UPDATE: After popular request, I finally received a copy of “the map” McGurk is using and added it to the transcript to make it easier. /SD
Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS Brett McGurk follows up on the “around the globe” update speech delivered by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. With this update McGurk explains the current status of the D-ISIS campaign in Syria and Iraq. (additional emphasis regionally) WATCH:

.
[Transcript] MS NAUERT: Good to see you back. I know, it’s Friday late in the day, summertime. So you all get good camper awards for coming in today. Thank you so much for being here on this Friday. We have our Special Presidential Envoy to the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, Brett McGurk, who’s here with us. I know you heard from Brett just a couple weeks ago at the end of the ISIS – D-ISIS coalition meeting here in Washington. And so Brett wanted to come in today to provide you all with an update as to where things stand in the campaign.
So without further ado, Brett’s here with that.
MR MCGURK: Thank you. Okay, thanks everybody for coming. I thought what I’d do today – you heard from the Secretary for a kind of trip around the world six months in here since he arrived about everything going on in the world and the activity here at the State Department. And what I thought I’d do is drill in a little bit more on what he discussed about the very important – one of our key priorities here at the department, about the campaign against ISIS.
(more…)

Dangerous/Sketchy – An Inspector General investigation into a military recruitment program for non-Americans with foreign language skills has resulted in a dangerous level of foreign infiltration by potential terrorists.  Some of the dangerous recruits, potentially terrorists, are now “missing” and “unaccounted for”.

“The program has been replete with problems, to include foreign infiltration.”

(Via Fox News) Defense Department investigators have discovered “potential security risks” in a Pentagon program that has enrolled more than 10,000 foreign-born individuals into the U.S. armed forces since 2009, Fox News has learned exclusively, with sources on Capitol Hill and at the Pentagon expressing alarm over “foreign infiltration” and enrollees now unaccounted for.

After more than a year of investigation, the Pentagon’s inspector general recently issued a report – its contents still classified but its existence disclosed here for the first time – identifying serious problems with Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest (MAVNI), a DOD program that provides immigrants and non-immigrant aliens with an expedited path to citizenship in exchange for military service.

Defense Department officials said the program is still active but acknowledged that new applications have been suspended.
(more…)

The backstory to the Awan brothers is a story within congress where three Democrat staffers within various House committees, including the House Intelligence Committee, were suspected of a variety of unlawful actions including accessing highly classified information under suspicious circumstances. – More Here –

Yesterday FBI agents seized computer equipment from the home of the aide to congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz who was one of the parties employing the Awans.  And now last night Imran Awan was arrested by the FBI at Dulles airport.

(Via Daily Caller)  Florida GOP Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s right-hand information technology (IT) aide was arrested attempting to leave the country just a few hours after The Daily Caller News Foundation’s Investigative Group revealed that he is the target of an FBI investigation.

(more…)

Moments ago President Trump and Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri met in the Oval Office. Following their discussions President Trump and PM Hariri held a joint press conference in the Rose Garden.
President Trump focused his remarks on Syria, terrorism and the refugee crisis as he delivered a statement alongside Prime Minister Saad Hariri of Lebanon:

.
During press questioning President Trump is also asked about his confidence in Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Again President Trump affirmed his confidence in Sessions’ ability, however he also noted frustration (“disappointment”) with Session’s reluctance to confront corruption within the DC swamp.
My hunch is that Sessions will tender his resignation within 48 hours; this will lead to a conversation with President Trump. If Trump doesn’t accept the resignation it will be because Sessions agrees to change approach and confront the corruption within DC including the corruption within the DOJ. (more on that later)
(more…)

General Tony Thomas speaking at the Aspen Forum on July 21, 2017 reveals the New York Times ran a story from leaked intelligence that foiled the capture of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

(Via Fox) In a wide-ranging interview moderated by Fox News’ Catherine Herridge, Thomas, who leads the Special Operations Command, said his team was “particularly close” to Baghdadi after the 2015 raid that killed ISIS oil minister Abu Sayyaf. That raid also netted his wife, who provided a wealth of actionable information.

“That was a very good lead. Unfortunately, it was leaked in a prominent national newspaper about a week later and that lead went dead,” Thomas said. “The challenge we have [is] in terms of where and how our tactics and procedures are discussed openly. There’s a great need to inform the American public about what we’re up to. There’s also great need to recognize things that will absolutely undercut our ability to do our job.” (read more)  Watch Video:

(more…)

Reports surface today that President Trump has cancelled the 2012/2013 covert CIA program giving weapons to ISIS and al-Qaeda in Syria.  [Washington Post Link]

Various news organizations frame the issue as cancelling the program to “arm the moderate opposition to Bashir Assad”.  However, those news reports are entirely false.

