Overnight Defense: Senate rejects effort to block Saudi arms sale | ISIS may have fired chemical agent in Iraq | Trump, Gary Johnson tied among military voters
THE TOPLINE: The Senate on Wednesday easily rejected an effort to block a $1.15 billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia. Supporters of the effort, though, said it was an important step in bringing awareness to U.S. support for the Saudi-led campaign in Yemen.
The Hill’s Jordain Carney has more on the vote:
{mosads}Senators voted 71-27 on a procedural move by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to set aside the resolution of disapproval, effectively killing it.
Supporters of the resolution — spearheaded by Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Al Franken (D-Minn.) — would have needed 60 senators to vote against McConnell’s motion to keep the resolution alive.
The State Department approved the sale of tanks and related equipment last month. A Saudi-led coalition has been fighting the Houthis, Iran-backed Shiite rebels, in Yemen.
Supporters of the resolution are concerned the equipment will be used in missions to kill civilians and worsen the country’s humanitarian crisis.
After the vote, human rights groups applauded the 27 senators who voted against tabling the measure. The groups said the vote was an important first step in changing U.S. policy.
“Today, for the first time since the war in Yemen began, 27 senators voiced the first cries of dissent against our government’s unconditional and unlimited support for the Saudi-led coalition,” Oxfam America President Ray Offenheiser said in a written statement. “Concern in Congress regarding the situation in Yemen and the U.S.’s heartless and disjointed approach to it will only grow stronger.”
Read more from human rights groups here.
PENTAGON, STATE BLAST RUSSIA ON SYRIA: The United States and Russia traded accusations Wednesday over who was to blame for Syria’s floundering ceasefire.
First, Secretary of State John Kerry rebuked Russia during an impassioned call to salvage the ceasefire.
In a speech during a United Nations Security Council meeting on Syria, Kerry said that listening to his Russian counterpart talk about Syria was like being in a “parallel universe.”
He also said aircraft should be immediately grounded in order to allow for much-needed aid to be delivered.
“We must move forward to try to immediately ground all aircraft flying in those key areas in order to de-escalate the situation and give a chance for humanitarian aid to flow unimpeded,” Kerry said. “And if that happens, there’s a chance of giving credibility back to this process.”
Read more of Kerry’s remarks here.
Later Wednesday, the Pentagon denied Russia’s claim that a U.S. drone was flying over the area in which an aid convoy was attacked earlier this week.
The Hill’s Kristina Wong has more on the Pentagon statement:
“We can confirm that NONE of our aircraft — manned or unmanned, U.S. or Coalition — were anywhere in the vicinity of Aleppo when the strike against the humanitarian convoy occurred,” said Pentagon spokesman Navy Capt. Jeff Davis.
Russia claimed Wednesday that the U.S. had a Predator drone flying overhead when the convoy delivering aid to besieged civilians was struck on Monday, killing at least 20 civilians and destroying 18 of 31 trucks filled with aid.
U.S. officials said Tuesday that intelligence showed two Russian bombers flying in the area at the time of the attack.
World leaders blasted the attack as “appalling” and “sickening.”
TRUMP, JOHNSON TIED WITH MILITARY VOTERS: Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson are in a dead heat among active-duty troops, according to a new poll.
The Hill’s Kristina Wong breaks down the numbers:
Trump takes 37.6 percent to Johnson’s 36.5 percent, according to the poll from Military Times and Syracuse University’s Institute for Veterans and Military Families.
Clinton comes in third, with 16.3 percent. Green Party nominee Jill Stein received 1.2 percent, and other third-party and write-in candidates received 3.2 percent. About 5 percent indicated they did not plan to vote.
The poll, which has a 2-point margin of error, includes more than 2,200 responses from active-duty troops and backs up other polling of the military that has shown Johnson doing well.
ISIS SUSPECTED OF MUSTARD GAS ATTACK: A shell with mustard agent landed at an Iraqi base with U.S. troops this week, and ISIS is suspected to have fired it.
No U.S. troops were hurt or have displayed symptoms of exposure to a mustard agent, a U.S. military official said.
From The Hill’s Kristina Wong:
The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria is suspected of firing a crudely-made chemical weapon at a base where hundreds of U.S. troops were operating.
ISIS fired an approximately foot-long rocket at Qayarrah air base in northern Iraq on Tuesday afternoon, fragments of which tested positive for mustard agent, a U.S. military official told reporters Wednesday.
After it landed within the base, U.S. troops tested it and received an initial reading for a chemical agent they believe is mustard. A second reading turned up negative, but that could have been due to sun exposure, the official said.
The official added that the rocket landed within 100 yards of the “security perimeter of the base,” but did not say how close it got to U.S. troops.
ON TAP FOR TOMORROW:
Defense Secretary Ash Carter and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford will testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee at 9:30 a.m. at the Dirksen Senate Office Building, room G-50. http://bit.ly/2d9R7zR
A House Foreign Affairs subcommittee will hold a hearing on diplomacy and security in the South China Sea at 2 p.m. at the Rayburn House Office Building, room 2172. http://bit.ly/2cTYefq
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