The President's Daily Brief - PDB Situation Report | July 13, 2024: NATO Summit Insights & Chinese Spy Bases in Cuba

Episode Date: July 13, 2024

In this episode of The PDB Situation Report: We'll start things off with Mike’s take on President Biden’s mental acuity, and why it’s a national security issue. We’ll take a look at this week’s NATO summit marking the 75th anniversary of the military alliance. Joining us to talk about the summit is retired Rear Adm. Mark Montgomery, who will share his expert analysis on these critical issues. Startling revelations from space: new images showing the expansion of Chinese spy bases in Cuba. Retired Army Col. John Mills will join us to discuss the implications of these findings on national security. 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.  ☕ Blackout Coffee: https://www.blackoutcoffee.com/PDB  Code: PDB 🏅 Patriot Gold: https://www.patriotgoldgroup.com Say Mike Baker sent you 💵 Tax Network: https://www.tnusa.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Only at Yamava, celebrating its 40th anniversary. You win? Details at yamava.com must be 21-20. Please gamble responsibly. Monopoly is a trademark of Hasbro. Hasbro is not a sponsor of this promotion. Welcome to another episode of the PDB Situation Report. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage.

Let's get briefed. We'll start things off with this week's NATO summit, marking the 75th anniversary of the military alliance. Now, the stakes were high as the alliance is grappling with some intense challenges, including, of course, the ongoing war in Ukraine and the rapid ascent of China. Joining us to talk about the summit is retired Rear Admiral Mark Montgomery. He'll share his expert analysis on these critical issues. Next, we'll look at some startling revelations from space, from outer space.

New images showing the expansion of Chinese spy bases in Cuba. Look, what's old as new again. This includes a previously undisclosed site just 70 miles from the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay. Retired Army Colonel John Mills will join us to discuss the implications of these findings on national security. Now, however, before we get to our guests, just a word about what's happening in the current world of U.S. presidential politics. You know that we don't typically talk about politics here on the PDB. It's best to leave all of that to pundits and political pontificators. But the situation with President Biden, well, it's a national security issue for the U.S.

And that's where the PDB comes in. That is in our wheelhouse. First, we're all aging, right? A statement of the obvious, I know. But we're all aging and we're all aging in different ways. And most of America, at one point or another, has to deal with elderly parents or grandparents. All of us know very well what aging and what declining mental and physical abilities look like. And we know that it doesn't get better with time.

Nobody is Benjamin Button. The decline continues because that's... how aging works, particularly when health factors influence mental acuity. Now Biden's family and his close circle of advisors, including Kamala Harris, White House Chief of Staff Ron Clayne, Karin Jean-Pierre, John Kirby, his key campaign advisors like Anita Dunn and Jared Bernstein, and key members of the cabinet and Democrat leadership like Gavin Newsom, Pete Buttigieg and others, they have spent many months, actually longer than that, trying to to hide Biden's situation covering up. Let me put it another way. They've been lying to the American

public. Every time they've come out and talked about how sharp he is, oh, he's sharp as attack, how vigorous and engaged and energetic he'd put younger folks to shame. Well, they've been lying to you and they know it. Now, none of them asked themselves while engaging in this cover-up, what is best for American national security. They simply asked, how do we cover this up? How do we stay in power? Biden is reportedly functioning best between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Being commander-in-chief, you may know this, is not a part-time job.

And the public, well, none of us elected the insular cabal of sycophants surrounding him, who now apparently have been running things at the White House for quite some time. Much of the media went along with this effort, and they're only now talking about it because it can't be hidden anymore. And they, like others, complicit in the effort, are now trying to cover their own ass and act as if they simply had no idea. Who knew? It's a national security issue, and it's not just for the upcoming election, but for the months leading up to November. You, the American public, you deserve more transparency, and you should be determined. demanding it. All right, let's move on. We're kicking off today by taking a look at the NATO summit,

which just wrapped up on Thursday. Now, this summit was a significant milestone, marking the alliance's 75th anniversary. And by the way, President Biden was six years old when NATO was born. But it wasn't just about celebrations. The 32-member NATO alliance grappled with intense challenges, like the ongoing war in Ukraine, of course, and the rapid descent of China. Now, during the summit, NATO declared that Ukraine is on an irreversible path to membership once its conflict with Russia ends. In a show of solidarity, the alliance announced a series of measures to boost the nation's defenses. Now, the final communique of the summit, a document approved by all 32 NATO members, also took aim at China. It called China a decisive enabler

of Russia's war in Ukraine and expressed serious concerns about the United States. about Beijing's expanding nuclear arsenal. Of course, all eyes were on President Biden throughout the event. Amid ongoing questions about his age and mental acuity, he sought to reassure both allies and critics. Biden announced a new $225 million aid package for Ukraine, which includes an additional Patriot missile system, aimed at bolstering Ukraine's air defenses against Russian airstrikes.

