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On February 27, 2010, “President Obama has signed a one-year extension of several provisions in the main U.S. counterterrorism law, the Patriot Act. Provisions in the measure would have expired on Sunday [February 28, 2010] without Obama’s signature Saturday. The act, which was adopted in the weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, expands the government’s ability to monitor Americans in the name of national security. Three sections of the Patriot Act that stay in force will:
*Authorize court-approved roving wiretaps that permit surveillance on multiple phones.
*Allow court-approved seizure of records and property in anti-terrorism operations.
*Permit surveillance against a so-called lone wolf, a non-U.S. citizen engaged in terrorism who may not be part of a recognized terrorist group.
Obama’s signature comes after the House voted 315 to 97 Thursday to extend the measure.”

 – “Obama Signs Patriot Act Extensions,” Associated Press, Feb. 27, 2010

“The Iraqi military will reinstate 20,000 Saddam Hussein-era army officers who were dismissed from their posts after the 2003 US-led invasion for serving under the former dictator, an Iraqi defence spokesman said today [February 26, 2010].”

 – Marc Santora, “Iraq to Reinstate 20,000 Saddam-era Army Officers,” Associated Press, Feb. 26, 2010

“Pakistani authorities have captured Mullah Abdul Kabir, a member of the [Taliban] group’s inner circle and a leading military commander against American forces in eastern Afghanistan, according to a Pakistani intelligence official. …Mullah Kabir is a member of the Quetta Shura, the small group of leaders who direct the Taliban’s operations and who report to Mullah Muhammad Omar, the group’s founder. The group is named for the Pakistani city where many of the Taliban’s leaders are thought to be hiding.”

 – Pir Zubair Shah and Dexter Filkins, “Pakistani Reports Capture of a Taliban Leader,” The New York Times, Feb. 22, 2010

“In [February 19] 2010, after an exhaustive investigation, the Justice Department and the FBI concluded that Dr. Bruce Ivins, a U.S. government scientist who committed suicide in [July 29] 2008, had executed the [October 2001] anthrax attack alone.”

 – George W. Bush, Decision Points, Page 158

“…in February [19] 2010, the Office of Professional Responsibility of the Department of Justice (DOJ) concluded that the two lawyers responsible for authorizing the most egregious memoranda authorizing such ‘enhanced interrogation’ techniques which amount to torture, namely [Deputy Chief of the Office of Legal Counsel] John Yoo and [Assistant Attorney General] Jay Bybee, were found simply to have acted with poor judgment, and not as having violated their ethical, professional responsibilities.”

 – M. Cherif Bassiouni, The Institutionalization of Torture by the Bush Administration, Page xiv

“The Taliban’s top military commander was captured several days ago [February 2010] in Karachi, Pakistan, in a secret joint operation by Pakistani and American intelligence forces, according to American government officials. The commander, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, is an Afghan described by American officials as the most significant Taliban figure to be detained since the American-led war in Afghanistan started more than eight years ago. He ranks second in influence only to Mullah Muhammad Omar, the Taliban’s founder… Details of the raid remain murky, but officials said that it had been carried out by Pakistan’s military spy agency, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, and that C.I.A. operatives had accompanied the Pakistanis.” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]

 – Mark Mazzetti and Dexter Filkins, “Secret Joint Raid Captures Taliban’s Top Commander,” The New York Times, Feb. 15, 2010

“Between September 11, 2001 and April 1, 2010, it is believed that nearly 800 persons had been detained at Guantanamo Bay (official Department of Defense reports put the total at 660, while a variety of outside media and human rights organizations report a much higher population). As of February 2010, 189 remain. The 600 or so detainees who were released during that period of time were found not have committed any crime under international or U.S. law, and until 2006, they were even denied legal access to habeas corpus. In accordance with U.S. and international legal standards they were innocent persons held in violation of due process of law. Most were tortured or subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment in violation of international law, the U.S. constitution, and U.S. laws. Notwithstanding the knowledge that these 600 or so persons were innocent, they were kept between three and seven years before their release.” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]

 – M. Cherif Bassiouni, The Institutionalization of Torture by the Bush Administration, Page v

In an interview on This Week on February 14, 2010, former Vice President Dick “Cheney strongly defended waterboarding, the enhanced interrogation technique assailed by [President] Obama and what many consider to be torture. ‘I was a big supporter of waterboarding. I was a big supporter of the enhanced interrogation techniques,’ he said. Cheney added that he opposed the current administration’s move to do away with it.”

 – Huma Kahn and Rachel Martin, “Vice Presidents Face Off: Dick Cheney and Joe Biden Go on the Offensive,” ABC News, Feb. 15, 2010

In an interview on This Week on February 14, 2010, former Vice President Dick Cheney said: ” ‘I think, in fact, the situation with respect to al Qaeda to say that, you know, that was a big attack we had on 9/11, but it’s not likely again, I just think that’s dead wrong. …I think the biggest strategic threat the United States faces today is the possibility of another 9/11 with a nuclear weapon or a biological agent of some kind, and I think al Qaeda is out there even as we meet trying to figure out how to do that.’ ”

 – Huma Kahn and Rachel Martin, “Vice Presidents Face Off: Dick Cheney and Joe Biden Go on the Offensive,” ABC News, Feb. 15, 2010

“A newly released U.S. diplomatic cable discloses the existence of previously undisclosed participants in the Sept. 11, 2001, plot: a group of Qatari men who conducted surveillance of targets in New York and the Washington area before leaving the United States on the eve of the attacks. The three men flew into the United States on Aug. 15, 2001, and ‘visited the World Trade Center, the Statue of Liberty, the White House, and various areas in Virginia’ before flying on to Los Angeles, according to the [February 11, 2010] cable, part of the cache of documents obtained by the antisecrecy group WikiLeaks. But a U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity…said that the three men were ‘looked at’ within days of the attacks and that investigators concluded they could not be charged. ‘There is no manhunt,’ said the official, playing down a report in Britain’s Daily Telegraph newspaper that disclosed the contents of the cable. ‘There is no active case. They were looked at, but it washed out.’ ”

 – Peter Finn and Julie Tate, “Leaked Cable Tells of 3 Previously Undisclosed Members of 9/11 plot,” The Washington Post, Feb. 1, 2011

Journalist Ahmed Rashid wrote: “On February 8, 2010, the ISI [Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence] infuriated [Afghan President Hamid] Karzai by arresting [Taliban co-founder] Mullah Baradar in Karachi [Pakistan], along with a dozen senior Taliban figures who were loyal to him. It was a joint ISI-CIA operation, but senior Pakistani military officials told me later that the real reason for his arrest was not to please the Americans, but rather the ISI’s conviction that Baradar had held secret talks with the Americans and had received a $5 million bribe from the CIA without informing the ISI. In fact, Baradar had only been talking to Karzai’s brothers and would never have double-crossed [Taliban leader] Mullah Omar by talking to the Americans.”

