COMPILATION | CORONAVIRUS 28-29 MAY 2020 AS OF 1600

Overview: Leading coverage today was Pres. Trump’s announcement that he has terminated the U.S. relationship with the WHO, citing China’s “total control” over the organization. With a crowded media environment, defense-related coverage was light and predominantly limited to defense and Hill outlets.

DoD-related news: • Politico reported that a federal judge is considering whether to move a prisoner from Guantanamo Bay to the U.S. over concerns he cannot correspond with his lawyers due to the disruptions and restrictions caused by the pandemic. The article also highlighted yesterday’s news that several Democratic senators are concerned about conditions in the prison and the prisoners’ vulnerability to the virus. • Inside Defense reported that DoD “clashed” with Senate Democrats after a group of senators sent a letter to Sec. Esper this week expressing concern that the department has “only” used 23% of the funds allocated to it in the CARES Act. The article included statements from Mr. Hoffman that the Pentagon is being transparent and will be providing an update to Congress today. • The Atlantic Council’s blog, New Atlanticist, published highlights of National Guard chief Gen. Lengyel’s participation in a virtual event yesterday, where he discussed the Guard’s “Swiss Army knife” abilities to assist Americans during the pandemic. • NPR reported on Army Chief of Staff Gen. McConville’s visit to Fort Irwin, where he highlighted the testing and social distancing measures to protect soldiers while they are training at the base. • Inside Defense also reported that the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence raised concerns that during the economic crisis caused by the pandemic, DoD has “circled the wagons” around the traditional defense industrial base, but has not done the same for venture-backed startups working on “dual-use” technologies which can apply to both commercial and national security purposes. • Military Times reported on the Marine Corps’ announcement that it is cancelling the 2020 Warrior Games.

TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Final SFAB activates with upcoming missions in Asia, as Army plans a Pacific Pathways restart – 5/29 ...... 2 Army Times | Kyle Rempfer ...... 2 2. U.S. cuts World Health Organization ties over virus response – 5/29 ...... 3 Associated Press | Not Attributed ...... 3 3. How the U.S. might distribute a coronavirus vaccine – 5/29 ...... 5 Axios | Eileen Drage O'Reilly ...... 5 4. With the coronavirus pandemic entering a new phase in the US, world health experts shift focus to new hot spots – 5/29 ...... 6 CNN | Madeline Holcombe ...... 6 5. The Pentagon Versus Public Health: The Race Is On – 5/29 ...... 8 Forbes | William Hartung ...... 8 6. Holding China accountable for attempted coverup of coronavirus – 5/29 ...... 10 The Hill | Rep. Kevin Hern (R-OK) ...... 10 7. COVID-19 could erode Pentagon's progress with dual-use technology startups, Silicon Valley warns – 5/29 ...... 11 Inside Defense | Justin Doubleday ...... 11 8. DOD clashes with Senate Democrats over COVID-19 spending – 5/29 ...... 13 Inside Defense | Tony Bertuca ...... 13 9. 2020 Warrior Games scrubbed by Marine Corps over COVID-19 concerns – 5/29 ...... 14 Military Times | Howard Altman ...... 14 -1- OSD Public Affairs

10. New coronavirus cases decreasing among troops, but deaths are up across DoD – 5/29 ...... 14 Military Times | Meghann Myers ...... 14 11. Top General Takes Heat on Commissary Price Hikes, Travel Restrictions – 5/29 ...... 16 Military.com | Richard Sisk ...... 16 12. National Guard’s COVID-19 response combines civilian skillsets with unique military utility – 5/29 17 New Atlanticist (Atlantic Council) | Katherine Walla ...... 17 13. As America Socially Distances, The Army ‘Tactically Disperses’ – 5/29 ...... 18 NPR | Tom Bowman ...... 18 14. Judge mulls bringing Guantanamo prisoner to U.S. – 5/29 ...... 20 Politico | Josh Gerstein ...... 20 15. Trump courts Africa to counter coronavirus — and China – 5/29 ...... 22 Politico | Meridith McGraw ...... 23

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1. Final SFAB activates with upcoming missions in Asia, as Army plans a Pacific Pathways restart – 5/29 Army Times | Kyle Rempfer

The Army chief of staff and the service’s Pacific-based regional commander hope to complete the remaining Pacific Pathways exercises they have scheduled for the year. The training missions were halted amid the coronavirus pandemic, the two generals said May 20.

About a week later, the Army’s 5th Security Force Assistance Brigade out of Joint Base Lewis McChord, Washington, also activated and announced that it will begin a series of six-month deployments to the Indo-Pacific region following a certification event in November.

“With today’s activation of 5th SFAB, the Army can make good on its promise to align each SFAB with a Geographic Combatant Command — and 5th SFAB will align with United States Indo-Pacific Command,” said Army Forces Command leader Gen. Michael Garrett during a ceremony Wednesday.

Officials said in a release that the 5th SFAB has hired 90 percent of its required troops. The brigade was also the last of the Army’s six planned SFABs to activate. The milestone comes as the Army tries to not just restart its Pacific Pathways series of exercises, but also expand them.

“Our intent is to get back with these exercises as soon as the conditions allow,” said Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville during a virtual Indo-Pacific land power conference that included representatives from 20 armies in the region.

Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy said earlier this year that he wants to send U.S. troops to Asia for two to three months longer than past Pacific Pathways rotations and have the exercises involve more countries.

The last U.S. soldiers from 25th Infantry Division to participate in Pacific Pathways departed Thailand in April, several weeks earlier than planned, to get ahead of the growing coronavirus pandemic in the region, unit officials said at the time.

“Things will normalize,” said Army Pacific commander Gen. Paul LaCamera during the land power conference last week. “We will either return to a normal or adapt to a new normal, but either way we will figure it out as a team of allies and partners.”

The Pacific Pathways iteration that returned a few weeks early was the first of the year. The second iteration start date was intended to coincide with Exercise Balikatan 2020 in the Philippines on May 4. However, that was cancelled in late March by U.S. Indo-Pacific Command. -2- OSD Public Affairs

An exact date for the 5th SFAB’s Pacific mission hasn’t yet been released. However, the brigade will hold a culminating training event at the Joint Readiness Training Center on Fort Polk, Louisiana, in November.

While there, they will be joined by the 2nd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade to simulate advising “a highly-capable and well-trained partner in a conventional fight against a peer adversary,” a 5th SFAB press release reads.

That JRTC rotation will serve as the unit’s certification event. Afterwards, 5th SFAB advisers will begin a series of six-month deployments into INDOPACOM area of responsibility and will plan to always maintain a third of its adviser teams there, the release added.

While the use of SFABs to train foreign militaries appears to overlap some with Army Special Forces’ foreign internal defense mission, Gen. McConville has said previously that the focus areas are different.

“Special Forces is very good at training tactical-type units; They’re very good at accompanying tactical-type units," McConville said during a Washington, D.C. roundtable with reporters in February. “But SFABs build a professional military force, which is different. How do you do logistics. How do you maintain vehicles. How do you build a professional military that will provide security.”

2. U.S. cuts World Health Organization ties over virus response – 5/29 Associated Press | Not Attributed

WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump said Friday that the U.S. will be terminating its relationship with the World Health Organization, saying it had failed to adequately respond to the coronavirus because China has “total control” over the global organization.

He said Chinese officials “ignored” their reporting obligations to the WHO and pressured the WHO to mislead the world when the virus was first discovered.

He noted that the U.S. contributes about $450 million to the world body while China provides about $40 million.

The U.S. is the largest source of financial support to the WHO and its exit is expected to significantly weaken the organization. Trump said the U.S. would be “redirecting” the money to “other worldwide and deserving urgent global public health needs,” without providing specifics.

The Trump administration may soon expel thousands of Chinese graduate students enrolled at U.S. universities and impose other sanctions against Chinese officials in the latest signs of tensions between Washington and Beijing that are raging over trade, the coronavirus pandemic, human rights and the status of Hong Kong.

President Donald Trump said he would make an announcement about China on Friday, and administration officials said he is considering a months-old proposal to revoke the visas of students affiliated with educational institutions in China linked to the People’s Liberation Army or Chinese intelligence.

