The President's Daily Brief - PDB Afternoon Bulletin | January 31st, 2024: Iran-Backed Militants Prepare For Blowback & FBI Warns Of China's Grave Cyber Threat To US

Episode Date: January 31, 2024

In this episode of The PDB Afternoon Bulletin:     The most powerful Iran-backed militia in Iraq has announced they are suspending their military operations ahead of the Biden administration’s expected response to the deadly drone attack on U.S. troops in Jordan.  We’ll discuss FBI Director Christopher Wray’s latest warning to Congress over the ongoing threat posed by China's aggressive cyber activities targeting U.S. critical infrastructure. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The PDB Afternoon Bulletin.     Email: [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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turn your big business idea into... Sign up for your $1 per month trial at Shopify.com slash special offer. It's Wednesday. January, welcome to the PDB afternoon bulletin. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. Let's get briefed. First, the most powerful Iran-backed militia in Iraq has announced that they are suspending their military operations against the U.S. ahead of the Biden administration's expected response to the deadly drone attack on U.S. troops in Jordan. Also, we'll discuss FBI Director Christopher Ray's latest warning to Congress over the ongoing threat posed by China's aggressive cyber

activities targeting U.S. critical infrastructure. But first, our afternoon spotlight. Sticking with our coverage from this morning of the fallout from the deadly attack by Iranian-backed militants on U.S. troops in Jordan, we're now learning that the most powerful Iran-backed militia in Iraq is formally suspending their military operations against U.S. forces in the region. with the Khatib Hezbollah made the surprise announcement on Tuesday, as reports emerged that the U.S. would soon begin retaliatory operations in the Middle East, particularly inside Iraq and Syria, against Iranian-backed militants. Officially, the Islamic resistance in Iraq claimed responsibility for the attack on Sunday, and that's an umbrella group of Shiite Muslim militias with close links

to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and a key player in that coalition is Qatai Hezbollah. The Pentagon acknowledged their likely role in the attack on Monday, saying the drone strike has the fingerprints of Qatibah Hezbollah, though they noted their investigation of the attack was still ongoing. In a statement on Tuesday, the militant group said, quote, we are announcing the suspension of military and security operations against the occupation forces. in order to prevent embarrassment to the Iraqi government, end quote.

They encouraged their fighters to temporarily only engage in, quote, passive defense if faced with hostile American action. The group also went to great lengths to distance Iran from attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria, claiming that their group operates, quote, without any interference from others. Well, that is, unless you count funding from Iran, the provision of weapons, training and guidance from the IRGC. Other than that, yeah, not much interference. The militant group added, quote, on the contrary, our brothers in the Axis, especially in the Islamic Republic, do not know how we work jihad, and they often object to the pressure and escalation against the American occupation forces in Iraq and Syria, end quote.

Regional observers are skeptical of the motives behind their abrupt change in posture. Charles Lister, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, commented to the Daily Caller News Foundation, quote, either this is a result of 48 hours of intense back-channel pressure from Iran, or Qatai Bhasbullah knows what's coming and wants to frame coming events as self-defense, and quote. Officials in Iraq, however, said it was a result of their own efforts to de-escalate the tense situation in the region. Hisham al-Rikabe, an advisor to the Iraqi Prime Minister, minister, said, quote, this is the result of the efforts made by Iraqi Prime Minister Muhammad Shia al-Sudani, internally and externally, with different forces and parties in Iraq,

and calls made by the Iraqi government to avoid escalation and avoid causing more attention to ensure the smoothness of the negotiation process and in order to complete the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, and quote. Kataib Hasbullah, based in Iraq, is one of the key regional players in Iran's Axis of Resistance that we discussed earlier today on the PDB. As we noted, the Axis of Resistance proxy network in the Middle East has been cultivated by Iran over decades, with the Quds Force, the elite overseas wing of Iran's IRGC, training and arming these organizations. Now, they've been one of several groups in Iraq and Syria, behind roughly 100.

66 attacks on U.S. troops and coalition forces in the region since 17 October, including the Dron Strike Sunday in Jordan, which killed three service members and left more than 40 injured. All right, coming up after the break, we'll discuss FBI director Christopher Ray's latest warning to Congress over the ongoing threat posed by China's aggressive cyber activities targeting critical infrastructure in the U.S. I'll be right back. This is Euphoria Calvin Klein, the new elixir collection, featuring three perfume intense scents, inspired by a unique orchid accord, paired with vanilla, each with its own

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Speaking before the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, Ray highlighted the urgent threat posed by Chinese hackers targeting America's critical infrastructure. And infrastructure targets include water treatment plants, the electrical grid, oil and natural gas, pipelines and transportation systems, just to name a few. He pointed it out that this threat goes beyond mere espionage. It's an attack on America's economic security and involves the theft of innovation, personal, and corporate data. And this warning is not based on mere speculation. Ray's testimony comes in the wake of recent revelations about U.S. government and private sector efforts to counter a dangerous China-linked hacking group called Volt Typhoon. Now, this group,

has been implicated in a series of attacks on U.S. critical infrastructure since at least mid-20201. According to Reuters, intelligence officials have become alarmed by Volt Typhoon's broader objectives. The group has targeted Western critical infrastructure, including naval ports, internet service providers, and utilities. This raises the specter of the hackers working to undermine U.S. readiness, especially in the context of a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan. Volt Typhoon employs sophisticated botnets for its attacks. Now, a botnet is essentially a network of infected computers that collectively execute an attacker's commands. For those of you who are tech-challenged, and I include myself in that category,

imagine hackers turning computers and devices into a horde of digital zombies to execute their bidding. Reuters reports that Volt Typhoon has commandeered a vast array of vulnerable digital devices global, such as routers, modems, and even internet-connected security cameras. One notable target of this botnet was a critical infrastructure organization in Guam, a U.S. territory. Given the strategic importance of Guam in the South China Sea and the escalating tensions over Taiwan, there are concerns that a cyber attack on this facility

could disrupt U.S. military capabilities in the region. And that, my friends, is the PDB afternoon Bulletin for Wednesday 31 January. 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 tomorrow. Until then, stay informed. Stay safe. Stay cool. Ryan Reynolds here from MintMobil. I don't know if you knew this, but anyone can get the same premium wireless for $15 a month plan that I've been enjoying. It's not just for celebrities, so do like I did and have one of your assistants assistants assistants,

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