 – Ahmed Rashid, Pakistan on the Brink, Pages 130-131

“While at the height of power in the late 1990s, al Qaeda was made up of about 3,000 to 4,000 fighters. Today [February 5, 2010], bin Laden’s ranks are down to about 400 to 500. According to the most credible intelligence estimates, perhaps 100 al Qaeda operatives are in Afghanistan and another 300 in neighboring Pakistan. Most of its seasoned field lieutenants have been either captured or killed and replaced by unskilled and ineffective operators, and new skilled recruits are hard to come by.”

 – Fawaz A. Gerges, “Lone Wolves Signal al Qaeda’s Weakness,” CNN, Feb. 5, 2010

“Two senior Taliban leaders have been arrested in recent days inside Pakistan… Afghan officials said the Taliban ‘shadow governors’ for two provinces in northern Afghanistan had been detained in Pakistan. Mullah Abdul Salam, the Taliban’s leader in Kunduz, and Mullah Mir Mohammed of Baghlan were captured about two weeks ago [early February 2010] in a raid on a house in Akora Khattack, according to a leader at the Dar-ul-Uloom Haqqaniya madrasa there.” [The 5th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]

 – Dexter Filkins, “In Blow to Taliban, 2 More Leaders are Arrested,” The New York Times, Feb. 18, 2010

“The 9/11 attacks forced the United States to intervene directly in Afghanistan’s civil war on the side of the Northern Alliance. This is precisely what bin Laden wanted: to re-create the struggle he had fought against the Soviet Union in the same place and with the same result, the enemy ground down in a quagmire, but now with the United States as the adversary. This was, bin Laden’s son later confirmed [in an interview with Rolling Stone on February 4, 2010], ‘my father’s dream…to bring the Americans to Afghanistan. He would do the same thing he did to the Russians.’ Bin Laden and [al Qaeda second-in-command] Ayman Zawahiri have often gloated over their success in tricking the Americans into Afghanistan.”

 – Bruce Riedel, Deadly Embrace, Page 80

On January 29, 2010, in testimony before the inquiry into the U.K.’s involvement in the war in Iraq, former Prime Minister Tony “Blair said he believed ‘beyond doubt’ his controversial pre-war claim that Iraq was capable of launching chemical and biological weapons within 45 minutes and said concern over Iraq’s ambitions to develop weapons of mass destruction had been the main factor behind Britain’s decision to back the war. But he admitted Washington and London had different views, with the U.S. favoring regime change to overthrow Saddam Hussein as the main justification for war.”

 – “Blair: No ‘Covert’ Deal with Bush over Iraq,” CNN.com, Jan. 29, 2010

On January 29, 2010, in testimony before the inquiry into the U.K.’s involvement in the war in Iraq, former Prime Minister Tony “Blair told the inquiry he had been ‘determined’ to stand ‘shoulder to shoulder’ with the U.S. despite their differing opinions over the reasons why war was necessary. ‘The Americans, in a sense, were saying, *We’re for regime change ’cause we don’t trust he’s [Saddam’s] ever going to give up his WMD ambitions,* ‘ Blair said. ‘We were saying, *We have to deal with his WMD ambitions. If that means regime change, so be it.*  …I said I would stand shoulder to shoulder with them. We did that in Afghanistan, and I was determined to do that again’ in Iraq, Blair said.”

 – “Blair: No ‘Covert’ Deal with Bush over Iraq,” CNN.com, Jan. 29, 2010

As evidence that Osama bin Laden was still alive, journalist Peter Bergen wrote: “In late January [24] 2010, bin Laden released a tape praising the Nigerian who had recently tried to blow up the Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day, saying, ‘The message delivered to you through the plane of the heroic warrior Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was a confirmation of the previous messages sent by the heroes of the Sept. 11.’ “

 – Peter Bergen, The Longest War, Page 338

On January 24, 2010, “An audio message purportedly from al-Qaida’s leader [Osama bin Laden] claimed responsibility for the Christmas Day bombing attempt on a Detroit-bound plane and vowed further attacks. In the recording, carried by al-Jazeera, Bin Laden addressed the US president, Barack Obama. ‘The message delivered to you through the plane of the heroic warrior Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was a confirmation of the previous messages sent by the heroes of the September 11,’ he said. ‘America will never dream of security unless we will have it in reality in Palestine,’ he added. ‘God willing, our raids on you will continue as long as your support to the Israelis will continue.’ ”

 – Rowenna Davis, “Bin Laden: The War in His Words,” The Guardian, May 2, 2011

From an interview with Omar bin Laden, the son of Osama bin Laden: " 'My father's dream was to bring the Americans to Afghanistan. He would do the same thing he did to the Russians. I was surprised the Americans took the bait. I so much respected the mentality of President Clinton. He was the one who was smart. When my father attacked his places, he sent a few cruise missiles to my father's training camp. He didn't get my father, but after all the war in Afghanistan, they still don't have my father. They have spent hundreds of billions. Better for America to keep the money for its economy. In Clinton's time, America was very, very smart. Not like a bull that runs after the red scarf.' "

 – Guy Lawson, “Osama’s Prodigal Son: The Dark, Twisted Journey of Omar bin Laden,” Rolling Stone, Jan. 20, 2010,

From an interview with Omar bin Laden, the son of Osama bin Laden: ” ‘I was still in Afghanistan when [President] Bush was elected… My father was so happy. This is the kind of president he needs–one who will attack and spend money and break the country. Even Bush’s own mother says he is the biggest idiot boy of his family.’ ”

 – Guy Lawson, “Osama’s Prodigal Son: The Dark, Twisted Journey of Omar bin Laden,” Rolling Stone, Jan. 20, 2010

From an interview with Omar bin Laden, the son of Osama bin Laden: ” ‘Will there be more attacks?’ I [journalist Guy Lawson] ask. ‘I don’t think so,’ Omar says. ‘He [Osama] doesn’t need to. As soon as America went to Afghanistan, his plan worked. He has already won.’ ”

 – Guy Lawson, “Osama’s Prodigal Son: The Dark, Twisted Journey of Omar bin Laden,” Rolling Stone, Jan. 20, 2010

In the Netherlands, the Davids Commission concluded that the war in Iraq, which was supported by the Dutch government, was illegal. As reported on January 12, 2010, in the Conclusions of the Committee of Inquiry on Iraq: “the [UN] Security Council resolutions on Iraq passed during the 1990s did not constitute a mandate for the US-British military intervention in 2003. Despite the existence of certain ambiguities, the wording of Resolution 1441 cannot reasonably be interpreted (as the Dutch government did) as authorizing individual Member States to use military force to compel Iraq to comply with the Security Council’s resolutions, without authorization from the Security Council.”

