The President's Daily Brief - March 15th, 2024: Haiti's Governmental Gridlock, Covert Iran Talks, & CIA's Secret China Op

Episode Date: March 15, 2024

In this episode of The President's Daily Brief: We venture into the tumultuous streets of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, to examine the power struggle as gang leaders and politicians grapple with forming a new government amidst chaos. Delving into international diplomacy, we analyze a new report on the United States' secret January talks with Iran, intended to mitigate attacks by Yemen's Houthis in the Red Sea. We unravel the details of a covert CIA operation initiated during the Trump era, designed to sway Chinese public opinion against their government via social media platforms. In the Back of the Brief, we discuss the latest developments in TikTok legislation and the race among potential U.S. buyers, including a former Trump cabinet secretary, to acquire the influential video-sharing app. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President’s Daily Brief by visiting PDBPremium.com. 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

It's Friday, 15 March. Welcome to the President's Daily Brief. I'm Mike Baker. Your eyes and ears on the world stage. Let's get briefed. We'll begin today's show in Port-au-Prince-Haddy, where the nation's politicians are struggling to cobble together a new government as gang leaders vie for power on the streets of the Capitol. Later in the show, we'll look at a new report that says that the United States conducted secret talks with Iran in January. to try and persuade Tikran to curb attacks by Yemen's Houthis on commercial vessels in the Red Sea, apparently, and by apparently I mean clearly, to no avail, given that the attacks just keep on coming. Plus, we've got details on a clandestine CIA campaign launched during the Trump presidency,

aimed at turning public opinion in China against its government using Chinese social media, which, of course, is taking a page out of the Chinese government's place, playbook, although their clever social media scheme has been to dumb down America through TikTok videos. Speaking of which, in today's back of the brief, as TikTok legislation makes its way to the Senate, potential U.S. buyers are lining up to purchase the video sharing app with a former Trump Cabinet Secretary at the forefront. But first, today's PDB spotlight. Things have been quieting down in Haiti just over the past few days, following the resignation of the country's Prime Minister Arial Henri. However, there does not appear to be that much confidence that the calm will last.

A number of foreign embassies continued to evacuate non-essential personnel, including Canada, Germany, the European Union, and the United Nations. The U.S. State Department also continued its efforts to shore up security at the U.S. Embassy, with a Marine Fleet anti-terrorism security team arriving in Port-au-Prince earlier this week. Now, we've spent a lot of time talking about what's happening on the streets in Haiti. Now, I'd like to drill down a little bit on what's happening at the higher levels of the Haitian government. Currently, the nation's leaders are scrambling to stabilize the country by putting together some kind of temporary government, and that's a plan backed by the United States as well as other regional allies. The plan includes the establishment of

what's being called a transitional council. That would have nine members, and I'm no idea why they settled on the number nine. They'd be drawn from the country's various political parties and the private sector. The group would then quickly name an interim leader and ministers, and quickly, of course, is a relative term. Membership in this council has a few simple requirements. First, its members are not allowed to run for president themselves. Second, they can't be charged with crimes, and finally, they have to support a multinational police force that's expected to maintain order during the transition period. So, that's the plan. Oh, wait, that was the plan. A number of political parties have already rejected the proposed panel and have announced their intention not to participate.

Most notably, an influential ex-Senator named Jean-Caul Moise is taking issue with the requirement to support the multinational police force, insisting that the Haitian people should reject any government supported by the international community. No, okay. Instead, he's insisting on a three-person presidential counsel that includes himself, a former judge, and a formal rebel leader named Guy Filippe. Now, Philippe helped lead a successful result in 2004 against former President Jean-Bertrán-Arested and was recently released from United States prison after pleading guilty.

to money laundering. I don't see how that plan could go off the rails. But it does show that the chaos on Haiti's streets is matched by a similar level of upheaval within the halls of power. Now, if you're wondering what the guy behind much of the violence thinks of all this, and of course I'm talking about gang leader Jimmy Barbecue Cherisei, he's already come out against the idea of an internationally back transition council and has threatened any politicians who participate. But wait, I'm I thought barbecue was all about giving power back to the people. In a rambling audio message posted yesterday, the gang leader said to the politicians, Don't you have any shame?

