The President's Daily Brief - December 15th, 2022. A Surprising Demographic Has Been Training Chinese Fighter Pilots

Episode Date: December 15, 2022

It’s December 15th. You’re listening to the President’s Daily Brief. Your morning intel starts now. ------ A good day to you, ladies and gentlemen. I’ve got five briefs for you this morning that are shaping America — and the world. And for today’s podcast, grab those maps because we’re circling the globe. First, we start in Africa, or at least with the 50+ African leaders gathered at the White House. Second, we’re then off to Japan where that otherwise pacifist country is building up its military for a future fight against China and North Korea. Third, we then jump across the Pacific Ocean to Peru. An update this morning on the President who was thrown out of office last week. Protests are erupting across the country. Fourth, we then land in the United Kingdom where the Prime Minister there is saying no more illegal immigrants. His party is calling it an invasion. Sounds familiar. Finally, after our trip, we come home to America, where Joe Biden has announced billions in aid to make our farms more climate friendly. Later, we close out the podcast with an observation I had on the US National Debt. We got new numbers for November — and there’s a warning sign we need to talk about.  ------ Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of the President's Daily Brief. Email: [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

USAA knows dynamic duos can save the day, like superheroes and sidekicks or auto and home insurance. With USAA, you can bundle your auto and home and save up to 10%. Tap the banner to learn more and get a quote at usaa.com slash bundle. Restrictions apply. It's December 15th. You're listening to the President's Daily Brief. I'm your host and former CIA officer Brian Dean Wright. Your morning intel starts now.

A good day to you, ladies and gentlemen. I've got four briefs for you this morning. are shaping America and the world. First, today we start off in Fiji. There's an election underway in that island country that could decide if they stick with China or turn to the United States. Second, we head to Libya for an update on that Lockerbie terrorist that somehow America got its hands on. Well, it turns out he was kidnapped by someone. Third, we go next to South Africa, where a flight school there has been training Chinese military pilots. You will be shocked to learn who the trainers are. Fourth, we come back home to North Dakota, where we've got an update

on a communist back project there, just a few miles from a very important military base. Later, we close out the podcast with a listener question about an Illinois solar farm, and I am so proud of this listener. But before we get to that, we got to get started with this. We've got an update to our series on the Battle for the Pacific, which as PDB listeners know was the fight between China and the U.S. for influence and presence in both the North and South Pacific. Today we're looking once again at the nation of Fiji, which, as ever, is a beautiful place with 330 islands in total that sit about 1,100 nautical miles north-northwest of New Zealand. But the reason that we really care about Fiji is that that country has not been especially

friendly to the United States. They're much closer to China. In fact, Fiji has one of the strongest military relationships with Beijing in the South Pacific anyway, with the communists providing the Fijian military with vehicles and uniforms and training. Well, we've got an election in Fiji to talk about this morning. It's a political battle between two fighters, with one being the current prime minister. His name is Frank Baini Marama. He's been in office or in power for 16 years. He also happens to be a fan of China. In fact, he's the man who agreed to this close military alliance with Beijing. In the other corner of this political boxing match is Sitiveni Rabuka,

and he is a former Fijian rugby player, former hammer thrower, and he also goes by this nickname, which I love, Rambo. Well, Rambo does not like China, or at least he wants a better relationship with the U.S., Australia, and New Zealand. Now, yesterday he kicked off the election between these two fighters, and there have been some troubles. Or, as the government is saying, some anomalies. Here's what I mean.

In the hours after polls closed yesterday, Fijians could watch results on an officially sanctioned app on their phones. And it was reporting that Rambo and his coalition were winning. And then the app went down. Well, at 2 a.m., it came back up, and Rambo was losing. And he still is. Well, the government explained that there was a, quote, anomaly, end quote, with a mistake made while transferring data to the app.

