The President's Daily Brief - September 20th, 2024: Iran's Plot To Assassinate Israel's Leaders, Hezbollah Vows Revenge Over 'Act Of War', & NYC's Migrant Brothel

Episode Date: September 20, 2024

In this episode of The President's Daily Brief:     Israeli intelligence officials announced they recently thwarted an Iranian plot to assassinate senior leaders in Jerusalem, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, using an Israeli businessman recruited by Iranian operatives. An update on the fallout from Israel’s alleged covert attacks inside Lebanon this week, which Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah is calling an act of war. The U.S. announced a wave of new sanctions against a network of Russian and North Korean entities, which they allege are part of a scheme to enable payments between Moscow and Pyongyang in support of Putin’s war in Ukraine, along with Kim Jong Un’s weapons programs In our 'Back of the Brief' segment, in a sordid example of the impacts of the U.S. migrant crisis, authorities in New York City have busted a 24-hour brothel that used migrant sex workers who have reportedly been forced into prostitution to pay off debts to human traffickers. 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.     Email: [e-mail] 🏅 Patriot Gold: Call 1-888-870-5457 for a free investor guide. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's Mushrooms with me, Maddie Matheson. You know what's better than thinking about dinner too hard? Not. Stop that. And just choose mushrooms. Five minutes. Done. Dinner's that easy and you feel like a genius. It's not magic.

It's mushrooms. Stop stressing at mushroomcouncil.com. This episode is brought to you by Patriot Gold Group. Protect your retirement assets and safeguard your future. Speak with the experts at Patriot Gold. Now, in case you haven't heard, they've been the top-rated gold IRA dealer for seven years in a row, and that is a lot of years in a row. Go to Patriotgoldgroup.com or call 1-88621-3856 for a free investor guide. It's Friday, 20 September. Welcome to the President's

Daily Brief. I'm Mike Baker. Your eyes and ears on the world stage. All right, let's get briefed. We'll kick things off in Israel, where intelligence officials announced a recently thwarted an Iranian plot to assassinate senior leaders in Jerusalem, including Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yov Ghalent, using an Israeli businessman recruited by Iranian operatives. Later in the show, we'll look at the fallout from Israel's alleged covert attacks inside Lebanon this week, which Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is calling an act of war. Plus, the U.S. announced a wave of new sanctions against a network of Russian and North Korean entities, which they allege are part of a scheme to enable payments between Moscow and Pyongyang in support of Putin's war in Ukraine,

along with Kim Jong-un's weapons program. And in today's back of the brief, in a sorted, can I say the word sorted? I guess I just did. Example of the impacts of the U.S. migrant crisis, authorities in New York City, have busted a 24-hour brothel that used migrant sex workers who have reportedly been forced into prostitution to pay off debts to human traffickers. But first, today's BDB spotlight. I want to begin with an alleged Iranian plot to assassinate senior leaders in Israel, including Prime Minister Netanyahu, defense minister Yov Ghalent, and Shinbethead Ronan Barr. Officials with Shinbet, Israel's Internal Security Service revealed the scheme on Thursday, which they said involved a 73-year-old Israeli businessman who Iranian operatives had recently recruited. The effort was allegedly undertaken by

the Iranians, in part as revenge for the death of Hamas leader Ishmael Hanyi, who was assassinated in a suspected Mossad attack in Tehran in July, and that's according to a report from the times of Israel. Authorities said the suspect identified as Israeli citizen Mottie Maman was a businessman who had previously lived in Turkey, where he had extensive contacts with Turkish and Iranian nationals. He was initially contacted in April, according to Shimbet, by two Turkish nationals who wanted to set up a meeting between Maman and a wealthy businessman living in Iran named Eddie. Ah, Eddie from Iran. Well, that sounds legit. allegedly to discuss business ventures.