Now, to help us unpack what happened during this week's summit, We're joined by retired rear Admiral Mark Montgomery, a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. Admiral Montgomery, thank you very much for taking the time to join us here on the Situation Report today. Well, thank you very much for having me. Excited to be here. Excellent. Let's start at the 30,000-foot level with this summit. From your perspective, the most important development to come out of this, the most important announcement to come out of this summit.

What would it be? So I think it would have to, although, first, I just want to state, I do think that this is the 75 years, 75 years of this alliance is truly remarkable. And I don't think if it's 75 years old, it's almost 75 years young because it's revitalized itself since Putin's invasion of Ukraine, which would get me to the number one takeaway, which is that matching the kind of $60 billion aid package that the United States passed in April, you know, NATO has agreed to. continue its annual payment of about $43 billion of security assistance to Ukraine. To give you an idea where we sit on that, over the last two years, the United States has given about $52.3 billion with the security assistance, and the non-US Europeans, you know, anyone but us has given about 50 billion. So they've been pretty close, 53 to 50 billion. And now we've got a chunk of money, you know, coming forward for the Ukrainians. And they've got a reasonably equal size

because ours will spread out over more than a year, a chunk of money. And what that means is Ukraine will have the access to munitions and equipment that it should need to fend off these Russian advances. Okay, yeah. So you're talking continuity of resources. There's been some talk that part of the reason behind

the summit's focus on securing more of what could be considered a long-term level of support is this idea of Trump-proofing the future because of possible political shifting wins. You know, we don't get very political here at the PDB for the most part. But from your perspective, would you sense that, let's say the former president wins in November? Do you sense that there would be a shift significantly in the level of support that the U.S. provide? to Ukraine? Well, certainly, I hope not. And I hope not because I hope President Trump sees, you know, if he's reelected, would see that the NATO he's inheriting in January 2025 is much

different than the one he left in January 2021. And he deserves part of the credit for that. His insistence that they spend more money. We've gone from six countries being at 2% of GDP on defense. You know, that was the target set they're looking for. We've gone from six countries when he started complaining about it very vocally to 23 countries today. And there's two reasons for that. Number one, he yelled and screamed about it. Number two, Vladimir Putin invaded Russia. That's why they're there. So he deserves part of that credit. So I hope he sees that. You know, there are a lot of side hustles going on here. There's a $700 million purchase of Stinger missiles from the United, basically from Raytheon that was announced here by eight different countries. There's a transfer of

five Patriot missile systems from Germany. the Dutch, the United States, Romania. Well, those countries will re- those countries will re-buy patriots now from Raythea, you know, from a U.S. company. You know, when we say 52 billion we give it in military security systems to Ukraine, the vast majority of that, you know, in the high 40 billion, has gone to Arkansas, California, Texas, Florida, Georgia,

you know, California, where we build these weapon systems. The money in that, never left the United States. The equipment leads the United States on the way there. By the way, when the Europeans spend their $50 billion, much of that was buying equipment in the United States because they don't have the defensive threshold base to build it themselves anymore. They were buying javelin missiles, Stinger missiles, Patriot missiles, Amrams, which are a missile used for air defense. You know, it's called a Factor. All that stuff was being bought in the United States and all that 1-55-millimeter ammunition and shipped two European countries who then gave it

to Ukraine. So I hope the president sees this for the kind of victory it is, for the United States Defense Industrial Base, for his insistence that Europe do more to defend itself, and for the United States doing the right thing and standing up to an authoritarian bully. And let's be clear, Putin's nothing less than a stone cold killer. And if we need a proof of that, what he did to his number one opposition, Alexander Navalny, you know, putting a man who just had a stroke in a, you know, Siberian, you know, concentration camp until he died. And then, by the way, two days ago, charging his wife with treason for complaining about it, you know, I think Trump should be happy with where we sit now in Europe,

and he should sit back and think part of that's due to him. Yeah, that is very interesting, actually. Now, yeah, we could talk about Navalny and the information surrounding that situation, all day long, but let's stay focused on the summit for the most part. And there was some comments coming out of the White House prior to the summit. John Kirby in particular was questioned about the NATO leaders' potential focus on President Biden and the current political situation swirling around Washington, D.C., regarding Biden's situation. And John Kirby's point was, look, we don't have to reassure the NATO leaders of anything