So when some Fijians expressed outrage at this anomaly and the fact that results suddenly are different, well, the government election supervisor, a man named Mohamed Sanim, said that there was nothing to get excited about and that, quote, everyone is too hungry for conspiracy theories, end quote. Well, Rambo, by the way, is not buying this anomaly excuse. He's keeping a close eye on things. Meanwhile, there are election observers all throughout the country, so we'll see what they have to say about this in the coming days. Election results are expected sometime on Sunday.

Now, I personally hope that Rambo wins for no other reason that I would just love to meet a guy that's called President Rambo someday. Seems like a guy you don't want to mess with. All right, we are now going to leave Fiji, spin that globe, and we're going to head way west all the way to the northern African country of Libya. We've got an update to talk about regarding the Libyan intelligence officer who was arrested for his role in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 back in 1988 over Lockerbie, Scotland. As PDB listeners know, that intel officer named Abu Aguilam-Masood had long been in Libya protected by that government. So when he suddenly arrived in the United States earlier this week to face prosecution, that was pretty darn mysterious. Well, I've got a bit more information on how that all went down. and the mystery is frankly getting a little bit thicker.

Massoud's nephew and some other family members were interviewed by Reuters' news service about a day ago, and they reported that late last month, gunman burst into that family's home and captured Massoud, and he then disappeared. Later, he got word back to his family that he was being held at a Libyan military base in the city of Misrata, which is under the control or influence of the prime minister of that very deeply divided country. Well, that led the other guys in power, the president and the attorney general, to accuse the prime minister of collaborating with America and the West. So the belief, at least by these two other men, is that the prime minister did some sort

of secret deal with America or the United Kingdom, turning over Massoud in order to secure weapons or clandestine support so that he could take over the entire country. Well, is that true? Yeah, we'll see. Still, I have a feeling that this kid, of Massoud probably still involves natural gas and oil at least at some level. As I shared with you previously, Libya has the largest known reserves of crude oil on the African continent. And with Europe very much needing oil and gas since they lost access to Russian supplies, I would be

surprised if there weren't at least some sort of backroom deal about Europe's energy needs while this whole kidnapping thing went down. But as always, I will keep you posted. Okay, let's turn that globe again, but not too terribly far, actually. We're going to head south from Libya. We're going to go over the Sahara Desert past countries like the Congo and Namibia. And we're going to head to a small town in South Africa. And the name is Outschorn. Now, normally, this city is best known for being in a beautiful valley with the Swartburg Mountains to the north,

or for being the world's capital of ostrich. It's a boom town, apparently, for ostrich feathers. Well, today that town has another claim to fame. Their flight school has been very quietly helping the Chinese government train their pilots on how to fly advanced planes. To include America's most advanced stealth fighter, the F-35, and they're doing it with the help of former American and European military pilots. So here's what we know, according to an investigation by the Wall Street Journal. Back in October, the United Kingdom's Ministry of Defense made a very alarming allegation. The Chinese military had linked up with a South African flight school to help Beijing get smarter on how to fly advanced jets,

especially taking off from and landing on aircraft carriers. And that's because Beijing has very limited experience and doing that, with only two relatively new carriers in service and virtually no pilots who are any good at using them. So they need foreign help. And they found it in this South African city, better known for ostrich feathers, but also home to the Test Flying Academy of South Africa. And this academy then began recruiting former military pilots from the UK, Norway, France, and other countries to likely include the United States. So here's how it worked.

These contract pilots would train Chinese pilots either in South Africa or they would travel to China. And these guys made big money when they did. hundreds of thousands of dollars for just a couple of months of work. So of the pilots who participated, at least four had experience with America's F-35, which is our most advanced self-fighter. It's also used on aircraft carriers and competes against a Chinese stealth fighter known as the J-20. Now, interestingly, the Chinese pilots were generally described as poor performers by these Western guys. In other words, they are not ready to fly jets of any kind, really, and certainly not use aircraft carriers. By the way, the South African Flight School was asked for comment about this whole deal.

