Summary: Predicting President Donald Trump’s likely response to Iran’s anticipated retaliation for the targeted killing of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force commander Gen. Qasem Soleimani, based on studies of Trump’s personality profile and leadership style conducted at the Unit for the Study of Personality in Politics.
Summary: U.S. officials say they are certain the bizarre assassination plot against the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States, Adel Jubeir, was real; however, some analysts say it is unlikely the Iranian government would be involved in such a tangled plot. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on October 13, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made a bold show of strength in Lebanon, vowing before thousands of Hezbollah supporters in Beirut that U.S. and Israeli power in the Middle East would soon be eclipsed.
Summary: Iraq has joined Iran in offering key moral and financial support to Syria, undermining a central U.S. foreign policy objective in the Middle East and raising fresh concerns that Iraq is drifting further into Iran’s sphere of influence. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on October 9, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sent a letter to Pope Benedict XVI thanking him for opposing Florida pastor Terry Jones’s threat to burn the Quran and calling for cooperation against secularism.
Summary: A U.S. drone has been shot down by Revolutionary Guard soldiers while flying over a nuclear facility in Iran, according to reports in the Iranian media. Ali Aqazadeh Dafsari, a member of the parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, told Iran’s Fars news agency that the drone was trying to gather information about the Fordo nuclear enrichment facility for the CIA. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on July 19, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that Independent gubernatorial candidate Tom Horner met his fundraising goal to qualify for public campaign funds and attracted favorable media attention, demonstrating his viability as candidate for governor of Minnesota.
Summary: Iran’s president says he is certain the wave of unrest in the Middle East will spread to Europe and North America, bringing an end to governments he accused of oppressing and humiliating people. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose own country resorted to violence to disperse an opposition rally earlier this month, also condemned Libya’s use of force against demonstrators, calling it “grotesque.” … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on February 23, 2010, Aubrey Immelman provided his weekly report of U.S. military deaths in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
Summary: Protesters have taken to the streets in different corners of the Middle East: Iran’s beleaguered opposition stormed back to central Tehran and came under a tear gas attack by police, while demonstrators faced rubber bullets and birdshot to demand more freedoms in the relative wealth of Bahrain and protesters pressed for the ouster of the ruler in poverty-drained Yemen. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on February 14, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that Vice President Joe Biden belittled Dick Cheney’s criticism of the Obama administration’s commitment to fighting terrorism as either “misinformed” or “misinforming,” saying the Iraq war wasn’t worth it because of “the horrible price” paid.
Summary: Addressing an adoring and frenzied crowd of thousands in his first speech after his triumphant return to Iraq after four years of self-imposed exile in Iran, radical Shi’ite fundamentalist Muqtada al-Sadr called the U.S., Israel, and Britain Iraq’s “common enemies,” saying “our aim is to expel the occupier by any means.” … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on January 8, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani falsely claimed that there were no terrorist attacks on U.S. soil under President George W. Bush.
Summary: Iran has shot down “a large number” of spy planes of Western forces, according to Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, a senior commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on January 2, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that Yemen — the country where failed Christmas Day underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab allegedly received terrorist training — was becoming a focus for both the West and Islamic extremists.
Summary: Intelligence officials say foreign fighters have been slipping back into Iraq in larger numbers recently and may have been behind some of the most devastating attacks this year, reviving a threat the U.S. military believed had been almost entirely eradicated. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on December 5, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that similarities between George W. Bush’s troop surge in Iraq and Barack Obama’s surge plan for Afghanistan belie the fact that there are few commonalities between the two war theaters.
Summary: WikiLeaks’ cache of a quarter-million confidential American diplomatic cables, most of them from the past three years, provides an unprecedented look at backroom bargaining by embassies around the world, brutally candid views of foreign leaders, and frank assessments of nuclear and terrorist threats. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on November 28, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that many soldiers and policy makers believe the conflict in Afghanistan may be harder and more intractable than the war in Iraq.