Microsoft Network, promoting its new bing! search engine, recently featured a demo search of “angry Americans.”

It caught my attention, because history has shown that times of economic uncertainty — as we’re currently experiencing while bogged down in two wars in the aftermath of 9/11 — can be a fertile breeding ground for extremist ideologies, as we saw in Germany during the Great Depression followed a humiliating defeat in World War I.

Following are the search results.

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Clinton Faces Pakistani Ire Over Drone Attacks

Video

Clinton on tough questions in Pakistan (NBC Nightly News, Oct. 30, 2009) – Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says that she doesn’t think she was too blunt while answering questions during her visit to Pakistan, saying, “It was actually very healthy that there was no false politeness.” NBC’s Andrea Mitchell reports. (02:58)

Oct. 30, 2009

ISLAMABAD – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton faced sharp rebukes from Pakistani audiences Friday, including one woman who accused the U.S. of conducting “executions without trial” in aerial drone strikes. Slapping back, Clinton questioned Pakistan’s commitment to fighting terrorists.

“Somebody, somewhere in Pakistan must know where these people are,” Clinton said in an exchange almost as blunt as her exasperated comments a day earlier that Pakistani officials lacked the will to target al-Qaida.

Her stormy three-day visit, rocked at the start by a terrorist blast in Peshawar that killed 105 Pakistanis, revealed clear signs of strain between the two nations despite months of public insistence that they were on the same wavelength in the war on terror.

By speaking bluntly about the Pakistanis’ failure to find and eliminate top al-Qaida leaders — eight years after they were run out of Afghanistan — Clinton appeared to be trying to prod the Pakistanis to go beyond their current military campaign against internal militants in South Waziristan.

Pakistan’s army recently launched a major offensive in the border area to clear out Pakistani Taliban elements from hideouts there. But two earlier army efforts made little progress there — leaving questions about the military’s resolve to tackle al-Qaida head-on. …

During the visit and talks with Pakistani leaders, Clinton found herself repeatedly on the defensive from ordinary Pakistanis brimming with resentment toward U.S. foreign policy.

During a live broadcast of an interview before a predominantly female audience of several hundred, Clinton struggled to avoid describing the classified U.S. effort to target terrorists, and still try to explain the efforts of American foreign policy. …

Irfan Mahmood / AP U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton talks with Pakistani tribal leaders in Islamabad, Oct. 30, 2009.

As she sparred with Pakistani citizens and journalists, Clinton faced sharp questions about the secret U.S. program that uses unmanned aircraft to launch missiles to kill terrorists along the porous, ungoverned border with Afghanistan.

But she refused to go into detail about the classified strikes that have killed both key terror leaders and bystanders, long a source of outrage among Pakistan’s population despite an equally deadly campaign of militant-spawned bombings.

Asked repeatedly about the drones, a subject that involves highly classified CIA operations, Clinton said only that “there is a war going on.” She added that the Obama administration is committed to helping Pakistan defeat the insurgents. …

FROM THE ARCHIVES: One Year Ago — October 30, 2008

Write-in Campaign: Day 12

One year ago today, on the 12th day of my write-in campaign against U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, in line with my focus on national security, I reported a suicide bombing attack on the Afghan Ministry of Information and Culture targeting foreign advisers in Kabul, the downing of a U.S. helicopter in central Afghanistan, the killing of two U.S. soldiers in northern Afghanistan by a suicide bomber wearing a police uniform, and ongoing violence in Iraq.

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A couple of weeks ago, the New York Times published a poorly researched, superficial, misleading, mostly puff piece on U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, titled “A G.O.P. agitator not named Palin” (Oct. 14, 2009) under the byline Monica Davey.

In 2006, newly elected Representative Michele Bachmann talked with a reporter while an aide, Andy Parrish, held her purse. (Photo: Stephen Crowley / The New York Times)

Bill Prendergast’s response at Minnesota Progressive Project is right on the mark. I republish his commentary here in its entirety, courtesy of the author.

New York Times Piece Profiles Bachmann

By Bill Prendergast
Minnesota Progressive Project
Oct. 15, 2009

Yea, up there on Olympus — they have finally taken notice of the national political phenomenon that is Michele Bachmann. Unfortunately, it looks like most of the piece was phoned in. King Banaian of NARN is quoted, but apparently the reporter didn’t read any of the editorials on Bachmann in the Twin Cities or Bachmann’s own Sixth District. Apparently they don’t believe in Lexis-Nexis at the NYT.

Bachmann opponent Tarryl Clark is quoted and manages to throw the fact of home foreclosures into this NYT article, tossing it over the transom. But a statement about Bachmann’s “great constituent service” goes unchallenged, even though it would seem to contradict the fact of the home foreclosures ([Bachmann's district ranks] highest in Minnesota, this year).

Nevertheless, I am used to having to climb over the daily wall of idiots reporting on this modern-day McCarthy — so come over the top with me this time, into the NYT, America’s “newspaper of record.”

Hmm … they got the fact that there’s a Bachmann action figure for sale, but not the fact that she called the President of the United States a tyrant and claimed he was leading the country into Marxism [link added].

“People are struggling to stay in their homes, and she’s off trying to be on Fox News,” said one of those Democrats, Tarryl L. Clark, a state senator.

Good for you, Clark. Monkey-wrenched that into the article; very nice.

Ms. Bachmann’s admirers point to her uncompromising, unvarnished stances against big spending, big government programs, tax increases and abortions. Her detractors moan that she opposes anything a Democrat says, and assert that she has transformed herself into a cable television gadfly.

This is the kind of reporting that makes Bachmann “possible.” Bachmann does not have an “uncompromising, unvarnished stance” against big spending [link added]. (She notoriously broke a public pledge not to seek or accept earmarks [link added], and is currently seeking more.)

Bachmann does not have an “uncompromising, unvarnished stance” against big government programs. (She was notorious lap dog supporter of President Bush and never took on his expansion of the prescription drug benefit; she failed to criticize any significant GOP initiatives or spending when in control of Congress.)

She never called on conservative Republicans in Washington to roll back any major government program — except for No Child Left Behind (and that’s because she views federal involvement in public education as a conspiracy to prepare our kids for socialism. It would have cost her her original “wingnut” base to embrace NCLB, though the wingnuts didn’t mind her embracing Bush — the man who implemented that particular part of the “master conspiracy.”)

She does not have an “uncompromising, unvarnished stance on tax increases.” As noted, at no stage of her career did she ever use her mountains of broadcast media time to criticize Republican congressional pork, during their twelve years of dominance. She was a loyal little GOP cheerleader. And as we all know: every deficit dollar the GOP spent — is a tax increase.

She does not have an  ”uncompromising, unvarnished stance on abortion.” I have posted video to YouTube of her announcing that she would grant the right to an abortion in cases of rape or incest.

And, contrary to what the NYT would have you believe, her detractors do not assert that she is “a cable television gadfly.” No one is quoted saying that in the piece, and in all my years of covering Bachmann I have never heard a detractor refer to her that way. Her detractors here in Minnesota and elsewhere refer to her as a nut [link added], a liar [link added], and a bigot. And a loon. And closeted theocrat. And there is ample evidence to justify all of those epithets, but very little of that evidence made its way into this NYT profile.

