PDB Afternoon Bulletin | May 6th, 2025: Ex-CIA Chief: Biden Armed Ukraine to Bleed—Not to Win & Israel Takes The Gloves Off Against Yemen's Houthis
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It's Tuesday, the 6th of May. Welcome to the PDB Afternoon Bulletin. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. All right, let's get briefed.

First up, a veteran CIA station chief just offered up some harsh criticism for the former Biden administration regarding the war in Ukraine, saying that the former president badly miscalculated the situation, giving Kyiv enough weapons to "bleed" but not to win. The result, he says, was condemning Ukraine to fighting a drawn-out meat grinder war with no end in sight.

Later in the show, Israel unleashed a second wave of airstrikes on Houthi targets in Yemen on Tuesday, including a strike on the country's main airport. The latest actions are a direct retaliation for Sunday's missile strike by the Houthis on Tel Aviv's international airport, which injured several people. In a late-breaking development, President Trump

has now said that the U.S. will stop its two-month-old bombing campaign against the Houthis, claiming that the rebel group is, quote, capitulated and will stop targeting shipping in the Red Sea. But first, today's afternoon spotlight. A decorated six-time former CIA station chief is airing his unvarnished thoughts on America's foreign policy failures regarding the war in Ukraine.

and his assessment paints a rather damning portrait of the former Biden administration's strategy towards Vladimir Putin.

In a recent interview with Britain's The Times, Ralph Goff, a veteran intelligence officer who spent more than 30 years in CIA operations, said the U.S. gravely misjudged Putin's military threats towards the West in the early days of the war, essentially letting the Russian leader dictate the terms of the conflict. He said President Biden and his allies were guided by a misplaced fear of nuclear escalation,

which prevented them from giving Ukraine the advanced weaponry and equipment they needed to defeat Putin's forces when the war first broke out.

Essentially, Goff argues that the Biden administration felt that if Putin thought he was losing the war, he would, quote, go nuclear, a risk that he said was severely overblown. This led to a deliberate strategy of giving Ukraine just enough weapons to fight, but not enough to turn the tables on Moscow. In truth, Goff said Putin was simply engaging in empty saber rattling with his nuclear threats, gambling that Western leaders would be too intimidated to push back.

And, well, frankly, it appears that Putin was right. Goff said, quote, they allowed themselves to be bamboozled by Vladimir Putin and his nuclear saber rattling. So they gave the Ukrainians this weaponry, but they never gave them enough to win. They only gave them enough to bleed, end quote. And yes, bamboozled is a technical CIA term.

According to the Times report, it's a frustration shared by many in the Western intelligence community and even at the heart of the US and UK governments, but not one that officials dare to voice publicly. But for Goff, this frustration goes back much further, back to the winter of 2014 when Russian forces first captured Crimea. At the time, Goff was based in Langley, serving as the CIA's chief of operations for Europe and Eurasia.

He says that he attempted to warn his superiors and decision-makers in Washington that Putin's capture of Crimea signaled the beginning of something much worse, but he said he was largely ignored. Goff told the Times, quote, I was trying to ring the alarm bell that the seeds of World War III are being sown in the Donbass right now, and we need to do something about it, but there were other priorities, end quote.

Goff says that Western leaders severely underestimated the growing threat from Russian expansionism, emboldening Putin, who read the lack of strong response from the US and their European allies as weakness. Ultimately, he argues that the West's soft approach to Putin led directly to Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February of 2022.

Still, he said, the U.S. and Europe could have dealt Putin a decisive blow if they'd been willing to throw their full military support behind Kiev instead of just offering empty platitudes about defending democracy. Goff told the Times, "...had we equipped the Ukrainians at the time with proper weaponry, they might have been able to drive the Russians all the way out of the country. It didn't happen. It set the stage for this long, protracted, drawn-out, meat-grinder war that we're witnessing today." End quote.

As our longtime listeners here at the PDB are well aware, Putin and other Kremlin officials have made repeated nuclear threats since the invasion, particularly any time the Biden administration and NATO leaders were discussing giving Kyiv more advanced weaponry and loosening the restrictions on using them inside Russian territory. The threats always appeared to work, prompting the Biden White House to back down and revert to mere rhetorical support for Kyiv.

It wasn't until November of 2024 that then-President Biden relented and approved the use of advanced U.S.-made long-range missiles for strikes inside Russia, but by then, Goff said it was too little, too late. Regarding the Trump administration, Goff sees more reason for cautious optimism. He says Putin, as a former intelligence officer, thinks he can manipulate Trump, but he predicts he'll end up, quote, "'sorly mistaken.'"