Now, Mamon subsequently traveled to Turkey once in April and again in May to meet with the Turkish nationals, along with representatives of the Iranian businessman. Mamon was later smuggled into Iran through Turkey in May to meet the mysterious Eddie face-to-face, along with a member of Iran's security forces. They reportedly asked Mamma to assist with various missions inside Israel on behalf of the Iranian regime, including reconnaissance work, placing money or handguns in specified locations, and threatening other Israelis working for Iran who were not carrying out their missions. Mamon was reportedly non-committal, but said he would think about it.

Well, that's nice, and subsequently returned to Israel, but he was back in Iran by August, smuggled into the country inside a truck, where the requests from the Iranian operatives significantly escalated. In a series of meetings over several days, they reportedly asked him to, quote, advance assassination attacks on Prime Minister Netanyahu, defense minister Yov Galand, and or Shinbed Head, Ronan Barr, as revenge, essentially, for the death of Khamas leader Hanyi in Tehran. They also discussed targeting former Prime Minister Nafdali Bennett,

as well as recruiting Russians or Americans to carry out assassinations against Iranian dissidents living in Europe and the U.S. Maman reportedly requested $1 million up front, but was denied by the Iranian operatives, who sent him back to Israel with an initial payment of $5,000. Upon his return to Israel, Maman was arrested by authorities. Now, his lawyer said in the statement on Thursday that their client had suffered from a, quote, lapse of judgment, and was now fully cooperating with Israeli authorities. Okay, yeah, sure, you know, okay, I may have allowed myself to be smuggled into Iran multiple times,

and sure I met on numerous occasions with Iranian intel operatives, and, okay, fine, so I accepted money from them to carry out various tasks, including possible assassination attempts, but honestly, it was just a lapse of judgment. Officials with Shinbet did not give any indication that Maman had made significant progress toward enacting any of Iran's requests, but stressed that the situation was a, quote, very serious affair, which is an example of the great efforts of the Iranian intelligence agencies to recruit Israeli citizens to advance terror activities in Israel. They warned, quote, the Iranians will continue their efforts to recruit operatives and Israel

to gather intelligence and carry out terrorist missions in Israel, while also turning, among other things, to elements with a criminal background. All right, coming up after the break, we'll look at the fallout from Israel's alleged covert tax inside Lebanon this week, which Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, is calling an act of war. Plus, the U.S. announced a wave of new sanctions against a network of Russian and North Korean entities, which they allege are part of a scheme to enable payments between Moscow and Pyongyang in support of Putin's war in Ukraine, along with Kim Jong-un's weapons program. I'll have those stories when we come back.

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Just tell the manager you'll sue. Instant room upgrade. Stop taking bad travel advice. Start comparing hundreds of sites with kayak. And get your trip right. Kayak, got that right. Welcome back to the BDB. Turning back to the fallout from the exploding pager and handheld radio attacks in Lebanon this week,

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, in his first public remarks since the deadly blasts, has called the attacks a, quote, act of war by Israel, as his backers in Iran promise retribution. In a televised address on Thursday, Nasrallah accused Israel of committing war crimes and crossing, quote, all boundaries and red lines. Really? Really? Crossing red lines? That's what Nasrallah is talking about. Look, Nasrallah's fighters have launched, thousands of unguided rockets into Israel in support of Hamas and Hamas's attacks on 7 October. That would seem to be a red line. While Nasrallah acknowledged that Israel's alleged attack represented an embarrassing breach of

Heelsabullah's security, he downplayed the impact on their operations, claiming most of the devices that exploded on both Tuesday and Wednesday were not carried by senior officials within the terrorist group, and that's according to a report from the Washington Post. He said the acts could be seen as a declaration of war, something that he claimed to welcome, as he said it would create a, quote, historic opportunity for Hezbollah to show off their capabilities. He also vowed direct revenge against Israel. Now, we should note, Israel took the opportunity to, let's call it troll, the terrorist leader, flying warplanes over Beirut that triggered deafening sonic booms while Nasrallah was giving his speech.

