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.

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Summary: U.S. officials are concerned that Islamic extremists may try to exploit Egypt’s upheaval but are not yet convinced that the Muslim Brotherhood, the country’s most influential Islamist opposition group, is necessarily a threat. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on February 13, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that bombs and booby traps slowed the advance of thousands of U.S. Marines and Afghan soldiers moving through the Taliban-controlled town of Marjah — NATO’s most ambitious effort yet to break the militants’ grip over their southern Afghanistan heartland. NATO said two of its troops were killed in the first day of the operation — one American and one Briton. Afghan authorities said at least 20 insurgents were killed.

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Summary: A suicide bomber blew himself up near a crowd of Shi’ite pilgrims at a bus depot in the Iraqi city of Samarra, killing 38 people and wounding more than 70. Meanwhile, in Afghanistan, Taliban suicide bombers killed 19 people, including 17 members of the Afghan security forces, in an assault on the provincial police headquarters in Kandahar that also wounded 49 people, including 23 civilians and nine children. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on February 12, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that more than two-thirds of the United States’ land mass had snow on the ground, with snow cover in 49 of the 50 states — Hawaii being the lone exception.

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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. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on February 11, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claimed that Iran had produced its first batch of uranium enriched to a higher level of 20 percent, saying his country would not be bullied by the West into curtailing its nuclear program a day after the U.S. imposed new sanctions. Also featured: A psychological evaluation of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, including a personality profile and threat assessment conducted by Aubrey Immelman, Ph.D., at the Unit for the Study of Personality in Politics.

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Summary: At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, former President Bill Clinton said that Rep. Michele Bachmann’s assertion that the United States has the best health care system in the world is not true and that the new crop of Republicans in Congress are living “in a parallel universe divorced from reality with no facts.” Clinton was responding to comments Bachmann made during her Tea Party response to President Obama’s State of the Union address. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on February 10, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that U.S. Marines fired smoke rounds and armored vehicles maneuvered close to Taliban positions to test insurgent defenses ahead of an anticipated attack on Marjah, the biggest militant-controlled town in southern Afghanistan.

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Summary: Lt. Col. Victor Garcia, deputy commander of the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division deployed in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, says he expects the Taliban to “come back at us hard” in their spring offensive. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on February 8, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that deputy national security adviser John Brennan told NBC’s David Gregory on “Meet the Press” that politicians were using national security to score political points and that he was exasperated with partisan political football over counterterrorism professionals’ handling of failed airline bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.

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Summary: Arizona’s new immigration law, which allows law enforcement officers to stop people and demand proof of legal immigration status, is having a ripple effect across the nation as state legislatures in at least 15 states introduce legislation closely modeled on Arizona’s law. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on February 5, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that the U.S. was preparing a major attack on the Taliban to reverse their gains in the Kandahar region of southern Afghanistan, that militants were being squeezed in their Pakistan sanctuaries, and that the Afghan government was trying to draw them into peace talks. Meanwhile, in Iraq, a bomb on a parked motorcycle exploded on the outskirts of the holy city of Karbala, killing at least 20 Shiite pilgrims and wounding 110.

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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. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on February 4, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that three U.S. special operations soldiers were killed in a roadside bombing in northwest Pakistan, drawing unwanted attention to a U.S. program for intelligence gathering and training Pakistani Frontier Corps paramilitary forces to fight the Taliban and al-Qaida — a little-publicized mission because of local opposition to American boots on the ground in Pakistan.

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Summary: The Government Accountability Office reports that just 32 miles of the nearly 4,000-mile U.S. border with Canada is adequately secured, according to an assessment by the Border Patrol. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on February 1, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that a female suicide bomber walking among Shiite pilgrims in northern Baghdad detonated an explosives belt, killing at least 54 people and wounding around 117.

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Summary: As Egyptians take to the streets to call for the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak, some analysts caution about the prospect of protests in Egypt spreading across the Arab world, with popular revolt erupting in Middle Eastern countries such as Yemen, Jordan, Syria, and even Saudi Arabia, with grave implications for regional stability and U.S. national security interests. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on January 31, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that U.S. Special Forces working with Afghan commandos clashed with Afghan troops manning a snow-covered outpost and called in an airstrike, killing four Afghan soldiers in a case of mistaken identity. Separately, an Afghan interpreter killed two U.S. service members at a combat outpost and U.S. soldiers shot and killed an Afghan imam when his car approached a convoy.

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