A 17-year-old named Corey Johnson claimed his Muslim faith commanded him to fatally stab a 13-year-old boy during a sleepover and severely injured another 13-year-old along with his mother who was stabbed more than a dozen times.

Palm Beach Florida authorities said the attacker confessed to the killing, attempted killings, and the motive of Islamic Jihad.  After killing one teen and stabbing two more people Johnson barricaded himself in a room when police arrived. He was taken into custody at about 8 a.m. by the city’s SWAT team.

According to local media “Interim Chief Clint Shannon said Jupiter police, Palm Beach County School District police and the FBI previously investigated Johnson for “alleged violent tendencies” that they received through “intelligence gathering” in the northern part of the county.”  He recently dropped out of school.

Palm Beach – […] Corey Johnson, 17, was arrested Monday after he reportedly confessed to stabbing the three people while he spent the night at a friend’s home in the gated community off PGA Boulevard.

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There has been some non-broadcast media discussion about a battle that took place in Syria on February 7th, 2018.  According to the generally accepted overview, U.S. and coalition forces appear to have killed scores of Russian mercenaries, some reports put the number as high as 200.

Officially Russia has denied their troops were engaged in the failed attack against U.S. and coalition forces; however, actions by Russia since the battle seem to convey a more confirming message.

Bloomberg reported around 100 Russian contracted mercenary soldiers, hired by Syria’s Bashir Assad, were killed by a coalition force of U.S. and Kurdish forces in what would easily be the deadliest clash between Russians and Americans since the cold war.

More than 200 contract soldiers, mostly Russians fighting on behalf of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, died in a failed attack on a base held by U.S. and mainly Kurdish forces in the oil-rich Deir Ezzor region, two of the Russians said. The U.S. official put the death toll in the fighting at about 100, with 200 to 300 injured, but was unable to say how many were Russians. (link)

The contracted mercenaries are likely from a Russian company Wagner, similar to the U.S. company Blackwater.  Because they are not officially Russian soldiers there’s a great deal of built in plausible deniability.   As Bloomberg also noted: ““This is a big scandal and a reason for an acute international crisis,” said Vladimir Frolov, a former Russian diplomat and lawmaker who’s now an independent political analyst. “But Russia will pretend nothing happened.””

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According to recent reports up to eleven marines from Joint Base Myer-Henderson in Arlington Virginia have suffered from mysterious symptoms after opening a suspicious letter within the administration building on base.

Fox 10 is reporting three marines were taken to the hospital and are currently receiving treatment for sore throats and a nosebleed. A Hazmat team was immediately called and is working on the scene.

Responding fire department officials report 11 people came into contact with the suspicious letter. Details developing.

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A Chartered Amtrak train carrying Republican congressmen headed to a GOP retreat collided with a dump truck blocking the tracks in Crozet Virginia just outside Charlottesville. One person on the truck was killed, a few of the lawmakers were injured.

(Via NBC) A chartered train carrying Republican lawmakers to a retreat collided with a trash truck in Virginia Wednesday morning and left at least one person dead. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said there was one confirmed fatality and one person seriously injured.
“There are no serious injuries among members of Congress or their staff,” she said in a statement. The victim’s identity was not immediately released.

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CIA Director Mike Pompeo appears on CBS Face the Nation for a conversation with John Dickerson.
Dickerson walks the fine line between maintaining his invitations to the DC cocktail circuit parties, where President Trump must be regarded as a vulgarian to gain admission, and yet he doesn’t want to go full-Tapper-childish and diminish his own credibility.
As such Dickerson sticks mainly to the substantive issues which confront the challenges of foreign policy and geopolitical adversaries: North Korea, Iran and Pakistan.  Toward the end of the interview Dickerson questions Pompeo about FISA-702 re-authorization.
Good Interview:

