Current Events and the Psychology of Politics
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Sep 16th, 2010

Summary: In a 44-minute audio recording that appears to mark the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the U.S., al-Qaida’s No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahiri, released an audio recording accusing the Pakistani government of responding too slowly to severe flooding in the country and calling on Pakistanis to revolt. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on September 16, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that former president Jimmy Carter told NBC’s Brian Williams in an interview that he believed race was at the core of much of the opposition to President Obama.


Sep 11th, 2010

Summary: On a day of mourning for nearly 3,000 Sept. 11 victims on the ninth anniversary of the terrorist attack of 9/11, President Barack Obama called for national unity as the ‘ground zero mosque’ and Quran-burning controversies threatened to overshadow memorial events. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on September 11, 2009, Aubrey Immelman commemorated the 8th anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11, noting that with the timetable set for U.S. withdrawal from Iraq and the fighting in Afghanistan nearing its ninth year, war coverage had waned, often pushed off the front page by the economic recession, health care reform, and celebrity deaths.


Sep 9th, 2010

Summary: A U.S. missile strike in Pakistan’s North Waziristan region has killed five alleged militants in northwestern Pakistan, the fourth such attack on suspected insurgent targets there in 24 hours. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on September 9, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that Michele Bachmann testified that God told her to run for Congress and then, after being elected, said she would run for president if called by God. But she topped that assertion by claiming that Democrats want to take her down because they fear she could become the first woman president of the United States.


Aug 7th, 2010

Summary: The Justice Department has announced the indictment of 14 people — 12 of them Minnesota Somalis, many of them U.S. citizens — accused of funneling “money, personnel, and services” to the Shabab, the Islamist terrorist group fighting an insurgency in Somalia. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on August 7, 2009 Aubrey Immelman reported that a suicide car bomb devastated a Shiite mosque in northern Iraq, one of a series of attacks that killed at least 40 and wounded about 100 Iraqis. He also reported that Pakistan’s Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud had been killed in a CIA missile strike.


May 8th, 2010

Summary: Pakistan is investigating whether Faisal Shahzad, the Pakistani-American arrested over a botched plot to bomb New York’s Times Square, met top Pakistani Taliban leaders in South Waziristan. If confirmed, it would be the group’s first involvement in a terrorist attack on U.S. soil. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on May 8, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that Iraq’s security forces, despite significant improvements, remained hobbled by shortages of men and equipment, bureaucracy, corruption, political interference, and security breaches that have resulted in the deaths of dozens of Iraqi and American troops.


May 3rd, 2010

Summary: U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents arrested Faisal Shahzad, 30, a Pakistani-born U.S. citizen, in connection with the failed bombing attempt in New York’s Times Square as he tried to leave the country on an Emirates airlines flight to Dubai at New York’s JFK airport, May 3, 2010 at 11:45 p.m. ET. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on May 3, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that the sheer weight and volume of U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann’s assault on reason may have reached critical mass, crossing the tipping point beyond which Minnesota media could no longer tune out Bachmann’s insanity or avert their gaze from “The Emperor’s New Clothes” in embarrassed silence.


May 2nd, 2010

Summary: Police investigating a failed car bomb left in Times Square have videotape of a possible suspect shedding clothing in an alley and putting it in a bag. The surveillance video shows a white man in his 40s taking off one shirt, revealing another underneath. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on May 2, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that an attacker wearing an Iraqi army uniform shot dead two U.S. soldiers outside the volatile northern city of Mosul, Iraq; provided an update of key facts, figures, and statistics on Iraq since the war began in March 2003; and reported the latest security incidents in Iraq.


Apr 28th, 2010

Summary: An increase in terrorist attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan triggered a sharp rise in the number of civilians killed or wounded there last year, pushing South Asia past the Middle East as the top terror region in the world, according to figures compiled by National Counterterrorism Center. The terror threat to the United States is partly a function of the level of violence worldwide, according to Bernard Finel, senior fellow with the American Security Project. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on April 28, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that Staff Sgt. Aaron Larson, who as an 11-year-old boy in St. Joseph was with his best friend Jacob Wetterling when Jacob was kidnapped by a masked gunman on Sunday, Oct. 22, 1989, had returned home to Minnesota after a year-long deployment in Iraq.


Apr 22nd, 2010

Summary: Months after Pakistani troops chased them from South Waziristan, Taliban and al-Qaida fighters have regrouped, establishing a new base of operations in North Waziristan near the Afghan border under the protection of insurgent leader Gul Bahadur, who in the past has cut deals with the Pakistani army. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on April 22, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that Taliban militants had extended their grip in northwestern Pakistan, pushing out from the Swat Valley where the government had agreed to impose Islamic law and patrolling villages as close as 60 miles from the Pakistani capital of Islamabad.


Apr 9th, 2010

Summary: The White House is warning that al-Qaida is quietly hunting for an atomic bomb, adding urgency to a historic summit next week where President Barack Obama will try to persuade world leaders to step up efforts to keep nuclear weapons out of terrorist hands. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on April 9, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that PolitiFact debunked Rep. Michele Bachmann’s claim, in an April 7, 2009 op-ed in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, that President Barack Obama’s cap and trade proposal would cost every household in America more than $3,000 in energy costs a year. (Still, I don’t believe it’s good policy, but it’s wrong to go and lie about it.)