regarding President Biden. He just essentially dismissed the idea that somehow NATO would be paying attention to this. Yeah, I don't know whether you've got any scuttlebutt, of course, being a Navy term. I don't know if you've got any insight into to what degree during the summit NATO leaders were talking about internal U.S. politics. Well, I suspect they were talking about internal U.S. politics, certainly with their own staffs, you know, my observation of the president publicly at these as he handled himself pretty normally. You know, and so the, I think that part probably went all right. You know, he announced all the things properly, and he announced quite a bit during his

different speeches. So each leader is given a few things for which they're the, you know, the, the bellwether. And he got his out there. I don't think there were any real issues with that. So I don't think they left here with a change, you know, and either improved or degraded opinion of the president. you know, that's probably something, and it'd probably be pretty careful. If you caught one of them saying it would only be on a hot mic, you know, they would not

intentionally make comments about them. You know, we are, you know, for lack of a, you know, of a competitor, we're the biggest dog in the NATO fight. And so certainly no one's going to pick on our president. I do think the interesting person to talk to is Macron, you know, who called NATO brain dead in 2021. And, you know, what he thinks now, you know, NATO increases defense spending 18% this year. You know, this is not a brain-dead organization. This is an organization with focus. You know,

the United States deserves some of the praise for that. And of course, Putin deserves some of the credit for it. But, you know, I'm really excited about where the NATO countries are going. It is amazing the degree to which we can organize ourselves to buy different things, buy different capabilities, have different responsibilities, you know, among a basic. A basis. a series of democracies, some better democracies than other, but working together on this. And then call them out. You know, Canada has been called out shamelessly all week long for its low defense men to the point where Trudeau had to announce today that he will meet the 2% mark by 2032, you know, forced by the other democracies in the same thing. So now I think

Biden handled himself well. I think the United States orchestrated this, you know, very well. I love the last day being focused on Asia, on Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and Korea as key allies, you know, partners to NATO, you know, trying to deal with China, who's an absolutely bad actor in the context of Russia and Ukraine, providing fiscal financial support and now and now actual military support to the Russians. So I really think President Biden, and particularly NATO's General Secretary Stoltenberg and the NATO country, member states writ large have handled this really well. How do you look at China? I mean, obviously the focus has been for the past couple of years, you know, intensely on Ukraine and Russia. It's a conflict. But do you view that more as, okay, we're dealing with it? It's tragic and, you know, it's down to Putin's adventurism, but it's more of a contained issue. And China kind of sits out here above that as more of the

long-term global threat or not. How do you perceive China? don't think we're given that luxury. You know, I think you describe what we wish, you know, the aspiration we had that we could kind of disaggregate these threats. Two things have happened over the last, you know, half decade. One, these four acts, kind of access of authoritarianism, these four countries, China, Russia, Iran, North Korea have become much closer. I recognize it's mostly transactional deals, but, you know, Iran has given Russia several thousand Shihed drones and some ballistic missile parts. North Korea has given Russia 2.7 million artillery rounds, at least, and actual ballistic missiles.

And it's thinking about putting North Korean combat engineers, you know, in eastern Ukraine. And then finally, China, as I said, backstop the Russian economy, 26% increase in trade, to make up for loss of European gas and oil imports. And they've provided parts that go into weapons manufacturing and now actual, we think, kinetic parts, of kinetic weapons. So all three of these countries have backstopped Russia in this fight. So that's a very serious thing. The second part of the China angle in this is that the way we, look, our goal is deter to deter China.

You know, we mentioned before we came on the area, I've got a son just got commissioned. He's headed to a ship in Japan. I'd really like to make sure we deter not defeat China. Defeat implies we have to go to war and lose thousands of American sailors. So let's deter them. The way you deter them is you have a capability to deter them. That means we spend our $850 billion defense budget wisely, get the right munitions, the right weapon systems. We posture them properly.

