's investigative committee, according to SPA, is independent and composed of representatives from six countries, all members of the Gulf Cooperation Council — the core group of the coalition— in addition to a Yemeni representative.”
For the record: “Rights groups and U.N. agencies say that more than 9000 people have been killed during the conflict, which pushed the Arab world's poorest nation to the brink of famine.” More here.
Obama cites progress against ISIS. Just days before the two-year anniversary since the airstrike campaign began, President Obama touted progress against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria. “ISIL has not had a major successful offensive operation in either Syria or Iraq in a full year. Even ISIL’s leaders know they’re going to keep losing. In their message to followers, they’re increasingly acknowledging that they may lose Mosul and Raqqa.” More here.
Obama rattled off a list of reasons to be upbeat about the campaign so far: “Two years ago, ISIL was racing across Iraq to Baghdad itself, and to many, looked invincible. ISIL has lost at Tikrit, and now Fallujah.”
Add to that list these Iraq locations retaken in the last nine months: Baiji, Mt. Makhoul, Ramadi, the Tharthar region, Hit, Haditha, Rutbah.
Obama continued: “In Syria, they have lost in numerous locations, losing territory across vast stretches of the border with Turkey and major transit routes. ISIL has not been able to reclaim any significant territory they have lost.”
The president’s hourlong solo press conference at the Pentagon was unprecedented. In 2012, Obama became the first president to come into the press briefing room when he announced the pivot to the Pacific, his foreign-policy shift to counter China’s rise. He’s been back since, even taking a few questions, but Thursday’s press conference, in which he was the only speaker, was a first. Obama called on six reporters, four from the White House press corps and two from the Pentagon press corps. In case you’re wondering, the White House chooses who gets the questions.
What was he asked about? ISIS, the $400 million cash payment to Iran (he said the same-day timing with prisoner releases was coincidental, not quid pro quo), Donald Trump (he encouraged Trump to “act presidential”), and prison sentence commutations.
From Defense One
Industry stock soars under budget caps; V-22 flies with 3-D printed part, and more from the Global Business Brief by Marcus Weisgerber. Check it, here.
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Pakistan wants U.S., Afghan help with its downed helicopter in Afghanistan. The helicopter, headed to Russia for a “routine overhaul,” crash-landed in Afghanistan’s Taliban-held eastern Logar province on Thursday—and now the Taliban has all seven passengers in custody, Pakistan’s prime minister said this morning. “Formal and informal channels are being used to ensure safe recovery of the entire crew,” Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said in a statement from his office.
“Pakistan’s army chief, General Raheel Sharif, called Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Friday to request his country's help,” which came one day after he reached out to the U.S. commander of the war in Afghanistan, Gen. John Nicholson, with the same request, Reuters reports.
Said the Taliban: All seven passengers, six Pakistanis and a Russian technician, “are being looked after, being provided tea, food, everything… We are in touch with the Pakistani officials. We conveyed to them that they are in safe hands.”
The Taliban leader’s new mission: win back disaffected jihadis. “In one key example, the new Taliban chief has nominated a former military commander in Helmand, Mullah Abdul Qayum Zakir, to return to an official post just as the insurgency is intensifying efforts to retake the province. Other nominations include Mullah Nanai as chief justice of the Taliban supreme court,” The Wall Street Journal reports from Kabul. “The more inclusive approach marks a break from Mullah Mansour, who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in May. Mullah Mansour had attempted to stamp out opposition to his leadership, after rival factions battled for control of the group. The group splintered when it emerged last year that their supposed leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, had died two years before and his death had been kept secret.”
Back stateside, the U.S. Navy finally ends its fraught affair with blue camo uniforms, Stars and Stripes reports. “Starting Oct. 1, sailors can begin wearing a green camouflage uniform formally known as NWU Type III. The blue uniform, known as Type I, was phased in July 2010 as the Navy’s only authorized work uniform. But the clothing was widely panned by sailors as uncomfortable and heavy, and found to be unsafe near fire.” That, here.
For a little extra USN uplift—and salty-language humor—try this 2011 video from “Action Figure Therapy” on why the U.S. Navy is the best military job in the world.
Your weekend #LongRead: How the AK and AR-15 became weapons of choice for mass killers. It’s a spectacular multi-media presentation courtesy of The New York Times’ Atilla Futaki, working off reporting by ace reporter (and former Marine officer) C.J. Chivers. It’s an 8-part report made all the more jarring by the comic-book illustrations juxtaposed with grayscale photographs of attacks and weapon stocks—really too much to excerpt here, so read it for yourself over here.
And speaking of mass killers, some Brussels and Paris suspects collected welfare from Belgium to partly finance their operation, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
Lastly this week, and capping a dismal string of setbacks for the Donald Trump campaign, former acting director and deputy director of the CIA from 2010 to 2013, Mike Morrell backs the Clinton campaign in an op-ed in the NYTs. “I am neither a registered Democrat nor a registered Republican. In my 40 years of voting, I have pulled the lever for candidates of both parties. As a government official, I have always been silent about my preference for president. No longer. On Nov. 8, I will vote for Hillary Clinton. Between now and then, I will do everything I can to ensure that she is elected as our 45th president.”
His two reasons: “First, Mrs. Clinton is highly qualified to be commander in chief. I trust she will deliver on the most important duty of a president — keeping our nation safe. Second, Donald J. Trump is not only unqualified for the job, but he may well pose a threat to our national security.”
And the kicker: “In the intelligence business, we would say that Mr. Putin had recruited Mr. Trump as an unwitting agent of the Russian Federation.” Read his take in full, here.