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Archive for September, 2010

Sep 10th, 2010

Summary: Americans approach the 9/11 anniversary with a lower-than-usual sense that the country is safer today than it was before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. According to an ABC News/Washington Post poll conducted Aug. 30-Sept. 2, 2010, just 48 percent of Americans say the country is safer now than it was before the 9/11 attack, down from 62 percent two years ago to the lowest level in polling since 2003. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on September 10, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that the Dump Bachmann blog, citing the Minnesota Independent’s coverage of Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s visit to Virginia to support Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell, reported that “Michele Bachmann’s political poison continues to taint other Republican politicians.”


Sep 9th, 2010

Summary: A U.S. missile strike in Pakistan’s North Waziristan region has killed five alleged militants in northwestern Pakistan, the fourth such attack on suspected insurgent targets there in 24 hours. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on September 9, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that Michele Bachmann testified that God told her to run for Congress and then, after being elected, said she would run for president if called by God. But she topped that assertion by claiming that Democrats want to take her down because they fear she could become the first woman president of the United States.



Summary: An Iraqi soldier sprayed gunfire at American troops guarding one of their commanders as he visited an Iraqi military base, killing two and wounding nine. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on September 8, 2009, Aubrey Immelman provided his weekly report of U.S. military deaths in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, noting that four U.S. troops were killed that day in each of those countries.


Sep 7th, 2010

Summary: Weekly report of U.S. military deaths in Operation New Dawn (Iraq war) and Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan war), compiled from U.S. Department of Defense News Releases. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on September 7, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that suicide attackers struck near a Shiite mosque north of Baghdad and a checkpoint west of the Iraqi capital as bombings killed at least 17 people nationwide.


Sep 6th, 2010

Summary: Anderson Cooper featured a segment titled “Michele Bachmann Up-Close” on Monday, Sept. 6, at 10 p.m. ET / 9 p.m. CT on CNN AC360° … Summary and documentation of U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann’s extremist rhetoric, incendiary demagoguery, and political paranoia.


Sep 6th, 2010

Summary: The number of foreign troops killed in Afghanistan this year has reached at least 500, compared with 521 in all of 2009, according to the independent monitoring site icasualties.org and a tally compiled by Reuters. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on September 6, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that opinion polls showed support for President Barack Obama and his policies dipping sharply, though he remained personally more popular than his policies. How will those dynamics impact the 2010 election and what do they tell us about President Obama’s personal qualities and leadership style?


Sep 5th, 2010

Summary: Iran is paying Taliban fighters $1,000 for each U.S. soldier they kill in Afghanistan, according to a report by Miles Amoore in the London Sunday Times. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on September 5, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that a NATO fact-finding team estimated that about 125 people, many of them civilians, had been killed in a U.S. airstrike in Afghanistan guided by a lone informant.


Sep 4th, 2010

Summary: The death toll from a Pakistani Taliban suicide attack on a Shiite Muslim procession rose to 65 as critically wounded people died in hospitals, while a suspected U.S. missile strike killed seven insurgents. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on September 4, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that the Associated Press’ publication of a photo of dying Marine Lance Cpl. Joshua M. Bernard had prompted controversy, with U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and John Bernard, father of Lance Cpl. Bernard, weighing in.



Summary: U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, on a visit to Camp Nathan Smith, headquarters for U.S. operations in Kandahar, Afghanistan, told troops of the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, that the likelihood of direct U.S. military engagement in Pakistan is very low but that “unfortunately, there are going to be more tough days ahead” in Afghanistan. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on September 3, 2009, on the same day that Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the Obama administration’s effort in the eight-year-old Afghanistan war was “only now beginning,” Aubrey Immelman reported that former U.S. Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) — my choice for successor to Secretary Gates — published an op-ed article in the Washington Post in which he cautioned, “No country today has the power to impose its will and values on other nations. … Bogging down large armies in historically complex, dangerous areas ends in disaster.”


Sep 2nd, 2010

Summary: About $155 million in deposits have been withdrawn from Afghanistan’s largest bank in just the last two days, spurring fresh concerns among U.S. and Afghan officials that a financial panic could spread through the country and derail the U.S. war effort. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on September 2, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, in a fiery speech at an Independence Institute fundraiser in Denver that at times sounded more like the plot of a slasher movie, railed against the dangers of health care reform and other Democratic initiatives, warning the proposals “have the strength to destroy this country forever” and calling on her audience to “make a covenant, to slit our wrists, be blood brothers on this thing.”