OVERNIGHT DEFENSE: Pentagon preps for shutdown

by Jeremy Herb and Carlo Muñoz - 09/23/13 10:43 PM ET

“While military personnel would continue in a normal duty
status, a large number of our civilian employees would be temporarily
furloughed. To prepare for this possibility, we are updating our contingency
plans for executing an orderly shutdown of activities that would be affected by
a lapse in appropriations,” Carter wrote.

Pentagon press secretary George Little said that while
service members would continue to work in the event of a shutdown, their
paychecks would
be delayed until the shutdown ends.

“They may not be paid on their regular payday,”
Little said.

{mosads}The Pentagon has not said how many civilians would face
furloughs in a shutdown, but if 2011 is any guide — the last time the
government nearly closed — roughly half of civilian workers would be
furloughed in a shutdown.

Pay for civilians who are furloughed would come only if
Congress passed a law approving it.

“Congress will determine whether furloughed employees
receive pay for the furlough period,” the shutdown memo says.

The Senate began
its battle on Monday over defunding ObamaCare as part of the government
funding measure, which was included in the House’s continuing resolution that
passed Friday.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who has advocated that strategy,
tried to pass the House CR by unanimous consent, but was blocked by Senate
Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). Cruz then tried to force amendment votes
to have a 60-vote threshold, a procedural motion that was also stopped by Reid.

Reid is expected to strip the repeal of ObamaCare from the
CR that is passed in the Senate and sent back to the House.

Cruz has said he will try to stop Reid from doing so,
including through a filibuster. On Monday, however, Senate Minority Leader
Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) broke with Cruz and said he would
oppose a filibuster of the House-passed CR because it included language to
strip funding from President Obama’s healthcare law.

FBI contractor to
plead guilty in leak case: A former FBI bomb-technician-turned-contractor
will plead
guilty to providing classified information to The Associated Press that
detailed an al Qaeda-linked terror plot.

Donald Sachtleben, of Carmel, Ind., signed
a plea agreement where he would plead guilty to leaking classified information,
as well as for child pornography charges. He faces a total sentence of 140
months in prison for both charges.

Sachtleben was a longtime FBI agent who worked on a number
of high-profile cases, including the Oklahoma City bombing, the first World
Trade Center bombing and the Unabomber attacks. He retired from the FBI in 2008
and became a contractor.

The charges are likely to draw the interest of lawmakers
because many in Congress demanded investigations last year into the leaks of
the al Qaeda plot as well as the Stuxnet cyberattack.

At the same time, the Justice Department said that the
subpoena of AP reporters’ phone records — which was initially conducted without
disclosure to the AP — helped identify Sachtleben as a suspect.

Lawmakers were also outraged at the Justice Department
earlier this year when the subpoena was publicized.

DOD ready to assist
in al Shaabab fight: U.S. forces stationed in Africa are prepared to provide
military support to Kenyan forces battling al Qaeda-linked extremists in
the country’s capital.

“We are in active consultation with Kenya … to
determine how we might be able to support” local forces in dealing with
the ongoing standoff with fighters from al Shaabab, Pentagon press secretary
George Little said Monday.

The Defense Department “stands ready to assist if requested
to do so” by the Kenyan government, Little told reporters at the
Pentagon.

Al Shabaab, the Somali-based terror group with ties to al
Qaeda’s Africa cell, known as al Qaeda in the Islamic Magreb, claimed
responsibility for Sunday’s bloody attack on a shopping mall in Nairobi.

More than 60 people have been killed and scores more wounded
as gunmen continue to hold Kenyan forces at bay for the third straight
day.

While the Defense Department remains committed to supporting
Kenyan counterterrorism operations, Little denied reports that U.S. forces in
country are already conducting those missions in Nairobi. No American
forces from Africa Command or elsewhere have been deployed into Kenya to
support local forces “to this point,” he said.

Pentagon in the dark
on Navy Yard shooter’s past: Government investigators glossed
over serious details involving Navy Yard shooter Aaron Alexis, including a
2004 shooting in Seattle, when vetting him for a security clearance, service
officials say.

Officials from the Office of Personnel and Management (OPM),
the office responsible for clearance investigations for the Pentagon and other
government agencies, left U.S. military leaders in the dark about the 2004
shooting, according to a senior Navy official.

Navy leaders were only informed of the violent incident
after Alexis killed 12 people during a shooting rampage at the Navy’s Washington
headquarters at the Navy Yard on Sept. 16.

As a result, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus ordered that all
future OPM background investigations of sailors, Navy officers and civilian
contractors “include any available police documents” related to the
individual being investigated.

The OPM investigation on Alexis failed to mention the 2004
incident involved a gun, according to the Navy.

“There was no
reference to a gunshot or firearm” in the OPM report to Navy leaders, the
service official said Monday.

As a result, Navy officials did not object to Alexis being
granted Secret clearance upon his enlistment into the service.

Alexis was nearly forced
out of the military multiple times for alcohol and weapons violations,
before being honorably discharged from the Navy in 2011.

Each time, Navy leaders opted not to dismiss Alexis because “the threshold had not been
passed” to remove him from the Navy’s ranks, the official said.