Kickstart your day with a great taste of Blackout Coffee. Blackout Coffee is a proud, American family-owned business. Their purpose in life is producing premium coffee. Right? Straightforward, but not easy to do. It's fresh-roasted, shipped out within 48 hours of roasting. Within 48 hours of roasting, those beans are in a package heading to your patio, and eventually, they get into your cup. It's incredible. Go to blackoutcauffy. Com, promo code PDB, for 20% off your first-time purchase. It's Friday, 16th August. Welcome to the President's Daily Brief. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world's stage. Let's get briefed. We'll start today's show with the latest from the war in Gaza, where US officials are now suggesting that Israel may have reached the limits of its military campaign against Hamas, raising doubts about whether the terror group can be completely eradicated. Now, to be fair, when Prime Minister Netanyahu spoke of eradicating Hamas, he was likely being more aspirational than literal. Look, Netanyahu has been around too long and is too versed in the dynamics of terrorism and Iran's terror proxies to believe that you can completely eradicate them. Later on, a major case of espionage.

Luckily, thwarted by US authorities, an electrical engineer, a dual US-Turkish citizen working for the Department of Defense, has been arrested for printing over 150 pages of top secret government documents and attempting to flee to Mexico. Also, we'll turn our attention to the US Southern border, where border patrol agents in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, captured a Palestinian migrant who happens to be on a terror watchlist, previously flagged for involvement with explosives and firearms. And in today's Back of the Brief, an update on anti-Semitism on America's College campuses, as the Columbia University President has announced her resignation following months of campus protests over the Israel Hamas war. But first, today's PDB Spotlight. We'll begin in the Middle East with an update regarding the war in Gaza as mediators reconvene in Qatar for emergency ceasefire negotiations. Negotiations that are taking place without Hamas, which under the new political leadership of hardliner Yahya Sinmar, refuse to attend. Timed with the start of Thursday ceasefire talks, current and former senior US military officials are speaking exclusively to the New York Times and saying that at this point in the conflict, they don't believe that Israel and the Israeli military can make further gains against Hamas or achieve their stated objective of completely eradicating the terror group.

According to the report, the general consensus in the US is that further offensive operations or bombing campaigns by the IDF in Gaza will only increase risks to civilians and diminish the chances of securing a deal to release the remaining hostages held by Hamas. That message has also reportedly been communicated directly to Israel by senior members of the Biden administration. The Israeli Defense Force, the IDF, was quick to respond to the report, telling the Times, The IDF and its commanders are committed to achieving the goals of the war to dismantle Hamas and bring home our hostages and will continue to operate with determination to achieve them. Now, the remarks did not appear to be a rebuke of the Israeli military's tactics, as the national security officials also noted that Israel's campaign has been successful in severely diminishing Hamas's capabilities. In fact, Israel has achieved far more success against the terror group than many US officials thought possible. General Joseph Woldal, the former head of US Central Command, told the Times, Israel has been able to disrupt Hamas, kill a number of their leaders, and largely reduce the threat to Israel that existed before October seventh. The officials noted that Israeli personnel can now largely move freely across Gaza, a sign of how fractured Hamas's commanding control structure has become.

The Israeli military has killed and captured some 14,000 Islamic militants and decimated Hamas's Qassam Brigades, eliminating half the military wing's leadership, including Mohamed Diif and Marwan Issa. Still, the officials said they now believe that Israel has achieved all it can in its military campaign and must now shift to longer-term plans for how to contain the terror group. The assessment echoes the sentiments of Israeli Defense Minister Yov Galant, who said Monday at a classified briefing in Tel Aviv that Prime Minister Netanyahu's talk of total victory over Hamas was pure nonsense. Galant reportedly spoke in favor of a hostage deal and prolonged ceasefire, arguing that Israel cannot afford a protractive war with the Lebanon-based Hezbollah to their north. That Iranian-backed group has vow to continue their attacks, of course, on Israel until a truce is reached in Gaza. But Netanyahu and his allies, they appear to disagree. A former National Security Advisor and IDF Major General warned the Times that, If Israel evacuates its forces now, within a year, Hamas will be strong again. Well, he's not wrong. Still, the majority of current and former US and Israeli officials who spoke with the Times said that given the current state of the region, the only remaining viable path forward was to secure the release of the remaining 115 living and dead captives in Gaza through a ceasefire deal with Hamas.

