The President's Daily Brief - December 23rd, 2022. A Russian Spy Inside Germany's Government. What Critical Information Did He Send to the Kremlin Before His Arrest?

Episode Date: December 23, 2022

It’s December 23rd. 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 four briefs for you this morning that are shaping America — and the world. First, Germany’s got a spy problem. We’ll talk about how that could impact us here in America.  Second, an update on those explosions of Russia’s natural gas pipelines. Investigators are starting to rule out suspects. Third, we’ve got a sudden twist in the election in the country of Fiji. Unfortunately it could lead to violence. Finally — and this one’s just for fun — I’ve got some research for those of us who are older and can’t quite hear as well. Turns out you just have a very busy brain. I’ll explain that great excuse. Later, we close out the podcast with my observation on Joe Biden’s Christmas message from yesterday. I think he’s missing something very important about the state of the country.  ------ 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

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Why wait? Ask your doctor. Visit Botox Chronic Migraine.com or call 1,800. 40044 Botox to learn more. It's December 23rd. 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 that are shaping America and the world. First, Germany's got a spy problem. We'll talk about how that could impact us here in America. Second, an update on those explosions of Russia's natural gas pipeline. Investigators are starting to rule out suspects. Third, we've got a sudden twist in the election of the country of Fiji. Unfortunately, it could lead to violence. Finally, and this one's just for fun,

I've got some research for those of us who are a little bit older and can't quite hear as well. Turns out that you just have a very busy brain. I'll explain that great excuse. Later, we close out the podcast with my observation on Joe Biden's Christmas message yesterday to the nation. I think he's missing something very important about the state of this country. But before we get to that, we got to get started with this. Germany has a spy problem, and it might mean trouble for America's spies too. So here's what's

going on. German authorities yesterday announced that they had arrested an officer of Germany's foreign intelligence agency for spying for the Russians. The federal prosecutor didn't offer too many details other than that the man identified as Carson L was charged with treason after having passed state secrets to Moscow throughout this year. Now, as of this warning, we don't know what was passed or how sensitive those secrets were, but the head of the intelligence service called BND released a short and very rare statement saying, quote, in this particular case, restraint and discretion are extremely important. Russia is an actor without scruples and willing to use violence, end quote.

So in some ways I will tell you that this is not terribly surprising. Under the previous German leader, a woman named Angela Merkel, the government in Berlin grew very close to Moscow. So you would expect that Russian intelligence would use that closeness as a way to weasel its way into the German intelligence agencies. But regardless, this could have very important implications for not just the Germans or even other European countries, but also us here in the United States too. So let me explain.

So over the past year, the United States has shared a lot of critical intelligence with our European partners, especially the Germans, in fact, on a range of issues, but most especially Russia's plans and intentions for Ukraine. And when we have shared that information, at least based on my experience, our partners often ask, who gave you that information and what confidence do you have? in that intelligence. Well, when the CIA or NSA responds, they necessarily have to give up tidbits of information to answer.

And that can tip our hat at least to some degree about our clandestine networks, our sources and methods. In other words, maybe the CIA acknowledges that it has a recruited human source inside the Kremlin, or at least close to it. Or maybe the NSA winks of the fact that maybe they have special access to Russia's classified electronic records. Well, now it turns out that when we were telling that sensitive information about sources and methods to the Germans, well, one of those officials in the room may have been secretly

working for the Russians and then told Moscow everything that we said. And that's bad. But how bad is it? Ah, that is the question. It all depends on who this German was that they arrested. Specifically, was he in the room when we have those conversations? or if not, did his colleagues tell him about it? So the bottom line is that we could absolutely see all sorts of fallout from this.

So for example, maybe this helps the Russians to sabotage some of the military weaponry that we are all sending Ukraine. Or maybe it helps Moscow to identify and target some of our special operators inside of Ukraine because, as PDP listeners know, America and the West have in fact sent, well, we're not really sure how many, but definitely a notable number of boots to sit on the ground inside of Ukraine. And we know that because the military and Ukraine admitted as much back in August when they told a British press member that, yes, America and the West have sent boots to Ukraine. So we'll see what happens next in this global spy versus spy game.

I'll be asking around, and I will keep you posted. For our next brief, let's stick to the intrigue and mystery this morning. and talk about some exploding Russian pipelines. We're talking, of course, about Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2. As PDB listeners know, those are pipelines that, up until the war in Ukraine, well, they were sending natural gas from Russia to Germany, but somebody bombed those pipelines back in September. Specifically, we now know that somebody placed explosive devices on or just above those pipelines,

which is quite something given that they are on the bottom of the, Baltic Sea. There's been an investigation into those explosions by multiple European countries, but so far no confirmation of who did it or how it happened. And that takes us to today's update. The Washington Post is reporting that contrary to early assessments that Russia was to blame, well, Russia may not be the guilty party after all. The Post is now claiming that it interviewed 23 diplomatic and intelligence officials in nine countries, either in involved in or knowledgeable of the pipeline attacks and investigation. Well, according to the Post, there's, quote, no evidence at this point that Russia was behind

the sabotage. And that's quite a change from some of the very early frothy pundit, especially from TV and newspaper, well, smart people, who assured us that it was the Russians who blew up their own pipelines. Meanwhile, to be fair, there were governments who actually said the same stuff too. For instance, the U.S. Energy Secretary, Jennifer Granholm, pointed blame at the Russians, saying it was seemingly them. Okay, so look, some people got their guesses wrong. We still need to answer the question. If the Russians probably didn't do it, who did? Well, if I might offer you my low-confidence speculation, I think that the most likely suspect remains the United States. and that's largely because of the statements made by Joe Biden himself.

