Subject: POLITICO's Morning Defense: Was the CIA chief in Pakistan poisoned? — Syrian refugee camp bombed — DoD caps congressional travel to Afghanistan
From: Morning Defense <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 6 May 2016 06:32:54 -0600

By Jeremy Herb | 05/06/2016 08:30 AM EDT

With Louis Nelson, Austin Wright and Ellen Mitchell

TOP TALKER - AFTER THE BIN LADEN RAID, WAS THE CIA CHIEF IN PAKISTAN POISONED? The Washington Post's Greg Miller reports the tale straight out of a spy thriller: "Two months after Osama bin Laden was killed, the CIA's top operative in Pakistan was pulled out of the country in an abrupt move vaguely attributed to health concerns and his strained relationship with Islamabad. In reality, the CIA station chief was so violently ill that he was often doubled over in pain, current and former U.S. officials said. Trips out of the country for treatment proved futile. And the cause of his ailment was so mysterious, the officials said, that both he and the agency began to suspect that he had been
 poisoned.

"Mark Kelton retired from the CIA and his health has recovered after he had abdominal surgery. But agency officials continue to think that it is plausible - if not provable - that Kelton's sudden illness was somehow orchestrated by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency, known as the ISI. The disclosure is a disturbing postscript to the sequence of events surrounding the bin Laden operation five years ago, and adds new intrigue to a counterterrorism partnership that has often been consumed by conspiracy theories."

WAR REPORT - TROUBLE IN SYRIA ... AND A CONCERT: The Associated Press reports on the two diverging scenes Thursday: "A renowned Russian conductor led a triumphant concert Thursday in the ruins of the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra, once terrorized by the Islamic State group, even as an airstrike on a refugee camp in the north left at least 28 people dead and dozens wounded, including many children. The performance in the same ancient amphitheater where IS militants carried out widely publicized killings - and called 'A Prayer for Palmyra' - was intended to send a message that Russia's presence in Syria would bring hope and stability. 

"But even as strains of Bach and Sergei Prokofiev's First Symphony echoed through the Roman theater packed with an audience that included Russian servicemen, Syrian government ministers and children in colorful native dress, the war raged elsewhere. Images posted on social media of the aftermath of the airstrike that tore through the Sarmada camp in rebel-held territory close to the border with Turkey showed tents burned to the ground, charred bodies, and bloodied women and children being loaded onto a pickup truck."

- TURKEY'S PRIME MINISTER RESIGNS AMID RIFT WITH ITS PRESIDENT, via The Washington Post: "Turkey's prime minister resigned Thursday after a public rift with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, throwing the country's politics into turmoil and paving the way for Erdogan to consolidate power at a time of domestic and regional crises. In an otherwise defiant speech in Ankara, the capital, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said he would bow out of upcoming elections for leader of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). The decision meant he would also step down as premier."

HAPPY FRIDAY AND WELCOME TO MORNING DEFENSE, where we're done with exhausting triple overtime hockey games. Keep the tips, pitches and feedback coming at [email-masked], and follow on Twitter @jeremyherb, @morningdefense and @politicopro.

HAPPENING TODAY - U.S., JAPANESE SECURITY FORUM: Former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Center for a New American Security CEO Michele Flournoy and Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) are among the speakers at Sasakawa USA's Third Annual Security Forum, with panels throughout the day on the U.S. and Japanese security alliance. And the American Enterprise Institute and Army War College co-host an event this morning on making the Army more efficient and agile.

FOR THE WEEKEND - NAVY TO CHRISTEN NEW LCS: The Navy is christening its newest Littoral Combat Ship, the USS Manchester, at a ceremony Saturday in Mobile, Ala.

THE CODEL SQUEEZE - DoD CAPS CONGRESSIONAL TRAVEL TO AFGHANISTAN, our colleague Austin Wright reports: "The Pentagon is asking members of Congress to limit their trips to Afghanistan over the next few months as the Taliban prepares to ramp up its attacks during the summer fighting season. The military has urged lawmakers in years past to cut down on visits to Afghanistan during the fighting season, but this latest request comes at an especially sensitive time in the 15-year war.

"The U.S. military acknowledges the security situation in Afghanistan deteriorated last year after President Barack Obama declared an end to the U.S. combat mission. And the new top U.S. commander there, Army Gen. John Nicholson, is now working on a 90-day assessment, due late this month or early next, of the current plan to reduce the U.S. troop presence at the end of the year. Against that backdrop, Defense Secretary Ash Carter and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joe Dunford have issued travel restrictions for senior U.S. officials and are asking lawmakers to limit their congressional delegation trips, commonly called CODELs."

