//The Wire//2300Z January 2, 2026//
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//BLUF: PROTESTS EXPAND IN TEHRAN. TERROR ATTACK HALTED IN NORTH CAROLINA.//

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-International Events-

Iran: Overnight demonstrations continued throughout the country, increasing in size and scale. Yesterday evening President Trump weighed in on the protests, directly stating that the United States will intervene militarily if Iranian forces begin shooting protesters en masse.

Analyst Comment: In the Middle East, a "happening" may potentially be on the horizon. So far, the Iranian government has seen worse protests over the years, but the situation is deteriorating rapidly and in classic regional fashion things are getting out of hand in some cities, particularly in locations where a protester gets shot, or some other high-profile event occurs.

From the West, regime change is clearly being encouraged, as it has been for a very long time. Considering Netanyahu's recent visit to DC, and the general diplomatic strategy at play here, it's absolutely certain that both Israel and the US are making another big push for regime change again, so we'll have to see how it works out this time around.

-HomeFront-

North Carolina: This morning the DoJ announced the arrest of one individual who was allegedly planning to carry out a New Year's terror attack. Christian Sturdivant was arrested after conveying attack plans to an undercover agent earlier in December. The suspect pledged allegiance to what he thought was ISIS, and wanted to conduct an Islamic stabbing attack at a local area grocery store.

The suspect originally came "on the radar" of the FBI back in 2022, when he made contact with actual ISIS fighters on social media, who encouraged him to conduct home invasions and kill people with hammers. The FBI made contact with him at that time, however he was 14 years old and no charges were filed as he allegedly underwent psychological treatment.

Last month, after turning 18, Sturdivant returned to social media, making threats of his own, which prompted the FBI to intervene again to attempt to institutionalize him, which failed after a local magistrate judge refused to involuntarily commit him, and the FBI moved forward with their criminal case resulting in his arrest.

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Analyst Comments: Based on the documentation that has been provided on the details of the case, this seems less like a major terrorist takedown, and more like a habitually violent idiot getting rolled up after he posted stupid stuff online.

The suspect's shockingly low IQ can be discerned from the press release, which indicate that the FBI was able to get pretty much every bit of evidence physically possible: He made violent threats online, which were followed up by messages from two undercover FBI agents, which in turn prompted the suspect to confess his entire attack plans in depth, up to and including a voice recording confession.

Nevertheless, this context is not to downplay this individual's actions...idiots can still be very dangerous. He did indeed express his violent desires and took steps to work toward these goals, as he has been working on for several years now. And considering that he was arrested in Mint Hill (a suburb of the infamous city of Charlotte), this will be important to remember in the likely chance that he gets let out of custody (again).

Analyst: S2A1
Research: https://publish.obsidian.md/s2underground
Disclaimer: No LLMs were used in the writing of this report.
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