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It's Monday, the 5th of January. Welcome to the President's Daily Brief. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. All right, let's get briefed. First up, new details are emerging about the operation that captured Nicholas Maduro. The CIA tracked his movement for months, gathering intelligence, daily activities and patterns of behavior, while Delta Force rehearsed the raid on a full scale replica of Maduro's safe house. I'll have the details later in the show. Newly unsealed federal charges outline the allegations against Maduro, narco terrorism, cocaine trafficking and weapons offenses tied to he and his inner circle. Plus, new reports from Iran indicate at least 16 people have been killed as protests over inflation and the regime's crumbling economy spread and while the mullahs and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps moved to suppress the unrest. And in today's back of the brief, Britain and France carry out a joint airstrike on ISIS in Syria. But first, today's PDB Spotlight. Today we're learning more about the operation that captured Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro and his wife. Information released in the aftermath of the operation details a methodical, intelligence driven mission that blended months of quiet preparation with some of the most elite capabilities of the US Military. At the center of it all were two organizations that rarely operate in public view. That would be, of course, the Central Intelligence Agency and the US Army's Delta Force. Let's start with the intel side. According to multiple officials, the CIA had a small covert team operating inside Venezuela as early as August20. You may remember that President Trump publicly confirmed in October of this past year that he had authorized covert CIA operations inside Venezuela by that point. Well, it seems those teams may have been operating in place for months. They were there to understand Maduro's daily life in granular detail. Where he slept, how he moved, when he changed locations, and of course, the specifics of the security that surrounded him. It can be a labor intensive, painstaking process involving surveillance, recruitment of assets with access to the target, signals, intercepts, drone coverage and other operational activities. The goal is to build as complete a picture as possible of the target's routines, patterns, associates, personality and surrounding environment. The more complete the picture, the more thorough your homework, the better your chances of mitigating risk when the decision is made to move on the target. In this case, that effort paid off. The CIA team developed what one official described as extraordinary insight into Maduro's habits. As is often the case in operations such as this, the agency had an asset, reportedly possibly more than one, close enough to monitor his movements in real time and confirm his exact location as the operation unfolded, likely someone inside Maduro's inner circle. That intel is likely what gave the Trump administration the confidence to carry out the mission and may have explained the timing. Once planners knew precisely where Maduro would be and when, the green light was given for the military to go. Delta Force, formerly known as first Special Forces Operational Detachment Delta, sometimes referenced internally as the Combat Applications Group, is often the US Military's go to unit for missions involving involving high value targets. Now, as you might expect, nothing was left to chance during the pre op planning and training. Much like with the takedown of Bin laden back in 2011, all source intelligence was used to create a mock up of the target site. In Bin Laden's case, it was the compound in Abbottabad. For Maduro, it was a replica of his Caracas safe house built for training purposes. As close to an exact copy as the available intel would allow. Access points, door placements, hallways, number of steps, reinforced areas they practiced, how they would enter the compound, how they would move through the structure, and how they would handle resistance at every stage. The team reportedly carried blowtorches, preparing to cut through steel doors if Maduro managed to reach a hardened safe room that was identified during the intel collection effort. With rehearsals complete, the final piece was timing. Weather conditions reportedly delayed the mission for days. Once conditions improved, the order was given and at 10:46pm Eastern time, reportedly the final authorization was received. US army helicopters flown by the 1 60th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, known as the Night Stalkers, lifted off. These pilots specialize in flying at night and extremely low altitudes to avoid detection and they are a remarkable unit. As the helicopters approached Caracas, other US aircraft were already at work disabling air defenses and clearing a path. Around 1am Eastern, the assault force arrived at Maduro's compound in downtown Caracas, a location described by officials as being heavily fortified. Delta Force, accompanied by federal law enforcement personnel, moved in. Inside the residence, Maduro was reportedly caught by surprise. He attempted to reach a steel reinforced safe room but he didn't make it in time. Before he could secure the door, US forces were already inside. Maduro and his wife surrendered. As the team moved to extract, they encountered multiple hostile engagements. Gunfire continued as the helicopters lifted off and departed Venezuelan airspace. By roughly 3:20am Eastern Time, the aircraft were over open water and Operation Absolute Resolve was complete. Post op details note that there were no American fatalities. Now of course, as noted in yesterday's PDB special edition, one man in this case Maduro, doesn't make A regime. What backfills the hole left by Maduro's capture will determine whether Venezuelan people get a democratic government or simply a reshuffling of the key power brokers and regime officials that are still in place in Caracas. By conservative estimates, the democratic opposition, led by Edmundo Gonzalez and people like Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Machado, won the last election in Venezuela by almost a 3 to 1 margin, which ultimately didn't matter since, as the international community has confirmed, Maduro stole that election and refused to step down. But will the existing Venezuelan military and security apparatus that are still in place agree to hand over power quietly and willingly to that democratic opposition? On the surface? On the surface, that seems unlikely. The vice president under Maduro, Delsey Rodriguez, has already been sworn in as president and has already been railing against the US Military intervention. Meanwhile, the Trump White House has stated that the U.S. will, quote, run Venezuela until there's a just and righteous transition of power. That's all well and good if the existing Venezuelan military and militias and security apparatus step aside. If not, well. If not, this could get messy, which, unfortunately, would be the traditional course for any regime change. One thing does appear to be clear from Maduro's capture. The Venezuelan people themselves, for the most part, seem to be elated with the news. Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Chavez, turned what was once the most prosperous nation in the region into a basket case through corruption and mismanagement and hardline socialist policies that caused a massive number of Venezuelans to flee the country and left the remainder living under a repressive government and a failing economy. For what it's worth, only communists, socialists, or simply corrupt officials could take a country as rich in resources as Venezuela and screw it up. All right, coming up next, newly unsealed charges detail prosecution plans for deposed dictator Nicolas Maduro. Plus reports from Iran say at least 16 people have been killed as economic protests spread and security forces crack down. I'll be right back. Hey, Mike Baker here to tell you about a great company that every food loving person should know about. It's called Goldbelly. Seriously, if you're a foodie, you're going to love Goldbelly. 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