| | | | |  | | By Matt Berg, Eric Bazail-Eimil and Miles Herszenhorn | |  Haitian policemen stand guard on a street corner amid gang violence in Port-au-Prince on April 8, 2024. | Clarens Siffroy/AFP via Getty Images | With help from Daniel Lippman Subscribe here | Email Matt | Email Eric The U.S. is spending hundreds of millions of dollars on a foreign intervention in Haiti — to battle gangs largely armed with U.S. guns acquired on the black market. Now, lawmakers want the Biden administration to help Congress finally curb the illicit gun trade that has fueled conflicts in Latin America and beyond for decades. Firearms made by American companies comprise the bulk of Haitian gangs’ growing arsenal of handguns and rifles, helping them wreak havoc on Port-Au-Prince following the president’s assassination three years ago. U.S.-backed Kenyan forces, wielding U.S. weapons, are expected to land in Haiti in the coming weeks to combat them. The Haiti conflict, some progressives say, underscores why Washington needs to take more decisive action to disrupt the illegal weapons trafficking. “We're having to fund the U.S. guns to go fight the U.S. guns that have filled the void in governance there,” said Rep. GREG CASAR (D-Texas), emphasizing his support for the Kenyan-led mission. “But we can't forget how we got here and recognize that … we’ve got to start tackling the flow of guns from the United States to Latin America.” Casar and 20 other Democrats sent a letter to Attorney General MERRICK GARLAND on Wednesday, expressing concern about the dynamic in Haiti and urging him to help lawmakers understand how Congress can address the illegal arms issue. “There is a direct line from illegal guns trafficked from the U.S. to the violence we’re seeing in Haiti,” Sen. CHRIS MURPHY (D-Conn.), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and longtime gun control advocate, told NatSec Daily. He applauded the Biden administration’s efforts to combat gun traffickers. But to establish “long-term stability in Haiti, we need to acknowledge the role illegal guns from the U.S. continue to play,” Murphy added. Asked for comment, the State Department pointed to progress the U.S. has made with Caribbean partners over the past year to curb the gun trade, seizing about 340 firearms, 26,500 rounds of ammunition and over 400 magazines. It’s a thorny problem that hasn’t been solved for decades: Guns flow through the “iron river” into the hands of drug cartels and abusive security forces in Latin America. American gunmakers have come under fire for fueling the illicit trade, but companies maintain that they only sell legally to Americans who pass background checks. “Legal gun sales are tightly controlled in most of the region, but the bad guys have easy access to U.S. weapons,” BENJAMIN GEDAN, former South America director on the National Security Council now at the Wilson Center, told NatSec Daily. Kenyan forces “will find their opponents are armed to the teeth with weapons from the U.S.” In the letter, the lawmakers asked Garland for a briefing by June 20, which would help them better understand what legislative actions Congress can take to block Haitian gangs, Mexican cartels, and criminal organizations from arming themselves with American guns. It’s a rhetorical push that comes as Democrats have largely fallen in line to support the mission to assist Haiti, while Republicans, left-leaning advocates and many people in the Haitian community say the plan is doomed to fail. Thousands of U.S.-backed forces — from Kenya, as well as seven other countries — are expected to soon arrive in Haiti, but there aren’t yet any Kenyan forces on the ground in Haiti “in any real terms,” said a DOD official, granted anonymity to speak candidly. The official provided no timeline on when the forces might land.