in his remarks, Nasrallah threatened, quote, they will face a severe reckoning and just retribution, whether they expect it or not. In the meantime, Nasrallah said the group would resume their cross-border rocket attacks on northern Israel. As of Thursday, Lebanon's health ministry said at least 37 people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded in the attacks on Tuesday and Wednesday, which involved thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies that Israel allegedly lay

with explosives and remotely detonated in an unprecedented effort to degrade Hezbollah's operations. While Israel is not commenting on the attacks, U.S. officials briefed on the operations, oh, earlier this week confirmed Israel's role. Well, how about that? Those stressed at the White House was not given advanced warning. Now, it would be refreshing if those U.S. officials who cavalierly speak off the record about covert operations would have the Cajonis to identify themselves. But, of course, well, that would mean a loss of their government salary and pension, so not likely to happen.

Arab leaders throughout the Middle East have condemned the attacks as a dangerous escalation that could provoke a wider regional war. Meanwhile, the U.S., UN, and other Western leaders have urged restraint from all sides in the conflict. Iran, however, appears to have other plans. Now, as a reminder, Iran's envoy to brink. Beirut, their ambassador to Lebanon, was injured by one of the pager explosions on Tuesday, though he only reportedly suffered superficial wounds. Naturally, no one, literally no one,

is surprised that Iran's ambassador to Lebanon was issued one of the Hezbollah pagers. On Thursday, Hussein Salomon, the commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC, vowed that Israel would face a, quote, crushing response from the axis of resistance a reference to the Islamic regime's various regional proxies. Meanwhile, Israel stepped up airstrikes against Hezbollah on Thursday, hitting dozens of targets across southern Lebanon, including rocket launchers and weapon depots. Officials with the IDF blamed Hezbollah for turning southern Lebanon into a combat zone

as a result of their strikes on northern Israel, which have been unrelenting since the brutal 7 October attacks by Hamas that kicked off this conflict. Earlier this week, Israeli defense minister Yo Golan declared that a, quote, new phase of the war had begun. Hezbollah also resumed their attacks on Thursday, launching rockets into Israel's northern border region, injuring at least a half dozen individuals. All right, I want to shift our focus now to new sanctions announced by the U.S. Treasury Department against a network of five entities and one individual for facilitating covert financial transactions between Russia and North Korea. These sanctions imposed on Thursday expose the covert schemes that have allowed both regimes to bypass international restrictions to enable North Korea's direct support of Putin's war in Ukraine

and Moscow's support of Pyongyang's weapons program. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement Thursday, quote, The growing financial cooperation between Russia and North Korea directly threatens international security and the global financial system. while he's not wrong, he added that Russia has become, quote, increasingly dependent on the DPRK as it faces mounting battlefield losses and increasing international isolation, end quote. Officials with the Treasury Department said the Kremlin has increasingly employed covert financial schemes to help North Korea access the international banking system in violation of UN Security

Council sanctions. Specifically, the Treasury Department targeted schemes involving North Korea's state-run foreign trade bank and Korea Hua Song banking corporation, both already under sanctions. One scheme involved Russia's central bank using a bank in Georgia's South Ossetia region to establish a covert financial relationship with North Korea's foreign trade bank. Another plot involved Russia's financial corporation bank JSC, also under U.S. sanctions, working with Pyongyang's foreign trade bank to establish a Moscow-based company, to funnel North Korean funds currently frozen and defunct Russian banks. Got that? Yeah, it's difficult to follow. That's the point of obfuscating all the financial transactions. The sanctions reflect

broader efforts by the U.S. and allies to sever the financial lifelines between the two regimes in response to their increasing collaboration. Adding to the tension, North Korea engaged in another launch of short-range ballistic missiles on Wednesday. The test occurred a day after the The North Korean Foreign Minister departed from Moscow to discuss the comprehensive strategic partnership signed between Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in June. The timing of the missile test is suspected to be a demonstration of North Korea's military capabilities for Russia, possibly showcasing weapons that could be deployed in Ukraine. Intelligence from South Korea and U.S. officials indicates that North Korea has already supplied

