The President's Daily Brief - PDB Afternoon Bulletin | November 14th, 2023: Iranian Espionage & Ukraine's Winter Strategy

Episode Date: November 14, 2023

In this episode of The PDB Afternoon Bulletin:     A new report, delivered to President Biden and members of Congress, details Iran’s high-level influence and espionage operation within the U.S. government and the effect it's had on policies and public narratives concerning the regime.    With winter fast approaching on the eastern front, we’ll take a look at both the challenges and opportunities it presents for Ukraine, and how their leadership plans to leverage the season to gain an upper hand on Russia in the war.     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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Welcome to the PDB afternoon bulletin. This is where we provide updates on today's most important stories. I'm Mike Baker. Your eyes and ears on the world stage. Let's get briefed. We start this afternoon, in the U.S., where we are beginning to learn more regarding Iran's high-level influence operation within the U.S. government and the effect it's had on policies and public narratives.

We also have our eye on the situation in Ukraine, where the winter months are about to set in and slow the fighting on both sides, we'll give you a preview of the cold days ahead for Ukraine. But first, our afternoon spotlight. A new report delivered to President Biden on Monday reveals the shocking reach of Iranian efforts to mold views about the regime within Washington's halls of power. As we previously covered on the PDB, an influence operation unmasked in late September, dubbed the Iran Experts Initiative, or IEI, has been operating within the U.S. government and inside leading international think tanks and academic institutions since 2014, shortly after the U.S. began negotiations with Iran for a nuclear deal.

The group was funded and backed by Mustafa Sakhraani, an official from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC, who would liaise with members overseas to disseminate. instructions on behalf of the Iranian government to help shape public opinion in the U.S. Now, a new report on the influence operation released by staff at the University of Baltimore details the extent of the group's activities. This included a covert campaign that members were engaged in to smear the leading opposition group in Iran to Ayatollah al-Hulmini, known as the M.E.K. Excerpts of the report obtained by the New York Post say the group sought to undermine favorable impressions of the M.E.K. Among the power elite of Washington to give the

false impression that there were no viable alternatives to the rule of the Ayatollahs. According to the report, these efforts served to defang the only Iranian group that could challenge the regime on human rights abuses, fundamentalist inclinations, and aid the West in curtailing Iran's nuclear weapons program. Members also wrote op-eds, discouraging any shifts in U.S. foreign policy to support democratic opponents of the regime, and to normalize the actions of the Ayatollah in the minds of Americans. Now, shockingly, at least three members of the IEI became top aides to Robert Malley, the Biden administration's special envoy on Iran, and the go-to person for Iranian policy. Now, Mali was placed on leave this June after his security clearance was suspended for alleged mishandling of classified information,

although the details remain murky. A key figure in this operation is Aryan Tabatabai, a 38-year-old Iranian-born Pentagon aide, who has somehow managed to avoid official scrutiny and retain her position and security clearance. She currently serves as chief of staff to Christopher Mayer, the Pentagon's Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict. Tabatabai, who is a founding member of the IEI, also serves. as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University's Center for Security Studies. That's a role that she's likely used to spread Iranian propaganda in academic circles. This all comes as

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer is reportedly considering a subpoena of Tabatabai and Mali to further understand the extent of Iran's espionage efforts. Wait, considering a subpoena, what part of this requires hesitation? Given Iran's sponsorship of Hamas and Hezbollah and other terrorist proxies in the region, given their continuing stated objective of destroying Israel, given their ongoing efforts to develop nuclear weapons, and in light of their assaults on U.S. troops in the region through proxy groups over the past several weeks, you would assume that the White House, not to mention the American public, would be keen to understand the extent of Iran's reach inside U.S. government and academic circles. You would imagine that there would be a

robust counterintelligence investigation underway to understand who has been compromised and who has been doing the regime's bidding and what policy decisions were made as a result. Look, this is a national security matter. A previous and a current administration has been the target of a covert action campaign by the Iranian regime and its recruited or cooperative contacts working within the U.S. government. Now, the Democrats spent years expressing angst and ringing alarm bells over the Russian collusion story, which supposedly was all about an influence campaign and possible compromise. It'll be interesting to see if they have the same level of concern with Iran. If they don't, well, you could cynically think that either the Russia collusion story was

just about politics. I know, that seems unlikely. Or you could worry that the Iranian influence campaign has actually worked. All right, coming up after the break, with Winterfast approaching on the Eastern Front. We'll take a look at both the challenges and opportunities that it presents for Ukraine and how their leadership plans to leverage the season to gain an upper hand on Russia in the war. I'll be right back. Kayak gets my flight, hotel, and rental car right, so I can tune out travel advice that's just plain wrong. Bro, Skycoin, way better than points.

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landmines, but it still offers strategic opportunities. Russian forces are expected to employ the same tactics they used last winter, using increased missile attacks to target power states. and energy plants. This caused rolling blackouts throughout the country, leading to civilian deaths and forcing the Ukrainian government to set up heating points to keep their population from freezing. Ukraine says this strategy is already underway, as Russia has launched upwards of 60 attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure in recent weeks. Well, Ukrainian officials say they have enough resources to get through this year's winter, they are focused on how Russian attacks could impact supplies. With that said, Ukrainian leaders are planning to leverage the cold weather

to their own advantage against the beleaguered Russian military. Specifically, they plan to target Russia and supply chains and logistical operations on both sides of the front. They also plan to continue their counteroffensive, which has so far only had limited success in an effort to spread the Russian forces thin. Volodymyr Fito, a spokesman for Ukraine's ground forces, said that if they can successfully undermine Russian supply chains, he thinks the cold weather will, quote, help us freeze them out. And that, my friends, is the PDB afternoon bulletin for Tuesday, November 14th. If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to me at PDB at thefirsttv.com. I'm Mike Baker, and I'll be back tomorrow. Until then, stay informed, stay safe, stay cool.