 – Willibrord Davids (chairperson), et. al., The Permanent Mission of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the United Nations: “Conclusions of the Committee of Inquiry on Iraq,” Jan. 12, 2010

In the Netherlands, the Davids Commission concluded that the war in Iraq, which was supported by the Dutch government, was illegal. As reported on January 12, 2010, in the Conclusions of the Committee of Inquiry on Iraq: “The Committee’s assessment is that, in its portrayal of Iraq’s WMD programme, the [Dutch] government was to a considerable extent led by public and other information from the US and the UK. In its discussions with the parliamentary Intelligence and Security Services Committee, the government did not allude to the nuances of the reports made by the MIVD [Military Intelligence and Security Service] and the AIVD [General Intelligence and Security Service]. Contrary to the facts reported by the Committee of Inquiry, the Minister of Defence asserted in parliament that the AIVD and MIVD reports were not inconsistent with the public statements made by ministers.”

 – Willibrord Davids (chairperson), et. al., The Permanent Mission of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the United Nations: “Conclusions of the Committee of Inquiry on Iraq,” Jan. 12, 2010

The conclusion of the Davids Commission (the Dutch enquiry into the war in Iraq) said, in its January 12, 2010, report: “At an early juncture, the Netherlands aligned itself with the US-British position, which was ultimately to lead to the invasion of Iraq. However, the Netherlands took the view that the strategy of regime change advocated by the US had no basis in international law. Dutch policy therefore continued to be directed towards neutralization of the Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) that Iraq was supposed to possess, and later towards securing compliance with the [UN] Security Council resolutions. It was inevitable, however, that the US-British action would result in regime change. The Dutch government lent its political support to a war whose purpose was not consistent with Dutch government policy. It may therefore be said that the Dutch stance was to some extent disingenuous.”

 – Willibrord Davids (chairperson), et. al., The Permanent Mission of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the United Nations: “Conclusions of the Committee of Inquiry on Iraq,” Jan. 12, 2010

The conclusion of the Davids Commission (the Dutch enquiry into the war in Iraq) said, in its January 12, 2010, report: “Within the Dutch intelligence services, neither the AIVD (General Intelligence and Security Service) nor the MIVD (Military Intelligence and Security Service) possessed any significant amount of independently sourced information about Iraq’s WMD programme. Both services based their assessments largely on the reports of the UN weapons inspectors and information supplied by foreign intelligence services.”

 – Willibrord Davids (chairperson), et. al., The Permanent Mission of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the United Nations: “Conclusions of the Committee of Inquiry on Iraq,” Jan. 12, 2010

The conclusion of the Davids Commission (the Dutch enquiry into the war in Iraq) said, in its January 12, 2010, report: “The AIVD [General Intelligence and Security Service] performed little internal analysis of Iraq’s WMD programme. Nevertheless, AIVD did observe Iraqi attempts at procurement within the Netherlands in the context of its non-proliferation remit.”

 – Willibrord Davids (chairperson), et. al., The Permanent Mission of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the United Nations: “Conclusions of the Committee of Inquiry on Iraq,” Jan. 12, 2010

“An exhaustive enquiry carried out by an independent enquiry in the Netherlands has determined that there was no basis whatsoever in international law for the war in Iraq, meaning that those who carried it out, who were behind the wanton destruction of the State of Iraq and the numerous massacres and human rights violations carried out during the campaign since 2003 are war criminals. The Davids Report, a 551-page document released yesterday [January 12, 2010], is an exhaustive independent enquiry carried out in the Netherlands to examine the Dutch participation in the war in Iraq. Its conclusion is as crystal clear as it is simple to understand: There was no basis in international law for this war.”

 – Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey, “The Iraq War was Illegal,” Pravda, Jan. 13, 2010

“Echoing recent comments from former Bush administration officials, [former New York City Mayor] Rudy Giuliani defended former President George Bush’s record on terrorism Friday [January 8, 2010], saying the country was not subjected to domestic terror attacks when he was in office. ‘We had no domestic attacks under Bush; we’ve had one under Obama,’ Giuliani said on ABC’s Good Morning America.”

 – Alexander Mooney, “Giuliani Says no ‘Domestic Terror Attacks’ Under Bush,” CNN, Jan. 8, 2010

“A Gallup poll conducted in January [8] 2010 showed that 71 percent of those polled felt that those who ‘fit the profile’ of suspected terrorists should be subjected to more intensive security checks before being permitted to board airplanes.”

 – Susan Herman, Taking Liberties, Page 197

Umar Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian who used an underwear bomb in a failed attempt to blow up an airplane flying into Detroit, “previously had been in Yemen, where he had contact with the branch of bin Laden’s group called al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). Earlier intelligence had focused solely on that branch conducting terrorist attacks inside Yemen.” According to chief counterterrorism adviser John Brennan’s January 7, 2010 report: ” ‘We did not pay sufficient attention to them being able to send an attacker against us.’ ”

 – Bob Woodward, Obama’s Wars, Page 341

WikiLeaks disclosed a January 7, 2010, State Department document, which claimed that Treasury Department Acting Assistant Secretary of the Office of Intelligence and Analysis Howard Mendelsohn “stated that the Taliban receives significant money from narcotics trafficking and extortion, but noted that the U.S. believes that the group also receives significant funds from the Gulf, particularly from donors in Saudi Arabia and the UAE [United Arab Emirates]. He further stated that the Taliban and Haqqani [insurgent] Network are believed to earn money from UAE-based business interests.”

 – “US Embassy Cables: Taliban/Haqqani fundraisers sneaking into Saudi Arabia,” The Guardian (courtesy Wikileaks), Dec. 5, 2010

“In January [6] 2010, Kai Eide, the UN special representative for Afghanistan, presented a devastating report to the UN Security Council in which he said that the U.S. emphasis on security over social and developmental issues would doom any efforts to stabilize the country. ‘We will fail,’ he warned the UN. ‘What we need is a strategy that is politically and not militarily driven.’ Civilian deaths had risen by 14 percent in 2009, he said, compared to the previous year. ‘If these negative trends are not reversed and reversed soon, there is the danger that the combination of them will become unmanageable.’ The central government was being weakened, he said, as 80 percent of all aid was financed directly by Western governments rather than by Kabul. Eide made it clear that the entire U.S. surge had been put in place in the absence of an overarching political and economic strategy.”