But then after you have the capability, there's got to be a credible belief by China that you'll use it. And where we're sitting after Afghanistan, where there are horrific withdrawal from there. And our parent like desire to just not be involved at any cost to the Afghans, you know, our credibility was down. By stepping up in the case of Ukraine, Biden restored a little bit of that. But were we to back off now, where we to get out, stop supporting Ukraine, force Ukraine into a bad peace deal, or just, you know, or just, you know, ignore the European problem, the signal to China would be, hey, America isn't even willing to expend its treasure, much less its blood and treasure, to stick up for its allies and partners and principles. And if we, so if we were to back out of Ukraine, if we were to back out of our European commitments, that would be. be the equivalent of a green light to China to explore what they can in the South China Sea in Taiwan, even in the East China Sea with Japan. And that is a bad signal for American forces

in the Pacific. Rear Admiral Mark Montgomery, if you wouldn't mind, if you just stay right there, we'll be back with more on the NATO summit just after a quick break. If you've been paying attention to the financial news, and I hope you have, experts are beginning to express concern that the U.S. dollar may lose its status as the world's standard. Look, the warning signs are there. Saudi Arabia, ending the petro dollar. Russia, replacing U.S. dollars with the Chinese currency. Bricks attracting countries moving away from the U.S. dollar.

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Pepsi Prebiotic Cola in original and Cherry Vanilla. That Pepsi taste you love with just 30 calories and no artificial sleep. sweeteners. Pepsi prebiotic cola. Unbelievably Pepsi. Welcome back to the PDB situation report. We're joined again by retired rear admiral Mark Montgomery. He's a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.

I wanted to ask you, Mark, if I could, about all this talk, there seems to be a driving desire by NATO at this point to ensure that they're somehow enshrining in their doctrine the notion that Ukraine will become part of NATO. And I wanted to get your take on that, both in the sense of, you know, what does that mean from, let's look across the other side of the aisle and, you know, how would Putin, or how is Putin, you know, taking that news? And also a sense of a timeline, if you can talk to us about that. You know, it's great that you bring that up. And in the context of, I do think this was a wonderful, a well-organized, well-executed summit. NATO, Secretary General, Jen Stoltenberg deserves all the credit for his last 10 years of leadership.

Ukraine did not get what it's wanted, what it wanted, if you'd asked them six months ago or three months ago. They did not get that at this summit. They wanted a clear path to membership. They wanted a clear statement of membership. What they got was it's a well-lit bridge. I mean, you know, I guess that's better than a poorly lit bridge, but, you know, it's still a bridge. And that means you still have to for the river. You know, I mean, this is not, they are not there yet.

And this is in the, you know, when you read the exact language is when everyone feels we're ready and the conditions have been met, you know, that's, it's some time away. So that was, made them feel uncomfortable. The second thing they wanted was that money I mentioned, the 40 billion, the Europeans pledged, that's 40 billion euros, like $43 billion every year. They wanted it for like a pledge for the next three, you know, two, three or five years. And what they got was it'll be an annual pledge, which means you have to come back each year and give. get it. So that they got a good, but they got a not good with it. Just like just like with the bridge. They got a good with a not good with it. You know, the, and then finally, you know, President Zelensky was here asking President Biden very specifically for release of weapons,

the ability to use the attack them for strikes deeper into Russia, not just around the Karkeyev battlefield. And I don't think he got that. So there were some, you know, with the positives and the overall, you know, for a coalition of the willing, you know, 32, you know, close to democracies, you mean, a lot was done. I still think Ukraine probably came away kind of with a glass half full, glass half empty kind of feeling. Okay. Yeah, I think I think you're absolutely right about that. I think they were, they were anticipating or hoping for more. I think probably, I suspect NATO leaders, the White House as well, probably set the table well enough going into the summit that they, It's not like they were disappointed.

They understood what was coming down the pike. But if you look at all the folks that, and there's not an insignificant number of them out there, who would say in terms of Ukraine joining NATO, that's what drove Putin to engage in this invasion to begin with, right? This notion that the fear of NATO creeping up on his doorstep, I don't, you know, full disclosure, I don't buy that. But I'm curious about what you would say to that argument. So that's great. You know, this gets into a great kind of topic to kind of come around to on this. The idea of the provocation principle, you know, don't let the attack comes fly too far.

