National Security report - 9/19/14

1. Defense Budget: $500 Billion in Defense Cuts Reconsidered Due to ISIL
Members of Congress and the White House anticipated a peace dividend by winding down America's foreign wars, closing bases and shedding tens of thousands of troops.
But President Obama's new, open-ended strategy to confront Islamic State fighters in Iraq and Syria is likely to eat into some of the nearly $500 billion in Pentagon spending cuts that were planned over the next decade.
The first five weeks of U.S. airstrikes in northern Iraq has cost $262.5 million, according to the Pentagon, and Obama personally lobbied key members of Congress in recent days to appropriate $500 million to help train and arm Syrian rebels at camps in Saudi Arabia.
While that's still a pittance compared with the total $496-billion Pentagon budget, or the $1.2 trillion spent for the ground wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the costs of intervention are certain to increase under the plan to step up airstrikes, intensify surveillance and conduct counter-terrorism operations against the Sunni extremist force and its leaders.
There are already calls in Congress to eliminate the $45 billion in sequestration spending cuts that are set to hit next fiscal year, which starts Oct. 1, and to increase the supplemental appropriations used to fund the actual war-fighting, as opposed to other parts of the Pentagon budget.
Rep. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.), who chairs a House subcommittee on counter-terrorism and intelligence, said lawmakers should reconsider cuts to the defense budget to ensure the latest military venture is funded for the long haul.
"This is not just bombing a mountainside or securing a dam," he said. "This is a war that could go on for another 10, 15 years. And to do that we're going to have to recalibrate our thinking toward defense, and realize that we have to be on a wartime footing when it comes to spending."
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) said budget discussions were already underway to address the new national security priorities.
"Every time we talk about any initiative for the use of force or the initiation of hostilities, it's a question of resources," she said. "There is a concern and it's been brought up in our meetings. But we have a first responsibility to protect and defend. That is the oath we take."
The military action has meant a policy reversal for Obama, who vowed in May 2013 to take America off its "permanent war footing" and to curtail the use of drones. As of Saturday, the U.S. had launched 160 airstrikes in northern Iraq in five weeks, compared with 147 drone strikes over the last three years in northwest Pakistan, where Al Qaeda is still based.
For lawmakers, voting to increase military spending may be easier than approving other spending hikes, given the public outcry since videos surfaced last month showing Islamic State fighters beheading two American journalists. A third video released Saturday appeared to show the beheading of a British aid worker. Opinion polls show broad public support for U.S. airstrikes against the insurgents.

"Further reductions in Pentagon spending are unlikely [because] public sentiment has turned," said Loren Thompson, military policy analyst for the Lexington Institute in Arlington, Va., which advises defense contractors.
"The unexpected surge of overseas threats will probably put a brake on further cuts in defense spending, and generate pressure to amend the 2011 Budget Control Act," he added.
The act, part of which included mandatory cuts known as sequestration, trimmed about $500 billion from Pentagon spending over the next decade by putting annual caps on the defense budget.
In a study released in April, the Pentagon outlined the impact of those mandatory cuts, including a drop to 420,000 active-duty soldiers from 470,000 in the Army; the retirement of a Navy aircraft carrier; and scrapping the KC-10 tankers that refuel fighter and bomber jets in midair.
Since taking office in February 2013, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has unfurled a range of reform initiatives, including reducing the size of headquarters staff, slashing the number of troops and retiring fleets of Cold War-era aircraft.
The Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a Washington-based think tank, concluded in a recent report that inflation-adjusted defense spending has declined 21% since 2010. This includes special supplementary appropriations for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which are considered "overseas contingency operations."
The Pentagon was under pressure to lower war-related spending in the latest budget round of requests for fiscal 2015. At the time, the Pentagon requested $58.6 billion, which is about $20 billion less than the 2014 request.
But the budgets were drawn before the Islamic State fighters began seizing major cities and towns in western and northern Iraq last spring. The overseas contingency operations request, which still must be voted on by Congress, will likely be increased while the $496-billion base budget request for 2015 will stay untouched, analysts say.
"The impact of the current crisis is that the Congress and the White House will mutually agree to actually increase the defense budget, through the war budget, without compromising the budget deal," said Gordon Adams, a defense budget expert at American University and a former official with the Office of Management and Budget.
In addition to ratcheting up the effort in Iraq and Syria, the Pentagon plans to train and provide body armor, night-vision goggles and medical kits to Ukrainian military forces facing an insurgency by Russian-backed separatists. That is expected to cost $70 million.

2. U.S. Response to the Ebola Epidemic in West Africa
From the White House: As the President has stated, the Ebola epidemic in West Africa and the humanitarian crisis there is a top national security priority for the United States. In order to contain and combat it, the US partnering with the United Nations and other international partners to help the Governments of Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, and Senegal respond just as we fortify our defenses at home. Every outbreak of Ebola over the past 40 years has been contained, and we are confident that this one can-and will be-as well.
Our strategy is predicated on four key goals:
• Controlling the epidemic at its source in West Africa;
• Mitigating second-order impacts, including blunting the economic, social, and political tolls in the region;
• Engaging and coordinating with a broader global audience; and,
• Fortifying global health security infrastructure in the region and beyond.
The United States has applied a whole-of-government response to the epidemic, which we launched shortly after the first cases were reported in March. As part of this, we have dedicated additional resources across the federal government to address the crisis, committing more than $175 million to date. We continue to work with Congress to provide additional resources through appropriations and reprogramming efforts in order to be responsive to evolving resource needs on the ground. Just as the outbreak has worsened, our response will be commensurate with the challenge.
To view the entire fact sheet visit:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/09/16/fact-sheet-us-resp...