 – Ahmed Rashid, Pakistan on the Brink, Page 101

“President Obama said Tuesday [January 5, 2010] that the government had sufficient information to uncover the terror plot to bring down a commercial jetliner on Christmas Day, but that intelligence officials had ‘failed to connect those dots.’ ‘This was not a failure to collect intelligence,’ Mr. Obama said after meeting with his national security team for nearly two hours. ‘It was a failure to integrate and understand the intelligence that we already had.’ He added: ‘We have to do better, we will do better, and we have to do it quickly. American lives are on the line.’ ”

 – Jeff Zeleny and Helene Cooper, “Obama Says U.S. Failed to Understand Intelligence on Terror Plot,” The New York Times, Jan. 5, 2010

In a New York Times article on January 4, 2010, Professor Sheldon Jacobson “argued that our [aviation security] spending is actually making us less secure. ‘Spending billions of dollars on screening the wrong people uses up finite resources,’ he wrote. ‘If we keep focusing on stopping terrorist tactics rather than stopping the terrorists themselves, the aviation security system will never reach an acceptable level of security. More screening can actually result in less security by directing security attention and resources (which by definition, are finite) onto people who are not a threat, which in turn moves such attention and resources away from people who are a threat.’ ”

 – Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, Bin Laden’s Legacy, Page 213

“When the first two American missile strikes against Qaeda camps in Yemen took place in December 2009, [Yemeni President] Mr. [Ali Abdullah] Saleh publicly claimed that they were Yemeni strikes to avert any anti-American backlash. [Central Command leader] Gen. David H. Petraeus flew to Yemen to thank the president, who promised to keep up the ruse. ‘We’ll continue saying the bombs are ours, not yours,’ Mr. Saleh said [on January 2, 2010], according to a cable.”

 – Scott Shane, “WikiLeaks Archive – U.S. Helps Yemen Defy Al Qaeda,” The New York Times, Dec. 3, 2010

“Al Qaeda struck a major blow on December 31, 2009, when it used a Jordanian double agent to inflict the worst-ever casualties on the CIA: the man blew himself up at a U.S. base in the southeastern province of Khost [Afghanistan], killing seven CIA officers and a Jordanian military officer.”

 – Ahmed Rashid, Pakistan on the Brink, Page 102

“In December [31] 2009, a criminal case against former [private security contractor] Blackwater personnel [for their involvement in the killing of 17 Iraqi civilians on September 16, 2007] was dismissed in a 90-page opinion by Judge Richard M. Urbina of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, stating that the ‘government’s mishandling of the case requires dismissal of the indictment against all defendants.’ The decision enraged Iraqis, and in an attempt to quell political tensions, Vice President [Joe] Biden announced in Baghdad that the DOJ [Department of Justice] would appeal the dismissal.”

 – M. Cherif Bassiouni, The Institutionalization of Torture by the Bush Administration, Page 216

“The extent of the cooperation between the Pakistani Taliban and al-Qaeda could be seen in the suicide bombing that killed seven CIA officers and contractors in the American base at Khost in eastern Afghanistan on December 30, 2009. The suicide bomber, Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, a Jordanian doctor, was a double agent: information he had earlier provided to the CIA was used to target militants in Pakistan.”

 – Peter Bergen, The Longest War, Page 211

“In 2009 a Jordanian using the nom de guerre Abu Dujannah al Khorasani…persuaded the Jordanian General Intelligence Department (GID) to take him on as a double agent against al Qaeda. Under his real name, Human Khalil Abu Mulal al Balawi, he had previously been a propaganda specialist for al Qaeda’s franchise in Iraq and its dead leader Abu Musaib al Zarqawi, so his story seemed plausible. Khorasani went from Jordan to Pakistan and on his arrival contacted the GID, claiming to have information on the location of [al Qaeda second-in-command Ayman al] Zawahiri. The bait was dangled. But Khorsani was actually a triple agent, still working for al Qaeda. On December 30, 2009, he blew himself up once inside the CIA’s base in Khost, Afghanistan, killing seven CIA officers and the Jordanian intelligence specialist who was his case officer. …It was the second worst day ever in CIA history. …Al Qaeda took credit for the attack…”

 – Bruce Riedel, Deadly Embrace, Page 99

From coverage of classified State Department documents exposed by WikiLeaks: “Saudi Arabia is the world’s largest source of funds for Islamist militant groups such as the Afghan Taliban and Lashkar-e-Taiba [LeT]–but the Saudi government is reluctant to stem the flow of money, according to [Secretary of State] Hillary Clinton. ‘More needs to be done since Saudi Arabia remains a critical financial support base for al-Qaida, the Taliban, LeT and other terrorist groups,’ says a secret December [30] 2009 paper signed by the US secretary of state. Her memo urged US diplomats to redouble their efforts to stop Gulf money reaching extremists in Pakistan and Afghanistan. ‘Donors in Saudi Arabia constitute the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide,’ she said. Three other Arab countries are listed as sources of militant money: Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.”

 – Declan Walsh, “WikiLeaks Cables Portray Saudi Arabia as a Cash Machine for Terrorists,” The Guardian, Dec. 5, 2010

WikiLeaks disclosed a secret paper signed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on December 30, 2009, which read: “While the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) takes seriously the threat of terrorism within Saudi Arabia, it has been an ongoing challenge to persuade Saudi officials to treat terrorist financing emanating from Saudi Arabia as a strategic priority. Due in part to intense focus by the USG [U.S. Government] over the last several years, Saudi Arabia has begun to make important progress on this front and has responded to terrorist financing concerns raised by the United States through proactively investigating and detaining financial facilitators of concern. Still, donors in Saudi Arabia constitute the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide. Continued senior-level USG engagement is needed to build on initial efforts and encourage the Saudi government to take more steps to stem the flow of funds from Saudi Arabia-based sources to terrorists and extremists worldwide.”

 – “US Embassy Cables: Taliban/Haqqani fundraisers sneaking into Saudi Arabia,” The Guardian (courtesy Wikileaks), Dec. 5, 2010

“[T]he suicide bomber who killed eight people inside a CIA base in Afghanistan [on December 30, 2009] was a Jordanian doctor recruited by Jordanian intelligence to support U.S. efforts against al-Qaida. The bombing killed seven CIA employees–four officers and three contracted security guards–and a Jordanian intelligence officer, Ali bin Zaid, according to a second former U.S. intelligence official. …the bomber was Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, a 36-year old doctor from Zarqa, Jordan. He was arrested over a year ago by Jordanian intelligence, and was thought to have been flipped to support U.S. and Jordanian efforts against al-Qaida.”

 – Pamela Hess and Adam Goldman, “AP Sources: Bomber at CIA Base was from Jordan,” Associated Press, Jan. 4, 2010

“The CIA thought it had its best chance yet to strike at [al-Qaida second-in-command Ayman] al-Zawahri last year [2009] when a doctor working with Jordanian intelligence claimed to offer new details suggesting the terrorist leader suffered from diabetes. The former and current U.S. officials said there were already indications al-Zawahri might have the disease. CIA officers began working with the informant, Humam al-Balawi, believing the doctor might gain access to al-Zawahri for medical reasons, the former officials said. When al-Balawi was taken to meet with CIA officials at a secret base in Khost, in eastern Afghanistan, last Dec. 30 [2009], the double agent detonated hidden explosives as the officials neared him.” Seven CIA agents were killed.

