A14 0 N THE NEW YORK TIMES NATIONALTHURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2019
The 45th PresidentNational Security
provocations and a stepped-up cy-
bercampaign to send a message of
resolve to Tehran without blood-
shed, officials said.
The president, who was wrap-
ping up a three-day campaign trip
to New Mexico and California, be-
gan Wednesday by vowing more
sanctions on Iran to be detailed in
the next 48 hours. Secretary of
State Mike Pompeo arrived in
Saudi Arabia and declared the at-
tacks an “act of war” by Iran but
talked mainly of rallying allies to
enhance deterrence.
“That’s my mission here, is to
work with our partners in the re-
gion,” Mr. Pompeo told reporters
on his plane. “We will be working
with our European partners as
well,” he continued, adding,
“We’re working to build out a co-
alition to develop a plan to deter
them.”
The military options available
to Mr. Trump are similar to the
airstrikes that he called off at the
last minute in June after Iran shot
down an American surveillance
drone. Among those potential Ira-
nian targets were facilities like ra-
dar and missile batteries. Instead
of missile attacks, the United
States later mounted a cyber-
attack on Iran that avoided the
casualties that Mr. Trump said
concerned him.
Military planners at the Penta-
gon and at United States Central
Command in Tampa, Fla., have
forwarded a long-identified list of
Iranian targets that could consti-
tute a proportional response. De-
fense Secretary Mark T. Esper
discussed those options with Mr.
Trump and other top national se-
curity aides in meetings on Sun-
day and Monday, officials said.
The more aggressive options in-
clude strikes against Iran’s
Abadan oil refinery, one of the
world’s largest, or Kharg Island,
the country’s biggest oil export fa-
cility, options first reported by
NBC News.
But attacking them could esca-
late the conflict and pull the
United States deeper into a Mid-
dle East conflict.
Other potential targets include
missile launch sites, bases or
other assets belonging to the Is-
lamic Revolutionary Guards
Corps, the elite Iranian unit
blamed for much of Iran’s para-
military operations against exter-
nal foes.
American intelligence detected
unusual activity at military bases
in southwest Iran that would be
consistent with preparations for
missile and drone strikes like
those against Saudi Arabia, two
senior American officials said.
Those bases could be among po-
tential targets.
Any strikes against Iran would
almost certainly be carried out by
volleys of cruise missiles from
Navy vessels. Strike aircraft
would be aloft to carry out attacks
if Iran retaliated against the first
wave, but the priority would be to
not endanger American pilots.
Michael J. Morell, a former act-
ing director of the C.I.A., said on
Monday night that the United
States must retaliate, especially if
Iran is found responsible for the
attacks.
“We need to respond here, par-
ticularly if the attack occurred
from Iran,” Mr. Morell said in a
presentation at George Mason
University in Virginia. “That is an
act of war, not just a terrorist at-
tack. I think we have to deter
Iran.”
Senior officials said they were
looking at cyberoptions, which
would cause few or no casualties
and would be considered a “pro-
portionate response.”
American war plans have long
included such options against Ira-
nian oil production facilities, a fea-
ture of a plan called Nitro Zeus,
developed years ago to cripple
Iranian infrastructure without re-
sorting to bombing.
The secret cyberattack in June
wiped out a critical database used
by Iran’s paramilitary arm to plot
attacks against oil tankers and de-
graded Tehran’s ability to covertly
target shipping traffic in the
Persian Gulf, at least temporarily.
Iran spent months trying to re-
cover lost information and restart
some of the computer systems —
including military communica-
tions networks. It is not clear
whether it has succeeded.
Military planners are also ad-vancing the idea of deploying
more American forces to the re-
gion without taking direct action
against Iran. Gen. Kenneth F. Mc-
Kenzie Jr., the commander of Cen-
tral Command, which oversees
American military operations in
the Middle East, has pushed to
send additional troops to the re-
gion, senior military officials said.
In meetings and in memos, the
general has argued that the
United States should view Iran as
a great power or near-peer threat,
much as the Trump administra-
tion’s formal national security
strategy views China, Russia and
North Korea.
Under that logic, the United
States would include Iran along
with China and Russia as a central
threat, requiring sustained mili-
tary commitment to the region.