On that score, an Israeli delegation arrived in the Qatari capital of Doha on Thursday to join the talks, though Hamas is notably absent, complicating any hopes, of course, of an imminent breakthrough. Netanyahu has reportedly granted his negotiating team significant leeway on a few of the disputes that remain with Hamas, though details are unclear. As a reminder, both Israel and Hamas tentatively agreed to a ceasefire framework in early July, though both sides have since tacked on additional requests and clarifications that have caused substantial friction. Hamas has also vacillated on whether they will agree to a deal that does not guarantee a permanent end to Israel's military operations. While Hamas is not in attendance, the group is urging mediators to press Israel to agree to implement their preferred ceasefire proposal from back in early July. Now, obviously, a great deal hangs on these talks. It's a statement of the obvious, of course, as Iran has indicated that they will move forward with a direct retaliation on Israel over the assassination of Hamas chief Ishmael Hanei, if an agreement with Hamas is not reached. All right, coming up after the break, a contractor for the Department of Defense is arrested for printing top secret documents and attempting to flee to Mexico.

Plus, border patrol agents in New Mexico capture a Palestinian migrant on a terror watchlist for explosives and firearms. I'll be right back.

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Welcome back to the PDB. I want to turn your attention stateside, where a contractor with the Department of Defense has been charged after trying to flee to Mexico with top secret documents. The contractor, identified as 50-year-old Gócan Gun, worked as an electrical engineer with the US Air Force. Now, he's accused of printing more than 150 pages of top secret government documents and was formerly charged on Tuesday in federal court with unauthorized removal and retention of classified material. That's according to a report from Fox News. Authority He snabbed Gunn last Friday, just as he was preparing to depart to the airport for a flight to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. While executing a search warrant at his home in Northern Virginia, FBI agents found documents marked as Top Secret inside a backpack at the front of his home. That's a clue. As well as stacks of documents on his dining room table with various classification markings, including Top Secret and SCI, known as Sensitive Compartmented Information. Gunn told the FBI by agents that he was heading to Mexico for a fishing trip. Oh, of course, the old fishing trip alibi, very popular amongst those committing espionage. Now, that's a story that investigators called, quote, nonsensical in court documents.

The court documents say that during his interview with agents, Gunn made numerous false statements, including that he never took any classified documents home, and that if he did, their classifications had expired. Gunn reportedly popped up on the FBI's radar back in March, and he's been under surveillance since. In early August, authorities observed him exiting his workplace with a bag full of hardcopy documents that he took to two different residences he owned, one in Fairfax and the other in Falls Church, Virginia. You ask yourself, how does somebody who works in a building where there are top secret classified documents walk out with a bag of them? That might call into question the security protocols currently in place there. He apparently had a habit of hoarding government documents, reportedly printing more than 3,400 pages of classified and non-classified materials. Yeah, that would be a habit since starting his contracting work with the Air Force in 2020. He just liked to take his work home with him. It's unclear what the contents of the documents in question are, and of course, his motives remain a mystery. It's worth noting, however, that Gunn, who was born in Turkey, is said to have dual Turkish-American citizenship, only getting his US citizenship back in 2021.

Prosecutors asked for Gunn to remain in prison, cite him as a flight risk given his history of international travel and the fact that his parents still live in Turkey. Now, Gunn faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison, that's all, though authorities said they planned to file additional felony charges. All right, I want to move to the US Southern border, where border patrol agents apprehended a Palestinian migrant by the of Omar Shahada, whose name happens to be on a terror watchlist. Shahada's arrest is the latest in a string of incidents, emphasizing the growing concern over potential national security threats at the poorest US Southern border. Shahada's journey began in Madrid last month, taking him through Colombia, Panama, and El Salvador before reaching Santa Teresa, New Mexico, in the El Paso sector. Now, there, he was apprehended, according to a leaked memo cited in a New York Post exclusive. Shahada, who was flagged for his involvement with explosives and firearms, remains in custody pending removal from the US, which, of course, could take months. Well, at least they didn't release him into the country and ask him to appear in court sometime in the future.