Trump is also weighing targeted travel and financial sanctions against Chinese officials for actions in Hong Kong, according to the officials, who were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

“We’ll be announcing what we’re doing tomorrow with respect to China and we are not happy with China," Trump told reporters at an unrelated event Thursday, referring mainly to COVID-19. "We are not happy with what’s happened. All over the world people are suffering, 186 countries. All over the world they’re suffering. We’re not happy.”

Although the student expulsions aren't directly related to Hong Kong and China’s move to assert full control over the former British territory, potential sanctions against officials involved in that effort would be a result of Secretary -3- OSD Public Affairs of State Mike Pompeo's determination that Hong Kong can no longer be considered autonomous from mainland China.

Pompeo notified Congress on Wednesday that Hong Kong is no longer deserving of the preferential trade and commercial status it has enjoyed from the U.S. since it reverted to Chinese rule in 1997. Under a joint Sino- British agreement on the handover, Hong Kong was to be governed differently than the mainland for 50 years under a “one country, two systems” policy.

Pompeo's determination opened the door to possible sanctions and the loss of special perks Hong Kong has received from the United States. But neither Pompeo nor other officials were able Wednesday to describe what action the administration might take, an uncertainty related to the impact that such sanctions would have on U.S. companies that operate in Hong Kong and the city's position as Asia's major financial hub. Trump's comments sparked a drop in U.S. financial markets.

Serious consideration of the visa revocation proposal, first reported by The New York Times, has faced opposition from U.S. universities and scientific organizations who depend on tuition fees paid by Chinese students to offset other costs. In addition, those institutions fear possible reciprocal action from Beijing that could limit their students' and educators' access to China.

In a nod to those concerns, the officials said any restrictions would be narrowly tailored to affect only students who present a significant risk of engaging in espionage or intellectual property theft. The officials could not say how many people could ultimately be expelled, although they said it would be only a fraction of the Chinese students in the country.

Still, the possibility that the proposal may be implemented has drawn concerns from educators.

“We’re very worried about how broadly this will be applied, and we’re concerned it could send a message that we no longer welcome talented students and scholars from around the globe," said Sarah Spreitzer, director of government relations at the American Council on Education.

“We don’t have a lot of details about how they are going to define ties to Chinese universities, what type of universities are they going to target, what would constitute a university having ties to the Chinese military," she said. If the situation were reversed and another nation imposed limits on students from U.S. universities that receive Defense Department funding, she noted it would affect a wide range of schools.

The U.S. hosted 133,396 graduate students from China in the 2018-19 academic year, and they made up 36.1% of all international graduate students, according to the Institute of International Education. Overall, there were 369,548 students from China, accounting for 33.7% of international students who contributed nearly $15 billion to the U.S. economy in 2018.

The proposal to revoke the visas is not directly related to the dispute over Hong Kong, nor is it tied to U.S. criticism of China for its handling of the coronavirus outbreak. Rather, it is connected to various elements of trade and human rights issues that have seen U.S. officials complain about Chinese industrial espionage and spying and harassment of dissidents and religious and ethnic minorities.

But the timing of a potential announcement could come at a time of increasingly heated rhetoric about the imposition of national security laws on Hong Hong in violation of the Sino-British accord.

The proposal first began to be discussed last year when the administration moved to require Chinese diplomats based in the United States to report their domestic U.S. travel and meetings with American scientists and academics. At the time, U.S. officials said it was a reciprocal measure to match restrictions that American diplomats face in China.

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Those limits were followed by a requirement that Chinese state-run media in the U.S. register as “foreign diplomatic missions” and report their property holdings and employee rosters to the government. That was, in turn, followed by the limiting of the number of visas for Chinese journalists allowed to work in the United States.

China retaliated for the visa limitations by expelling several reporters from U.S. media outlets, including The Washington Post and The New York Times.

--AP Education Writer Collin Binkley in Boston contributed to this report

3. How the U.S. might distribute a coronavirus vaccine – 5/29 Axios | Eileen Drage O'Reilly

Now that there are glimmers of hope for a coronavirus vaccine, governments, NGOs and others are hashing out plans for how vaccines could be distributed once they are available — and deciding who will get them first.

Why it matters: Potential game-changer vaccines will be sought after by everyone from global powers to local providers. After securing supplies, part of America's plan is to tap into its military know-how to distribute those COVID-19 vaccines.

How it works: In his May 15 announcement of Operation Warp Speed (OWS) — the official effort to accelerate the fight against the pandemic — President Trump said that "when a vaccine is ready, the U.S. government will deploy every plane, truck, and soldier required to help distribute it to the American people as quickly as possible."

• "The military are, in essence ... a hyper-planning institution and they're logistics. And they have a reach and a capacity unlike other institutions," says Stephen Morrison, senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. • While specific details are unknown, according to Morrison and Andy Pekosz, professor of microbiology and immunology at Johns Hopkins University, the effort may build upon the current seasonal flu vaccine system that distributes large numbers of vaccines to hospitals, clinics and providers over a short period of time. "That's the same framework we're going to want for COVID-19," Pekosz notes. • Some issues need to be thought out beforehand, says Pekosz. For one thing, people may need multiple doses, spaced weeks apart, and the whole process will likely take "many, many months."

Who gets the first vaccines will need to be prioritized under a rolling immunization protocol, which may initially target front-line health workers and high-risk groups, both Morrison and Pekosz said. Ensuring equitable access is also key.

• Jonathan Moreno, a bioethicist at the University of Pennsylvania, tells Axios the CDC may release guidelines on how to prioritize the first group of vaccines. • He adds that the millions of military personnel may be near the top of that list, and "that's a lot of arms to poke." • Concerns over people jumping the line should not be high, Moreno says. "It wouldn't be a problem, if it's done properly, because you would have to account for every dose. And, if you're a logistician — and this is why the military is so good — you know exactly how many bullets you used in combat, down to the individual bullet."

Other considerations include what may happen once more than one vaccine is available and how to handle misinformation.

• "There could be vaccines that require three doses, there could be vaccines that require one dose. There could be vaccines that may be performed at 70% and others that perform at 85%," Pekosz says. Gossip networks might start promoting one over the other, causing complications, he adds. • Topol also points to problems stemming from the "significant anti-vax minority, which is very worrisome."

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Details: In the U.S., Operation Warp Speed will oversee the push for COVID-19 vaccines (plus diagnostics and therapies).

• The public-private partnership incorporates leaders from drug companies, the military and various regulatory agencies. Army Gen. Gustave Perna is head of the logistics aspect. • BARDA, a federal agency that funds R&D projects and is part of the operation, has received more than $6.5 billion from Congress for countermeasures and so far has partially funded five vaccine developers: Merck and IAVI, AstraZeneca, Moderna, Sanofi's Protein Sciences and Janssen. • HHS recently said it hopes to have first doses of AstraZeneca's investigational vaccine ready as early as October. The company says it now has the capacity to source 1 billion doses through 2021.

What they're saying: While public health experts agree speed is key during a pandemic, this is countered by the fact that there's only so much time that can be cut from vaccine production and distribution.

• "The problem with some of the timelines I've seen with Operation Warp Speed is that they probably aren't realistic in terms of the full testing of the vaccine that has to occur before we starting thinking about scaling up and distribution," Pekosz says. • Eric Topol, executive vice president at Scripps Research, agrees there are many challenges. "Obviously we'd like to get this synthetic immunity built using a vaccine rather than getting everybody exposed to the virus, but, it's a daunting task, no question. We've got 330 million people distributed throughout the country."

Plus, several of the platforms being used to develop COVID-19 vaccines are new, including Moderna's mRNA vaccine that stirred optimism last week, and are not yet proven as safe in humans and scalable for billions of people.

• There's never been a successful vaccine made for humans against a coronavirus. • And this virus continues to stymie scientists, including how immune systems respond, which is important to understand for vaccine development.

The big picture: All nations — including developing nations with few funds — will need access to vaccines to build herd immunity.

• The World Health Organization and nonprofits like the Gates Foundation and Gavi are taking steps to ensure developing nations have access to vaccines when available. • Many Big Pharma companies are promising they will distribute as many vaccines as they can produce, to everyone. • But, some worry the world will face the same issues it did during the H1N1 epidemic a decade ago, when nationalism and big money held sway.

The bottom line: "We've never faced anything of this scale, and urgency and complexity before. ... The pressures to get the vaccine out are simply going to be extraordinary," Morrison says.

