TLW's Rockin' 2010 Historyscope
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Historyscope of the Year 2010 C.E.
Copyright T.L. Winslow, The Historyscoper (tm). All Rights Reserved.
Doomsday Clock: 6 min. to midnight (+1 since 2007). Chinese Year: Tiger (Feb. 14) - as in Woods? This is the U.N. Internat. Year of Biodiversity and U.N. Internat. Year for the Rapprochement of Cultures. World pop.: 6.8B, incl. 1.57B Muslims, 1.647M in Britain (2.7%), vs. 2.4% for Europe. Americans have 4.4M births this year, exceeding the record 4.3M in 1957 at the peak of the baby boom (U.S. Census Bureau); for the first time non-white new births outnumber white (37% in 1990, 48% in 2008). Declining birthrates cause deaths to exceed births in the European Union, pop. growth becomes dependent entirely on immigration (EU); Sweden has 1.6M foreigners out of a total pop. of 9.3M (17%). The total amount of new digital data generated per year reaches 1 zettabyte (1 billion trillion bytes). The Mexican Drug War begun 2008 reaches a death toll of 22K by Apr. According to a study by Brandeis U., over the past 23 years, the white-black income gap rose from a median of $22K per family to $100K; black household wealth rose only from $2K to $5K. Communist China makes its move to control the Western Pacific this year, despite expert predictions that it would take until 2025? The Winter of 2010 (Dec. 2009 - Mar. 2010) is the coldest since 1963; on Jan. 5 Norway records a temp of -45.6C as hundreds die in Europe. This year a record 25 of the 182 accredited ambassadors in Washington, D.C. are female, incl. Hunaina Sultan Al-Mughairy from Oman, the first female ambassador from an Arab country, and Meera Shankar, first female ambassador from India in over 50 years. On Jan. 1 (Fri.) the 2010 Rose Bowl sees the 10-2 Ohio State Buckeyes defeat the 10-2 Oregon Ducks by 26-17. On Jan. 1 the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership goes into effect, seeking to expand the EU to North Africa, despite fears of Islamic immigration to and Islamization of Europe; meanwhile al-Qaida's #2 man Al-Zawahiri posts a video on the Internet praising members for kidnapping three Spanish volunteers and a French national and calling on them to reconquer Al-Andalus (Spain) after first "disinfecting" the Maghreb of all infidels. On Jan. 1 Israeli officials announce support of Pres. Obama's decision to impose sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program, but criticize the measures being considered as too narrow, calling for "crippling" restrictions. On Jan. 1 North Korea issues a New Year Message calling for an end to hostility with the U.S. and a nuke-free peninsula, just week after sending signals that it wants to end its year-long boycott of nuclear disarmament talks - hold that tiger? On Jan. 1 a U.S. drone aircraft fires a missile that kills at least three militants in a car in Pakistan's North Waziristan region on the Afghan border; meanwhile a Taliban suicide car bomber in Shah Hasan Khel in NW Pakistan targeted at an anti-Taliban militia kills almost 100, pissing off tribal elders; meanwhile on Jan. 1 a suicide bomber at a volleyball tournament near Lakki Marwat, Pakistan (in NW Pakistan near Waziristan) kills 75. On Jan. 1 the U.S. military celebrates their 1st month without a combat death in Iraq since the start of the war in 2003. On Jan. 1 China announces that it arrested 5,394 in 2009 for Internet porn, and vows to increase the crackdown. On Jan. 1 thousands march in Hong Kong to demand that Beijing grant full democracy. On Jan. 1 a new Irish Anti-Blasphemy Law pass last July comes into effect, causing Atheist Ireland to vow to fight it by publishing anti-religious quotes on its Web site. On Jan. 1 Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, known for his Muhammad cartoons was attacked in his home by a mad 27-y.-o. Somalian Muslim Al-Shabaab terrorist wielding a knife and axe, who smashes his way through the glass door Jack-Nicholson-in-The-Shining-style but escapes by hiding in his panic room, after which the police shoot the intruder; meanwhile Muslim youths carbecue 1,137 cars across France as New Year's Eve celebrations turn violent, causing 549 to be detained overnight; 1,147 cars were burned in France last year, and 288 detained; meanwhile on Jan. 1 (night) French-Moroccan father Caude Sturni kills his three daughters ages 5, 11, 13 in Haguenau, then burns his house down with himself inside, all because of a separation; on Jan. 3 the Org. of the Islamic Conference (OIC) issues a statement in English condemning the attack on Westergaard; on Jan. 8 the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten repub. six of the original 12 Muhammad cartoons, causing the OIC to condemn the paper on Jan. 10 in a statement in English, French and Arabic - the first one condemning the violence was meant for infidel consumption only? On Jan. 1 Pres. Barack Obama signs an executive order directing govt. agencies, local law enforcement and the U.S. Post Office to work on a plan for distributing medical countermeasures in the event of a biological attack. On Jan. 1 Iranian foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki issues an ultimatum to the West to accept Iran's low-enriched uranium for higher-enriched uranium for their U.S.-built reactor, or they will begin enriching theirs from 3.5% to 20%. On Jan. 1 the Y2.01K Crisis is smallish, with some ATM users getting locked out when the machines can't read the year 2010 properly. On Jan. 2 there is a rare palindromic day: 01022010. On Jan. 2 Pres. Obama gives a speech on Yemen, saying that Xmas Underwear Bomber was trained there, and vowing to hold those responsible "to account", answering former vice-pres. Dick Cheney's criticism that he doesn't recognize the struggle with terrorists to be a war with "Our nation is at war against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred", and sending a message to Yemeni pres. (since 1978) field marshal (Fiver Shiite) Ali Abdullah Saleh (1942-) via U.S. Gen. David H. Petraeus congratulating him on his counterterrorism efforts and promising close cooperation; on Jan. 3 the U.S. and U.K. close their embassies in Yemen, signaling that they consider it a terrorist haven, and agree to fund a counterterrorism police unit for that country as well as fund Yemen's coast guard to fight Somalian pirates; U.S. military aid to Yemen will double from $70M to $150M; too bad, on Jan. 4 six trucks filled with explosives give security forces the slip and disappear into Sana'a. On Jan. 2 the Afghan parliament rejects 14 of 24 cabinet nominees by pres. Hamid Karzai as being cronies or under the influence of warlords, telling him to submit new acceptable ones. On Jan. 2 Mexican police capture Carlos Beltran Leyva, brother of drug lord Arturo Beltra Leyva in Culiacan, Sinaloa. On Jan. 2 four trains collide in two separate incidents in fog in India, killing 10 and injuring 47. On Jan. 3 (Sun.) the worst snowstorm since 1951 hits Beijing, China, dumping 8 in.; meanwhile a cold wave in N India kills 40, incl. 30 in the last 24 hours, and on Jan. 4 the worst snowstorm since 1937 hits South Korea. On Jan. 3 the Obama admin. still refusing to implement Muslim Ideological Profiling (MIP) as proposed by TLW et al., the Transportation Security Admin. instead issues orders that all travelers flying into the U.S. be given tightened random screening, and 100% from seven terrorism-prone countries (Afghanistan, Algeria, Iran, Mali, Pakistan, Syria, and Yemen) to be patted down and have carry-ons searched; the list is later increased to 14, incl. Cuba, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen; no surprise, Euro airports are slow to respond, Cuba formally protests, and France wants to add 23 more countries to the risk list; meanwhile a 2008 report by the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security about a rogue aviation network run by al-Qaida across the Atlantic Ocean that was buried resurfaces. On Jan. 3 human rights activist Josefina Reyes is killed in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico; on Jan. 9 police find two severed heads and the bullet-ridden bodies of two women and a man in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, the victims of drug cartels. On Jan. 3 a security scare at Newark, N.J. Airport shuts it down for hours and delays thousands of passengers after a man slips into a secure area to give a woman a goodbye kiss when a federal officer momentarily leaves his post. On Jan. 3 Brit Hume tells Fox News Sunday that Tiger Woods could make over his personal life by switching from Buddhism to Christianity, causing the PC police to come out. On Jan. 4 after a series of earthquake (up to 7.2) in the South Pacific since Jan. 3, a tsunami hits the Solomon Islands, but no injuries are reported. On Jan. 4 Yemeni security forces kill two suspected al-Qaida militants in Sa'ana, while the French, Czech and Japanese embassies close like their U.S. and British counterparts; on Jan. 5 the Obama admin. announces that the U.S. govt. is suspending transfer of Guantanamo Bay detainees to Yemen, but continuing plans to close it, despite a new report that one in five Gitmo prisoners released returns to terrorism. On Jan. 4 the U.S. Secret Service reports the discovery of a 3rd gate crasher at the Nov. 24, 2009 state dinner for Indian PM Manmohan Singh. On Jan. 4 the U.S. House Judiciary Committee holds hearings on NFL brain injuries; former NFL brain injury committee chmn. Ira Casson testifies that he sees no evidence that prof. football is linked to dementia. On Jan. 4 Bangladesh orders dozens of Islamic political parties to drop Islam from their name and stop using religion on the campaign trail per the constitution. On Jan. 4 after getting pissed of at the Social Security admin., black-clad gunman Johnny L. Wicks (1943-) hoots up the federal courthouse lobby in Las Vegas, Nev., then flees and is shot and killed by federal officers. On Jan. 5 Pres. Obama gives a press conference where he repeatedly admits that U.S. intel agencies failed with Xmas Condom Bomber and could have prevented it, and orders them to shape up, saying "This was not a failure to collect intelligence, it was a failure to integrate and understand the intelligence that we already had... That's not acceptable, and I will not tolerate it." On Jan. 5 China warns the U.S. not to sell more arms to pesky Taiwan, which doesn't stop it from announcing $6B in arms sales on Jan. 29. On Jan. 5 a U.S. federal appeals court upholds a lower's court's 2008 decision that the govt. has sweeping authority to detain terrorism suspects linked to al-Qaida, the Taliban or affiliated groups. On Jan. 5 (night) 14 suspected Muslim terrorists die after their explosives-rigged bus blows up prematurely in Kunduz Province, Afghanistan. On Jan. 5 ESPN 3D debuts; on June 11 it broadcasts the Mexico-South Africa World Cup match in 3D; meanwhile Discovery, Imax and Sony announce a joint venture to create a 3-D TV channel next year. On Jan. 6 a U.S. military convoy travelling in the wrong lane hits a passenger van in Hillah, Iraq (S of Baghdad), killing five Iraqis and injuring seven Iraqis and three U.S. soldiers. On Jan. 6 armed Nuer tribesmen kills 139 members of a rival tribe in a remote area of S Sudan. On Jan. 6 two U.S. drone strikes kill 12 in NW Pakistan. On Jan. 6 Calif. gov. Arnold Schwazenegger addresses the state assembly, asking the U.S. govt. to give Calif. $8B to help with its $20B deficit; he also shocks the Obama admin. by distancing himself from support of his health care reform bill, saying Calif. can't afford it. On Jan. 6 Xhosa tribal king Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo threatens to secede his 10M pop. Thembu tribal subgroup and take 60% of the land of South Africa with him if criminal charges against him aren't dropped. On Jan. 6 a Muslim suicide car bomber near Makhachkala, Dagestan in S Russia kills six police and injures 10 others. On Jan. 6 U.S. secy. of state Hillary Clinton says that troubled countries like Yemen need development aid along with diplomacy and air strikes to fulfill U.S. security interests; on Jan. 6 Yemeni foreign minister Abu Bakr al-Qirbi chimes in and says that Yemen doesn't welcome U.S. and foreign troops, even for training and logistical support. On Jan. 6 retiring Prague archbishop cardinal Miloslav Vlk (1932-) warns that Europe is letting itself be Islamized without a fight, adding "Today, when the fighting is done with spiritual weapons which Europe lacks while Muslims are perfectly armed, the fall of Europe is looming." On Jan. 6-7 a 20-hour gun battle in Srinagar, Kashmir, India between police and militants at a police outpost kills four. On Jan. 7 (midnight) Muslin gunmen stage a drive-by shooting outside a church in Nag Hamadi in Qena province in S Egypt (40 mi. from the ruins of Luxor), killing six. On Jan. 7 an attempt to oust British PM (since 2009) Gordon Brown fails, but shakes his authority. On Jan. 7 a series of five bomb attacks on police in Hit, Iraq (120 mi. W of Baghdad) kill eight and injure 10. On Jan. 7 in response to the Nov. 23 massacre of 57 in S Philippines, the Philippine govt. begins disbanding 132 militias used by politicians to intimidate rivals. On Jan. 7 the French govt. announces the deportation of radical Egyptian imam Ali Ibrahim El Soudany for issuing calls to violence - but not his followers? On Jan. 7 assembly line worker Timothy Hendron. (b. 1958), who has a pending lawsuit against them brings a rifle to electrical products co. ABB Power, killing three and wounding five workers before killing himself. On Jan. 7 after a 2-day trip to Turkey, German foreign minister Guido Westerwelle tells Turkey to press ahead with reforms to bring it closer to the EU, denying that Germany is blocking its bid to join. On Jan. 7 Iranian opposition leader Mahdi Karroubi is fired on by pro-govt. demonstrators in Qazvin (90 mi. W of Tehran). On Jan. 7 former archbishop of Canterbury (1991-2002) Baron George Carey (1935-) pub. a letter in the London Times warning that uncontrolled Islamic immigration will threaten the "very ethos or DNA" of Britain. On Jan. 7 suspected al-Qaida member Adis Medunjanin (1984-) crashed his car into the back of another at the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge after leading U.S. federal agents on a high-speed chase through Queens, N.Y. and uttering the soundbyte "We love death more than you love life." On Jan. 7-8 race riots by underpaid African workers in Rosarno, Italy in Calabria (toe of the boot) cause more than 1K to be shipped to immigrant detention centers, after which Pope Benedict XVI urges Italians to respect their rights,. with the soundbyte "An immigrant is a human being, different only in where he comes from, his culture and tradition"; on Jan. 11 the pope denounces the failure at the Dec. 2009 Hopenhagen conference, saying that world peace depends on safeguarding God's creation. On Jan. 8 Afghan pres. Hamid Karzai defends his record on corruption, calling it "blown out of proportion". On Jan. 8 Georgian Airways resumes direct flights to Russia for the first time since the 2008 war. On Jan. 8 only a handful of the promised thousands of "good" Muslims march in Dearborn, Mich. to protest Islamic terrorists, saying that they don't represent Islam; meanwhile the FBI arrests Adis Medunjanin (1984-) and Zarein Ahmedzay (1985-) in connection with the Najibullah Zazi domestic Muslim terrorism case; on Apr. 24 Ahmedzay pleads guilty. On Jan. 8 Portugal legalizes same-sex marriages, but still won't allow gay couples to adopt. On Jan. 8 Obama admin. spokesmen Hillary Clinton and George Mitchell change the U.S. Mideast peace approach, stepping up pressure on Israel and the Palestinians to resume stalled talks by moving straight to negotations on the toughest issues, incl. borders of a Palestinian state and the status of Jerusalem; on Mar. 12 Hillary rebukes Israel for building new settlements in E Jerusalem, causing the Zionist Org. of Am. to send her a letter on Mar. 28 asking her to apologize to her former constituents in New York for promising to support an undivided Jerusalem as Israel's capital, and former New York mayor Ed Koch to say that he is "close" to "getting off the Obama train". On Jan. 9 (4:27 p.m. local time) a 6.5 earthquake strikes off the coast of N Calif., leaving 25K households without power. On Jan. 9 after his 2008 comment is pub. in the new book "Game Change", by Mark Halperin and John Heilemann, U.S. Sen. majority leader (D-Nev.) Harry Reid personally apologizes for once predicting that Barack Obama would become the first black U.S. pres. because he is "light-skinned" and has "no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one"; Obama accepts the apology, saying "I know what's in his heart". On Jan. 9 a bus is attacked in Angola about 6 mi. from the Congo border, killing six and wounding Togo's nat. soccer team asst. coach , spokesman and eight players, causing the team to withdraw from the African Cup of Nations. On Jan. 10 Social Dem. Ivo Josipovic (1957-) is elected pres. of Croatia, taking office on Feb. 18 (until ?). On Jan. 11 an explosion outside the village of Nawa, Helmand in S Afghanistan kills a U.S. Marine, plus Rupert Hamer (b. 1960) of the Sunday Mirror, the first British journalist of the war. On Jan. 11 tearful retired ML baseball star Mark McGwire finally admits that he used steroids during his record-setting years, saying he needs to make the admission before becoming the hitting coach of the St. Louis Cardinals, and that he already apologized to Roger Maris' widow Pat; former ML commissioner Bud Selig proclaims the end of the steroid era. On Jan. 11 after 60-y.-o. born-again anti-gay-rights grandmother Iris Robinson (1949-) is exposed as having a 2008 affair with 19-y.-o. Kirk McCambley and helping him raise $81K to open a cafe, her hubby Peter David Robinson (1948-) temporarily steps down as first minister of the North Ireland assembly (until ?); on Jan. 13 she resigns as MP for Strangford; meanwhile the Simon and Garfunkel song "Mrs. Robinson" gets downloaded heavily in Northern Ireland. On Jan. 11 Pres. Obama signs an Executive Order Establishing a Council of Governors "to strengthen further the partnership between the federal government and state governments to protect our nation against all types of hazards... reviewing such matters as involving the National Guard of the various States; homeland defense; civil support; synchronization and integration of State and Federal military activities in the United States; and other matters of mutual interest pertaining to National Guard, homeland defense, and civil support activities"; the news stirs fears of coming martial law in the U.S. On Jan. 11 N.J. passes a law legalizing medical marijuana, becoming the 14th state; on Jan. 12 Calif. begins efforts to legalize, tax and regulate it. On Jan. 11 a poll by ABC News, the BBC, and ARD German TV is released claiming that almost 70% of Afghans support the presence of U.S. military forces in Afghanistan, and 61% favor the troop buildup; 42% blame the Taliban for the violence. On Jan. 11 Osama bin Laden's former driver Salim Hamdan has a new boy son in Sana'a, Yemen 14 mo. after returning from Guantanamo Bay, where he was convicted of war crimes in Aug. 2008; the birth falls on the 8th anniv. of the prison camp's opening. On Jan. 11 Dutch brewing giant Heineken Internat. announces the purchase of Mexican Economic Development Inc. (FEMSA) on Mexico, the beer giant that produces Tecate, Dos Equis, Carta Blanca and other brands. On Jan. 12 (4:53 a.m.) the 7.0 Great 2010 Haiti Earthquake center 10 mi. from Port-au-Prince kills 100K-200K and leaves most of the 3M city pop. homeless, becoming the worst earthquake in the area in over 200 years; the nat. penitentiary collapses, allowing inmates to escape; the U.N. HQ collapses, killing ? of ?; the pres. palace collapses, along with the parliament bldg., causing Haitian pres. Rene Preval to flee to the Port-au-Prince airport and live there; the U.S. suspends deportations of illegal Haitian immigrants, and Pres. Obama promises "unwavering support" to rebuild the country, pledging $100M in immediate aid and sending thousands of troops; $5M in aid is donated in the first 48 hours via texting in $10 increments, and $22M within a week; U.S. televangelist Pat Robertson stinks himself up by calling the earthquake God's revenge because Haiti had made a "pact with the Devil" to throw out the French in 1791, followed by Rev. Bill Shuler, who claims that the "practice of witchcraft" caused God's wrath; a group of 10 U.S. Baptists are arrested for child trafficking and kidnapping for trying to cross the border to the Dominican Repub. with 33 Haitian orphans, some of whom turn out not to be orphans, and on Feb. 17 they are finally allowed to leave the country; did big oil cause the quake by secret drilling? On Jan. 12 NATO and Afghan security forces open fire during a demonstration in Garmsir in Helmand province S Afghanistan, a former Taliban stronghold. On Jan. 12 Yemen begins negotiations with kidnappers holding a German family and a Briton hostage; on Jan. 11 German foreign minister Guido Westerwelle visit Sa'ana. On Jan. 12 China successfully tests an anti-missile system; meanwhile the People's Bank of China surprises investors by raising the required reserves of banks to tighten its monetary policy. On Jan. 12 Iranian nuclear physicist Massoud Ali-Mohammadi, who is linked to opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi is assassinated by a remote-controlled bomb; Iran blames Israel and the U.S. On Jan. 12 Iraqi forces bring parts of Baghdad to a standstill with a crackdown on insurgents, arresting 25 and seizing 880 lb. of explosives, claiming to stop a terrorist plot. On Jan. 12 protests in Kabul triggered by rumors that internat. troops destroyed copies of the Quran kill six; meanwhile French feminist Rayhana is doused with gasoline on the streets of Paris by two Arabic-speaking men after sppearing in a show on the oppression of Algerian women, but they failed to set her ablaze with a cigarette. On Jan. 12 Carmen Milagros Ortiz becomes the first woman and first Latina U.S. atty. in Mass. On Jan. 12 the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg rules U.K.'s stop and search powers under Sect. 44 of the 2000 Terrorism Act are illegal because they violate the Convention on Human Rights. On Jan. 12 the Mexican govt. arrests drug lord Teodoro Garcia Simental, AKA El Tedo in S Baja Calif., known for ordering massacres, beheadings, and dissolving bodies in acid. On Jan. 12 the Am. Israel Action Coalition calls for the firing of Obama's anti-Semiticism czar Hannah Rosenthal for supporting the supposedly Jewish-run J Street lobbying org., saying that it's really funded by Arabs and is a fake Jewish front. On Jan. 12 TLW pub. his Winslow Plan to Win the Against Radical Islam. On Jan. 13 (7:47 a.m. EST) a 33-to-50-ft.