 – Adam Goldman and Kathy Gannon, “AP Exclusive: Close Calls for Al Qaeda’s No. 2,” Associated Press, Nov. 29, 2010

“In December [27, 2009], Mary Matalin–a former senior adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney–made comments that seemed to place the 9/11 attacks under President Clinton’s watch. ‘We inherited a recession from President Clinton and we inherited the most tragic attack on our own soil in our nation’s history,’ Matalin, a CNN analyst, told [journalist] John King on CNN’s ‘State of the Union’…”

 – Alexander Mooney, “Giuliani Says no ‘Domestic Terror Attacks’ Under Bush,” CNN, Jan. 8, 2010

“On Christmas Day 2009, a 23-year-old Nigerian named Umar Abdulmutallab attempted to detonate a bomb sewn into his underwear on a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit. The bomb fizzled, igniting but not exploding. The plane landed safely with 300 on board.”

 – Bob Woodward, Obama’s Wars, Page 340

On December 25, 2009, Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab "boarded Northwest Airlines Flight 253 in Amsterdam, which was bound for Detroit with some three hundred passengers and crew on board. Secreted in his underwear was a bomb made with eighty grams of PETN, a plastic explosive that was not detected at airport security in Amsterdam or the Nigerian city of Lagos, from where he had originally flown. He also carried a syringe with a chemical initiator that would set off the bomb. As the plane neared Detroit the young man…tried to initiate his bomb with the chemical, setting himself on fire and suffering severe burns. Some combination of his own ineptitude, faulty bomb construction, and the quick actions of the passengers and crew who subdued him and extinguished the fire prevented an explosion that might have brought down the plane… Immediately after he was arrested Abdulmutallab told investigators that the explosive device 'was acquired in Yemen along with instructions as to when it should be used.' "

 – Peter Bergen, The Longest War, 304

“AQAP [al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula] was responsible for the attempt to blow up Northwest Airlines flight 253 en route from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day 2009. The Nigerian suicide bomber [Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab] failed to detonate his bomb as the plane was descending over southern Ontario and a Dutch tourist alertly raised the alarm. The attempt showed that al Qaeda remains fixated on the airline industry as a prime target.”

 – Bruce Riedel, Deadly Embrace, Page 103

“The Yemeni government has been fighting a growing al Qaeda element in Yemen called al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. The militant offshoot group grabbed the attention of the West with the attempted bombing of a Northwest Airlines trans-Atlantic flight as it landed in Detroit, Michigan, on December 25 [2009]. The suspect, Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab, who has pleaded not guilty to six federal terrorism charges, was reportedly trained and armed in Yemen.”

 – Mohammed Jamjoom, “Official: Yemen Launches Fierce Offensive Against al Qaeda,” CNN, Sep. 21, 2010

In December 2009, “West Point’s Combating Terrorism Center published a study entitled ‘Deadly Vanguards: A Study of al-Qaeda Violence Against Muslims.’ The study showed that between 2004 and 2008, a mere 15 percent of the 3,010 victims in al-Qaeda’s attacks were Westerners. From 2006 to 2008, only 2 percent (or 12 of 661) of the victims were Westerners. The other 98 percent were inhabitants of countries in which there is a Muslim majority. Many in the media took this report to be a sure sign of al-Qaeda’s demise, proof that its war really was against other Muslims.” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]

 – Michael Scheuer, Osama Bin Laden, Page 172

“A study published in December 2009 by the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point concludes that ‘the vast majority of al Qaeda’s victims are Muslims: the analysis here shows that only 15% of the fatalities resulting from al Qaeda attacks between 2004 and 2008 were Westerners.” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]

 – Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, Bin Laden’s Legacy, Page 182

“At a December 13 [2009] regional security conference hosted by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, [Central Command leader General David] Petraeus gave his interpretation of [President Barack] Obama’s [December 1] West Point speech. He noted, ‘In July 2011, we will begin–and I stress the word begin–to draw down our forces [in Afghanistan] in the process whose pace depends on the security conditions on the ground. …This does not mean we will *race for the exits* in 2011–far from it.’ ”

 – Bob Woodward, Obama’s Wars, Page 337

” ‘The United States really has gotten its head into this conflict [in Afghanistan],’ Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said [in The New York Times on December 13, 2009], ‘only in the last year [2009].’ “

 – Bing West, The Wrong War, Page xxi

“Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has said he would have found a justification for invading Iraq even without the now-discredited evidence that Saddam Hussein was trying to produce weapons of mass destruction. ‘I would still have thought it right to remove him. I mean, obviously you would have had to use and deploy different arguments about the nature of the threat,’ Blair told the BBC in an interview to be broadcast this morning [December 13, 2009].”

 – Henry Chu, “WMD Not Point of Iraq War, Tony Blair says,” The Los Angeles Times, Dec. 13, 2009

From information in the classified State Department documents exposed by WikiLeaks: ” ‘All Iraq’s neighbors were interfering, albeit in different ways, the Gulf and Saudi Arabia with money, Iran with money and political influence, and the Syrians by all means,’ Jalal Talabani, Iraq’s president and the senior Kurdish official in the government, told Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates in a Dec. 10, 2009, meeting, according to a diplomatic cable. ‘The Turks are *polite* in their interference, but continue their attempts to influence Iraq’s Turkmen community and Sunnis in Mosul.’ ”

 – Michael R. Gordon, “WikiLeaks Archive – Meddling Neighbors Torment Iraq,” The New York Times, Dec. 5, 2010

“Secretary of Defense Bob Gates told Congress recently [on December 2, 2009] that ‘the Taliban and al Qaeda have become symbiotic, each benefiting from the success and mythology of the other.’ “

 – Bruce Riedel, Deadly Embrace, Page 100

At West Point on December 1, 2009, President Barack Obama “announced he was sending 30,000 more U.S. troops [to Afghanistan]. ‘I make this decision because I am convinced that our security is at stake,’ Obama said. ‘In the last few months alone, we have apprehended extremists within our borders who were sent here from the border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan to commit new acts of terror. And this danger will only grow if the region slides backwards, and al Qaeda can operate with impunity.’ The plan was for Afghanistan to eventually stand on its own two feet, so the U.S. could ‘begin the transfer of our forces out of Afghanistan in July of 2011,’ he said. Without irony, Obama held up what was happening in Iraq as a model. ‘Just as we have done in Iraq, we will execute this transition responsibly, taking into account conditions on the ground.’ There was no talk of victory or winning.”

 – Bob Woodward, Obama’s Wars, Pages 334-335

In a speech at West Point on December 1, 2009, President Barack “Obama announced the thirty thousand new troops of the Afghan surge, but most news accounts of the speech seized on the fact that the president also said that some of those troops would be coming home in July 2011 as they transferred responsibility for a number of Afghanistan’s provinces to Afghan security forces. However, there was a large and little-noticed caveat inserted in the speech: that this drawdown would be based on conditions on the ground. And at the time only one of Afghanistan’s thirty-four provinces was under the control of the Afghan army and police, and that was Kabul itself.”

