their fight inside syria. we know that there s talk about more arming of local forces. one of the big questions, do you want to cooperate more with the russians. defense secretary mattis perhaps signaling he s not a big fan of that, signaling several times he s not ready for more military cooperation with the russians. this comes after president trump at the white house says the military no longer wins wars. that may be something that the pentagon finds a very difficult premise to swallow, kate. it might come up in that meeting when they lay out those options for the president and the president can choose to choose from them or not. barbara, thank you very much. the father of the navy s.e.a.l. killed during president trump s first military operation is demanding answers. plus, leave your phones at the door, friends or not so much friends. the white house press secretary looking to his own staff to crack down on leaks.
the attacks here in istanbul carried out by a radical left wing group according to officials, and the attacks in the south by kurdish gorillas. an siri of attack business different groups. the real question here is, why? why this spate of violence by these two very, very different groups that have no overlapping agendas? and it s partly to do with the u.s. war on isis, the u.s.-led war on isis. the u.s. has been pressuring turkey to do more to crack down on militants, to seal the border, to take more strict measures so that this country doesn t remain a transit point for isis fighters passing through on their way to syria. turkey has done some of that. but turkey simultaneously has been cracking down on the leftist group that carried out the attacks here in istanbul and the kurds who carried out the attacks in south. and some critics say that turkey has pulled something of a bait
involvement against the islamic state there was more of a chance the islamic state could turn its attention to turkey. as we know that border between turkey and syria has really been a problem. so there that was one of the turkish government s concerns. using involvement increased involvement in the islamic state fight to go over the pkk, go over the kurdish groups, it s really increasing the likelihood of more of a broadly destabilizing situation because there had been something of a cease-fire with the pk kfor two years now has fallen apart with the air strikes against the groups in northern iraq as well. talk about the two other variables, get to consulates themselves and the attack. how safe are the consulates? since three years ago and the attack in benghazi where we lost ambassador stevens, what is different today? how safe are these consulates, specifically, in turkey, based on what the latest headlines have been? it s really important to keep in mind that the difference
threat very, very seriously. we re going to always, always, do what we have to do to protect our diplomats. state department spokesman john kirby reacting to the attack on the u.s. console late in turkey. the terror group, revolutionary people s liberation army front says militants are responsible. that group also attacked the u.s. embassy in the turkish capital in 2013. now this new attack came just hours after turkey opened a key air base to u.s. fighter jetted in the fight against isis. turkey recently sealed its border with syria and stepped up attacks on isis. the nation is also ramping up attacks against the kurds, the same ones who have arguably made the biggest advances against isis. nbc news chief foreign correspondent richard engel inside istanbul with more for us. reporter: start with the shooting incident next to the u.s. consulate here in istanbul. it s a fortress on a hill
whatever the reason, they re looking forward to more cooperation and access to that critical base there in turkey. very well put. thank you so much, jim miklaszewski, at the pentagon. appreciate that. molly o toole, politics reporter for defense one. molly, let s talk about mik was discussing and there s a lot of moving parts here. but this as the turkish government becomes more involved, that is something that washington, d.c., they were foreseeing as they moved ahead with the war on isis? well, certainly the complications of turkey s involvement, some of that seems to have come somewhat at a surprise to u.s. officials. for a long time they ve been pushing turkey to get more involved in the fight against the islamic state, obviously as we heard from correspondents, the positioning of turkey in those air bases are key to shorten that time and really bring down the costs of air strikes against isis in syria. but certainly the complications