Overnight Defense: Pentagon threatens defense bill veto

THE TOPLINE: Defense Secretary Ash Carter sent a warning to Congress on Thursday that President Obama would veto its pending defense policy bill if major changes aren’t made. 

“If a bill is presented to the President in the current form of either version of the NDAA [National Defense Authorization Act], I will join with the President’s other senior advisors in recommending that he veto the legislation,” Carter said in letters to the Senate and House Armed Services Committee chairmen, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas).

{mosads}Some of its provisions amount to “excessive micromanagement,” he charged. 

While the Obama White House has threatened vetoes on defense policy bill every year, making this objection letter public is a rare, if not unprecedented, move by the administration. 

Read more here. 

PENTAGON CONFIRMS DEATH OF ISIS WAR MINISTER: An Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) leader who the Pentagon reported as dead in March was killed by a recent airstrike near Mosul, an ISIS-linked news agency said.

“On July 10, the coalition conducted a strike on an ISIL leadership meeting near Mosul, in which we believe that Omar Shishani was present, along with 16 other [ISIS] leaders,” Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said at a briefing. “We are still working to confirm the outcome of that airstrike.”

Georgian-born Tarkhan Tayumurazovich Batirashvili was also known as Abu Omar Al-Shishani and “Omar the Chechen.”  

Amaq news agency, which ISIS regularly uses to issue reports, said Wednesday that al-Shishani died in combat in the Iraqi city of Shirqat, south of Mosul.

Amaq denied al-Shishani’s death in March, after the United States touted the strike against him.

The Hill’s Rebecca Kheel has more here. 

DEMS BLOCK DEFENSE SPENDING BILL AGAIN: Senate Democrats on Thursday blocked a Defense Department funding bill for the second time as lawmakers failed to break a stalemate on spending ahead of a seven-week recess. 

Senators voted 55-42 on a procedural hurdle for the House-passed bill, which would have been used as a vehicle for the Senate’s proposal. Sixty votes were needed to move forward. 

The vote comes after Democrats initially blocked the legislation last week during a late-night vote. They’ve pledged to hold up the entire appropriations process unless they can get a deal from Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to uphold a two-year budget deal and keep out “poison pill” riders. 

The Hill’s Jordain Carney has more here. 

WARNING ON ISIS PRESENCE IN LATIN AMERICA: Navy Adm. Kurt Tidd, the top U.S. military commander in Latin America and the Caribbean, said Wednesday he sees the potential of an Islamic State in Iraq and Syria presence in the region.

“Short answer? Yes,” he said, when asked about that potential at an Atlantic Council event on Wednesday. “We see that radicalization is occurring.

“When I talk with my counterparts in various countries throughout the region, all of them recognize that the potential for radicalization — and especially this phenomena of self-radicalization, internet-inspired, or facilitated self-radicalization — is something that they are starting to see crop up,” he said. 

“It’s a challenge we can find literally throughout the region,” he added. 

The Hill’s Kristina Wong has more. 

To catch Adm. Tidd’s full remarks, watch a discussion moderated by The Hill’s Kristina Wong at the Atlantic Council on Wednesday here. 

ICYMI: 

 — The Hill: Success against ISIS abroad may spark more terror attacks at home, officials warn

— The Hill: Report: US proposes joint facility with Russia to target al Qaeda in Syria

— The Hill: US military in Latin America opens intel briefing to partner nations

— The Hill: Feds fear prospect of violence at Dem, GOP conventions

— The Hill: House votes to toughen Iran sanctions

— The Hill: 28 pages from 9/11 report to be released

— The Washington Post: Obama’s Syria plan teams up American and Russian forces

— Associated Press: Unable to stop Syria’s war, US offers Russia new partnership

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