Overnight Defense

Overnight Defense: Pentagon weighs halting weapon deliveries to Syrian Kurds | VA failed to report potentially dangerous doctors | US forces strike ISIS in Somalia

by Rebecca Kheel 11/27/17 05:51 PM ET

THE TOPLINE: Days after Turkey said President Trump assured its president the United States would stop arming Syrian Kurds, the Pentagon said Monday that it has not stopped sending the weapons.

The Hill’s Ellen Mitchell reports:

The Defense Department on Monday said it is reviewing the process it uses to provide equipment and weapons to Kurdish fighters with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) but has not halted sending weapons.

Pentagon spokesman Col. Robert Manning told reporters that the department is “reviewing pending adjustments to the military support provided to our Kurdish partners in as much as the military requirements of our defeat-[Islamic State in Iraq and Syria] and stabilization efforts will allow us to prevent ISIS from returning.”

Turkey’s foreign minister said Friday that President Trump committed to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that the United States would no longer supply arms to Syrian Kurdish fighters.

Turkey considers the SDF Kurds, known as the YPG, to be an extension of outlawed Kurdish insurgents within its country, the Kurdistan Workers Party.

Read the rest here.

WATCHDOG FINDS VA FAILED TO REPORT POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS DOCTORS: A new Government Accountability Office report has found that the Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers failed to report potentially dangerous doctors to a national database meant to prevent such health care providers from finding work elsewhere.

The Hill’s Jessie Hellmann reports:

Five medical centers within the Department of Veterans Affairs failed to report eight potentially dangerous doctors to a national database where such information is collected, according to the results of a government investigation released Monday.

The Government Accountability Office found in its review of five VA medical centers that 148 providers were reviewed from October 2013 through March 2017 after concerns were raised about their conduct.

Of the nine medical providers who had actions taken against them or who resigned during the investigation, eight were not reported to the National Practitioner Data Bank, a national database that collects information about the professional conduct and competence of providers.