That’s the thing that kills me. A news organization with a top-shelf reputation and salaried reporters (and actual resources to conduct investigative journalism) goes out to cover America’s most notorious demagogue-in-office [link added] — and they miss the most basic and perhaps the most important fact about her career. The fact that her start in national politics and her continued success is largely due to her ties to the national evangelical right [link added].

This is the wall of idiots in the traditional media I was talking about earlier. That fact — that Bachmann is a protege of the national religious right, not just a penny-ante self-promoting McCarthy clone — is critical to understanding her career, largely undocumented, and therefore newsworthy. But the invincible laziness and ignorance of the most respected reporters in Minnesota and the United States means that that fact remains nearly as secret as Osama bin Laden’s home address.

New York Times: you’re not going to learn “who Michele Bachmann is” by talking to the guys in the Republican Party or NARN. Or talking to the cable teevee guys who book [Bachmann] on their talk shows.

The reporter notes that Rep. Bachmann answered questions for this profile via email — not in person. My guess that she did that because she was terrified at the thought of her possible treatment at the hands of the liberal NYT.

She need not have worried. This NYT profile is not a puff piece, exactly — but it misses the real Michele Bachmann story by miles, and includes some hilarious unchallenged howlers from Bachmann and her fans. It looks like most of it was written by cutting and pasting the latest Bachmann headlines from the Internet. It’s lazy reporting about a story that’s truly fascinating, if anyone would ever actually take the trouble to find out about it.

All you’re going to get out of this NYT piece are recycled Bachmann items that have been common knowledge in political circles for months, and the reporter’s claim that Bachmann is certainly ‘controversial.’ “No sh** [expletive deleted], Sherlock! You astound me, Holmes! However did you come to that startling conclusion? How much do they pay you and your editors a year, you mental titans?”

FROM THE ARCHIVES: One Year Ago — October 29, 2008

Write-in Campaign: Day 11

One year ago today, on the 11th day of my write-in campaign against U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, I posted my candidate information from the St. Cloud Times Voter Guide.

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Kabul Escape: U.N. Workers Scramble Over Roofs 

An injured man is carried by police following an attack at Bekhtar guesthouse in Kabul, where five U.N. staff were killed. (Photo credit: Romeo Gacad / AFP – Getty Images)

Oct. 28, 2009

KABUL – There was no way out for Miles Robertson, working in Afghanistan as a U.N. elections adviser. He was awakened by gunfire and feared he and his wife would be taken hostage.

First, the lanky Australian started to step onto the balcony of the guest house where he and dozens of other U.N. staffers were staying, but shots drove him back inside. Finally, the room filling with smoke and fearing he and his wife would not survive, they placed moist towels over their faces, climbed out a window and scrambled over the roof until they could jump to safety.

Taliban militants wearing suicide vests and armed with guns and grenades had attacked the three-story residential hotel at dawn Wednesday in what their spokesman said was a bid to derail the Nov. 7 runoff election.

After a two-hour battle, 11 people were dead — including five U.N. staff members and the three attackers. One of the dead was American, the U.S. Embassy said. …

The attack began shortly before 6 a.m. when three gunmen wearing green police uniforms broke into the guest house, home to the largest concentration of U.N. staffers working on the election. The crackle of gunfire echoed across the city and explosions set fire to the building, filling the lobby and the upper floors with thick smoke. …

Video Taliban attack (NBC Today, Oct. 28, 2009) — Gunmen with automatic weapons and suicide bombs storm a guest house being used by U.N. staff in Kabul. (05:16)

U.N. staff were evacuated to Dubai for counseling, the U.N. said. …

About a mile away from the guest house, one rocket struck the “outer limit” of the presidential palace but caused no casualties, presidential spokesman Humayun Hamidzada said. Two more rockets slammed into the grounds of the expensive Serena Hotel, favored by many foreigners.

One failed to explode but filled the hotel lobby with smoke, forcing guests and employees to flee to the basement, according to British freelance journalist Kate Holt, who was staying in the hotel. …

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility in a telephone call to the AP, saying three militants with suicide vests, grenades and machine guns carried out the guest house assault. The Interior Ministry said there were three attackers and all were killed.

The attack followed a warning last week by the Taliban, which threatened anyone working on the runoff election between [President Hamid] Karzai and former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah.

“This is our first attack,” Mujahid said.

U.N. spokesman Adrian Edwards said five U.N. staff were killed and nine other U.N. employees were wounded.

Afghan police and U.N. officials said 11 people in all were killed, including the U.N. staff, three attackers, two security guards and an Afghan civilian.

Video Opinion poll (NBC Today, Oct. 28, 2009) – The latest NBC/Wall Street Journal poll shows more Americans support a troop surge in Afghanistan. NBC’s Chuck Todd breaks down the results. (03:39)

The dead included the brother-in-law of one of Afghanistan’s most powerful governors, Gul Agha Sherzai. The man was killed by a stray bullet as he watched the gunfight from a nearby house, according to provincial spokesman Ahmad Zia Abdulzai.

Edwards said the U.N. would have to evaluate “what this means for our work in Afghanistan.” …

The Aug. 19, 2003, truck bombing of the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad, which killed 22 people, prompted the U.N. to pull out of Iraq for several years.

Afghans are to vote in a second-round election after U.N.-backed auditors threw out nearly a third of Karzai’s votes from the Aug. 20 ballot, determining widespread fraud. That pushed Karzai’s totals below the 50 percent threshold needed for a first-round victory in the 36-candidate field.

Dozens of people were killed in Taliban attacks during the August balloting, helping drive down turnout.

——

100 Killed in Pakistan as Clinton Arrives

Residents, rescue workers and security officials sort through the rubble after a bomb explosion in Peshawar, Pakistan, on Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2009. (Photo credit: Fayaz Aziz / Reuters)

Oct. 28, 2009

PESHAWAR, Pakistan – A car bomb struck a busy market in northwestern Pakistan on Wednesday, killing 100 people — mostly women and children — as visiting Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton pledged U.S. support for Islamabad’s campaign against Islamic militants.

More than 200 people were wounded in the blast in the main northwestern city of Peshawar, the deadliest in a surge of attacks by suspected insurgents this month. The government blamed militants seeking to avenge an army offensive launched this month against al-Qaida and Taliban in their stronghold close to the Afghan border.

The bombing was the deadliest since explosions hit homecoming festivities for former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in Karachi in October 2007, killing about 150 people. Bhutto was later slain in a separate attack.

Wednesday’s bomb destroyed much of the Mina Bazaar in Peshawar’s old town, a warren of narrow alleys clogged with stalls and shops selling dresses, toys and cheap jewelry that drew many female shoppers and children in the conservative city.

