The President's Daily Brief - January 2nd, 2023. New Info on the German Intelligence Officer Spying for Russia

Episode Date: January 2, 2023

It’s January 2nd. You’re listening to the President’s Daily Brief. Your morning intel starts now. ------ A good day and a Happy New Year, ladies and gentlemen. I’ve got four briefs for you this morning that are shaping America — and the world. First, we start in Germany where I’ve got an update on that German intelligence officer who was secretly working for the Russians. It’s more bad news for our War in Ukraine.  Second, top leaders for the American and British spy services have admitted that their Ukraine war propaganda did nothing — except for influence you. Third, an update on the mysterious attacks on America’s electricity grid.  And finally, a shocking internal email from Twitter, showing that they wanted you to be very afraid of COVID, no matter the truth. Later, we close out the podcast with some feedback on the updated series I did last week on Dirty Green Energy.  ------ 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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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 and a happy new year, ladies and gentlemen. I've got four briefs for you this morning that are shaping America and the world. First, we start in Germany, where I've got an update on that German intelligence officer who was secretly working for the Russians. It's unfortunately more bad news for our war in Ukraine.

Second, top leaders for the American and British spy services have admitted that their Ukraine war propaganda did nothing except to influence you. Third, an update on the mysterious attacks on America's electricity grid. And finally, a shocking internal email from Twitter showing that they wanted you to be very afraid of COVID, no matter of the truth. Later, we close out the podcast with some feedback on the updated series I did last week on dirty green energy. But before we get to that, we got to get started with this.

folks germany has a spy problem one of their intelligence officers was secretly working for the russians and now that german problem is america's problem too now i first briefed you on this right before christmas on december 23rd so to refresh our memories on this german authorities announced that they had arrested an officer of germany's foreign intelligence agency for spying for the russians now the federal prosecutor didn't offer too many details at the time other than that the man identified as Karsten L. was charged with treason after having passed state secrets to Moscow throughout last year. But we really needed to know those details to understand how bad the damage might be. For instance, what did the German spy pass to the Russians or how sensitive were

those secrets? Well, as of this morning, we have some more answers, and as I feared, it's not good. As reported by the Wall Street Journal and confirmed by my own sources, this German spy, had access to a trove of top secret information about the war in Ukraine. And listen to this, folks. He knew exactly how it was collected by the United States and our allies. So here's what I mean and why that's so important. So we now know that this spy worked for the Germans Signals Intelligence Branch, or SIGENT. That means that he worked with things like intercepted emails and phone calls and satellite information.

But he wasn't just some run-of-the-mill employee. The German magazine Der Spiegel is reporting that he was the chief of his intercept department, meaning that he had the keys to the kingdom, including whatever was passed to the Germans by America's SIGN agency called the NSA, and Britain's two, which is called GCHQ. So that means when it comes to SIGMT, the Russians now know what we know in Ukraine and how we know it. So do you give you an example of this,

the Russians now know which phone numbers or emails or satellites we have focused on which targets and win. And that in turn either has or will degrade how we execute our war in Ukraine, which means that lives could be put at risk, specifically our military and intelligence officers who are secretly operating on the ground in Ukraine as of this morning. So for what it's worth, the German investigation into Kirsten-El hasn't found evidence that he received payments from the Russians. no cash. So it could be that he was either blackmailed and cooperating or he was motivated by some sort of love for Russia. And frankly, that last part wouldn't be surprising. The German government

has long favored close relations with the Russians, most especially under the last German leader, Angola Merkel. So one last thing to relate to you on this. If you're wondering how Karsden L. the German spy was discovered, I'll tell you what Reuters News Service is reporting. They're saying that another intelligence service, like the Americans or the Brits, found out that Carson was secretly working for the Russians and told the Germans about it, which means, well, there could be another spy at play here. This one probably a Russian inside of Russia's intelligence service, but secretly working for, say, the British or the Americans. And that person confirmed that Carson L. was a spy. And speaking of spies and espionage, let's move on to our second brief of the