4. With the coronavirus pandemic entering a new phase in the US, world health experts shift focus to new hot spots – 5/29 CNN | Madeline Holcombe

As the US coronavirus death toll reached the grim milestone of more than 100,000 deaths this week, world health experts are concerned about new hot spots and the CDC is projecting 123,000 coronavirus deaths by June 20.

At least 1,721,750 people have been infected with coronavirus in the US and 101,617 have died, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention projects that by June 20 the death toll will reach about 123,000.

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The projection is based on an ensemble forecast of more than a dozen individual forecasts from outside institutions and researchers. The projections show a possible range of 115,400 to 134,800 deaths before the end of next month.

"This week's national ensemble forecast indicates that the rate of increase in cumulative COVID-19 deaths is continuing to decline. Nevertheless, total COVID-19 deaths are likely to exceed 115,000 by June 20," the CDC says on its website.

Meanwhile, as Americans continue reopening their businesses and returning to public spaces after lockdowns to stop the virus's spread, the World Health Organization is still keeping an eye on hotspots in other parts of the world. Among them are Russia, Africa, the Americas, some countries in South Asia and a few countries in Europe, said Maria Van Kerkhove, technical lead for the WHO's coronavirus response.

"These are areas that we are concerned about because, as we know, as you know, when this virus has an opportunity to really take hold it can grow very, very quickly," Van Kerkhove said. "Any one of these could really take hold and take off very, very quickly and we have seen how this virus affects vulnerable populations, and that's a big worry of ours."

Behavior that can make a difference

With neither a vaccine nor treatment available for coronavirus, experts say the best defense against a resurgence is public behavior.

Socializing outdoors, maintaining distance from others and wearing face coverings have been highlighted as best practices for reducing coronavirus transmission.

Face masks worn at home can help to stop the spread of coronavirus among people who live together, according to a study published Thursday in BMJ Global Health. Researchers in China studied 124 families with at least one coronavirus patient.

The study found that opening windows, keeping more than about 3 feet apart and disinfecting shared surfaces also seemed to lower the risk of passing the virus on to family members, even in crowded homes.

If a person wore a face mask before they showed signs that they were sick, it was 79% effective at reducing transmission, according to the study.

The masks proved only to be effective in the home before a member of the household showed symptoms, the study said.

But it is still an important precaution in all settings, because many of the people carrying the virus don't know they are infected, said Erin Bromage, associate professor of biology at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.

"A standard mask, the ones that we've been making, cut things down by 50%. I wear it to protect you, you wear it to protect me," Bromage said.

Behavioral changes have already proven successful in bringing cases down in China, New Zealand and Australia, said Dr. William Haseltine, president of the think tank ACCESS Health International.

Tools in the fight called into question

The long-emphasized precautions continue to be crucial to reducing transmission, health experts say, but measurements the US has relied upon from the start of the pandemic are now being called into question. -7- OSD Public Affairs

Maintaining six feet of distance from another person has been the standard in social distancing to reduce airborne transmission, but three experts have questioned if that is enough.

The evidence shows that aerosols can accumulate and remain infectious indoors for hours, so particles still in the air could be easily inhaled into the lungs -- even if people are standing six feet apart, according to the commentary published in the journal Science.

Meantime, coronavirus and antibody tests -- used to assess the virus' spread in communities -- both have shown limitations this week.

Many people admitted to the hospital with severe illness need multiple coronavirus tests, often advancing to tests from deeper in the respiratory system, before the test comes back positive.

Coronavirus antibody tests may be wrong half the time, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in new guidance posted on its website this week. Antibody testing looks for evidence of immune response to determine if a person had been infected.

The tests are not accurate enough to make policy decisions, the CDC said.

The state of coronavirus

States have been taking varied approaches to reopening and also contending with different rates of infection.

Fifteen states are still seeing upward trends in coronavirus cases, with 10 remaining steady and 25 on the decline.

California reported its largest single day increase in confirmed cases Thursday since the pandemic began. Georgia also saw a spike in cases this week, but Gov. Brian Kemp attributed the growth to a recently submitted backlog of test results.

"I can assure you that (Georgia Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Kathleen Toomey) and I and our whole teams continue to watch that data," Kemp said.

Elsewhere, attractions geared toward drawing large crowds are making their way back into the US.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee announced Thursday that live sports will return to the state this weekend at the Bristol Motor Speedway, though no fans will be in attendance.

And the Las Vegas strip will open back up June 4 -- though not without precautions in place.

"We're welcoming visitors back, but we're going to take every precaution possible," Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak said in an online briefing. "We're encouraging visitors to come and enjoy themselves and have a good time."

In Florida, Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez announced that beaches and hotels may open on Monday and Walt Disney World on Wednesday proposed reopening Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom on July 11, and EPCOT and Hollywood Studios on July 15.

--CNN's Nicole Chavez, Holly Yan, Faith Karimi, Jen Christensen, Cheri Mossburg and Maggie Fox contributed to this report

5. The Pentagon Versus Public Health: The Race Is On – 5/29 Forbes | William Hartung

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If there was ever a time to rethink America’s budget priorities, this is it. Yet a large part of the national security establishment continues to push for massive Pentagon budgets at the expense of spending needed to address the COVID-19 pandemic. A budget battle is brewing that will play out not just for the rest of this year but for years to come.

The Pentagon and major defense contractors have already cashed in on the crisis, with $10.6 billion in added resources set aside for the Pentagon in the relief package passed by Congress in March. And an obscure provision of the $3 trillion CARES act passed by the House – a provision vigorously lobbied for by contractors – will allow companies to bill the government not just for the salaries of vital workers but also for bloated executive salaries and basic overhead – up to and including spending on marketing and sales. The cost of this provision is unclear, but will certainly clock in at billions of dollars.

There’s no question that COVID-19 will impose additional costs on the Pentagon and the military services to protect the troops and adjust its operating procedures. But there are more than enough funds in its $750 billion budget to address these needs without seeking additional taxpayer support, especially at a time when hospitals, states and localities, and small businesses are starved for funds in the midst of the worst recession since the great depression. And the Pentagon already receives more than half of the nation’s discretionary budget – the part that funds most government operations other than Medicare and Social Security. So, finding new funding for public health initiatives will need to come from a combination of revenue increases and reductions in allocations for the Pentagon.

Meanwhile, lawmakers from both parties are endorsing the creation of a new Pacific Deterrence Initiative that would fund hypersonic weapons, missile defense systems, and other systems targeted at China. The cost of the new fund has yet to be determined, but it will no doubt run into billions. As Taxpayers for Common Sense has noted, a similar mechanism – the European Deterrence Initiative (originally called the European Reassurance Initiative) — hit a peak of $6.5 billion and now runs at about $4.5 billion per year. This was on top of the hundreds of billions already being spent by the U.S. and its NATO allies for exactly the same purpose. The European initiative was funded through the Pentagon’s favorite slush fund, the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) account. OCO operates outside the Pentagon’s regular budget process, and was used to evade caps on the Pentagon budget imposed by the Budget Control Act of 2011 to funnel tens of billions of additional dollars to the department. Whether the new Pacific fund will tap the OCO account or be housed in the Pentagon’s main budget remains to be seen.

The Pacific Deterrence Initiative is both misguided and unnecessary. The Pentagon budget is already higher than the levels reached during the Korean or Vietnam wars and the peak of the Reagan buildup of the 1980s, more than enough to address any military challenge posed by China. The U.S. already spends two and one-half as much on its military as China does, and there is no evidence that China is seeking to match the United States global military machine, which includes over 800 military bases, 180,000 troops overseas, and a Navy that can be deployed anywhere in the world on short notice.

China’s challenge to the U.S. is more economic and diplomatic than military, so throwing more money at tools of military confrontation is not only a waste of resources, but is likely to be counterproductive. Without U.S.- Chinese cooperation, it will be impossible to adequately address challenges like the global recession, current and future pandemics, or the greatest threat of all – climate change. This cooperation on issues of overriding importance should not preclude assertive diplomatic efforts to oppose China’s human rights abuses and its crackdown in Hong Kong. But military posturing is the last thing that is needed at this moment.

