PDB Afternoon Bulletin | November 15th, 2024: Israel Destroys Iran's Secret Nuclear Site & Tehran Promises Not To Assassinate Trump
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It's Friday, 15 November. Welcome to the PDB Afternoon Bulletin. Okay, fair enough. It's the late afternoon bulletin. I suppose even the early evening afternoon bulletin at this point. It's the travel schedule, folks. I'm Mike Baker. Your eyes and ears on the world stage. Let's get briefed. First...

In some, well, let's call it embarrassing news, for the mullahs in Iran, a bombshell report reveals that Israel managed to take out a secret Iranian nuclear research facility during their retaliatory strike against the Islamic regime in late October. Then, we're learning that in the month leading up to the U.S. presidential election,

Iranian officials gave written assurances to the Biden administration that they would not target Donald Trump for assassination. Well, isn't that nice of them? How magnanimous, which, of course, is our PDB word of the day.

But first, our afternoon spotlight. It turns out Israel's retaliatory strike against Iran last month did far more than knock out the air defense networks there in Iran and damage their missile program. According to an exclusive report from Axios, Israel destroyed an active top-secret nuclear weapons research facility located just 20 miles south of Tehran.

The site, which was previously thought to be inactive, came to the attention of Western intelligence agencies earlier this year when research activity appeared to resume, including work on computer modeling, metallurgy, and explosives that all could be used to develop a nuclear weapon. Hmm.

Israeli and U.S. intelligence sources said Israel's strike on the research facility in Iran's Parchin military complex, part of their broader retaliation against Iran on October 25th, significantly set back Iran's progress on resuming nuclear weapons research over the past year. One Israeli source told Axios that the strike destroyed sophisticated equipment needed to create the plastic explosives placed around a nuclear device's uranium core, I

and used to trigger a detonation. Satellite imagery following the strike showed the entire facility was completely wiped out.

Knowledge of the research being done at this site was reportedly kept within a very tight circle of Iran's leaders and conducted in a way that could be presented to outside observers as research for civilian purposes, which, of course, is the explanation that the Iranian regime has repeatedly given over the years for their nuclear program. Nothing to see here, folks. It's just for civilian purposes.

A U.S. official told Axios, quote, they conducted scientific activity that could set the table for the production of a nuclear weapon. It was a top secret thing. Well, yeah, apparently so. A small part of the Iranian government, they said, knew about this, but most of the Iranian government didn't, end quote.

This secrecy made it a prime target, of course, for Israel. While international pressure was high for Israel to refrain from striking Iran's nuclear facilities, including pressure from President Biden, the site at Parchin was not part of Iran's declared nuclear program. If Tehran acknowledged the attack, of course, they would also have to admit they flagrantly violated the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

But seriously, who could have guessed that the world's number one state sponsor of terrorism might also be flagrantly violating the nuke treaty? A U.S. official told Axios, "...the strike was a not-so-subtle message, that the Israelis have significant insight into the Iranian system, even when it comes to things that were kept top secret, and known to a very small group of people in the Iranian government."

The facility previously served as a key part of the Iranian Ahmad nuclear weapons program used for testing explosives needed to set off a nuclear device. However, it was shut down in 2003 after Iran indefinitely paused their official military nuclear program. Now, in June, the Biden administration presided

privately reached out to Iran to warn them that they were aware of suspicious activity that had resumed at the site, hoping that that would cause the Iranians to stop their nuclear research, but to no avail. Now,

Let me just repeat that sentence in case you didn't catch how bizarre that White House strategy might be. In June, the Biden administration privately reached out to Iran to warn them that they were aware of suspicious activity that had resumed at the site. And they did that hoping it would cause the Iranians to stop their nuclear research. That's a foreign policy based on hope and dreams.

Okay, a U.S. official said that in the months leading up to Israel's strike, there was widespread concern among Western intelligence circles about the progress that Iran was making. That progress even led the U.S. Director of National Intelligence to change their longstanding assessment in August regarding Iran's nuclear program, saying they could no longer confidently say Iran was not actively pursuing a, quote, testable nuclear device.

Iran, unsurprisingly, has denied that they are pursuing a bomb, with their foreign minister saying just last week, quote, Iran is not after nuclear weapons, period, end quote. Remember, it's just for civilian purposes, folks. Now that that purpose may be to kill lots of civilians, but maybe I'm just being overly pragmatic.

As we discussed on this morning's episode, the head of the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency, or the IAEA, was in Tehran this week to meet with senior Iranian leaders regarding ongoing concerns about their nuclear activity and to tour two of their key nuclear facilities.