Well, they confirmed that they had, in fact, recruited former Western military pilots to train all these Chinese folks, but they promised none of the training involved classified tactics or other information. And yet, on their website, it mentioned courses in advanced fighter tactics, fighter weapons instruction, and electronic warfare and tactics. but don't try to find that on their website anymore. It was promptly removed after they were asked about it. So one other thing to mention here, the U.S. Department of Justice unsealed an indictment this week

against a former U.S. Marine pilot who has been detained in Australia for allegedly training Chinese military pilots and landing on aircraft carriers. Now, the indictment said that he did it in coordination with a South African flight school, although the DOJ did not name that school. They did, however, say this. The former Marine has been cooperating with the Chinese government for over 10 years, even living in China for a while. So overall, folks, this is more of what China does best.

They steal, they hack, or they take advantage of Western greed. We often talk about that in relation to corporate espionage, but what's clear is that our military is in their sights too, especially looking for former military officials who want to cash out as they sell out their country to our communist enemies. With that, ladies and gentlemen, let's take a quick break for my paid subscribers on the Apple platforms, no ads for you. For everybody else, not to worry, we'll be back shortly.

And when we do, I've got one more critical piece of news for you. We'll be right back. Welcome back to the PDB. I've got one more critical piece of news for you this morning. And to get there, let's leave South Africa and go west of. all the way across the Atlantic and come on home to America. We're landing, of course, in the fair state of North Dakota, but I'll tell you, as far as we've come,

we're still going to talk about the same enemy as we were in Fiji and South Africa. Yeah, that's right. We're going to talk about China. Now, this time, it's an update on a previous brief that I gave you about a mill, some communist businessman, and a very sensitive U.S. military base.

To refresh our memories on this one, Earlier this year, the subsidiary of a Hong Kong-based company called Foufang Group, well, they bought 370 acres of land in Grand Forks, North Dakota, for about $2.6 million. They claimed that they're going to build a wet corn mill on that property, something that puts out ingredients for animal feed, with a mill valued at $700 million. Now, the mayor of the town, a fellow named Brandon Bocenski, was very excited by this deal. He said it would bring jobs, ramp of tax revenues, upgrade infrastructure, just a real win-win. But the chairman of the Fu Feng group, a guy named

Li Shu Kuhun, is a member or has close ties to the Chinese Communist Party. That is according to a group of U.S. senators who wrote to the Department of Defense and Treasury saying that the deal should not go through based on national security concerns. The senators emphasized that the new mill would be about 16 miles from the Grand Forks Air Force Base, which houses operations critical to top U.S. intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities. Well, the last time that we talked about this was in late September. There's a governmental oversight group,

and they promised to look into this investment for any concerns about national security. At the same time, the Biden White House was asked if they were worried about or opposed to this deal. And the spokesman, John Kirby, said at the time, quote, I think the question of home ownership is a little bit out of my swim lane, end quote, which was a bizarre response. The reporter was confused and followed up saying, no, this is about a Chinese Communist Link company that wants to set up shop next to a military base

that's very sensitive. And Joe Biden's spokesman again said, no, this is a home ownership issue and not something that I want to talk about. Okay. That takes us to our update this morning. Well, the review by this big fancy governmental organization or agency is over. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, that's the folks who did the investigation. They conducted it and they found that the deal can go through. Not a problem. Joe Biden's Department of Defense, Treasury and agriculture all found no issue with this Chinese mill or the proximity of it to a military base or Fufeng's ties to the Chinese Communist Party. So that company, as you would expect, released a press statement saying, quote, we are pleased with the outcome of the review, end quote.

I'm sure they are. For what it's worth, North Dakota's two senators are not as pleased. Senator Kevin Kramer is asking for a classified briefing as to why this decision was made. And if I could add one piece of analysis and opinion here, folks, it would be this reminder. The Chinese government is America's number one enemy. That is the official position of our military, intelligence, and law enforcement agencies. Second, we know that Chinese companies operating abroad, most especially those with ties to the Communist Party. They have a legal obligation under Chinese law to cooperate with Beijing's military or intelligence services, if asked, So you put those two things together.