Thankfully, key leaders in Congress have recognized the need to shift funds from overspending on the Pentagon to shoring up the effort to address COVID-19 and prevent future pandemics. A letter organized by Representatives Mark Pocan (D-WI) and Barbara Lee (D-CA) has called for reductions in the Pentagon’s top line to free up funds for dealing with the pandemic. And Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) plans to bring an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to cut back the $1.5 billion allocated for a dangerous and unnecessary new Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) and devote the funds to dealing with the coronavirus instead. These efforts are urgently needed at a time when the Pentagon budget is roughly 70 times higher than -9- OSD Public Affairs

U.S. spending on global health. Ultimately what is needed is a comprehensive plan to bulk up the U.S. public health system at the national, state, and local levels. Just as the Pentagon has five-year budget plans and a dedicated research and development fund, so should public health agencies.

The race is on – public health or more money for the Pentagon. The outcome will determine the health and safety of America and the world for years to come.

6. Holding China accountable for attempted coverup of coronavirus – 5/29 The Hill | Rep. Kevin Hern (R-OK)

Looking back on all the pain, frustration, and hardship of the last several months, there’s one thing that sticks out to me: it didn’t have to be this bad. We are more than capable of containing a virus if we catch it early. In fact, world leaders built an infrastructure for that exact situation over 70 years ago. Yet, months after coronavirus cases appeared in China, the World Health Organization (WHO) was still promoting lies and downplaying the severity of the virus to protect the Communist Party of China (CCP).

While the WHO was protecting China, Chinese leaders were busy jailing the doctors and whistleblowers who tried to sound the alarm for the rest of the world. We lost precious time.

In February, before the arrival of COVID-19 halted the global economy, unemployment was at an all-time low and the Dow was at an all-time high. In less than two months, years of progress were wiped out as a direct result of the negligence and corruption of a communist dictatorship halfway around the world.

Make no mistake, China is a communist dictatorship. Since he rose to power in 2012, Xi Jinping has embraced mass surveillance policies, imprisoned millions of ethnic minorities in re-education camps, and essentially declared himself dictator for life in 2018.

After eight years of the Obama administration’s apathetic policies, treating China as a non-adversarial peer, China achieved rapid improvement to their international position and gained massive amounts of power.

China isn’t just an adversary – they are a serious threat and should be treated as such.

The United States is strong, we will not be beaten by the likes of China. Oppression doesn’t inspire innovation or loyalty. And yet, the Chinese do have an advantage – they cheat. You may have heard that China attempted to hack coronavirus vaccine research, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. It’s estimated that China steals up to $600 billion in American intellectual property a year. They’re also holding over $1 trillion in American treasuries hostage, money that could flood the market and take over our economy in the blink of an eye.

Ever wondered why Chinese goods are so cheap? It’s because they manipulate their currency to keep it artificially weak against the dollar. Keeping the value of their currency down slowly bleeds American jobs away. See, it isn’t just cheap toys and clothes being manufactured in China. CCP-run pharmaceutical companies supply more than 90 percent of our antibiotics and ibuprofen. A senior Chinese official even threatened the CCP would leverage that supply in trade negotiations.

This is exactly why we need to support President Trump’s effort to negotiate trade deals that strengthen our country rather than deals that put us at a disadvantage. President Trump is increasing pressure on China to develop a new trade deal and bring jobs back to American soil. What’s happened over the last three months underscores the necessity for these changes. It isn’t a matter of cheap goods and labor anymore – it’s a matter of national security.

We may not be at war with China, but they are at war with us.

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In the South China Sea, the Chinese Navy is building island-fortresses and their warships are dangerously antagonizing U.S. Navy vessels securing international trade routes. Imagine how those confrontations will look when China’s GDP and Navy double in size – and they surely will if nothing changes.

It isn’t just at sea and cyberspace where China is seeking out conflict. China’s encroachment into space may prove to be their greatest security risk. They have already conducted shows of force by shooting down their own satellites. The collaborative work between SpaceX and NASA – and the creation of a military Space Force – are important. The U.S. needs to have the capabilities to meet the Chinese threat in space.

The United States and our allies have the power to stop the CCP in their tracks. It begins with a complete reversal of the Obama-era policies that allowed China to become an upstart superpower right under our noses. We cannot continue to treat them as a peer. They have become an aggressive rival superpower and we must acknowledge that.

China will not change their behavior on their own. We need global support to put pressure on their more egregious misdeeds. Holding China accountable for their attempted coverup of this pandemic is a good start.

The CCP despises the true narrative of their corruption and oppression against their people. They have gone to great lengths to manipulate their international image to gain power around the world. Their response to the coronavirus outbreak within their borders and their role in the spread of a dangerous virus around the world, followed by a smear campaign against the United States, proves that the CCP will stop at nothing in pursuit of world dominance.

It’s time for America to wake the world up to the Chinese threat.

Hern represents the 1st District of Oklahoma.

7. COVID-19 could erode Pentagon's progress with dual-use technology startups, Silicon Valley warns – 5/29 Inside Defense | Justin Doubleday

The economic slowdown brought on by COVID-19 could set back the Pentagon's nascent efforts to leverage commercial technologies, as venture capital funding recedes and big money government contracts for nontraditional companies remain elusive, according to new reports and interviews with Silicon Valley insiders.

In a new white paper released earlier this month, the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence warns the economic downturn's duration and its effects on the technology sector "will determine whether the United States preserves its advantages in artificial intelligence (AI) and other emerging technologies critical to national security."

"Although many of the largest technology companies are thriving, innovative startups and other small firms working on technologies with national security implications are vulnerable during this unprecedented economic crisis," the white paper states. "Such firms will need help sustaining their technological and human capital if the United States wants its diverse technology ecosystem to thrive."

While the Defense Department has circled the wagons around the traditional defense industrial base by increasing progress payment rates and accelerating planned contract awards, investors in Silicon Valley say DOD has not done the same for venture-backed startups working on "dual-use" technologies, or those that can apply to both commercial and national security purposes.

"There's a risk they lose a lot of these companies during COVID as the venture capital market dries up," said James Cross, vice president, research analyst and portfolio manager with Franklin Equity Group.

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Between June 2016 and December 2019, DOD awarded more than $450 million in prototyping contracts to commercial technology companies working on technologies ranging from artificial intelligence and autonomy to space systems, according to the Defense Innovation Unit's 2019 report. Those companies were backed by $9 billion in private financing.

Even before COVID-19, however, investors have increasingly viewed DOD as unwilling to pick "winners" by awarding nontraditional defense companies large contracts and involving them in programs of record, according to Steve Blank, a professor at Stanford University and long-time entrepreneur. Blank said his comments were independent from his work as a member of the Defense Business Board.

"The problem is a meta-problem that existed before the crisis, but is just magnified now," Blank said. "Most of [DOD] have no idea how start-ups or venture capital works. They don't understand the fragile nature of that ecosystem."

Trae Stephens, partner at the venture capital firm Founders Fund and co-founder of Anduril Industries, has been critical of DOD's efforts to spend billions protecting incumbent contractors while continuing what he views is a "culture" of not betting on new companies to become technological champions.

"Our failure to be willing to pick winners is destroying our ability to work with the private sector," Stephens told Inside Defense.

But with investments in the start-up ecosystem expected to drop "significantly" in the coming months due to the economic crisis, according to the National Venture Capital Association, investors argue DOD should determine which start-ups are most important and find ways to help them.

"They might need to pick survivors now so they have some winners to pick from later," Cross said.

He said DOD could accelerate planned contracts and increase cash payments for start-up companies, as the department has done with several prime contractors. The department could also set aside money for grants and use off-cycle Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) awards to shore up dual-use start-ups, Cross said.

Additionally, the National Security Commission on AI white paper recommends that individual services and agencies establish "rapid technology procurement funds" to quickly contract with small- and medium-sized start- ups to solve high-priority technology problems, thereby injecting "needed capital" while also providing the government with immediate benefits. It points to the Air Force's efforts to award nearly $1 billion in contracts to small businesses and start-ups as a model for other services and agencies.

The commission also recommends Congress fund the Defense Innovation Unit's National Security Innovation Capital program. DOD requested $75 million for the program last year, but Congress left it unfunded. The program could establish a public-private advisory board to guide its efforts and "translate priority problems to the commercial sector," according to the white paper.

"Current DOD efforts focused on the space sector, which are being informed by a rapidly assembled panel of private sector leaders who are offering advice on pandemic-related industrial base programs, can serve as a model for DIU and other similar efforts," the white paper states.

Meanwhile, Silicon Valley investors and entrepreneurs say the Pentagon should put pressure on major defense contractors to direct more cash flow toward emerging commercial technologies.