The blast collapsed buildings, including a mosque, and set scores of shops ablaze. The wounded sat amid burning debris and parts of bodies as a huge plume of gray smoke rose above the city. …

Video Pakistan bombing coincides with Clinton visit (NBC Nightly News, Oct. 28) — A car bomb killed scores as a visiting Hillary Clinton pledged support against Islamic militants. NBC’s Andrea Mitchell reports. (02:52)

Clinton, on her first visit to Pakistan as secretary of state, was a three-hour drive away in the capital, Islamabad, when the blast took place. Speaking to reporters, she praised the army’s anti-Taliban offensive in South Waziristan and offered U.S. support. …

City bombed three times this month

Peshawar, the economic hub of the northwest and the seat of the provincial government, has long been a favorite target of militants who control large parts of territory to the north in tribal regions near the Afghanistan border. Extremism has flourished there since it was used as a staging ground in the 1980s for U.S.-funded fighters preparing to battle the Soviet-installed regime in Afghanistan. …

Three bombs have exploded in Peshawar this month, including another one that killed more than 50 people, part of a barrage of at least 10 major attacks across the country that have killed some 250 people. Most have targeted security forces, but some bombs have gone off in public places, apparently to undercut support for the army’s assault on the border and expose the weakness of the government.

The Taliban have warned Pakistan that they would stage more attacks if the army does not end a new ground offensive in the South Waziristan tribal region, where the military has dispatched some 30,000 troops to flush out insurgents. South Waziristan is a major base for the Pakistani Taliban and other foreign militants.

North West Frontier Province Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain blamed the militants for Wednesday’s attack.

“We are hitting them at their center of terrorism, and they are hitting back targeting Peshawar,” he said. “This is a tough time for us. We are picking up the bodies of our women and children, but we will follow these terrorists and eliminate them.”

——

FROM THE ARCHIVES: One Year Ago — October 28, 2008

Write-in Campaign: Day 10

One year ago today, on the 10th day of my write-in campaign against U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, I reported that the University of Minnesota newspaper, the Minnesota Daily, editorialized that in view of Bachmann’s assertion on “Hardball” with Chris Matthews that Barack Obama might have “anti-American views” and her call on the media to investigate which members of Congress also hold anti-American views, students should make campaign contributions to Bachmann’s Democratic opponent Elwyn Tinklenberg or to her Republican write-in challenger Aubrey Immelman.

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U.S. Military Deaths in Iraq

As of Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2009, at least 4,352 members of the U.S. military had died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. …

Since the start of U.S. military operations in Iraq, 31,545 U.S. service members have been wounded in hostile action, according to the Defense Department’s weekly tally. …

U.S. Troop Casualties in Iraq

Latest identifications:

• Army Staff Sgt. Bradley Espinoza, 26, Mission, Texas, died Oct. 19, 2009 in Qwest, Iraq, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his vehicle with an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to 1st Battalion, 12th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas. 

U.S. Military Deaths in Afghanistan

As of Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2009, at least 814 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the Defense Department. …

Latest identifications:

• Marine Cpl. Gregory M. W. Fleury, 23, Anchorage, Alaska, died Oct. 26, 2009 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 169, Marine Aircraft Group 39, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, I Marine Expeditionary Force, based out of Camp Pendleton, Calif.
• Marine Capt. Eric A. Jones, 29, Westchester, N.Y., died Oct. 26, 2009 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 169, Marine Aircraft Group 39, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, I Marine Expeditionary Force, based out of Camp Pendleton, Calif.
• Marine Capt. David S. Mitchell, 30, Loveland, Ohio, died Oct. 26, 2009 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 367, Marine Aircraft Group 39, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, I Marine Expeditionary Force, based out of Camp Pendleton, Calif.
• Marine Capt. Kyle R. Van De Giesen, 29, North Attleboro, Mass., died Oct. 26, 2009 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 169, Marine Aircraft Group 39, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, I Marine Expeditionary Force, based out of Camp Pendleton, Calif.
• Army Spc. Brandon K. Steffey, 23, Sault Sainte Marie, Mich., died Oct. 25, 2009 in Laghman province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his vehicle with an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 178th Military Police Detachment, 89th Military Police Brigade, III Corps, Fort Hood, Texas.
• Army Pfc. Devin J. Michel, 19, Stockton, Ill., died Oct. 24, 2009 in Zhari province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colo.
• Army Sgt. Eduviges G. Wolf, 24, Hawthorne, Calif., died Oct. 25, 2009 in Kunar province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked her vehicle with a rocket-propelled grenade. She was assigned to the 704th Brigade Support Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colo.
• Army Pfc. Kimble A. Han, 30, Lehi, Utah, died Oct. 23, 2009 in Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his vehicle with an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 569th Mobility Augmentation Company, 4th Engineer Battalion, Fort Carson, Colo.
• Army Spc. Eric N. Lembke, 25, Tampa, Fla., died Oct. 23, 2009 in Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his vehicle with an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 569th Mobility Augmentation Company, 4th Engineer Battalion, Fort Carson, Colo.
• Army Spc. Kyle A. Coumas, 22, Lockeford, Calif., died Oct. 21, 2009 in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his vehicle with an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment, 5th Stryker Brigade Combat Team,  2nd Infantry Division, Fort Lewis, Wash.
• Marine Lance Cpl. David R. Baker, 22, Painesville, Ohio, died Oct. 20, 2009 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif.

Remember Their Sacrifice

Related links

Iraq Casualties

Afghanistan Casualties

Obama Attends Return of Fallen Troops from Afghanistan

 
Oct. 29, 2009

The flag-draped cases of 18 Americans killed in Afghanistan arrived at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware early Thursday, in a solemn event attended by President Obama.

Also in attendance for the transfer of the bodies were U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Michele Leonhart, acting DEA administrator.

The bodies were of three Drug Enforcement Administration special agents and 15 U.S. troops who died in Afghanistan this week.

The DEA agents were killed Monday as they returned from a raid on a compound believed to be harboring insurgents tied to drug trafficking. Their helicopter with seven troops aboard went down in western Afghanistan.

The military transport that landed in Delaware on Thursday also included the bodies of eight U.S. soldiers killed Tuesday when their vehicles were hit by roadside bombs in two separate incidents in southern Afghanistan.

The soldiers were from the 5th Stryker Brigade Combat Team of the 2nd Infantry Division, based at Fort Lewis in the state of Washington.

The DEA identified the agents killed Monday as Forrest N. Leamon, 37, of Woodbridge, Virginia; Chad L. Michael, 30, of Quantico, Virginia; and Michael E. Weston, 37, of Washington.

Leamon and Michael were members of the DEA’s Foreign-deployed Advisory and Support Teams, and Weston was assigned to the agency’s Kabul Country Office.

——

FROM THE ARCHIVES: One Year Ago — October 27, 2008

Write-in Campaign: Day 9

One year ago today, on the ninth day of my write-in campaign against U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, in line with my focus on national security, I reported that despite millions of dollars of U.S. expenditure in Mosul since 2003 to improve electricity, overhaul army facilities, and rehabilitate schools and other infrastructure, five years of war had reduced much of Iraq’s third-largest city to rubble.