You have taken the country where it is today. You have no idea what will happen. He added ominously, quote, All know if your kids are in Haiti, if your wives are in Haiti, if your husbands are in Haiti. Now, you know that when a violent criminal gang leader, guilty of murder, rape, and other mayhem, asks politicians if they, They have no shame. Well, you've got trouble with the capital T right here in River City.

If the existing government leaders in Haiti decide that they don't want a UN multinational peacekeeping force led by Kenya to provide support and try to bring about stability, well, there's a real possibility that our man barbecue here is going to end up in charge. Coming up after the break, a new report on U.S. secret negotiations with Iran over Houthi assaults in the Red Sea, and a look into a covert CIA operation targeting Chinese public opinion through social media. I can only hope it involves cute cat videos and dance crazes. I'll be right back. Welcome back. We're learning that the Biden administration engaged in a bit of back-channel diplomacy with Iranian leaders in an attempt to address Houthi attacks in the Red Sea and the threat of

broader conflict in the region. An exclusive report from the Financial Times revealed this week that the secret talks with Iran were held sometime in January in Oman, the first known contact between the regime and the U.S. in some 10 months. The indirect negotiations were mediated by Omani officials who shuffled back and forth between the Iranian and U.S. delegations. U.S. officials focused on the Houthi's relentless attacks on international shipping vessels in the Red Sea and attempted to persuade the Iranian delegation to pressure the militant group to stop these assaults. The American delegation also reportedly brought up concerns regarding Iran's nuclear program, though we don't know those specifics. A second round of talks that were planned for February

were reportedly postponed as U.S. officials focused on ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas. Now, White House officials said the back-channel discussions were encouraging and allowed the U.S. to convey hopes that the current violence will not ignite a wider regional conflict, something that leaders in Tehran claim that they want to avoid. Now, when the White House spins that the discussions were encouraging, what they mean is we did not accomplish our goal of stopping the Houthi attacks, but at least we had the chance to chat, so that's nice. Despite the optimistic rhetoric from the Biden administration, it does appear that the efforts have done nothing to deter Houthi aggression. Since late January, when the talks were supposedly taking place, the Houthis have attempted more than two dozen

attacks on merchant vessels and coalition warships in the Red Sea, using a combination of ballistic missiles and one-way attack drones. Now, these attacks include the strikes that sunk a British bulk carrier in February and the attack on a vessel in March that killed three people, and that was the first Houthi strike that resulted in fatalities. Of course, not all the attempted attacks successfully hit their targets, and many missiles and drones have been intercepted. by U.S. and coalition forces. Over the same period, the U.S. carried out a limited number of targeted strikes on Houthi-controlled facilities in Yemen in order to attempt to degrade the militant group's military capabilities. Given the continued strikes by the Houthis and the counter-strikes by coalition forces,

there appears to be little evidence that tensions will abate anytime soon. Iran also continues to claim that they have no real control over the Houthis, despite ample evidence to the contrary. Now, I'm not sure what the world is coming to when you can't trust the Mullahs. Iran has reportedly been using a spy ship to pass intelligence to the Houthis regarding the location and navigational path of merchant vessels, and, of course, there's the obvious issue of how the Houthis came to possess such a large arsenal of munitions, ballistic missiles, and drones. Iran serves as the group's primary financial backer and smuggles military equipment into Yemen. If they told the Houthis to stop, they would stop.

But that, so far, is not in Iran's interests. All right, shifting gears. I want to take a moment to dive into the world of Spycraft and how U.S. intelligence agencies are working to counter the myriad threats posed by China. An exclusive report from Reuters on Thursday, interesting timing, revealed that in 2019, former President Trump approved a clandestine CIA campaign aimed at undermining China's tight control over what information their citizens see regarding the Chinese Communist Party. The operation aimed to leverage Chinese social media to influence public opinion regarding Xi Jinping's government.