-wide mystery object whizzes by Earth, coming witin 80K mi. On Jan. 13 Google Inc. announces that it discovered a massive attempt to hack into its email accounts of Chinese dissidents, and is responding by stopping its censoring of search results in China; China censors the news of it, after which on Jan. 14 its official spokesperson Jiang Yu claims that "China's Internet is open", and that the govt. prohibits e-mail hacking; on Jan. 21 U.S. state secy. Hillary Clinton gives a Speech on Internet Freedom, singling out China, pissing them off, and causing them on Jan. 22 to tell the U.S. govt. "to respect the truth and to stop using the co-called Internet freedom question to level baseless accusations", then on Jan. 24 pub. an article in People's Daily accusing the U.S. of controlling the Internet in the name of Internet freedom and mounting a "hacker brigade" to foment unrest in Iran; after a Chinese official claims China can live without Google, and they get into a mini-war for 2 mo., Google announces on Mar. 22 that is closing its China-based Web site and redirecting traffic to an uncensored site in Hong Kong, which the Chinese will censor; on July 9 China gives Google a green light to keep its search page. On Jan. 13 Yemeni forces announce the killing of al-Qaida leader Abdullah Mihzar in the mountainous region of Maysaa (230 mi. SE of Sana'a); on Jan. 14 Yemen declares war on al-Qaida, warning its citizens against aiding it and calling for help; meanwhile Islamic clerics threaten jihad if foreign military forces intervene. On Jan. 13 Israeli deputy foreign minister Daniel Ayalon formally apologizes to Turkish ambassador Ahmet Oguz Celikkol for humiliating him earlier in the week by making him sit on a low chair while Israelis towered over him in order to express anger at a Turkish TV series claiming that Israelis try to kidnap and convert Muslim children. On Jan. 13 veteran civil rights activist Larry Platt (1948-) appears on American Idol and performs his cool song "Pants on the Ground", about the silliness of low-rider pants. On Jan. 13 Dubai launches the OneWorld 2011 project to defeat stereotypes and misunderstandings between Islam and the West, despite there being no misunderstanding by TLW and other history students that Islam's values are totally opposed to those of the West?; meanwhile on Jan. 14 a group of 15 top Muslim clerics in Yemen incl. Sheikh Abdul Majeed al-Zindani (1942-) warn the U.S. of jihad if it sends troops - misunderstanders of Islam? On Jan. 14 Pres. Obama proposes a sharp increases in taxes paid by the largest financial institutions in the U.S. to raise $90B over the next decade and rein it in from taking large risks and giving out "obscene bonuses" - first they bail you out, then they tax you to death and tell you what to do? On Jan. 14 the Iraqi govt. bans 570+ candidates from the Mar. 7 election, 400 of whom are discovered to be Sunnis, pissing off Sunni politicians, who blame Shiite-run Iran, and causing U.S. vice-pres. Joseph Biden to rush to Baghdad to try to make them reconsider, telling them there will be no Baathist coup attempt following U.S. withdrawal, after which on Feb. 3 they flop and allow them to run, but they drop out anyway on Feb. 20, blaming Iranian influence on the vetting panel that blacklisted hundreds of candidates. On Jan. 14 the U.K. bans the Islamic group Islam4UK as a terrorist group after it tries to stage a march through Wootton Bassett (where the remains of British troops are received) and draws thousands of protests. On Jan. 14 500K celebrate the Kumbh Mela (Pitcher) Festival in India by bathing in the filthy Ganges River in Haridwar, with at least seven killed (incl. six women) in a stampede in West Bengal; 50M are expected to visit Haridwar over the next 4 mo. On Jan. 14 a suicide bomber at a market in Dihrawud in the ethnic Pashtun Uruzgan province (250 mi. SW of Kabul) kill 20, incl. three children. On Jan. 14 (5:30 p.m.) three explosions rock the Shiite holy city of Najaf (90 mi. S of Baghdad), becoming the first in the city since 2006; remnants of the Baath Party are blamed, causing provincial council member Jawad al-Garawi to vow to purge them from police and govt. positions. On Jan. 14 (5 p.m.) a roadside bomb explodes near a vehicle convoy carrying Israeli diplomats near the village of Naour, Jordan, 30 mi. W of Amman. On Jan. 15 hundreds of Muslims riot in Nairobi, Kenya after Jamaican cleric Sheikh Abdullah al-Faisal is jailed. On Jan. 15 a 5.6 earthquake hits Sucre, Venezuela, 235 mi. E of Caracas. On Jan. 15 the FBI unveils a Times Square Digital Billboard to display suspects' mugs and other "security messages", stirring fears of George Orwell's Big Brother and the 1987 Arnold Schwarnegger film "The Running Man". On Jan. 15 al-Qaida leader Qasim al-Raymi (b. 1979), who orchestrated the Xmas Panty Bomber last year is killed in Yatama, Yemen by a Yemeni air strike; a statement by him later appears on the Internet, saying "We will blow up the earth from below your feet". On Jan. 17 U.S. drones fire four missles into a suspected Uzbek militant house in the Shaktoi area of South Waziristan, killing 20+. On Jan. 17 Afghan pres. Hamid Karzi announces a new peace plan featuring "economic incentives" to lure the Taliban to join his govt. ranks, saying that many Taliban fighters "have no ideological commitment to the principles, values or political movement led by Mullah Omar" and are "not supporters of the ideology of al-Qaida"; Pakistani army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani announces that Pakistan wants a role in the negotiations. On Jan. 17 the Saudi-based Islamic Solidarity Games Federation cancels the Islamic Solidarity Games after Persia refuses to call the Persian Gulf the Arabian Gulf. On Jan. 17 Spanish Communist politician Gaspar Llamazares threatens to sue the FBI for using his photo as the basis of a hypothetical image of Osama bin Laden as he would look now. On Jan. 17 Harvard-educated billionaire M.R. Sebastian Pinera Echenique (M. R. Sebastián Piñera Echenique) (1949-) is elected pres. of Chile, taking office on Mar. 11 (until ?), ending 20 years of leftist rule since the fall of Gen Augusto Pinochet in 1990; he promises to boost economic growth to 6% a year and create 1M jobs; Chile's economy shrank last year for the 1st time in a decade. On Jan. 17 Haitian-born Brooklyn resident Jules Paul Bouloute (1952-) is arrested at JFK Internat. Airport in connection with a security breach that causes an Am. Airlines terminal to be evacuated. On Jan. 17 U.S. atty. Preet Bharara announces the merging of drug and terrorism units to go after extremist Islamic groups. On Jan. 17 after they protest construction of a mosque, angry Muslim youths set a Christian church filled with worshippers on fire, starting a riot that kills 27 and wounds 300+ in Jos, Nigeria. On Jan. 17 the 2010 Golden Globe Awards award best picture to "Avatar" and "The Hangover", best dir. to James Cameron for "Avatar" best actor to Jeff Bridges for "Crazy Heart" and Robert Downey Jr. for "Sherlock Holmes", best actress to Sandra Bullock for "The Blind Side" and Meryl Streep for "Julie and Julia", best supporting actor to Christoph Waltz for "Inglorious Basterds", best supporting actress to Mo'Nique for "Precious", best foreign language film to "The White Ribbon", and best screenplay to "Up in the Air". On Jan. 18 the Taliban stages a brazen attack in C Kabul, with suicide bombers at several locations along with a gun battle inside a shopping center. On Jan. 18 Somali Muslim pirates free Greek-flagged tanker Maran Centaurus, seized Nov. 29 carring 2M barrels of oil after they pay the biggest ransom yet paid, $5.5M-$7M. On Jan. 19 a U.S. drone fires two missiles at a house in the Datta Khel district 20 mi. W of Miranshah in Pakistan's North Waziristan region, killing six militants. On Jan. 19 Iran rejects an internat. plan to ship its low-enriched uranium abroad for further enrichment. On Jan. 19 Sheikh Ahmed Hassoun, Syria's top Muslim leader says that Islam commands its followers to protect Judaism, adding "If the Prophet Mohammed had asked me to deem Christians or Jews heretics, I would have deemed Mohammed himself a heretic", and "If Mohammed had commanded us to kill people, I would have told him he was not a prophet." On Jan. 19 Christopher Bryan Speight (1970-) fatally shoots eight people in Appomattox, Va., then hides in the woods overnight before surrendering. On Jan. 19 53 Haitian orphans land in Pittsburgh, Penn. to be placed in group homes until their adoptions are finalized. On Jan. 19 Repub. state sen. and former June 1982 Cosmopolitan model Scott Philip Brown (1959-) narrowly defeats Dem. Mass. atty. gen. Martha Coakley (known for prosecuting British au pair Louise Woodward) for Ted Kennedy's U.S. Senate seat, ending the 60-seat Dem. majority and throwing Obama's health care reform into trouble. On Jan. 19 the Washington Post reports that the FBI collected more than 2K records on U.S. telephone calls illegally by falsely invoking terrorism or strong-arming telephone cos. On Jan. 19 an 11-member Israeli squad with Euro passports kills senior Hamas cmdr. Mahmoud Abdel Rauf al-Mabhouh (b. 1960) in his hotel room in Dubai; on Feb. 1 the Palestinian Popular Resistance Committees places bombs in barrels and sends them into the Mediterranean Sea from the Gaza coast, and three wash ashore in Israeli cities but are detonated on Feb. 19 Dubai police chief Lt. Gen. Dahi Khalfan calls for Interpol to issue a "red notice" to approve the arrest of Meir Dagan, head of the Israeli Mossad.; on Apr. 22 the EU condemns the Dubai killing and the use of fraudulent EU passports, but doesn't refer to Israel directly; on Feb. 24 Israeli opposition leader Tzipi Livni calls on the internat. community to stop criticizing them, saying "I don't expect the world to welcome the killing of terrorists, but I do expect the world to not criticize it"; the hit was actually a botched kidnapping attempt in order to use him as a bargaining chip to get Hamas to return captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit? On Jan. 20 Pres. Barack Obama has been in office one full year and the world is still here and he still hasn't held precondition-free talks with Iran. On Jan. 20 the 6.1 2nd 2010 Haitian Earthquake rocks Port au Prince, causing the 12K U.S. troops to step up aid efforts, while Hugo Chavez of Venezuela et al. loudly complain that the U.S. is "occupying" Haiti. On Jan. 20 U.S. defense secy. Robert Gates tells the press that al-Qaida and its affiliates might be trying to start a war between India and Pakistan and spread it to all of South Asia; meanwhile U.S. Sen. (R-Ala.) Jeff Sessions, raking Repub. on the Senate Judiciary Committee "calls out" the Obama admin. for its lax approach to fighting the war with Islamic terrorists, incl. reading Miranda rights to terrorists, closing the Guantanamo Bay prison, and trying to rehabiliate and release them only to fight us again, with the soundbyte "On Christmas Day we narrowly escaped disaster. It was a harrowing reminder that we are faced with a ruthless enemy - one that will stop at nothing in its quest to kill American civilians."
On Jan. 21 the govt. of
South Korea
turns off the lights at 7:00 p.m. and tells its workers to go home and
make babies to help reverse the pop. decline.
On Jan. 21 the U.S. Supreme Court rules 5-4 in
Citizens
United v. Federal Election Commission that corps. can spend freely on political
campaigns, and don't have to go through PACs; justice
John Paul Stevens
writes the dissenting opinion, dissing the court for stretching its jurisdiction
over the little ole movie "Hillary: The Movie" in order to create a broad
sweeping opinion; the Obama admin. responds with the
U.S.
Disclosure Act to get around it, which Repubs. unite to stop from passing
with a filibuster.
On Jan. 21 Pres. Obama takes on
Wall
Street, proposing rules to prevent any bank from becoming "too big to fail",
and barring them from making "reckless" investments that are little more than
gambling, incl. hedge funds and private equity funds; his plan was proposed
by Paul
Volcker; Euro govts
cautiously back his plan.
On Jan. 21 Afghan CIC U.S. Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal
announces
that he plans on tightening the rules on night raids in Afghanistan to
avoid pissing off the pop. and throwing them into the arms of the Taliban.
On Jan. 21 after weeks of rumors, public jokes and negotiations,
NBC-TV officially boots Conan O'Brien out, with a $32.5M buyout, and
moves Jay Leno back to the Tonight Show.
On Jan. 21
India
puts its airports on high alert after getting info. that an al-Qaida attack
is in the works; on Jan. 22
Britain
raises its terror threat level to its 2nd highest possible level.
On Jan. 21 a
report by the
U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee says that the U.S. should be put
on heightened alert for attacks from Americans in Yemen, incl. ex-prisoners
who converted to Islam in priz.
On Jan. 22 the new
Bolivia parliament
meets, with a record 28% of seats occupied by women, incl. the pres. of the
Senate, Ana Maria Romero; pres. Evo Morales is sworn in for a 2nd term (until ?).
On Jan. 22 U.S. Marine Lance Cpl.
Ryan T. Mathison
steps on an IED and it fails to go off; on Jan. 23 a roadside bomb kills two
U.S. soldiers in
S
Afghanistan, bringing the year's total to 22.
On Jan. 22 Russian police officer
Alexei
Dymovsky from Novorossisk, who accused his bosses of corruption and
abuse of office, and whose YouTube video got over 1M hits is arrested
and charged with ditto to silence him, with a 10-year sentence hanging
over his head for allegedly stealing $800.
On Jan. 22
Guantanamo
Bay Prison stays open despite Obama's campaign promise to close it by this
date; it finally closes on ?
On Jan. 23 tens of thousands demonstrate in
Caracas,
Venezuela against the regime of Pres. Hugo Chavez, blaming him for
power blackouts, water rationing, and high crime.
On Jan. 23 12-y.-o.
Shazia
Bashir (b. 1997) is murdered by her wealthy Muslim lawyer employer
Chaudhry Mohammad Naeem, former pres. of the Lahore High Court Bar Assoc.,
which threatens to "burn alive" any lawyer who prosecutes her; meanwhile
two Christian women are freed after their employer
Muhammad
Ikram kidnaps and tortures them for months to try to convert them to Islam.
On Jan. 23 prof. and amateurs protest in
Trafalgar Square
in London over being intimidated into not taking pictures of public bldgs.
On Jan. 24 torrential rains in Peru strand thousands of tourists in
Machu
Picchu.
On Jan. 25 (3:10 a.m.)
Ethiopian
Airlines Flight ET409 (Boeing 737) catches fire and crashes into the
Mediterranean Sea min. after takeoff from Beirut, killing all 90 aboard.
On Jan. 25 Saddam Hussein's cousin
Chemical Ali (Ali Hassan al-Majid)
is hung; meanwhile three big car bombs rock
Baghdad hotels,
killing 36 and ending a 6-week lull; on Jan. 26 another suicide bomer
detonates in a police crime lab outside the
Interior Ministry,
killing 21 and injuring 80.
.
On Jan. 25 Afghan pres. Hamid Karzai
announces
that Western allies back his plans to reconcile with Taliban fighters.
On Jan. 25
Daniel Kerrigan
(1939-), father of Olmpic skater Nancy Kerrigan dies of a heart attack
after a fight with his hothead jailbird son who thought he was faking when he
collapsed in their Stoneham, Mass. home.
On Jan. 25 the worst Tex. oil spill since 1995 sees an 800-ft. tanker
headed for an Exxon Mobil refinery in
Beaumont,
Tex. collide with another vessel, spilling 220K gal. of oil.
On Jan. 26 elections in Sri Lanka for the first time since the end of the
civil war reelect pres.
Mahinda Rajapaksa
with 57.8% of 10.4M votes cast; too bad, soldiers surround his chief rival
Gen. Sarath Fonseka in a luxury hotel, causing him to call for the results to
be nullified.
On Jan. 26 the U.S. Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction
Proliferation issues a
report
saying that the U.S. isn't prepared for a bioterrorist attack.
On Jan. 26 a French parliamentary committee pub. a 200-page
report
recommending a partial ban on women wearing Islamic face veils, calling
the burqa "contrary to the values of the republic"; on Mar. 7 EU chief
Thomas
Hammarberg says that a ban on the full Islamic veil would be an invasion
of privacy and would alienate Muslim women from French society; in Mar. a 31-y.-o.
French Muslim woman is
fined
for wearing a full veil while driving; on Apr. 21 French pres.
Nicolas
Sarkozy; of 4M-6M French Muslims, only 1.9K women wear full burqas; on May 19
the French parliament
imposes
a $185 fine on women wearing a full-face Islamic veil in public; on Sept. 14 the
French
Senate overwhelmingly (246-1) votes to ban the full Islamic veil in public.
On Jan. 26
Mohamed
Ali Harrath, head of Britain's Islam Channel is arrested in South Africa
on terrorism charges, and faces deportation to Tunisia.
On Jan. 26
Toyota
suspends the manufacture and sale of eight of its most popular models after
a flaw that causes sudden potentially fatal acceleration remains unsolved;
on Feb. 5 after allegations of coverups, Toyota's pres. (since June, 2009)
Akio
Toyoda publicly apologizes; on Feb. 9 it
recalls
400K hybrid Toyota Priuses, on top of the 8M vehicles in line for fixes,
all causing U.S. automakers to dance with glee that they have their chance;
on Feb. 24
Akio
Toyoda, grandson of the founder appears before a U.S. House oversight
committee, to offer a tearful apology; on Apr. 5 the U.S. Transportation Dept.
announces a maximum allowable
$16.4M fine
for failing to promptly notify them about problems with accelerator pedals.
On Jan. 27 Porfirio Lobo "Pepe" Sosa
(1947-) of the center-right Nat. Party is sworn in as pres. of Honduras (until ?).
On Jan. 27 (9 p.m. ET) Pres. Obama delivers his
2010 State
of the Union Address,
saying "Jobs must be our number one focus in 2010", calling on Congress to
send him a new jobs bill; he also announces plans to take $30B in repaid Wall
St. bailout funds to create small business loans, and calls for a small business
jobs credit to help 1M cos. to create jobs or raise wages; Obama asks Congress
to abolish the "don't ask don't tell policy" for gays in the military, and
bashes
the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision permitting corps. to pay for political ads,
causing justice
Samuel Alito Jr.
to mutter "Not true" from the audience at Obama's insistence that the ruling allows
foreign corps. to influence U.S. campaigns, after which on Mar. 9 chief justice
John
Roberts calls it "very troubling", that the address has "degenerated to a
political pep rally", and openly wonders whether the justices should attend in
the future; a
2005
soundbyte by Sen. Barack Obama the week before Roberts' confirmation hearing
is dug up by the press:
"A political philosophy that typically errs on the side of the powerful rather
than the powerless, that's a judicial philosophy that can make worse, can
exacerbate some of the problems that we have in this country"; Obama also
claims that there
is "overwhelming scientific evidence on climate change", and that it "is not
an intellectual luxury but an actual fact".
On Jan. 27 German-born socialite
Frederic Prinz von Anhalt
(9th hubby of Zsa Zsa Gabor) announces his candidacy for gov. of Calif.
On Jan. 27
Hany
Mawla (1973-) becomes the first Muslim to be appointed to the N.J.
superior court, and also the youngest.
On Jan. 28 (8 a.m.) a U.S. soldier kills Islamic cleric imam
Mohammad
Yunis in E Kabul, pissing off the local Muslim pop. and causing
a U.S. military investigation.
On Jan. 28 the U.S. Senate raises the U.S. debt ceiling by $1.9T to $14.3T,
about $45K per capita, and confirms Ben Benanke for a 2nd term as head of the
Federal Reserve by 70-30.
On Jan. 28 world leaders meet in
London
to discuss the allied war effort in Afghanistan and discuss how to combat
Islamic radicalization in Yemen.
On Jan. 28 Iran
hangs
two anti-govt. activists for the crime of "waging war against Allah";
meanwhile on Jan. 27 Pres. Obama warns Iran that it faces "growing
consequences" over its nuclear activities, and on Jan. 29 the U.S. Senate
votes to cut off
Iranian oil imports after the House voted a similar bill 6 weeks earlier.
