Summary: Iran alleges Saudi Arabia is allowing Israel to use its territory in preparation for attacking Iran nuclear sites. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on June 27, 2009 Aubrey Immelman provided a compilation of notable reports and opinions regarding U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann’s announcement that she would refuse to complete the 2010 U.S. Census beyond reporting the number of members in her household.

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Summary: Iraq’s two largest Shiite electoral blocs announced they have formed an alliance that gives them a strong chance of setting up the next government, heavily supported by neighboring Iran. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on May 5, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that Iraq’s government ruled out allowing U.S. combat troops to remain in Iraqi cities after the June 30, 2009 deadline for their withdrawal, despite concern that Iraqi forces might not be able to cope with the security challenge following a resurgence of bombings.

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Summary: Sen. John McCain says the United States has been backing away from a brewing fight with Iran, while that country moves ever closer to having nuclear weapons. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on April 15, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that drug cartel gun battles that leave dead bodies yards from American soil have turned Mexico’s bloodstained northern border into a major foreign policy challenge for President Barack Obama.

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Summary: U.S. military planners have little doubt that an Israeli air campaign against Iranian nuclear facilities would provoke Iranian retaliation against Saudi Arabia and other major oil producers allied with the United States. American efforts to stabilize Afghanistan and Iraq, both of which border Iran, would come under threat. And there would be no way that any U.S. administration, after so many decades pledging undying support for Israel, could make a convincing claim in Muslim eyes that it was not complicit in the attack. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on March 21, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that American flags were set on fire to chants of “No, no for occupation” as followers of anti-U.S. Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr marked the sixth anniversary of the Iraq war, which had already cost hundreds of billions of dollars — with an ultimate price tag in the trillions — dwarfing the original Bush administration estimate of $2.4 billion.

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Summary: The political movement of Iraq’s best-known anti-American cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr, is emerging as a major contender in the March 7, 2010 national elections, raising the specter that the next prime minister of Iraq could be openly hostile to the United States and friendly toward Iran. Further complicating the situation, Iraq’s main Sunni party has said it is dropping out of the elections. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on February 25, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that four U.S. soldiers and an Afghan civilian working for them were killed in southern Afghanistan when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb, while in Iraq two policemen opened fire on U.S. soldiers visiting a police station, killing an American soldier and an Iraqi interpreter, wounding three Americans, and raising concerns about insurgent infiltration among the ranks of Iraqi police.

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Summary: Iran says it plans to build two new uranium enrichment facilities deep inside mountains to protect them from attack, a new challenge to Western powers trying to curb Tehran’s nuclear program for fear it is aimed at making weapons. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on February 22, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), criticizing the economic stimulus plan on KTLK radio in the Twin Cities with her trademark gloom-and-doom histrionics, foresaw a “national rationing board,” claimed “your doctor will no longer be able to make your health care decisions with you,” and catastrophized that “we’re running out of rich people in this country.”

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Summary: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is claiming that Iran has produced its first batch of uranium enriched to a higher level of 20 percent, saying his country will not be bullied by the West into curtailing its nuclear program a day after the U.S. imposed new sanctions. … Psychological evaluation of Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, with personality profile and threat assessment, by Aubrey Immelman of the Unit for the Study of Personality in Politics. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on February 11, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that a U.S. spy satellite had captured an image of preparations at a North Korean missile site previously used for Taepodong-2 missile launch operations and that 19 people were killed in Taliban suicide attacks on Afghan government sites in Kabul.

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Summary: Iranian troops have crossed into Iraq and seized an oil well in a disputed area along the two countries’ southern border. Iraqi security forces were in the area, but there are no reports of any fighting or shots fired. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on December 18, 2008, Aubrey Immelman reported that at least 25 Iraqi interior ministry officials had been arrested, including several accused of planning a coup; that the Iraqi government accused U.S. forces of killing at least three Trade Ministry employees in a pre-dawn raid on ministry property in Baghdad; and that attackers shot and beheaded Nahla Hussein al-Shaly, 37, leader of the women’s league of the Kurdish Communist Party, reportedly because she promoted women’s rights in Iraq.

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Summary: Analysts believe the nuclear threat from North Korea and Iran is worse today than it was a year ago. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on December 13, 2008, Aubrey Immelman reported that Ali al-Dabbagh, spokesman for the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, said Iraq would need a U.S. troop presence for 10 years to help build up its military forces, well past the agreed three-year deadline for the withdrawal of American soldiers under the U.S.-Iraq status-of-forces agreement negotiated by the Bush administration.

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Summary: The U.S. and its five partners trying to stop Iran’s suspected nuclear weapons program — Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and China — plan to tell Tehran that it must provide “unfettered access” to its previously secret Qom uranium enrichment facility within weeks. … Personality profile and threat assessment of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on the 17th 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 a skirmish between U.S. and Pakistani ground forces across the Afghanistan-Pakistan border and a speech at the United Nations by Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, in which he told world leaders (in an apparent reference to U.S. cross-border attacks) that his country cannot allow its territory to “be violated by our friends.” Immelman also posted an update on U.S. casualties and security incidents in Iraq.

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