Overnight Defense: Joint Chiefs chair pledges more transparency on Niger attack | Trump disputes Gold Star widow’s account of phone call | Tillerson sees role for Taliban in Afghan government

THE TOPLINE: Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford took to the podium in the Pentagon on Monday afternoon in an attempt to clear up the “perception that the Department of Defense has not been forthcoming” about the attack in Niger that killed four American service members.

Dunford pledged to keep Congress, the media and the public informed, but provided few new details, saying he did not have answers yet while the investigation is ongoing.

“We owe the families as much information as we can find out about what happened, and we owe the American people an explanation of what their men and women were doing at this particular time,” Dunford told reporters at the Pentagon. “The only thing I’m asking for today is a bit of patience to make sure what we provide to you, when we provide it is factual.”

{mosads}

The Pentagon has come under increasing criticism from prominent lawmakers and others over transparency on the attack and, more broadly, U.S. operations in Niger.

On Sunday, for example, both Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a member of the Armed Services Committee, and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said that before the attack, they were unaware the United States had 1,000 troops in Niger and surrounding countries.

Lawmakers were notified in a June letter from the White House that the United States had about 945 troops in the region. U.S. Africa Command’s 2017 posture statement to Congress also mentioned “approximately 1,000 personnel conducting 12 named operations across a nine nation region” in West Africa.

Asked Monday about lawmakers’ criticisms, Dunford said he thought the Pentagon had been doing a good job informing Congress. But, he added, if lawmakers say the Pentagon needs to do better, then it does.

Read more from Dunford here.

 

GOLD STAR WIDOW SPEAKS OUT: Dunford’s press conference came with the White House ensnared in a controversy with the widow of one of the soldier’s killed in the attack.

Myeshia Johnson, whose husband died in Niger, made her first public comments Monday morning during an interview on “Good Morning America.”

In the emotional interview, Johnson confirmed Rep. Frederica Wilson’s (D-Fla.) account of the phone call President Trump placed to her last week, saying Trump’s tone and his apparent inability to remember her husband’s name made her angry.

“Whatever Ms. Wilson said was not fabricated, what she said was 100 percent correct,” Johnson said. “Why would we fabricate something like that? … I was very angry at the tone of his voice and how he said it.”

Johnson also questioned why she was not allowed to see her husband’s body and said she wants to know why it took the military 48 to find him after the attack.

Read more on the interview here and here.

 

TRUMP DISPUTES JOHNSON’S ACCOUNT: After the interview, Trump took to Twitter to dispute Johnson’s account, claiming he did use Sgt. La David Johnson’s name during the phone call.

“I had a very respectful conversation with the widow of Sgt. La David Johnson, and spoke his name from beginning, without hesitation!” Trump tweeted.

Read more here.

 

TILLERSON VISITS AFGHANISTAN: Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Monday said there is room in the Afghan government for moderate voices from the Taliban.

“Clearly, we have to continue the fight against the Taliban and against others in order for them to understand they will never win a military victory,” Tillerson told reporters in Afghanistan. “And there are, we believe, moderate voices among the Taliban, voices that do not want to continue to fight forever. They don’t want their children to fight forever.

“So we are looking to engage with those voices and have them engage in a reconciliation process leading to a peace process and their full involvement and participation in the government. There’s a place for them in the government if they’re ready to come renouncing terrorism, renouncing violence and being committed to a stable, prosperous Afghanistan.”

Tillerson was speaking to reporters during an unannounced stop in Afghanistan, his first there as secretary of State. His visit was part of a larger overseas trip that also includes stops in India and Pakistan, countries that President Trump has pegged as key to his Afghanistan strategy.

Read the rest here.

 

PANETTA URGES TRUMP TO ‘LOWER THE VOLUME’ ON NORTH KOREA: During a daylong forum at the Hudson Institute on Monday, former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said President Trump should “lower the volume of rhetoric” on North Korea and pursue a diplomatic solution.

The Hill’s Ellen Mitchell reports:

The exchange of rhetoric between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “increases the tension level” and raises the chance for “a miscalculation or a mistake that will ultimately escalate into a greater conflict,” Panetta told the audience at a Hudson Institute forum in Washington.

“My concern right now is that it would be far better to lower the volume of rhetoric and focus on developing both our strength and capacity in the region… trying to deal with sanctions that can really have an impact on North Korea,” Panetta said.

Tensions between North Korea and the U.S. have risen since Trump took office in January and began making bold statements of retaliation in response to the isolated regime’s missile and nuclear tests.

Read more here.

 

ON TAP FOR TOMORROW:

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will have a hearing on U.S. policy on Myanmar at 10 a.m. at the Dirksen Senate Office Building, room 419. http://bit.ly/2zoyjqA

The House Veterans Affairs Committee will mark up legislation, including Veterans Choice Program changes, at 10 a.m. at the Cannon House Office Building, room 334. http://bit.ly/2lc1dIj

 

ICYMI:

— The Hill: Panetta: Countries won’t trust US if Iran deal is broken

— The Hill: Pence pays tribute to Marines killed in Beirut barracks bombing

— The Hill: US prepping nuclear bombers for 24-hour ready alert status

— The Hill: In Congress, fears grow about lack of strategy on multiple battlefields

— The Hill: Timeline: How the Trump administration responded to the Niger attack

— The Hill: WH says Trump likely will not visit Korean DMZ

— The Hill: Opinion: Thanks to Obama, America is two steps behind Iran in Middle East, by former UN Ambassador John R. Bolton

— The Hill: Opinion: Total victory over ISIS means crushing its online stronghold, by Gillian Turner, a former National Security Council adviser.

 

Please send tips and comments to Rebecca Kheel, rkheel@digital-stage.thehill.com, and Ellen Mitchell, emitchell@digital-stage.thehill.com.

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