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14 Americans Die in Afghan Chopper Crashes

Taliban spokesman claims militants shot down one of the helicopters

Video

Deadly hours in Afghanistan (NBC Nightly News, Oct. 26, 2009) — An Army helicopter went down in the west of the country after leaving the scene of a firefight, killing 10 Americans. A second crash involving two U.S. Marine helicopters killed 4 more Americans, marking the heaviest single loss of American lives in Afghanistan since 2005. NBC’s Richard Engel reports. (02:56)

Oct. 26, 2009

KABUL, Afghanistan – Helicopter crashes killed 14 Americans on Monday — 11 troops and three drug agents — in the deadliest day for the U.S. mission in Afghanistan in more than four years. The deaths came as President Barack Obama prepared to meet his national security team for a sixth full-scale conference on the future of the troubled war.

The casualties also marked the Drug Enforcement Administration’s first deaths in Afghanistan since it began operations here in 2005. Afghanistan is the world’s largest producer of opium — the raw ingredient in heroin — and the illicit drug trade is a major source of funding for insurgent groups.

In the deadliest crash, a helicopter went down in the west of the country after leaving the scene of a firefight, killing 10 Americans — seven troops and three Drug Enforcement Administration agents. Eleven American troops, one U.S. civilian and 14 Afghans were also injured.

In a separate incident, two U.S. Marine helicopters — one UH-1 and an AH-1 Cobra — collided in flight before sunrise over the southern province of Helmand, killing four American troops and wounding two more, Marine spokesman Maj. Bill Pelletier said.

It was the heaviest single-day loss of life since June 28, 2005, when 16 U.S. troops on a special forces helicopter died when their MH-47 Chinook helicopter was shot down by insurgents. …

Taliban claim

U.S. authorities have ruled out hostile fire in the collision but have not given a cause for the other fatal crash in the west. Taliban spokesman Qari Yusuf Ahmedi claimed Taliban fighters shot down a helicopter in northwest Badghis province’s Darabam district. It was impossible to verify the claim and unclear if he was referring to the same incident.

Military spokeswoman Elizabeth Mathias said hostile fire was unlikely because the troops were not receiving fire when the helicopter took off.

NATO said the helicopter was returning from a joint operation that targeted insurgents involved in “narcotics trafficking in western Afghanistan.”

“During the operation, insurgent forces engaged the joint force and more than a dozen enemy fighters were killed in the ensuing firefight,” a NATO statement said.

Video Engel: The situation in Afghanistan (NBC Nightly News, Oct. 26, 2009) — Richard Engel, NBC News’ chief foreign correspondent, explains the key geographic and strategic elements defining the Afghan war. (03:59)

U.S. forces also reported the death of two other American service members a day earlier: one in a bomb attack in the east, and another who died of wounds sustained in an insurgent attack in the same region. The deaths bring to at least 47 the number of U.S. service members who have been killed in October.

This has been the deadliest year for international and U.S. forces since the 2001 invasion to oust the Taliban. Fighting spiked around the presidential vote in August, and 51 U.S. soldiers died that month — the deadliest for American forces in the eight-year war. …

Elsewhere Monday, Nangarhar province Gov. Gul Agha Sherzai survived an assassination attempt after a gunman fired automatic weapons at his convoy in Jalalabad, according to his spokesman Ahmad Zia Abdulzai. Sherzai’s bodyguards killed the gunman, as well as another attacker wearing a suicide vest and carrying grenades.

Meanwhile, security forces in Kabul fired automatic rifles into the air for a second day Monday to contain hundreds of stone-throwing university students angered over the alleged desecration of Islam’s holy book, the Quran, by U.S. troops during an operation two weeks ago in Wardak province. Fire trucks were also brought in to push back protesters with water cannons. Police said several officers were injured in the mayhem.

U.S. and Afghan authorities have denied any such desecration and insist that the Taliban are spreading the rumor to stir up public anger. The rumor has sparked similar protests in Wardak and Khost provinces.

——

FROM THE ARCHIVES: One Year Ago — October 26, 2008

Write-in Campaign: Day 8

One year ago today, on the eighth day of my write-in campaign against U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, in line with my focus on national security, I reported that Iraq’s largest Sunni Arab political party suspended all dealings with U.S. civilian and military personnel after U.S. and Iraqi forces carried out a raid in which a senior official of Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi’s Iraqi Islamic Party was killed.

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Twin Car Bombs Hit Baghdad; 155 killed, 500 Wounded  

Click on image below to launch slide presentation
Iraqis gather at the site of a massive bomb attack in Baghdad, Oct. 25, 2009. (Photo credit: Karim Kadim / AP)

Oct. 25, 2009

BAGHDAD, Iraq – A pair of suicide car bombings Sunday devastated the heart of Iraq’s capital, killing at least 155 people in the country’s deadliest attack in more than two years. The bombs targeted two government buildings and called into question Iraq’s ability to protect its people as U.S. forces withdraw. …

The dead included 35 employees at the Ministry of Justice and at least 25 staff members of the Baghdad Provincial Council, said police and medical officials speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. At least 500 people were wounded, including three American contractors.

The street where the blasts occurred had just been reopened to vehicle traffic six months ago. Shortly after, blast walls were repositioned to allow traffic closer to the government buildings. Such changes were touted by Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki as a sign that safety was returning to the city.

The Iraqi leader walked among the mangled and blackened cars, which lay in front of blast walls that had been decorated with peaceful street scenes of Iraq. At the Justice Ministry, windows and walls on both sides of the street were blown away, and blood pooled with water from burst pipes. …

Black smoke billowed from the frantic scene, as emergency service vehicles sped to the area. Many of the wounded were loaded into the back of trucks and into civilian cars because there were too many for ambulances to carry. …

The blasts are a blow to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who has staked his reputation and re-election hopes on returning security to the country. …

Blasts near Green Zone

The area where the blasts occurred is just a few hundred yards from the Green Zone that houses the U.S. Embassy as well as the prime minister’s offices. …

The explosive-laden vehicles were sitting in parking garages next to the two government buildings, police said. …

The coordinated bombings were the deadliest incident since a series of massive truck bombs in northern Iraq killed nearly 500 villagers from the minority Yazidi sect in August 2007. In Baghdad itself, however, it is the worst attack since a series of suicide bombings against Shiite neighborhoods in April 2007 killed 183 people. …

Ball of flames

Video images captured on a cell phone showed the second blast going off in a massive ball of flames, followed by a burst of machine gun fire. …

In this image from amateur video, a man runs from the blast as one of two huge car bombs explode in central Baghdad, Sunday, Oct. 25 2009. (Photo credit: The Associated Press)

The explosions were just a few hundred yards from Iraq’s Foreign Ministry which is still rebuilding after massive bombings there in August. …

——

Some of the Deadliest Attacks in Iraq

Oct. 25, 2009

Some of the deadliest militant attacks in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003:

• Oct. 25, 2009 — Two powerful car bombs explode in downtown Baghdad, killing at least 155 people in an apparent attempt to target the fragile city’s government offices.
• Aug. 14, 2007 — Four suicide truck bombs detonate simultaneously in the small village of Qahataniya, killing more than 500 Yazidis, a small Kurdish-speaking sect and religious minority.
• July 7, 2007 — A suicide truck bomb kills 160 in a Turkomen village south of Kirkuk.
• April 18, 2007 — At least 183 are killed when four large bombs explode in mainly Shiite locations of Baghdad.
• March 27, 2007 — Truck bombs hit markets in the northwestern city of Tal Afar, killing at least 152 people.
• Feb. 3, 2007 — A suicide truck bomber at a market in a predominantly Shiite area of Baghdad kills 137.
• Nov. 23, 2006 — Mortar rounds and five car bombs kill 215 people in Baghdad’s Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City.
• Sept. 14, 2005 — More than a dozen coordinated bombings rip through Baghdad, killing 178 people.
• March 2, 2004 — Coordinated blasts from suicide bombers, mortars and planted explosives strike Shiite Muslim shrines in Karbala and in Baghdad, killing at least 181 people.

