New York Times | Qatar, Iran, Theresa May: Your Morning Briefing New York Times The Islamic State for the first time claimed responsibility for a terror strike in Iran, saying its fighters carried out attacks on symbolic targets in Tehran that killed 12 people and wounded dozens of others. Assailants with assault rifles, grenades ... |
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Qatar, Iran, Theresa May: Your Morning Briefing - New York Times
A group of leading senators, including Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), is negotiating a way to pass more stringent sanctions against Russia in the coming week by piggybacking on an upcoming a measure cracking down on ballistic missile tests in Iran.
The talks, which involve the heads of at least the Senate Banking and Foreign Relations committees, plus Senate leaders and a handful of Congress most outspoken Russia critics, are geared toward attaching Russia sanctions by amendment to an Iran sanctions bill the Senate took up Wednesday just as intelligence and Justice Department officials head to Capitol Hill to testify about alleged Russian meddling in the presidential election.
Daniel Coats, the director of national intelligence, and Adm. Mike Rogers, the director of the National Security Agency, appeared before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday, and former FBI director James B. Comey is expected to testify Thursday.
[Coats told associates Trump asked him if he could intervene with Comey on Russia probe]
We anticipate that amendments addressing Russia sanctions are likely to be offered, McConnell said on the Senate floor Wednesday morning, noting that I support that effort from the Foreign Relations and Banking Committee chairmen and ranking members to work toward bipartisan agreement.
Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) was even more insistent, all but leveraging his partys support for the otherwise popular Iran sanctions bill on whether punitive measures against Russia could be incorporated.
It will be very difficult to gather Democratic support for final passage of this bill until we deal with Russia sanctions, Schumer said Wednesday.
The exact substance of the Russia sanctions senators hope to attach to the Iran bill is not yet clear, but according to senior Senate aides, talks have focused on the substance offered by a set of bills already on offer, addressing everything from Russias aggressive activities in Ukraine and Syria to allegations that Russian hackers tried to swing an American election.
One of those bills is a recent measure, from Senate Banking Committee Chairman Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and ranking Democrat Sherrod Brown (Ohio), to codify into law existing sanctions against Russia that the Obama administration imposed in response to Russian aggression in Ukraine in 2014. Their bill adds to those existing sanctions new sectoral measures against Russias mining, metals and railways; individual sanctions against Russian hackers and corruption; and tools to better track illicit Russian financing, as well as oligarchs holdings in the United States.
Another bill, proposed this year by Sens. Benjamin L. Cardin (D-Md.), John McCain (R-Ariz.) and a bipartisan group of senators, would codify existing sanctions while stiffening restrictions on the Russian defense, intelligence and energy sectors, as well as anyone providing material support to people posing a cyberthreat. A third bill from Sens. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), Cardin and others, also from this year, would give Congress the chance to veto any presidential decision to ease up on sanctions against Russia.
All chief authors of those bills have been involved in the various discussions with Senate leaders McConnell and Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) to insert Russia sanctions into the Iran bill, according to various aides.
Which elements of those Russia sanctions bills make the cut to be included as a potential amendment to the Iran sanctions legislation has yet to be determined. But the coalescing of forces around some sort of action on Russia sanctions and soon is a marked shift for Congress, which has to date refrained from taking legislation action to force the presidents hand in dealing with a country many in the national security community consider Americas No. 1 antagonist and adversary.
Some Republican leaders have sought to create some space for the Trump administration to operate, pointing to that fact despite initial fears Trumps administration would take early steps to roll back Russia sanctions, the restrictive measures the Obama administration introduced have stayed in place. Early last month, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) insisted the Senate Foreign Relations Committee would wait until the Senate Intelligence Committee completed its probe of alleged Russian election meddling and possible collusion with campaigns before attempting to pass any sanctions.
President Trump has pushed back against the consensus of the intelligence community that Russia engaged in hacking and the politicized dissemination of information, including false information, during the campaign to sway the election, potentially in Trumps favor. According to recent reports, Trump also pressured Comey and other senior intelligence community officials to use their influence to shut down the FBIs investigation into potential ties between Trump associates and campaign officials and the Kremlin.
But as allegations mount of more and worse Russian interference in the 2016 election, the pressure to respond with punitive action has been increasing on both sides of the Senate, with even the Republican leader indicating a willingness to take up the issue on the floor. Late last month, Corker indicated that if Secretary of State Rex Tillerson could not show in early June that progress was being made with Russia with respect to the war in Syria, he would green-light new Russia sanctions in the Senate, and one that included measures to censure Russia over its alleged election meddling.