Don't let Ukraine into NATO because you'll provoke Putin to further things. You know, all of us who had to deal with a bully on the, on the schoolyard, who had to deal with that kind of person in the workplace, you know that you can't, you can't continually bend the knee or, or, or, or, uh, or, uh, uh, give way to the bully's demands, because they won't end. So I kind of think at some point you've got to say to Putin, you know, this will not stand. You know, just as President Bush said to Saddam Hussein about Kuwait,

you know, we had to say this will not stand. We are going to push you back from this. And I kind of wish we wouldn't make this, you know, angst-ridden decision in every weapon system like we did with Gimler's, then Abrams tanks, then F-16s, then an attack. attack them, you know, every weapon system, we go this, you know, this ring in our hands, like, are we going to alienate Putin more? You know, at some point, you have to say, well, that's the risk we take when we entered into this crisis with him. And we decided to, you know,

to provide our treasure to the Ukrainians to try to win this war. So I, look, I don't accept this provocation principle that, that you should allow authorities to get their way for fear. They might do worse because they will do worse. They'll do worse whether you give way or not. So don't give way, stand up, hold them accountable, and signal to all the other bullies, whether it's in Iran or North Korea or China, that the United States stands up for its principles and its national security interests and pushes back on bullies. Rue Admiral Mark Montgomery, really thank you very much for joining us and sharing your insight. Absolutely. Thanks for having me. And again, it was a good summit to watch, and I think a lot got

accomplished. Thanks for covering it. Excellent. Thank you, sir. All right. Well, coming up next, Next, newly published satellite images show a troubling expansion of Chinese electronic eavesdropping stations in Cuba. Remember the Cuban missile crisis? Well, and the closest base is just 70 miles from Guantanamo Bay, you might remember Gitmo. Retired Colonel John Mills, former director of cybersecurity, policy, strategy, and international affairs at the Department of Defense will join us to help unpack the implications of these developments.

Stay right there. If you're a listener to the PDB, and of course you should be, you know there's a lot going on in the world today. Authoritarian regimes on the march, wars overseas, political turmoil across the globe. How cheery am I? This is why now more than ever, you should support those on the right side of history. Blackout coffee is committed to your values, supporting constitutional rights, and certainly those on the front lines. The troops, local law enforcement, look, blackout coffee honors all hardworking Americans. I'm proud to recommend Blackout Coffee. This is an American coffee company 100% committed to the American traditional values.

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where newly published satellite images are revealing the expansion of electronic eavesdropping stations in Cuba, which are believed to be linked to China. I know that's shocking. These stations include new construction just 70 miles from the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay. You remember Gitmo? Last year, reports emerged about China and Cuba, negotiating closer defense and intelligence ties, including setting up a joint military training facility and running eavesdropping. operations.

So good. I don't see how that can go wrong for U.S. national security. It turns out they might already be in business, but the exact locations, well, they were kept under wraps. The recent findings by the Center for Strategic and International Studies shed light on these hidden sites. Experts are worried that China, they're worried about this, that China is using Cuba's proximity to the southeastern U.S. to tap into sensitive communications from American military bases,

launch facilities and shipping routes. They're expressing concern they're worried about it might be happening as if it's somehow not happening. On top of that, Chinese facilities on the island might help them spy on U.S. citizens through telecommunications networks. To break down what all this means, we've got retired Colonel John Mills with us. He's the former director of cybersecurity policy, strategy, and international affairs, try putting that on a business card at the Department of Defense. And now, John is a senior. fellow at the Center for Security Policy. He's also author of a great book, War Against the Deep State. Colonel Mills, thank you very much for joining us. Hey, Mike. Thank you. It's just an honor to be

on your show. Well, you'll think differently. So, hey, listen, I really do mean it, though. You're a perfect guest to have on to talk about this. Are we looking at the Cuban Missile Crisis 2.0 here? Well, now that you brought that expression up, I've been poo-poohed for this, but by Chinese doctrine, if they're going to put this much investment in an overseas facility, such as Djibouti, such as Cambodia, they put long-range air defense missiles. Now, the original agreement, I don't sure if it was in writing or has been digitized from the Cuban missile crisis was no offensive missiles to be reintroduced into Cuba. Well, the modern air defense missiles, the S-300 S-400, guess what?

Our dual purpose, they can hit air targets, but they can also hit ground targets, and they have a long range. They can knock down airliners over Orlando. So I would say in addition to the unbelievable footprint that is now in Cuba by China, we have a second Cuban missile crisis in progress. So, and can't count on the DNI that this is above the intelligence collection priority stack. Everybody go to the DNI website and look up the Intel Community Directive on the priority stack. I'm not revealing any classified information. I have low confidence using an Intel community term that this is above the cut line and that we're actually apportioning any collection resources to figure out what in the world is going on in Cuba. Now, this is going to sound perhaps a little odd, but have the Chinese essentially pushed the Russians out?