On Jan. 28
Ojore
Nuru Lutalo (1945-) of Elizabeth, N.J.
is arrested on an Amtrak passenger train in Colo. en route from L.A. to
Chicago after passengers hear him talking about al-Qaida and making
threats on his cell phone.
On Jan. 29 former British PM
Tony Blair
defends the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, saying that after 9/11 the
game rules changed, and Saddam Hussein had to be disarmed or removed,
saying "This isn't about a lie, or a conspiracy, or a deceit, or a deception,
this is a decision, and the decision I had to take was, given Saddam's history,
given his use of chemical weapons, given the over 1 million people whose deaths
he caused, given 10 years of breaking U.N. resolutions, could we take the risk
of this man reconstituting his weapons program? I believed... that we were
right not to run that risk", adding that he was convinced that Sodamn Insane
had WMDs at the time.
On Jan. 29 another audio tape by
Osama bin Laden
is aired on Al Jazeera, and this time he urges the world to drop reliance
on the U.S. dollar and blames industrialized countries for global warming.
On Jan. 29
Bill
Gates pledges $10B to fund research for a "Decade of New Vaccines" for the
world's poorest countries, becoming the biggest charitable donation in history
(until ?).
On Jan. 29 Hillary Clinton
warns
China that it risks diplomatic isolation and disruption to its energy
supplies unless it helps stop Iran from developing nukes.
On Jan. 29 the U.S. Nat. Counterterrorism Center
announces
that it's creating new teams of specialists to connect the dots of emerging
terrorist plots in an effort to prevent a repeat of 2009 Xmas Underwear Bomber;
meanwhile Obama admin. officials leak the news that might not try 9/11 mastermind
Khalid
Sheik Mohammed in New York City after all, and are are considering
Guantanamo Bay; in Mar. after White House input, the Pentagon appoints
retired Navy vice adm.
Bruce
MacDonald as the war crimes convening authority to bring criminal charges,
select jury pools, etc., causing speculation that KSM will be tried by a war
crimes tribunal.
On Jan. 29 Pres. Obama stages an unusual
meeting
with House Repub. members in Baltimore, Md., saying that they're painting his
health care program as a "Bolshevik plot".
On Jan. 29 Islamic extremists set off a bomb in a mosque compound in
S
Thailand, then start a firefight with Thai soldiers, killing one and wounding two.
On Jan. 30 (dawn) a joint U.S.-U.N. airstrike in
Wardak
province SW of Kabul mistakenly targets an Afghan army post, killing four
Afghan soldiers, pissing off the Afghan govt.; meanwhile a U.S. drone strike in the
Mohammad
Khel area of North Waziristan kills five; meanwhile a suicide car bomber
in Bajaur
in NW Pakistan kills 14; meanwhile a suicide bomber at a falafel restaurant
near a Shiite shrine in Sunni-dominated
Samarra
(60 mi. N of Baghdad) kills two; meanwhile critics
diss
the Obama admin. for never admitting to the strikes.
On Jan. 30 Yemeni forces capture al-Qaida militant
Saleh
Abdul-Habib Saleh Shawash, who is wearing a bomb belt and planning suicide
attack on "economic facilities.
On Jan. 30 16 children are massacred in
Ciudad
Juarez, Mexico by gunmen in two trucks, who block off a dead-end street
in the Villas de Salvarcar neighborhood and open fire on three houses;
the mayor calls it a "random criminal act".
On Jan. 30 former Iranian pres. (1989-97)
Ali Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani
tells a meeting of the Iranian Expediency Council that Iran's nuclear program
is "irreversible", a "symbol of national resolve", and that Iran will not be
stopped by new sanctions.
On Jan. 30 the
2010 Miss Am. Pageant
is won by Caressa Cameron (1987-)
of Va.; conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh is a judge.
On Jan. 31 "unauthorized"
anti-Kremlim
protests in Moscow and St. Petersburg result in 100+ arrests, incl.
several opposition leaders.
On Jan. 31 U.S. and Pakistani officials announce that they believe that their
strikes have killed Pakistan Taliban leader
Hakimullah
Mehsud; on May 3
two
new videos by him surface, in which he utters the soundbyte "The time is
very near when our fedayeen will attack the American states in the major cities",
pointing to the Times Square bombing attempt.
On Jan. 31 the U.S. announces that it is deploying a
Patriot
Missile shield in the Persian Gulf to protect its allies, incl. Qatar, UAE,
Bahrain and Kuwait.
On Jan. 31 (Sun.) the NFL Pro Bowl is held for the 1st time in the continental
U.S. at Dolphin Stadium in Miami, Fla., becoming the first Pro Bowl held before
a Super Bowl.
On Jan. 31 the
52nd Grammy Awards
are a big V for
Beyonce
(Beyoncé Giselle Knowles) (1981-), who wins a female artist record six awards;
country singer
Taylor Swift (1989-)
wins four.
at Staples Center in Los Angeles, Calif.
In Jan.
U.S.
unemployment falls from 10% to 9.7%, losing only 20K jobs.
In Jan. UCLA prof.
Raul
Hinojosa-Ojeda pub. a study suggesting that legalizing immigrants
would produce a $1.5T increased in U.S. GDP over 10 years.
In Jan. Prosy Katura of the U.N. Refugee Agency (UNHCR) announces that
the U.S. is allowing 5.8K Muslim
Ugandan
refugees to immigrate, the reason given being that they don't get along
with other refugee camps.
In Jan. in accordance with Pres. Obama's June 4, 2009 speech at Cairo U., the
Science
Envoy Program is launched to send U.S. scientists to Muslim-majority
countries from N Africa to SE Asia.
In Jan.
cyber
criminals hack 75K computer systems at nearly 2.5K cos. in 196 countries;
the attack isn't discovered until mid-Feb.
In Jan. U.S. defense secy.
Robert M. Gates
sends a secret memorandum to the White House warning that the U.S. has no effective
long-range policy for dealing with Iran's nukes; it is leaked in Apr.
In Jan. Italy opens the first
prison for transgender inmates.
In Jan. veterinarian Erhan Elibol delivers a
human-faced
lamb in Izmir, Turkey, saying that it must have been the result of sex
with a man.
In Jan. China debates a
law banning
the eating of cat or dog meat despite its popularity.
On Feb. 1 Pres. Obama unveils a blueprint for the $3.8T
2010
U.S. Budget, which incl. a record $708B in
defense spending,
and cuts
out the planned $100B NASA 2020 Constellation Moon trip and the Ares 1 rocket,
successor to the Space Shuttle; meanwhile he asks NASA head
Charlie
Bolden to "find ways [for NASA] to reach out to dominantly Muslim countries",
incl. partnering with them in science missions.
On Feb. 1 the U.S. Defense Dept. releases its 128-page
2010
Auadrennial Defense Review, which spends eight pages on climate change but
doesn't even mention the threat of radical Islam.
On Feb. 1 a female suicide bomber in Baghdad in the middle of a procession of
pilgrims in the well-named Shiite
Boob al-Sham
area kills 41 and wounds 106.
On Feb. 1 Kazakhstan foreign minister
Kanat
Saudabayev begins a 5-day visit to the U.S., calling for a summit meeting of the Org.
for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and warning the U.S. against quitting
Afghanistan "without creating the conditions for the Afghans to turn away
from arms and to move to plowshares".
On Feb. 1 Pope Benedict XVI makes
comments
on the British Labour Party's proposed
Equality Bill,
saying it will limit religious freedom by forcing them to accept gays into
Church ranks, saying "The effect of some of the legislation designed to
achieve this goal has been to impose unjust limitations on the freedom of
religious communities to act in accordance with their beliefs."
On Feb. 2 a bomb explodes on the railroad tracks in
St.
Petersburg, injuring one; the govt. calls it a terrorist attack.
On Feb. 2 Afghan pres.
Hamid Karzai
leads a delegation to Mecca, then on Feb. 3 holds talks with King Abdullah
of Saudi Arabia to ask for spiritual and financial help against the Taliban,
while Abdullah says that the Taliban must deny sanctuary to Osama bin Laden
before they will agree to mediate in any peace deal.
On Feb. 2 top Pentagon officials
tell
the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee that they are scaling back the "Don't Ask
Don't Tell" policy,
no longer aggressively pursuing disciplinary action against gay service members
who are outed by 3rd parties, with JCS chmn. Adm. Mike Mullen saying that lifting
the ban is "the right thing to do"; Ariz. Sen. John McCain comes out against the
idea, telling them to "Keep the impact it will have on our forces firmly in mind";
Mullen also
tells
the committee that the next 12-18 mo. will be critical in reversing the momentum
gained by the Taliban in Afghanistan, adding "Our future secutiry is greatly
imperiled if we do not win the wars we are in", asking for $192B for the wars
in Iraq and Afghanistan for the next 18 mo., $33B to be used to send 30K more
troops to Afghanistan by fall.
On Feb. 2 CIA dir.
Leon
Panetta tells Congress that the U.S. an expect an al-Qaida attack in
the next 3-6 mo.; on Feb. 3 White House counterintel chief
John
O. Brennan claims that none of the 48 Guantanamo Bay detainees released
or transferred by the Obama admin. have turned back into jihadists, vs. 20%
of the 540 detainees released by the Bush admin.; meanwhile on Jan. 28 the new
High-Value
Detainee Group is authorized under a classified charter that allows interagency
interrogation teams to question key terrorism suspects.
On Feb. 2 (night) the U.S. carries out its
largest
drone missile attack so far, launching 16-8 and killing 10+ in North Waziristan.
On Feb. 2 Protestant clergyman
Rev
Issavi (1944-) is arrested in Isfahan, Iran for converting Muslims, then
tortured and threatened with execution.
On Feb. 3 a bomb outside a girls school in
Timergara, Pakistan
kills three U.S. soldiers; the Taliban claims responsibility and threatens more
attacks on Americans; another motorcycle bomb in
Kerbala, Iraq
kills 20+ Shiite pilgrims.
On Feb. 3 Iranian pres. Mahmoud Imadinnajacket
flip-flops
and says that Iran is willing to ship enriched uranium abroad "for 4-5 months"
in exchange for fuel for a Tehran medical reactor.
On Feb. 3 Iran announces the launch of a
Kavoshgar-3
rocket capable of carrying a satellite, bragging about breaking "the global
domineering system".
On Feb. 3 (6 p.m. local time) a U.S. UH-60 Black Hawk heli crashes in a wooded
area near a highway near
Heidelberg
in SW Germany, killing three.
On Feb. 3 a roadside bomb in
Lower
Dir, Pakistan destroys a girls' school and kills three U.S. soldiers,
a Pakistani soldier, and three schoolgirls, and wounds 100+ incl. two U.S.
soldiers.
On Feb. 3 U.S. nat. intel dir. retired adm.
Dennis
C. Blair tells Congress that the intel community must first obtain high-level
govt. approval before killing U.S. citizens who have joined al-Qaida.
On Feb. 3 veiled U.S.-educated Pakistani female neuroscientist
Aafia
Siddiqui (1972-) is convicted by a jury in New York City of shooting
at U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan in 2008, raising her arm after the verdict
and uttering the soundbyte "Your anger should be directed where it belongs",
referring to Israel, sparking angry protests in cities in Pakistan.
On Feb. 4 Pres. Obama holds a
Nat.
Prayer Breakfast, bemoaning the "erosion of civility" and saying there's
a growing sense that "something is broken" in Washington, D.C.; he also takes
a rare shot at the
Birthers
who question his U.S. citizenship, saying "Surely you can question my policies
without questioning my faith, or for that matter, my citizenship".
On Feb. 4
Romania
approves a U.S. proposal to position anti-ballistic missile interceptors
on its soil as part of a revamped U.S. missile shield, set to become operational
in 2015.
On Feb. 4 the White House announces that it will welcome the
Dalai
Lama later in Feb. despite Chinese pressure.
On Feb. 5 the $550-a-seat 1.1K-delegate
Tea Party Convention
in Nashville, Tenn. features speaker Tom Tancredo, who claims that Obama's voters
couldn't even spell the word vote, or say it in English, and that Obama is a
"committed Socialist idealogue"; on Feb. 6
Sarah Palin
speaks, saying "America is ready for another revolution", and mocking Pres.
Obama with "How's that hopey-changey thing workin' out for you", and "To win
that war [against terrorism] we need a commander in chief, not a professor of law",
using crib notes scribbled on her hand despite criticizing Pres. Obama for using
a teleprompter, causing White House press secy.
Robert
Gibbs to mock her on Feb. 9 with his own hand notes; she responds by quoting
the Bible, Isaiah
49:16: "I have engraved you on the palms of my hands".
On Feb. 5 a twin car bombing targeting Shiite pilgrims in
Karbala,
Iraq S of Baghdad kills 32 and wounds 154; two more bombs targeting Shiites in
Karachi,
Pakistan kill 22 and wound 50.
On Feb. 5 Pres. Obama attends a
funeral for
the seven CIA employees killed in Afghanistan on Dec. 30, telling the CIA to
"carry on their work, to complete this mission, to win this war and to keep our
country safe".
On Feb. 5 Danish special forces storm the ship
Ariella
captured by Somali pirates and free the 25 crew, becoming the first
warship to intervene during a hijacking.
On Feb. 5-10 the
Snowpocalypse
(Snowmageddon) buries the Washington, D.C. area in 30 in. of snow,
causing govt. workers to be told to stay home on Feb. 8-10.
On Feb. 7 (11:37 a.m.) an explosion at a 620MW natural gas power plant in
Middleton,
Conn. kills two and injures several.
On Feb. 7
Super Bowl XLIV
("the Who Bowl", with the Who Dat Saints vs. the Colts from the Hoosier State,
and the Who playing the halftime show) is held in Dolphins Stadium in
Miami, Fla.; the New Orleans Saints (NFL) defeat the Indianapolis Colts (AFC)
by 31-17 (1st ever SB win); New Orleans QB
Andrew Christopher "Drew" Brees (1979-)
is MVP; a TV ad featuring Bible-thumping Heisman Trophy winner
Tim Tebow and his mother,
who tells how she's glad she didn't abort him as a fetus pisses off the
pro-abortion crowd; meanwhile on Feb. 6 Dem. La. lt. gov.
Mitchell Joseph "Mitch" Landrieu
(1960-) is elected by a landslide as the first majority-black white mayor of
New Orleans since 1978, when his daddy Maurice Edwin "Moon" Landrieu left office.
On Feb. 7 Iranian supreme leader and CIC ayatollah
Ali
Khameini utters the soundbyte "Israel is going downhill toward decline and
fall and God willing its obliteration is certain" in a meeting with Islamic Jihad
leader Ramadan Abdullah Shallah, adding that Iran will deliver a "punch" to its
enemies on or before the Feb. 11 anniv. of the 1979 Islamic rev.; meanwhile on
Feb. 7 Iranian pres. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
announces that Iran will raise its
uranium enrichment level to 20%, taking it weeks away from weapons-grade uranium
(90%), which White House spokesman
Robert
Gibbs discounts as unbelievable; on Feb. 11 Imadinnajacket
announces
that the first batch of enriched uranium has been produced, but denies any
intention of building nuclear weapons.
On Feb. 7 elections in Ukraine give a V to pro-Russian opposition leader
Viktor Fedorovych Yanukovich
(1950-); his opponent, PM (since Dec. 18, 2007)
Yulia
Volodymyrivna Tymoshenko (1960-) claims election fraud, but he is sworn in
as pres. of Ukraine on Feb. 25 (until ?); on Apr. 25 he allows the
Russian
naval fleet to remain in Ukraine for another 25 years.
On Feb. 7 U.S. secy. of state
Hillary
Clinton gives an interview to CNN, stating that she considers WMDs in the
hands of Islamic terrorists to be the #1 security threat of the U.S., not a
nuclear-armed Iran, calling al-Qaida "a very committed, clever, diabolical group
of terrorists who are
always looking for weaknesses and openings".
On Feb. 7-8 Muslim taxi drivers in
Oslo,
Norway park their cars to protest some Prophet Muhammad cartoons that were
pub. on Feb. 3 by the Norwegian "Dagbladet"; on Feb. 12 2.5K
march
in protest.
On Feb. 8 (4:14 EST) NASA launches
Space Shuttle Endeavour,
carrying six astronauts to install the lat two main pieces of the Internat. Space
Station (ISS); meanwhile a U.S. judge in Calif. sentences Chinese-born ex-Boeing engineer
Dongfan Chung
to 15+ years for economic espionage, telling China to "stop sending your spies here".
On Feb. 8 the Obama admin. proposes the
U.S. Climate
Service, a new global warming agency to study and report on the climate.
On Feb. 8 the
Am. Bar Assoc. (ABA)
calls on the U.S. Congress to create new independent immigration courts to
handle the giant backlog.
On Feb. 8 Tijuana, Mexico drug lords
Raydel
Lopez "El Muletas" Uriarte and Manuel Garcia "El Chiquillin" Simental
are arrested in La Paz, Baja Calif., wiping out the leaders of the cartel
headed by Teodoro Garcia Simental, who was arrested in Jan.
On Feb. 8 six suspected Taliban militants carrying a suicide vest and
grenades are arrested while allegedly on their way to attack the 5-star
Pearl
Continental Hotel in Lahore, Pakistan.
On Feb. 8 British Christian teacher
Nicholas
Kafouris is fired after complaining about Muslim students who were praising the
9/11 hijackers as "heroes" and "martyrs", and claiming that when they
grow up they want to be suicide bombers.
On Feb. 8 Iranian-born Muslim Scotland Yard cmdr. (former pres. of the Nat. Black
Police Assoc.) Ali Dizaei (1962-)
is convicted of criminal misconduct and perversion of the course of justice, ending
his reign of terror, becoming the highest official convicted since the 1970s.
On Feb. 9 Pres. Obama
vows
to impose "significant" new sanctions on Iran fairly quickly for stepping up its
uranium enrichment activities, and wants to concentrate on the
Islamic
Rev. Guards.
On Feb. 9 Pres. Obama
meets
with Repubs. for two hours to try to end the impasse on health care and other programs,
accusing Repubs. of obstructionism while calling Dems. to "put aside matters of
party for the good of the country".
On Feb. 9 Russian Gen.
Nikolai
Makarov says that the revised U.S. plan to place Patriot missiles in Europe
threatens Russia's security despite assurances that they're not directed at it.
On Feb. 10 Israeli soldier sgt. maj.
Ihab
Khatib is killed by a Palestinian Muslim jihadist with a knife while sitting in his
jeep stuck in a traffic jam.
On Feb. 10 a British court decides to discover a U.S. confirmation that the CIA
tortured Ethiopian terrorist suspect
Binyam
Mohamed, pissing off the White House, which says this will "complicate" their
intel relationship.
On Feb. 10-?
Operation
Moshtarak by 15K U.S., British and Afghan troops targets
Marjah, Afghanistan
in Helmand province, becoming the first major offensive of the Obama admin.;
on Feb. 25 after heavy fighting the U.S. installs a
new
Afghan govt. in Marjah.
On Feb. 11
Saudi
religious police launch a nationwide crackdown on stores selling items related to Valentine's Day
On Feb. 11 (11:44 EST) the
Airborne Laser
Testbed of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency successfully shoots down a
boosting ballistic missile using a laser at the Naval Air Warfare Center
at Point Mugu, Calif.
On Feb. 11 the
31st
Anniv. of the Iranian Islamic Rev. is marked by opposition protests, with
Pres. Imadinnajacket telling a large trucked-in crowd in Tehran that Iran is
now a nuclear nation.
On Feb. 11 the U.S. and EU express dismay at the upholding of an 11-year prison
sentence for Chinese dissident
Liu Xiaobo.
On Feb. 11 EU leaders hold a summit and express sympathy over the economic plight of
Greece,
which needs 53B euros, but fall short of offering them a financial bailout;
meanwhile Germany
talks about building a "firewall" to contain the crisis and keep it from
dragging down other countries using the euro; on Mar. 26 all 16 Eurozone countries
back a 20B euro plan
to help them, incl. IMF funds.
On Feb. 11 Pres. Obama
warns that
the U.S. economy recovery he's taking credit for won't be complete until
citizens find work and the U.S. borrows less money from other countries,
and calls on Congress to pass new measures to boost hiring.
On Feb. 11 a suicide bomber in a border policeman's uniform in
Paktia
Province 35 mi. E of Gardez in Afghanistan wounds five Americans.
On Feb. 11 the govt. of Yemen and its N Shiite rebels
agree
to end their war.
On Feb. 12
Iraqi security forces
backed by U.S. troops raid suspected members of an Iranian-backed terrorist
group, killing five.
On Feb. 12 Obama admin. officials
announce
that Pres. Obama will step up his role in the debate over where to try
Khalid Sheik Mohammed in order to thwart Congress from blocking funding
for the trial, taking over the decision-making from atty. gen. Eric Holder.