On Tuesday, after a check-in call with Tillerson Monday night, Corker hinted that a Russia sanctions measure would likely be coming soon but he cautioned against making any assumptions about its contents, or presuming that any already-filed bill would be the model for it.
If senators are to use the Iran sanctions bill as a vehicle for Russia sanctions, they will have to make those determinations soon, as the Senate takes an opening procedural vote on the legislation Wednesday, setting it up for passage likely as soon as early next week. The Iran sanctions bill coming before the Senate seeks to punish Tehran for a spate of recent ballistic missile tests, as well as the activities of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a group the Trump administration is considering labeling a terrorist organization.
Corker, who chairs one of the two Senate committees with chief jurisdiction over sanctions, has not attached his name to any pending Russia sanctions bill. Crapo, who chairs Banking, the other committee of jurisdiction, is the lead co-author on that committees legislation, filed last week.
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Senate attempting to add Russia sanctions to Iran bill - The ... - Washington Post
New York Times | James Comey, Iran, Scooter Gennett: Your Wednesday Briefing New York Times The Islamic State immediately claimed responsibility for the assaults, possibly the terrorist group's firsts major ones in Iran. Suspicions in Tehran were also directed at Iran's nemesis in the region, Saudi Arabia, which was emboldened by a visit from ... |
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James Comey, Iran, Scooter Gennett: Your Wednesday Briefing - New York Times
SOUTHWEST ASIA, June 7, 2017 U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria yesterday, conducting 28 strikes consisting of 70 engagements, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today.
Officials reported details of the latest strikes, noting that assessments of results are based on initial reports.
Strikes in Syria
In Syria, coalition military forces conducted 21 strikes consisting of 35 engagements against ISIS targets:
-- Near Abu Kamal, two strikes destroyed three vehicles and a front-end loader.
-- Near Raqqa, 17 strikes engaged 10 ISIS tactical units and destroyed seven fighting positions, two ISIS bridges, two vehicles, an ISIS boat and an ISIS communications tower.
-- Near Tabqah, a strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit.
-- Near Tanf, a strike engaged a pro-Syrian regime tactical unit, destroyed two artillery systems and an anti-air artillery system and damaged a tank.
Strikes in Iraq
In Iraq, coalition military forces conducted seven strikes consisting of 35 engagements against ISIS targets:
-- Near Beiji, a strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed three ISIS staging areas and two vehicles.
-- Near Mosul, four strikes engaged six ISIS tactical units; destroyed 20 fighting positions, two heavy machine guns, a supply cache, a mortar system, a vehicle and a rocket-propelled grenade system; damaged a command-and-control node, an ISIS supply route and a fighting position; and suppressed a mortar team.
-- Near Rawah, two strikes engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed four ISIS staging areas, an ISIS headquarters, and an ISIS warehouse.
June 5 Strikes
Additionally, eight strikes were conducted in Syria and Iraq on June 5 that closed within the last 24 hours.
-- Near Raqqa, Syria, seven strikes engaged two ISIS tactical units and destroyed two ISIS staging areas, two fighting positions, a vehicle-borne-bomb factory, an ISIS tunnel, an ISIS sentry post, a vehicle and a command-and-control node.
-- Near Mosul, Iraq, a strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit, destroyed an ISIS command-and-control node, a heavy machine gun and an artillery system.
Part of Operation Inherent Resolve
These strikes were conducted as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the operation to destroy ISIS in Iraq and Syria. The destruction of ISIS targets in Iraq and Syria also further limits the group's ability to project terror and conduct external operations throughout the region and the rest of the world, task force officials said.
The list above contains all strikes conducted by fighter, attack, bomber, rotary-wing or remotely piloted aircraft; rocket-propelled artillery; and some ground-based tactical artillery when fired on planned targets, officials noted.
Ground-based artillery fired in counterfire or in fire support to maneuver roles is not classified as a strike, they added. A strike, as defined by the coalition, refers to one or more kinetic engagements that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single or cumulative effect.
For example, task force officials explained, a single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIS vehicle is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against a group of ISIS-held buildings and weapon systems in a compound, having the cumulative effect of making that facility harder or impossible to use. Strike assessments are based on initial reports and may be refined, officials said.
The task force does not report the number or type of aircraft employed in a strike, the number of munitions dropped in each strike, or the number of individual munition impact points against a target.