Does any responsible person, reasonable person, think that having a Chinese company set up shop a few miles from a military base with intelligence operations is a good idea? No, no, of course not. No one thinks that. Well, except for the Biden administration. They clearly don't have a problem with it. In fact, they labeled it a home ownership issue. That's just a shame that they don't view America as their home. And with that, ladies and gentlemen, we conclude your morning brief.

But I've got one more thing before I let you go, and it is a good thing. We'll be right back. Own it all. Pay off your home. Travel for life. Drive a Ferrari. In celebration of the world premiere of the Monopoly Big Board Buckslot machine by Aristocrat Gaming, Yamava Resort and Casino at San Manuel is giving one person a $1.6 million

dream package. the biggest prize in Yamava's history. Club Serrano members can earn daily instant prizes and secure a spot in the finale May 29. Don't pass go and own it all. Only at Yamava, celebrating its 40th anniversary. You win? Details at yamava.com must be 21-20.

Please gamble responsibly. Monopoly is a trademark of Hasbro. Hasbro is not a sponsor of this promotion. Welcome back to the PDB folks. I've got one more thing before I let you go. Rochelle from Kane County, Illinois wrote in, and I'll tell you what, I let out a yell of celebration when I read this.

So you'll understand what I mean. Here's what she said. My county is looking to install eight acres of solar panels. And I'd like to ask them some questions about that. For instance, what's their plan for disposal when they're done with these panels? Just toss them into a dump or recycle them. And are they testing the soil for runoff because these panels can leach toxic chemicals? Also, what kinds of batteries are they using to store the solar energy?

Are they made in China? and is there Congolese cobalt in them? You have me really thinking, Brian. I want people in my county to be aware of the real costs and appropriate expectations of this dirty green energy. Well, folks, there it is. That is why I am here doing this podcast. Because it ain't for money or fame, because I'm going to tell you I have neither of those things. Instead, this podcast is about giving you all the information that you need.

to govern your country. Because I can't fix this place on my own. Not all the cities and counties and states, but you all can. And together, we can. And Rochelle's email is a testament to that. Rochelle found out that her local county was going to install a solar farm. And now she's going to go to them with questions as any informed citizen with reasonable concerns should. And praise God, this is exactly how it's supposed to work. And that is why I let out a cry of joy and celebration when I read her note. Now, to Rochelle and others, I will offer you this one piece of advice based on my career on what's likely to come next. You see, sometimes when you sit down with fancy people, they are going to assume that you are not smart or they are smarter.

and I'll tell you, I know that I have felt this way when I was in front of CIA directors, senators, or White House officials. But you know what? Over time, I realized something. They're not that smart. Sometimes they're even dumb. So, for example, former CIA director John Brennan is one of the dumbest men that I have ever met in my entire life. And I don't mean to say that to be, you know,

cruel or unchristian like. I'm just telling you that if I had to choose a partner on Jeopardy and I could either have John Brennan or a box of rocks, I would go for the rocks. The point, Rochelle, is that when you go to county officials with your concerns, be prepared to be dismissed. But be prepared to fight your righteous cause because facts and data are on your side.

You go in there with your back straight and your head held high and you blast them with your facts and your data. Do it with respect and professionalism, but never, ever let them make you feel like you are dumb or your questions aren't valid because they are. Not that you need a former CIA officer to tell you that, but you need to hear it, Michelle. You are awesome and you are fighting for your country.

And that means that you will always have a friend in me. And that, ladies and gentlemen, concludes your morning brief. As always, we close out the show, reminding each other of why we are here, talking about our country and our world. It's the creed of every good spy and every smart American. It's from John, chapter 8, verse 32. And you shall know the truth. And the truth shall make you free. Good day.