November 22nd, 2024: NY Stock Exchange Bomb Plot Foiled & Texas Offers Land for Migrant Detentions
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It's Friday, 22 November. 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. There's a lot happening in the world. Today, we start with a foiled terrorist plot targeting the New York Stock Exchange. Now, the FBI is reporting that they stopped a man who, according to agents, expressed a desire to pursue martyrdom. We'll break down the details of this thwarted attack.

Later in the show, we'll take a look at reports that Iran is using its commercial sector to shield its development of ballistic missiles and drones, bypassing, of course, international sanctions. Seriously, what's the world coming to when you can't trust the Iranian regime and the IRGC?

Plus, Texas officials are offering the incoming Trump administration 1,400 acres of land to construct detention facilities for mass deportations. The offer comes as sanctuary cities vow to resist the Trump administration's plans because, of course, the last thing that you'd want to do is deport illegal migrants with criminal records.

And in today's back of the brief, former Congressman Matt Gaetz announces that he's withdrawing as nominee for attorney general, declaring that he doesn't want to be a distraction. Well, it's too late for that, isn't it? His replacement for the job has already been announced, former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi. But first, today's PDB Spotlight.

We'll begin with news from the FBI, a foiled terrorism plot involving a Florida man who's been charged with planning to bomb the New York Stock Exchange.

On Wednesday, the FBI arrested 30-year-old Haroun Abdul Malik Yanair, a homeless man living in Coral Springs, Florida, who sought to trigger a blast at the economic center of the Western world the week before Thanksgiving. He allegedly wanted to force what he described as a "reboot" or "reset" of the U.S. government.

He told undercover FBI agents that America was, quote, due for a revolution and hoped his planned attack would serve as the match that lit the proverbial fuse, according to a report from Court Watch.

Yanera first came on the radar of the FBI back in February after the agency received a tip that a man was storing bomb-making schematics and materials in a storage unit in Coral Springs. During an initial search of the unit, agents discovered notebooks with drawings of landmines, explosives, and missiles. Several days later, agents returned with a formal search warrant and discovered additional bomb-making sketches, electronic circuit boards,

and other components that could be used to build an improvised explosive. At the time, Yenor claimed he was using volatile chemical mixtures to build homemade rockets. The FBI then sent in undercover agents who made contact and ingratiated themselves to Yenor. He quickly tasked these agents with various assignments to obtain explosive materials. Regarding his choice of a target, he reportedly told undercover agents, quote,

Here is one place that would be hella easy. Hmm, the Stock Exchange. That would be a great hit. Tons of people would support it. It will wake people up."

He said it would be like a, quote, small nuke went off and hoped the blast would kill everyone inside the building. According to court filings, over the last month, the owner had rewired several two-way radios to serve as remote detonators and told agents that he planned to disguise himself in order to plant the explosives. At one point, he told undercover agents, quote, I feel like bin Laden.

By all accounts, Yener is a deeply troubled man who holds strong anti-government sentiments. Really? Well, there's some expert profiling for you. He was known to post YouTube videos about how to make explosives with household items and reportedly had a history of making violent threats. He was fired from his job at a local restaurant last year after allegedly threatening to, quote, go parkland shooter in this place. Yeah.

Court records describe Yener as a man who flirted with a number of extremist ideologies. At one point, he was recruited over Facebook Messenger to join ISIS, but ultimately declined, believing the terrorist group would not succeed in the long term. So apparently ISIS, as far as he was concerned, wasn't up to snuff and didn't want to join that club. He also attempted to join the Boogaloo Boys,

and Proud Boys, but was turned down by both groups for, quote, expressing a desire to pursue martyrdom. No doubt, frankly, being turned down by various extremist groups did nothing for his self-esteem.

On November 12th, he recorded a message in the presence of undercover agents that he intended to release to NBC News in the wake of his bombing, which he planned to execute sometime this week. Part of the recording said, quote, what you've just witnessed at the stock exchange was just the beginning of a new era, a new revolution. We ask and encourage others to follow suit in their pursuit for a change, end quote. Yanara was formally charged Wednesday with attempting to use an explosive device to

to damage or destroy a building used in interstate commerce. He's being held without bail as he awaits trial and is due back in court on 4 December. Alright, coming up after the break, the Iranian regime and its IRGC have been hiding missile and drone development efforts under the cover of its commercial sector, and Texas offers land for deportation facilities as sanctuary cities push back against Trump's plans.