The campaign employed a small covert action team who used fake internet identities to spread unflattering narratives about the CCP, not necessarily a difficult thing to do, although the operation was not limited to just inside China. The campaign also targeted public opinion in neighboring regions in Southeast Asia, Africa, and the South Pacific. The CIA operation also reportedly involved leaking disparaging intelligence to foreign press outlets. In one example, operatives promoted reports that CCP members were corrupting China's Belt and Road initiative, well, that's a shocking concept, using it to receive off the books overseas payouts. Officials who spoke anonymously to Reuters stressed that any leaked intelligence was, in fact,

based in fact, and the leaks were done to bypass China's domestic censorship program. They said the goal was to stoke paranoia among CCP leaders and have the regime distracted over potential leaks within their government or weaknesses in their internet infrastructure. one anonymous official said, quote, we wanted them chasing ghosts. Officials for the CIA and the Biden administration have so far declined to publicly comment on the revelation, and it remains unclear if the program continued under President Biden. Meanwhile, a CCP spokesman condemned U.S. actions and said the operation was proof that the U.S. actively tries to manipulate foreign opinions.

The CCP spokesman said, quote, hey, just because we do it doesn't mean others should, end quote. Okay, fine, I made up that quote, but it's based in fact. U.S. officials say the aggressive CIA program came as a response to increased activity from China regarding hacking infiltrations, intellectual property theft, and influence operations targeting the American population. As we've previously covered on the PDB, Chinese influence operations have run wild on social media platforms in the U.S. seeking to sow political discord and shape the public narrative regarding the CCP. The groups are relentless in their efforts, and some networks have demonstrated a considerable reach.

A former national security official with direct knowledge of the CIA operation told Reuters, quote, the feeling was that China was coming at us with steel baseball bats, and we were fighting back with wooden ones, end quote. Now, the revelation comes as former President Trump, has promised an even time, tougher stance on China if he returns to the Oval Office next year. And again, the timing of this Reuters story is interesting. It's almost as if whomever leaked or came up with the story is hoping it will deflect from the effort on Capitol Hill currently to deal with TikTok. Hmm. Makes you go, hmm. Coming up in today's back of the brief, as TikTok faces a potential

ban in the United States, we're learning that a former top Trump official is making a play to buy. the social media platform. I'll be right back. As we discussed yesterday on the BDB, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a bill on Wednesday calling on Bight Dance to completely divest from TikTok or face an effective ban in the United States. While the legislation's fate is uncertain in the Senate, if it passes, bite dance would have the chance then to sell TikTok within a specific time frame or be banned from American app stores. Speaking to CNBC on Thursday, Manuchin said that he fully supports the legislation and is

using his private equity firm Liberty Strategic Capital to organize investors for an acquisition. Intriguingly, Liberty Strategic Capital and Bite Dance shares some common blood, as the CEO of SoftBank is an investment partner in both. That's convenient. Mnuchin told CNBC, quote, this should be owned by U.S. businesses. There's no way that the Chinese would ever let a U.S. company own something like this in China, end quote. And that is a correct statement. Ask yourself, How many U.S. own social media apps are allowed to operate freely in China? The answer would be, Lyon, as they say in China, as we've frequently discussed on the PDB. TikTok, along with BiteDance, have long-faced criticism for their ties to China's Communist Party.

Some 170 million Americans reportedly use the app, and under Chinese cybersecurity laws, the company is required to share all user data with the CCP. upon request. That's just the way it works there. Last week, TikTok began leveraging its community of U.S. creators, encouraging them to travel to Washington to fight current efforts in Congress because nobody knows how to counter CCP intelligence threats like the folks on TikTok who make cute videos. Manuchin did not elaborate on the identity of his other investors. However, he's not the only interested party. Former Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick is reportedly also thinking about making a play for TikTok. China, however, has made it clear that they will oppose

any forced sale of the company. I wonder why that is. And TikTok's CEO has also said that a sale is not on the table, but only because that's what the CCP told him to say. And that, my friends, is the president's daily brief for Friday, 15 March. If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to me at PDB at thefirsttv.com. I'm Mike Baker. Now be back. later today with the PDB afternoon bulletin. Until then, stay informed, stay safe, stay cool. Not loving your AT&T or T Mobile Bill? Yeah, we've been hearing that a lot. Good news. Bring your AT&T or T Mobile Bill to Verizon and we'll give you a better deal. So get away from that unfortunate phone bill and get to Verizon. Run, ride, canoe. Whatever it takes, we'll be here.

Bring your AT&T or T Mobile bill to a Verizon store today and we'll give you a better deal on the best network. A better deal. No surprises. That's Verizon. Best network based on root metrics, best overall mobile network performance U.S. second half 2025. All rights reserved. It must provide a recent consumer mobile bill in the name of the person who gave me the deal. Additional terms, conditions, and restrictions apply.