“On November 25, 2009, in a major speech at West Point, [President Barack] Obama announced his decision to enact the [troop] surge [in Afghanistan]. He said he would send 30,000 more troops but would start to bring them back in July 2011, when a transition to Afghan forces would begin. The July date, added at […]
11/15/2009
“…in November 2009, [President Barack] Obama wrote a letter to [Pakistani President Asif Ali] Zardari suggesting that if Pakistan were to go into North Waziristan, the two nations could become ‘long-term strategic partners.’ The letter was hand delivered by General James L. Jones, the national security adviser, who also delivered a warning that the United […]
11/13/2009
“In November [13] 2009, he [President Barack Obama] announced plans to try Khaled Sheikh Mohammed and four other alleged masterminds behind 9/11 in the Federal District Court for the Southern District of New York. This plan brought mixed reactions from citizens and victims of the attacks, and after strong lobbying by the political right, the […]
11/13/2009
From information in the classified State Department documents exposed by WikiLeaks: “Iran, by the United States’ reckoning, has done the most to try to shape Iraqi politics. A Nov. 13, 2009, cable sent by Ambassador [to Iraq Christopher] Hill, which called Iran ‘a dominant player in Iraq’s electoral politics,’ estimated that Iran’s annual support to […]
11/13/2009
An embassy cable from Baghdad, dated November 13, 2009, was part of the classified State Department documents exposed by WikiLeaks. It read: “Concerns about long-term U.S. influence, albeit tempered by the withdrawal deadline, continue to inform IRIG [Iranian government] decision-making to ensure its strategic foothold in Iraq. Iran views Iraq as a natural (and more […]
11/13/2009
An embassy cable from Baghdad, dated November 13, 2009, was part of the classified State Department documents exposed by WikiLeaks. It read: ” ‘Iraq, given its proximity to Iran and its shared Shia heritage, represents a vital foreign policy priority for the Iranian government’s (IRIG) efforts to project its ideology and influence in the region. […]
11/13/2009
“The Obama administration said Friday [November 13, 2009] that it would prosecute Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the self-described mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, in a Manhattan federal courtroom… The decision, announced by Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., could mean one of the highest-profile and highest-security terrorism trials in history would be set just blocks […]
11/11/2009
On November 11, 2009, “the president [Barack Obama] gave preliminary approval to the plan presented to him by the military, which called for 40,000 more troops to be sent to Afghanistan over 21 months.” – Jonathan Alter, “Secrets From Inside the Obama War Room,” Newsweek, May 14, 2010 […]
11/9/2009
According to information in an Associated Press article on November 9, 2009: “Around 100 to 150 Westerners in total were believed to have traveled to the Federally Administered Tribal Areas [in Pakistan, for terrorist training] in 2009 alone, including Faisal Shahzad, the failed Times Square bomber.” – Peter Bergen, The Longest War, Page 332 […]
11/6/2009
Regarding a troop surge in Afghanistan, U.S. Ambassador Karl Eikenberry sent a cable to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on November 6, 2009. ” ‘I am concerned,’ he wrote, ‘that we underestimate the risks of this expansion of our mission.’ Sending additional forces, he argued, ‘will delay the day when Afghans will take over, and […]