So remember that back on February 8th, just before Russia invaded Ukraine, Mr. Biden was in the Oval Office and he was asked by members of the press what he would do to the Nord Stream pipelines if Russia decided to invade. And he said, quote, if Russia invades, and I mean tanks and troops crossing the border of Ukraine again, then there will no longer be a Nord Stream too. we will bring an end to it. So a very smart journalist followed up asking, well, how would you do it? To which Mr. Biden responded, quote,

oh, we will. I promise you, we will be able to do that, end quote. If you want to hear a more robust explanation for why I think Biden could have authorized that sabotage operation, you can check out the brief that I gave you on October 20th. If I may say so, some pretty good detail there. All right, with that, ladies and gentlemen,

Let's take a quick break. For my paid subscribers on the Apple platform, no ads for you. For everybody else, not to worry. We'll be right back. And when we do, I've got two more critical pieces of news for you. We'll be right back. Own it all.

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Stop taking bad travel advice. Start comparing hundreds of sites with kayak and get your trip right. Kayak, got that right. Welcome back to the PDB. I've got two more critical pieces of news for you this morning. First, an update out of Fiji. Do you remember me telling you about Rambo? Well, he is in trouble.

But first, some quick refreshing of our memories here. We're talking about Fiji because it's a key nation in the battle for the Pacific. As PDB listeners know, that's the fight between China and the United States for power and influence amongst the many island nations in the North and South Pacific. And it matters who wins that fight because whoever controls those waters stands a much better chance at winning the ultimate war between China and America should it ever come to pass. Which takes us now to Fiji. Over the past couple of weeks, I've briefed you on the very important election between China's favorite politician in Fiji, the current prime minister. and America's favorite politician, a man nicknamed Rambo by his people, though his last name is technically Rabuka.

But regardless, it appeared earlier this week that Rambo and his two coalition partners were set to win a majority of seats in parliament. And as I shared with you, that would make Rambo the prime minister. But it looks like China's preferred candidate, the current losing prime minister, he's not going to go down without a fight. And that fight could get very ugly, very violent, very quickly. So here's what we know. Mr. Frank Bainamaraama, he's the losing prime minister. He called the military out yesterday to patrol the country. They will work alongside the police to,

quote, ensure law and order, end quote. But that's a bit odd because there are no credible reports this morning of any notable violence targeting any particular group. And that includes Mr. Bainamara's supporters, which he claimed were the ones being targeted and harassed. Well, the opposition parties to include Mr. Rabuka or Rambo, they're not buying it. They're saying that the losing prime minister is just trying to sow fear and chaos so that he can remain in power. So what happens next? And by the way, what are the Chinese doing or saying about all of this? Well, let's talk first about this question of what happens next.

All eyes are now on the tiny Fijian party called the Social Democratic Liberal Party. they only have three seats in parliament, but since the election the other day was so close, basically tied, their vote will decide who becomes the next prime minister. Now, they've already said that they want Rambo to lead the country, but the party members are reporting pressure and intimidation by the losing prime minister, all so that they will reverse course and he can stay in power. Now, so far, that hasn't worked. In fact, they just voted a few hours ago to let Mr. Rambo stay in office or to say,

say, reaffirm their support of Rambo. But parliament doesn't actually have to meet until January 2nd to formally decide the new prime minister. So we could see things get nasty, more violent between now and then. So as for this other question, what's China up to? Well, they've been dead silent about all of this, nor have I seen anything from the U.S. State Department either. But that will change depending on how fast and how bad the next couple of days go. So I'm going to keep my eye on this one as it has a very important set of implications for this country in our battle for the Pacific. Finally this morning, I've got a brief just for fun. With Christmas right around the corner and families gathering, it is going to be a hectic and loud time for many of us. And that's

trouble for folks who are a little bit older, Grandma and Grandpa. Our hearing tends to leave us as we advance in age. So the more ambient noise there is in those kinds of settings with all those kids yelling about their presence and such, well, it's harder to understand basic conversations. Well, I read a study about that, and it made me smile because it made me think about my grandparents. So I thought I'd bring this one to you.