On Feb. 12 (4:15 p.m.) after being denied tenure, Harvard-educated biology prof.
Amy
Bishop kills three and wounds three in Shelby Hall at the U. of Ala. in Huntsville.
On Feb. 12 a Muslim bomb attack on a popular German bakery near a Jewish prayer house in
Pune,
India kills 9 and injures 45; al-Qaida 313 Brigade cmdr.
Ilyas Kashmiri
claims responsibility, saying they warned the world to give self-determination
to Kashmir, and warning against attending the 2010 World Cup of Cricket in
Delhi or even visiting India.
On Feb. 12-28 the
XXI (21st) Winter Olympic Games
are held in Vancouver, B.C. Canada; too bad, before it begins Georgian luger
Nodar
Kumaritashvili (b. 1988) is killed in a test run at too-fast Whistler
Sliding Center, throwing a pall over the opening ceremony; the U.S. Dept. of
Homeland Security
announces
that it is monitoring social networking Web sites incl. Twitter and Facebook
to gather info. on possible terror threats; on Feb. 20
Apolo
Anton Ono wins a record 7th medal, surpassing the record of Bonnie Blair;
Lee Jung-Su (1989-)
of South Korea wins his 2nd straight gold in short track skating, with
Ohno winning silver;
Kim Yu-Na
(1990-) of South Korea wins gold in figure skating.
On Feb. 13 Pres. Obama appoints Detroit-connected White House deputy counsel
Rashad
Hussain as his rep. to the Muslim world and special envoy to the 57-member
Org. of the Islamic Converence (OIC), the Muslim U.N.; he replaces Bush's
appointee Sada Cumber.
On Feb. 13 a Tex. highway is shut down for five hours overnight after two Muslims,
Kimberly
Suzanna (Asma) Al-Homsi (1964-) and Yasinul Alan Ansari (1991-) are arrested
with a bomb in their truck.
On Feb. 14 an errant U.S. rocket strike in
Helmand Province
in Afghanistan hits a civilian compound, killing 10, incl. 5 children.
On Feb. 14 U.S. secy. of state Hillary Clinton visits
Doha, Qatar
as part of a 3-day regional visit, and calls for Iran's religious and
political leaders to rise up against the Rev. Guards, saying that they're
moving it toward a military dictatorship; on Feb. 15 she visits
Jeddah,
Saudi Arabia and suggests that evidence points to Iran seeking nuclear
weapons, saying it would create "quite dangerous" problems if they get them;
meanwhile Iranian pres. Imadinnajacket says that Iran will suspend its uranium
enrichment in exchange for processed fuel rods from abroad, but says that the
swap must be "simultaneous"; at a town hall meeting in the all-women's
Dar
Al Hekma College, Clinton is asked if she'd leave the U.S. if Sarah
Palin becomes U.S. pres., and she says no, but "I will be visiting as often
as I can"; on Feb. 17 Iranian supreme leader ayatollah
Ali Khamenei
accuses the U.S. of warmongering and of turning the Persian Gulf into an
"arms depot".
On Feb. 15 two suicide bombers in
Bannu,
Pakistan kill 15, incl. 7 policeman, and wound 25; one bomber hides in a mosque
before emerging to attack the police.
On Feb. 15 two commuter trains crash head-on near
Brussels, Belgium,
killing 10.
On Feb. 15 a U.S. drone strike in the village of
Tapi in
North Waziristan, Pakistan kills three militants.
On Feb. 15
Irish bishops
meet in Rome with Pope Benedict XVI to discuss the huge Irish clergy pedophilia
scandal.
On Feb. 15
five
Australian Muslim men convicted of plotting to go on a violent jihad
are sentenced to 23-28 years each, with the court saying that they were
"motivated by intolerant, inflexible religious conviction".
On Feb. 15 the U.S. govt. announces the capture of top Taliban military cmdr.
Mullah Abdul
Ghani Baradar, #2 after Mullah Muhammad Omar; on Feb. 18 the Pakistan govt.
announces
the capture of more Taliban chiefs.
On Feb. 15 Israeli PM
Benjamin
Netanyahu meets in Moscow with Russian pres. Dmitry Medvedev, and
presses for "severe sanctions" against Iran over its nuclear program.
On Feb. 15 the
U.N. Human Rights Council
reviews Iran's human rights record, incl. mass arrests, torture, and executions,
causing Western nations to line up on one side and Iran's Islamic and leftist
allies incl. Nicaragua, Venezuela and Cuba to line up on the other as Iran tries
to win a seat on the council in May elections.
On Feb. 15 Scottish reporter
Robert Green
is arrested in Aberdeen for reporting on a ring of pedophiles in the Scottish
and British govts. involving Dunblane mass child killer Thomas Hamilton.
On Feb. 15 Libyan nutjob Muammar Gaddafi
bans
most Euros from Libya.
On Feb. 16 Pres. Obama announces a loan guarantee to allow construction of two
nuclear
reactors in Ga., becoming the first new construction since the 1970s.
On Feb. 16 the
Convention on
Cluster Munitions is ratified by Burkina Faso and Moldavo, making it internat. law.
On Feb. 16 Pres. nominates
William
J. Burns as the first U.S. ambassador to Syria since 2005; on Feb. 17 he meets
with Syrian pres. Bashar Assad in Damascus, ending a 5-year rift with the former
state sponsor of terrorism.
On Feb. 16 a 3-y.-o. baby girl is thrown from the Driscoll Bridge on the Garden State
Parkway in N.J. by her Muslim immigrant father
Abdur-Raheem
(1988), who is arrested after visiting two mosques; he had been denied custody
rights, and attack the child's grandmother before stealing the baby; the mother says
"She is a very bubbly baby."
On Feb. 17 Obama's Muslim-friendly nat. security deputy
John
O. Brennan (1954-) speaks at an Islamic student event at New York U., claiming
that Islamic extremists twist real Islam, with the soundbyte "They are not jihadists,
for jihad is a holy struggle, an effort to purify for a legitimate purpose, and there
is nothing, absolutely nothing, holy or pure or legitimate or Islamic about murdering
innocent men, women and children"; also "We are not waging a war against terrorism
because terrorism is but a tactic that will never be defeated, any more than a tactics
of war will. Rather, such thinking is a recipe for endless conflict... We are at
war with al-Qaida and its extremist allies, and any comment to the contrary is just
inaccurate. We will destroy that organization"; he then goes on to praise the
Obama admin. for using hate crime laws to prosecute anybody doing anything against
Am. Muslims; he also fields a question from
Sheikh Omar Shahin,
leader of the flying imams of 2006.
On Feb. 18 tax protester computer engineer
Joseph
Andrew Stack III (b. 1956) crashes his private plane into an IRS bldg.
in Austin, Tex., killing two, while leaving an online
manifesto
explaining his reasons.
On Feb. 18 Maoist rebels attack the village of
Kasari
in E India 125 mi. SE of Patna in Bihar state, killing 12 in revenge for
police capture of their brothers.
On Feb. 18 a U.S. missile strike on a militant compound near
Miranshah
in North Waziristan, Pakistan, kills three militants; meanwhile a bomb
explodes in a mosque in the
Aka
Khel area of the Khyber tribal region of NW Pakistan, killing 29
(incl. some militants) and wounding 50, while U.S. special envoy
Richard Holbrooke
meets with Pakistani leaders in Islamabad to discuss the recent revelation
that they have been arresting Afghan Taliban leaders on their soil.
On Feb. 18
U.N.
nuclear inspectors declare for the first time that they have extensive
evidence of "past or current activities" by Iran to develop a nuclear warhead
that continued "beyond 2004"; on Feb. 19 Russia issues the soundbyte that
it is very alarmed
that Iran might be working to develop nukes; Iranian supreme assaholla
Ali
Khamenei quickly trots out with his claims that Islam "is opposed to
nuclear weapons" - what is this prisoner doing out of his cell?
On Feb. 18 a coup in
Niger
by renegade soldiers results in pres. Mamadou Tandja being kidnapped and
then appearing on state TV to declare the coup successful, afteer which
Salou Djibo
becomes head of the Supreme Council for the Restoration of Dem., saying
they want to turn Niger into "an example of democracy and of good governance".
On Feb. 18 Pres. Obama quietly meets off-camera with the
Dalai Lama
while trying to avoid offending pissed-off China more.
On Feb. 18 the Obama admin. announces a $1.25B settlement with
black
farmers over past discrimination in USDA loan programs.
On Feb. 18 U.S. vice-pres.
Joseph
Biden says that the Obama admin. is moving ahead with Senate
ratification of a treaty banning nuclear tests, and that its goal
is the elimination of all U.S. nuclear arms, although it is spending
$7B next year to repair its aging arsenal.
On Feb. 18 ex-U.S. vice-pres.
Dick
Cheney appears at the Conservative Political Action Conference and utters
the soundbyte "I think 2010 will be a phenomenal year for the conservative
cause and I think Barack Obama is a 1-term president."
On Feb. 18
al-Qaida
in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) posts an online message claiming that it
has prepared "dozens" more bombs like the one used by Xmas Panty Bomber.
On Feb. 18 Moroccan Muslim
Said
Namou (1972-) is sentenced to life in prison in Montreal, Canada for
plotting attacks in Germany and Austria while touting Islamic terrorism online
from his basement apt.
On Feb. 18 Miami businessmen
Khaled
T. Safadi,
Ulises Talavera, and
Emilio Gonzalez-Neira
are arrested for conspiring to smuggle video game consoles to a shopping
center in Paraguay that funds the Islamic terrorist group Hezbollah.
On Feb. 18 the Iranian Web site
Asr-e Iran
posts an editorial stating that since Israel's raison d'etre is the illusion
that it can provide absolute security for the Jewish people, once Iran
has nukes it will result in the end of Israeli society even if they are
never used.
On Feb. 19 the U.S. Justice Dept. releases a
report
on Bush admin. interrogation tactics for terrorism suspects, saying they
used flawed legal reasoning but weren't guilty of prof. misconduct.
On Feb. 19
Tiger
Woods emerges from sex therapy and gives a public apology to the press -
can I go back to making billions now?
On Feb. 20 the
Dutch govt.
collapses over military deployment in Afghanistan; on Sept. 21 Dutch PM
Jan
Peter Balkenende announces that Dutch troops will begin leaving S
Afghanistan in Aug. for lack of authority of his caretaker govt. to accept a
NATO request to stay.
On Feb. 20 U.S. envoy
Richard Holbrooke
declares that al-Qaida is moving into C Asian countries Tajikistan,
Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Kazakhstan.
On Feb. 20-21 flash flooding and mudslides in
Madeira
Island kill 40 and injure 120.
On Feb. 21 Iran's first Iranian-made destroyer the 1.5K-ton
Jamaran
makes its maiden voyage.
On Feb. 21 Abu Sayyaf leader
Albader
Parad is killed along with five others in Barangay Karawan in Maimbung, Sulu,
Philippines.
On Feb. 21 Israel announces a new fleet of huge
Boeing
737-sized drones that can fly as far as the Persian Gulf.
On Feb. 21 after Muslim police kill a Muslim tractor driver, a Muslim mob
burns down eight Christian churches in
Kazaure
in N Nigeria, along with several Christian shops, all of which had nothing
to do with it.
On Feb. 22 a NATO airstrike in
Day
Kundi Province near the border with Uruzgan on a 3-vehicle convoy mistakenly
kills 27 Afghan civilians, pissing off the Hamid Karzai govt. off; meanwhile a
suicide bomber in E Afghanistan kills 15, incl. tribal leader
Haji Zaman (Mohammad Zaman Ghamshaik),
who led the failed capture of Osama bin Laden in the mountains of Nangarhar
province in Tora Bora in 2001; meanwhile the U.S. govt.
announces
that NATO neglect has allowed the Taliban to build up its forces by 35% in
the last two years.
On Feb. 22 Israeli PM
Benjamin
Netanyahu calls for an immediate embargo on Iran's energy sector, saying
that the U.N. Security Council should be sidestepped if necessary.
On Feb. 22 the U.S. Navy announces that will
end
the exclusion of women on submarines, giving Congress 30 working days to bar it.
On Feb. 22-24 shootouts in
Oaxaca,
Mexico kill 13, while more shootouts in Tamaulipas state kill 19, incl.
a soldier and police officer, and on Feb. 23 gunman attack the police HQ in
Miguel Aleman, kidnapping six police officres, causing the U.S. govt. to warn
against traveling to Mexico.
On Feb. 23 the U.S. Supreme Court rules 7-2 in
?
v. ? that police don't have to quote an official script but can ad lib
Miranda warnings.
On Feb. 23 (3:15 p.m.) 32-y.-o. convicted felon
Bruco Strongeagle Eastwood
(1977-) arrives with a high-powered rifle and shoots students Reagan Weber
and Matt Thieu at
Deer
Creek Middle School in Lakewood, Colo. on Columbine Dr. 3 mi. from infamous
Columbine H.S. before he is tackled by 7th grade math teacher David Benke.
On Feb. 23 the U.S. Supreme Court rules unanimously in
Md.
vs. Shatzer that the its 1981 Edwards Rule barring police from questioning
a suspect once he asks to remain silent and speak with an atty. lapses after 14
days if he is on bail, and if he freely agrees to talk at that point, his
statements can still be used against him.
On Feb. 23 CIA-financed Sunni
Jundullah
(Arab. "Soldiers of Allah") rebel org. leader
Abdolmalek Rigi,
is captured in SE Iran in Sistan-Balochistan province by Iran (with Pakistani
help?); on Feb. 26 he claims on Iranian TV that the U.S. promised him
financial and military aid to overthrow the Iranian govt.; the real
reason
the U.S. Marjah offensive was announced in advance was to drive the Taliban
into Pakistani Balochistan and wrest Chinese control of the port of Gwadar
to seize it for themselves for a new supply line avoiding the Khyber Pass,
and the capture of Rigi throws a monkey wrench into their plans?
On Feb. 24 after the Obama admin. rules out an aerial bombing campaign in Iran
in favor of
measures
to isolate it from the internat. financial system, Russia
warns the U.S.
against "crippling" sanctions on Iran, they will support only "Those that are
directed at resolving non-proliferation questions linked to Iran's nuclear program";
meanwhile on Feb. 23 Imadinnajacket issues the
soundbyte
that "The Islamic revolution's final objective is global revolution", and
that Iran will "cut the hands off" of any enemies who attack it, especially
pesky Israel, whom Iran will go to war with it if it tries to do a repeat
of its 1981 air raid on Iraq's Osriaq Nuclear Reactor on them, causing U.N.
dir.-gen. Sergei Ordzhonikidze
on Feb. 26 to say that calls for jihad by a head of state are unacceptable,
and Russian foreign minister
Sergei Lavrov
on Mar. 2 to say that there is still room for diplomacy rather than sanctions
on Iran.
On Feb. 24 a $15B
jobs
program is passed by the U.S. Senate by 70-28, incl. 13 Repubs.
On Feb. 24 a court in Milan, Italy convicts
three Google execs
for violating the privacy of an Italian boy with autism by letting a video of him
being be bullied be posted in 2006.
On Feb. 24 2M
Greek workers
hold a gen. strike in response to govt. austerity measures.
On Feb. 24 trainer
Dawn Brancheau
(b. 1969) is pulled underwater and killed by 30-y.-o. 6 ton killer whale (orca)
Tilikum, who already a criminal record with humans but was allowed to slide
because after all he's a killer whale and brings in big tourist bucks.
On Feb. 24 Cuban pres. Raul Castro issues an unprecedented statement of regret
over the starvation death of imprisoned dissident
Orlando
Zapata Tayamao, but blames the U.S.
On Feb. 24 Iranian pres. Imadinnajacket visits Damascus, Syria to visit his pal
Bashar al-Assad, and says that Arab nations will establish a Middle East
"without Zionists and without colonialists", and that Iran, Syria, Iraq, and
Lebanon will stand against Israel, causing U.S. secy. of state
Hillary Clinton
to tell the U.S. Senate that the Obama admin. is urging Syria to back off from
its "deeply troubling" relationship with Iran, but will go through with its
appointment of an ambassador to Syria for the first time since the 2005
assassination of Lebanese PM Rafik Hariri; al-Assad shrugs her off - I smell a coup?
On Feb. 24 a Gallup poll shows
support
for Israel in the U.S. to be at a near record high of 63%; 15% side with
the alestinians.
On Feb. 25 India and Pakistan hold their first
talks
in 15 mo. since the Nov. 26-29 2008 Mumbai Attacks.
On Feb. 25 Pres. Obama hosts a televised
summit on health
reform in a last-ditch attempt to save his stalled health care overhaul
program; when it doesn't work, he reverts to bullhogging the program through
on straight-party ticket votes.
On Feb. 25 the Dem. leadership of the U.S. House stops a vote on a $50B
classified
intel budget after Repubs. and moderate Dems. balk at provisions
banning degrading treatment of Islamic detains and impose fines and prison
terms on intel officers.
On Feb. 25 (Muhammad's birthday) Libyan dictator
Moammar
Gaddafi declares jihad against Switzerland over the minaret ban, leaving
Western leaders puzzling over whether he's serious or just staging a publicity
stunt - proof of the folly of permitting mass Muslim immigration to the West?
On Feb. 25 a decision by the Israeli govt. to incl. the
Cave of the Patriarchs
in Hebron on the occupied West Bank (2nd holiest site in Judaism after
the Temple Mount in Jerusalem) on a list of 150 nat. heritage sites
pisses off Muslims and draws disapproval by the Muslim-friendly Obama admin.
On Feb. 25 English Muslim
Rajib Karim
(1979-) is arrested for planning suicide bombings by taking advantage
of a strike by airline staff to become a temporary cabin crewmember.
On Feb. 26 a 7.0 earthquake hits
Okinawa,
Japan, but only does minor damage.
On Feb. 26 at a conference in Tallinn, Estonia, U.S. undersecy. for defense policy
(since Feb. 9, 2009)
Michele Flournay
warns Russia against asserting its power in the Baltic.
On Feb. 26 an insurgent suicide attack in
Kabul
kills 17, half of them foreigners.
On Feb. 26 a group of three
Indian
Humanists are arrested in Pakistan for distributing a book critical
of Islam titled "Crescent Over the World" after massive protests in Khammam.
On Feb. 26 three Am. Muslims
Mohammad
Habibzada, Shafiq Hasheme, and Sayed Bassam (all b. in 1985) allegedly fire
a BB rifle at the face of a man for being gay in San Francisco on 16th & Guerrero Sts.,
and are arrested, released on bail, then rearrested after police find a video in
their car showing them attacking 11 other men and laughing as they fire.
On Feb. 27 (3 a.m. local time) the 8.8
2010
Chile Earthquake (64x stronger than the Haiti earthquake), with epicenter
100 mi. N of the SW coastal city of Conception causes damage as far away as
Santiage 200 mi. away, killing 700+ and causing tsunami warnings as far away
as Hawaii, causing 100K to be evacuated, but turns out to be a false alarm;
unlike Haiti, Chile was ready for an earthquake; on Feb. 28 Am. Nation of Islam leader
Louis
Farrakhan claims that the earthquake is a warning of "what's coming to
America", adding "You will not escape"; the earthquake
lengthens
the day by 0.3 microseconds and moves the Earth's axis by 3 in.
On Feb. 27 Iranian opposition leader
Mir
Hossein Mousavi says that a dictatorial cult is ruling Iran in the name
of Islam, becoming his strongest statement to date.
On Feb. 27 the U.S. Congress votes to
extend
the U.S. Patriot Act, incl. the civil rights-threatening provisions
criticized by Dems. over the years.
On Feb. 27 British environment minister
Jim
Fitzpatrick told the Sunday Telegraph that his Labour Party has
been infiltrated by the fundamentalist Muslim group called the
Islamic Forum of Europe,
which wants to turn Britain and Europe into an Islamic state with Sharia.
On Feb. 27-28 storms seep through
W Europe,
killing up to 50 in France.
In Feb. Iran moves its
nuclear
fuel to an above-ground facility, surprising Western observers because
of the ease with which it could be bombed.
In Feb. Sri Lanka releases the last 136K of 300K Tamil refugees held in
squalid crowded govt.-run camps.
In Feb. French pres. Nicolas Sarkozy visits
Rwanda
for the first time since the 1994 genocide.
In Feb. the
Pentagon
spends $6.7B on Afghanistan, compared with $5.5B on Iraq, putting
Afghanistan on top for the first time; the cumulative cost for both
wars is greater than $1T.
In Feb. videos taken by the Taliban Islamist
Haqqani
network showing them raping young women surface, with 2nd in command
Sirajuddin "Siraj" Haqqani, his cousin Ishak, and uncle Ibraham photographing
their rapes as they go from village to village to seek Taliban recruits,
becoming known as the "Taliban Abu Ghraib".
In Feb. Scott
(Jessica) Moore (1979-) of Calif. becomes the 2nd woman-turned-man to give
birth and still claim not to be a woman; his woman-turned-man wife Laura (1979-)
is overjoyed.
