THE FIGHT GOES ON – AT 2:06 P.M. ET:  We're focusing on our weather, but, elsewhere, the fight against terror is ongoing.  From the Los Angeles Times:   

U.S. intelligence analysts have gained valuable insights into Islamic State’s planning and personnel from a vast cache of digital data and other material recovered from bombed-out offices, abandoned laptops and the cellphones of dead fighters in recently liberated areas of Iraq and Syria.

In the most dramatic gain, U.S. officials over the last two months have added thousands of names of known or suspected Islamic State operatives to an international watch list used at airports and other border crossings. The Interpol database now contains about 19,000 names.

The intelligence haul — the largest since U.S. forces entered the war in mid-2014 — threatens to overwhelm already stretched counter-terrorism and law enforcement agencies in Europe, where Islamic State has claimed responsibility for attacks in Paris, London and Stockholm this year.

With the extremist group’s army and self-declared caliphate fast shrinking, U.S. officials are concerned that foreign-born militants who once flocked to Iraq and Syria will try to escape before the U.S.-led coalition or other military forces can kill them.

In recent weeks, U.S.-backed ground forces have sent an estimated 30 terabytes of data — equal to nearly two years of nonstop video footage — to the National Media Exploitation Center in Bethesda, Md., a little-known arm of the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency, according to officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the intelligence.

Analysts there are scrutinizing handwritten ledgers, computer spreadsheets, thumb drives, mobile phone memory cards and other materials for clues to terrorist cells or plots in Europe or elsewhere.

"The reason electronic exploitation is so critical is that enemy forces doesn't fake those records," an intelligence official said. "When you interrogate someone they can hide facts, but logs of phone calls and video clips don't lie. That stuff isn't made-up."

COMMENT:  Obviously a major intelligence victory for our side.  Now it has to be exploited.  Trump and Defense Secretary Mattis have shown greater vigor and expertise in pursuing ISIS than did their predecessors, although the bar wasn't set too high by the Obama administration. 

The great fear now is that ISIS, driven from parts of the Mideast, will attempt to strike inside the United States.  It would not surprise me.

September 10, 2017