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Today’s battlespace has no room for miscommunication. At Lockheed Martin, we’re building the strongest communication network possible, no matter where the battle lines are drawn. Defense tech you can count on when every second counts. Learn more. | | | | | SORRY FOR THAT: President JOE BIDEN apologizes to Ukrainian President VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY for the delay in sending military assistance to Kyiv, saying that “some conservatives were holding it up.” Biden heaped on the praise before meeting privately with Zelenskyy today, telling him that “you are the bulwark against the aggression that is taking place. We have an obligation to be there. ... We’re still in, completely, thoroughly.” But as we reported Thursday, Ukraine has plenty more asks. Here are some of the details coming out today. Zelenskyy planned to press both Biden and Macron to seize $300 billion in Russian financial assets held in their countries and for the money to be used to fund Ukraine’s war effort. With Biden, he planned to focus on securing more long-range missiles and for the U.S. president to lift the prohibition on using them deeper in Russia than just the border areas adjacent to Kharkiv. “As ever he will plead for more air defense systems — not only to protect our cities but our frontlines too,” one of the officials said. Zelenskyy is already scoring some wins on his trip. Biden announced that he’s signing a new $225 million Ukraine package today, some of which will go to fixing Ukraine’s electric grid. The package also includes artillery ammunition, air defense missiles and anti-tank weapons, Secretary of State ANTONY BLINKEN announced today. Read: Inside the ill-fitting, occasionally chaotic, decidedly solid Biden-Macron relationship by our own ELI STOKOLS. ISRAEL’S TARGETED ATTACKS: Women and children in Gaza are being killed less frequently by Israel, according to analysis of the Gaza health ministry’s data by The Associated Press’ JOSEF FEDERMAN. In October, the death rate of Palestinian women and children was 60 percent. That dropped to 40 percent in April, a shift that aligns with changes in Israel’s military tactics to more carefully target Hamas following U.S. pressure. The figures appear to contradict some of the Hamas-linked ministry’s public statements about who has been killed in recent months during the war. DEATHS AND NO DEAL: Israeli forces bombarded central and southern Gaza today, killing 28 Palestinians, Reuters’ NIDAL AL-MUGHRABI reports. The strikes in and around the southern city of Rafah come as cease-fire negotiations between Israel and Hamas remain stalled. People familiar with talks told Reuters that there have still been no breakthroughs. Blinken will travel to Egypt, Israel, Jordan and Qatar from Monday to Wednesday to push for the deal. While the White House says Israel agrees to the deal, Israeli officials say they don’t want to pull out of Gaza until their military objectives are complete: “There are still lots of weapons and terrorists in Gaza and they have their own capabilities, from the IDF’s perspective there is still work to be done,” an Israeli military official told The Wall Street Journal’s CARRIE KELLER-LYNN, following an attempted raid by militants into Israel on Thursday. AMERICA’S WOES IN WEST AFRICA: The United States’ efforts in West Africa have “not gone particularly well,” a top Pentagon official told the New York Times’ ERIC SCHMITT and RUTH MACLEAN. CHRISTOPHER MAIER, the Pentagon’s top official for special operations policy, told the Times that U.S. setbacks in the region have been “frustrating” and that Washington is getting few results from its focus on democracy and governance. While the U.S. has had more success training counterterrorism troops in recent years, Maier added, “it’s disappointing when we’ve invested in that relationship and then we’re asked to depart.” Maier’s comments come as Al Qaeda and ISIS affiliates in Africa have grown in strength and military governments in Mali, Chad, Burkina Faso and Niger have expelled U.S. and French troops from bases in their territory. Russian soldiers and mercenaries have replaced them in some countries. These changes have forced Washington to pivot its strategy in West Africa, per the Times. Officials said the U.S. will prioritize initiatives around security, governance and development like paying for soldier training and electrification and water projects. DRINKS WITH NATSEC DAILY: At the end of every long, hard week, we like to highlight how a prominent member of the global national security and foreign policy scene prefers to unwind with a drink. This week, we’re featuring BARHAM SALIH, the former president of Iraq. When he’s not teaching the next generation of policy practitioners at the Harvard Kennedy School, where he’s a senior fellow, Salih told our DANIEL LIPPMAN that he relaxes by drinking tea, preferably Ceylon tea brewed in the Kurdish way. At night, he often sips on tea while watching a political drama on Netflix (he recently liked the ones on JOHN ADAMS and BENJAMIN FRANKLIN). “There’s a constant struggle between me and my wife,” he joked about his drink of choice. “I prefer black tea and she strongly advises me to drink green tea for health reasons and as often is the case, the husband has to dutifully comply. So she has found me a decaf green tea that I end my day with.” Cheers, Mr. President! IT’S FRIDAY. WELCOME TO THE WEEKEND: Thanks for tuning in to NatSec Daily! This space is reserved for the top U.S. and foreign officials, the lawmakers, the lobbyists, the experts and the people like you who care about how the natsec sausage gets made. Aim your tips and comments at mberg@politico.com and ebazail@politico.com, and follow us on X at @mattberg33 and @ebazaileimil. While you’re at it, follow the rest of POLITICO’s national security team: @alexbward, @nahaltoosi, @PhelimKine, @laraseligman, @connorobrienNH, @paulmcleary, @leehudson, @magmill95, @johnnysaks130, @ErinBanco, @reporterjoe, @JGedeon1 and @mherszenhorn.