 – Peter Bergen, The Longest War, Page 333

On December 1, 2009, “President Barack Obama told the world that 30,000 additional U.S. troops would be headed to Afghanistan in 2010, on top of the nearly 20,000 he had already added since he came to office in January 2009.”

 – Dov S. Zakheim, A Vulcan’s Tale, Page 1

On December 1, 2009, “President Obama announced his revised strategy. ‘It is in our vital national interest to send an additional 30,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan,’ he said in a televised speech at West Point. ‘After eighteen months, our troops will begin to come home.’ ”

 – Bing West, The Wrong War, Page 189

“On December 1st [2009], in a speech at West Point, the president [Barack Obama] laid out all the reasons why fighting the war in Afghanistan is a bad idea: It’s expensive; we’re in an economic crisis; a decade-long commitment would sap American power; Al Qaeda has shifted its base of operations to Pakistan. Then, without ever using the words ‘victory’ or ‘win,’ Obama announced that he would send an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan, almost as many as [Commander of U.S. and NATO Forces in Afghanistan General Stanley] McChrystal had requested.”

 – Michael Hastings, “The Runaway General,” Rolling Stone, July 8-22, 2010

“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 the last minute by White House aides, without conferring with the State Department or the Pentagon, led to consternation in the region. The plan was poorly explained by Obama; all the regional countries (Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, and India) and the Taliban understood it to mean that the United States was on the way out and that the end-game had begun. They began to flex their muscles for future influence in Afghanistan. Obama emerged from the speech as vacillating and contrarian. He was flexing American muscle, then stopping short by putting a time limit to the surge. He insisted that any pullout be conditions-based but then gave an actual pullout date. He was going on the offensive but then announcing when that offensive would end.”

 – Ahmed Rashid, Pakistan on the Brink, Pages 100-101

“…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 States would strike anywhere in Pakistan if senior Al Qaeda leaders were discovered. Zardari deferred to the military, and his late reply to Obama was noncommittal. In retrospect, Pakistan had lost an opportunity, because it was the last time Obama would offer something more than a threat-filled relationship.” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]

 – Ahmed Rashid, Pakistan on the Brink, Page 151

“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 from where hijackers for Al Qaeda destroyed the World Trade Center, killing nearly 2,750 people. Mr. Holder said he would instruct prosecutors to seek death sentences for Mr. Mohammed and four accused Sept. 11 co-conspirators who would be tried alongside him. But while the civilian system would handle those cases, he said five other detainees would be prosecuted before a military commission. Those facing a military trial include Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, who is accused of planning Al Qaeda’s 2000 bombing of the Navy destroyer Cole in Yemen. All 10 detainees are being held at the military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.”

 – Charlie Savage, “U.S. to Try Avowed 9/11 Mastermind Before Civilian Court in New York,” The New York Times, Nov. 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. An economically dependent and politically subservient Iraq would foster greater strategic depth for Tehran. Iranian president [Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad has referred to Iraq in recent press statements as *a Shia base* confronting the broader menace perpetrated by those opposed to Iraq’s identity and stability (i.e., Sunni states, the West).’ ”

 – “US Embassy Cables: Iran Attempts to Manipulate Iraq Elections,” The Guardian (courtesy Wikileaks), Dec. 4, 2010

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 junior) strategic partner. As a result, Iran will continue to flex its muscles to ensure its strategic outcomes are met. This should not lead to alarmist tendencies or reactions on our part. The next Iraqi government will continue to cultivate close ties with Iran given long-standing historical realities that precede Iraq’s ties with the United States.”

 – “US Embassy Cables: Iran Attempts to Manipulate Iraq Elections,” The Guardian (courtesy Wikileaks), Dec. 4, 2010

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 political groups in Iraq was $100 million to $200 million. Some $70 million of that, the cable asserts, is directed to the Islamic Supreme Council in Iraq, a leading Shiite party that has also worked closely with American officials, and its former militia, the Badr Corps. …the ambassador acknowledged Iran’s pragmatism: ‘The IRIG [Iranian government] recognizes that influence in Iraq requires operational (and at times ideological) flexibility. As a result, it is not uncommon for the IRIG to finance and support competing Shia, Kurdish, and to some extent, Sunni entities, with the aim of developing the Iraqi body politic’s dependency on Tehran’s largesse.’ ”

 – Michael R. Gordon, “WikiLeaks Archive – Meddling Neighbors Torment Iraq,” The New York Times, Dec. 5, 2010

“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 plan was eventually tabled.”

 – M. Cherif Bassiouni, The Institutionalization of Torture by the Bush Administration, Page 256

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

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

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 make it difficult, if not impossible, to bring our people home on a reasonable timetable.’ ”

 – Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Little America, Pages 123-124

“Major Nidal Malik Hasan, a Palestinian-American medical officer and a rigidly observant Muslim who made no secret to his fellow officers of his opposition to America’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, went on a shooting spree at the giant Army base at Fort Hood, Texas, on November 5, 2009, killing thirteen and wounding many more. This attack seems to have been an attempted suicide operation in which Hasan planned a jihadist ‘death-by-cop.’ ”

 – Peter Bergen, The Longest War, Page 239

Palestinian-American citizen “Nidal Malik Hassan…killed thirteen and wounded thirty of his fellow soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas, on November 5, 2009…”

 – Bruce Riedel, Deadly Embrace, Page 103

In 2003, CIA members unlawfully rendered Egyptian imam Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr from Italy to Egypt, where he underwent torture. On November 4, 2009, “Twenty-two CIA agents are convicted in absentia in Milan, Italy for violations of Italian and international law with regard to acts of torture as a result of the practice of ‘extraordinary rendition.’ ”

 – M. Cherif Bassiouni, The Institutionalization of Torture by the Bush Administration, Page xlix

“In October [28] 2009, President [Barack] Obama signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010, which included the Military Commissions Act of 2009. While the legislation sought to remedy the defects of the 2006 Act, it retained the basic structure of the military commissions and failed to address many substantive rule of law concerns. While evidence obtained through torture or otherwise coerced interrogations has been made inadmissible, the Secretary of Defense retains the right to enact rules which permit coerced statements and hearsay evidence. The term ‘unlawful enemy combatant’ has been replaced with ‘unlawful enemy belligerent,’–little more than a cosmetic legal makeover. Under the new law, defendants have the right to attend their entire trial and examine all evidence presented against them, to cross-examine witnesses against them, and to call their own witnesses.”

 – M. Cherif Bassiouni, The Institutionalization of Torture by the Bush Administration, Page 136

Regarding the war in Afghanistan: “On October 22 [2009], former vice president [Dick] Cheney charged in a speech that ‘the White House must stop dithering while America’s armed forces are in danger.’ “

 – Peter Bergen, The Longest War, Page 326

According to a Newsweek article on October 21, 2009: “Since 2001, the United States has given Pakistan over $15 billion.”