3. POW/MIA Day
What do people do?
Many Americans across the United States pause to remember the sacrifices and service of those who were prisoners of war (POW), as well as those who are missing in action (MIA), and their families. All military installations fly the National League of Families’ POW/MIA flag, which symbolizes the nation’s remembrance of those who were imprisoned while serving in conflicts and those who remain missing.
Veteran rallies take place in many states, such as Wisconsin, in the United States on National POW/MIA Recognition Day. United States flags and POW/MIA flags are flown on this day and joint prayers are made for POWs and those missing in action. National POW/MIA Recognition Day posters are also displayed at college or university campuses and public buildings to promote the day. Remembrance ceremonies and other events to observe the day are also held in places such as the Pentagon, war memorials and museums.
Public life
National POW/MIA Recognition Day is not a federal public holiday in the United States but it is a national observance.
Background
There are 1,741 American personnel listed by the Defense Department's POW/MIA Office as missing and unaccounted for from the Vietnam War, as of April 2009. The number of United States personnel accounted for since the end of the Vietnam War in 1975 is 841. About 90 percent of the 1,741 people still missing were lost in Vietnam or areas of Laos and Cambodia under Vietnam's wartime control, according to the National League of Families website (cited in the United States Army website).
The United States Congress passed a resolution authorizing National POW/MIA Recognition Day to be observed on July 18, 1979. It was observed on the same date in 1980 and was held on July 17 in 1981 and 1982. It was then observed on April 9 in 1983 and July 20 in 1984. The event was observed on July 19 in 1985, and then from 1986 onwards the date moved to the third Friday of September. The United States president each year proclaims National POW/MIA Recognition Day. Many states in the USA also proclaim POW/MIA Recognition Day together with the national effort.
Symbols
The National League of Families’ POW/MIA flag symbolizes the United States’ resolve to never forget POWs or those who served their country in conflicts and are still missing. Newt Heisley designed the flag. The flag’s design features a silhouette of a young man, which is based on Mr Heisley’s son, who was medically discharged from the military. As Mr Heisley looked at his returning son’s gaunt features, he imagined what life was for those behind barbed wire fences on foreign shores. He then sketched the profile of his son as the new flag's design was created in his mind.
The flag features a white disk bearing in black silhouette a man’s bust, a watch tower with a guard on patrol, and a strand of barbed wire. White letters “POW” and “MIA”, with a white five-pointed star in between, are typed above the disk. Below the disk is a black and white wreath above the motto “You Are Not Forgotten” written in white, capital letters.
The flag can also be displayed on Armed Forces Day, Memorial Day, Flag Day, Independence Day and Veterans Day. The flag can be displayed at the Capitol, the White House, the Korean War Veterans Memorial and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, national cemeteries, various government buildings, and major military installations.

4. POW/MIA Update
U.S. Army Air Forces Staff Sgt. Gerald V. Atkinson, 21, of Ramer, Ala., will be buried Aug. 16 in Chattahoochee, Fla. On April 10, 1945, Atkinson and eight other crew members aboard a B 17G, were assigned to the 303rd Bombardment Group (Heavy). Atkinson was assigned as a spot jammer aboard the aircraft that departed Molesworth, England on a bombing mission over Oranienburg, Germany. During the mission the aircraft crashed and Atkinson was reported missing.
Atkinson’s aircraft, along with 38 other aircraft from the 303rd Bombardment Group, were flying in a formation as part of a major allied bombing operation against targets in Germany. After successfully dropping their ordnance, Atkinson’s aircraft was attacked by six to eight German ME- 262 jets. The aircraft crashed into the Groβ Glasow Lake near Groβ Schonebeck, Germany. Of the crew of nine, only one crewmember survived.
In 1946 and 1947, German nationals recovered remains from Groβ Glasow Lake believed to be the remains of American airmen and they were buried as unknowns in a local community cemetery.
In August 1947, the remains were exhumed by the U.S. Army Graves Registration Command (AGRC) and reinterred as unknowns in Nueville en Condroz, Belgium. In December 1948, the remains were again exhumed for possible identification and it was determined the remains were members of Atkinson’s crew; however, the AGRC could not conclusively establish individual identifications and the unidentified remains were reinterred as unknowns in the Brittany American Cemetery and Memorial in St. James, France in November 1951.
In 2012, the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) re-examined the AGRC’s records and concluded that the possibility of identification of the unknown remains now exist. To identify Atkinson’s remains, scientists from JPAC and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory (AFDIL) used circumstantial evidence and mitochondrial DNA, which matched Atkinson’s cousin.
Today, 7,882 Americans remain unaccounted for from the Korean War. Using modern technology, identifications continue to be made from remains that were previously turned over by North Korean officials or recovered from North Korea by American teams.