OVERNIGHT DEFENSE: Kerry: US ‘not intimidated’ by ISIS

Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday the U.S. would not be “intimidated” by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), after the terror group released a video Sunday showing beheaded former U.S. Army Ranger Peter Kassig. 

“ISIL’s leaders assume that the world would be too intimidated to oppose them,” Kerry told the Transformational Trends Strategic Forum, using an alternative name for the group. “Well, let us be clear: We are not intimidated.”

{mosads}Kerry said the U.S. strategy against ISIS “is starting to gain traction.” He claimed military strikes are beginning to have “significant impact,” and that the U.S. is successfully soliciting “solidarity and help” from partner nations. 

“It [ISIS] continues, yes, to commit terrible crimes, but it has also been forced to relinquish bases, abandon training sites, alter its mode of communications, disperse personnel and stop the use of large convoys,” he added. 

Lawmakers condemned the killing of Kassig, with Sen. Dan Coats (R-Ind.) saying “we must not let this momentary triumph of evil ultimately prevail” in a statement.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said the latest killing called for a “serious strategy” against ISIS.

“Latest beheading video is a grim reminder that we need a serious strategy to destroy ISIS abroad before it comes home,” he tweeted Sunday. 

Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) said the beheading “shows why the United States and our allies must leave no stone unturned in going after these barbarians.”

“I hope Congress is moved to vote on legislation formally authorizing military action,” he added.

Nelson is one of several Democrats who have proposed an authorization of military force against ISIS, although it would restrict ground forces and expire after three years.

 

HAGEL WANTS BASE, BENEFIT CUTS: Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Saturday urged lawmakers to support a new round of military base closures and limit troop benefits to give the Pentagon great fiscal flexibility. 

“The longer we defer the tough choices, the tougher they will be to make down the road and the more brutal the outcome,” Hagel said at the Reagan Defense Forum in Simi Valley, Calif.

He said that without certain changes the department is looking at a $30 billion shortfall over fiscal years 2016 to 2020.

Hagel said the Pentagon has 24 percent more facilities than necessary, “costing us billions of dollars every year, money that could otherwise be invested in maintaining our military’s edge.”

Congress has rejected the Pentagon’s request to close bases the last two years as lawmakers worry a base-closing commission could shutter facilities in their own districts.

Hagel also asked Congress to back reforms to military pay and compensation.

“No one who wears our nation’s uniform is overpaid … But since 2001, DOD’s pay and benefits for service members has outstripped private sector compensation growth by about 40 percent,” he said.

Earlier this year, lawmakers rejected a package of administration proposals meant to curb troop benefits, arguing that they did not want to preempt the findings of the Military Compensation and Retirement Modernization Commission, which is slated to give its recommendations next February.

 

SEQUESTER RELIEF? Current and former lawmakers at a conference over the weekend said that it was unlikely the Pentagon would get relief from automatic sequester cuts. 

It would take a national security crisis like the Sept. 11 attacks for Congress to roll back the defense cuts it passed in 2011, said former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) at the Reagan Defense Forum.

Cantor said the dynamics in Congress that have stood in the way of reversing the $1 trillion in cuts are still in place — namely, disagreement on tax and spending reform. Half of the sequester cuts will hit the Defense Department, for $500 billion over 10 years, doubling already scheduled reductions in spending.

“I don’t see a path where you’re going to get bipartisan relief on [Budget Control Act] caps,” he said. “There needs to be bipartisan agreement even though there’s a Republican majority in Congress.”

Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) said Democrats would support lifting the cuts on defense if legislation eased the sequester cuts on healthcare and education, too.

But Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Congress needs to stop the budget cuts, and that there is an emerging pro-defense Republican wing in the Senate determined to do so. He said that group includes Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), and Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), as well Sens.-elect Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska). He said another potential member could be Sen.-elect Joni Ernst (R-Iowa).

“I promise you that we will make it [fixing sequestration] our highest priority,” said McCain, who is slated to become chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee in January.

 

MANCHIN SEEKS GITMO SOLUTION: Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) on Monday said lawmakers must find a solution about what to do with the remaining detainees in the U.S. facility at Guantánamo Bay.

“I believe that Congress must debate what we do with the prisoners currently being housed there. The status quo is not an acceptable solution, and I am confident we can find a solution that protects Americans and responsibly manages our tax dollars,” Manchin said in a statement.

His comments came after he led a bipartisan fact-finding mission to the detention facility on Friday.

Manchin said the tour reviewed “detainee facilities and detention operations, the legal status of individual detainees, and the military commissions process that is used to try detainees.”

He praised the troops serving at the facility but said the detention center “does not make us safer, and it is wildly expensive.”

Around 150 detainees remain at Guantánamo, and 80 have been deemed eligible for release.

Roughly 90 of those remaining at the facility are from Yemen, where al Qaeda fighters have repeatedly broken into prisons and released militants, making it difficult for the U.S. to send detainees there.

 

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

— Senators push state cyber plan

— GOP aide: Ebola, ISIS funding will be in bill

— GOP poised to dash Obama’s Iran hopes

— Obama: ISIS killing ‘an act of pure evil’

 

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