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Major Attacks in Iraq Since Jan. 1

Oct. 25, 2009

Major attacks in Iraq since Jan. 1, when a new U.S.-Iraqi security pact took effect:

• Oct. 25 — Two powerful car bombs explode in downtown Baghdad, killing at least 155 people in an apparent attempt to target the fragile city’s government offices.
• Aug. 19 — A series of bombings against ministries kills 102 people, including 65 at the Foreign Ministry, 28 at the Finance Minister and 8 at the Health Ministry. More than 500 are wounded in the attacks.
• Aug. 7 — A suicide truck bomb targets a Shiite mosque in a northern suburb of Mosul, flattening the mosque and killing at least 44 people. The attack also injures more than 200 people. Bombings against Shiite pilgrims in Baghdad kill seven.
• June 24 — Bomb rips through crowded market in Baghdad’s Sadr City, killing 78.
• May 20 — A parked car bomb explodes near several restaurants in northwest Baghdad, killing 41.
• April 29 — Twin car bombing in a popular shopping area in Sadr City, the biggest Shiite district in Baghdad, kills 51 people.
• April 24 — Back-to-back female suicide bombings kill 71 people outside the most important Shiite shrine in Baghdad in Kazimiyah.
• April 23 — Suicide bomber strikes restaurant in Muqdadiyah, kills at least 53, including 44 Iranian pilgrims, three Iraqis and six burned beyond recognition bodies.
• March 10 — Suicide bomber targets tribal leaders at market in Abu Ghraib, killing 33.
• March 8 — Suicide bomber strikes police academy in Baghdad, killing at least 30.
• Feb. 13 — Female suicide bomber targets Shiite pilgrims in Musayyib, killing 40.
• Jan. 4 — Female suicide bomber strikes Shiite pilgrims in Baghdad, killing 38.

Note: Links added to related reports on this site.

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AFGHANISTAN WAR — BREAKING NEWS

4 U.S. Troops Killed in Afghan Chopper Collision

Oct. 26, 2009

KABUL – The U.S. military said four American troops were killed and two injured in a collision of two helicopters in southern Afghanistan Monday morning.

Hostile fire was ruled out in the crash. No further details were released.

In an unrelated incident, another helicopter went down Monday during a joint international security force operation against insurgents in western Afghanistan in which a dozen militants were killed.

The U.S. said military casualties were reported and a recovery operation was under way. …

 In the capital of Kabul, riot police fired shots in the air Sunday to disperse a demonstration by nearly 1,000 students protesting the rumored desecration of a Muslim holy book, the Quran, by U.S. troops during an operation two weeks ago in Wardak province.

Musadeq Sadeq / AP University students run as police fire on a demonstration in front of the Afghan Parliament in Kabul on Sunday, Oct. 25, 2009.

U.S. and Afghan authorities have denied any such desecration and insist that the Taliban are spreading the rumor to stir up public anger. The rumor has sparked similar protests in Wardak and Khost provinces.

Students burned an effigy of Obama and chanted slogans such as “down with Americans, down with Israel” as they marched from Kabul University to the parliament building, where riot police turned them back. There were no reports of casualties. …

Also Sunday, the NATO command said a bomb killed an American service member the day before in southern Afghanistan. No further details were released. …

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: One Year Ago — October 25, 2008

Write-in Campaign: Day 7

One year ago today, on the seventh day of my write-in campaign against U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, I reported that a new poll sponsored by Minnesota Public Radio and the University of Minnesota’s Hubert H. Humphrey Institute mirrored the results of a SurveyUSA poll released the previous day by KSTP television: Support for Bachmann was holding steady a week after she became a lightning rod for national criticism and media attention when she told Chris Matthews on MSNBC’s “Hardball” that Barack Obama “may have anti-American views” and the media should investigate which members of Congress “are pro-America or anti-America.”

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White House Rejects Cheney’s War Criticism

Former vice president says president is ‘dithering’ while troops in danger

Video

Cheney criticizes Obama on Afghanistan (MSNBC, Oct. 22, 2009) – Former Vice President Dick Cheney accused President Barack Obama of “waffling” on sending more U.S. troops in Afghanistan and warned him to stop “dithering.” Frank Gaffney of the Center for Security Policy and Air America’s Ron Reagan discuss on Hardball. (14:53)

Oct. 22, 2009

WASHINGTON – The White House on Thursday forcefully rejected criticism from former Vice President Dick Cheney and other Republicans that President Barack Obama’s Afghanistan decision is taking too long.

“What Vice President Cheney calls dithering, President Obama calls his solemn responsibility to the men and women in uniform and to the American public,” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said. “I think we’ve all seen what happens when somebody doesn’t take that responsibility seriously.”

Obama is nearing a decision on whether to significantly expand the U.S. war posture in Afghanistan by honoring a military request for thousands of additional forces. The decision had been expected as early as mid-August, when Obama’s new war commander prepared a harsh assessment of deteriorating conditions in the 8-year-old conflict, and now is expected in what Gibbs calls “the coming weeks.”

Weighing different options

Obama is also weighing with his national security team whether to focus more narrowly on al-Qaida terrorists believed to be hiding in Pakistan.

Top commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s still-secret troop request outlines three options — from as many as 80,000 more troops to as few as 10,000 — but favors a compromise of 40,000 more forces, officials have told The Associated Press. There now are 67,000 American troops in Afghanistan, and 1,000 more are headed there by the end of December.

The previous top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. David McKiernan, submitted a request for more troops that went unfulfilled by former President George W. Bush. Obama partly granted that request in March when he ordered an additional 21,000 U.S. troops to go to Afghanistan this year.

Cheney said in a speech Wednesday night that Obama needs to “do what it takes to win” and that “signals of indecision out of Washington hurt our allies and embolden our adversaries.”

“Make no mistake. Signals of indecision out of Washington hurt our allies and embolden our adversaries,” Cheney said while accepting an award from a conservative national security group, the Center for Security Policy. …

Gibbs said such comments were curious “given the fact that an increase in troops sat on desks in this White House, including the vice president’s, for more than eight months, a resource request filled by President Obama in March.”

Senators defend president

Other Democrats chimed in to defend the president, despite opposition among congressional Democrats to a major expansion of the U.S. war effort.

“Republicans have developed a troubling pattern of blaming President Obama for trying to fix all the problems that they created,” said Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., a member of the Armed Services Committee.

Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., also defended Obama, when asked about Cheney’s criticism. “I think President Obama is entitled to take sufficient time to decide what our long-term role ought to be in Afghanistan,” he said on MSNBC. “I want him to take the time to get it right.”