On Mar. 1 the govt. of
Afghanistan
announces a ban on news coverage of Taliban strikes, claiming they embolden them.
On Mar. 1 Islamic militants blow up a fuel tanker near
Peshawar
carrying fuel for NATO troops; meanwhile Pakitani PM
Yousuf
Raza Gilani says that Islam has no room for terrorism.
On Mar. 1 the govt. of
Mexico
begins requiring U.S. and Canadian visitors to present passports when entering
Mexico except when visiting border regions and staying for less than 72 hours;
U.S. citizens already have to have a passport to reenter the U.S.
On Mar. 1 rain-caused mudslides in
E Uganda
kill 83+.
On Mar. 1 a
Pew Research Center
poll shows that online news has become more popular than print newspapers.
On Mar. 1 ex-Bosnian Serb leader
Radovan
Karadzic gives a 4-hour opening statement at the U.N. War Crimes Tribunal
in The Hague, saying that Muslim attacks are to blame for Serbian atrocities
against them.
On Mar. 1 six NATO service members are killed in separate attacks in
Afghanistan, incl. near
Kandahar
City, and nine Afghan civilians die in four bombings in the S.
On Mar. 2 Pakistani Sunni Sufi scholar
Muhammad
Tahir ul-Qadri (1951-) pub. a 600-page
Fatwa
Against Terrorism incl. suicide bombing in the name of Islam; too bad, he's
a Sufi, and why would non-Sufis listen to him; on Mar. 3 Turkish PM Recep
Tayyip Erdogan
backs
him up, calling Islamic terrorism "the outcome of an ugly propaganda";
meanwhile real Muslims celebrate Muhammad's birthday by looting and burning
shops and houses owned by Hindus and Sikhs in
Bareili,
India - terrorism isn't Islamic, jihad is?
On Mar. 2 the U.S. Senate votes 78-19 to end a filibuster by Repub. Sen.
Jim Bunning
and restore highway money and jobless funds despite the giant budget deficit.
On Mar. 2 Pakistan
seizes
a Taliban and al-Qaida network in the Bajaur tribal area in NW Pakistan
along the Afghan border; during the night Taliban militants blow up a boys
school in the
Spin
Qabar area of Kyber Agency, while others throw grenades at a univ. music
concert, killing one student.
On Mar. 3 triple suicide bombers in
Baqouba,
Iraq kill 32 in advance of the Mar. 7 elections, incl. police and at a hospital.
On Mar. 3 same-sex marriage becomes legal in
Washington, D.C.,
becoming #6 after Conn., Iowa, Mass., N.H., and Vt.
On Mar. 3 Islamic separatist militants in
Narathiwat
in S Thailand shoot and kill a father and his young daughter; meanwhile a roadside
bomb wounds five soldiers.
On Mar. 4 a 6.4 earthquake in
S Taiwan
injures 64.
On Mar. 4 a court in Punjab sentences Christian couple
Munir
Masih and Ruqqiya Bibi to 25 years in prison for touching a Quran without
washing their hands first.
On Mar. 4
John
Patrick Bedell (b. 1973) shoots at and wounds two police officers at the
entrance to the Pentagon before they shoot and kill him.
On Mar. 4 the Vatican is rocked by a sex scandal reaching into Pope Benedict XVI's
household after chorister
Angelo Balducci
is saced for allegedly procuring male hos for a papal gentleman-in-waiting;
meanwhile after archibishop
Robert
Zollitsch, head of the German Bishops Conference apologized in Feb.
for over 100 cases of sexual abuse of children by priests in elite Jesuit
boarding schools, the pope's brother Rev. George Ratzinger is discovered
to have led the cathedral choir in Regensburg in 1964-94, where some of
the abuse occurred, but denies knowledge; on May 1 the pope takes over
the scandal-plagued
Legionaries
of Christ after revelations that its founder Father Marcial Maciel sexually
abused young seminarians and fathered a child.
On Mar. 5 the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee votes 23-22 to
declare
the 1915 WWI murder of 1.5M Armenians by the Turks as genocide, pissing Turkey
off and causing it to recall its ambassador Namik Tan, and make diplomatic
overtures towards Iran.
On Mar. 5 the atheist
Secular
Coalition of Am. meets with Obama reps in the White House, becoming a first.
On Mar. 6 Afghan pres. Hamid Karzai
calls on the
Taliban to stop attacking schools so that the 5M Afghan children can reach
their potential; meanwhile at 8:30 a.m. a car bomb in
Najaf
kills three and wounds 54.
On Mar. 7 (Sun.) elections in
Iraq
see 55% turnout, despite
violence,
incl. 136 attacks and 100 projectiles and 13 bombs in Baghdad that kill 37
and injure 89; secular candidate
Ayad
Allawi wins by two seats, signaling a V for secularism, although in 2004
he was PM of the interim govt. and viewed as a puppet of the U.S.; Shiite PM
Nouri al-Maliki demands a recount; Allawi is
alleged
to have murdered six restrained men in 2004 while U.S. and Iraqi guards
watched in shock.
On Mar. 7 Pakistan announces the arrest of Am.-born Muslim terrorist
Adam
Yahiye Gadahn (1978-) in Karachi; the first Am. to be charged with treason
since WWII, he has a $1M U.S. bounty on his head; they later admit it isn't him; a
video
by him is posted on the Web, calling for U.S. Muslims to follow the example of
Maj. Nidal Malik Hasson and attack U.S. troops;
he was the one producing fake videos of Osama bin Laden, and they couldn't retire
him yet?; meanwhile the Taliban
threatens
to release 3K suicide bombers in Pakistan.
On Mar. 7 Iran unveils the new short-range
Nasr-1
Cruise Missile, which can destroy warships.
On Mar. 7 Muslim herders attack three predominantly Christian settlements near
Jos, Nigeria,
killing several hundred; on Mar. 29 Muammar Gaddafi of Libya
says that Nigeria
should be divided into separate Christian and Muslim states, causing Nigeria
to recall its ambassador to Tripoli.
On Mar. 7 an al-Qaida suspect tries to shoot his way out of a hospital in
Sa'ana, Yemen,
killing one intel agent and wounding another; meanwhile separatists battle
security forces in S Yemen, wounding five.
On Mar. 7 EU chief
Thomas
Hammarberg says that a ban on the full Islamic veil would be an invasion
of privacy and would alienate Muslim women from society.
On Mar. 7 (Sun.) the
82nd Academy Awards
are held in the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Calif.; The Hurt Locker
wins best picture, and dir. Kathryn Bigelow wins best dir. (first female);
the song "I Am Woman" is played as she exits the stage;
Geoffrey Fletcher becomes the first African-Am. to win for best screenplay
for Precious; Jeff Bridges wins best actor for Crazy Heart,
and Sandra Bullock best actress for The Blind Side;
Christoph Waltz wins best supporting actor for Inglourious Basterds,
and Mo'Nique best supporting actress for Precious; meanwhile activist actor
Sean Penn
stinks himself up with statements that journalists who call his hero Hugo Chavez of
Venezuela a dictator should be jailed; a week after the awards, Sandra Bullock's
husband Jesse James
is caught cheating on her during the filming of "The Blind Side" with white
supremacist ex-Amish tattoo artist
Michelle
"Bombshell" McGee,
causing him to publicly apologize but ruining their relationship, becoming
another example of the Oscar Curse.
On Mar. 8 U.S. vice-pres. Joe Biden visits
Israel,
pledging support against a nuclear-armed Iran.
On Mar. 8 a Taliban suicide car bomber on a police intel unit in rush hour in
Lahore, Pakistan
kills 13.
On Mar. 8 a 6.0 earthquake in
E
Turkey kills 51.
On Mar. 8 N.Y. Dem. rep.
Eric
J.J. Massa (1959-) resigns, citing a pending investigation by the House
Ethic Committee plus cancer, and claiming it to be a conspiracy by White House
chief of staff Rahm Emanuel because he voted against an earlier House version
of the health care reform bill, calling him "the son of the Devil's spawn";
too bad, on Mar. 9 he
interviews
Glenn Beck on Fox News Channel, and utters the soundbyte: "Now they're saying
I groped a male staffer... Yeah, I did. Not only did I grope him, I tickled
him until he couldn't breathe and then four guys jumped on top of me. It was
my 50th birthday."
On Mar. 8 seven Muslims are arrested in the
Irish
Repub. over an alleged plot to assassinate Swedish cartoonist
Lars
Vilks for drawing a doodle Muhammad with the body of a dog, causing
Swedish newspapers to repub. it in protest; one of them is pregnant Am. Muslim convert
Jamie
Paulin-Ramirez (1978-) from Colo., who becomes known as Jihad Jamie, and
who along with two other of the seven suspects are released after questioning,
after which she is arrested on arrival in Philly, and charged on Apr. 2 with
terrorism; since 2007 there has been a $100K bounty on Vilks by an al-Qaida-linked
group; on May 11 angry Muslims
attack
Vilks again at Uppsala U. for showing a scene from an Iranian film depicting
Muhammad entering a gay bar.
On Mar. 8 Barre Ali Barre,
cmdr. of the Hizbul Islamic group is murdered in Mogadishu by members of
the rival al-Shabaab Islamic group; on Mar. 26 200 protest outside the Swedish
embassy in Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia over the cartoon.
On Mar. 9 4'11" blonde-blue
Colleen
Renee LaRose (1963-) from Philly, who has been under custody since Oct. 16
when she landed in Philly on a flight from the Netherlands
is identified as Muslim terrorist Jihad Jane, who used the Internet to plan
terrorist attacks, and charged with providing material support to terrorists.
On Mar. 10 Islamic militants attack the office of the British
World
Vision Aid Agency in the Mansehra district of Pakistan 40 mi. N of
Islamabad, killing five.
On Mar. 10 U.S. officials announce that the
no-fly list
has doubled in size since Xmas Panty Bomber to 6K names.
On Mar. 10 the
Inter-Am. Press Assoc.
announces the kidnapping of eight journalists in Mexico, which they claim is
the biggest wave of abductions in recent Western Hemisphere history.
On Mar. 10 the U.S. House Appropriations Committee
votes to
limit the ability of lawmakers to add earmarks into spending bills to fund
pet projects.
On Mar. 11 a 7.2 earthquake hits guess where
Chile
during the inauguration of new pres.
Sebastian Pinera.
On Mar. 11 the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejects challenges by
Sacramento, Calif. atheist
Michael
Newdow that the use of the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance,
and "In God We Trust" on U.S. currency are unconstitutional.
On Mar. 11 six same-sex couples (4 women, 8 men) marry in
Mexico
City under the first law in Latin Am. allowing it.
On Mar. 11-12 U.S. vice-pres.
Joseph Biden
visits Jordan, and meets with four Jordanian civil activists in the U.S.
embassy in Amman, causing the Jordanian press to accuse him of interfering
in Jordan's internal affairs and claim that he is exploring the resettlement
of Palestinian refugees in Jordan, wiping out the good impressions made by
Pres. Obama's 2009 Cairo Speech.
On Mar. 12 Israel seals off the
West
Bank amid tensions in Jerusalem over plans to build new homes for Jews,
which U.S. vice-pres. Joe Biden criticized during his recent visit.
On Mar. 12 twin suicide bomb attacks in
Lahore,
Pakistan kill 45, becoming the 2nd attack of the week, proving that
the Taliban is still going strong.
On Mar. 12 after an imam tells them that they are planning to build a
new church, a crowd of 3K Muslims attack a Coptic Christian community in
Mersa
Matrouh, Egypt, injuring 25, incl. women and children.
On Mar. 12 British couple
Charlotte
Lewis (1984-) and Ayman Najafi (1985-) are arrested in Dubai for publicly
kissing in a restaurant - they got a taste of Sharia?
On Mar. 12
Natalie
Randolph (1980-) becomes the only full-time h.s. varsity football
coach in the U.S. (until ?).
On Mar. 12 China pub.
The
Human Rights Record of the U.S. in 2009, attempting to reverse the
charges - duh, where would China's people rather live if given the choice?
On Mar. 13 another suicide attacker in
Saidu
Sharif in the Swat Valley in NW Paksitan kills 13+ and wounds 50+.
On Mar. 13 Pakistani minister
Mian
Iftikhar Hussain addresses a conference in Peshawar, claiming that Islam
is a religion of peace, brotherhood and tolerance, and that there is no place
in it for extremism and terrorism.
On Mar. 14 a Taliban assault in
Kandahar,
Afghanistan described as a preemptive response to Western plans to
eradicate them kills 35.
On Mar. 14 Mexican authorities announce the murder by drug traffickers of a
pregnant U.S. consulate worker and her hubby in
Ciudad
Juarez; during the weekend nearly 50 are killed in Mexico in drug-related
violence, including Acapulco as U.S. college students arrive for spring break.
On Mar. 14 Indian police arrest two men for plotting a series of terrorist attacks in
Mumbai,
India.
On Mar. 14-? anti-govt. Red Shirt protesters in
Bangkok, Thailand,
who are pissed off by the 2006 military coup that ousted PM Thaksin Shinawatra
cap it off on Mar. 16 by dumping their own blood at the gates of Govt. House.
On Mar. 16 Islamic Mayalsian religion minister
Jamil
Khir Baharom defends Islamic laws allowing girls under age 16 to marry,
saying "Maturity is a subjective question".
On Mar. 16 U.S. atty. gen.
Eric
Holder tells Congress that Osama bin Laden will never be captured alive,
saying "The possibility of capturing him alive is infinitesimal"; he also claims
that Islamic terrorists should be prosecuted in civil courts as "common criminals",
comparing them to mass murderer Charles Manson; meanwhile U.S. Middle East cmdr.
David
H. Petraeus tells Congress that Iran is assisting al-Qaida by facilitating
links between senior terrorist leaders and affiliate groups, and that al-Qaida
has a safe haven in Iran "and the Iranian government knows it" - they look like
you, they sound like you, they're not like you?
On Mar. 17 a U.S. missile strike in
Mazoni
in North Waziristan, followed by another in Datta Kheil kill 9+ militants.
On Mar. 18 the number of
deadly
Muslim terrorist attacks since 9/11 tops 15K.
On Mar. 19
Kai Eide,
former top U.N. official in Afghanistan complains that recent arrests by Pakistan
of high-ranking Taliban figures have torpedoed secret talks with the West.
On Mar. 21 200K march for
immigration
reform in the Nat. Mall in Washington, D.C.
On Mar. 21 Dallas, Tex. Muslim
Javid
Kamal sends emails to Kansas legislators with a "call to Islam", a traditional
prelude to jihad, causing him to later be arrested, discovered to be illegal, and deported.
On Mar. 21 (night) the U.S. House of Reps
passes
the Senate version of Obama's health reform program by a straight party ticket
vote of 219-212, with zero Repubs. voting for it, and 34 Dems. voting against it;
Obama utters the soundbyte "This is what change looks like", adding "This isn't
radical reform, but it is major reform"; he signs it on Mar. 23, AKA Obama Care
Sunday.
On Mar. 22 British security minister
Lord
West announces that al-Qaida bomb makers from Afghanistan may already
have the ability to produce a dirty bomb, and might plant it on a small
craft and float it up the Thames River to London, causing him to set up a
command center to track suspicious boats.
On Mar. 22 the
EU
Times carries an article titled "World Mourns as Communist Darkness Falls
Upon America", saying that Obama's power grab now incl. nationalization of the
health care industry and student loan program, and takeover of the automobile,
mortgage, and banking industries, claiming that the Internet is next in his sights.
On Mar. 23 Maoists derail the
Rajdhani Express
in E India, injuring dozens.
On Mar. 23 Saudi king 'Abdallah ordered his senior clerics council to issue a
Fatwa Against Funding
Terrorism, which they dutifully issue in early May.
On Mar. 24 the U.S. and Russia reach a deal on a new
Strategic
Arms Reduction Treaty (START) to replace the 1991 pact that expired in Dec.,
the most extensive in two decades, with reductions of long-range nukes from
2.2K to 1.5K-1.675K, along with platforms; Obama and Medvedev
sign
it in Prague on Apr. 8; James R. Schlesinger et al. of the
Nixon
Center claim that Russia bested the U.S. in it by avoiding cuts in short-range
tactical nukes.
On Mar. 24 the govt. of
Saudi Arabia
arrests 113 Islamic militants with tis to al-Qaida planning attacks against
oil and security facilities in E Saudi Arabia.
On Mar. 24 leftist guerrillas set off a car bomb in the port city of
Buenaventura,
Columbia, killing six and wounding 30+.
On Mar. 24 Pakistani foreign minister
Shah
Mehmood Qureshi says that he feels that the longtime suspicion and mistrust
of Pakistan and its commitment to fighting Islamic extremists has vanished,
as proved by fast-tracking of requests for military equipment.
On Mar. 24 the
U.N.
Human Rights Council votes 45-1 in favor of Palestinian self-determination,
with only the U.S. voting against; a resolution to urge Israel to pay reparations
to the Palestinian people for the 2009-10 invasion of Gaza is tabled by Pakistan;
on Mar. 25 the Saudi-greased council passes another non-binding OIC-backed
Resolution on
Religious Defamation (really an attempt to foist Islamic Sharia on the world,
which makes insulting Islam a capital offense), with 20 countries voting in favor,
17 against, and 8 abstaining, becoming the 11th time in 12 years (first in 2005), with
the lowest victory margin yet; Zambia becomes the first African country to vote against
it, and Cameroon, Burkina Faso, and Benin abstain; U.S. ambassador
Eileen
Donahoe calls it an "ineffective way to address" the issue, saying "We cannot
agree that prohibiting speech is the way to promote tolerance, because we continue to
see the defamations of religions concept used to justify censorship, criminalisation,
and in some cases violent assaults and deaths for political, racial, and religious
minorities around the world", adding "Contrary to the intentions of most member states,
governments are likely to abuse the rights of individuals in the name of this resolution,
and in the name of the Human Rights Council."
On Mar. 24
Abdullah
Mohammed Muslim (1972-), a white Am. convert to Islam formerly known as
Johnnie Clagg pleads guilty to firearm and destructive device possession
along with attempted identity theft and passport fraud; despite traveling to
North Wazaristan he claims no terrorist connections.
On Mar. 25 U.S. defense secy. Robert M. Gates takes the first steps to
soften
the military ban on openly gay service members, restricting the evidence that
can be used against them while retaining the possibility of discharge.
On Mar. 25 the top U.N. official in Afghanistan holds
the first reconciliation talks with reps. of Taliban warlord
Gulbuddin
Hekmatyar.
On Mar. 25 a member of the
Kenyan
Parliament claims that Pres. Obama was born in Kenya.
On Mar. 26 Chicago, Ill. Pakistani-born Muslim taxi driver
Raja Lahrasib "Kojak" Khan (1954-)
is arrested for attempting to send money to al-Qaida.
On Mar. 26 the Islamic org.
Hizb
ut-Tahrir holds a meeting in Jakarta, Indonesia that brings together
Islamists and secular nationalists, calling for China to defy the U.S.
and its "neo-liberal" economic creed, despite Pres. Obama's Indonesian
roots and praise of Islam, signaling a sea change in Indonesia, which has
been anti-Chinese ever since China armed and financed Indonesian Communists
in an attempted coup in 1965.
On Mar. 26 the 1.2K-ton South Korean naval ship
Cheonan
sinks off Baengnyeong Island in South Korea, killing 26 marines; on May 21
U.S. state secy. Hillary condemns
North Korea
for the torpedo attack, promising to marshal an internat. reponse with Japan,
China and other countries, with the soundbyte that "provocative actions have consequences";
North Korea warns
of war if punished.
On Mar. 27 the FBI raids the
Hutaree
("Christian warrior") militia group in Mich., Ohio, and Ind. for
plotting to kill police officers and war on the U.S. govt., which
it considers the Antichrist, and arrests eight men and one woman.
On Mar. 27 Facebook
summarily deletes TLW's account, destroying his social network, without an explanation
or warning, most probably pressure by Muslim fanatics, causing TLW to launch a
Boycott Facebook campaign; meanwhile Facebook began showing its true colors, an
outrageous attempt to foist a monopoly in social networking, pissing off many
orgs., U.S. state govts., and the
EU;
on May 20 a poll by IT security firm
Sophos
shows tht 60% of Facebook users are thinking of quitting over privacy concerns;
TLW launches a
Boycott Facebook movement;
on May 29
Bangladesh
blocks Facebook over Muhammad cartoons, then allows it again after Facebook's
geek ruler Mark Zuckerberg takes all offensive cartoon off to please them.
On Mar. 28 (Sun.) Pres. Obama makes a
surprise
visit to Kabul, Afghanistan, his first since taking office, meeting with
pres. Hamid Karzai and dining with him and Taliban warlords; meanwhile U.S. gen.