Scientists have long known that age-related hearing loss happens when these little hair cells in our inner ears become damaged or degraded. It's just part of the natural aging process. but researchers at Johns Hopkins University wondered if there was something else perhaps some function or malfunction of the brain and they actually found that yes older people suffer from well I'm going to call it busy brain syndrome so here's what I mean the researchers took a couple dozen mice and recorded the activity of over 8,000 brain cells or neurons in their audio cortex so half of the mice were younger and half older the researches researchers then set up an experiment where, well, to put it simply, they monitored what happened inside the brains of these mice when a loud white noise was turned on and turned off. So what they found was that the younger mice's brains were kind of less busy, more balanced

in general, especially when that white noise came on. But for older mice, when the researchers turned on that white noise, their brain cells just fired off like the 4th of July. The neurons became very active and generally stayed active. Busy brain syndrome, as it were. Now, you might think that that's good to have a busy brain, but the researchers noted that it created what they called fuzziness in processing so much noise. It made the older mice less able to distinguish specific noises.

Now, researchers said that they had to do more studying, but I'll tell you, when I read this, I thought about my grandparents, especially as they got older. With all that loudness at parties, especially during the holidays, they just got frazzled and just a bit overwhelmed. So maybe there is something to this study, having busy brain syndrome. And so if you feel this way during the Christmas or New Year's celebrations,

just tell people, look, I am so terribly sorry, but my brain is just really busy right now. I'm going to have to go take a nap because I'm going to tell you that's going to be my excuse. Feel free to use it. And with that, ladies and gentlemen, gentlemen, we conclude your morning brief. But I've got one more thing before I let you go. We'll be right back. This is a Bose moment.

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Start selling on Deepop, where Taste recognizes taste. Welcome back to the PDB folks. I've got one more thing before I let you go. Yesterday at the White House, Joe Biden delivered a Christmas address to the nation. He encouraged the country to pursue what he called a fresh start so that we might, quote, really look at each other, not as Democrats or Republicans, not as members of Team Red or Team Blue, but as who we really are, as fellow Americans.

Well, those words and others he spoke were certainly admirable and important, because, yes, of course, we should want to see each other as fellow Americans to be proud of this country and what we're all building together. If I could borrow a phrase, to be proud that we're trying to build a more perfect union. But as Mr. Biden spoke, I couldn't help but recall three polls over the past couple of months with one very important message. It's a message that frankly, Joe Biden either hasn't heard or doesn't want us to talk about. And I'd like to offer you that this morning as we all part ways for the Christmas holiday. First, back in September, the New York Times conducted a national poll asking our fellow Americans

if they think that this country is the greatest nation on the earth. 69% of Republicans said yes, but only 37% of Democrats agreed. Now, a few months before that, in July, the folks at Rasmussen reports asked people in this country, if they are proud to be Americans. 74% of Republicans said yes, but only 44% of Democrats said the same. Finally, back in the spring, Quinnipiac University asked this next very intriguing question.

If America were invaded by a foreign power, would you stay and fight or would you run? 68% of Republicans said they'd fight. only 40% of Democrats said the same. So as I listened to Mr. Biden call for national unity yesterday to set aside our party politics and celebrate the real Christmas spirit of togetherness, what's clear is that he is either unaware of or doesn't want us to talk about these polls, which represent a very big problem.

The issue, my friends, is not that we can't look at each other as fellow Americans. It's that a whole bunch of us don't want to be Americans at all. Or to be more accurate, a whole bunch of us don't think that America is great. They're not proud of this country. And if a foreign power ever came to destroy us, a shocking percentage of this nation would retreat without a fight. In fact, an overwhelming majority of Democrats would flee, and a slice of Republicans would too.

And that's important to be honest about. Because we should then ask this question, why? Why do so many Americans hate this country? And why are most of those people, Democrats? And that's not a partisan question. That's what the data tell us. And to be very clear here, folks, it's a very important question. It's a question of national survival because countries do not last if majorities of their people hate themselves

or refuse to defend the nation. and you don't need a former CIA officer to tell you that. So folks, what Joe Biden should be asking himself this morning and what he should be prompting us to ask ourselves is who was telling so many Americans, most especially his fellow Democrats, that America is so awful and indefensible. And why? Why are they saying that? What's the goal of convincing so many Americans to hate this country?

because as much as I appreciate Mr. Biden's holiday cheer, these are the uncomfortable questions that we need to be wrestling with. Okay, fair enough, maybe not on Christmas morning. Let us be joyful and celebrate the birth of Jesus on Sunday. But as we enter into a new year, we need to return to those polls and ask those questions. And let us be unrelenting as we do. Because if we are honest in seeking answers,

then we can fix this problem. But if we don't, and we just let that hatred of America fester, then friends, we are in trouble, big trouble. So as I leave you this morning for the holidays, I make you this promise. I will continue to bring you the PDB as ever, news from around the world and around the country that shapes our lives. And yes, I'll offer you some analysis and opinion along the way. You can take it or leave it as always.

But I'll tell you of another promise. It's my New Year's resolution for the PDB. I'm going to ask those tough questions about those polls. I'm going to ask tough questions about our fellow Americans. Namely, why do so many of us hate this country? And who's telling them to hate it? Because we've got to turn that around. Otherwise, my dear listeners, we will not have a country to celebrate.

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. Some follow the noise. Bloomberg follows the money, whether it's the funds fueling AI or crypto's trillion dollar swings. There's a money side to every story. Get the money side of the story.

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