The attack on the Saudi oil fields,
the officials said, is being used to
bolster Central Command’s push
for more resources.
But Capt. Bill Urban, a spokes-
man for Central Command, dis-
puted that characterization,
which was provided by seniorPentagon officials. “That is a
wildly inaccurate representation
of General McKenzie’s thoughts
and counsel on both Iran and the
National Defense Strategy,” he
said, without elaborating.
Mr. Trump will be assisted in
making his decision by Mr. O’Bri-en, who will replace John R.
Bolton as the national security ad-
viser. Mr. Trump announced the
appointment via Twitter on
Wednesday morning, and Mr.
O’Brien, a Los Angeles lawyer,
then joined him on Air Force One.
In selecting Mr. O’Brien, the
president opted for an outspoken
advocate of tough policies toward
Iran and powers like Russia and
China, leaving it unclear how his
advice may differ from that of Mr.Bolton, an ally with whom Mr.
O’Brien has worked in the past.
Mr. Bolton left the White House
last week in an acrimonious break
with the president after unsuc-
cessfully urging the June strikes
on Iran and resisting diplomatic
outreach to Tehran.
Mr. O’Brien will be Mr. Trump’s
fourth national security adviser in
less than three years, the most
any president has had in a first
term. He has written regularly
about foreign policy and collected
a series of essays in a book, “While
America Slept: Restoring Ameri-
can Leadership to a World in Cri-
sis,” published in 2016 with a cover
blurb from Mr. Bolton.
In that book, Mr. O’Brien
warned against “appeasement
and retreat” as he excoriated
President Barack Obama for what
he deemed a weak foreign policy.
“There is simply no evidence to
support the idea that we can trust
revolutionary Iran to give up its
long-term goal of developing a nu-
clear weapon and delivery sys-
tems,” he wrote.
Although Mr. Trump aban-doned Mr. Obama’s nuclear agree-
ment, the president remains open
to negotiations with Iran. His ad-
ministration denied visas to some
Iranians intent on traveling to
New York for next week’s United
Nations General Assembly ses-
sion because of their ties to a des-
ignated terrorist group, but Mr.
Trump said he would let top Irani-
an officials visit. “If it was up to
me, I would let them come,” he
said.
His disagreement with Mr. Gra-
ham, one of his closest allies, was
notable. The senator said on Tues-
day that the president’s decision
to call off the airstrikes in June
was seen by Iran as “a sign of
weakness.”
On the Los Angeles tarmac on
Wednesday, Mr. Trump rejected
that, saying, “No, I actually think
it’s a sign of strength.”
“There are many options,” Mr.
Trump added. “There’s the ulti-
mate option and there are options
that are a lot less than that. And
we’ll see. We’re in a very powerful
position. Right now we’re in a
very, very powerful position.”Trump Wants to Be Tough
Without Having to Order
‘The Ultimate Option’
President Trump with Robert C. O’Brien, left, whom he tapped as national security adviser, in San Diego on Wednesday.ERIN SCHAFF/THE NEW YORK TIMESA president in no rush
‘to do some dastardly
things’ in retaliation.
From Page APeter Baker reported from Los An-
geles, and Eric Schmitt from Wash-
ington. Reporting was contributed
by Helene Cooper, Michael Crow-
ley, Lara Jakes, David E. Sanger
and Edward Wong from Washing-
ton.
WASHINGTON — Even his
many critics conceded that the
former national security adviser
John R. Bolton brought useful cre-
dentials to the job: decades of for-
eign policy experience and a keen
grasp of how the gears of govern-
ment turn.
Mr. Bolton’s main problem, as it
turned out, was that he knew too
much. Confident in his experience
to a fault, he was unwilling to
shade his deeply held hawkish
views, which he defended with a
prickly personality that alienated
colleagues — and ultimately Pres-
ident Trump himself, leading to
his ouster last week.
Robert C. O’Brien, Mr. Trump’s
choice to succeed Mr. Bolton, flips
that equation. He is a former Los
Angeles lawyer with limited gov-
ernment experience before he be-
came the State Department’s
point man for hostage negotia-
tions. But his friends all cite an af-
fable, ingratiating personality
that has earned him allies
throughout the Trump adminis-
tration, notably including Secre-
tary of State Mike Pompeo and
Mr. Trump’s son-in-law and advis-
er, Jared Kushner, both of whom
supported his appointment.
