The President's Daily Brief - March 27th, 2024: Israel Thwarts Iranian Terror Plot, Putin Trades Oil For North Korean Weapons, & Russia Accuses The West Of Aiding Moscow Terrorists

Episode Date: March 27, 2024

In this episode of The President's Daily Brief:     Israeli forces recently thwarted a massive Iranian smuggling operation aimed at getting advanced weaponry to Palestinians inside Israel, as Israel warns that the Islamic regime is trying to spark terrorism inside the West Bank. Russia has started supplying oil directly to North Korea in flagrant violation of U.N. sanctions, as the two powers further cement their military ties. The Putin regime has doubled down on their baseless claims that western powers and Ukrainian forces were involved in the deadly ISIS terror attack in Moscow last Friday. In our 'Back of the Brief' segment, China is lashing out at the U.S. and western allies after being hit with sanctions over alleged government-backed cyberattacks. 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 Wednesday, 27 March. Welcome to the President's Daily Brief. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. Let's get briefed. First, Israeli forces recently were able to stop a massive Iranian smuggling operation aimed at getting advanced weaponry to Palestinians inside the West Bank. It's just the latest illustration of Iran's role as the chief instigator of violence in the region. says Israel, warns that the Islamic regime is trying to spark terrorism inside the West Bank, to, of course, add to the violence and instability that they're creating through their funding, training, and resourcing of a variety of proxy groups, including Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis.

Later in the program, we'll discuss reports that Russia has started supplying oil directly to North Korea in flagrant violation of UN sanctions as the two powers further cement their military ties. And of course, Russia and North Korea love nothing better than to flagrantly violate UN sanctions. Plus, Russia has doubled down on their fanciful claims that Western powers and Ukrainian forces were involved in the deadly ISIS terror attack in Moscow last Friday, it's Putin's disinformation machine working overtime. And in today's back of the brief, China is lashing out at the U.S. and Western allies after being hit with sanctions over alleged government-backed cyber attacks.

Xi's regime is clearly irritated that the West is bothering to point out the obvious, that the Chinese military and intelligence apparatus have been engaged in decades of economic espionage, cyber shenanigans, and theft of intellectual property. But first, today's PDB spotlight. As the Israel-Hamas conflict continues to drag on, Iran's role in instigating the violence through their regional proxies is coming into sharper focus. Officials with Israel's military and their Shinbet security agency revealed on Wednesday that they were able to thwart an Iranian weapons smuggling operation aimed at arming Palestinians in the West Bank.

The discovery of this operation came through an investigation into a known Hezbollah Iranian operative who had allegedly been working to recruit Palestinians to carry out attacks against Israelis. The scale of the operation was impressive, with Israel seizing a massive quantity of advanced Iranian weaponry. The cash of confiscated weapons included Iranian anti-tank mines, grenade launchers, fragmentation bombs, seafloor explosives, shoulder-fired anti-tank missiles, RPG launchers, hand grenades, and a wide assortment of firearms. That's quite the shopping list. In a statement, officials with Shibet said, quote, in recent months, Iranian agents have been attempting to smuggle weapons,

including advanced arms originating from Iran, into Judea and Samaria, with the intention of carrying out terror acts against Israel, end quote. It was one of the most significant seizures of advanced weapons in the West Bank in recent memory. Shinbet officials added that they will, quote, continue to carry out active measures at all times to monitor and thwart any activity that endangers the security of the state of Israel, end quote. Israeli intelligence indicates that the operation was being quarterbacked by Iran's Unit 4,000, that's a special operations division, of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC, along with Unit 18840, the Special Operations. unit of the RGC's goods force in Syria. Officials with Shinbet said the investigation is ongoing, and they are working to locate additional stores of Iranian weapons, along with any active terror cells recruited by Iran. The bust came just a month after Israeli defense minister Yov Galant

sounded the alarm on efforts by the Iranian regime to instigate a major terror attack inside the West Bank. At the time, he said Iran was looking to, quote, up the severity of attacks by smuggling in advanced weaponry. Galant was particularly concerned about the possibility of an attack during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which began March 10th and will continue through the 9th of April. The massive bust is just the latest disruption by Israeli forces of Iranian-backed smuggling operations. Israel has previously announced seizures of Iranian-made explosives being smuggled into Israel and the West Bank through Jordan.