The IAEA is expected to vote next week on a resolution condemning the regime's lack of cooperation with UN inspectors, which has severely limited their ability to engage in comprehensive nuclear oversight. Iranian leaders, however, have indicated that they might further reduce their cooperation with the IAEA and international community if the resolution does move forward.

Coming up, we're learning that in the month leading up to the U.S. presidential election, Iranian officials, oh, they're quite in the news, aren't they, gave written assurances to the Biden administration that they would not target Donald Trump for assassination. I'll be right back.

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Welcome back to the Afternoon Bulletin. Sticking with Iran, it appears that leaders of the Islamic regime sought to distance themselves from the assassination plots aimed at President-elect Donald Trump before Americans headed to the polls in November.

According to an exclusive report from the Wall Street Journal, Iranian officials provided written assurances to the Biden administration roughly a month before the U.S. presidential election, promising that they would not seek to kill Trump. The message from Iran, delivered on the 14th of October, came in response to a written warning sent by the Biden administration to Tehran in September.

which said they viewed plots against Trump as a top national security concern and that any attempts to assassinate him would be viewed as an act of war by Iran.

While the message from Iran was not signed by a specific official, sources in the White House said they're confident that their warning reached Iran's senior leadership. Iran reportedly did not admit to ever targeting Trump in their note, but repeated their longstanding position that Trump and members of his administration committed a crime by killing Quds Force Commander Qasem Soleimani in a 2020 drone strike.

The White House message reflected previous warnings given to Iran by the U.S. over their targeting of Trump, but was reissued as new information came to light regarding active plots. As you're likely aware, federal prosecutors charged a Pakistani man in August for plotting to kill Trump on behalf of the regime, prompting the U.S. government to bolster Trump's security on the campaign trail.

We then learned last Friday that members of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC, hired a 51-year-old Iranian national in September to surveil and ultimately assassinate Trump, though that plot was ultimately thwarted.

Intelligence officials have described Iran's many plots against Trump as "ongoing." The regime has also long been targeting members of Trump's first administration for assassination for their involvement in the strike on Soleimani. Due to the threats, the U.S. government has been providing round-the-clock security for former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former National Security Advisor John Bolton, and Trump's special envoy for Iran, Brian Hook.

who is expected to once again take the lead on the issue of Iran when Trump returns to office. Iran's foreign minister formally reacted to these allegations for the first time earlier this week, dismissing the claims as, quote, third-rate comedy.

As we've been discussing in recent days, the Iranian regime appears to be trying to pivot from their adversarial stance with the U.S. in the wake of Trump's victory, likely fearing the impact that Trump's promised maximum pressure campaign could have on their fragile economy, not to mention on the mindset of their population.

On Monday, the Iranian president signaled a desire to engage in direct diplomacy with the incoming Trump administration. Reports also surfaced that Iran has postponed their planned retaliation against Israel until, quote, negotiations with President Trump begin.

Whether or not Trump is prepared to negotiate with the regime, well, that remains to be seen. An analyst at the international crisis group Think Tank told the Wall Street Journal, quote, Iran can't seriously float trial balloons for engagement while plotting to eliminate its would-be negotiating partners. It's like reaching out with one hand to make a deal while holding a blade in the other, end quote.

And that, my friends, is the PDB Afternoon Bulletin for Friday, 15 November. Now, if you have any questions or comments, please reach out to me at pdbatthefirsttv.com.

And as you probably discovered upon waking up this morning, it's Friday, which means a brand spanking new episode of our much-loved PDB Situation Report airs tonight at 10 p.m. on the First TV. It's also available on our much-loved YouTube channel, that's at President's Daily Brief, and of course, all podcast platforms.

This weekend's cavalcade of guests includes the always insightful retired Lieutenant Colonel Tony Schaefer. Now, Tony was on the 2016 Trump administration transition team, as well as he's advised and worked with senior Pentagon and Defense Department officials and was an advisor to now DNI nominee Tulsi Gabbard. So he'll be providing his thoughts on the current nominees for senior positions in the upcoming second Trump White House.

We've also got Brandon Weikert. He's a most excellent geopolitical analyst, and he's the author, importantly, of a terrific book, and that's called Winning Space, How America Remains a Superpower. We'll be talking UFOs. Will we? Well, we will be. And government transparency, or lack thereof. I'm Mike Baker, and I'll be back over the weekend with the PDB Situation Report. Until then, well, stay informed, stay safe, stay cool.