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 […]
10/1/2009
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 […]
9/24/2009
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 […]
9/24/2009
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 […]
9/22/2009
“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.’ ” […]
9/19/2009
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 […]
9/19/2009
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 […]
9/15/2009
“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, […]
9/14/2009
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, […]
9/14/2009
“…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 […]