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Strikes Continue Against ISIS in Iraq, Syria - Department of Defense
By Air Force Tech. Sgt. Benjamin Stratton, 35th Fighter Wing
MISAWA AIR BASE, Japan, June 7, 2017 One Two ... Three ... He counts each detainee as they enter his unit's prison camp in Iraq.
"We were doing a head count; in-processing new members," Air Force Tech. Sgt. Shannon Hutto, a 35th Security Forces Squadron flight chief here, said. "Then I heard a thump."
He looked up to see a rocket shimmering overhead and heading in his direction.
!!BOOM!!
"It landed about 30 feet from me," he said.
Hutto grabbed his M-9 Beretta pistol from its holster after spotting the detainees and realizing they were running in the direction of the gate.
"I'm going to have to shoot them all," he thought, but then he realized where they were going and reholstered his weapon. "They were helping their friends and family, assessing the injured and finding ways to triage and help."
Looking around, Hutto found only three or four other U.S. service members not hiding under barriers crying in horror and shock. He grabbed them, told them where to go, what they needed and what needed to be done to start saving lives.
"You don't realize how important self-aid buddy care is until you're strapping on some medical latex gloves, blood everywhere -- on you, your patient, the ground -- and you're saving people," he said. "I practiced what I learned at Basic Military Training on every person I could find."
Leading Under Fire
Hutto said it was in that moment he realized he was meant to lead.
"I was an airman first class back then, but it was in that one single act that let me know I can do this -- I can be a leader," he said.
Hutto joined the Air Force June 7, 2005. He said he wanted to see the world, get an education and serve his country. Coming from small-town life in Enterprise, Alabama, he said, "I didn't want to just sit around and get in trouble -- I needed structure -- I needed a life."
Twelve years later, his list of medals is likely double that of most in his squadron, but he's got a story for each -- he'll be the retired veteran that kids flock to for war stories.
"I wouldn't go that far," he laughed as he looked to the floor, eyes glazing and finally found the strength to say, "But I do have some stories; many of which I wouldn't share with kids."
Hutto said he's learned training saves lives.
"I've seen a lot of tragedy, and it occurs due to a lack of drive and training," he explained. "We need to really focus on hands-on, tangible and operational training that makes us more effective, increasing our productivity."
Set the Bar High
All that training takes strong leaders willing to set the bar high above the comfort level of their subordinates, Hutto said, adding that leaders should never be afraid to hold their people accountable.
"Just be honest with them," he continued. "Effective leadership is not defined by making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results, not attributes. This is why I mold defenders to perform under pressure with hands-on training and leadership by example."
He's got the experience; with three deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait, all of which were between eight and 11 months long, far exceeding the Air Force-standard, six-month deployment.
"Hopefully none of my airmen will ever have to experience what I've gone through, but if they do, then I am positive they'll be ready," he said.
Deployments, temporary assignments and permanent changes of station all epitomize the life of a service member. Hutto's seen more combat than most airmen see in their entire career, and spent months at a time, totaling years, away from his four daughters and wife, Air Force Staff Sgt. Melanie Hutto.
"Not only is he setting an example for his airmen, but he's setting an example for our daughters as well," Melanie said as a big smile swept across her face. "He's always been there for us, even when he couldn't physically be with us."
Hutto said it's his kids who helped him prioritize his life.
"You start figuring out what's most important," he said as he explained his morning routine of bottling milk, changing diapers, adding, "It's all about finding a path and getting ready for the next stage in life."
A Rough Start
His first few years of Air Force life included nonjudicial punishment, copious piles of paperwork and, finally, the realization that he realized he just needed to slap himself and wake up.
"As an airman, I did things the hard way," Hutto explained, lamenting how his technical school military training leader told him he'd never make it past his first enlistment. "But look at me now, I'm about to put on master sergeant, I've got a loving wife, daughters, friends [and], family and subordinates who respect me. You live, you learn and push forward."
The Air Force expects its leaders to build airmen capable of adapting to evolving Air Force mission capabilities while being an active, visible leader. Whether on patrol, at his squadron or at home, Hutto inspires others to be leaders.
"He's my inspiration," Melanie said as she glances down at her own rank. "I've got to catch up with him, so I'm always learning from my husband how to be a better Air Force leader."
But at the end of the day, Hutto said it's about his family first and foremost.
"My whole life is about making the lives of my children better."
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Face of Defense: Iraq Experience Shapes Airman's Leadership Style - Department of Defense