In Afghanistan, “When the elections took place voter turnout was estimated at between 1 and 5 per cent in most parts of Helmand and Kandahar–until major ballot stuffing for [incumbent President Hamid] Karzai began in the late hours of 20 August [2009]. In Babaji, a town in Helmand that had been reclaimed by British forces…only […]
8/20/2009
“A third European country has been identified to ABC News as providing the CIA with facilities for a secret prison for high-value al Qaeda suspects: Lithuania, the former Soviet state. Former CIA officials directly involved or briefed on the highly classified program tell ABC News that Lithuanian officials provided the CIA with a building on […]
8/20/2009
On August 20, 2009, “Afghans had gone to the polls for the first time in five years to elect their new president. The election was marred not so much by predictable Taliban violence, but rather by low turnout and by multiple and credible allegations of serious election day fraud, in particular by supporters of the […]
8/15/2009
In August 2009, “the CIA released two secret documents that assessed the information derived from its ‘high value detainees,’ which showed that while al-Qaeda leaders like [9/11 mastermind] KSM [Khalid Sheikh Mohammed] had indeed provided information under duress to their American interrogators, the content of that information was less than earth-shattering. Once of the CIA […]
8/7/2009
“On August 7 [2009], a U.S. drone fired a missile that killed Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban. The missile had caught him and his wife at night on the roof of a house in North Waziristan. Ten others were killed in the house.” – Ahmed Rashid, Pakistan on the Brink, Pages 146-147 […]
8/6/2009
On August 6, 2009, "Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, is reported dead in US drone attack." – Ahmed Rashid, Taliban, 272 […]
8/5/2009
Al Qaeda second-in-command “Ayman al Zawahiri said that the jihadi movement caused the U.S. [economic] crisis in an August [5] 2009 interview released by al Qaeda’s media company, Al Sahab Establishment for Media Production. He explained, ‘The economic recession today, caused by the battles and raids against America, was solved by the central bank through […]
7/29/2009
“…the DOJ’s [Department of Justice’s] professional conduct investigation of [Assistant Attorney General Jay] Bybee and [Deputy Chief in the Office of Legal Counsel John] Yoo [on July 29, 2009] exonerated them from professional misconduct, thus precluding bar associations’ ethics committees to consider the discipline of these two lawyers. It was concluded that the two lawyers […]
7/21/2009
As stated in “The Report of the Iraq Inquiry – Executive Summary:” “795. … In 2008, Transparency International judged Iraq to be the third most corrupt country in the world, and in mid?2009 the Assessments Staff judged that Government ministries were ‘riddled with’ corruption.” – Commissioned by the Prime Minister The Right Honourable Gordon Brown MP, […]
7/15/2009
“American diplomatic cables disclosed by WikiLeaks show that [Iraqi] Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki’s fears about outside interference are so great that he asked President Obama during a July 2009 visit to Washington to stop the Saudis from intervening. Saudi Arabia’s efforts to rally the Sunnis, the Iraqi leader complained, were heightening sectarian tensions and […]