His physical appearance did not
hurt, either. Whereas Mr. Trump
was known to grouse about Mr.
Bolton’s famous bushy mustache,
the president has been taken with
Mr. O’Brien’s well-tailored looks
and easy demeanor, and thinks he
“looks the part,” as one person
close to the president said.
Mr. O’Brien has a record of tra-
ditional conservative foreign pol-
icy views, and has supported a
tougher American approach to-
ward China, Iran and Russia. And
Mr. O’Brien served with Mr.
Bolton when he was President
George W. Bush’s ambassador to
the United Nations. But Mr. O’Bri-
en is no ideological firebrand in
the mold of Mr. Bolton, who
pushed Mr. Trump to take military
action against Iran and wore con-
tempt for the federal bureaucracy
on his sleeve.
Friends and Trump officials say
that while Mr. Bolton saw himself
as a crusader for specific policy
goals — and some said a neces-
sary counterweight to Mr.
Trump’s instincts — Mr. O’Brien,
53, is more likely to act as an arbi-
ter of competing views and a fa-
cilitator of Mr. Trump’s decisions.
One Trump official said that Mr.
O’Brien would bring “no outside
agenda” to the job.
That approach fits the tradi-
tional definition of the national se-
curity adviser job, a potential
source of comfort to a foreign pol-
icy establishment at home and
abroad long rattled by Mr.
Trump’s impulsive style, and
more recently by Mr. Bolton’s dis-
regard for deliberative, organized
policymaking.
But questions remain about
whether Mr. O’Brien’s back-
ground has adequately prepared
him for the myriad challenges of
his new job. Mr. Trump is cur-
rently navigating, among other
things, a broiling crisis with Iran,
a deadlocked trade war with
China, a stalemate in nuclear talks
with North Korea and the recent
collapse of peace talks in Afghani-
stan.
“I think the greatest challengehe will have is his relative lack of
experience inside the U.S. govern-
ment, and with the interagency
process, given that a gigantic part
of the job is coordinating the inter-
agency process,” said Richard
Fontaine, the chief executive of
the nonpartisan Center for a New
American Security.
Mr. Fontaine, who considers Mr.
O’Brien a friend, said that “in
stark contrast to Bolton,” the pres-
ident’s new aide will have to spend
time “learning the nooks and
crannies of government.”
“When you’re in the Situation
Room, you can be surprised by
how many people are actually
there,” he added.
Mr. O’Brien, a founding partner
of the Los Angeles-based law firm
Larson O’Brien, is not a complete
newcomer to the Situation Room.
As the United States govern-
ment’s top hostage negotiator, he
has interacted with military, intel-
ligence and diplomatic officials in
his efforts to free Americans held
prisoner across the globe.
Among those freed during Mr.
O’Brien’s tenure are Andrew
Brunson, a pastor held by Turkey
for two years, and Danny Lavone
Burch, an oil-company engineer
kidnapped in Yemen and rescuedin a raid by forces from the United
Arab Emirates.
Mr. Trump has often celebrated
these releases with on-camera
meetings in the Oval Office, where
Mr. O’Brien praised the president
lavishly.
“This wouldn’t happen with all
of these hostages and detainees
without the support of the presi-
dent,” Mr. O’Brien said in March
after Mr. Burch’s release. “The
president has had unparalleled
success in bringing Americans
home without paying conces-
sions, without prisoner ex-
changes, but through force of will
and the good will that he’s gener-
ated around the world.”
More recently, Mr. Trump sent
Mr. O’Brien to Sweden for the un-
usual mission of trying to win the
release of the rap star ASAP
Rocky, who had been arrested on
charges of criminal assault. A
Swedish judge released the rap-
per pending a resolution of the
case and a court later found him
guilty; he was ordered to pay
damages but did not have to
spend more time behind bars.
Mr. O’Brien waged a low-key
campaign for his new job, making
his desire clear to the president
and encouraging others to talk uphis credentials. He encountered
little opposition in contrast to can-
didates like Brian H. Hook, the
special envoy for Iran, whose per-
sonal loyalty to the president is
doubted by some administration
officials.
He is a longtime friend of Mr.
Pompeo’s and was on the secre-
tary of state’s short list of accept-
able choices, according to two
people involved in the process.