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On August 21st, 2017, President Trump began a very familiar process toward Pakistan within the geopolitical strategy known to us as The Trump Doctrine: ‘the accurate assignment of responsibility’, by honestly calling out the historic nature of the relationship.
In a remarkable speech on Afghanistan policy, President Trump addressed the nation and stated the continued Pakistani support of the Taliban extremists was only impeding the quest for peace.
The Trump policy goal was not Pakistan eliminating the Taliban, but rather outlining how the Afghanistan solution begins with the Taliban entering negotiations with the Afghan government.  Pakistan -supporting the Taliban- continues to undermine that goal.
With little change since August, today President Trump calls out Pakistan:

(Twitter Link)

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Two gunmen opened fire on Coptic Christians Friday at church south of Cairo.  Coptic Christian holy celebrations begin next week.  Egyptian security forces killed one of the terrorists and captured the second outside the church of Mar Mina in Helwan district according to state TV and state news agency MENA said.

President Donald Trump called Egyptian President Fattah Abdel al-Sisi to offer support and condolences:

WHITE HOUSE – President Donald J. Trump spoke today with President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi of Egypt to offer condolences to the people of Egypt after the attack on worshippers and security forces in the city of Helwan, which is located south of Cairo. President Trump condemned the attack and reiterated that the United States will continue to stand with Egypt in the face of terrorism. President Trump emphasized his commitment to strengthening efforts to defeat terrorism and extremism in all their forms. (link)

Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (Saudi), and Egyptian President al-Sisi are the fulcrum of stability for the current reform movement in the mid-east.  Both are working to eliminate Islamic Extremism. Both are targets for Islamic terrorists who thrive amid chaos.
 

Catching up.  If you watched the prior two updates from Brett McGurk you’ll note he does an exceptional job explaining how the administration is coordinating with multiple partners to defeat ISIS.  The Trump administration plan was labeled the “D-ISIS” strategy.
Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS Brett McGurk provides an update on D-ISIS Campaign, at the Department of State on December 21, 2017.

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(Transcript) MR MCGURK: Yeah. Sum up the campaign against ISIS over the past – over the past year and where we are, and kind of a little bit on where we’re going. And we’ll have more to say about that in the coming year, particularly over the coming weeks.
I think it’s worth recalling ISIS used to be controlling basically a state, 100,000 square kilometers, the size of the UK; planning and plotting and carrying out major terrorist attacks against our partner homelands; inspiring attacks here in the homeland; responsible for the violent murder and – violent murder of American citizens James Foley, Steve Sotloff, Peter Abdul-Rahman, as well as the death of Kayla Mueller; committing acts of genocide against the Yezidis as they swept into Iraq, and other minority groups; displacing Christians from their – from their ancient homelands; and destroying our common heritage. We’ve really never seen anything like it, 40,000 foreign fighters from 110 countries around the world pouring into this so-called phony caliphate.
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BETHESDA, Md. — President Donald Trump paid a holiday visit Thursday to wounded service members at Walter Reed National Medical Center, hailing them as “some of the bravest people anywhere in the world.”
During his visit, the president awarded the Purple Heart to 1st Lt. Victor Prato of the 127th Airborne Engineer Battalion, who was injured last month while deployed in Afghanistan.

Prato, 25, of Somers, New York, suffered multiple soft tissue injuries following a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device blast, according to the White House.
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WHITE HOUSE – President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia called President Donald J. Trump today to thank him for the advanced warning the United States intelligence agencies provided to Russia concerning a major terror plot in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
Based on the information the United States provided, Russian authorities were able to capture the terrorists just prior to an attack that could have killed large numbers of people. No Russian lives were lost and the terrorist attackers were caught and are now incarcerated.

President Trump appreciated the call and told President Putin that he and the entire United States intelligence community were pleased to have helped save so many lives. President Trump stressed the importance of intelligence cooperation to defeat terrorists wherever they may be. Both leaders agreed that this serves as an example of the positive things that can occur when our countries work together.
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