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Okay, let's turn our attention to the Iranian regime, which reportedly is getting creative in their efforts to circumvent international sanctions in their pursuit of advanced weaponry. According to an exclusive report from Fox News, leaders in Tehran have been turning private Iranian companies into front companies to hide their development of advanced ballistic missiles. Specifically, the mullahs are using

companies involved with oil, gas, petrochemicals, and electronic components. These companies can produce items purportedly for use within their own industry without much scrutiny. And then these items are then transferred to the Iranian military to develop missiles and drones.

The revelation comes from the National Council of Resistance of Iran or the NCRI. That's a group based in Europe founded by Iranian dissidents that seek to overthrow the theocratic regime.

Sources tied to the group, embedded inside the Iranian regime and its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, have reportedly worked for months to compile information on how the civilian workforce is being leveraged to support the regime's weapons program. The deputy director of the NCRI told Fox News, quote, "...the Iranian regime's missile program is not limited to the dozens of known military sites. It's built a sophisticated network of commercial companies

to cover up the true extent of Tehran's missile and drone programs, as well as evading sanctions and accountability." The NCRI report cited several Iranian companies that hold little-known contracts with the IRGC and Iran's Ministry of Defense. While they say the executives are well aware of how they're being used to bypass sanctions, employees reportedly remain largely ignorant to the fact that their labor is aiding Iran's weapons development.

In some recent cases, however, the regime's activity has been, well, let's call it conspicuous. In one example, the NCRI report said that a company working in the dairy industry produced dozens of aluminum tanks that were then transferred to the regime, despite, of course, aluminum being banned in the dairy industry. In another example, a complex of electronics factories were found to be producing electronic boards for missiles and drones,

under the direct supervision of the IRGC, which reportedly controlled access to those facilities. The activity should come as little surprise given Iran's long history of circumventing Western sanctions on their various weapons programs, as we discussed earlier this week on the PDB. The regime continues to make progress on their nuclear program despite the sanctions from Britain, the U.S., and the European Union.

Analysts say that Iran is determined to strengthen their missile program, both to support their nuclear development and in light of the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East, which have seen Iran and Israel, of course, trade multiple blows.

An official with the NCRI told Fox News, quote, "...the missile program serves two purposes for the regime. One is arming its regional proxies, including Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis, and the second, which is of strategic significance, is building missiles capable of carrying a nuclear warhead."

Last year, the U.S., in a grand statement of the obvious, declared Iran's missile program "one of the greatest challenges to international nonproliferation efforts." Thank you for that insight. The U.S. has since partnered with European allies to issue several rounds of targeted sanctions, but as this new report shows, Iran continues, apparently, to make gains.

Okay, shifting stateside, Texas is taking the lead in supporting President-elect Donald Trump's sweeping immigration agenda, offering 1,400 acres of borderland to build detention facilities for what Trump calls, quote, the largest deportation of violent criminals in the nation's history, end quote.

The Texas General Land Office framed the proposal in a letter sent to Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate on 14 November, touting the rural ranchland as a critical hub for "processing, detention, and coordination of the mass deportation effort."

Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham emphasized the state's commitment, stating, quote, We can very easily put a detention center on there and describe Trump's pledge to deport millions of undocumented migrants as essential for public safety.

However, Trump's plan faces challenges, of course, regarding funding and logistics, not to mention enormous pushback from Democrats and the media. To put this in perspective, ICE's 2023 budget for transportation and deportation was $420 million. That was for 2023 for ICE.

facilitating the removal of only 140,000 migrants that year. So, apparently, the budget allowed for $420 million, and that resulted in 140,000 migrants being deported. Now, that would seem, I'm not that much of a math whiz, but that would seem to equate to a cost of about $3,000 per individual deported.