"They could potentially do that by incentivizing, through some of the small business policies that they've already got in place, traditional defense industry to invest in these dual-use start-ups and dual-use venture funds," Cross said.

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He said the Pentagon should also continue forging closer relationships with the "tech titans" like Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Facebook, which in turn could invest in startups with technologies relevant to the military.

"They could serve a role both in applying their awesome internal tech capabilities with their huge R&D budgets, but they could also serve as liquidity exits for the dual-use startups," Cross said of the major tech firms.

However, Blank said "the real test" for the relationship remains whether the Pentagon is willing to award major contracts to innovative, but potentially risky start-up companies.

"Innovation is risky -- most things will fail, at least the risky things," Blank said. "If you're going to play a game of blaming failures, you're not going to take any risks. But our adversaries are taking risks."

Cross said DOD has been able to ride a tide of record defense budgets and increasing venture capital investments in dual-use technologies since 2014. But now, as COVID-19 is projected to flatten the defense budget and lead to reduced venture financing, Cross said venture capitalists are looking to see whether their investments in dual-use technologies in recent years are paying off.

"The risk here is Sand Hill Road will probably lose interest in dual-use technology over the next couple of years if the revenue from the Department of Defense and the Intelligence Community doesn't follow through," Cross said, using the metonym for the venture industry in Silicon Valley.

8. DOD clashes with Senate Democrats over COVID-19 spending – 5/29 Inside Defense | Tony Bertuca

Several Senate Democrats are criticizing the Defense Department for spending too little, too slowly to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the Pentagon says it intends to send lawmakers a plan today for using the $10.6 billion in coronavirus relief funds Congress provided in March.

Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) led several lawmakers, including Senate Appropriations Committee Vice Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT), in sending a letter this week to Defense Secretary Mark Esper expressing concern that DOD has only spent 23% of the money Congress allocated in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act nine weeks ago.

The lawmakers also say DOD has only spent $167 million of the $1 billion Congress injected specifically into the Defense Production Act Title III account, which the department can tap to increase U.S. industrial capacity to produce personal protective equipment and other medical items.

"Lacking further information from the department on its plans for these funds, we are unable to answer simple questions such as whether the U.S. Government is doing everything in its power to address shortfalls in supplies which are not only needed at this moment, but also in preparation for a predicted second wave of coronavirus infections," the lawmakers write.

Though the lawmakers further assert DOD is failing to be transparent about its spending, Jonathan Hoffman, the Pentagon's chief spokesman, said the department intends to send Congress a detailed CARES Act spending plan today.

Hoffman noted the plan is technically not due to Congress until June 26, meaning DOD intends to be a full month ahead of the required date.

"In the interim, the department has shown its commitment to transparency through daily and weekly updates from senior DOD leaders to multiple congressional committees -- both staff and members," Hoffman said. "In addition, DOD has provided hundreds of responses to congressional COVID queries, and will continue to do so."

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Hoffman said DOD's new spending plan will provide more information on how the department will continue to partner with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Health and Human Services Department to take additional action under the Defense Production Act.

"The department continues to aggressively identify critical Defense Production Act (DPA) Title III investment opportunities to enhance capacity and throughput of our domestic industrial supply chain, enabling security and resiliency," he said.

Other Democrats have criticized DOD's response to COVID-19 in recent days and weeks, including House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith (D-WA), who took to Twitter on Wednesday to voice his concerns.

"100,000 deaths in the U.S. from #COVID19," he tweeted. "Yet we still do not have an adequate national testing plan. We are still failing to use the full force of the Defense Production Act to produce the supplies we need. This inaction is unconscionable and continues to inhibit our ability to combat the pandemic, reopen the economy, and save lives."

Hoffman said DOD "remains committed to legally and responsibly executing these funds on the highest priorities to protect our military and their families and safeguard our national security capabilities."

9. 2020 Warrior Games scrubbed by Marine Corps over COVID-19 concerns – 5/29 Military Times | Howard Altman

Add the 2020 Warrior Games to the list of military events being cancelled over COVID-19 concerns.

“As the lead planners for the 2020 Warrior Games, the Marine Corps announced the decision to cancel the Games, citing the paramount concerns for the health and well- being of the 300 U.S. military active-duty and veteran athletes, international military teams, and residents within the greater San Antonio area,” the Corps said in a press release Friday morning.

The games, originally scheduled to occur across multiple sporting venues in San Antonio, Texas, Sept. 20-28, “would have marked the 10th anniversary of the annual competition of wounded, ill and injured service member athletes in 12 adaptive sports. The Marine Corps was selected to host the 2020 Games on behalf of the DoD. International participants originally scheduled to attend included wounded, ill and injured athletes from the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Denmark and the Netherlands,” the release stated.

The games were supposed to see active military service members and veterans with upper-body, lower-body, and spinal cord injuries, traumatic brain injuries, visual impairment, serious illnesses and post-traumatic stress go head-to-head. The list of sports includes, archery, cycling, time-trial cycling, shooting, sitting volleyball, swimming, track, field, wheelchair basketball, indoor rowing, powerlifting, golf, and wheelchair rugby, according to the DoD Warrior Games webpage.

The Warrior Games were established in 2010 as a way to enhance the recovery and rehabilitation of wounded warriors and to expose them to adaptive sports. Sponsored by the U.S. Olympic Committee in Colorado Springs, Colo., the inaugural Warrior Games hosted approximately 200 wounded, ill and injured service members. During the following years, the Warrior Games expanded in size and scope.

Last year’s event was held in Tampa and hosted for the first time by U.S. Special Operations Command.

10. New coronavirus cases decreasing among troops, but deaths are up across DoD – 5/29 Military Times | Meghann Myers

The Defense Department had one of its lowest increases in COVID-19 cases since early March this week, though it also saw its second consecutive week of deaths, according to data released Friday. -14- OSD Public Affairs

Following the Memorial Day weekend death of Sgt. Simon Zamudio, a 34-year-old Illinois-based Army reservist, a DoD civilian passed away Wednesday, bringing DoD’s toll to 36.

To date, 9,449 service members, civilians, dependents and contractors have tested positive for COVID-19, an increase this week of 6 percent. Of those, 428 have been hospitalized and 5,316 have recovered, with a mortality rate of 0.4 percent.

As deaths nationwide crossed 100,000 this week, the mortality rate among U.S. residents is holding steady at 6 percent.

“We may want to ask you to stick your arm out and donate blood,” Joint Chiefs Chairman Army Gen. Mark Milley said Thursday in a livestreamed senior leader town hall, as the department begins not only antibody testing, but a voluntary effort to transfer antibody-rich plasma from survivors to those hospitalized with serious COVID-19 complications.

So far, 6,278 service members are known to have contracted the virus, with 174 hospitalizations, 3,593 recoveries and three deaths ― an infection rate that has held steady at 0.3 percent, versus the known rate of 0.5 percent nationwide.

Cases were up this week by 5 percent overall, reflecting a downward trend in new cases even as the services continue to test asymptomatic troops in key units.

Once accounting for more than 40 percent of the military’s cases, the Navy’s share has dropped down to about 38 percent, with 2,396. That was an increase of 3 percent this week, the lowest rise among the services.

The Army, with over 150,000 more troops than the Navy, has reported 1,383, with a 7-percent rise this week. The Marine Corps and Air Force also saw 7-percent upticks, with the Marine Corps rising to 552 cases as the Air Force reported 504.

The National Guard, which has mobilized more than 40,000 of its soldiers and airmen for local pandemic response efforts, has diagnosed 1,219 troops with COVID-19, with an 8-percent rise in the past week.

Across DoD, cases were up 6 percent this week, for a total of 9,449.

Contractors saw a spike this week, up 11 percent for 613 total cases. Of those, 63 have been hospitalized, 293 have recovered and nine have died. Both civilians and dependents saw a 5-percent rise in cases ― up to 1,475 and 1,083, respectively.

Among civilians, 141 have been hospitalized, 808 have recovered and 19 have died. Among dependents, 50 have been hospitalized, 622 have recovered and five have died.

As new cases trend downward, Defense Secretary Mark Esper has released guidance on lifting on-base shelter- in-place orders and the department-wide travel ban, both of which require a 14-day downward trend in COVID- 19 cases and local repeals of restrictions on gathering in public places.

Social distancing, face coverings and enhanced cleaning protocols will continue to be part of the daily routine on military installations, as DoD prepares for several scenarios, including a second wave of the pandemic in the fall, or smaller, continuous outbreaks around the world until a vaccine becomes widely available.

