Summary: The suicide bombing on a CIA base in Afghanistan was carried out by a Jordanian doctor, Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, who was an al-Qaida double agent. Personality profile of al-Qaida No. 2, Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on January 4, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that a female suicide bomber, in what has become an emerging pattern in Iraq — the mujahidaat — killed at least 38 and wounded 72 in an attack on pilgrims at the Imam Moussa al-Kadhim shrine in Kadhimiya, Iraq.

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Summary: U.S. military deaths in Afghanistan doubled in 2009 compared with a year ago. A tally by The Associated Press shows 304 American service members had died as of Dec. 30, up from 151 in 2008. In contrast, U.S. deaths in Iraq dropped by half as troops largely remained on bases and the United States prepares to withdraw from that country by the end of 2011. There, 152 U.S. service members died, down from 314 a year earlier. … The Pakistani Taliban claims they used a turncoat CIA operative to carry out a suicide bombing that killed seven American CIA employees in Afghanistan as revenge for the death of former Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud in a U.S. missile strike in August 2009. … A suicide bomber blew himself up in an SUV at an outdoor volleyball tournament in northwest Pakistan, killing 88 people in a village that opposes Taliban insurgents. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on January 1, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that U.S. military deaths in Iraq plummeted by two-thirds in 2008 from the previous year, while the war in Afghanistan saw American military deaths rise by 35 percent in 2008 as Islamic extremists shifted their focus to a new front with the West. The combined total of at least 465 U.S. deaths in both Iraq and Afghanistan for 2008 was the lowest combined total for both wars since 2003, when the U.S. invaded Iraq.

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Summary: Finding Bin Laden: Here’s what we know about Osama bin Laden’s whereabouts, based on information from U.S. intelligence sources; analysis by NBC News senior investigative producer Robert Windrem. … Personality profiles of Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri by Aubrey Immelman, Unit for the Study of Personality in Politics. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on December 10, 2008, Aubrey Immelman reported that Thomas Fingar, Bush administration deputy director of national intelligence for analysis, had suggested the Iraq war was as much the failure of policymakers as the product of the flawed intelligence on which they relied. Fingar’s assessment reveals that decision-making on Iraq was marred by a strong sense of time pressure, a tendency among decision makers to seek concurrence on Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction, and a directive leadership style in the White House — all of which are well-established causes of groupthink. Furthermore, according to the Gayle Report, the Department of Defense knew before the start of the Iraq war in 2003 of the threats of mines and roadside bombs in Iraq but did nothing to acquire Mine Resistant Ambush-Protected (MRAP) vehicles ahead of the invasion — a level of overconfidence symptomatic of groupthink.

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