This pales in comparison to the scale of Trump's proposal, which would target the estimated 11 million undocumented individuals in the U.S., according to the Department of Homeland Security. Experts caution that implementing such a plan, if we're talking about 11 million people, could lead to deportation costs reaching into the billions. However, the stated goal of the incoming administration, as they've pointed out, is to focus on those illegals who have committed crimes.

as well as those who have been previously slated for deportation but still remain in-country Kathleen Bush Joseph of the Migration Policy Institute underscored logistical hurdles, noting that detainees from across the country would need to be transported to the proposed facilities in Texas for centralized processing and deportation, confounding, of course, the financial and operational burdens

While Texas positions itself as the epicenter of Trump's immigration crackdown, resistance is mounting across the country. Sanctuary cities, dominated by Democrat leaders, of course, doubled down on their refusal to cooperate with Trump's efforts to restore law and order in immigration enforcement. In Los Angeles, the city council, in a rather standard display of

Self-righteous virtue signaling unanimously passed a sanctuary ordinance this week, barring the use of city resources for federal immigration enforcement. Mayor Karen Bass expedited the measure in direct response to Trump's proposal, declaring that the city would not support mass deportations.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson echoed this defiance, pledging that the city's police force will not cooperate with federal authorities in apprehending undocumented migrants. Although, you could argue that the police would actually like to see an effort to deport the criminals. Yeah, that might be something that they could get on board with. Meanwhile, New York City is buckling under the weight of its immigration crisis, having received over 200,000 migrants

since 2022 at a cost of more than $5 billion in housing expenses. According to the New York Times, ICE's Immigration and Nationality Act allows local police departments to deputize officers to assist with federal immigration enforcement. Despite this, the NYPD has chosen not to participate, and since 2014, New York City has largely declined to comply with ICE detention requests.

Trump's team has been quick to counter the resistance. Tom Homan, the former acting director of ICE and Trump's chosen border czar, directly warned sanctuary cities that federal agents will enforce immigration laws. Speaking to Fox News, Homan stated, quote, We're going to do the job with you or without you, end quote.

All right. Coming up in the back of the brief, President-elect Trump loses a cabinet pick as Matt Gaetz withdraws as nominee for attorney general. I'll have those details when we come back.

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In today's Back of the Brief, President-elect Donald Trump nominated Pam Bondi, Florida's former Attorney General, as the next U.S. Attorney General after Matt Gaetz abruptly withdrew earlier Thursday following controversy over allegations of sexual misconduct. Trump praised Bondi's record in a Truth Social post on Thursday evening, emphasizing her nearly two decades as a prosecutor and her tenure as

as Florida's first female attorney general. He noted her work to combat drug trafficking and to reduce fentanyl overdose deaths, calling her efforts, quote, "incredible." Trump's post further stated, quote, "PAM will refocus the DOJ to its intended purpose of fighting crime and making America safe again."

Bondi previously served on Trump's Opioid and Drug Abuse Commission during his first term, earning praise for her efforts to address the opioid epidemic. Her nomination reflects Trump's commitment to a Justice Department that aligns with his, quote, America First agenda.

Gates' withdrawal came after significant scrutiny, including a House Ethics Committee investigation into alleged sexual misconduct with a minor, claims which he strongly denies. While the Justice Department dropped its probe earlier this year, the ethics panel deadlocked this week on whether to release its findings. Gates, in a post on X, stated, "...while the momentum was strong, it is clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to

to the critical work of the Trump-Vance transition, end quote. For Trump, Bondi's nomination represents a renewed focus on loyalty and proven experience as he gears up for his second term. However, she is expected to face a contentious confirmation process, with her close ties to Trump likely to draw scrutiny.

And that, my friends, is the President's Daily Brief for Friday, November 22. Now, if you have any questions or comments, please reach out to me at pdbatthefirsttv.com. And, well, look at that, it's Friday again. Now, if you've been a faithful member of the PDB community, and I certainly hope that's the case,

Then you'll know that every Friday evening at 10 p.m. on the First TV, we launch another episode of our highly acclaimed, much-loved weekend show, and that's the PDB Situation Report.

You can also catch the new episodes every weekend on our juggernaut of a YouTube channel, and that's at President's Daily Brief. And of course, all the podcast platforms, wherever you get your podcast stuff. Now, this weekend's show is frankly a humdinger. Great guests, insight and analysis, and just a touch of whimsy. I'm Mike Baker. I'll be back later on today with the PDB Afternoon Bulletin. Until then, stay informed, stay safe, stay cool.