The President's Daily Brief - PDB Afternoon Bulletin | July 3rd, 2024: Biden Mulls Partnering With The Taliban & Orban Pushes Ukraine For A Ceasefire

Episode Date: July 3, 2024

In this episode of The PDB Afternoon Bulletin:    In a stunning development, the Biden administration is considering working with the Taliban to help the U.S. combat the threat posed by the Islamic State branch of ISIS-K. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban was in Kyiv this week for a rather tense meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, where the Kremlin-friendly leader pushed for a ceasefire with Russia that would freeze the current lines of battle. 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] 🏅 Patriot Gold: https://www.patriotgoldgroup.com Say Mike Baker sent you Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Welcome to the PDB afternoon bulletin. Well, it's really the late afternoon bulletin. bit of travel got in the way of a timely delivery of today's PDBAB. But regardless, I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. Let's get briefed. First, in a development that may surprise some and may discuss others, the Biden administration is considering working with the Taliban to help the U.S. combat the threat posed by the Islamic State branch of ISIS-K. Also, Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban was in Kiev this week for a rather tense meeting with Ukrainian President Zelensky.

Orban, the Kremlin-friendly leader, pushed for a ceasefire with Russia that would freeze the current lines of battle. But first, our afternoon spotlight. Now, as the old saying goes, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. If you want to disappear down a rabbit hole, try researching where that saying came from

and who said it first. Well, the Biden administration appears to be embracing that axiom, revealing Tuesday that they are considered considering working with the Taliban regime in Afghanistan to combat the growing terror threat posed by ISIS-K. Now, the Taliban has no love for ISIS and their offshoot ISIS-K, mind you, which isn't the same thing as saying that the Taliban and the U.S. have similar objectives and concerns when it comes to ISIS. But the group, ISIS-K, has targeted the militant regime ever since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, following the disastrous U.S.

withdrawal in the summer of 2021. And now, according to reports, the U.S. is considering a cooperative agreement with the Taliban where the U.S. would share intelligence regarding ISIS-K and the Taliban feeds the U.S. real-time intelligence about their regional operations. That's according to a report from NBC News. Ever since the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, coupled with our waning influence in Africa, the U.S. has struggled to gather comprehensive intelligence about ISIS-K. and other offshoot of the Islamic State. Without a clear picture of their activities, U.S. options are limited regarding an intelligence partner in the region. Now, you might recall

that during the withdrawal from Afghanistan, the White House and the Pentagon talked often about the over-the-horizon capabilities, our ability to carry out operations even if we didn't have a presence in Afghanistan. Well, an unnamed former military officer previously stationed in the region told NBC News, quote, we have a very, very limited ability to see what they're doing, meaning ISIS K. As a reminder, the Islamic State affiliate ISIS Khorasan or ISIS K, primarily operates out of Afghanistan and Central Asia, but their reach has proven to be global. The group gained notoriety following the disastrous U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan after they orchestrated a bombing at Kabul's airport that killed 13 U.S. military personnel and 170 Afghans.

More recently, the group was behind the massacre at Moscow's Crocus City Hall concert venue in March, which killed 145 people. The threat has become more urgent over the past year. U.S. intelligence previously believed that while ISIS-K wanted to mount international attacks, including in the U.S., they lacked the ability to execute. That assessment was turned on its head following the attack. in Moscow. The debate inside the White House is reportedly intense. Some are pushing for the reopening of the U.S. embassy in Afghanistan to allow for easier cooperation between U.S. intelligence

agencies and the Taliban. Others, however, argue that there is little to be gained from a partnership with the Taliban, as the regime has largely struggled to contain the activities of ISIS-K. They also fear that the Taliban will attempt to leverage a limited partnership to pressure the U.S. legitimizing their regime, which has been regularly condemned internationally for their human rights abuses. A spokesman for the White House National Security Council said there were no plans at this time to reopen the embassy, but noted that the U.S. already engages with the Taliban leadership. The spokesman told NBC News, quote, while the United States has no intention of reopening an embassy in Afghanistan at this time,

