OVERNIGHT DEFENSE: Pentagon defends strategy as ISIS advances

by Kristina Wong and Martin Matishak - 05/18/15 6:34 PM ET

THE TOPLINE: The Obama administration is defending its strategy against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) after the terror group scored one of its biggest victories in months.

U.S. officials on Monday called the fall of the Iraqi city of Ramadi a “setback,” but vowed that the U.S.-led military coalition would help retake the capital of Anbar Province.

“There is no denying that this is indeed a setback,” said White House spokesman Eric Schultz. “But there is also no denying we will help the Iraqis take back Ramadi.”

The city fell to ISIS militants over the weekend, bringing fresh scrutiny to the Obama administration’s strategy, which includes coalition air support and American advisers, but leaves the heavy fighting to local Iraqi forces.

“We still believe the strategy is working,” Pentagon spokesman Army Col. Steve Warren told reporters on Monday.

However, despite coalition air support for Iraqi troops in Ramadi in the past several weeks, most local forces evacuated the city early Monday morning.

“Ramadi is an urban environment that is among the very toughest to fight in. It is an environment that limits the ability of airpower, so it creates unique challenges,” Warren said.

He added that the Pentagon would accept help from Shia militia fighters — many of whom are believed to be supported by Iran.

“The militias have a part to play in this. As long as they are controlled by the Central Iraqi government, then they will participate,” Warren said.

He expressed confidence that the coalition would be able to retake Ramadi from ISIS, but did not lay out any clear steps or a timeline.

“We will take Ramadi,” he said. “We will retake it in the same way that we are slowly but surely retaking other parts of Iraq and that is with Iraqi ground forces, combined with coalition airpower.”

“I’m not going to put a timeline on it. This is an Iraqi decision, as with every other city in ISIL control, it has to be done on Iraqi timelines,” he said.

EX-CIA CHIEF SAYS ISIS ISN’T BIGGEST THREAT, reports The Hill’s Julian Hattem: The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) does not pose the biggest threat to the U.S., according to a former leader of the CIA.

“Despite that significant threat from ISIS, it is not the most significant threat to the homeland today,” former CIA deputy and acting Director Michael Morell said on Monday. “The most significant threat to the homeland today still comes from al Qaeda and three al Qaeda groups in particular.”

Those three al Qaeda subgroups — including the “core” al Qaeda branch in Afghanistan and Pakistan as well as affiliates in Yemen and Syria — have shown more willingness to confront the U.S. on its home soil, Morell said.

Of those, the most dangerous is the Yemen branch, known as al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

“The last three attempted attacks to the United States were by al Qaeda in Yemen,” Morell said. “They have the ability to bring down an airliner in the United States of America tomorrow,” Morell said during remarks at the National Press Club.

The two other groups posing a significant threat to the U.S., he added, were the Syria-based Khorasan Group and the original senior leadership of al Qaeda, including head Ayman al-Zawahiri.

BENGHAZI REPORT COULD BE INCONCLUSIVE: The final report by the House Select Committee on Benghazi might be inconclusive, according to the panel’s chairman.

“If you do a good enough job laying out the facts, the conclusions will either speak for themselves, or you’ll have competing factual narratives, and you can draw your own conclusions,” Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) told the Greenville News.

“It’s not my job to tell people what to conclude,” the former federal prosecutor added. “If you have two witnesses, [and] one says the light was red and one green, I don’t view myself as being the arbiter of who is more credible.”

The remarks came days after he said the select committee won’t schedule an appearance by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton until members have determined they have all relevant documents, such as messages from her private email server.

“If you do a good enough job getting every bit of information the fact-finder needs, they’ll be able to draw their own conclusions,” Gowdy said. “People are going to draw different conclusions. That’s fine.”

In a statement, Rep. Elijah Cummings (Md.), the panel’s top Democrat, said he is “extremely concerned by the path the Select Committee has taken, squandering millions of dollars of taxpayer funds as it drags out its search for anything Republicans can use to attack Secretary Clinton in the presidential election.”

GILLIBRAND PROMISES NEW ANIT-SEXUAL ASSAULT PUSH: Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) plans to propose moving military sexual assault cases outside the chain of command when the Senate takes up its defense policy bill next month.

“Survivors will not be able to get the justice they deserve until we change all of this business-as-usual climate without any real accountability and create a professional, non-biased and independent military justice system,” Gillibrand, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement.

Her announcement came the same day Human Rights Watch released a 113-page report that found soldiers who report sexual assault are 12 times more likely to be retaliated against than their attackers are to be convicted of an offense.

Gillibrand called the Human Rights report “shocking” and said it “needs to be read by every Member of Congress who cares about the women and men who put on the uniform to defend this nation.”

The Senate could begin work on its massive $612 billion defense policy bill as soon as June.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

— GOP lawmaker plans to ‘raise hell‘ over report of wasted $135M

— CIA: Two officers killed over last year

— Senate could take up $612 billion defense policy bill in June

— McCain: Fall of Ramadi ‘terribly significant’

— Obama bans some transfers of military hardware to police

Please send tips and comments to Kristina Wong, kwong@digital-staging.thehill.com, and Martin Matishak, mmatishak@digital-staging.thehill.com.