This arrest is part of a broader trend, with a number of migrants on the terror watchlist caught at the US-Mexico border surging under the Biden-Harris administration. For comparison purposes, border agents intercepted 26 suspected terrorists between October 2016 and September 2021. That number rose dramatically, with 98 suspects caught between October 2021 and September 2022, and then it rose to 169 the following year, and 93 from October 2023 to June of 2024 this year, according to agency data. The increase in apprehensions suggests that terrorist organizations may be seeking new routes to infiltrate the US, making the work of Border Patrol and intelligence agencies, of course, more critical than ever. In July, Border Patrol agents captured three other suspected Palestinian terrorists at the California border. One of those individuals was reportedly found with incriminating photos on their phone, including an image of a masked man holding an AK-47 rifle. That could be a clue. Nearly a year ago, Border Patrol issued a warning about Palestinian terrorists, possibly crossing the border following the brutal 7 October Hamas terror attacks on Israel. The alert emphasized that individuals inspired by or reacting to the Israel-Hamas conflict, might attempt to travel to or from the Middle East via the Southern border.

Shahada's arrest occurred just one day before four congressmen sent a letter to US Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, and FBI Director Christopher Ray, raising concerns about previous reports of individuals with potential terrorism ties being detained at the Mexico border. As I've said before, and I suspect I'll be saying in the future, you can't have national security and homeland security without a secure border. Okay, coming up in the back of the brief, the President of Columbia University steps down after facing criticism from both pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups for her handling of campus protests over the Gaza War earlier this year. Sounds like she pissed off both sides. More on that after the break. In today's Back of the Brief, Columbia University President, Minous Shafik, announced her resignation this week, months after protests over the Israel-Hamas war divided her campus. Her departure marks the third resignation of an Ivy League President within eight months, following contentious appearances before Congress regarding anti-Semitism on their campuses. Shafik, who became Columbia's President in July of last year, faced intense scrutiny from activists after summing police to disperse pro-Palestinian student protester, and I say student protestors in air quotes, resulting in over 100 arrests.

That's a significant number of whom, of course, were not actually students. On the other side, University University donors criticized Shafik for not doing enough to protect Jewish students throughout the protests, creating a deep divide, of course, within the University's community. The protests escalated in May when Columbia's Faculty of Arts and Sciences passed a no-confidence resolution against Shafik, accusing her of violating the academic freedom of students' right to protest and be anti-Semitic. In her resignation letter on Wednesday, Shafik cited the toll on her family and community for her immediate departure. Shafik now transitions, get this to a new role with Britain's Foreign Secretary to lead a review of the government's approach to international development. I did not see that coming. Shafik's brief presidency illustrates the challenges faced by university leaders today, particularly when dealing with anti-Semitic outside activists and agitators doing the bidding of the Iranian regime and its terrorist proxies. All right. Okay, fair enough. Maybe that last part just makes me sound churlish. Anyway, in the face of campus protests, concerns over student safety and calls to defend academic freedom, her tenure, one of the shortest in Columbia's history, ended with unresolved tensions still simmering.

The University's Board of trustees swiftly named Dr. Katrina Armstrong, a medical doctor and the current Chief Executive of Columbia's Medical Center, interim President. Dr. Armstrong, braces for a potentially turbulent fall semester. The board has not specified its timeline for appointing a permanent president, leaving the university uncertain, of course, less than three weeks before the start of the academic year. Now, students, some, of course, well-meaning, some completely gormalus, some enamored with the excitement of belonging to a group, and some who just, I don't know, dig the chaos and graffiti and vandalism and chanting and lack of hygiene, and of course, all organized, resource-trained and supported by professional outside activists, while they vow to resume protests in the fall, of course they do, demanding the university divest from companies involved in the occupation of Palestinian territories. And that, my friends, is the President's Daily Brief for Friday, 16 August. If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to me at pdb@thefirsttv. Com. And as a reminder, to listen to the show ad-free, well, become a premium member of the President's Daily Brief by visiting pdbpremium. Com. Com. Of course, as the weekend approaches, and I believe that it is approaching, don't forget our PDB Situation Report.

New episodes air every weekend on the first TV, our YouTube channel, at President's Daily Brief, and of course, all podcast platforms. I'm Mike Baker. I'll be back later today with the PDB Afternoon Bulletin. Until then, stay informed, stay safe, stay cool.