morning. Leaders of the American and British spy services have confirmed that their Ukraine war propaganda didn't change Vladimir Putin's mind as they planned, but it did change or influence your mind. That acknowledgement came last week on the British media outlet BBC. So here's what we know with a quick refresh of this issue. So back on one of the very first episodes of the PDB on April 8th, I told you all of the effort by American and British spies to publicize their intelligence of what they knew the Russians were probably up to in the Ukraine. But the intel was of low quality. Oftentimes, it was just rumor. For example, do you remember the story when the Biden administration claimed that Russia was preparing to use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine? Joe Biden himself

said it directly last spring, but it wasn't true. It was based on a rumor. Or perhaps you remember when Joe Biden said that Russia would put out a video featuring fake corpses of mutilated civilians in eastern Ukraine, all of whom would allegedly be killed by Ukrainian forces. Well, that wasn't true either. It was just based on flimsy intel. Or finally, perhaps you remember U.S. intelligence officials saying that they had intel confirming that Putin was being misled by his own advisors who were afraid to tell him the truth. And as before, none of that was actually true. So as both NBC News and my own sources confirmed at the time, those were all either guesses or informed by low confidence intelligence. rumor, in other words.

So why then did U.S. and Western intelligence officials do that, put out such trash intelligence? Well, NBC News asked American intel officials, and they responded by saying, quote, we're trying to get inside Putin's head, end quote. In other words, somehow trick or alarm Putin to change his mind or do something rash. So did that whole propaganda effort work? Did their release of this trash intelligence and rumors work to get? get inside of Putin's head. Well, for months, we were told that it did work. In fact, it was a brilliant operation. As just one example on March 31st, MSNBC brought out a former CIA officer, a fellow named

Mark Polymeropoulos, who called this propaganda campaign, quote, brilliant, revolutionary, end quote, and that, quote, it's going to drive Putin crazy. It will drive him nuts. Well, as it turns out, that CIA officer was wrong, and that takes us to our update. Last week, the head of Britain's spy service, GCHQ, held a conversation on BBC radio with America's Director of National Intelligence, a woman named Averill Haynes. So during that conversation, they spoke of this propaganda campaign to get into Putin's head. And when they discussed whether or not it was effective, Ms. Haynes admitted that, quote,

in Russia, we basically had no impact, end quote. When she was asked about whether other countries had some sort of impact, maybe Russia's allies were impacted. She said, no, quote, we were not that impactful in other countries that already had sort of taken on the narrative of what the Russians were pushing, end quote. Okay, well, so the propaganda campaign was a total failure. Didn't get to the Russians, didn't get to their friends, all despite what we were told last spring, right? So it was just a complete failure. Well, no. Actually, Ms. Haynes said that, quote, our impact was far greater in the West. less than it was in other places in the world, end quote.

So just to make sure you're hearing her point here, let me just repeat it and paraphrase it. She's saying that their propaganda campaign to influence Putin and Russia did nothing, had no impact. So it failed. But that it did influence those individuals and the general public in America and Europe. I want to be clear with you on something that is not. how intel propaganda operations are supposed to work. They're supposed to influence foreign audiences and to take great care never to influence domestic audiences.

There are all sorts of ethical and legal reasons for that, which makes what I'm about to tell you all the more remarkable. As these two individuals were talking about their failed foreign operation that actually influenced their own domestic populations, they didn't express sorrow or embarrassment or shame to the contrary. Britain's spy leader Jeremy Fleming said that they need to do more of this. He called it, quote, pre-bunking, end quote, or debunking of Russia's lies that might seep into Western minds. And America's Avril Haynes agreed with them.

So yes, they want to continue to release intelligence that they know won't influence foreign operations or foreign population. but they're fine with it influencing domestic audiences. So if you're wondering if this is legal, well, I'm digging into this, but the real question is, should it be legal, irrespective of whether or not it is? In other words,

should the CIA, NSA, and FBI, be conducting domestic propaganda operations, or should we have a media free of intelligence officials telling you what to believe? As ever, I'm going to defer to you on that, but I'm going to tell you as a matter of personal opinion and analysis, I think that this is horrific, an absolute scandal. Because it's not just that it happened, which is bad enough,

but rather that they want to keep doing it and that there's no apology. So folks, if this is upsetting to you, as it is to me, contact your federal representatives and senators. Find them at house.gov or senate.gov. You can forward them an article actually that speaks to what I think is a pretty audacious BBC interview. It's in the British newspaper Guardian. It's entitled, Western spy agencies must pre-bunk disinformation. What an ironic headline.