We know the Obama administration was arming ISIS as part of the larger Syria strategy because Secretary of State John Kerry went on record admitting the Obama Syrian strategy was actually to arm ISIS and extremist Islamic groups (al-Nusra) against Assad.
We also know Secretary Kerry was being truthful in that media-hidden, albeit recorded, admission because CTH specifically tracked and investigated the CIA weapons shipments as an accidential outcome of the finalized Benghazi Briefing material in 2013/2014.
The Washington Post might be claiming today that President Trump is discontinuing a covert CIA plan that armed “moderates”.  But we know, if Trump is actually canceling this program, the actual recipients of the covert weapons plan were ISIS, al-Qaeda and al-Nusra in Syria – By their own damned admissions.
There simply is no doubt of that truth.   The Washington Post is lying, and despite their earnest efforts we can actually prove their framework is a substantive and factual falsehood.    Here’s some of the proof, including Kerry’s recorded admission:
(more…)

Refugee activists are apoplectic because U.S. officials have withdrawn from interviewing economic migrants on the Australian island of Nauru.  The entire relocation and immigration scheme was  set into place by President Obama during his lame-duck period after the 2016 Presidential election.
Incoming President Donald Trump was not happy when Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull informed him of the secret deal.  President Trump reluctantly agreed to consider the 1,250 asylum seekers and established conditions the refugees would have to pass rigorous checks.

SYDNEY/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. officials interviewing refugees held in an Australian-run offshore detention center left the facility abruptly, three detainees told Reuters on Saturday, throwing further doubt over a plan to resettle many of the detainees in America.
U.S. officials halted screening interviews and departed the Pacific island of Nauru on Friday, two weeks short of their scheduled timetable and a day after Washington said the United States had reached its annual refugee intake cap.

(more…)

Last week former President Obama’s classmate, Hawaii Judge Derrick Watson, once again blocked the implementation of the travel and visa restrictions put into place by President Trump and the Department of Homeland Security.
At the heart of the matter activist Judge Watson is demanding that Homeland Security permit as many foreign terrorists as possible be granted entry into the U.S.  According to the world-view that all occupants of planet earth are inherently future citizens of the United States, Judge Watson claims everyone should be allowed entry into the U.S. regardless of national security concerns.
It should be noted that Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, UAE, and other GCC nations have initiated a total Muslim travel ban with Qatar…. meanwhile a U.S. judge frames the limited scope of President Trump’s ‘temporary travel restrictions‘ as overreach. Go figure.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court has asked the State of Hawaii to respond by Tuesday at noon to President Donald Trump’s motion to block a judge’s ruling that prevented his travel ban from being applied to grandparents of U.S. citizens and refugees already being processed by resettlement agencies, the court’s public information office said on Saturday.

(more…)

Many of you might remember the three brave Americans, Spencer Stone (U.S. Air Force), Alek Skarlatos (U.S. National Guard) and Anthony Sadler (Pittsburg, CA) who confronted a heavily armed Jihadist aboard a French train during a terrorist attack in 2015.
U.S. Air Force Spencer Stone charged the terrorist who was using an AK-47, tackled him and suffered severe wounds in the confrontation.  All three of the friends were heroes. The terrorist, Ayoub el-Qahzzani, had at least nine full magazines of ammunition holding almost 300 rounds, a hand gun and a box cutter.
For their bravery the three Americans and one British tourist were awarded France’s highest honor – The Légion d’Honneur medal.

Oscar winner, actor and director Clint Eastwood is making a movie based on the lives of the three friends and the events on that fateful day.  The movie is called “The 15:17 to Paris”.  And instead of hiring Hollywood actors, Mr. Eastwood is actually casting the three men to play themselves in the movie.   How cool is that?
(more…)

Part I is HERE.  Part II is HERE.  Because U.S. President Trump’s special envoy Brett McGurk was so good at explaining the current state of issues in Iraq and Syria in Part II, we are revisiting his overview to the D-ISIS alliance in this part III.
Mr. McGurk is speaking to the 70 nations who are part of the coalition to defeat ISIS (“D-ISIS”) globally, not just regionally.  However, the majority of the current confrontation is happening within Iraq and Syria.
The stunning video (see here) and stories (example here) from the liberation of Mosul are honestly some of the most remarkable foreign conflict events in the past century.

[Transcript] MR MCGURK: Thank you, Terry. Good morning. Distinguished ambassadors, coalition partners, friends, and colleagues, it’s my pleasure to welcome you again to Washington as members of our Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS. Today’s discussion will allow us to really roll up our sleeves as we look ahead in Iraq, Syria, West Africa, East Asia, and anywhere else ISIS seeks to export its terror.
(more…)