His warm relationship with Mr.
Pompeo will, for now, reverse the
dysfunctional rivalry that existed
between Mr. Bolton and Mr.
Trump’s senior diplomat.
Mr. O’Brien will be Mr. Trump’s
fourth national security adviser in
three years, the most any presi-
dent has had in a first term. Fol-
lowing two predecessors who
came to grate on the president and
were fired — Mr. Bolton and the
man who preceded him, Lt. Gen.
H.R. McMaster — his survival will
depend in part on keeping the
president happy.
Speaking to reporters in Los
Angeles on Wednesday with Mr.
O’Brien by his side, Mr. Trump
suggested they were off to a good
start.
“I think we have a very good
chemistry together, and I think
we’re going to have a great rela-
tionship,” Mr. Trump said. “He is a
very talented man.”
In brief remarks, Mr. O’Brien
twice mentioned the goal of main-
taining “peace through strength,”
perhaps best known as a catch-
phrase of former President Ron-
ald Reagan.
At a later stop near the south-
western border in California, Mr.
Trump was openly critical of Mr.
Bolton. “John was not able to work
with anybody,” he said. And he
bristled when asked about a re-
port in Politico that said Mr.
Bolton, at a private lunch earlier
in the day, had criticized his for-
eign policy instincts. “Guys like
Bolton and others wanted to go
into Iraq, and that didn’t work out
too well,” Mr. Trump said.
While Mr. O’Brien does not
have the record of television pun-
ditry that helped land Mr. Bolton
the job, he has written regularly
about foreign policy and collected
a series of essays into a book,
“While America Slept: Restoring
American Leadership to a World
in Crisis,” published in 2016 with a
cover blurb from Mr. Bolton and a
glowing introduction from theconservative commentator Hugh
Hewitt.
In his book, Mr. O’Brien cites
Winston Churchill as a hero, con-
demns what he calls President
Barack Obama’s weak foreign pol-
icy and calls for America to face
down emboldened “autocrats, ty-
rants and terrorists.” That viewwould seem out of sync with Mr.
Trump’s well-documented affinity
for autocratic leaders, from Rus-
sia to Saudi Arabia to Brazil.
In 2012, Mr. O’Brien was an ad-
viser to Mitt Romney when he ran
against Mr. Obama. And he was
not an early supporter of Mr.
Trump in the 2016 campaign. Dur-
ing the Republican primaries, he
first advised Gov. Scott Walker of
Wisconsin and then joined the
campaign of Senator Ted Cruz of
Texas.
In one published opinion piece
for Politico in October 2015, Mr.
O’Brien counseled Mr. Cruz to
criticize Mr. Trump more ag-
gressively on foreign policy and
advised “playing up how chummy
he will be with Vladimir Putin if he
is elected.”
Jerrold D. Green, the president
and chief executive of the Pacific
Council on International Policy, a
foreign affairs organization in Los
Angeles, said that he has known
Mr. O’Brien for more than a dec-
ade and that Mr. O’Brien had been
scheduled to be the keynote
speaker on Wednesday at Pepper-
dine Law School’s Constitution
Day, but had to cancel because of
his appointment as national secu-
rity adviser.
“He’s well loved in California,
which is interesting, for a rather
conservative Republican in this
which is the heartland of liberal
Democratic politics,” Mr. Green
said. “He’s a very, very popular,
well-respected, well-liked guy
here, despite the fact that his polit-
ical universe is Scott Walker and
Mitt Romney and Ted Cruz, who
are somewhat less than iconic
amongst most Angelenos. It kind
of speaks to his personal quali-
ties.”Top Adviser Who ‘Looks the Part,’ but Has Spent Little Time Playing It
Robert O’Brien, who is President Trump’s choice to be the next national security adviser, has a
record of traditional conservative foreign policy views. Mr. Trump said, “He is a very talented man.”MICHAEL CAMPANELLA/GETTY IMAGESThis article is by Michael Crowley,
Peter Baker and Maggie Ha-
berman.
Milder views and a
sunnier personality in
a critical post.
Michael Crowley reported from
Washington, Peter Baker from Los
Angeles, and Maggie Haberman
from New York. Tim Arango con-
tributed reporting from Los Ange-
les.