Stanley
A. McChrystal (senior NATO cmdr. in Afghanistan) utters the soundbyte "We
have shot an amazing number of people, but to my knowledge, none has ever proven
to be a threat", which is jumped on by war critics, who call for war crimes
prosecutions.
On Mar. 28 after two Israeli soldiers are killed there, Israeli finance minister
Yuval
Steinitz says that Israel will "sooner or later" have to destroy the
Islamic Hamas regime that controls the Gaza Strip.
On Mar. 28 former U.S. ambassador to the U.N.
John
Bolton says on Army Radio that the Obama admin. is willing to accept a nuclear Iran,
which explains their "extraordinary pressure on Israel not to attack in Iran".
On Mar. 28 (7 a.m.) several bombs explode in
Qaim,
Iraq (200 mi. W of Baghdad) near a house linked to Sunni politician Sheik
Murdi Muhammad al-Mahalawi (supporter of Ayad Allawi), killing five and wounding 26.
On Mar. 28 several Islamic groups raid a hotel occupied by a number of gay and
lesbian advocates in
Surabaya,
Indonesia attending an internat. conference on gay/lez issues, after which
they call for police to arrest the Islamists.
On Mar. 28 Israeli minister
Uzi Landau
outlines a new vision of a world no longer dependent on oil, calling it the
best way to defeat "Islamic terror", saying "Whoever wants to fight radial
Islam and terrorist organizations should know that by purchasing gasoline,
he's giving terrorists increased motivation."
On Mar. 28 33-y.-o. Am. Muslim
Norman
Leboon (1976-) of Philly is arrested for threatening to kill Jewish Va.
Repub. House Whip Eric Cantor in a YouTube video.
On Mar. 29 (Mon.) two female suicide bombers, Dzhennet Abdurakhmanova from
Dagestan and Markha Ustarkhanova from Chechnya detonate during rush hour in the
Moscow
Subway, killing 40 and injuring 90+, becoming the deadliest attack in Moscow
since 2004; Muslim Chechen warlord
Doku
Umarov claims responsibility, causing Russian PM (2008-)
Vladimir Putin (1952-)
to order the bombers "scraped from the sewers" and exposed; in 1999 he
uttered the soundbyte about Chechen separatists that we wants to "rub them
out in the outhouse"; the nearness of these Islamic militants to Sochi, site
of the 2014 Winter Olympics makes their control more urgent;
Alexander
Tikhomirov is suspected of being the militant known as Sayid Buryatsky who
trained the bombers.
On Mar. 30 the 2010
CIA
WINPAC Report says that Iran is poised to begin producing a nuke with
a yield of a couple of kilotons of TNT despite problems with uraniuum centrifuges.
On Mar. 30 U.S. district judge
Robert Sweet
strikes down a patent on two genes linked to breast and ovarian cancer, saying
that genes can't be patented even in an isolated form.
On Mar. 30 the U.S. announces the Iranian nuclear scientist
Shahram Amiri,
who has been missing since June has defected to the U.S. and is helping the CIA
assess Iran's nuclear program.
The worst environmental disaster in U.S. history happens on Obama's watch?
On Mar. 30 after saying that he was assured "that it would be absolutely safe",
Pres. Obama
announces
that he is planning to open offshore areas along the Atlantic, E Gulf of Mexico,
and N coast of Alaska to oil and natural gas drilling, much of it for the first
time; Pres. Obama officially announces it on Mar. 31; too bad, on Apr. 20
(anniv. of Hilter's birthday and the 1999 Columbine School Massacre) the mile-deep
BP (formerly British Petroleum)
Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig in the Gulf of Mexico 42 mi. S of the La.-Miss.
coast explodes and
begins
spewing 35K-60K (100K?) barrels of petroleum a day (which is originally
announced by BP as 1K a day, then increased on May 14 by the U.S. govt. over
BP's objections to 5K a day, causing a mini-scandal) plus natural gas from
the ocean floor, getting so bad that on Apr. 29 the U.S. Defense Dept.
intervenes to
control the 120-mi. oil slick, causing the Obama admin. to halt new offshore
drilling until a study can be made; on May 8 an attempt to cap it with a 98-ton
steel dome fails
after becoming clogged with gas hydrates; on May 17 a
small
pipe (undersea straw) is inserted in the big broken pipe, siphoning off
20% of the oil, about 1K barrels a day; on May 26 drilling mud is poured into
the leak in an attempt to end it; on May 27 the U.S. govt. admits it's the
worst oil spill in history, and fires
Susan Elizabeth
"Liz" Birnbaum, dir. (since July 15, 2009) of the Minerals Mgt. Service
Agency that oversees drilling operations, and announces a stop to all 33
offshore drilling operations in the Gulf of Mexico along with an extension
of the moratorium on new permits for 6 mo. until a commission can investigate,
causing
George
Soros to be singled out for benefitting from this because he's heavily
invested in the Brazilian oil co. Petrobras, and got the Obama admin. to loan
them $2M for offshore drilling, and can now use the idle U.S. drilling rigs and
crew; on May 29 an attempted
top
kill with junk shot fails, causing Obama to call the ongoing oil leak (18M-40M gal.)
"enraging"; Chicago-based
NALCO
makes a fortune selling the U.S. oil dispersants; on June 1 U.S. atty. gen. Eric Holder
announces
a criminal investigation into the oil spill, causing
BP's
stock to go down 50% by June 9; Obama's slowness in taking on BP causes
Sarah Palin et al. to point to the fact that Obama was the
top
recipient of money from it in the 2008 pres. race, collecting $71K; on
June 4 an
oil cap
partially seals the leak, collecting 42K gal. a day; meanwhile on June 2
up to 34M gal. of oil has hit a 127-mi. stretch of La. coastline, and
reaches the shores of Dauphin Island 35 mi. S of Mobile, Ala., threatening
the Fla. Keys; on June 7 Pres. Obama disses BP CEO
Tony
Hayward (1957-), saying that he would have fired him by now, while refusing to
speak with him personally; on June 8 Obama
ramps up his
rhetoric, saying that his talks with Gulf fishermen and oil spill experts
were not an academic exercise but "so I know whose ass to kick", splitting
opinion on whether he's finally showing a macho side or whether he's showing
his badass street black side like Samuel L. Jackson in "Pulp Fiction" (1994);
on June 15 after a 2-day visit to the Gulf, Pres. Obama gives a
Speech
on the BP Oil Spill from the Oval Office (his first), channeling FDR and
promising to mobilize all available resources military-style to fight the oil spill,
and calling BP "irresponsible" and promising to make pay BP for all the damages
via an escrow account administered by an independent 3rd party, appointing
former Miss. gov. #60 (1988-92) and U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia (1994-6)
Raymond Edwin "Ray" Mabus Jr.
(1948-) (current U.S. Navy secy. #75 since June 18, 2009) as the Gulf cleanup
tsar, with the task of developing a long-term Gulf Coast Restoration Plan (to be
funded by BP), along with
Michael Bromwich
as new dir. of the Minerals Mgt. Service, then using the spill as an excuse to
push clean energy, saying it is "the most painful and powerful reminder yet that
the time to embrace a clean energy future is now", and that the U.S. needs to
end its "addiction to fossil fuels", because "we're running out of places to
drill on land and in shallow water", pooh-poohing the costs by adding "I say we
can't afford not to change how we produce and use energy, because the long-term
costs to our economy, our national security and our environment are far greater";
all this despite Repub. leaders warning him not to use the disaster to further
his political agenda; while touring the Gulf, his motorcade passed a
billboard reading "Where's the
birth certificate?"; the Repub. response to the speech is that Obama's decision
to shut down offshore drilling makes it "a tragedy on top of a tragedy";
on June 16 Obama
meets
with BP execs, and they agree to cough up $20B for the escrow account, managed
by 9/11 victim payout atty.
Kenneth Feinberg (1945-);
on June 16 BP chmn.
Carl-Henric Svanberg
apologizes for the spill and announces that BP won't pay any futher dividends
this year, but uses the term "small people" for those hurt by the spill,
causing him to later apologize; on June 17 BP exec Tony Hayward is grilled
by the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce, after which
? is given his job of managing the spill and cleanup, leaving
him free to enter a
yacht
race on the Isle of Wight on June 19, drawing criticism by Rahm Emanuel
until it is found out that Obama went golfing that day, causing deputy White
House press secy.
Bill
Burton to respond that it "does us all good as American citizens";
meanwhile Tex. Repub. rep. (since 1985)
Joe Linus
"Joe" Barton (1949-)
lambastes Pres. Obama for his "$20 billion shakedown", causing Repub. leaders
to force him to apologize under threat of taking away his head ranking of
the committee; on June 18 BP captures a record 25,290 barrels of oil from
the well; BP continues its $58M
sponsorship
of the 2012 London Olympics;
the leak was finally stopped on ?, and the oil was cleaned up by ?.
On Mar. 30 pro-immigrant groups demand the ouster of
John
T. Morton, head of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official
after one of his underlings laments in a Feb. 22 memo that the pace of deportations
is falling behind the goal of 400K per year; meanwhile U.S. Sen. (R-Ariz.)
John
McCain calls on homeland security secy. Janet Napolitano to send Nat. Guard
troops to the "southern border region" to stop "the continued and apparently
growing violence".
On Mar. 30 the
iFreedom Plus
Mastercard is announced for Muslims, featuring no bills, no interest, and
no credit card debt, financed by upfront deposits of up to $6K.
On Mar. 30 Detroit, Mich. public schools official
Robert
Bobb meets with Arab-Am. spokesmen to discuss how to get more Arab-Am.
children to stay in school by accomodating their Muslim faith, causing concerns
of bowing to Islam.
On Mar. 30 an Egyptian court dismisses a lawsuit filed by Christian Coptic mother
Camilia Lutfi
for refusing to remove the designation of Muslim from their birth certificates
after their father converted; she utters the soundbyte "We refuse to be Muslims
by force".
On Mar. 31 suspected Islamic suicide bombers kill 12+ in
Kizlyar, Dagestan,
next door to Chechnya.
On Mar. 31 a bicycle bomb near a crowd gathering to receive free vegetable
seeds from the British govt. in return for giving up opium poppy growing near
Lashkar
Gah, capital of Helmand province in Afghanistan kills 13 and wounds 45.
On Mar. 31 the
Belgian
parliament unanimously votes against wearing face-covering veils in public,
becoming the first Euro country.
On Mar. 31 the U.S. Supreme Court rules 7-2 in
Padilla v. Ky.
that lawyers for people thinking of pleading guilty to a crime must advise their
clients who are not citizens "that pending criminal charges may carry a risk of
adverse immigration consequences" such as deportation.
On Mar. 31 a U.S. district court judge in San Francisco, Calif. rules that
the Nat. Security Agency illegally wiretapped the phones of the
Al-Haramain
Islamic Foundation without a search warrant, becoming a rare V for Islamic
groups.
On Mar. 31
Sarah
Palin posts on her Facebook page that a nuclear-armed Iran would result in
a "Second Holocaust" against Israel, and that "The Obama admin. has their
priorities exactly backwards; we should be working with our friend and democratic
ally to stop stop Iran's nuclear program, not throwing in the towel on sanctions
while treating Israel like an enemy."
On Mar. 31 the German ARD TV network broadcasts
Until Nothing Remains,
an expose of Scientology, pissing of the Scientologists.
On Mar. 31 a U.S. federal judge rules that the
U.S.
Marine Corps can't ban car decals saying "Islam = terrorism" while allowing
others that say "Islam is peace".
On Mar. 31 former Israeli deputy defense minister brig. gen.
Ephraim
Sneh says that unless the U.S. and its allies enact "crippling sanctions that
will undermine the regime in Tehran", Israel will be compelled to attack Iran's
nuclear weapons facilities by Nov., adding that Iran will probably have "a nuclear
bomb or two" by 2011, and that "An Israeli military campaign against Iran's
nuclear installations is likely to cripple that country's nuclear probject for
a number of years. The retaliation against Israel would be painful, but bearable";
he admits that "acquisition of nuclear weapons by Iran during Obama's term would
do him a great deal of political damage" in the Nov. elections, but that the
damage to him resulting from an Israeli strike on Iran "would be devastating";
Anthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and Internat. Studies has already
concluded that Israel would have to use small nukes (20KT) to destroy Iran's nuclear
sites.
On Mar. 31 a group of 100 Muslims try to pray in
Cordoba
Cathedral in Spain (a former mosque), and are ordered to stop by security
guards, but they attack the guards, injuring two, after which police arrest two.
In Mar. the U.S. unemployment rate stays at 9.7% for the 3rd straight mo.
In Mar. Kuveyt
Turk Bank of Turkey (based in Istanbul and Kuwait) opens the
first Islamic bank in Germany in Mannheim, forbidding interest on
loans or loans to enterprises flouting Sharia; borrowers must offer
collateral and lenders receive a share of business profits.
In Mar. a survey by
Harris
Interactive reveals that 57% of Americans who chose the Republican Party
believe that Obama is a Muslim.
In Mar. the Obama admin. requests $30.7M for the Dept. of Homeland Security's
Visa
Security Program, the same amount approved by Congress for 2009, causing
Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Tex.) to introduce the
U.S. Secure Visas Act,
allocating $60M for the program to put VSP units in the 15 "highest risk"
consulates on top of 14 already in place.
In Mar. climate scientists report the
most
sea ice covering the Arctic since 2001 after cold weather over the Bering Sea,
surprising them, although they won't drop their belief in global warming.
On Apr. 1 U.S. Census Day
sees thousands of census workers knocking on doors.
On Apr. 1 the
Indian
Census begins, with historic pans to photograph and fingerprint every citizen
over age 15 and issue nat. ID cards; 2.5M census takers begin visiting
630K villages and 5K cities.
On Apr. 1 Space Shuttle Discovery takes off from Kennedy Space Center
in its final flight, STS-13, after which the U.S. Space Shuttle fleet
is retired and replaced by
Project
Constellation, with new space vehicles Orion and Ares, capable of
eventually travelling to Mars.
On Apr. 1 dozens of drug cartel gunmen assault two army garrisons in
Tamaulipas
and Nuevo Leon border states N Mexico, losing 18 attackers while wounding
only one soldier, but signaling an escalation of the Mexican Drug War.
On Apr. 1 San Francisco, Calif. police chief
George
Gascon apologies for remarks made on Mar. 25 that the U.S. faces the threat
of domestic terrorism from Yemen and Afghanistan, and that significant numbers
of people from those countries reside in the Bay Area, pissing off the Council
on American Islamic Relations et al.
On Apr. 1 Afghan pres. Hamid Karzi delivers a scathing
sour
grapes attack on the West, accusing the U.N. and the West of perpetrating a
"vast fraud" in the 2009 pres. election in order to deny him reelection and/or
make him "an ineffective president", drawing criticism from Afghan politicans
and the White House.
On Apr. 1 the conference
Terrorism:
Between Extremist Ideology and the Ideology of Extermism is held
in Riyadh, Saudi Rabia to create a unified definition of terrorism that
will "prevent the term being used as a cover to target Islam and portray
Muslims wrongly, prevent foreign interference in Islamic countries'
affairs, and prevent humanitarian aid to Muslim organizations being held
up for terror-related reasons."
On Apr. 1 after it successfully begins colliding particles, a self-described
Man
from the Future is arrested at CERN's Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland,
waring a fluorescent bow tie and claiming his name is Eloi Cole and that he
traveled back in time to prevent the LHC from destroying the world; his real
name turns out to be Arthur Dent :).
On Apr. 2 the U.S. govt.
announces
that travelers from 14 countries known as terrorist homes will no longer face
automatic extra screening when trying to fly to the U.S., and will only undergo
extra screening if they match description provided by intel officials.
On Apr. 2 Islamic gunmen dressed as soldiers execute 24 in
Hawr
Rijab in a Sunni area or Iraq - the religion of peace is baack?
On Apr. 2 German soldiers in Afghanistan accidentally kill six Afghan soldiers
in a firefight with the Taliban near
Kunduz,
while suffering three deaths.
On Apr. 2 (Good Friday), Roman Catholic Rev.
Raniero
Cantalamessa gives a Good Friday sermon in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome
attended by Pope Benedict XVI, saying that recent accusations about sexual
abuse of priests reminds him of the "more shameful aspects of anti-Semitism",
pissing off Jewish and victims groups; meanwhile Cardinal
Tarcisio Bertone
claims that homosexuality not celibacy is behind clergy child sex abuse, drawing
criticism from gay rights activists, and Mass. priest
James
Scahill calls for the pope to resign over the sexual abuse scandal.
On Apr. 2 landslides caused by heavy rains hit two towns in
NE Peru,
killing 28, injuring 54, and leaving 25 missing.
On Apr. 2 George Wills (b. 1942) of San Pedro, Calif. is sentenced to 6 mo. in
federal court for selling the
Whizzinator,
a prosthetic penis designed to help men beat urinalysis drug tests.
On Apr. 2 veiled Saudi babe
Hissa
Hilal becomes a celeb for reading anti-Islamic poetry on the Saudi TV show
"The Millionaire Poet", causing death threat fatwas to be issued against her;
she places 3rd; "I have seen evil in the eyes of the fatwas at a time when the
lawful is condemned as unlawful; when I unveil the truth a savage monster comes
out of its hiding place; barbaric in thought and action, angry and blind; wearing
death as a robe with a belt over it. When I unveil the truth a savage monster
comes out of his hiding place; barbaric in thought and action, angry and blind;
wearing death as a robe with a belt over it."
On Apr. 3 U.S. House Reps.
Gerry Connolly (D-Va.)
and Jim Moran (D-Va.)attend a fundraising dinner for the radical Saudi-funded
Dar al-Hijrah Islamic Center in falls Church, Va., which is tied to the 9/11 hijackers
and Ft. Hood Massacre, causing outcries from watchdog groups; meanwhile in the U.K.
the Islamic charity
Muslim
Aid, which was praised by British PM Gordon Brown and Prince Charles is
invesigated for paying hundreds of thousands of pounds to groups linked to
Islamic terrorists.
On Apr. 3 two German-born British women are arrested at
John Lennon Airport
in Liverpool for trying to smuggle their dead German relative onto a flight to
Berlin without paying the extra costs.
On Apr. 4 (Easter Sun.) Pope Benedict XVI delivers his Easter Sermon; meanwhile on Apr. 2
Cardinal William Levada, head of
the Vatican Congregation for the Dictrine of the Faith denies that the pope declined
to punish pedophile priest Lawrence C. Murphy of Wisc., who is accused of abusing
up to 200 deaf boys from the 1950s-1970s.
On Apr. 4
three
embassies in Iraq are bombed by suicide bombers, incl. the Iranian and German embassies
and Egyptian consultate, killing 41 and wounding 237.
On Apr. 4 despite appeals by the home minister to hold peace talks, a landmine attack
by Maoist rebels in
Orissa in E India
kills 10 Indian policemen and injures another 10, making over 6K deaths since
the rebels began fighting 20 years earlier.
On Apr. 4 the 7.2
2010
Mexico Baja Earthquake with epicenter 20 mi. SE of Mexicali, Mexico kills two
and is felt in Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Las Vegas.
On Apr. 4 Jewish-Am. Conn. independent Sen.
Joseph
"Joe" Lieberman appears on "Meet the Press", and says that the world is
"at a turning point in history" because of Iran's drive to get nukes, and
that the Obama admin. is "not going to do enough to stop Iran from developing
nuclear weapons quickly enough".
On Apr. 4 a jailbreak in
Reynosa,
Mexico near the U.S. border sees 13 inmates escape, becoming the 2nd mass
jailbreak in Tamaulipas state in less than two weeks; meanwhile Mexican drug lord
Ismael "el Mayo" Zambada,
says that the Mexican govt. cannot win the drug war because millions are involved
in the drug business.
On Apr. 4
al-Qaida
urges Islamic jihadists in the U.S. to build their own cruise missles and attack
passenger jets.
On Apr. 4 Iraqi police arrest three doctors and others in Mosul on charges of
plundering
body organs, incl. kidneys.
On Apr. 4 Pres. and Mrs. Obama attend Easter service at the black methodist
Allen Chapel AME Church
in SE Washington, D.C.
On Apr. 5 Pres. Obama announces a new 5-10-year
Nuclear Posture Review,
substantially narrowing the conditions under which the U.S. will use nukes, even
in self-defense, committing not to use them against non-nuclear states that are in
compliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, even if they attack the U.S.
with non-nuclear WMDs, with an exception for "outliers like Iran and North Korea";
it contains no mention of Islamic terrorism or jihad, and reverses the 2008 Bush
policy document that says "The struggle against militant Islamic radicalism is
the great ideological conflict of the early years of the 21st century", causing
Conn. Sen.