we do engage pragmatically with a wide variety of Afghans, including the Taliban, through our diplomats based in Doha, that's in Qatar. The United States is acutely focused on terrorism, they say, and over-the-horizon threats, working both unilaterally and with our partners to disrupt and degrade ISIS-K and other terrorism-related threats around the world, end quote. For regular listeners of the PDB,

you'll know that between the regional chaos in the Middle East and our relatively open U.S. southern border, the threat from international terrorism within the U.S., is increasing and is frankly all too real. FBI Director Christopher Ray has been sounding the alarm for months about the looming threat of an attack on American soil. In early June, during testimony, before a Senate appropriation subcommittee, Ray told lawmakers that he was, quote,

hard-pressed to think of a time where so many threats to our public safety and national security were so elevated all at once, end quote. Back in March, Ray even warned about a smuggling network with ties to ISIS that the agency was reportedly monitoring. And then, just last month, authorities in Los Angeles, New York, and Philadelphia, arrested eight migrants from Tajikistan with suspected ties to ISIS in a series of coordinated sting operations carried out by ICE agents. All eight men crossed through the southern border over the past year

after apparently being vetted and released under Biden-era immigration policies. Now, I guess I'm of two minds when it comes to this policy. cooperation with the Taliban. My initial gut feeling is, well, I'm disgusted with the idea of cooperating in a serious fashion with the Taliban. But I spent too much time in intelligence operations around the world to dismiss any scenario that could generate valuable, actionable intelligence. As long as we approach it very pragmatically, meaning we should be under no illusion that the Taliban is our friend or will somehow abide by any progressive conditions that we place on their cooperation, such as guaranteeing women's rights or otherwise adopting Western norms,

if we go into the arrangement in a very mercenary way, as the Taliban will, then fine, we should get whatever we can from them to aid efforts to degrade ISIS-K and protect the U.S. homeland. But let's not pretend that this is anything other than an intelligence gathering effort. Coming up after the break, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban was in Kiev this week for a rather tense meeting with Ukrainian President Zelensky, where the Kremlin friendly leader pushed for a ceasefire with Russia. I'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%.

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Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban visited Kiev for the first time since Russia's invasion and his first visit to the country in 12 years. The prime minister used the opportunity to urge Ukrainian President Zelenskyy to consider a ceasefire with Russia that would freeze the current battle lines. Orban is known for his consistent criticism of Western support for Ukraine and for his close ties with Russian President Putin. His opposition delayed the start of EU accession talks for Ukraine until last month when the EU finally agreed to begin negotiations. The state visit came shortly after Orban took on the role of acting president of the European Council. That's a rotating position selected every six months among EU member states.

This role involves chairing EU summits and ministerial meetings, aiming to address the bloc's challenges. Orban's presidency comes at a critical time as Ukraine continues to rely heavily on EU support for its ongoing conflict with Russia. The interaction between the two leaders was notable. tense. Following the meeting, Orban told reporters, quote, a ceasefire connected to a deadline would give a chance to speed up peace talks. I explored this possibility with the president, and I'm grateful for his honest answers and negotiation, end quote. Zelensky's office dismissed Orban's ceasefire proposal.

Deputy head Ihor Zovka stated on national TV that while Orban was allowed to express his views, Zelensky's position remains clear and unchanged. In a later address, President Zelensky himself made no mention of Orban's suggestion, speaking only of a desire for a, quote, just peace. Zelensky previously rejected a similar ceasefire proposal from French President Emmanuel Macron, fearing it might benefit Russian forces on the ground to use the time to regroup and replenish supplies. In reaction to the meeting, a U.S. State Department spokesperson reiterated the unified stance of the U.S. and NATO, saying, quote, the U.S. and the NATO alliance have been clear that there really is only one solution here, and that is the Russian Federation simply leaving Ukrainian territory, end quote.

As EU accession talks continue amid Western support for Ukraine, Orban's visit and proposal, well, it does cast a bit of a shadow over the block's unity. And that, my friends, is the PDB afternoon bulletin for Wednesday, 3 July. If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to me at Pee. Pdb at thefirsttv.com. And remember, if you want to listen to the show ad-free, well, be sure to check out our premium membership at pdbpremium.com. I'm Mike Baker.

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