“I don’t think the coronavirus is going away any time soon ― at least not until we have a vaccine or cure,” Esper told The Today Show May 22.

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11. Top General Takes Heat on Commissary Price Hikes, Travel Restrictions – 5/29 Military.com | Richard Sisk

The Pentagon's leadership got an earful Thursday from troops, military spouses and Defense Department civilians at a virtual town hall meeting on everything from travel restrictions to the price of hamburger meat.

Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley heard from a soldier who said he has been stuck in Kuwait for 14 months with no date for return under stop-movement orders aimed at combating the COVID-19 pandemic.

The soldier asked, "Why can't we PCS?"

Milley said he understands the stress and inconvenience resulting from limits on PCS travel but said they were for the safety of the force.

"I believe he'll probably be able to PCS here relatively shortly" as the military begins to ease the restrictions, he said.

A civilian Defense Department employee who has been teleworking during the pandemic wanted assurances that her workspace would be clean and safe when restrictions are lifted. She also asked whether she could continue to telework if she felt unsafe.

In response, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said, "We are not going to open up the Pentagon or other installations unless we are confident that it is a safe place to work. … We will take it on a case-by-case basis, but we're not going to ask anybody to come back to work in an unsafe environment."

The hamburger question from a sergeant at Fort Meade, Maryland, went to Senior Enlisted Adviser to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs (SEAC) Ramon "CZ" Colon-Lopez.

The sergeant asked whether the basic allowance for subsistence might be boosted in high-cost areas to deal with the increase in prices during the crisis.

He said the commissary's price for "a pound of cheap ground beef has gone from $2.30 a pound to almost $6."

Colon-Lopez commiserated with the sergeant, but said he would have to wait on lawmakers to get relief, explaining that cost-of-living increases are negotiated each year with Congress.

"I am sure that the impacts of COVID and the pandemic will be reflected in future National Defense Authorization Acts," he said.

Colon-Lopez took another question about soldiers sent as a unit to Fort Campbell, Kentucky, for training who have not been allowed to go home to get their cars.

He said commanders must weigh difficult decisions about risk mitigation and maintaining readiness, while limiting possibilities for exposure to the virus.

"I can almost guarantee that those soldiers will be able to get back to their homes and get their vehicles," Colon- Lopez said. "We'll make sure soldiers get their property in due time."

Most of the questions centered on when and how the stop-movement orders will be lifted to allow for PCSing without asking for a waiver or exception, and to travel on personal leave.

Esper, Milley and Colon-Lopez said a plan is in place for the gradual lifting of restrictions in phases, based on local conditions. But they could give no definite time frame.

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"We all want to get back to normal, or a new normal, as soon as possible," Esper said. "We've all been cooped up at home. … We're all anxious to get on with things as best we can."

"For some, it may seem like we're being too cautious. For other folks, it seems too risky," he said. "We're all very conscious of these challenges. We're not going to get back to a normal the way it was, but we will get there."

12. National Guard’s COVID-19 response combines civilian skillsets with unique military utility – 5/29 New Atlanticist (Atlantic Council) | Katherine Walla

The US National Guard is stepping up their COVID-19 response with food banks, testing sites, nursing homes, and personal protective equipment distribution across the United States. “What makes us particularly effective in relation to the COVID-19 response is the unique, very deep connections with our communities and our homelands,” the Chief of the National Guard Bureau General Joseph L. Lengyel said on May 28. “We know the people, the emergency response mechanisms, and the geography within which we operate. It has made us a very effective partner.”

Lengyel spoke with the Atlantic Council as part of the Commanders Series, a speakers’ forum for senior military and defense leaders. Lengyel took the opportunity to praise the work of the National Guard’s platoons and squadrons who have assembled one of the military reserve force’s largest responses since Hurricane Katrina. “We are ‘the Swiss army knife’ of the public’s defense. We could be used many ways, as intended,” said Lengyel. “This is a superb example of…the utility of what the National Guard has become.”

The National Guard began their response on March 6, delivering coronavirus test kits to a cruise ship off the California coast. In the following months, the National Guard has implemented response measures in each of the fifty-four states and territories of the United States and the District of Columbia. Lengyel cited examples from Maine, where the National Guard provided testing for nursing home staff; to New York City, where platoons helped overwhelmed coroners conduct search and rescues for fatalities; and to Texas, where one member with past experience leading a call center helped set one up efficiently.

“Anything that the governors and states need us to do, we have leaders at every level…it is invaluable, leveraging the civilian skillsets of our members to fight this virus,” said Lengyel.

“The surprise for me was the criticality of the ability of the National Guard members to run food banks,” added Lengyel. With many food banks staffed or used by elderly and vulnerable Americans, many have been left unsupported out of concern for the safety of their communities from the spread of the virus. In Arizona, members also bridged the food supply chain by transporting food cross-state when the state lacked truckers. “So, we paid it forward a little bit and let volunteers get out of the way, let the National Guard members who could come in and take over that responsibility. We packed millions of pounds of food and distributed thousands of boxes of food at many food banks across the nation,” said Lengyel.

Although now equipped with a robust response to the pandemic, Lengyel notes that the process to ignite the response across the United States has required learning along the way. Initially, US leaders treated the issue as individual state responsibility, impacting the force’s ability to prepare. While the National Guard normally responds regionally and relies on the provision of supplies from other, non-impacted regions, every part of the country has been impacted by the pandemic. In accepting that COVID-19 mitigation is a national and international issue, the National Guard adopted a unified response domestically and internationally. “We combined, from all fifty states, lessons learned and best practices and shared those with all of our partner nations all around the world,” says Lengyel.

Looking ahead to the hurricane season, Lengyel is confident that the National Guard can keep up the COVID- 19 response even with the arrival of natural disasters. Of the nearly 450,000 members of the National Guard, 45,000 are contributing to the coronavirus response across the nation—but Lengyel remarks that the force is not reaching disaster fatigue. “The men and women who are serving are motivated. They like what they’re doing. They feel like they’re making a difference for their communities here,” said Lengyel. However, it isn’t business -17- OSD Public Affairs as usual for hurricane and storm response, as the National Guard has had to adjust preparations in the pandemic era, devising plans to construct and supply shelters or evacuate nursing care facilities while keeping the spread of COVID-19 in mind.

Nevertheless, Lengyel is confident of a smooth response with any storm category three or lower. “We have plenty of force structure right now to deal with even an aggressive hurricane season… We’ll be ready if it comes,” said Lengyel.

Prompted about the Space Force National Guard, Lengyel argued that creating the Space National Guard would only show how innovative and efficient the force currently is, having already helped conduct surveillance, intelligence, tracking, reconnaissance, and more in space. “For twenty-five years, we’ve been doing space—so it’s not a new mission for us, it is not anything new,” says Lengyel. But having the Space National Guard would also highlight each member’s dual-use nature as the force can be used to achieve other objectives. For example, a current space squadron held a food bank in California in the COVID-19 response. “We can move out and be part of it. It’s a no brainer,” adds Lengyel.

“The morale is high; people feel like they’re contributing… This is distinctly National Guard business,” said Lengyel. “This is what makes us different.”

13. As America Socially Distances, The Army ‘Tactically Disperses’ – 5/29 NPR | Tom Bowman

At the end of June, several thousand National Guardsmen from 15 states will descend on Fort Irwin in California's Mojave Desert for two months. The Army is already gaming out how to keep them healthy and able to train during the coronavirus pandemic.

A sergeant barks out a command: "Soldiers completing the medical screening process come this way!"

The soldiers line up on a large concrete slab sheltered by a metal awning. All wear masks and stand 6 feet apart. A stiff desert wind picks up as a soldier gets ready for a quick health check.

One of the soldiers walks up to an Army medical technician.

"Are you experiencing any symptoms today, cough, shortness of breath or fever?" the technician asks.

"Negative," says the soldier, as the technician holds a hand held thermometer, close to his forehead.

The thermometer beeps, and she tells him he can go. No elevated temperature.

"OK you can face this line over here," she says.

If he'd popped hot, he'd be isolated from the other soldiers, taken for a virus test and maybe quarantined for two weeks. No training for him.

This is all a simulation. But the Army's top officer, Gen. Jim McConville, watches it all closely. And turns to an officer.