All right. With that, ladies and gentlemen, let's take a quick break. I've got two more critical pieces of news for you in just a couple minutes. We'll be right back. Welcome back to the PDB. I've got two more critical pieces of news for you this morning. First up, the attacks on America's electrical grid continued over the holidays. and we're still not sure who's doing it or why.

I first brief you on this back on December 13th. There were several weeks of attacks on electrical substations in Oregon, Washington, South Carolina, and North Carolina. In fact, 45,000 people lost power in North Carolina alone. Since then, we've continued to see attacks on substations all across the country, as just one example. On Christmas Day, someone vandalized substations just outside of Tacoma, Washington, knocking out power for 14,000 people. The Pierce County Sheriff's Department

continues to investigate that, no suspects at present. But it's clearly a pattern and one of considerable concern because as Joe Biden and others pushed the country towards greater reliance on things like, say, electric vehicles, that means that we're going to have

far greater risk than ever before. And that's why I'm going to keep an eye on this vulnerability. Because, folks, as we all know, criminals always find a way. And because of the dirty green revolution and the reliance on this new electricity, while the chaos and the terror that these folks want to create, it could become a lot worse than what we can even imagine today.

Finally, this morning, an update on those internal documents that we've talked about from Twitter. So to refresh our memories on this one, the company's new owner, Elon Musk, has alleged that there was corruption and bias, even illegality occurring at Twitter under the previous management. and so he's allowing independent journalists to review Twitter's internal documents to prove such. About a week ago, journalists revealed the latest batch of internal emails about how Twitter handled the issue of COVID. In other words, what was allowed to be discussed about this topic? What wasn't?

Which accounts they banned for disinformation and so on. Well, there's one exchange that warrants your attention, and I wanted to bring it to you this morning. So let's go back in time. On October 5th of 2020, then-President Donovan. Trump had just recovered from his infection from COVID. And he tweeted this, quote, I will be leaving the great Walter Reed Medical Center today at 6.30 p.m. Feeling really good. Don't be afraid of COVID. Don't let it dominate your life. We have developed under the Trump administration some really great drugs and knowledge. I feel better than I did 20 years ago,

end quote. All right, fine. 30 minutes later, what we now know from the release of Twitter internal emails is that Twitter's general counsel, and by the way, former FBI official, Jim Baker. He sent an email to a special secret group of Twitter employees that handled high-level accounts like Trump's. And here's what Mr. Baker said of Trump's October 5th tweet. And folks, you got to listen to this. Quote, why isn't this POTIS tweet a violation of our COVID-19 disinformation policy, especially the statement, don't be afraid of COVID? my goodness. Do you hear that? Jim Baker, Twitter's lead attorney and former FBI official, who by the way, we know, was still in contact with his former FBI colleagues, is saying

that you must be afraid of COVID. And if you dare say otherwise, that is a violation of Twitter policies. It's disinformation. So I want you to really sit with that. There were, and frankly still are people at the highest levels of America's media that wanted and still want you to believe that COVID should be something you live in fear with. And when you're not, they are outraged, outraged. And by the way, if you think that this issue could just be an isolated one, say at Twitter, well, listen to this. According to a study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, a study entitled, Why is all COVID-19 news bad news? Well, what that study found was that 91% of COVID stories by major U.S. media outlets were negative in tone.

91% negative. That's compared, by the way, to a more balanced 54% negative in foreign media outlets. And digging into the numbers here, that included 90% of stories about schools reopening. Those were negative. And the message there was that we should not open schools because it would kill kids and teachers. Also, listen to this. That same study showed that major. U.S. media outlets were negative, even when there was positive news to report, like case counts

decreasing. So all in all, folks, if we could just take a step back for a second, what we all experienced over two years in this media environment was unique, globally speaking. America's media was profoundly more negative and alarmist and hysterical than any other country in the world. Over 90% of our media coverage was negative or alarmist about COVID. So why was that? Why is that? And why did Twitter's lead attorney, connected to the FBI, want you to be afraid of COVID, and in fact silenced any voices who told you otherwise? Well, I think that those are good questions for us all to ponder. And I'm going to leave that up to you to answer. But let me offer you three things as you reflect, switching now to analysis and