The news comes as Israeli-U.S. relations hit a new low this week. As we discussed yesterday on the PDB, the U.S. allowed a U.N. Security Council resolution to pass on Monday demanding a ceasefire in Gaza during the month of Ramadan. Unlike previous votes, the U.S. abstained rather than using his veto, making it the first resolution demanding a ceasefire to pass at the council after four previous failures. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu was incensed by the decision, calling it a, quote, clear retreat from the United States' previous position of unwavering support. Following the vote, he canceled a planned delegation to Washington that President Biden had requested only last week. Netanyahu also cited the UN vote after ceasefire negotiations stalled once again on Tuesday,

with Israel calling its team back from Qatar after 10 days of discussions. Netanyahu said the Biden administration's decision at the UN undermined Israel's position at the negotiations and led to Hamas hardening their stance. That's not a surprise. Despite the diplomatic hiccup, representatives for the Biden administration for Qatar and Egypt appear hopeful that ceasefire negotiations will once again resume in the coming days. However, as you might guess, hope is not necessarily a good sound foreign policy strategy. Coming up next, we'll dive into reports that Russia has begun supplying North Korea with oil as part of a bartering arrangement for munitions from the Kim regime.

Plus, Russia has doubled down on their claims that Western powers and Ukrainian forces were involved in the deadly ISIS terror attack in Moscow last Friday, because nobody loves a disinformation campaign, like Putin loves a disinformation campaign. I'll be right back. Welcome back. Russia continues to rely on North Korea to restock their diminished munitions for Putin's war in Ukraine, and now we're learning more about just what the Kim regime is getting out of this arrangement. While we know Russia is already giving North Korea technical assistance on their weapons programs, a report from the Financial Times confirmed on Tuesday that Russia has begun shipping oil directly to North Korea in violation of UN sanctions.

Satellite images reviewed by the Financial Times show that at least five North Korean tankers have traveled to the largest port in Russia's far east this month to pick up oil. The shipments reportedly began on. March 7th and marked the first documented direct seaborne deliveries from Russia to North Korea since 2017. In 2017, the UN Security Council, with Russia's approval, significantly capped oil transfers to North Korea over their ongoing weapons tests. Now, observers said the revelation was a major blow to the West's ability to squeeze Russia and North Korean interests with sanctions and further cements the unhealthy bromance between Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un.

Hugh Griffiths, a former UN official who monitored sanctions on North Korea, told the Financial Times, quote, these oil deliveries constitute a full frontal assault against the sanctions regime, which is now on the brink of collapse, end quote. He added, quote, what we can see now is a clear arms for oil bartering arrangement an open contravention of sanctions that Putin signed off on personally, illustrating Russia's trajectory in recent years from international spoiler to outlaw state, end quote. Regional experts say the oil shipments will be a major boon for North Korea's economy,

as they've had to spend the last seven years paying a high premium for their oil products by using an expensive network of criminal brokers. They say direct access to oil from Russia will go a long way towards stabilizing the North Korean economy. It will also free up resources which the Kim regime can redirect towards their weapons program. Now, I, for one, am shocked that Kim wouldn't use those resources to, I don't know, take care of his people. Under the UN's import cap, North Korea is limited to just 500,000 barrels a year for oil and petroleum products. Under the North's new agreement with Russia, however, researchers calculated that new oil deliveries to the Kim regime could amount to 125,000 barrels of oil products in just a few weeks.

It's just the latest revelation that is causing Western officials to grow increasingly alarmed over the relationship between Russia and North Korea. As we've extensively covered here on the PDB, North Korea has been sending munitions and ballistic missiles to Russia in exchange for the Putin regime's technical assistance on their own reconnaissance and missile development programs. To nobody's surprise, both sides have previously denied trading arms. Officials for Russia and North Korea have yet to comment on the latest revelation. Seriously, they haven't felt the need to comment or be transparent? Well, that's surprising. All right, sticking with Russia. The Putin regime is doubling.

