The President's Daily Brief - PDB Afternoon Bulletin | July 12, 2024: Germany Foils Kremlin Assassination Plot & Israeli Military Under Scrutiny Over 7 October Failures

Episode Date: July 12, 2024

In this episode of The PDB Afternoon Bulletin:    Germany was left rattled after reports emerged that the Putin regime planned to assassinate the chief executive of a major German arms manufacturer supplying weapons to Ukraine. Israel is having its first national reckoning over the 7 October attacks, as an IDF report admits the military suffered wide-ranging failures that significantly exacerbated the death and destruction wreaked by Hamas terrorists. 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 PDB Afternoon Bulletin.  Email: [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. Let's get briefed. First, Germany was left rattled after reports emerged that the Putin regime planned to assassinate the chief executive of a major German arms manufacturer supplying weapons to Ukraine. Now, I would add, rattled, but probably not surprised. You see, after all, Putin's signature move is trying to assassinate targets outside of Russia. Well, and inside Russia. Also, Israel is having its first national reckoning over the 7 October attacks as an IDF report admits the military

suffered wide-ranging failures that significantly exasperated the death and destruction wrecked by Hamas terrorists. But first, our afternoon. spotlight. A new major revelation regarding Vladimir Putin's shadow war against NATO allies in Europe has left Germany rattled and is exposing just how serious Russian efforts are to destabilize Europe amid the ongoing war. An exclusive report from CNN revealed Thursday that the Kremlin had planned to assassinate the chief executive of a major German arms manufacturer supplying weapons to Ukraine, forcing an American intervention to foil the plot earlier this year. Now, the scheme was reportedly just won in a series of plans by Russian intelligence to kill defense industry executives

throughout Europe. The conspiracy against Armin Pappersh was apparently the furthest along in planning. Now, Papyrs, and I apologize to the executive, if I'm pronouncing his name incorrectly, is a titan of Germany's defense sector. He's led the country's private sector efforts to arm Ukraine in the face of Putin's aggression. His company, Rydmetal, is a core manufacturer of 155mm artillery shells, arguably the most important munition in Ukraine's arsenal. The company is also currently in the process of building an armored vehicle plant inside of Ukraine that is set to go operational in the coming weeks. these plans reportedly deeply irritated and troubled Russian military officials, which, of course, led to Putin and his cronies hatching plans to terminate the business executive.

The American intelligence officials got wind of the plot earlier this year and promptly warned German officials who were able to significantly boost security around Perj and disrupt the plot, though the U.S. and Germany are staying tight-lipped about any details, naturally. Officials in Berlin are reportedly leaving nothing to chance, as the executive is now the most highly protected man in Germany's economy. Political figures across Germany reacted with shock and anger to the news of Russia's plot, with Foreign Minister Annalina Berbach accusing Putin of, quote, waging a hybrid war of aggression against Europe. She added, quote, this underlines once again that we as Europeans must protect ourselves as best we can and not be naive, end quote.

Okay, well, not exactly an insightful or cutting-edge statement, but it's true nonetheless. A separate statement from the German Interior Ministry condemned Russia's ongoing threats and intimidation tactics, which they said were aimed at, quote, undermining the support of Germany and our partners for Ukraine in its defense against the Russian War of Aggression. End quote. A number of European leaders have been increasingly warning about Russia's shadow campaign against NATO, particularly in countries like Poland and the Baltic states, the latest revelation shows there is likely no limit, and by that I mean there is no limit, to how far the Putin regime will go to undermine the Ukrainian war effort. Russia's shadow campaign targets Ukraine and its supporting

nations through a wide variety of tactics, including disinformation campaigns, arson attacks, espionage, cyber attacks, targeted assassinations, and political strong-arming. Putin's got a very large kit bag with lots of tools in there. Back in early April, a pair of German-Russian nationals were arrested in Germany for espionage and planning attacks on critical military infrastructure, including U.S. military installations. That same month, authorities in Poland detained a man working on behalf of Russian intelligence to orchestrate an assassination attempt on Ukrainian President Zelensky. Now, more recently, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk warned that Russia is planning to carry out attacks across Europe.

An unnamed senior NATO official told reporters at the summit on Tuesday that, quote, we're seeing sabotage, we're seeing assassination plots, we're seeing arson, we're seeing things that have a cost in human lives. I believe very much, he said, that we're seeing a campaign of covert sabotage activities from Russia that have strategic consequences, end quote. Coming up after the break, the Israeli military is admitting for the first time that a serious of failures by the IDF on 7 October, exasperated the damage done by Hamas terrorists during their brutal attack. I'll be right back.