| | | | POLITICO is gearing up to deliver experiences that help you navigate the NATO Summit. What issues should our reporting and events spotlight? Click here to let us know. | | | | | | | | | BIDEN CHANNELS REAGAN: Biden delivered a speech in Normandy today that did not name former President DONALD TRUMP, but clearly had political overtones as he rebuked isolationist visions for the United States, Eli and Eric report. Speaking at Pointe-du-Hoc, a famed promontory on the English channel where RONALD REAGAN spoke four decades ago, Biden warned that any lapse in support for Ukraine, and by extension voting for Trump, amounts to a betrayal of the sacrifices U.S. troops made in World War II. It’s one of several steps intended to draw a contrast with Trump — on Sunday, Biden will lay a wreath at a military cemetery Trump snubbed during his visit to France in 2018. “Does anyone doubt that [those Rangers] would want America to stand up against [VLADIMIR] PUTIN’s aggression here in Europe today?” Biden asked. “They stormed the beaches alongside their allies. Does anyone believe these rangers want America to go alone today?” ICYMI — India, Mexico, South Africa went to the polls. Here’s what we learned by MATTHEW KAMINSKI
| | WHAT THE F, WHATSAPP: WhatsApp Channels, a new platform launched within the popular messaging app, lacks clear guidelines around election disinformation that could open the door to malign foreign influence operations, our own REBECCA KERN reports. The new broadcast platform has already garnered half a billion users since it launched eight months ago. But some former Meta employees, lawmakers and experts warn that Meta has not applied the strict guidelines it has for other platforms against voter interference, threats of violence and election misinformation to WhatsApp Channels, a major liability as a glut of countries around the world hold elections this year. “It is absolutely imperative that Meta extends the same policies from its other platforms to WhatsApp Channels to prevent the spread of election-related falsehoods,” Rep. ADAM SCHIFF (D-Calif.) said. A Meta spokesperson said the company does not view Channels as a social media platform, but emphasized its community guidelines would apply to posts on voter suppression.
| | | |   | | | | | GREAT EXPECTATIONS: Ukraine has high hopes for the NATO summit in Washington next month, where it wants to receive more Patriot air defense systems and make progress on its bid for NATO membership, our own VERONIKA MELKOZEROVA reports. The July summit, however, will not include an official invitation from NATO countries to join the alliance, according to OLGA STEFANISHYNA, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister on EU and Euro-Atlantic integration. “Ukraine awaits decisions that will help significantly strengthen the country's defense and the ability to repel Russian aggression, as well as become a safeguard against repeated attacks in the future, Stefanishyna said.