down on their fanciful claims that Ukraine, with the aid of Western intelligence agencies, helped facilitate the deadly ISIS attack in Moscow last Friday. As PDB listeners know, four gunmen entered a concert hall in Moscow on Friday, shooting scores of concert goers before setting fire to the building. As of Tuesday, at least 139 people have been confirmed dead, while 182 suffered injuries. 22 of those are reportedly still in critical condition, including two children. While the Islamic State, or ISIS, claimed responsibility within hours of the attack, Russian officials have been determined to pin the blame on Ukraine and the West,

because, well, never let a terrorist attack go to waste when you're involved in the invasion of a neighbor. In the immediate aftermath, Russian officials suggested, without evidence, that the Islamic State terrorists were being aided by leaders in Kiev, who they allege prepared a pathway to allow the attackers to attempt to escape into Ukraine. In fact, Russian leaders did not even acknowledge that ISIS was behind the attack until Monday. In remarks, Russian President Putin relented that radical Islamists carried out the attack, but he suggested that Ukraine was ultimately facilitating their actions. On Tuesday, Alexander Boydnikov, the director of the Federal Security Service in Russia, the top security agency in the country, fanned the flames further by accusing Western intelligence

agencies of participating in the attack. He said the attack, quote, was prepared by both radical Islamists themselves and naturally facilitated by Western special services, end quote, naturally. He added that, quote, Ukraine's special services themselves have a direct connection, to this. He continued by saying, I'm just making this crap up. Only morons believe what we say anymore. End quote. All right, fine. He didn't say that last part.

Ukrainian officials called the claims lies and accused Putin of exploiting the tragedy for personal political gain. U.S. intelligence officials and other Western intel organizations have also agreed that the Islamic state bore the sole responsibility for the attack. In fact, the U.S. even gave Russia warnings about an imminent terror attack more than two weeks ago. It was a warning that was ignored

by the Russian authorities and publicly dismissed by Putin in mid-March. It's worth noting, however, that there appears to be dissension within the Russian ranks, as Putin's narrative is already showing signs of fracture. A report from Bloomberg said members of Putin's inner circle agree that there is no link between the ISIS attack and leaders in Kiev. Now, Putin was reported at a meeting where officials discussed this conclusion, but as allegedly determined to leverage the tragedy to rally public support for the war effort. Ukrainian President Zelenskyy condemned attempts by Russian leaders to pin last Friday's tragedy on Kiev, calling Putin a, quote, sick and cynical creature. Coming up in the back of the brief, China is bashing the U.S. surprise

and Western allies after being hit with sanctions over alleged government-backed cyber attacks. I'll be right back. In today's back of the brief, an angry China lashed out at the U.S. and UK on Tuesday after being hit with sanctions over alleged government-backed cyber attacks. As we discussed on yesterday's show, the U.S. and the U.S. and the U.K. announced criminal charges and sanctions against seven Chinese hackers linked directly to Chinese intelligence services, who for years orchestrated massive data breaches across the U.S. in Europe. China's foreign ministry hit back at a news conference on Tuesday, accusing the U.S. of,

quote, hyping up the so-called cyber attacks and using them to smear China in the international community. A spokesman for China's foreign ministry said, quote, this is purely political manipulation. China is strongly dissatisfied with this and firmly opposes it. We urge the United States and the United Kingdom to stop politicizing cybersecurity issues, stop slandering and smattering China, imposing unilateral sanctions, and stop cyber attacks on China. End quote. Okay, lighten up, Francis. Just because you're dissatisfied doesn't mean you're not guilty.

Look, nobody is politicizing the issue. The Chinese regime is simply upset because they're being called out for their decades of economic espionage, theft of intellectual property and cyber shenanigans. They know they're guilty, and they just don't like being called guilty. The remarks came as members of the international community piled on China over their aggressive hacking operations. On Tuesday, leaders in New Zealand accused state-sponsored Chinese hackers of malicious cyber activity targeting members of their parliament in 2021. Australian leaders, along with top officials from the EU, also expressed support for the U.S. U.S. U.K. and said they are concerned about China's ongoing use of hackers to undermine Western interests.

As we've previously discussed on the BDB, China operates extensive networks of spies and hackers in their efforts to access Western intelligence and military secrets, as well as to so discord in Western democratic institutions. Additionally, the groups seek to target critical infrastructure in the U.S., such as water and sewage treatment facilities. Earlier this month, CIA director William Burns also warned that there is a high likelihood that China will employ their sophisticated network of hackers in an attempt to disrupt the upcoming U.S. presidential election, and by high likelihood, he means they will definitely engage in efforts to disrupt the election. And that, my friends, is the president's daily brief for Wednesday,

27 March. If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to me at PDB at thefirsttv.com. I'm Mike Baker. I'll be back later today with the PDB afternoon bulletin. Until then, stay informed, stay safe, stay cool.