FOR YOUR RADAR - HOUSE WON'T VOTE ON A BUDGET NEXT WEEK, via POLITICO's Matthew Nussbaum: "The House will not vote on a budget when it returns from recess next week, a spokesperson for Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said in an email Thursday. The news dashes the sense of cautious optimism that emerged after a House GOP Conference meeting Friday that the budget might soon receive a floor vote."

IRAQ'S PRIME MINISTER SACKS SECURITY CHIEF, VOWS TO STOP ANOTHER GREEN ZONE BREACH, via Reuters: "Iraq's prime minister vowed on Thursday to prevent another breach of Baghdad's Green Zone, hours before a planned protest by followers of a senior Shi'ite cleric, hundreds of whom stormed the fortified complex last week. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's promise came just a day after he sacked Green Zone security chief, Lieutenant-General Mohammed Ridha, replacing him with Major General Kareem Abboud al-Tamimi, sources said."

TOP DOC - DoD RELEASES SEXUAL ASSAULT REPORT: The Pentagon's annual report found 6,083 reports of sexual assault in fiscal 2015, roughly the same from the year before. USA Today has more on the findings here: "The military's struggle with sexual assault in the ranks burst into the news in 2013 when the Pentagon announced findings of its 2012 survey that showed a 35% increase in the estimated number of troops who had endured unwanted sexual contact. 

"That survey estimated that 26,000 troops had suffered offenses ranging from groping to rape. The estimate for 2010 was 19,300 troops. The military issues such estimates every two years. Troops reported 6,083 sexual assaults in fiscal year 2015, a decrease from 6,131 in 2014, according to the Pentagon's annual report."

- GILLIBRAND BLASTS THE REPORT: "They are undercutting their own findings from last year's report on the massive retaliation problem against service members who reported being sexually assaulted with a survey that their own report calls 'not representative,' Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) said in a statement. "The status quo is not working, and frankly, I am deeply disturbed by the tactics the DoD is undertaking to pull the wool over Congress's eyes."

ABOUT LAST NIGHT - SPIES PARTY IN THE DARK: The first thing we noticed when we arrived at last night's Intelligence and National Security Alliance leadership dinner in Pentagon City: It was dark. Our first thought was that intelligence officials must prefer hiding in the dark, even at on-the-record networking events. But it turned out there was a power outage at the Ritz-Carlton that was soon fixed.

The keynote speaker, Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence Marcel Lettre, discussed a number of issues, including how intelligence fits into the Pentagon's third-offset initiative. He said one of the biggest third-offset challenges for the intel community was helping figure out how to counter the anti-access, area denial strategies being employed by potential adversaries like China and Iran.

He also said the intel community needs to figure out better ways to counter the kind of hybrid warfare techniques Russian-backed militants used in their 2014 incursion into Ukraine. And he acknowledged the government wasn't doing a good enough job streamlining the security-clearance process, especially when contractors switch from working for one federal agency to another - moves that can cause their clearances to get held up for months. "The journey we're on to integrate is a journey - it's not a finished product," Lettre said.

DOCUMENT DRAWER - CSIS REPORT ON U.S. FORCE STRUCTURE: A new report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies calls for growing of the size of the U.S. military. The report from CSIS' Mark Cancian argues a new administration will make changes next year to grow the force and that "the days of speculating about how low forces might be cut are over."

SPEED READ

- NATO's Europe-based missile defense system is now live and will continue to grow despite increasingly loud complaints from Russia: The New York Times

- Russian submarines are being increasingly assertive in the Atlantic, providing new challenges to the U.S. submarine fleet: CNN

- SpaceX launches its rocket to put a satellite in orbit, then lands it on an ocean platform for the second time successfully: Reuters

- North Korea opens its first full congress of its ruling party since 1980: AP

- An attempted kidnapping in Kabul prompts the American Embassy in Afghanistan to issue an emergency security warning to U.S. citizens: Reuters

- A test pilot at Edwards Air Force Base in California weighs in on the debate between the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and the A-10: Defense News

- With harvest season for Afghanistan's lucrative poppy crop coming to a close, Taliban fighting in Helmand Province is expected to increase: Stars and Stripes

- Chinese state-run media criticizes the U.S. for its "menacing military deployment" in the South China Sea: Military Times

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