millions of artillery shells and a number of ballistic missiles to Russia in exchange for economic and military assistance. These shipments are raising concerns in Seoul, Tokyo, and Washington, as they obviously could extend the conflict in Ukraine and destabilize the region further. Compounding the situation, North Korea's Supreme People's Assembly, which is essentially Kim Jong-un's rubber-stamped parliament, is set to meet in early October with expectations of formalizing changes to the Constitution that could further solidify its hardline stance towards South Korea. Kim's regime is leveraging its ties with Russia to bolster its regional power while continuing to challenge international sanctions and to destabilize security in the region.

All right, coming up in the back of the brief, in a graphic example of the impacts of the U.S. migrant crisis, authorities in New York City have busted eight. a 24-hour brothel that used migrant sex workers reportedly forced into prostitution to pay off debts to human traffickers. 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 distinct attitude, each with its own universe, bold elixir, sensual, woody, addictive, magnetic elixir, sweet and romantic, like a lingered, During touch. Solar elixir, a radiant expression of joy.

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Subscribe now at Bloomberg.com. In today's back of the brief, Authorities in New York City executed a late-night raid on a notorious migrant-run brothel in Queens on Wednesday, targeting an area known as the Market of Sweethearts. The operation is part of a larger crackdown on criminal activities in the neighborhood that have been exasperated by the migrant crisis, resulting in the arrest of a number of sex workers and clients. The market of sweethearts has become infamous for prostitution, human trafficking, drug sales, and stolen goods being peddled openly on the streets.

Democrat district leader Hiram Montserrat described the brothel as, quote, the worst of the worst. Montserrat emphasized the migrant crisis has driven a surge in criminal activity, with many migrants being coerced into prostitution to pay off debts of up to $50,000 to human traffickers. The New York Post first exposed the extent of these activities. Local business owners cautiously welcomed the NYPD's efforts, but expressed frustrations that these raids have not led to lasting changes.

One local business owner pointed out that the block remains riddled with prostitution and illegal vendors, stating, quote, it's ridiculous, it scares away our customers, it's taking a huge bite out of our business, end quote. Another remarked, quote, what is this, Sin City, they want to destroy our neighborhood, end quote. The rise in criminal activity coincides with a surge of migrants into New York City with over 200,000 individuals arriving in the city since 2022. Many of these migrants unable to find legal employment fall prey to organized crime rings. Queen's business owners, well, they feel caught in the crossfire with frankly little relief in sight. And that, my friends, is the President's Daily Brief for Friday, 20 September.

Now, if you have any questions or comments, please reach out. to me at PDB at thefirsttv.com. And of course, as if you didn't know, to listen to the show ad-free, it's really very simple, become a premium member of the president's daily brief by visiting PDB premium.com. And as you've likely already realized, well, it's Friday, which means a brand-spanking new episode of our extended weekend show, the PDB Situation Report, hits the airwaves for your viewing pleasure at 10 p.m. tonight on the first TV. It's also available on our YouTube channel at President's Daily Brief. Check that out. And, of course, all podcast platforms. This weekend's guests include Siggott Military Analyst and host of the week explained, Kervin O'Quinn,

and former U.S. Secret Service agent and CEO of M6 Global, Mike Matranga. Great news, excellent insight. Get it while it's hot. Maybe that's going to be our tagline. Get it while it's hot. I'll have to field test that one. We'll see whether it ends up on a bumper sticker or not for the PDB. I'm Mike Baker. I'll be back later today with the PDB afternoon bulletin. Until then, well, 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. Bring your AT&T or T Mobile Bill to Verizon and we'll give you a better deal. So get away from that unfortunate phone bill and get to Verizon. Run, ride,

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