opinion. First, do you remember the old expression of if it bleeds, it leads? It's something the journalists would often tell themselves when deciding what stories to tell you about. The more bloody, the more frightening, the more sensational, the better. And that's because for whatever reason, people kind of like that stuff. It's true, we often say that we don't, but unfortunately, a lot of us do. Which means that, moving on to my second point, the media fed us what we wanted, because you know what, it made them a lot of money. The more times that people clicked on or watched programming with scary stuff, the more money that they made.

And so the cycle of panic and hysteria just fed on itself. But third, and finally, there's another reason for why a former FBI official like Jim Baker and others in the U.S. government might want to have encouraged you to embrace fear and panic. And that's because they can use your fear and panic to encourage. to demand, to control. And it's that last part that's pretty darn important. If a government can keep its people in a chronic state of panic and fear, you can get them to do lots of terrible things and get away with it.

For instance, you can force people to inject a novel vaccine into their bodies. And if they refuse, you can fire them, including those in our military. Or you can shut down businesses for the audacious crime of allowing non-vaccinated people, to dine or exercise in their facilities. So why do I highlight this for you? Well, two reasons. First, it's important to have some truth and reconciliation about the past. There are still people and power that did all of this, that it encouraged and fed this fear, created this panic. And we should understand why they did it, their motivations, and then hold them to account. But I'll tell you, this isn't just about the past. For me, it's really about the future.

Because as many in our government have said from Joe Biden to the disgraced Tony Fauci, there will be another pandemic. History has shown us that. So the question is, did we learn our lessons from this last one? I'll tell you, I don't think we have, not by a country mile. And that's why I'll continue to flag this stuff for you. Because as bad as this pandemic was to include such overwhelmingly negative coverage, well the next pandemic could be much much worse the next pandemic could leave science and liberty

not just in tatters as i think it currently is but rather forever broken and that ladies and gentlemen concludes our morning brief but i've got one more thing before i let you go we'll be right back 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. Welcome back to the PDB folks. I've got one more thing before I let you go.

So last week was a lot of fun for me. Instead of taking time off, I worked for you all on updating the series on dirty green energy. I gave you more facts and more data and more analysis. And I sure hope that you liked it. So I got some emails from folks that I want to share, specifically one. in particular that really resonated with me. John in Nebraska out in that beautiful Nibbara country, he wrote in as a retired energy guy, a fellow who had handled generation, transmission, and distribution of power for more than 40 years. And as he described energy, especially solar

and wind, well, frankly, he did it in a way that I think is just perfect. So here it is. He encouraged us to think of energy in two ways. First, he described traditional energy like coal, natural gas, and nuclear as energy production. In other words, those electricity plants produce energy. But what about solar and wind? Ah, he said that is energy harvesting. There's no production there. The panels and the blades harvest whatever's in the air or in the wind. Now, for my farmers and ranchers, you know the difference here immediately. In some years, you have a good harvest with bumper crops, but in other years, you have a good harvest. You have a bad harvest with droughts and food shortages. And that was John's point. With solar and wind,

you're going to have good harvests and bad harvests. And that's because sometimes the sun will shine and sometimes it won't. Sometimes the wind will blow and obviously other times it won't. In other words, if you become dependent on energy harvesting, you run the risk of bumper energy crop, say, one month and having blackouts the next. And I'll tell you what I told John. I am absolutely stealing that phrase, energy harvesting, because John and his expression or his phrase are spot on. The more intermittent energy that you build like solar and wind, the more apt you are to have a bad harvest and end up energy starved. So folks, feel free to steal that phrase and frankly that logic and all of your conversations about this stuff. And if you're worried about John not getting credit or he

might be upset if we're all stealing and using this phrase. I'll tell you, I wouldn't worry about that, and I'll tell you why. As an example of the kind of guy John is, he told me that his ultimate view of energy is that, quote, when the beer gets warm, it's a bad day. Well, I think John has a point. We need those refrigerators to work for all kinds of things, don't we? It's awfully terrible when they don't. 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.