"You know we have to keep this as safe as we can when we bring the soldiers in," the general says.

McConville came up in the Army as a helicopter pilot and served a number of tours in Afghanistan, but in the last few months he's become well-versed on the virus, as well as such things as swabs and reagents and testing machines.

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"We going to have to make sure we can test," he says to a staff officer. "They're coming from all over the place. We have to make sure we can do that."

These Guard soldiers will be the first to train here since March, when the coronavirus canceled and postponed field exercises for two other units.

The Army had to quickly adjust. Now all soldiers will be tested before they arrive. Buses bringing soldiers here will be half-full to allow for distancing. Tents will have fewer cots.

The officers walk into a massive tent the size of a high school gym. A sergeant major's voice echos as he points to the sea of green cots, all with the proper distancing.

"If you notice all the cots that are across here, there's 6-feet spacing now," he says to the visitors from the Pentagon. And soldiers will alternate how they sleep. No longer head-to-head.

"Head-to-foot to minimize impact," he says.

Army leaders like McConville are eager to start large-scale combat training again of brigades, a unit with some 4,000 soldiers. Another training base in Louisiana next month also will welcome back hundreds of soldiers to prepare for its mission to Afghanistan later this year.

McConville gives some advice to Brigadier Gen. Dave Lesperance, who commands Fort Irwin.

"And what I'm looking for is you have to minimize exposure, you really have to have social distancing," McConville says. "You really have to keep people apart, they have to wear their masks."

The National Guard soldiers will arrive here with their armor and artillery and head into a training area called "The Box." It's a sprawling desert expanse of mountains and hills the size of Rhode Island.

"The safest place for people to be will be in the desert," McConville says. "We call it social distancing in the civilian sector. You call it tactically dispersed out here. And they'll be tactically dispersed and they'll work through that."

There are some 4,000 soldiers permanently based at Fort Irwin, part of an opposition force, or Op For, that battles the visiting units. Their role is to play the enemy, and battle visiting units during simulations.

Back at a conference room, Gen. Lesperance said he's had just a handful of positive virus cases here. The military hospital on post is equipped with three machines that can quickly turnaround a virus test.

"Right now we can do a 144," he says. "We want to get to 1,000."

At this point if he wants to do a lot more tests, he has to turn to a private lab in Phoenix. But the turnaround time is two to seven days. Gen. McConville says that's too much time for an Army unit to stand idle.

The general shook his head. It wasn't long ago when the only talk at Fort Irwin was about weapons systems, how many rounds can it fire, and its range.

"Now we're talking about how many people can you test with this machine?" says McConville. "How many of these do you have? How many of those do you have?"

Gen. McConville says that's the message he'll carry back to Washington. Defensive measures are all very well, but the army needs more testing machines if it hopes to better hold off the coronavirus. And he realizes that he's not alone. Everyone — governor or mayor or even a general — wants more supplies.

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Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said as training ramps up they will identify more machines.

14. Judge mulls bringing Guantanamo prisoner to U.S. – 5/29 Threat could prompt Pentagon to allow phone calls between prisoners and their attorneys Politico | Josh Gerstein

A federal judge said Friday that he'll consider ordering a Guantanamo Bay war-on-terror prisoner brought to the United States if authorities don't come up with a way for the detainee to have regular telephone contact with his attorneys.

District Judge Reggie Walton said he doesn't consider adequate an email- and fax-based system the Defense Department has set up to handle legal mail between some detainees and their lawyers as visits have been disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic.

During an hourlong telephone hearing on the case of Somali-born Guleed Duran, the judge raised the prospect of moving Duran to the U.S. if the Pentagon continues to resist arranging phone calls between him and his attorneys.

"It just seems to me that with all the technology that we have that there has to be some way that can be accomplished," said Walton. "Again, it's the government's decision to house this man at Guantanamo. The government does have the option of bringing this man to the United States and housing him here at a secure facility in the United States."

"So, the government is going to have to make some decisions: either you provide the mechanism by which counsel can have this kind of telephonic communication with the client and if you can't do that then the government may have to bring him here to the United States while the pandemic is in play," added the judge, an appointee of President George W. Bush. "I don’t think the government can have — what my mother always said: you can't have your cake and eat it, too."

A Justice Department lawyer, Terry Henry, quickly told the judge that bringing Guantanamo prisoners to the U.S. is a nonstarter because the National Defense Authorization Act prohibits such transfers.

"I just want to clarify the government does not have the option to bring the detainee to the U.S. because of the statutory restriction," Henry said.

Walton said that if the Trump administration could always ask Congress to change the law. "It's not something you couldn't at least attempt to do," the judge said.

An attorney for Duran, Wells Dixon of the Center for Constitutional Rights, chimed in that his client would certainly be willing to leave Guantanamo for the first time in 13 years and come to the U.S. And Dixon said he believes the language in the NDAA is flexible enough to permit such a move. "If your honor were to order petitioner brought to the U.S. for the duration of the pandemic, we believe your honor would be able to do that consistent with the statute," the lawyer said.

Walton ultimately gave the government 30 days to figure out a way for lawyers in so-called habeas cases to speak to their clients at Guantanamo. If that doesn't happen, he said he'll take legal briefs from both sides on whether he has the authority to move Duran to the U.S.

It seems unlikely that the Trump administration would acquiesce in such a move, especially during the pandemic or a presidential campaign, so the option of better telephonic or video links to the island prison seems more viable.

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"I'm sure all would want the same kind of treatment. So, it's not an easy answer," Henry said.

Henry said arrangements for secure video conferences between military commission detainees and their lawyers are being considered by the military judges overseeing those proceedings.

Prior to the Friday hearing, Dixon described the Pentagon's resistance to phone calls with his client as unjustified.

“It’s crazy. ... It’s grossly unfair,” said Dixon. “It’s just a telephone call.”

The government, for its part, has warned that allowing such calls risks the disclosure of “top secret” classified information, like details about the CIA-led interrogation program that critics have described as torture and facts regarding the facility at Guantanamo where the high value detainees are held, known as Camp VII.

Justice Department attorneys and Pentagon and CIA officials argue that allowing detainees and their lawyers to speak on unclassified telephone lines poses an unacceptable risk that someone will obtain that classified information by intercepting or overhearing those communications. The claim is a curious one, detainee lawyers say, since detainees and their lawyers are permitted to discuss both classified and unclassified information during in-person meetings at Guantanamo.

“Unclassified, non-secure line telephone calls between Petitioner and his counsel risk the potential, unremediable disclosure of classified information on such calls and thereby present unacceptable risks to national security,” an unnamed CIA official wrote in a formal declaration filed in the habeas case brought by Duran, a 46-year-old Somali citizen.

Duran was captured in Djibouti in 2004. U.S. officials have accused him of casing a U.S. military facility there for a potential truck bomb attack, but he was never charged criminally for that and officials have said there is no plan to do so. He is considered one of Guantanamo’s so-called forever prisoners.

“I find it ironic to say the least that criminal defendants like Roger Stone and Michael Flynn are walking free while I can’t even get a phone call with my client, who is not charged with a crime and isn’t even designated for prosecution,” Dixon said in an interview Thursday.

Duran’s lawyers contend that military personnel who review notes and other materials taken in and out of Guantanamo by detainee attorneys could be placed on the phone calls to make sure only unclassified matters are discussed, but the government says that is an impractical and inadequate safeguard.

The chance of any of the remaining 40 detainees at Guantanamo winning actual release as a result of the pandemic seems remote. Even if a judge declared that a prisoner had “won” his habeas case, current legal precedent appears to preclude any detainees release in the U.S. Instead, a judge might order the State Department to push to release the prisoner overseas.

However, detainee lawyers say it is striking that the U.S. government seems willing to take a chance on essentially forfeiting the prisoners’ suits in order to prevent the detainees' access to phone calls with their attorneys.

“The government is running the risk that the court could order their release. Whether that is likely or not, I don’t know, but they are running that risk,” said Dixon, one of Duran’s attorneys.

Detainee lawyers and the government are also at odds over the viability of in-person visits to Guantanamo at this time. The government says they haven’t been banned, but attorneys for the prisoners say the already cumbersome logistics of getting to the U.S. Navy-run base are now so complicated that visiting a client is all but impossible.

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New arrivals at Guantanamo are required to do a two-week quarantine and flights sometimes only operate every week or two, Dixon told the judge, so a visit to one’s client there could effectively put a lawyer in physical isolation for a month or more.

