From: Craig Quigley To: Craig Quigley Subject: EXECUTIVE INSIGHT BRIEF | February 17, 2017 Date: Friday, February 17, 2017 12:22:50 PM

Ladies & Gentlemen, below please find this week’s edition of Executive Insight Brief from The Roosevelt Group.

Craig R. Quigley Rear Admiral, U.S. Navy (Ret.) Executive Director Hampton Roads Military and Federal Facilities Alliance 757-644-6324 (Office) 757-419-1164 (Mobile)

EXECUTIVE INSIGHT BRIEF | February 17, 2017

TOP STORIES

FLYNN IN FBI INTERVIEW DENIED DISCUSSING SANCTIONS WITH RUSSIAN AMBASSADOR. Former national security adviser Michael Flynn denied to FBI agents in an interview last month that he had discussed U.S. sanctions against Russia with that country’s ambassador to the United States before President Trump took office, contradicting the contents of intercepted communications collected by intelligence agencies, current and former U.S. officials said. Read more

LAL SHAHBAZ QALANDAR SHRINE ATTACK PROMPTS PAKISTAN SECURITY CRACKDOWN. Some 18 militants were killed in southern Sindh province, where the Sufi shrine is located, and another 13 in the north-west, officials said. A suicide bomber blew himself up among devotees at the Sufi shrine in the town of Sehwan. So-called Islamic State said it had carried out the attack. It was the latest in a string of bombings by the jihadist group. Read more

RUSSIAN SPY SHIP 'LOITERING' OFF VIRGINIA NEAR WORLD'S LARGEST NAVAL BASE, OFFICIALS SAY. The Russian spy ship Viktor Leonov is currently “loitering” off the coast of Norfolk, Va., home to the largest naval base in the world, two U.S. officials tell Fox News. As of Friday morning, the Russian spy ship is slowly patrolling only 17 nautical miles -- roughly 19 miles -- from land, according to officials. United States territorial waters extend 12 nautical miles from shore. Read more

IN CHINA, A SENSE OF BETRAYAL AFTER THE ASSASSINATION OF KIM JONG NAM. China’s Foreign Ministry has been at its stonewalling, noncommittal best this week after news of the dramatic assassination of Kim Jong Nam, the half-brother of North Korea’s leader, repeating the mantra that it has “noticed relevant media reports and is closely following developments.” Read more

NATO'S EUROPEAN ALLIES TAKE STEPS TO MEET U.S. DEMAND. European members of NATO have agreed to buy planes and submarines jointly and possibly open a new command headquarters for elite troops after the United States threatened to curtail its support unless Europe increased military spending by the end of the year. At Thursday's signing ceremonies in Brussels, defense ministers from France and Germany said they would buy Lockheed Martin C-130J Super Hercules transport planes. Read more

RUSSIA’S ELECTION INTERFERENCE: CUMMINGS WANTS 9/11 COMMISSION-STYLE PROBE. The creation of a 9/11-style commission to investigate Russian interference in the presidential election has won bipartisan support, according to a senior Democratic lawmaker. In an interview with MSNBC's Chris Hayes, Rep. Elijah Cummings said that such a committee was necessary "to really get into how all of this happened, what was the relationship between the Trump campaign and the Russians, and try to figure out how to make sure that this does not happen again." Read more

HUNDREDS OF MIGRANTS STORM FENCE TO REACH SPANISH ENCLAVE OF CEUTA. Police said security cameras showed the migrants breaking through one of the gates, some wielding shears and clubs. The Ceuta regional government said almost 500 made it across the razor wire barrier. Ceuta and Melilla, another Spanish territory in North Africa, have the EU's only land borders with Africa. As a result, they are popular crossing points for migrants hoping to reach a new life in Europe. Read more

TONY BLAIR SAYS BRITAIN SHOULD ‘RISE UP’ AGAINST BREXIT. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair urged people to "rise up" in opposition to the U.K.'s departure from the European Union, in an impassioned speech Friday. Blair's address appeared to be an attempt to marshal resistance to Prime Minister Theresa May's hardline approach to the EU departure, known as Brexit. Read more