Joe
Liberman to call the move dishonest, wrong-headed and disrespectful to the
majority of non-terrorist Muslims; former New York City mayor
Rudy
Giuliani calls nuclear disarmament a "left-wing dream", and Obama an "inept"
leader; conservative commentator
Rush
Limbaugh says that Obama wants to blame the U.S. instead of its enemies, and that
his plan to build Muslim hospitals and spend $200M for security for the 9/11 terrorists
awaiting trial should outrage 9/11 victims;
Sarah
Palin compares Obama's plan to a kid asking to be punched in the face in the
playground and vowing not to hit back, causing Obama on Apr. 8 to comment "Last time
I checked, Palin's not an expert on nukes. If the secretary of defense and chairman
of the Joint Chiefs of Staff are comfortable, I'll take my advice from them and not
Sarah Palin"; on Apr. 7 Iranian pres. Imadinnajacket
calls Obama an
"inexperienced amateur" who is quick to threaten to use nukes on U.S. enemies,
adding "American politicians are like cowboys. Whenever they have legal shortcomings,
their hands go to their guns"; on Apr. 8 Imadinnajacket
adds that he
won't plead with opponents of Tehran's nuclear program to avoid sanctions; instead
of planning on retaliating with nukes, the Obama admin. pumps up a program to create
Prompt
Global Strike weapons, non-nuclear IBMs that can hit any place in the world in
less than an hour; on Apr. 20
Saudi Arabia
announces the building of the first nuclear power plant in the Gulf states in Riyadh;
while Obama shows signs of accepting a nuclear Iran,
Israel
will never accept it; Obama's unilateral disarmament approach will only provoke
another nuclear arms race?
On Apr. 5 a Pakistani Taliban bomb attack on the U.S. consulate in
Peshawar,
Pakistan, kills six, incl. two militants, but no Yankees.
On Apr. 5 an Islamic attack in
Karabulak,
Ingushetia kills two police officers, spreading the Islamic war on Russia.
On Apr. 5 100+ Chinese miners in
Xiangning,
China are rescued after being trapped in a flooded mine for over a week;
meanwhile on Apr. 5 an explosion in the
Upper
Big Branch Mine owned by Massey Energy Co. in Montcoal (30 mi. S of Charleston),
W. Va. kills 29, becoming the worst U.S. mine disaster since 1984.
On Apr. 5 a U.S. appeal court rules that the FCC doesn't have the right to enforce
Net Neutrality,
effectively killing the movement.
On Apr. 5 ABC News airs a segment about the
Fishing
and Hunting Tour Sex Trade that hooks Yankees up with hos in Brazil, incl.
preteen girls.
On Apr. 6 the U.S. govt. announces that the Obama admin. has authorized operations
to capture or kill U.S.-born Muslim cleric
Anwar
al-Awlaki, who is holing up in Yemen with al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula,
calling him a "proven threat"; on Apr. 9 former U.S. atty. gen.
Michael
Mukasey backs the decision.
On Apr. 5 the heaviest rains in more than four decades cause floods and landslides in
Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil that kill 110.
On Apr. 6 British PM Harold Brown calls for new elections on May 6 against
David Cameron (1966-) of the Conservatives and Nick Clegg of the Liberal
Dems., which will feature a U.S.-style 3-part TV debate; actor
Michael
Caine wades into the political arena to support the Conservatives.
On Apr. 6 (5:15 a.m.) the 7.7
2010
Sumatran Earthquake in Indonesia causes a brief tsunami warning.
On Apr. 6 a series of seven bomb blasts markets and apts. in Shiite areas of
Baghdad
kills 35+ and wounds 140+.
On Apr. 7 after years of graft and corruption of pres. Kurmanbek Bakiyev, police
fire on thousands of mainly pro-Russian protesters in
Bishkek,
Kyrgyzstan as the govt. is on the verge of toppling and Bakiyev goes into
hiding, and on Apr. 15
resigns
and leaves the country; on Apr. 20
riots
in Bishkek against the interim govt. kill several and injure scores; meanwhile
the U.S. Manas military base near Bishkek is threatened.
On Apr. 7 after anti-govt. protesters break into parliament and force lawmakers
to flee by heli, Thai PM
Abhisit
Vejjajiva declares a state of emergency in Bangkok.
On Apr. 7
al-Qaida
in the Islamic Maghreb threatens to attack the World Cup games in
South Africa this summer, with the soundbyte "How amazing could the match United
States vs. Britain be when broadcasted live on air at a stadium packed with spectators
when the sound of an explosion rumbles through the stands, the whole stadium is
turned upside down and the number of dead bodies are in their dozens and hundreds,
Allah willing" - it's Lobsterfest?
On Apr. 7 attemped shoe bomber
Mohammed
al-Modadi is subdued by federal air marshals on United Airlines Flight 663
en route from Washington, D.C. to Denver, Colo. with 157 passengers and six crew;
he turns out to be a diplomat in the Qatar embassy with full diplomatic immunity,
and isn't charged.
On Apr. 7 Saudi Sunni cleric Sheik
Mohammed
al-Areefi cancels a historic visit to Jerusalem to support Muslim claims to
the city after pressure from his kingdom.
On Apr. 8 a 24-y.-o. Muslim woman dies after her burka gets caught in a go-kart
she is driving near Port Stephens, Australia
(N of Sydney).
On Apr. 8 13-y.-o. Yemeni girl
Ilham
Mahdi al Assi (b. 1996) dies five days after her wedding after her sex organs
rupture and hemorrhage; she was used in a swap marriage, with her brother marrying
the groom's sister.
On Apr. 8 80+ gunmen in 15 pickup trucks attack the town of
Maycoba
in N Mexico, killing 4+.
On Apr. 8 the British Muslim group
Bradford Council of Mosques
makes a publicity play by demanding the ministry of defense to apologize
because its firing range in N England uses green-domed structures that they
claim look like mosques; meanwhile after the Palestinian Authority announces
the building of a pres. compound on a street in Ramallah named after Palestinian
suicide bombmaker
Yihye "the Engineer" Ayyash,
Israel urges the U.N. to condemn them; meanwhile on Apr. 8 a poll by the
IMAS Inst. shows that
54% of Austrians consider Islam "a threat to the West and our way of life",
while 72% believe "Muslims don't adapt to the rules of community life", and
71% believe that Islam isn't compatible with Western concepts of democracy,
liberty and tolerance.
On Apr. 9 U.S. Supreme Court justice John Paul Stevens announces his retirement
at the end of the session in June; he turns 90 on Apr. 20.
On Apr. 9 Iran unveils a
3rd
gen. of domestically-built uranium centrifuges that do it faster.
On Apr. 9 the high court of
Bangladesh
rules that women cannot be forced to wear a veil or hijab against their will, calling
it a "flagrant violation of human rights enshrined in the Constitution".
On Apr. 9 the U.S.
removes
Syria, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and other Muslim nations from its airport watch list
for augmented airport security imposed on Jan. 3, adding "This is not a system
that can be called profiling in the traditional sense - it is intelligence-based";
meanwhile French pres.
Nicolas
Sarkozy warns that Pres. Obama is a "mad lunatic" for his systematic appeasement
of Islam.
On Apr. 9 after a coverup fails, U.S. Special Forces cmdr. vice-adm.
William
H. McRaven goes personally to Paktia in E Afghanistan to offer family head
Haji Sharabuddin two sheep and $3K for the deaths of his two sons, who were accidentally
killed along with two pregnant women and a teen girl by U.S. forces on Feb. 12; he follows ancient
Pashtun
tribal ritual for paying blood money.
On Apr. 9 the Good Friday ed. of the German satire mag.
Titanic
pub. a cartoon of a Catholic priest giving Jesus Christ a beejay while hanging
on the cross, outraging the Church.
On Apr. 9 (11:30 p.m.) the
U.S.
consulate in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico is bombed, breaking windows but causing
no injuries.
On Apr. 10 a Pakistani govt. airstrike in
Tirah
in NW Pakistan during a meeting of Lashkar-e-Islam kills 48 militants.
On Apr. 10 the conference
Islam
in Italy: Fulfilling the Prophecy is held in London to celebrate the coming
fulfillment of Prophet Muhammad that Islam will conquer first Constantinople
then Rome.
On Apr. 10 a Soviet-era Tupolev jet carrying an elite Polish delegation incl.
Polish pres. (since 2005) Lech Kaczynski (b. 1949) and his wife Maria Kaczkynska
crashes during landing in fog in
Smolensk,
Russia, killing all 95 aboard; they were scheduled to commemorate the 70th
anniv. of the Katyn Massacre of 22K Polish officers by the Soviets; the cmdrs.
of all four branches of the Polish military are lost, along with the head of the
central bank and many of Kaczynski's top advisors, the cream of Poland's elite; a
conspiracy
by PM Vladimir Putin to humble Poland for trying to host U.S. missile defense
systems is suspected.
On Apr. 10 U.S. Senate majority leader
Harry Reid
tells a crowd in Las Vegas, Nev. that Congress will begin working on immigration
overhaul after returning from recess this week.
On Apr. 10-11 the govt. of
Mexico
disconnects 25.9M of 83.5M cellphone lines for not being registered as part of a
plan to fight drug cartels.
On Apr. 10-May 23 the
Shroud of Turin
is publicly exhibited, and
Pope
Benedict XVI visits it on May 2, all-but endorsing its authenticity, with the
soundbyte "This is a burial cloth that wrapped the remains of a crucified man in full
correspondence with what the Gospels tell us of Jesus."
On Apr. 11-16 elections in
Sudan
are the first since the 1989 Omar El-Bashir coup give him 88%+ of the vote;
former U.S. pres. Jimmy Carter stinks himself up by calling them fair.
On Apr. 12-13 Pres. Obama meets with 46 world leaders in Washington, D.C. (largest
gathering of world leaders since the U.N. organizing meeting in San Francisco in 1945)
at the 2010
Nuclear Security Summit; after hearing that Middle Eastern nations are waiting to
task him for not signing the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Benjamin Netanyahu of #47
Israel bugs out; on Apr. 11 Obama, who has already called a
nuclear
attack by terrorists "the single biggest threat to U.S. security"
admits
that if al-Qaida acquired nukes, it "would have no compunction at using them", and says
that it "could change the security landscape in this country and around the world for
years to come", but doesn't include Iran in that assessment; on Apr. 13 Obama
presses
for tightened sanctions on Iran, but Russia balks at gasoline restrictions, and
obtains a voluntary
agreement
to secure vulnerable nuclear materials within four years;
Chile
becomes the first nation to agree to surrender all its highly enriched uranium,
40 lbs. obtained from Britain and France for two research reactors; meanwhile
an Apr. 11 report by
Jane's
Defense Weekly says that Israel has 100-300 nuclear warheads;
on Apr. 12 Russian pres. (since 2008)
Dmitry Medvedev (1965-)
warns Israel that if they attack Iran it might lead to a nuclear war; on Apr. 13
China
says that any sanctions must promote a diplomatic way out of the nuclear standoff,
while continuing its
transfer
of nuclear technology ot Pakistan and Iran; on Apr. 14
John McMain
says that the U.S. keeps pointing a loaded gun at Iran, which is going to get nukes
unless the U.S. hurries up and "pulls the trigger", meaning on sanctions not guns;
at the close of the summit, Obama utters the soundbyte "Whether we like it or not, we
remain a dominant military superpower, and when conflicts break out, one way or another
we get pulled into them", pissing off McCain, who calls the remark a "direct
contradiction to everything America believes in"; on Apr. 17-18
Iran
holds its own nuclear disarmament conference in Tehran, attended by Russia; Ayatollah
Ali Khameini calls the U.S. the world's "only nuclear scofflaw"; on Apr. 27
Libyan dictator
Muammar
al-Gaddhafi calls the U.S. decision to not invite Libya a "political blunder"
that will discourage Iran and North Korean from giving up their nuclear ambitions.
On Apr. 12 a splinter group of the
IRA
detones a car bomb outside British MI5 HQ in Belfast just minutes after the
official transfer of police and justice powers from Britain to Northern Ireland.
On Apr. 12 Indonesian pres.
Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono gives a speech at the Sixth Assembly of the World Movement for Democracy,
claiming that "Islam, democracy and modernisation an grow together".
On Apr. 12 British atheists
Richard Dawkins
and Christopher Hitchens announce that when Pope Benedict XVI enters Britain that
they will attempt to arrest him for "crimes against humanity" a la Augusto Pinochet in 1998.
On Apr. 12 a massive
human
smuggling ring in Ariz. that stretches the length of the U.S. is busted by ICE officials.
On Apr. 13 the 6.9
2010
Tibetan Earthquake kills 1.1K and injures 8K.
On Apr. 13 Israeli pres. Shimon Peres
accuses
Syria of giving 430-mi.-range Scud missiles to Hezbollah, shifting the balance
of power in the region as the missiles could reach Tel Aviv and Jerusalem instead
of only targets in N Israel like in the 2006 war; Syria denies it; on Apr. 14
Jordanian king
Abdullah
III tells U.S. congressmen that war is imminent between Israel and Hezbollah
in Lebanon, and that it could spread across the Middle East.
On Apr. 13 nonprofit online newsroom
ProPublica
becomes the first online org. to win a Pulitzer Prize, along with its reporter
Sheri Fink, for a story about a hospital after Hurricane Katrina.
On Apr. 13
James
Carafano of the Heritage Foundation criticizes Pres. Obama, saying that
his cutting of conventional military capabilities and talk of pullouts from
Iraq and Afghanistan is creating a dangerous environment vis a vis Iran.
On Apr. 13
Ariz.
passes the toughest state immigration law in the U.S., making all illegal aliens
guilty of trespassing and requiring state and local police to arrest them, along
with encouraging them to enter the state, causing outcries from pro-immigrant groups;
John McCain drops
opposition hours before its passage, saying "I think it is a good tool"; U.S. judge
Andrew
Napolitano says that the law will "bankrupt the Republican Party"; on Apr. 23
Ariz. gov. Jan Brewer signs it, triggering protests, calls for boycotts of Ariz.,
lawsuits, etc.; it goes into effect on July 29; on Apr. 27 Pima County sheriff
Clarence
Dupnik says that he has "no intention" of complying with the law, calling
it "abominable" and a "national embarrassment"; on Apr. 26 Mexican pres.
Felipe Calderon condemns
the law as discriminatory, and warns that relations will suffer; on Apr. 30 Brewer
signs a
revised
version that attempts to stop racial profiling; on May 1 Roman Catholic Cardinal
Roger M. Mahoney,
archbishop of Los Angeles leads a march in downtown Los Angeles, Calif. by 50K,
comparing the law to "German Nazi and Russian Communist techniques whereby people
are required to turn one another in to the authorities on any suspicion of documentation";
other anti-Ariz. rallies
are held throughout the U.S., incl. 25K in Dallas, Tex. and 10K in Chicago, Ill.; on
May 4 NBA Phoenix Suns owner
Robert
Sarver issues a statement that his team will wear "Los Suns" on their uniforms
on May 5 to "honor our Latino community and the diversity of our league, the state of
Arizona, and our nation"; on May 6 N.Y. Dem. Sen.
Chuck
Schumer calls for a 1-year delay on implementation of the law to give Congress
time for federal-level immigration reform.
On Apr. 13 Christian barber
Marwat
Masih (1981-) is beaten and sodimized by eight Muslims for trimming a Muslim's
beard.
On Apr. 14 hundreds of protesters armed with machetes battle security forces in
Jakarta,
Indonesia after hearing news that the govt. is going to remove the tomb of Islamic
scholar Habib Hasan; they were only going to renovate it.
On Apr. 14 U.S. First Lady
Michelle
Obama visits Mexico, where she meets with Mexican first lady Margarita Zavala
and minimizes the danger of drug cartels and discusses drug treatment programs.
On Apr. 14 U.S. undersecy. of state
Judith
A. McHale says that the Obama admin. is shifting focus of public diplomacy
efforts to downplay the Bush admin. emphasis on countering violent extremists in
order to avoid offending foreign audiences, which they believe only a tiny percentage
of are at risk for becoming extremists; on Apr. 26
Roger
L. Simon, CEO of Pajamas Media TV calls upon the U.S. Senate to launch an investigation
into censorship by the Obama admin. of terminology about Islam, incl. the words "Islamic
extremism", "jihad", "Sharia", "Hamas", and "Hizbollah".
On Apr. 14
Kosovo
bans headscarves (hijabs) in public schools, joining Tunisia and France.
On Apr. 14 Quran-thumping Am. Muslim convert
James A. Larry
(1978-) of Madison, Wisc. shoots to death his pregant wife, three children, and
an adult in Chicago, Ill., then claims that "Allah told him to do it"; many news
services incl. the AP sanitize the story to remove all mention of Islam.
On Apr. 14 the
British
Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) criticizes Israel for including photos of
the Western Wall in a tourism ad, saying that the site isn't within Israel's borders.
On Apr. 14 Britain announces a secret deal to permit a small number of
Yemeni
Jews to immigrate to escape severe Islamic persecution.
On Apr. 14-16 the members of
BRIC
(Brazil, Russia, India, China) meet in Brasilia to draw up a plan for a
"new internat. order" for presentation at the G20 meeting in June; BRIC has
42% of the world pop. but only 15% of the GDP; the parallel BASIC (Brazil,
South Africa, India, China) coalition is becoming increasingly alienated by
U.S. efforts to limit their greenhouse gas emissions.
On Apr. 15 after a U.S. woman summarily sent her violent troublesome 7-y.-o.
adopted son back to Russia on a plane alone, the
Russian
foreign ministry suspends all adoptions by U.S. families.
On Apr. 15 after erupting for the 2nd time in a mo. on Apr. 14, a giant volcanic
ash cloud from the
Eyjafjallajokull
volcano in Iceland causes Britain to suspend all air traffic for the first
time ever, reopening it on Apr. 20 at 10 p.m. after it costs $1.7B; too bad,
by May 8 the volcanic ash cloud drifts over
Africa,
closing airports there.
On Apr. 15 another suicide bombing in
Kandahar,
Afghanistan kills three foreigners and three Afghan soldiers.
On Apr. 15 Pres. Obama gives a speech at the
Kennedy
Space Center in Fla., calling another Moon mission redundant, and instead
calling for missions to asteroids and Mars.
On Apr. 15 Pres. Obama signs an executive order to the Dept. of Health ending
discrimination in hospital visitation and power of atty. against same-sex partners.
On Apr. 15 U.S. federal district court
BArbara B. Crabb in
Madison, Wisc. rules the
U.S. Nat. Day of Prayer
unconstitutional, along with a 1988 law giving the U.S. pres. authority to
designate the first Thur. in May as one, causing
Sarah
Palin on Apr. 16 to call it "mind-boggling" to suggest that the U.S. isn't
a Christian nation.
On Apr. 15-16 Islamic jihadists murder four Russian officers in
Chechnya.
On Apr. 16 Roman Catholic bishop
Richard Williamson
is fined 10K euros by a German court for denying the magical 6M Holocaust victim
figure and claiming it was really only 200K-300K; judge Karin Frahm declares
"The statements by the accused represent a denial of the actions taken under the
National Socialist regime" - was there a minimum number of victims that gave
him a defense?
On Apr. 16 the SEC accuses
Goldman Sachs
of civil fraud by failing to disclose conflicts of interest in mortgage investments
during the housing market collapse, causing its stock to drop 15%.
On Apr. 16 a suicide bomb attack outside a hospital emergency ward in
Quetta,
Pakistan kills nine, incl. two police officers and a TV cameraman.
On Apr. 16 (Fri.) senior Iranian cleric
Hojatoleslam
Kazem Sedighi gives a Fri. mosque sermon claiming that women who dress immodestly
cause sexual immortality that leads to earthquakes, and is backed up by Guardian Council
head Ahmad Jannati, causing worldwide scorn incl. a campaign to trigger a "Boobquake"
by U.S. student
Jennifer
"Jen" McCreight, AKA the Blag Hag.
On Apr. 17 Libyan dictator
Muammar
al-Gaddafi praises Pres. Obama, saying "He is someone I consider a friend.
He knows he is a son of Africa. Regardless of his African belonging, he is of
Arab Sudanese descent, or of Muslim descent. He is a man whose policy should
be supported, and he should be assisted in implementing it in any way possible,
since he is now leaning towards peace."
On Apr. 17 two suicide bombers dressed in burqas detonate in a refugee camp in
Kacha
Pukka, Kohat in NW Pakistan, killing 41 and wounding 62.
On Apr. 17 snow falls in
Tokyo,
Japan, the latest in the season since Apr. 17, 1969.
On Apr. 18 U.S. adm.
Mike
Mullen, chmn. of the Joint Chiefs of Staff says that a U.S. strike against Iran
would go a "long way" to delaying its nuclear weapons program, but that he considers
it his "last option" right now; meanwhile Iranian pres. Madman Inastraightjacket
boasts
of Iran's military might and says that no country would dare attack it; he also
orders
the U.S. and its allies to leave Afghanistan.
