Summary: On a visit to Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Robert Gates has ruled out permanent American military bases in Afghanistan, though the U.S. is interested in maintaining a military presence in the former al-Qaida haven beyond the planned end of U.S. combat in three years. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on March 7, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that Adam Gadahn, the American-born English-language propagandist for al-Qaida, had been captured in Karachi, Pakistan. However, it was later revealed that this was a case of mistaken identity and that the man in custody was in fact Abu Yahya Majadin Adam.

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Summary: A roadside bomb killed six people and wounded 12 in the oil-rich city of Basra in southern Iraq after reportedly missing a passing U.S. Army patrol. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on March 6, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that former Mahdi Army militia members, emboldened by the prospect of an Iraq free of the U.S. military and by anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s decision to join a Shiite-led alliance expected to become the single largest bloc in the Iraqi parliament after the 2010 election, were reemerging ahead of the national elections.

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Summary: Heavy automatic weapons fire erupted in the Libyan capital Tripoli, the first such outbreak in Muammar Gaddafi’s main stronghold in a two-week-old insurrection against his 41-year-old rule as rebels advance from the east on Gadhafi’s hometown of Sirte. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on March 5, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that John Patrick Bedell, who opened fire at the Pentagon entrance and was killed in a shootout with Pentagon police, was fascinated with conspiracy theories, computer programming, libertarian economics, and the science of warfare.

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Summary: Weekly report of U.S. military deaths in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, compiled from U.S. Department of Defense news releases and iCasualties.org. … Frankfurt airport shooting: Alleged gunman Arid Uka appears to fit the “puritanical compulsive” terrorist profile, similar to 9/11 hijack ringleader Mohamed Atta and CIA bomber Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on March 4, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that the suicide bomber behind the Dec. 30, 2009 attack on CIA Forward Operating Base Chapman in eastern Afghanistan, Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, claimed in a posthumously released recording that he lured U.S. and Jordanian intelligence officers into a trap by sending them misleading information about terrorist targets as well as videotapes he had made of senior al-Qaeda leaders.

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Summary: According to a new NBC/WSJ poll, 53 percent of respondents who said they expect to vote in the 2012 GOP presidential primary identified themselves as Tea Party supporters. Their favorite candidate right now: former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, who shot to prominence after winning the Iowa primary in 2008. House Tea Party Caucus leader Michele Bachmann of Minnesota was not named in the poll. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on March 3, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that the number of extremist groups in the United States exploded in 2009 as militias and other groups steeped in wild, anti-government conspiracy theories exploited populist anger across the country and infiltrated the mainstream, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center’s (SPLC) 2010 annual Intelligence Report.

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Summary: CNN Headline News’s “Nancy Grace: America’s Missing” featured the 21-year-old Jacob Wetterling case on Monday, April 28, 2011 as part of its “50 People in 50 Days” series. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on March 2, 2010, Aubrey Immelman provided his weekly report of U.S. military deaths in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

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Summary: Former Arkansas governor and Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee falsely claimed on a radio talk show that President Barack Obama grew up in the African nation of Kenya. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on March 1, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), on yet another of her many out-of-state political appearances, spoke to Hamilton County Republicans in Cincinnati, Ohio, saying President Obama “has embraced a policy that would have the federal government controlling 48 percent of our economy in just two years’ time. We have to stop him.”

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Summary: The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has released its annual report on hate and extremism in the United States, titled “The Year in Hate & Extremism, 2010.” The report claims that more than 1,000 hate groups are now active in the United States, the most the SPLC has tallied since it began track these groups in the 1980s. In addition to “hate groups,” the SPLC also catalogued 824 anti-government “Patriot” groups and 319 “nativist extremist” groups. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on February 28, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that Pope Benedict XVI, saying “I pray for the victims,” urged survivors of Chile’s devastating earthquake to be courageous and asked the Catholic Church to play a role in relief efforts.

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Summary: Militants attacked and shut down Iraq’s largest oil refinery, at Beiji, killing four workers and setting off bombs that started a raging fire. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on February 27, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that a tsunami triggered by a magnitude 8.8 earthquake off the Chilean coast was racing across the Pacific Ocean, potentially threatening Hawaii.

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Summary: Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates bluntly told an audience of West Point cadets that “the odds of repeating another Afghanistan or Iraq — invading, pacifying, and administering a large third-world country — may be low” and that “any future defense secretary who advises the president to again send a big American land army into Asia or into the Middle East or Africa” should, in the words of General Douglas MacArthur, “have his head examined.” … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on February 26, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that insurgents had struck in the heart of the Afghan capital with suicide attackers and a car bomb, targeting hotels used by foreigners and killing at least 16 people and wounding dozen. The four-hour assault began about 6:30 in the morning with a car bombing that leveled a residential hotel used by Indian doctors. A series of explosions and gunbattles left blood and debris in the rain-slicked streets and underscored the militants’ ability to strike in the heavily defended capital even as NATO marshals its forces against them in an assault on Marjah in the volatile south.

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