“Although counsel would have the Court believe that detainee visits are impossible, they are not,” Henry wrote in a submission to Walton on Tuesday.

But Walton said it did sound like too much to make lawyers go through to spend a couple of days talking with their client. "I think it's just too onerous for counsel to undertake," the judge said.

Henry also complained in a court filing that Duran’s lawyers were seeking to hold the government “hostage ... to counsel’s preferred method of communication.”

Henry said Duran’s lawyers are free to exchange letters with their client, although if classified information is involved, the attorneys would have to travel to a secure facility in the Washington area to see the letters.

The battle over access to Guantanamo prisoners comes as Democratic senators are expressing concern that Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, could endager the lives of prisoners there and put U.S. personnel at grave risk. The Navy acknowledged that at least one service member tested positive in March but has declined to release any detailed tallies, citing security concerns.

On Wednesday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and 14 colleagues wrote to Defense Secretary Mark Esper, pressing him to explain how the prisoners and U.S. military personnel are being protected from the virus, especially given a strict legal ban on transferring detainees to the U.S. The senators noted that the virus can be deadly for individuals who are old or suffer from chronic illness, as many of the aging detainees increasingly do.

“We are concerned that our military personnel responsible for detention operations, as well as the detainees themselves, are at a heightened risk of contracting COVID-19 and suffering severe health consequences,” the senators wrote.

While most recreational activities for service members and their families were suspended in March, they were recently allowed to resume with social distancing measures.

Military commission proceedings which have proceeded at a glacial pace at the base for more than the past decade have also been suspended indefinitely due to the viral outbreak, although there has been discussion of using classified video conferences to allow lawyers in those cases to consult with their clients.

Prior to the pandemic, the Trump administration seemed stymied about what to do about Guantanamo. At various points during the 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump talked of sending more prisoners to the facility. In 2018, as the battle with ISIS escalated, Trump signed an executive order to spur planning for new transfers to the U.S. Navy base.

However, last September, Trump told reporters he thought the island prison was way too expensive. He stopped short of saying he was considering closing it, but indicated he was open to other ideas.

“I know about that,” Trump said at the time, referring to reports that it costs the U.S. about $13 million a year per prisoner to keep the detention center running. “I think it’s crazy. It costs a fortune to operate, and I think it’s crazy.”

15. Trump courts Africa to counter coronavirus — and China – 5/29 The administration is trying to signal that African countries can look to the U.S. instead of China, which is facing its own backlash on the continent.

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Politico | Meridith McGraw

The Trump administration has set its sights on Africa as an important front in the fight against the coronavirus — and against China.

In April, President Donald Trump launched a flurry of phone calls to African leaders, promising to send ventilators to help as the coronavirus continued its march across the globe. The outreach came on the heels of a fresh pledge from the State Department to send millions of dollars to several African countries to help combat the pandemic. And earlier this month, the Trump administration said it would donate up to 1,000 ventilators to South Africa, which has the highest number of coronavirus cases on the continent.

The spate of action was notable, given Trump has not publicly discussed the continent much during his presidency. And when he has, it has often been in a negative way, such as when Trump moved to restrict Nigerians immigrating to the U.S., or when reports surfaced the president had referred to African nations as “shithole countries.”

Yet the administration sees an opening here, according to officials and regional specialists. The U.S. government is aiming to show it can offer leadership on global health after Trump cut off funding to the World Health Organization. The administration is also trying to signal that African countries can look to the U.S. instead of China, which is facing its own backlash on the continent. As China warns the U.S. is pushing the two countries “to the brink of a new Cold War,” Africa is poised to become a prime spot for proxy battles for influence and capital.

“Africa is a key battle point because China wants to keep the African states on its side,” said Joshua Meservey, an Africa and Middle East expert at the conservative Heritage Foundation. “It’s an important source of support for the Chinese Communist Party and they are working hard to make sure their narrative gains traction over the U.S. message.”

And the administration is confident its message will win out, arguing that China is essentially trying to help extinguish a pandemic it helped create.

“The Chinese Communist Party is doing this first and foremost for the Chinese Communist Party,” said a senior State Department official. “When there is an emergency, whether it is Ebola or Covid, the United States is there. Not only did we not set fire to the village but we’re bringing the most buckets of water.”

During his three-plus years as president, Trump has not made Africa a public priority. He has hosted few African leaders at the White House and rarely prioritizes African issues. Although First Lady Melania Trump and the president’s daughter and senior adviser Ivanka Trump have visited the continent, Trump has not.

Trump “has met with African leaders in the Oval Office fewer times than any going back to [Dwight] Eisenhower,” said Judd Devermont, director of the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

To the extent Trump has talked about the continent, it has often been about fighting terrorism on the continent or imposing limits on immigration from African countries to the U.S. Trump has also repeatedly proposed deep cuts to foreign aid that would affect funding that goes to projects in Africa. Congress has largely rejected these proposed cuts, however, and the U.S. remains a leading source of foreign aid for African countries.

Meanwhile, China has been Africa’s largest trading partner since 2009 and continues to spend billions on development projects on the continent. And during the coronavirus, Chinese charities donated medical equipment to African countries in the first few months of the pandemic. Chinese President Xi Jinping boasted about these efforts at the World Health Assembly last week during a speech that focused on boosting African development.

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Trump administration officials have taken note of China’s coronavirus campaign in Africa, and are frustrated at the country’s attempts to position itself as a benevolent power during the pandemic.

“I have to give the Chinese Communist Party the chutzpah of the year award for what they’ve done with Covid,” the State Department official said.

In recent weeks, the Trump administration has also made a show of extending a hand to Africa. In late April, Trump phoned the leaders of Rwanda, South Africa, Kenya, Ethiopia and Nigeria.

Devermont described the calls as “a burst of activity" on Africa by Trump's standards, “probably the most active he has been on sub-Saharan Africa since the [United Nations] General Assembly in 2017,” when the president hosted a luncheon with African leaders to discuss trade and economic development. (At the same luncheon, he also lauded the health care system of the nonexistent nation of Nambia).

Around the same time, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo — coming off a trip in February to Senegal, Angola and Ethiopia — also announced an additional $270 million in foreign aid to combat the coronavirus, specifically targeting some of the money for African countries such as Algeria, Botswana, the Republic of Congo, Ghana and Liberia.

More recently, there was the ventilator donation from the U.S. Agency for International Development to South Africa, which has more than 25,000 confirmed cases and rising.

Across the African continent, there are over 100,000 confirmed cases, according to Johns Hopkins University, but administration officials caution it’s hard to get an accurate count due to lack of data and testing. The need for ventilators is particularly acute. According to WHO statistics, there are fewer than 2,000 ventilators in 41 African countries that reported the data.

National security officials have long feared large-scale outbreaks could occur in the more densely populated areas of Africa.

“Our actions and investments are not a public relations effort to counter China or to save face, but rather an effort to save lives in Africa during a critical time,” one senior administration official said.

But the administration might have a rare window of opportunity, regardless. Anti-China sentiment was on the rise in Africa before the coronavirus over reports that African immigrants were being mistreated in China. The president mentioned “racially discriminatory actions” in China against Africans in a letter to the WHO focused on the U.N.’s relationship with China. And once the pandemic broke out, frustration grew over Beijing’s stance on granting debt relief to African countries amid the coronavirus-spurred economic downturn.

“I think there’s a recognition that we have to do more, and China is making a lot of hay through its mass diplomacy,” Devermont said. “I think we could do a much better job of amplifying what our private sector is doing — that’s what the Chinese are doing.”

The senior administration official noted that “American businesses, NGOs and faith-based organizations have provided nearly $3 billion to Africa in the form of donations and other assistance.”

And publicly, the Trump administration in April endorsed a plan from the Group of 20 major economies that allows low-income countries, including those in Africa, to suspend debt payments to other countries. China is considered to be the largest holder of African debt, and there is an ongoing debate about how to handle a looming debt crisis on the continent.

“There's an enormous amount of debt that the Chinese Communist party has imposed on African countries all across the region,” Pompeo said in late April in a call with Africa-focused journalists. “It is something that the

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African countries should consider, too, in asking China for debt relief on some deals that have incredibly onerous terms that will impact the African people for an awfully long time, if relief is not granted.”

The senior administration official said China holds an estimated $143 billion of African debt, although the total may be much higher.

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