ADMINISTRATION

TRUMP WAS FULLY BRIEFED ON CONTENT OF FLYNN’S CALLS WITH RUSSIAN AMBASSADOR. President Donald Trump was given a comprehensive briefing on the content of ousted National Security Adviser Michael Flynn’s conversations with Russia’s ambassador, Fox News reported. Trump did not see a transcript of the communications, but was given a summary of Flynn’s discussions with the Russian ambassador prior to his resignation. Read more

ALL THE THINGS TRUMP COVERED AT HIS EPIC NEWS CONFERENCE. President Donald Trump held court with reporters for 80 minutes Thursday, producing no shortage of news in his first solo press conference as commander in chief. Facing a host of issues and controversies that have swirled around his administration in the four weeks since he inherited the White House, Trump confronted them, seeming at varying points exasperated, energized, amicable and aggressive as he sparred with reporters. Read more

TRUMP HIRES MIKE DUBKE AS WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR. Mike Dubke, a veteran Republican media strategist, has been hired as the White House communications director, potentially providing some relief for its embattled press secretary, Sean Spicer, who’s been holding down both jobs. With the appointment, which a White House official confirmed Friday, President Trump is reaching outside his circle of trusted campaign aides to try to bolster his messaging operation. Read more

CONGRESS

RYAN STRUGGLES TO SELL TAX REFORM PLAN TO FELLOW REPUBLICANS. Paul Ryan showed up to Senate Republicans’ weekly lunch on Tuesday hoping to salvage a controversial pillar of his tax reform plan that would change how imports and exports are taxed. “Keep your powder dry,” the House speaker pleaded. The next day, Sen. Tom Cotton took to the Senate floor to slam Ryan’s so-called border adjustment tax, saying “some ideas are so stupid only an intellectual could believe them.” Read more

CUMMINGS' OFFICE DENIES CANCELING MEETING WITH TRUMP. President Donald Trump said a planned meeting with Rep. Elijah Cummings has been called off because of partisan politics — but the prominent Congressional Black Caucus member and top Democrat on the House oversight panel denied it. “He was probably told, ‘Don’t meet with Trump, it’s bad politics,’ and that’s part of the problem in this country,” Trump said during a marathon press conference at the White House. Read more

McCAIN WILL SKIP EPA CONFIRMATION VOTE FOR GERMAN CONFERENCE: REPORT. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) will skip the final confirmation vote for President Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency nominee so he can make it to a global security conference in Germany, Politico reported Thursday. McCain was scheduled to fly with 11 other senators and four house members on a military plane to the Munich Security Conference on Friday. Read more

POLITICS

MORE DEMOCRATS CALL ON SESSIONS TO WITHDRAW FROM RUSSIA PROBE. Dozens of House Democrats are calling on Attorney General Jeff Sessions to recuse himself from the Justice Department’s review of contacts between President Trump’s associates and Russian government operatives. Fifty-five lawmakers, led by House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-N.Y.), signed a letter sent to Sessions late Thursday asking him to withdraw based on his ties to Trump’s campaign and key figures who have been alleged to have ties to Russia. Read more

GOP FINDS FIX FOR CHAOTIC TOWN HALLS: DON’T HOLD THEM. Rep. Jason Chaffetz’s (R-Utah) town hall last week marked a high point for the progressive “resistance,” with voters flooding a high school gym, demanding answers on the GOP’s agenda, and chanting “do your job.” The videos of that town hall swiftly went viral. On Thursday, the Utah Republican Party settled on its response to the town hall drama: Don’t let it happen again. Read more

TOP UNION OFFERS BACKING FOR ELLISON IN DNC RACE. One of the country’s most powerful labor organizations is backing Rep. Keith Ellison (D- Minn.) for Democratic National Committee (DNC) chairman, Politico reported Friday. The Service Employees International Union’s (SEIU) support isn’t a formal endorsement, but it is calling on its members who can vote for DNC chair to cast their votes for Ellison. Read more

DEFENSE AND FOREIGN AFFAIRS

AUSTRALIA LAUDS F-35 CAPABILITIES. Within days, Australians will get to see the first of the RAAF’s new Joint Strike Fighters—just months after the jet’s noisiest critics told an inquiry it was a ‘jackass of all trades and masterful of none’. Two members of the Air Power Australia group went on to tell the Senate committee the aircraft was ‘a broken and obsolete design, unsuitable for modern combat’. Read more