 – Bing West, The Wrong War, Page 124

” ‘Operation Iraqi Freedom’ consistently received around five times more U.S. funding than ‘Operation Enduring Freedom’ in Afghanistan. And Iraq consumed the bulk of President Bush’s focus and effort. Senior U.S. intelligence official David Gordon recalls [in an interview with journalist Peter Bergen on October 15, 2009]: ‘The president was just way too committed to Iraq to think about changing the weight of the commitments.’ “

 – Peter Bergen, The Longest War, Page 182

“…a panel of experts appointed by the United Nations issued findings in October [2009] showing that fraud [in the August 20, 2009, presidential election in Afghanistan] was in fact so widespread that almost a quarter of all the votes had to be thrown out and as a result [incumbent President Hamid] Karzai had not won the 50 percent of the vote he needed to be declared the winner.” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]

 – Peter Bergen, The Longest War, Page 321

“Some seven hundred reporters and photographers were embedded with American forces when the war in Iraq began. …The program posed risks for the journalists. [According to information released in October 2009] From 2003 to 2009, seven embedded reporters were killed in Iraq, and several others were wounded.” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]

 – Donald Rumsfeld, Known and Unknown, Page 465

President Barack “Obama awoke that next morning [October 9, 2009] to learn that he had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.”

 – Bob Woodward, Obama’s Wars, Page 213

On Fox News Sunday on October 4, 2009, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) “quoted [Commander of U.S. and NATO Forces in Afghanistan General Stanley] McChrystal as saying that without reinforcements the U.S. would not defeat the Taliban. Eight Americans had just been killed in Afghanistan, Graham said. ‘The president [Obama] has a window of time here to seriously deliberate, but it’s running out. And what you saw yesterday is exactly what awaits this country–our troops cannot change the momentum. They’re sitting ducks. They need to be reinforced.’ ”

 – Bob Woodward, Obama’s Wars, Page 205

On October 1, 2009, Commander of U.S. Forces in Afghanistan General Stanley “McChrystal gave a speech in London at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a leading think tank. During his speech and in the course of the Q&A with the audience, McChrystal made it clear that he believed that a policy in Afghanistan that focused largely on counterterrorism…would lead to failure there, instead it required a full-blown counterinsurgency campaign.”

 – Peter Bergen, The Longest War, Page 323

From coverage of classified State Department documents exposed by WikiLeaks: “Iraqi government officials see Saudi Arabia, not Iran, as the biggest threat to the integrity and cohesion of their fledgling democratic state, leaked US state department cables reveal. …’Iraq views relations with Saudi Arabia as among its most challenging given Riyadh’s money, deeply ingrained anti-Shia attitudes and [Saudi] suspicions that a Shia-led Iraq will inevitably further Iranian regional influence,’ [Ambassador to Iraq Christopher] Hill writes [on September 24, 2009]. ‘Iraqi contacts assess that the Saudi goal (and that of most other Sunni Arab states, to varying degrees) is to enhance Sunni influence, dilute Shia dominance and promote the formation of a weak and fractured Iraqi government.’ ”

 – Simon Tisdall, “WikiLeaks Cables: Saudi Arabia Rated a Bigger Threat to Iraqi Stability than Iran,” The Guardian, Dec. 5, 2010

From coverage of classified State Department documents exposed by WikiLeaks: “In a Sept. 24, 2009, cable titled ‘Prime Minister Accuses Iran of Trying to DeStabilize Iraq,’ Ambassador [to Iraq Christopher] Hill reported that [Prime Minister] Mr. [Nuri Kamal al-] Maliki had told him that Iran was trying to use its money and influence to try to ‘control’ the Iraqi Parliament and was prepared to provide military support to Shiite militants if political efforts failed. Iran, Ambassador Hill quoted Mr. Maliki as saying, was trying to rally the Shiites to counter the ‘Saudi project to align the Sunni states.’ ”

 – Michael R. Gordon, “WikiLeaks Archive – Meddling Neighbors Torment Iraq,” The New York Times, Dec. 5, 2010

“A propaganda video released by Al Sahab [al Qaeda’s media company] in September [22] 2009… claimed that ‘the blessed invasions against America, and its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, are the main factors that expedited the emergence of the fall of the capitalistic economics that governs the rest of the economy of the world.’ ”

 – Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, Bin Laden’s Legacy, Page 168

An “FBI investigation, called Operation High Rise, was triggered by a single alert Central Intelligence Agency analyst examining intercepts. On September 19, 2009, [FBI] agents arrested Najibullah Zazi, 24, in Denver. He was an al Qaeda operative who was planning to detonate up to 14 backpack bombs aboard New York City subway cars.”

 – Bob Woodward, Obama’s Wars, Page 122

Afghan-American al-Qaeda recruit Najibullah Zazi “was in fact planning to launch what could have been the deadliest terrorist attack in the United States using…seemingly innocuous hair bleach to assemble homemade bombs, a signature of al-Qaeda plots in recent years. …Zazi was spotted in downtown Manhattan on Wall Street on the eighth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks just a few blocks from the gaping hole where the World Trade Center had once stood. By then he was under heavy FBI surveillance and eight days later [September 19, 2009] Zazi was arrested. He later admitted that ‘the plan was to conduct martyrdom operations on subway lines in Manhattan.’ Zazi was the first genuine al-Qaeda recruit to be discovered living in the United States in six years.”

 – Peter Bergen, The Longest War, Page 234

“In September 2009, the Somali Islamist insurgent group Al Shabab formally pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden following a two-year period in which it had recruited Somali-Americans and other U.S. Muslims to fight in the war in Somalia.” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]

 – Peter Bergen, The Longest War, Page 237

“…in early 2009 an American citizen of Afghan descent named Najibullah Zazi traveled to Pakistan intending to join the Afghan Taliban and fight the NATO forces. The Taliban recognized his value and instead persuaded him to work for al Qaeda. He was then trained in bomb-making by Rashid Rauf, the British citizen who had been the key link between al Qaeda and the August 2006 plot to blow up multiple airliners over the Atlantic on the fifth anniversary of 9/11. …Another Afghan American and a Bosnian American joined the plot. The three planned to blow themselves up on New York City subway trains on the first Monday after the 9/11 anniversary in [September 14] 2009. They were to strike at 9 a.m., the peak of rush hour, and attack the trains as they moved through Times Square, Grand Central, and the Port Authority stations. The FBI arrested them before they could execute their plan, and Zazi has since pleaded guilty.”

 – Bruce Riedel, Deadly Embrace, Page 99

Osama bin Laden “released an audiotape in September [14] 2009 linking the U.S. war on al Qaeda and other jihadi groups to America’s astronomically high debt. Referring to America’s decision to invade Afghanistan, bin Laden again invoked the ghost of the Soviet Union. ‘Russian generals,’ he said, ‘who learned lessons from the battles in Afghanistan, had anticipated the result of the war before its start, but you do not like those who give you advice. This is a losing war, God willing, as it is funded by money that is borrowed based on exorbitant usury.’ Bin Laden continued, ‘The accumulated debts incurred as a result of this war have almost done away with the U.S. economy as a whole.’ ”

 – Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, Bin Laden’s Legacy, Page 168

“On September 13, 2009, President [Barack] Obama convened the first meeting of his war cabinet to develop a strategy to stabilize Afghanistan and reverse the gains that the Taliban had made during the past several years.”

