Summary: October 22, 2009 marks the 20th anniversary of Jacob Wetterling’s abduction. Twenty years of Jacob’s Hope will be celebrated with a concert by his favorite singer, Red Grammer, on Saturday, October 17, 2009 at 7 p.m. in the Benedicta Arts Center Petters Auditorium at the College of Saint Benedict in St. Joseph, Minn. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on the 37th day after losing his 2008 primary challenge against U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, Aubrey Immelman reported on the murder of a U.S. soldier by an Afghan policeman and sectarian divisions that threaten stability in Iraq.

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Summary: “The enemy has started a guerrilla war,” Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik said after teams of gunmen launched coordinated attacks on three law enforcement facilities in Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore and car bombs hit two other cities, killing 39 people in an escalating wave of anti-government violence. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on the 36th day after losing his 2008 primary challenge against U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, Aubrey Immelman reported that the Afghan insurgency had spread beyond traditional Taliban strongholds, with the number of attacks in the country at a six-year high, and recommended Peter Galbraith’s book “Unintended Consequences: How War in Iraq Strengthened America’s Enemies.”

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Summary: In the first comprehensive tally released since the war began, Iraq’s Human Rights Ministry reports that 85,694 Iraqis lost their lives from 2004-2008 and 147,195 were wounded. The count includes Iraqi civilians, military, and police but not U.S. military deaths, insurgents, or foreigners, including contractors or U.S. forces, and it did not include the first months of the war after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. … On the 35th day after losing his 2008 primary challenge against U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, Aubrey Immelman reported on the increasing incidence of attacks by female suicide bombers — the mujahidaat — in Iraq and examined some of the factors behind this emerging threat.

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Summary: Weekly report of U.S. military deaths in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan), compiled from U.S. Department of Defense News Releases. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on the 34th day after losing his 2008 primary challenge against U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, Aubrey Immelman reported that while the United States was focused on the war in Iraq, Latin America had swung to the left and rival powers had moved into the vacuum created by Bush administration neocon policies focused on the Middle East, leaving the U.S. in its weakest position in decades with respect to Latin American influence.

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Summary: Rep. Michele Bachmann says, “Quite honestly I don’t even know anything about MSNBC.” To refresh Bachmann’s memory, MSNBC is the cable network on which she dishonored her office on October 17, 2008, when she called for McCarthy-like witch hunts to find out which members of Congress are “pro-America or anti-America.” … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on the 33rd day after losing his 2008 primary challenge against U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, Aubrey Immelman reported on a spate of attacks against Christians in Mosul, Iraq, forcing hundreds of families to flee for their lives.

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Summary: NBC News’ chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel’s documentary special, “Tip of the Spear,” premieres on MSNBC TV Sunday, October 11, 2009 at 7 p.m. CT.

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Summary: Iraqis took to the streets in parts of Iraq to demand open elections and improved public services, revealing a growing discontent among Iraqis that is overshadowing concerns about the ability of Iraqi forces to take over from withdrawing American troops. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on the 32nd day after losing his 2008 primary challenge against U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, Aubrey Immelman, in line with his focus on national security, reported that the Bush administration had removed North Korea from its “state sponsors of terrorism” blacklist. He also posted a daily summary of security incidents in Iraq.

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Summary: Calling for more international troops, Afghanistan’s defense minister says thousands of foreign fighters are pouring into Afghanistan to bolster the Taliban insurgency. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on the 31st day after losing his 2008 primary challenge against U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, Aubrey Immelman, in line with his focus on national security, reported that a pending National Intelligence Estimate will conclude that Afghanistan is in a downward spiral and that U.S. intelligence agencies doubt that the Kabul government has the ability to stem the rise of the Taliban, citing widespread corruption inside President Hamid Karzai’s government, an increase in attacks by militants operating out of Pakistan, and a general breakdown of central government authority in Afghanistan.

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Summary: Afghanistan’s Taliban mocked the award of a Nobel Peace Prize to U.S. President Barack Obama, saying he should get a Nobel Prize for violence instead. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on the 30th day after losing his 2008 primary challenge against U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, Aubrey Immelman, in line with his focus on national security, reported on efforts by the U.S. and Iraq to hammer out a status-of-forces agreement amid meddling by Iran and rifts among Sunni, Shiite, and Kurdish factions in the Iraqi government.

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Summary: There are indications Afghanistan could become the theater for a proxy war between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on the 29th day after losing his 2008 primary challenge against U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, Aubrey Immelman, in line with his focus on national security, republished an Oct. 8, 2002 open letter by Michael Livingston outlining why the invasion of Iraq would be a mistake on both rational and moral grounds.

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