Overnight Defense: Battle lines harden ahead of refugee bill vote

THE TOPLINE: Last week’s Paris attacks are dominating Capitol Hill with a bill to block Syrian refugees slated for a House vote Thursday.

Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) defended the bill against detractors who worry it will target people based on religion.

“People understand the plight of those fleeing the Middle East. But they also want basic assurances for the safety of this country,” Ryan said from the House floor. “We can be compassionate and we can also be safe.”

{mosads}The bill, sponsored by Reps. Mike McCaul (R-Texas) and Richard Hudson (R-N.C.), would prevent any refugees from Syria or Iraq from being admitted to the U.S. unless the FBI, Department of Homeland Security and Director of National Intelligence can certify to Congress that each refugee does not pose a security threat.

The White House threatened to veto the bill Wednesday evening, calling it “untenable.”

Democrats have criticized some Republicans who have floated tougher restrictions based based on religion for refugees trying to flee the violence caused by ISIS in the Middle East. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), for instance, said he will offer legislation banning Muslim Syrian refugees from entering the United States.

Cruz’s push drew a rebuke from President Obama, who called it “shameful.”

House Democratic leaders are lining up against the refugee proposal, arguing it would erect barriers so restrictive that it would effectively end the refugee program altogether. 

The Democrats’ opposition will likely be inconsequential in this week’s House vote, where Republicans are expected to pass the bill. But it presages a tough road in the Senate, where the filibuster gives Democrats more leverage.

PENTAGON: NO PLANS TO COORDINATE WITH RUSSIA IN SYRIA: The Pentagon says it has no plans to coordinate operations with Russia in the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

“We’re not coordinating with Russians, we’re not conducting operations with Russia, nor are we planning to do anything of those things here at the ground level,” Army Col. Steve Warren, a spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve, said Wednesday.

His comments came a day after Russia launched airstrikes in the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa following the Kremlin’s announcement that officials are certain a bomb planted by terrorists brought down a Russian passenger jet.

The move marked a shift in Russian airstrikes, which up to that point had mostly hit rebels opposed to Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Earlier Wednesday, President Obama suggested he’d be willing to work with Russian President Vladimir Putin to bring down ISIS if that’s truly his intention.

“If we get a better understanding with Russia about the process for bringing an end to the Syrian civil war, that obviously opens up more opportunities for coordination with respect to ISIL,” Obama said on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Manila, according to The Associated Press, using another acronym for ISIS.

EX-OBAMA OFFICIAL SAYS ISIS ‘MOST URGENT’ THREAT: The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is now the “most urgent terrorist threat” facing the United States, a former top Obama counterterrorism official said Wednesday.

“In short, ISIS’s proven intentions and increasing capability, as the Paris attacks reflect so starkly, warrant ranking the group as our most urgent terrorist threat,” said Matthew G. Olsen, former director of the National Counterterrorism Center, at a joint House Foreign Affairs Committee and Homeland Security Committee hearing.

As recently as August, there was still a split among intelligence officials as to which was the greater threat to the homeland — ISIS or al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which has attempted attacks against the U.S. in the last several years.

The Paris attacks were “not simply inspired by ISIS, but rather it appears they were ISIS-planned and directed,” Olson said. They “demonstrate ISIS’s expanding reach beyond its safe haven in Syria and Iraq.”

The 41 ISIS or ISIS-inspired attacks against Western targets so far this year are already more than double the number of such attacks last year, Olsen said.

Within the U.S., Olsen said there has been an uptick over the past year in the number of moderate-to-small scale plots by lone actors or insular groups, often self-directed or inspired by groups like ISIS.

Driving this trend, Olson said, is the number of Europeans and other Westerners who have gone to Syria to fight. Foreign fighters exceed 30,000, including as many or more than 4,000 Europeans and more than 250 Americans.

GRAHAM PROMISES ISIS WAR BILL: Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Wednesday he will introduce a wide-ranging authorization for war against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS or ISIL).

“I’m going to introduce an authorization to use military force against ISIL that is not limited by time, geography or means,” said Graham, who is running for president. “We only have two choices regarding ISIL — fight them in their backyard or fight them in ours. I choose to fight them in their backyard.”

The legislation would place no geographic limits on U.S. military operations against the terrorist group, would not have an expiration date and would not prohibit the president from placing boots on the ground to fight ISIS.

The bill would face an uphill battle in Congress, where an authorization for the use of military force (AUMF) has failed to gain momentum.

Democrats have voiced strong skepticism over a proposal that wouldn’t explicitly rule out ground combat troops, and leadership in both chambers have suggested a new AUMF is unlikely to gain traction.

Graham appeared to acknowledge the uphill fight that a war proposal against ISIS faces. Asked by reporters whether he thought lawmakers could reach an agreement on an AUMF, he said “absolutely not.”

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

— Air Force general: Bomber flight in South China Sea ‘routine’

— Kerry compares anti-ISIS fight to WWII, Holocaust

— GOP rep blasts Obama’s ‘false’ claim ISIS is ‘contained’

— McCain: Focus on refugees ‘misplaced’

— Senate Dems: GOP blocking ‘critical’ national security nominees

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