 – Peter Bergen, The Longest War, Page 321

“…in September [11] 2009, the D.C. Court of Appeals dismissed a five year old civil suit against two American military contractors, CACI International and L-3 Communications Holdings’ Titan unit. Both companies were being sued by Iraqi victims of torture for mistreatment and torture committed at Abu Ghraib; however, the Court dismissed the claim saying that the companies had immunity as government contractors. The opinion went on to say that even if the companies did not have immunity as government contractors, the case would still have been dismissed because the conduct alleged, which included eye gouging, spearing, roping naked prisoners together by their genitals, beatings with an electric stick, sodomy, and urinating on prisoners, was not sufficient to meet the standard of torture.”

 – M. Cherif Bassiouni, The Institutionalization of Torture by the Bush Administration, Page 216

From coverage of classified State Department documents exposed by WikiLeaks: “The president of Yemen secretly offered US forces unrestricted access to his territory to conduct unilateral strikes against al-Qaida terrorist targets, the leaked US embassy cables reveal. In a move that risked outraging local and Arab opinion, Ali Abdullah Saleh told [President] Barack Obama’s deputy national security adviser, John Brennan, in September [6] 2009: ‘I have given you an open door on terrorism. so I am not responsible,’ according to a secret dispatch back to Washington. In reality, despite the offer of an ‘open door,’ Yemen has restricted access for US forces in order to avoid playing into the hands of Saleh’s domestic critics. The cables expose for the first time the true scale of America’s covert military involvement in the Arab world’s poorest nation amid deep concern in Washington that it has become the haven for al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (Aqap). …While Saleh’s government publicly insists its own forces are responsible for counter-terrorism operations, the cables detail how the president struck a secret deal to allow the US to carry out cruise missile attacks on Aqap targets. The first strike in December last year, which killed dozens of civilians along with wanted jihadis, was presented by Saleh as Yemen’s own work, supported by US intelligence.”

 – Robert Booth and Ian Black, “WikiLeaks Cables: Yemen Offered US ‘Open Door’ to Attack al-Qaida on its Soil,” The Guardian, Dec. 3, 2010

“In a [September 6] 2009 meeting with John O. Brennan, President Obama’s top counterterrorism adviser, [Yemeni President] Mr. [Ali Abdullah] Saleh offered an unusual bargain. He ‘insisted that Yemen’s national territory is available for unilateral CT [counterterrorist] operations by the U.S.’–but with a catch. If there were to be an attack on a Western target, Mr. Saleh said, it would not be his fault. ‘I have given you an open door on terrorism,’ he said, ‘so I am not responsible.’ ”

 – Scott Shane, “WikiLeaks Archive – U.S. Helps Yemen Defy Al Qaeda,” The New York Times, Dec. 3, 2010

On August 30, 2009, former Vice President Dick Cheney discussed the CIA's enhanced interrogation techniques on Fox News Sunday. He said: " '…my sort of overwhelming view is that the enhanced interrogation techniques were absolutely essential in saving thousands of American lives and preventing further attacks against the United States, and giving us the intelligence we needed to go find Al Qaeda, to find their camps, to find out how they were being financed. Those interrogations were involved in the arrest of nearly all the Al Qaeda members that we were able to bring to justice. I think they were directly responsible for the fact that for eight years, we had no further mass casualty attacks against the United States. It was good policy. It was properly carried out. It worked very, very well.' [Host Chris] WALLACE: 'So even these cases where they went beyond the specific legal authorization, you're OK with it?' CHENEY: 'I am.' "

 – Bill Sammon, “Cheney: Enhanced Interrogations ‘Essential’ in Saving American Lives,” Fox News, Aug. 30, 2009,

Commander of U.S. Forces in Afghanistan General Stanley McChrystal’s August 30, 2009, assessment of the war “made a number of key points–that the situation in Afghanistan was ‘serious,’ that the Taliban…were running a de facto government in southern Afghanistan with shadow governors, sharia courts, tax collectors, and even Taliban ombudsmen to handle the complaints of the population, and that their key objectives were the control of Kandahar and Khost provinces in southeastern Afghanistan. To reverse this McChrystal recommended a ‘comprehensive counterinsurgency campaign’ to be achieved by protecting key population centers and main roads and doubling the size of the Afghan army and police. McChrystal also pointed out that ‘resources will not win the war, but under-resourcing could lose it.’ “

 – Peter Bergen, The Longest War, Pages 320-321

“After arriving in Afghanistan last June [2009], the general [Commander of U.S. and NATO Forces in Afghanistan Stanley McChrystal] conducted his own policy review, ordered up by Defense Secretary Robert Gates. The now-infamous report [released on August 30, 2009] was leaked to the press, and its conclusion was dire: If we didn’t send another 40,000 troops–swelling the number of U.S. forces in Afghanistan by nearly half–we were in danger of ‘mission failure.’ The White House was furious. McChrystal, they felt, was trying to bully Obama, opening him up to charges of being weak on national security unless he did what the general wanted.”

 – Michael Hastings, “The Runaway General,” Rolling Stone, July 8-22, 2010

In a leaked report from August 30, 2009, U.S. Commander in Afghanistan Stanley McChrystal “was blunt in describing the posture of U.S. and NATO troops: ‘Preoccupied with protection of our own forces, we have operated in a manner that distances us–physically and psychologically–from the people we seek to protect. …The insurgents cannot defeat us militarily, but we can defeat ourselves.’ ”

 – Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Little America, Page 76

U.S. Commander in Afghanistan Stanley McChrystal wrote, in a leaked report from August 30, 2009: ” ‘Our campaign in Afghanistan has been historically under-resourced and remains so today. Almost every aspect of our collective effort and associated resourcing has lagged a growing insurgency–historically a recipe for failure in COIN [counterinsurgency strategy]. Success will require a discrete *jump* to gain the initiative.’ More troops alone, he stated, ‘will not win this war, but under-resourcing could lose it. …The status quo will lead to failure.’ ”

 – Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Little America, Page 76

On August 29, 2009, Commander of U.S. and NATO Forces in Afghanistan General Stanley McChrystal delivered a confidential Initial Assessment on the situation in Afghanistan. It read: ” ‘Failure to gain the initiative and reverse insurgent momentum in the near-term (next 12 months)–while Afghan security capacity matures–risks an outcome where defeating the insurgency is no longer possible.’ In other words, the U.S. could lose the war by September 2010.”

 – Bob Woodward, Obama’s Wars, Page 176