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Kayak, got that right. Welcome back to the afternoon bulletin. Israel is having its first national reckoning over the events of 7 October as the country's political and military leadership begin to look inwards over the failures that allowed Hamas to blindside Israel with the savage attacks that ignited the current war in Gaza. An internal investigation released Thursday by the Israeli Defense Forces, the IDF, found that the IDF, quote, failed in its mission to protect the residents of a kibbutz, where 101 people were killed during the attacks, and that the military was completely unprepared for the extensive

infiltration by Hamas that played out that tragic day. It was the first acknowledgement of wide-ranging failures within Israel's military hierarchy during the attacks. The report, just the first in a series expected to come out of the IDF's internal review, focused on the military's response to Hamas's initial attack on the Israeli border village of Ba'eri, which sits near the Gaza perimeter fence breached on 7 October. The kibbutz suffered the most civilian deaths of any of the U.S. Israeli community on that date. The report notes that the IDF was not ready for the scale of Hamas's incursion, well, that's an understatement, which led to a significantly delayed response. The report states, quote, for the first seven hours of combat, the Kabbutz residents defended themselves,

end quote. The IDF was not able to put together a situational assessment of what was happening inside the Kabuts until the afternoon, hours after the attacks had started. There was a a, quote, lack of command and control, lack of coordination, and lack of order among the different forces and units, end quote. Now, as a result, IDF forces reportedly grouped at the entrance of the cabots waiting for orders while Hamas carried out their swatter of the residents. According to the report, other troops also prioritized evacuating wounded soldiers over civilians. The IDF said these decisions were a fundamental failure on the part of the IDF. Notably, the report determined that Brigadier General Barack Haram, commander of the 99th Infantry Division, that responded to the

attack on the village, acted professionally and responsibly. His actions were under scrutiny, particularly his decision to authorize an Israeli tank to fire on a house where Hamas fighters were holding 14 hostages. The decision was made to create an opportunity for IDF forces to rescue residents, and the investigation did not find evidence that it directly caused any civilian deaths. Now, all but two of those hostages died during the subsequent firefight, though intelligence indicates they were all likely killed by their captors as idea forces moved in. The findings were, of course, little comfort to victims of the attack on Bahra, with many questioning the decision made by General Haram and other senior officials. They said they still have not been given a satisfactory answer

as to why IDF forces failed to respond for nearly seven hours. In an official statement, residents of the village said, quote, the failure of the army has been burned into our bodies and in our hearts for nine months, end quote. The revelation prompted calls from Israeli defense minister Yov Ghalen on Thursday for an independent state commission to investigate the attacks, which may cause another rift between Ghalant and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, who has said any investigation,

should be left until after the war ends. Galant said, quote, it must investigate everyone, the decision makers and implementers, the government, the army, and security forces. It must check me, he said, the defense minister. It must check the prime minister,

end quote. Well, look, the investigation is obviously important and is underway and must be done thoroughly. But you don't need to dig too deep to understand that this was a failure on many levels. It was an intelligence failure for sure in terms of understanding Hamas' plans and intentions. It was a command and control failure on the part of the IDF, and it was also a governmental failure leading up to the attacks in terms of ensuring proper oversight and readiness of the IDF.

And that, my friends, is the PDB afternoon bulletin for Friday, 12 July. If you have any questions or comments, requests, humorous anecdotes, whatever, reach out to me at PDB at thefirstTV.com. And of course, as you know, to listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of the president's daily brief by simply visiting PDB premium.com. Pound for pound, it's really the best value in news in all of podcast land. And I'm sure it's already marked on your calendar, but a new episode of our extended weekend version of the PDB, the PDB Situation Report, hits the airwaves this evening at 10 p.m.

on the First TV. It's also, of course, available on all podcast platforms, wherever you get your podcast stuff, and our YouTube channel at President's Daily Brief. Now, Rear Admiral Mark Montgomery and Colonel John Mills, join me to talk about NATO in this episode, the recent summit, Chinese spy bases in Cuba. Did you know we've got those? Yeah, just off the coast of Florida, Ukraine, and of course we also talk about Biden's brain. I'm Mike Baker. I'll be back tonight, and then over the weekend with a situation report. Until then, well, you know the drill. Stay informed.

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