Look, the Russians obviously, you know, they helped build the Cuban society under Castro. They help build the Cuban intelligence service and maintain it. And so when you think about Cuba and you think about a nation hostile to U.S. interests, it's always Russia when we talk about Cuba. But have essentially, have the Chinese somehow pushed the Russians out? Well, I think the correct way to look at Russia, Iran, and North Korea, they are now colonies of China. China is exploiting. Russia is cash strapped. NATO just made this shocking statement that Russia would not be in the war in Ukraine if it wasn't for Chinese support.

I think China has essentially taken advantage of the cash poor situation of Russia and, yes, has moved in and taken over. Now, when the first base, the old Lordus facility, southwest of Havana, was announced last year with the, I think it was New York Times report, you know, an undisclosed source, that's always Jake Sullivan said, oh, yeah, it happened during the Trump administration. Yeah, I've actually been right outside the room when John Brennan talked on background of media. So I know this game of talking on background. It's pathetic. So last summer, the first facility, the old Lorda's facility, and Jake Sullivan said it happened during the Trump years. Oh, yeah, we knew about it.

It happened during the Trump years. Well, with a modicum of research, I came up with a Miami Herald article from the 90s saying, Chinese spy base in Cuba. So who's telling the truth here? So I would say they have been there for a long time already, but now it's not one spy base in Cuba. base. Now they got the elephant, the elephant cage down near Guantanamo, the old, you know, H.F collection facility. And they got four other facilities. So we have a very robust Chinese footprint. We're failing to enforce the Monroe Doctrine. And, you know, they're sitting there in over in the Bahamas. They're sitting astride the undersea cables going right down to downtown Miami at the Terremark facility. I mean, what in the world? What could pot, what worse things could possibly happen?

Yeah, and you'd have to assume, not to dwell on the bromance between the Russian Intel Service and the Cuban Intel Service, but you would have to assume that after all those decades, the Russians have a significant number of assets still reporting to them from within Cuban intelligence. And so, you know, this enhanced cooperation with the Chinese, you'd assume that a great deal of the intel that the Chinese are receiving is somehow also being fed to the Russians. So it is a... if we're not just facing one of the other, as I was talking about at the beginning, how they pushed the Russians out.

I like the way you put it and just sort of saying, look, you've got the top tier player, which is the Chinese Communist Party, and then you've got this group of, I don't want to call minions. I wouldn't want to be disparaging to Putin in North Korea and Iran. But again, you would have to assume that there's even if it's not formal intel sharing between the Chinese and the Russians, that somehow the Russians are. collecting intel, you know, that they're benefiting from at the expense of the Chinese and their resources and investment. Well, they're definitely getting scraps and things that fall off the table,

but the main game in clearly China at this point in time and the MSS. And they, the Russians, the Soviets, the Chinese, they copy what we do and how we how we play the game. So they, they play this very seriously. But China's clearly the top tier player. Venezuela is on the other is clearly a essentially the Disneyland in the Americas for this rogue's gallery led by China. All kinds of bad things are going on. But yeah, it is a, it's an all-source intelligence threat coming from Cuba. I do compliment General Laura Richardson of Southern Command. She's been very clear from even her incoming testimony of this threat.

and Southern Command has gotten a big ho-hum from everybody. And I just don't have confidence that any of these matters are above the Intel collection priorities stack. I think we're just assuming away the problem. No, that's, and I think we sometimes get lost in the partisan side of things, right? And we'll say, like, oh, it's all Biden's fault. Or it happened under Trump, you know, like, you know, the doogiehouser of national security said, Jake Sullivan, or, you know, what happened in the 90s.

I, you know, from an operational perspective, I don't care when it happened. I care that we're taking action, right? And that our counterintelligence efforts are robust and that we're being proactive in how we're dealing with the problem, right? Not just reactive and saying, oh, look, they've got another base there. What's your take on how we're working against this problem? And how would you advise whichever administration is next, whether you're going to, whether you it's the Democrats or the Republicans.

We've got to take Central and South America seriously. You know, we haven't been taking it seriously since essentially any attempt to overthrow Castro was abandoned in roughly 1965. During the Reagan years and Bill Casey, you know, hey, we rode back into town and we love them know that we're we're this is our front yard and we're not letting anybody play out for outside the hemisphere playing it play in our front yard and then we walked away again and forgot about everything and uh so we've got to reassert the monroe doctrine i know that sounds racist sexist bigoted homophobic i i just this come on this is ridiculous this is really is a monroe doctrine

is it monroe doctor and all those things is it is it racist and sexist and Justin, I had no idea. Definitely stands firmly against militant, militant and violent transgenderism. That was really the basis of the Vendro Doctrine. I mean, this is crazy. This is our front yard. And, you know, and I had so many years in the special operations community and senior levels of DOD doing international relations

and building international partnerships, they want American engagement. This is an absolute lie. that, oh, you know, oh, we have to put things together again after Trump, you know, oh, you know, the adults are gonna be in the room. I'm still waiting for the adults in the room. Listen, these countries don't take Biden seriously,

and that was before June 27th. And their number one question I spent last fall in, I mean, some time last in Panama to check out the situation with some friends. And the number one question is, where are the Americans? Nothing in the treaty, handover treaty, said the Americans needed to evaporate into thin air.