Goff said, quote, Putin will eventually overplay his hand with the administration and show them where the problem lies. And the problem is in Moscow, not Kiev. Goff retired from the CIA in October of 2023 and has since spent a considerable amount of time in Ukraine advising government and intelligence officials. He's also attempting to persuade American companies to invest in Ukraine's long-term future.

He told the Times, "I think one of the reasons why I go to Ukraine now is perhaps I feel some guilt over not having been able to get the message to my leadership to avert this." Well, frankly, Goff is correct in his assessment of how the US and the EU have engaged in this conflict.

They never approached this as an effort to defeat Russia. That, in their minds, of course, was a bridge too far. The mindset from the beginning was, we'll support Ukraine in the invaded country's effort to defend itself, but we're not engaged in action against Russia. Coming up next, Israel unleashes a second wave of airstrikes on Houthi targets in Yemen on Tuesday. I'll be right back.

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Welcome back to the Afternoon Bulletin. The Israeli military unleashed a second wave of airstrikes on Houthi targets in Yemen on Tuesday, hitting sites in and around the capital, Sana'a, including the airport, in direct retaliation for Sunday's missile strike on Tel Aviv's international airport that injured several people.

According to the Israeli Defense Forces , the latest strikes targeted key infrastructure used in Houthi tunnel construction and weapon smuggling, including Sana'a International Airport, multiple power stations, and the Al Imran cement factory. A Houthi-affiliated news outlet reported additional strikes on the Attan neighborhood to the southwest, the Hais Central Power Station in Saham to the southeast, and the Asr Electricity Facility in the Ma'in district west of the capital.

For the first time since Israel began striking Houthi targets, the IDF issued an evacuation warning to civilians at the airport before hitting it. The military later declared the Yemeni airport "completely disabled." Israeli officials described the warning as a calculated decision, saying the nature of the target, an international airport, necessitated a higher threshold for civilian protection. Previous strikes on ports and industrial zones came without such notice.

Tuesday's campaign marks the seventh Israeli operation against Houthi infrastructure since July of 2024, and the second in just 24 hours. As we reported on today's PDB, Israeli fighter jets on Monday carried out a long-range assault involving at least 20 aircraft and 50 munitions, targeting a Hodeidah port and a concrete factory near the city of Bajor.

The port, according to Israeli intelligence, has been used as a conduit for Iranian weapons shipments. At the same time, the factory was flagged as a logistical hub for Houthi terrorist infrastructure. The Iranian-backed terror group claims the Monday strikes killed at least one person and wounded more than 30 others, describing the campaign as a "joint U.S.-Israeli aggression." Washington has denied direct involvement in the strikes but offered intelligence to Jerusalem.

though American forces reportedly conducted their own strikes near Sana'a that same evening. In a statement Tuesday, the IDF accused the Houthis of operating "under Iranian direction and funding" with the goal of destabilizing the region, threatening Israel, and disrupting maritime traffic through the Red Sea. The Iranian regime denied playing a role in Sunday's missile strike on Israel, insisting the Houthis acted independently.

Until now, Israeli officials had relied largely on the Trump administration's robust ongoing aerial campaign, which has included over a thousand strikes on Houthi targets since March as a deterrent. But Sunday's missile attack, which punched through Israeli air defenses and detonated inside Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport's perimeter, well, that prompted a reassessment.

It was the first time that a Houthi-fired missile made it through to Israeli territory unimpeded, forcing Israel to recalibrate its posture and take direct aim at the source. And at a late-breaking development, earlier today, President Trump indicated that the U.S. will cease, at least for now, its two-month-old bombing campaign against the Houthis. According to Trump, the Houthis have, quote, "...capitulated and agreed to stop their targeting of all shipping in the Red Sea."

We're following up on this latest development and will provide more detail in tomorrow morning's PDB. And that, my friends, is the PDB Afternoon Bulletin for Tuesday, the 6th of May. If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to me at pdbatthefirsttv.com. And as you probably heard during today's White House press conference, to listen to the show ad-free, just become a premium member of the President's Daily Brief by visiting pdbpremium.com.

Alright, fine. That was not mentioned during the press conference. I guess they just didn't have time to bring it up. I'm Mike Baker, and I'll be back tomorrow. Until then, stay informed, stay safe, stay cool.

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