McGurk withdraws nomination for Iraq post ... Obama’s drone numbers don’t add up ... Lockheed, Machinists agree to mediation ... Fighting terrorists online

FIRST LOOK: McKEON BLASTS REID ON SEQUESTRATION -- The HASC chairman is set to release a video this morning that urges his colleagues to act now to avert sequestration and accuses Obama and Harry Reid of stifling Republican efforts to undo the automatic defense cuts. “Hundreds of thousands of men and women in uniform who deserve ticker tape parades instead are facing pink slips,” McKeon says in the video. “Sequestration isn’t something that happens in January. It is happening now.” The video is here: http://bit.ly/KPT7sm

TODAY ON THE HILL -- The House Veterans’ Affairs Committee meets at 10:30 a.m. in 334 Cannon to discuss the disabilities claims process.

33 HOUSE DEMS TO OBAMA: WE SUPPORT NDAA VETO THREAT -- The group, led by Ed Markey, sent a letter to the president urging him to block the FY 2013 NDAA if it includes language limiting his ability to reduce the size of the nuclear arsenal. From the letter: “At a time when the U.S. has formally agreed to reduce its nuclear arsenal under the New START Treaty, and there is growing consensus among defense experts and retired military officers that a far smaller nuclear force is required for an effective nuclear defense deterrent, we must reduce our nuclear weapons arsenal.”

Signers include John Conyers, Dennis Kucinich, Barney Frank, Hank Johnson and Alcee L. Hastings. Read the letter: http://1.usa.gov/L0a8Ox

McGURK BOWS OUT -- The president’s nominee for U.S. ambassador to Iraq has removed himself from the running. McGurk, who has faced controversy after emails surfaced indicating he had a sexual relationship with a WSJ reporter while he was working as a negotiator in Iraq in 2008, was set to be considered today by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. NYT’s Peter Baker reports: “McGurk ... said in a letter to the president that he was stepping aside because it was important for the United States Embassy in Baghdad to have a permanent new leader soon. With summer recess approaching, a confirmation fight over Mr. McGurk could have dragged on for weeks or months.” More here: http://nyti.ms/PgJa9S

IRAN NUCLEAR TALKS: GRIM PROSPECTS -- Hope is fading for a breakthrough at the P5+1 negotiations in Moscow, with Iranian diplomats outlining a series of objections to a proposal that calls on the country to curb its uranium enrichment program and to dismantle an underground nuclear facility. Paul Richter, of the Los Angeles Times, reports from Moscow: “Even a temporary halt in the talks could upset nervous oil markets and renew talk of an air attack by Israel to end the threat it sees from the Iranian nuclear program.” http://lat.ms/MJU7gn

The talks are set to resume today, and negotiators will decide whether or not it makes sense to schedule yet another round of discussions.

MEANWHILE -- HASC has scheduled a hearing for 10 a.m. tomorrow called “Addressing the Iranian Nuclear Challenge: Understanding the Military Options.” Witnesses are to-be-announced.

WELCOME TO MORNING DEFENSE, where we’re always on the lookout for tips, pitches and feedback. Email us at [email protected] and follow us on Twitter @morningdefense and @abwrig

TRIVIA TIME -- On this day in 1864, the U.S. Navy sank one of the most feared Confederate ships -- a commercial raider that had wreaked havoc on U.S. commercial vessels across the globe during its two-year career. What was the ship’s name? The first five readers to email us the correct answer get shout-outs in tomorrow’s Morning D. [email protected]

AT THE G-20 MEETING, OBAMA AND PUTIN PLEDGE TO QUELL VIOLENCE IN SYRIA -- POLITICO’s Jennifer Epstein reports: On Syria, “Putin said that he and Obama had ‘been able to find many commonalities’ and work together. ... Obama said they’d ‘agreed that we need to see a cessation of the violence, that a political process has to be created to prevent civil war, and the kind of horrific events that we’ve seen over the last several weeks.’” http://politi.co/MqiGhN

TOP TWEET -- ABC’s Jake Tapper: “The body language at this Obama/Putin bilat is off the hook chilly.” @jaketapper

IS RUSSIA SENDING IN MARINES? AP’s Vladimir Isachenkov reports: “Two Russian navy ships are completing preparations to sail to Syria with a unit of marines on a mission to protect Russian citizens and the nation’s base there, a news report said Monday. The deployment appears to reflect Moscow’s growing concern about Syrian President Bashar Assad’s future.” http://yhoo.it/LYulI1

PROPUBLICA: OBAMA’S DRONE NUMBERS DON’T ADD UP -- Statements from the U.S. government on the number of civilian deaths resulting from drone strikes are inconsistent and, in some cases, downright contradictory, according to ProPublica’s Justin Elliott. “Last month, a ‘senior administration official’ said the number of civilians killed in drone strikes in Pakistan under President Obama is in the ‘single digits,’” Elliott writes. “But last year ‘U.S. officials’ said drones in Pakistan killed about 30 civilians in just a yearlong stretch under Obama.”