And China said by about 2007 said, well, okay, you guys obviously don't care about it. We care and we're moving in. But you got Molino who was just sworn in. And the Chinese are trying to put Panama out of business with alternatives to the Panama Canal. Melino is a populist and he's pro-American whether Biden wants it or not. And so we got to depend on populace. You said something very important, I think, at the outset of this, conversation, this answer that you just gave, which is that we have to start paying attention

to Central and South America. But I mean, the implication there is also, and Africa and other parts. We tend to get unilaterally focused on one issue. And then it's almost as if we can't multitask, right? And certainly over the decades, when it comes to South American Central America, we haven't devoted the seriousness, the resources to deal with problems here, while the Chinese regime has looked around and said, yeah, you guys are insanely focused on Afghanistan and Iraq.

We'll have a go at that, as well as, you mentioned Djibouti early on, as well as Africa, and expanding their influence, and whether it's a Belt and Road initiative or others. I want to talk a little bit more about that if I could, John, but if you'll stay right there, Colonel John Mills, we'll have more on this story after a quick break. Are you overwhelmed with back taxes or unfiled returns? Well, I hope not, but if you are, listen up. With 88,000 newly hired agents, 88,000 of them, the IRS has increased enforcement,

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Offer valid April 16th through May 3, 2006. Exclusions apply for licenses. See Home Depot.com slash license numbers. Welcome back to the PDB Situation Report. I'm joined again by Colonel John Mills, U.S. Army retired. John, we're talking about China, obviously, and their influence, growing influence in Cuba, but elsewhere, Central America, South America, Africa. The NATO summit that just concluded this week in Washington, D.C.

It was interesting on one level in that NATO came out with a statement regarding China. What do you make of that? Well, Captain Stoltenberg, obvious, Captain Obvious, the General Secretary, I mean, finally they acknowledge that China has been providing support to their colony called Russia. I mean, come on. Who else makes 152 millimeter ammunition shells? Nobody, except for China, North Korea, and Iran, who makes Iranian drones that the Russians have been using. Iran, which is a colony of China. So it was a great statement way behind two years ago. They should have made this statement. It's sent the Chinese into an absolute frenzy.

but it's true, but it's late. So I thought it was good on them. I'll call the ball and strike fairly. Good on them for making the statement. It was about two years late. Yeah, yeah, I'd argue it was a couple of decades too late. But look, I agree with you. I'm happy when there's any focus, right?

The previous administration, under the Trump administration, one of the things that, you know, again, whether you like Trump or you don't like them, right? You've got to look at the policies. And it was the first time in a serious way that the U.S. was calling China out on economic espionage and their cyber shenanigans. And the other things they were engaged for years and years, theft of intellectual property. So in concert with that NATO alliance statement about China, which I agree with you, I thought was very good. We've also had a recent statement coming out of the Five Eyes alliance, led by that statement anyway put out by Australia,

in concert with some others outside of the Five Eyes. organization, also highlighting the Chinese Communist Party's engagement in cyber shenanigans. So it does appear that somehow we're getting more buy-in from traditionally reticent European partners to shine a light on China and call them out for some of the things that they've been engaged in for years. Yeah, yeah, I always love to watch the, uh, uh, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokespersons in China and their theatrics and arm waving. And boy, they were really all a flutter about this. They do not like to be called out. And we would actually

watch that. And watch as we would name some of their cyber hackers and they would just go apoplectic on these things. But yeah, this really pushed them over the edge. But it's true. Come on. And they need to get tough. If they want to take over the world they need to you know toughen up here and not get so uptight when they get called out it's it's ridiculous and so good good thing that was the whole ua nato conference what i do take exception with stoltenberg was this uh 2% of gdp spend which uh up until december of 23 only 12 of 32 were hitting gdp uh 2% of gdp and then suddenly miraculously in the last six months, 22, and Germany and France just barely got across the 2%

deadline that was set 20 years ago. And, you know, so Stoltenberg was wearing himself out, patting himself on the back, this 2% GDP. The new standard is 5% of GDP in this world on fire, and France and Germany getting across the 2% line in the last five minutes. doesn't make up for 20 years of underspend. Let's circle back to Cuba and China's activities on Cuba. When we look at what they're doing, right, and then we also look at their purchase of land, right, near a sensitive military facility in the U.S., right?