Cheney had also taken issue with statements out of the White House that the Obama administration had to start from scratch to develop a strategy for a conflict begun in 2001, the first year of the Bush presidency. …

Blaming others?

Cheney said the Obama administration seems to be pulling back and blaming others for its own failure to implement the strategy it had embraced earlier in the year.

“The White House must stop dithering while America’s armed forces are in danger,” the former vice president said. “It’s time for President Obama to do what it takes to win a war he has repeatedly and rightly called a war of necessity.” …

10/25/09 Update

Lawmakers Split on Timing of Afghan Decision

Republicans want boost in troop levels; Democrats counsel patience

A U.S. soldier stands on the road leading to the site where a roadside bomb hit a U.S. vehicle in Mehtar Lam, Laghman province, east of Kabul, Afghanistan on Sunday, Oct. 25, 2009. (Photo credit: Rahmat Gul / AP)

Oct. 25, 2009

WASHINGTON – Top lawmakers sparred Sunday over the timing of President Barack Obama’s decision on how to move ahead in Afghanistan, with Republicans urging a quick move to boost troop levels and Democrats counseling patience. …

Republicans said Obama must sign off soon on a recommendation from the top commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, to substantially increase the number of American troops there by 40,000. Democrats warned against a hasty decision on any increase.

“Clearly, time is of the essence here,” said Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, the second-ranking Republican. “I’m afraid that with every passing day we risk the future success of the mission.”

“I think it’s taken too long,” added Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. “Why not follow the advice of his hand-picked general?”

Arizona Sen. John McCain, the GOP nominee for president last year, said that “every day we delay will be a delay in this strategy succeeding.” The deteriorating situation “argues for a rapid decision,” he said.

None of the Republicans would second a claim made last week by former Vice President Dick Cheney that Obama is “dithering” in making a decision, but they agreed that continued delay would endanger the 68,000 U.S. soldiers now on the ground in Afghanistan.

“I would never want to call my president dithering,” Hatch said. …

Distancing himself from Cheney, McCain also said he “wouldn’t use that language.” …

Related report: U.S. tested 2 Afghan scenarios in war game

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Dick Cheney Personality Profile (Aug. 10, 2009)

Poster presenting the results of a study of the personality of Vice President Dick Cheney, by Jaclynn Beier and Carl Haefemeyer, College of St. Benedict and St. John’s University; research supervised by Aubrey Immelman, Ph.D., director of the Unit for the Study of Personality in Politics, August 2009.

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: One Year Ago — October 24 , 2008

Write-in Campaign: Day 6

One year ago today, on the sixth day of my write-in campaign against U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, I analyzed MN-06 poll data, noting that Bachmann’s support had remained steady in the wake of her controversial McCarthyite statement on MSNBC’s “Hardball” with Chris Matthews that she wants the media to investigate which members of Congress “are pro-America or anti-America.”

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VETERANS DAY PARADE

Sunday, Nov. 8, 1 p.m., VA Medical Center, St. Cloud

The St. Cloud MetroVets, Times Media, VA Medical Center, and the City of St. Cloud are inviting veterans, veterans’ groups, and other groups who want to create a parade entry to honor veterans, to march in the 2009 St. Cloud Veterans Day Parade. Vehicles will be available to transport veterans who are unable to march but wish to participate in the parade.

Follow this link to the St. Cloud Times Veterans Day Parade page for details about the parade.

The organizers aim to create a parade similar to the 2008 event, which featured hundreds of participants and parade watchers.

The St. Cloud-area Veterans Day Parade and Social was first held in 2007, when Times Media joined forces with the St. Cloud Metrovets, the VA Medical Center, and the City of St. Cloud to create an event for the community to show its collective appreciation for the service and sacrifice of its veterans and active-duty military residents.

The Fighting Saints March in 2008 Veterans Day Parade (00:46)

The 2008 parade route, featuring 37 units, began at 1 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 9 on the west side of the St. Cloud VA Medical Center campus and proceeded east across the Avenue of Flags and 44th Avenue, ending in the Apollo High School parking lot — a distance of about half a mile.

WWJO-98 Country music mobile (00:41)

After the parade, participants, spectators, and community members congregated in the Apollo High School Commons for refreshments and a couple of hours of socializing and musical entertainment.

Minnesota State Sen. Tarryl Clark (DFL-St. Cloud) in conversation at the social event after the parade, while Minnesota State Rep. Dan Severson (R-Sauk Rapids) explains his naval decorations to a young citizen. (00:07)

St. Cloud Mayor Dave Kleis thanks veterans and parade organizers and participans (02:30)

These and other videos may be viewed here.

A Call for Donors

Possibly due to the tough economic climate, donations have not been as forthcoming as in previous years. Organizers are still seeking donations to provide coffee, cookies, and lemonade to veterans, their families, and spectators after the parade.

Area businesses or individuals who wish to make a contribution may contact parade coordinator Kelli Olson by phone at (320) 255-8767 or email at veteransparade@stcloudtimes.com

The event is intended to be community sponsored and event organizers need the public’s help to continue the tradition. Contributions will be recognized in St. Cloud Times coverage of the event.

A Call for Names of Active-Duty Service Members

Area Girl Scouts are creating signs with the names of currently-deployed military members to carry in the parade. If you know of a currently-deployed service member, please submit their name, hometown, and where they are serving to veteransparade@stcloudtimes.com so that they can be honored in the parade.

Click for More Information

Registration to march in the parade ended on Friday, Oct. 23; however, late entries can be accommodated if interested parties act quickly.

Download entry form (PDF)

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11/1/09 Update

In a Week, Come Out and Honor Veterans

Editorial Board
St. Cloud Times
November 1, 2009

Yes, we know Central Minnesotans are busy, especially on weekends. But here’s something worth making time for: Your family, friends and neighbors who have served and are serving in the armed forces.

We invite you to honor and thank them a week from today at the third annual Veterans Day Parade and Social.

At 1 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 8, 37 veteran-themed entries (which should equate to about 300 people) will march from the west side of the St. Cloud VA Medical Center eastward, across 44th Avenue to Apollo High School.

After the half-mile parade you are welcome to be part of a very special treat. Plans are in place to have a live satellite connection with some local residents now serving with the Minnesota National Guard in Basra, Iraq.

That’s right. You can communicate with — and thank — some of your fellow Central Minnesotans as they serve our country. (Not to mention the scores of veterans who also will be at Apollo.)

While the satellite connection is unique this year, we hope most readers know the Veterans Day Parade and Social are not new, and that you plan to attend again or for your first time.

This will be the third straight year the parade will feature more than 30 entries. Dozens of local veterans groups will march the half-mile route, many carrying their colors. Mixed in will be a variety of other entries. Some will provide patriotic music while others will carry handmade placards displaying names of active-duty soldiers now deployed.

And just like in 2007 and 2008, Apollo’s Commons will be open after the parade to provide you with a place to thank in person your fellow veteran residents. Enjoy light refreshments, say thanks and be part of the program with the Red Bulls in Iraq.

This celebration is possible thanks to several organizations and many volunteers. Topping the list is the official sponsor, St. Cloud Metrovets. Other major sponsors include Times Media, the VA Medical Center and the city of St. Cloud. Also helping substantially are Shermock Financial, St. Cloud Lions Club, Short Stop Custom Catering, Eich Motors and KNSI.