ROBERT HARWARD TURNS DOWN NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER'S JOB. Retired Vice Adm. Robert Harward has turned down an offer to become Donald Trump’s new national security adviser, a potential blow to those who hoped Harward would bring a stabilizing presence to the National Security Council days after the surprise resignation of Michael Flynn. Harward confirmed in a statement released Thursday night that he turned down the job. Read more

AEROSPACE INDUSTRY SETS $146B EXPORT RECORD IN 2016. The U.S. aerospace and defense industry set a new record for international sales in 2016, delivering $146 billion in exports, the Aerospace Industries Association announced Monday. Exports for the sector have been on an upward swing for a while, increasing by 52 percent over the past five years. Compared to 2015, companies were able to sell an additional $3 billion in products to international customers in 2016, AIA data shows. Read more

ECONOMY AND FINANCE

TRUMP NAMES ALEXANDER ACOSTA AS NEW PICK FOR LABOR SECRETARY. A day after the dramatic exit of one of his Cabinet nominees, President Trump on Thursday named former U.S. attorney Alexander Acosta as his next pick for labor secretary. Acosta served as an assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s civil rights division under President George W. Bush and is a former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida. He also previously served on the National Labor Relations Board and is now the dean of the law school at Florida International University. Read more

STOCKS POST BEST WINNING STREAK IN 25 YEARS. The Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq soared to record highs on Wednesday, the fifth-straight day of all- time highs. It’s the first time all three major market averages have achieved that feat since January 1992, according to a FactSet analysis provided to CNNMoney. Read more

AT&T’S NEW, NEW UNLIMITED DATA PLAN ELIMINATES AN ANNOYING REQUIREMENT. AT&T on Thursday announced an expanded version of its unlimited data plan that does not require an additional subscription to a pay-TV service. The new unlimited plan is aimed at competing with similar offerings recently announced by Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint. A single line will cost $100 a month, with the second and third lines each costing an additional $40 per month. Read more

ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT

ENJOY THIS LIVE-STREAMED EXPEDITION TO THE OCEAN FLOOR. Ah yes, the ocean: a place where most living things appear to have conjured themselves directly from my nightmares. We know very little about the sea floor, which we have barely observed. In the hopes of expanding our knowledge, the Okeanos Explorer — a project from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — will head to the sea mounts 250 to 6,000 meters deep near American Samoa. What horrors lurk there? Read more

SCIENTISTS HAVE JUST DETECTED A MAJOR CHANGE TO THE EARTH’S OCEANS LINKED TO A WARMING CLIMATE. A large research synthesis, published in one of the world’s most influential scientific journals, has detected a decline in the amount of dissolved oxygen in oceans around the world — a long-predicted result of climate change that could have severe consequences for marine organisms if it continues. Read more

ZEALANDIA: IS THERE AN EIGHTH CONTINENT UNDER NEW ZEALAND? Say hello to Zealandia, a huge landmass almost entirely submerged in the southwest Pacific. It's not a complete stranger, you might have heard of its highest mountains, the only bits showing above water: New Zealand. Scientists say it qualifies as a continent and have now made a renewed push for it to be recognized as such. Read more

TECHNOLOGY

AMAZON’S LATEST DRONE WOULD PARACHUTE PARCELS INTO YOUR BACKYARD. Amazon's idea for drone deliveries just keeps getting wackier. The U.S. e-commerce giant was awarded a patent earlier this week for a system in which a package would be "forcefully" propelled from an unmanned aerial vehicle and would be helped to land by tools including a parachute. Read more

WEATHER APP USES MESH NETWORKING TO SEND EMERGENCY ALERTS WITHOUT CELL SIGNAL. A mobile phone can be a fantastic resource in an emergency, but what good is it without signal? IBM and The Weather Company are trying to tackle this problem using a technology known as mesh networking. An update to The Weather Company’s Android app uses phones’ built-in radios to send alerts about natural disasters and extreme weather from device to device – getting the message out, even without signal. Read more

SAMSUNG HEIR LEE JAE-YONG ARRESTED IN SOUTH KOREA. The case is linked to a scandal that led to the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye. Samsung is accused of giving donations to non-profit foundations operated by Choi Soon-sil, a friend of Ms. Park, in exchange for government favors. Mr. Lee and the Samsung Group deny any wrongdoing. The acting Samsung chief was first questioned by prosecutors in January, but they decided then not to arrest him. But he was questioned for a second time earlier this week. Read more