Companies, Chinese companies associated with, because, you know, eventually you can do the due diligence and figure this out with, you know, state-owned enterprises. and others, the idea that somehow it's just a coincidence that these Chinese companies are purchasing land close to numerous sensitive sites in the U.S. When you look at that, when you look at what they're doing in Cuba, in reality, what can we do about it? I mean, I know we can shine a light on it. We can talk about it. But from your perspective, do we really have any leverage over the Chinese

regime. Do we really have it a way to change their strategic thinking and activity? Oh, absolutely. It's all about number one, the number one instrument of national influence is absolutely economic. And as soon as Navarro gets out of jail and back in office with Trump, they knew how to handle it. The Biden team is economically illiterate. Jake Sullivan, the only thing he's ever run is his mouth. He doesn't know. None of that. these Belfour Center educated folks, they are illiterate when it comes to finances, economics, trade negotiations. I just learned the other day. It shocked me. Foreign service officers do not have to take any formal training in negotiations. And I'm going, you've got to be

kidding me. I had to go through formal negotiation training in the special operations community in the U.S. government, and we got FSOs who don't know how to conduct a negotiation. You know, I bought a house. I mean, oh, this is crazy. So it's finances and economics. That's absolutely number one. We can bring them to their knees in seconds if we cut off the ATM. You know, your retirement fund, my retirement fund is chosen to dabble. The TSP has chosen to dabble in Chinese investments. That's cash infusion into their cash poor system. This is insanity. So cut them off financially first and foremost, but it's trade negotiations and sanctions that are updated. You've got to update those sanctions almost definitely monthly because

they're going to work their way around. They've been extremely clever at work there around. And on land purchases, what I've noticed with the Chinese, they actually, they're not stealing our intellectual property or classified information. They're actually reading our legislation, and they read and understand our legislation better than we do. And they know that land purchases, that's a gap and seam in our system. They've read Scythias. They've read Ferma from 2018, and they go, well, there's no, there's nothing illegal about buying. So we have to depend on the states and local communities to raise a ruckus on this because there actually is no federal law against it. No, you've raised a really important and favorite topic of mine, which is how the Chinese regime

strategically has figured this out, right? They know that, okay, look, they'll have minimal success in trying to change federal regulations, right, at the federal level in the U.S. But they can also, they can go after local and state regulations. They can, and through disinformation, you know, through cutouts. And so you get a local community that starts to rise up against a mining operation, right, in their area. And it looks like it's just simply a grassroots effort to say, no, we don't want that mining operation here. And really what it is is in part, now I'm not saying every case, but what the Chinese regime is understood is that they can influence local and state regulations and policies in such a way that it benefits them, right? I mean, in terms of whether it's mining or other issues, so we can talk about that another time,

which leads me to my next statement, which is Colonel John Mills. I do hope that you'll come back, that you'll answer the phone when we call again, because we've got a lot of things we could be talking about. I do hope also at that point when you come back, you're wearing a suit and tie, because honestly, really a T-shirt. Come on. I am sorry. I'm too low-brow for the show. I'm sorry, Mike. I'll do better next time.

Thank you. Oh, no, no. Trust me, John, you're perfect for this show. And we'd love to have you come back. We've got a lot of things we can be discussing. But thank you so much for your time. Thank you, Mike. Appreciate it.

Looking forward to the next time. Excellent. Take care. Well, all right. On that cheery note, what do we got? We got Chinese bases just across the water in Cuba. We got all sorts of things going on in the world. We got the ongoing conflict in Russia.

crane. Yeah, but don't worry. The world's a resilient place. We're going to get through this. That's all the time we have for this week's PDB situation report. To listen to the podcast of this show ad free, in case you're so inclined, become a premium member of the president's daily brief by visiting pdb premium.com. Remember, the PDB is available on all major podcast platforms.

Don't forget our YouTube channel at President's Daily Brief. I'm Mike Baker. Until next time, look, you know the drill. Stay informed. Stay safe. Stay cool. Not loving your AT&T or T Mobile Bill. Yeah, we've been hearing that a lot. Good news.

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