Those are just a few of the many groups and people who are helping make this event one to remember.

Please plan to attend it a week from today — 1 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 8 at the VA Medical Center. Visit www.sctimes.com/vets for more information, including where to park and a route map.

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: One Year Ago — October 23 , 2008

Iraqi army soldiers inspect a damaged car after a suicide car bomber targeted a government convoy in Bab al-Sharji, central Baghdad, on Oct. 23, 2008. (Photo credit: Hadi Mizban / AP)

Write-in Campaign: Day 5

One year ago today, on the fifth day of my write-in campaign against U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, in line with my focus on national security, I reported on ongoing violence in the Iraq war. I also noted that Chuck Norris, in an article published Oct. 21, 2008 at HumanEvents.com, cited research conducted at my Unit for the Study of Personality in Politics.

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Today marks the 20th anniversary of Jacob Wetterling’s abduction on October 22, 1989 in St. Joseph, Minn.

Several media outlets, most notably the St. Cloud Times — the major newspaper in the area where Jacob was kidnapped — featured commemorative reports. Links and excerpts from those reports are provided below.

St. Cloud Times Interactive Content

Video, photos, maps, timeline, and other missing persons

Jacob Wetterling: 20 Years of Hope (07:37)

Wetterling Coverage Brings in 30 Tips

By Kari Petri
St. Cloud Times
Oct. 22, 2009

Investigators have received 30 tips this week relating to the Jacob Wetterling abduction during the media blitz covering the 20th anniversary of the case.

Tips have come in since Sunday to the Stearns County Sheriff’s Office. …

Capt. Pam Jensen, who is one of the case’s lead investigators, said she got more tips than she anticipated. She got up to eight today alone. …

Anyone with information about the abduction should call the sheriff’s office at (320) 251-4240 or Crime Stoppers at (320) 255-1301.

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20 Years After Wetterling Abduction, Cases Have Changed Society

Jerry Wetterling wears a button showing a digitally aged photo of Jacob as he might have looked at age 21. (Kimm Anderson / St. Cloud Times)

By David Unze
St. Cloud Times
Oct. 22, 2009

The names already were familiar to many of America’s parents long before Jacob Wetterling was taken.

In 1982, it was Johnny Gosch in Iowa. In 1981, it was Adam Walsh in Florida. In 1979, it was Etan Patz in New York.

The horror of children being snatched away boiled over in Central Minnesota in 1989, 20 years ago today, with the abduction of 11-year-old Jacob.

It continued a sea change nationwide in the way parents looked at the safety of their children and how much freedom those children should get.

“There were a group of cases that said to American parents that if my child isn’t safe in this kind of setting, then where are they safe?” said Ernie Allen, president and chief executive officer of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. …

Congressional mandates to quantify the number of missing children cases help tell the story in numbers.

About 800,000 kids a year disappear in incidents serious enough that parents call police, Allen said. Runaways make up the largest share of those, followed by kids who get lost.

About 200,000 are abducted by a family member, and 58,000 are abducted by nonrelatives. Most of the nonfamily abductions are cases in which children are gone for a short time and are taken for another criminal reason — most often sexual abuse — and are released and found, Allen said.

He estimated there are 100-120 cases a year nationwide like Jacob’s, in which a stranger abducts someone who isn’t found relatively quickly.

Despite such cases being a small portion of the missing children cases, that remains the stereotypical abduction scenario in many parents’ minds, Allen said. …

Jacob’s abduction led to the first federal mandates that each state create sex offender registries. Patty Wetterling traveled the country to help pass that law. …

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Investigators Learned from Wetterling Case

Stearns County Sheriff John Sanner stands at the Stearns County Law Enforcement Center next to boxes of paper leads and documentation from the Jacob Wetterling abduction. (Kimm Anderson / St. Cloud Times)

By Kari Petri
St. Cloud Times
Oct. 22, 2009

It was a kind of case local investigators hadn’t seen before.

A boy taken at gunpoint in front of his brother and friend. No witness saw what direction the masked gunman took the boy or got a good description of what he looked like.

The abduction of Jacob Wetterling is one of the highest-profile investigations in Minnesota history. Today marks the 20th anniversary of the 11-year-old’s abduction.

A lot was learned from the investigation. With so many different departments — there were 50 investigators working the case at its height — investigators now realize the importance of having one leader.

“We’ve learned a lot,” Stearns County Capt. Pam Jensen said. …

Looking back, Jensen said they should have kept the focus local. …

A lot of good things were done early in the investigation. Investigators made a good decision to get so many resources into the area and use those resources to conduct an extensive ground search. They were able to get an FBI profiler to help them identify a possible suspect. …

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Decades Later, Hope Endures

Patty Wetterling takes a moment to reflect on the 20th anniversary of the abduction of her son, Jacob, during an interview Oct. 9, 2009 at their St. Joseph home. Behind her is a wooden toy train that carries the familiar Jacob’s Hope slogan. (Kimm Anderson / St. Cloud Times)

By Kari Petri
St. Cloud Times
Oct. 18, 2009

ST. JOSEPH — The night of Oct. 22, 1989, was cool and would become very dark.

Three boys decide to go rent a movie at a nearby Tom Thumb store. Two of them hop on their bikes and a third gets on a scooter to make the trip along the quiet country road.

They settle on a movie and set out for home.

It’s dark, but they have a flashlight to help them see. They are wearing reflective clothing so vehicles can see them.

But they are not alone.

A masked man dressed in black comes out of the night.

He has a gun.

He tells them to get off their bikes and to lay down in the ditch. He threatens to shoot if they don’t follow directions.

Then the man goes down the line and asks each of them their ages. Trevor Wetterling is 10. Aaron Larson and Jacob Wetterling are 11.

The man tells Trevor to run away into the woods. Then he tells Aaron to do the same.

They do as they’re told.

When they look back, the man and Jacob are gone.

It’s been 20 years since Jacob Wetterling was last seen by his friend and his brother on that dark road.

What happened that night touched a community. It changed laws and how families live, and it continues to haunt Jacob’s family and friends.

The St. Cloud Times revisited the case and talked to the people directly involved in it. Most cold cases fade from memory and the enthusiasm to solve them diminishes. But a common theme of undying hope ran through the interviews. …

Related reports

Friend Larson still hopes for a happy ending

Aaron Larson, Jacob Wetterling’s childhood best friend, recalls Wetterling’s abduction at his home in Worthington. (Adam Hammer / St. Cloud Times)

Larsons recall finding healing in daily routines

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Wetterling Case Still Gets Leads

\
Stearns County Sheriff John Sanner reflects on the 20 years that have passed since Jacob Wetterling’s abduction and the thousands of leads that have been followed and cataloged in the boxes that line a wall in an evidence room. (Kimm Anderson / St. Cloud Times)

By Kari Petri
St. Cloud Times
Oct. 18, 2009

It may well be the biggest case in Minnesota history, holding the public’s attention for 20 years.

The 1989 abduction of Jacob Wetterling has remained in the minds of most Minnesotans, especially in the St. Cloud area. But the big crime has gone without a big arrest.