Elliott adds: “Both claims can’t be true.” Read the full story here: http://bit.ly/M8JS9m

NSA STONEWALLS SENATORS -- Ron Wyden and Mark Udall asked the NSA a simple question: How many people in the United States have been spied on since 2008, when the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act was expanded? NSA’s answer: Providing that information would constitute an invasion of privacy. Danger Room’s Spencer Ackerman has the story: http://bit.ly/KwM0Iv

FIGHTING TERRORISTS ONLINE: THE ‘WHACK-A-MOLE’ STRATEGY -- In the second half of 2011, Google removed 640 videos from YouTube at the request of law enforcement officials in the United Kingdom, according to CNN’s Security Clearance blog. The reason for the removals? The videos were spreading terrorist propaganda. CNN’s Suzanne Kelly and Pam Benson report: “Aaron Zelin, who started monitoring jihadist websites in 2002 in Washington, has seen a myriad of propaganda and do-it-yourself terror tricks posted in the form of videos. The problem with trying to take some of the more egregious material off the Internet, said Zelin, is that it has a way of popping right back up again.” More here: http://bit.ly/MClr3A

LOCKHEED, MACHINISTS UNION AGREE TO MEDIATION -- Now in the ninth week of their standoff, Lockheed and the labor union in Fort Worth will meet tomorrow with a federal mediator, reports Sky Talk’s Bob Cox. “The action comes as a growing part of the union membership has grown increasingly restive,” Cox writes. “The strike has gone on longer than many workers said had they expected with no sign that Lockheed was willing to ... budge from its position on the key pension and health care issues.” More here: http://bit.ly/KwKJkN

WHO’S WHERE WHEN --

8:40 a.m.: Sharon Burke, ASD for operational energy plans and programs, speaks at the Washington Fuel Cell Summit, at the Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill.

9 a.m.: Dempsey speaks at the Government Executive Media Group Leadership Briefing, at the National Press Club.

1 p.m.: Pentagon spokesmen George Little and Capt. John Kirby brief the press.

3:30 p.m.: Panetta welcomes New Zealand’s Minister of Defense, Jonathan Coleman, to the Pentagon.

5:45 p.m.: Obama holds a bilateral meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao.

TOP TAKES --

-- “The betrayal of Egypt’s revolution,” by Sara Khorshid (NYT): “Preliminary election results show that the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi is likely to become Egypt’s next president. But even if Mr. Morsi is declared the official winner later this week, Egypt’s first popular presidential election will not have been a democratic milestone. With the Supreme Court’s ruling dissolving Parliament and the military’s declaration curtailing the presidency’s authority, Mr. Morsi will be a toothless figurehead under the thumb of an authoritarian military council that doesn’t seem likely to relinquish power anytime soon.” http://nyti.ms/NcFTc6

-- “Divorcing Pakistan,” by Andrew J. Bacevich (LA Times): “Seldom has a marriage of convenience produced greater inconvenience and consternation for the parties involved. Simply put, U.S. and Pakistani interests do not align. Worse, neither do our preferred forms of paranoia. Pakistanis don’t worry about Islamists taking over the world. Americans are untroubled by the prospect of India emerging as a power of the first rank.” http://lat.ms/NM5oSP

WHAT IN THE WORLD? The World Wide Web is abuzz over a satellite image of a Lockheed facility in California that shows a mystery aircraft wrapped in what appears to be a white tarp. The aircraft is in the shape of Lockheed’s RQ-170 Sentinel, except bigger. Danger Room has the photo: http://bit.ly/MJSEqn

GET MORNING DEFENSE emailed to your Blackberry, iPhone or other mobile device. Enter your email address where it says “Sign Up.” http://www.politico.com/morningdefense/