| | | WICKER’S PUNCHING BAG: The Pentagon’s floating pier that sends aid into Gaza will soon resume operations, and Sen. ROGER WICKER (R-Miss.) won’t stop pointing out all the issues the pier — seen as a band-aid for a much larger problem — has faced. “It is astonishing that President Biden is doubling down on this bad idea,” Wicker said in a statement today. “It continues to put U.S. troops in harm’s way without any plan for ensuring that aid is delivered successfully to Gazans in need.” Wicker, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, has regularly lambasted the effort as “expensive” and a political move to assuage Biden’s critics on the left. His most recent comments, though, come after the pier broke apart in rough seas off the coast of the Gaza Strip. MARK YOUR CALENDARS: Israeli Prime Minister BENJAMIN NETANYAHU will address a joint session of Congress on July 24, our own JORDAIN CARNEY reported Thursday night.
| | | | POLITICO is gearing up to deliver experiences that help you navigate the NATO Summit. What issues should our reporting and events spotlight? Click here to let us know. | | | | | | | | CHOPPY WATERS: Japan lodged a “strong protest” through diplomatic channels against Beijing today after four armed Chinese coast guard ships entered waters surrounding disputed islands administered by Japan in the East China Sea, according to Reuters. Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary YOSHIMASA HAYASHI called the actions of China’s coast guard a “violation of international law” during a press conference. The Chinese coast guard, however, described its patrol of the waters as a “routine action.” SUNAK SAYS SORRY: British Prime Minister RISHI SUNAK apologized for leaving D-Day commemorations early in order to return to the U.K. and sit for a T.V. interview, our own NOAH KEATE reports. Sunak took part in a memorial service at Ver-sur-Mer in northern France, but skipped a later-day ceremony at Omaha Beach, leaving his government represented by British Foreign Secretary DAVID CAMERON and British Defence Secretary GRANT SHAPPS. Opposition Leader KEIR STARMER stayed. It’s the latest faux pas for Sunak, whose Conservative party is trailing the opposition Labour party by more than 20 points ahead of the country’s July 4 vote. KOREA’S BALLOON WARS: A South Korean activist group released balloons containing thousands of USB drives loaded with K-pop and Korean romance TV shows into North Korea on Thursday, The Washington Post’s KELSEY ABLES and JINTAK HAN report. The South Korean balloons also carried 200,000 leaflets critical of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and 2,000 American $1 bills. The effort, organized by Fighters for Free North Korea, comes days after North Korea released thousands of balloons into South Korea filled with trash and manure.
| | | | — Pentagon Chief Information Officer JOHN SHERMAN is stepping down at the end of June to become dean of the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University. — JASON “J.C.” HENRY joined McAllister & Quinn as vice president of government relations, defense and space. Previously, he served as the director of government affairs at Intelsat and was the director of congressional affairs at the National Reconnaissance Office. — Who’s going to be the European Union’s next top diplomat? Our pals across the Atlantic have some ideas…
| | A message from Lockheed Martin: Clear insight means stronger foresight.
When threats come from anywhere, you have to be able to communicate everywhere. Lockheed Martin’s cross-domain connectivity is key to keeping every mission on track. Learn more. | | | | | — ISHAAN THAROOR, The Washington Post: The West’s liberal establishment clings to D-Day’s legacy — NICK DANFORTH and AARON STEIN, War on the Rocks: Coming to terms with the loss of Turkey — DAVID VINE and THERESA ARRIOLA, The Nation: When a bomb explodes, someone profits
| | — German Marshall Fund, 8:00 a.m.: ”All Reconstruction is Local,” featuring remarks from special representative for Ukraine’s economic recovery PENNY PRITZKER. — Wilson Center, 1:00 p.m.: The changing nature of security threats in the central Sahel region: The rise of self-defense groups and private security companies. — Center for Strategic and International Studies, 1:00 p.m.: U.S.-Republic of Korea bilateral dialogue for strengthening US-ROK alliance. Thanks to our editor, Heidi Vogt, who benefits from the illicit arms trade. Thanks to our producer, Gigi Ewing, who does her best to stop Heidi. | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