Authorities still don’t know what happened to Jacob or who took him. At the height of the case, there were 50 investigators and 18,000 leads followed in the first two months. As of September, 7,638 people have been interviewed about the abduction.

“We’re not about to give up,” Stearns County Sheriff John Sanner said.

The investigation now lies in the hands of Stearns County Capt. Pam Jensen and Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Special Agent Ken McDonald. …

Dozens of boxes and binders of police reports, tip sheets and other evidence live in the basement of the sheriff’s office.

The most important part of the investigative file is the name index, a spreadsheet that contains the name of every person who has ever talked to authorities about the case: suspects, tipsters and people who know the Wetterlings.

Jensen estimates they still get five to six leads a month. Some simply provide bits of information while others name a person they think is the guilty one.

“When (the story is) in the news, more will come in,” Jensen said. …

The investigators say they are now more focused on local suspects. There are about five they are looking at.

For the first 14 years of the investigation, authorities had focused on a vehicle that a witness reported seeing near the abduction site on 91st Avenue Southeast in St. Joseph Township. The driver came forward in 2003. He was ruled out as a suspect and authorities decided it was likely that the abductor hadn’t used a vehicle.

McDonald said it wasn’t routine for the boys to ride their bikes along that road. It is most likely that the suspect saw them going to the store and knew they would be coming back. And the road is in such a remote area that it’s unlikely someone unfamiliar with the area would be there, he said.

“It raises the likelihood that it was someone local,” he said.

Jensen said different investigators have different theories about what happened and different top suspects.

But McDonald thinks there are several strong suspects out there. …

The investigators welcome any sort of attention they can get for the case because it increases the likelihood that it will get solved. …

“There are people out there with information,” McDonald said. …

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‘Jacob’s Hope’ Still Alive in Their Hearts

Patty and Jerry Wetterling talk in their living room Oct. 9, 2009 about the 20th anniversary of their son Jacob’s abduction. (Kimm Anderson / St. Cloud Times)

By David Unze
St. Cloud Times
Oct. 18, 2009

ST. JOSEPH — There’s only one road connecting the rest of the world to the quiet cul-de-sac Jerry and Patty Wetterling call home.

In an area that has seen surrounding land gobbled up by development, 91st Avenue Southeast cuts through farm fields as it approaches the Wetterling residence.

Click on this link and then select the “On the Scene” folder for an aerial photograph of the abduction site and crime scene photos.

It still looks a lot like it did 20 years ago, the night 11-year-old Jacob Wetterling was abducted at the spot where a neighbor’s driveway meets that road.

And every time the Wetterlings leave their home, whether for days at a time or to get a gallon of milk, they pass the spot where the second-oldest of their four children disappeared.

“We call it The Site,” Jerry said. “Sometimes we say we’re going to take a walk to The Site. It’s kind of an eerie feeling.”

“I say a prayer every time I go past it,” Patty said.

View map of abduction site (PDF)

What happened at that spot forever changed what it meant to them to be a parent, a spouse, a Wetterling. And 20 years later, the couple still seeks answers and strives to return the world to what it was for Jacob before he was taken during a bike ride home from the convenience store. …

“Jacob’s Hope” became a slogan for the extensive efforts to find Jacob and his abductor. Patty Wetterling took to the national stage to fight for laws that created sex offender registries and tougher penalties for offenders. She has crisscrossed the country to speak to police officers, politicians and talk show audiences. She ran for office, and they started a foundation to help find missing children.

She and Jerry still live in the house on Kiwi Court that they called home the night Jacob was abducted. They have opinions about who might have taken Jacob, but they are careful about discussing suspects.

They don’t discount a theory that Stearns County Sheriff John Sanner forwarded in recent years that shifted the focus of the investigation to local suspects. …

“There’s a certain anxiety and uneasiness about October coming,” Jerry said. “The leaves are turning and it’s that time of year and the feelings kind of come back from at the time that it happened.”

“You don’t need to look at a calendar, you feel it in the air,” Patty said, “when the leaves start to turn and the kids are back in school.”

It’s a season that Patty calls “the shaking of the tree,” when annual publicity about Jacob’s abduction generates more leads in the case. The Wetterlings hope the lead they need surfaces or a person comes forward with a tip — or a confession.

“We’re dealing with this on a daily basis, but the world, the community, tends to remember again at the anniversary time,” Jerry said.

Just the other day, Patty was leaving a restaurant and was stopped by a woman who wanted only to tell her that the Wetterling family was in her prayers. The woman was surprised that 20 years had passed since Jacob was taken, Patty said.

They chatted for a few minutes. Patty remembers leaving the parking lot in tears.

“Everything makes me cry this time of the year,” she said.

But it’s that type of support, from friends, family and strangers, that keeps the Wetterlings going, they said.

“I do feel we owe the world an incredible amount of gratitude for the prayers and the support and the holding us up when we couldn’t do it on our own,” Patty said. “We could never repay people for that.” …

Patty recently finished a book, called “Jacob’s Hope,” that is intended to tell her grandchildren about their uncle Jacob and the special place in their hearts that is his hope. …

——

KARE-11 Coverage

Hope Remains for Jacob Wetterling’s Return 20 Years Later

By Carla Hult
KARE-11
Oct. 21, 2009

Click here to watch interview with Patty Wetterling

Click here to watch interview with Jerry Wetterling

The Wetterling Example

By Carla Hult
KARE-11
Oct. 21, 2009

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WCCO Coverage

WCCO: 20th Anniversary of Jacob Wetterling Abduction

Don Shelby’s Plea to Jacob Wetterling’s Abductor

——

Related reports on this site

Jacob Wetterling Freedom Walk (Dec. 21, 2009)

Guimond: “Justice for Josh” March (Nov. 9, 2009)

Missing Person Joshua Guimond (Nov. 7, 2009)

Jacob Wetterling 20 Years On (Oct. 22, 2009)

Jacob Wetterling Celebration (Oct. 16, 2009)

Jaycee Lee Dugard Found Alive (Aug. 28, 2009)

Wetterling Friend Shares Story (Apr. 28, 2009)

Jacob Wetterling Lead Unravels (Jan. 7, 2009)

Ottis Toole Murdered Adam Walsh (Dec. 16, 2008)

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Related links

The Search for Jacob [Alternative link -- PDF]
(Steve Irsay, Court TV)

One of the last pictures of Jacob Wetterling, on a day trip two months before he was kidnapped on October 22, 1989, wearing the same blue mesh shirt he wore the night he vanished.

Find Joshua Guimond

 
One of the last pictures of Josh Guimond, taken on the campus of St. John’s University (6 miles from the Wetterling abduction site) shortly before his disappearance on November 10, 2002.

All possibilities should be investigated in Guimond case
(Aubrey Immelman, The Record, Nov. 11, 2004)

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: One Year Ago — October 22 , 2008

Write-in Campaign: Day 4

One year ago today, on the fourth day of my write-in campaign against U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, I thanked supporters for their messages of encouragement and online contributions and published excerpts from Eric Zaetsch’s “Developers are Crabgrass” blog entry for Oct. 20, 2008, regarding my write-in candidacy.

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