On Apr. 18 (night) al-Qaida in Iraq leaders
Abu Ayyub al-Masri
and Abu Omar al-Bahgadi are killed by U.S. forces in their safe house
near Tikrit.
On Apr. 19 the U.S. Defense Dept. submits a
Report
to Congress on Iran, claiming that it could develop and test an ICBM capable
of hitting the U.S. by 2015.
On Apr. 19 the 15th anniv. of the Oklahoma City Bombing is marked by gun-toting
protesters
on federal land in N Va.
On Apr. 19 the high court of
Indonesia
rules 8-1 that the 45-y.-o. law banning blasphemy against Islam and five other
recognized religions is valid.
On Apr. 19 the Islamic Web site RevolutionMuslim.com issues pseudo-threats against
Trey Parker and Matt Stone, creators of the TV cartoon series
South
Park for airing an episode showing Muhammad in a bear suit, with the soundbyte
"We have to warn Matt and Trey that what they are doing is stupid and they will
probably wind up like Theo Van Gogh for airing this show. This is not a threat,
but a warning of the reality of what will likely happen to them"; on Apr. 22 the
threat causes the show to remove all references to Big M, which doesn't stop
Malaysia
from demanding a worldwide apology to show that they are submitting to Islamic
superiority; the poster turns out to be 20-y.-o.
Zachary
Adam Chesser (1990-), AKA Abu Talhah Al-Amrikee from Centreville, Va., who tells
FoxNews.com "It's not a threat, but it really is a likely outcome.; on Apr. 24
the RevolutionMuslim.com Web site is
hacked;
Seattle, Wash. artist
Molly Norris declares an
Everybody
Draw Muhammad Day for May 20, then gets scared and drops it, then picks
it back up, then drops it again and apologizes to Muslims; on May 19 the govt.
of Pakistan blocks
Facebook
for hosting her group, followed by
YouTube,
dropping the blocking on the latter after it buckles under and removes
offensive videos; on May 23 Muslims in
India
ask the govt. to ban Facebook; on May 30
Bangladesh
bans Facebook; on May 31 a
Pakistani court
removes the Facebook ban.
On Apr. 20 the U.S. Supreme Court by 8-1 in
U.S.
v. Stevens strikes down a 1999 federal law banning "crush videos" depicting
graphic violence against animals (incl. crushing them to death by women with stiletto
heels) as a violation of free speech for being overbroad, leaving open the possibility
of a law limited to crush videos.
On Apr. 20 New York City businessman
Abdul
Tawala Ibn Ali Alishtari (AKA Michael Mixon) (1953-) is sentenced to 10 years in prison
for attempting to funnel money to an Islamic terrorist training camp in Afghanistan.
On Apr. 20 the Pentagon delivers its first
Report
to Congress on Iran's Military, saying that Iran is increasing its paramilitary
Qods force in Venezuela (first official warning of Iranian paramilitary activities in
the Western Hemisphere) while covertly supplying munitions to Taliban and other
Islamic insurgents in Afghanistan and Iraq.
On Apr. 20 the head of Saudi Arabia's religious police fires
Ahmed
bin Qassim al-Ghamidi, chief of the Mecca branch for suggesting the mixing
of the sexes in an interview, saying that it "is just natural and there is no good
reason to ban it".
On Apr. 20 a
Report on Salt Intake
by the Inst. of Medicine calls on the U.S. FDA to begin regulating salt
levels in food to save 100K lives a year.
On Apr. 21 Iraqi and U.S. officials
announce
that an Iraqi security force under PM Nuri Kamal al-Maliki's command held hundreds
from N Iraq in a secret prison in Baghdad and tortured dozens until the U.S.
intervened in Mar. and al-Maliki played dumb and closed it.
On Apr. 21 white supremacist
Richard
Barrett (b. 1943) is stabbed and beaten to death and his house set on fire to
cover it up by ex-con black neighbor Vincent McGee (1988-).
On Apr. 21 nat. security adviser #22 (2009-) USMC Gen.
James Logan Jones Jr. (1943-)
stinks himself up with a
Jewish
stereotype joke at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy in front of
a crowd of mainly Jews.
On Apr. 22 it is announced
Gita
Sahgal has resigned from Amnesty Internat. after it refused to cut loose
its ties with former Guantanamo Bay detainee Moazzam Begg and his group
which supports "jihad in self-defense".
On Apr. 22 worldwide Earth Day celebrations are marred by an announcement by
Brazil of the $10B
Belo
Monte Hydroelectric Dam (world's 3rd largest) on the Xingu River, which
will flood a part of the Amazon River basin despite protests by Indians.
On Apr. 22 Iran's
Rev.
Guards hold war games in the Hormuz Strait to flex their muscles.
On Apr. 22 U.S. secy. of state Hillary Clinton
addresses
a meeting of NATO foreign ministers, resisting their pressure to remove U.S.
battlefield weapons from Europe unless Russia cuts its arsenal first, since
it's 10x larger.
On Apr. 22 the U.S. test launches two unmanned space vehicles, incl. the secret 30-ft.
X-37B
space plane, signaling a new era of space warfare.
On Apr. 22
Lily-May
Woods becomes Britain's first baby with two women parents on her birth certificate.
On Apr. 22 Am. Christian evangelist
Franklin Graham
(1952-), son of Billy Graham is disinvited to speak at a May 6 Pentagon
prayer service by the U.S. Army for remarks he made in 2001 describing Islam
as evil, with spokesman Col. Tom Collins callins his remarks "not appropriate",
adding "We're an all-inclusive military, we honor all faiths"; Graham
replies
that Obama is "giving Islam a pass", adding "Look at the violence that they
have portrayed against women, it's just horrific"; on Mar. 1-9 a survey by
LifeWay
Research reveals that 4 in 10 U.S. Protestant pastors believe that Islam is
dangerous and promotes violence; his affiliation with
Shirley
Dobson's Nat. Day of Prayer Task Force is in violation of govt. regs
anyway?; on Apr. 27 the
Council
on Am.-Islamic Relations (CAIR) calls on Congress to ban Franklin also,
after which on May 5
35 Repub.
congressmen call on the U.S. Defense Dept. to reinvite him, and on May 6
he takes the podium at the
Nat. Day
of Prayer on Capitol Hill.
On Apr. 22 the stream of data sent back to Earth by NASA's Voyager 2
suddenly changes, causing German academic
Hartwig
Hausdorf to claim that it has been taken over by ETs.
On Apr. 23 a series of bombs in Shiite mosque areas of
Baghdad, Iraq,
incl. Sadr City kill 72; bombs in W Iraq in Sunni areas kill eight; on Apr. 25 Shiite cleric
Muqtada
al-Sadr calls on believers to join the Iraqi authorities to "defend their shrines,
mosques, prayers, markets, houses and their towns", but not give the U.S. an excuse to
postpone their withdrawal.
On Apr. 23 the 57-member
Org.
of the Islamic Conference (OIC) announces the creation of a human rights div.,
despite its idea of human rights being the Cairo Declaration of Human Rights,
which enshrines horrible Sharia as the norm.
On Apr. 23 Swiss bank UBS AG client
Jack Barouh
(1945-) is sentenced to 10 mo. in U.S. federal prison for hiding his assets,
despite his defense that his experience in fleeing the Nazi Holocaust caused him
to become a compulsive hoarder.
On Apr. 24 the worst tornado in decades in
Miss. kills 10.
On Apr. 24 gunmen ambush two police vehicles in
Ciudad
Juarez, Mexico, killing seven officers plus a 17-y.o. passerby.
On Apr. 24 Aygul Ozkan,
Germany's first female Muslim state minister calls for crucifixes to be removed
from state schools, citing headscarves to justify it.
On Apr. 25 the
95th
Anniv. of the Armenian Genocide sees Muslim-appeasing Pres. Obama renege again
on his campaign promise to label the Christian Armenian Genocide of 1915 by Muslim
Turkey a genocide, calling it "one of the worst atrocities" of the 20th cent. and
a "devastating chapter" in history.
On Apr. 25 seeing his chance with Pres. Obama's freezing relations with Israel,
Palestinian leader
Mahmoud
Abbas urges Pres. Obama to impose a Mideast peace deal.
On Apr. 25 elections in
Hungary
give a V to the center-right opposition Fidesz Party of ex-PM (1998-2002)
Viktor Orban (1963-),
who on ? becomes Hungarian PM (until ?).
On Apr. 25
Joseph
McVey (1987-) of Ohio is arrested and charged with impersonating a police
officer at Asheville, N.C. airport as Pres. Obama departs on Air Force One.
On Apr. 25 Afghan troops kill three civilians in their home overnight, causing
protesters to torch NATO trucks in
Logar
province in E Afghanistan.
On Apr. 25 English physicist
Stephen
Hawking says that we shouldn't try to contact extraterrrestrials because they
might be looking to take us over like Christopher Columbus did the New World,
pissing of self-appointed E.T. Messiah
Rael,
who issues the soundbyte "With these views, Hawking demonstrates that he's not
only physically handicapped but mentally handicapped by the degenerative disease
of 'evolutionism' or 'Darwinism'. His fears about murderous, invading aliens are
based on the theory of evolution – the myth of evolution, to be more precise. He's
afraid humans are inferior to aliens who might invade. That's logical, but only
if you accept the myth of evolution."
On Apr. 25 over 1K
Jewish
protesters in Manhattan demonstrate against the Obama admin.'s call for a freeze
on construction in occupied East Jerusalem, demanding unlimited rights to colonize
the West Bank.
On Apr. 25 a Chinese-Turkish team announces the
discovery
of Noah's Ark in E Turkey, with pieces of wood found at 12K ft. elev. that
were dated to 4.8K years old.
On Apr. 25-26 the White House convenes a
World
Summit on Entrepreneurship, with 250 participants from 60 mainly Muslim countries.
On Apr. 26 accusing them of rushing the process Repubs.
block Dem.
legislation in the U.S. Senate to regulate the financial system, with the vote coming
out at 57-41, three votes short of that needed to end a filibuster.
On Apr. 26 a suicide bomber in
Yemen targets the British ambassador,
killing himself and three othrs, but missing the ambassador.
On Apr. 26 the U.S. military
cancels
a major field exercise to test its reponse to a nuclear attack after the
planned site Las Vegas, Nev. pulls out.
On Apr. 26 Yemeni cleric Sheikh
Abdul-Majid
al-Zindani vows to gather a million signatures to protest a draft law
banning child brides, saying that such a ban "threatens our culture and society
and spreads immorality".
On Apr. 26 a group of Islamic clerics in
NE
Kenya crack down on public broadcasts of soccer and films as un-Islamic.
On Apr. 26 the documentary film
Feathered
Cocaine debuts at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City, claiming
that Osama bin Laden is hiding in Iran with help of the Iranian govt.
On Apr. 26 Labour candidate
John
Cowan is suspended after posting on the Internet that he wouldn't his children
to marry a Muslim.
On Apr. 27 former Panamanian dictator
Manuel
Noriega is extradited by the U.S. to France, where he is accused of laundering
$7M in drug profits by purchasing luxury apts. with his wife in Paris; he was
previously convicted in absentia, but is being given a new trial.
On Apr. 27 Iranian Sharia police announce a crackdown on women who dare to display
suntans
in public.
On Apr. 27 two human rights activists are ambushed and murdered in
San
Juan Copala, Oaxaca, Mexico by the Union de Bienestar de la Region Triqui;
on May 16 12 women and children are kidnapped, then released.
On Apr. 28 British PM Gordon Brown commits a
political
gaffe, calling a loyal Labour voter a "bigoted woman" in his limo over a live
mike; despite apologizing, his chances for reelection fizzle to zero?
On Apr. 28 thousands of enraged Muslims attack a Christian educational center in
Bogor
Regency, West Java Province, Indonesia after hearing rumors that they are going
to build a church, Sharia forbidding even repairing one.
On Apr. 28 Hollywood star
Sandra
Bullock reveals that she is divorcing her cheating hubby Jesse James, and
is in the process of adopting 3.5-mo.-old black New Orleans child Louis Bardo Bullock.
On Apr. 28 ten Israeli Prize
winners send a letter to Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak asking him to lift
the prohibition on students from Gaza Strip studying in West Bank univs.
On Apr. 28 a
McLaughlin
& Assocs. Poll finds that only 42% of Jewish voters would vote to reelect Pres.
Obama, vs. 78% who elected him.
On Apr. 29
Mohammed
Hlal and Errahmouni Ahmed, two Moroccan terrorist suspects are deported from Italy
for allegedly plotting to kill Pope Benedict XVI.
On Apr. 30 the U.S. House of Reps passes a bill allowing Puerto Ricans to vote on
Puerto
Rican statehood.
On Apr. 30 a 26-y.-o. Tunisian woman is arrested and fined $650 for wearing a niqab
(face veil) while walking to a mosque in
Novara, Italy,
home of the anti-immigration Northern League, stirring controversy.
On Apr. 30 (night) Ariz. Pinal County sheriff's deputy
Louie
Puroll (1957-) is shot by a Mexican drug smuggler with an AK-r7, inflaming
anti-Mexican passions.
In Apr. the U.S. adds
290K
new jobs, leaving the unemployment rate at 9.9%.
In Apr. the
Islamic Solidarity Games
(Muslim Olympics) are called off by Arab states because Iran inscribed
"Persian Gulf" on the official logo and medals, and they want it called
the Arab Gulf.
On May 1 thousands protest
Neo-Nazi marches
across Germany.
On May 1 it is announced that Islamic successionists in
S Yemen have
captured two U.S. soldiers and demand the release of two of their leaders in
exchange for their release.
On May 1 Islamic separatists bomb a horse race at the hippodrome in
Nalchik
in Kabardino-Balkaria, North Caucasus, killing one and wounding 29.
On May 1 a tricycle bomb in
Saryab,
Quetta in SW Pakistan injures six.
On May 1 a 3-vehicle convoy of drug cartel with 40 commandos ambushes the police in
Morelia,
Mexico, but they escape unharmed.
On May 1 two explosions in the Abdala Shideya Mosque in the biggest market in
Mogadishu,
Somalia kill 30+ and injure dozens, becoming the first terrorist attack
in a Somalian mosque; it is a gathering place for members of al-Shabab.
On May 1 Pres. Obama gives a commencement speech at the
U.
of Mich., saying that partisan rants and name-calling pose a serious danger
to Am. democracy that could incite "extreme elements" to violence, with the
soundbyte "What troubles me is when I hear people say that all of government is
inherently bad. When our government is spoken of as some menacing, threatening
foreign entity, it ignores the fact that in our democracy, government is us."
On May 1 two bombs near buses carrying Christian students in
Mosul,
Iraq planted by Sunni insurgents kill one bystander and injure 100.
On May 1
Super
Saver (jockey Calvin Borel) wins the 136th Kentucky Derby by 2-1/2 lengths
over Ice Box, becoming the first win for trainer Todd Pletcher after a record
24 failures.
On May 1 (evening) after Sengalese Muslim vendor Alioune Niass alerts them, police
find a smoking defective propane car bomb in a Nissan Pathfinder in Times Square set by the
Times Square Bomber
in New York City near Comedy Central, causing them to evacuate thousands; the
Pakistani Taliban claims responsibility on the Internet as revenge for the killing
of leaders al-Baghdadi and al-Mahajer "and Muslim martyrs"; the feds investigate
possibile connections to the
South
Park case, then on May 3 night arrest Pakistani-born Am. Muslim
Faisal
Shahzad 1979-) of Shelton, Conn. at JFK Airport after tracing a discarded disposable
cell phone, causing U.S. atty-gen. Eric Holder to announce "It was clear that the
intent behind this terrorist act was to kill Americans"; he had just returned from
a trip to Pakistan; U.S. Customs officer
Daniel
Donohue becomes a hero for finding Shahzad's name in time to stop his flight;
on May 4 (morning) Pres. Obama gives a
news conference,
calling the incident a "sobering reminder of the times in which we live" and
vowing that Americans "will not cower in fear"; the fact that he just spent 5 mo.
in Pakistan causes the investigation to be
expanded
there, followed by several
arrests,
incl. former army maj.
Adnan
Ahmad, who is released on May 31; Shahzad is
Mirandized,
renewing the debate on Mirandizing terrorism suspects; despite attempts by the
major media to downplay
his Muslim religion, claiming that a home repossession triggered the jihad, etc.,
Conn. Sen. Joe Lieberman
calls for a new law stripping Americans found to be involved in a foreign terrorist
org. of their citizenship rights and shipping them to Guantanamo Bay; on May 7 U.S.
Gen. David
Petraeus says that Shahzad was a "lone wolf" with no connection to other terrorists
despite his claiming to have attended a terrorist training camp; on May 9 Holder
finally announces that
the Pakistani Taliban is behind the bombing attempt, and "probably helped finance it";
on May 13 federal agents
arrest
two people involved in funneling money into the U.S. to pay for the truck and bomb
materials; on June 21 Shahzad
pleads guilty
and brags about receiving 6 mo. of training in Pakistan, saying that he is a "Muslim soldier",
and would plead guilty "100 times over" until the U.S. pulls its troops out of Afghanistan
and Iraq and stops drone attacks that are "terrorizing the Muslim nations and the Muslim
people".
On May 1 the 2010 U.S. Commission
on Internat. Religious Freedom Report concludes that Pres. Obama is failing
to talk about or fight for religious freedom around the world, incl. Nigeria.
On May 1-2 a
Gallup Poll
reveals that 9 out of 10 Americans want the U.S. govt. to secure the U.S.-Mexico
border this year.
On May 1-Oct. 31 the
2010 World Expo
is held in Shanghai, China, receiving 70M visitors while featuring an online
version called
Expo Shanghai Online.
On May 2 drug-related violence kills 25 in the state of
Chihuahua
near the U.S.-Mexico border; on May 4 the Mexican govt.
says that the
drug war that has already killed 23K could rage until 2014; meanwhile on May 4
U.S. homeland security secy.
Janet
Napolitano admits that the U.S.-Mexico border is not as secure as it could be,
but praises the Obama admin. for an "absolute laserlike focus on that border".
On May 2 Jewish-Am. Repub. Hawaii gov. (2002-)
Linda Lingle (1953-)
states that Pres. Obama was born in
Kapi'olani Hospital in Honolulu.
On May 3 the U.S. govt.
releases
its classified statistics about the total size of the U.S. nuclear arsenal
for the first time: 5,113 warheads.
On May 3-28 the 189 signatories to the 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
meet at the U.N. in New York City; on May 3 Iranian pres.
Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad attends, claiming that the U.S. has failed its obligations, started
a global nuclear arms race, and dismissing the prospect of "nuclear terrorism",
causing the U.S., Britain and France to walk out; later U.S. state secy.
Hillary
Clinton gives a speech, dissing Iran for disregarding the treaty;
U.N. secy.-gen. Ban Ki-moon utters the soundbyte that "the onus is on Iran" to
prove it's not building nukes;
Egypt calls
for a Middle East nuclear-free zone that incl. Israel; meanwhile
David
Hale, deputy of U.S. Middle Envoy envoy George Mitchell tells Palestinian
pres. Mahmoud Abbas that if there is "significantly provocative settlement
activity" in E Jerusalem et al., the U.S. might allow U.N. Security Council
resolutions condemning Israel to pass for the first time ever.
On May 3 the
U.S.
Supreme Court announces that it will close the 44 marble steps and bronze
doors to its great hall for the first time due to security concerns.
On May 3 former CIA dir.
James
R. Woolsey says that the likelihood that Iran will have a nuke in a year or
less is "extremely high".
On May 3 Pres. Obama sends a
letter
to Congress calling Syrian support for terrorist orgs. "a continuing unusual
and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy and economy
of the United States", renewing the economic sanctions begun in 2003.
On May 4 protests are held in Paris against Islamic persecution of women working
in the oil city of
Hassi Messaoud,
where the imams incite violence against them as hos just for being independent,
cuasing them to be robbed, beaten, raped and tortured.
On May 3 Venezuelan foreign minister
Nicolas Naduro
addresses the 12-member Union of South Am. Nations in Buenos Aires, dissing the
Ariz. "papers please" law, saying that it should be repealed and that the U.S.
should give up its "old habits of racism".
On May 4-5 North Korean leader
Kim Jong-il
visits Beijing; neither country admits to the visit.
On May 5 attends a
Cinco
de Mayo celebration, calling for immigration reform work to begin this year,
incl. holding employers responsible for hiring illegals and making them pay for
citizenship; meanwhile at
Live
Oak H.S. in Calif., asst. principal Miguel Rodriguez makes two students remove
U.S. flag bandannas and turn t-shirts with U.S. flags on them inside-out, calling
them "incendiary", while allowing other students to wear Mexican flags.
On May 6 the news of the Greek crisis causes the
Dow Jones Industrial Avg.
to plummet 998 points before rebounding by nearly 400 points, closing at 10,520.32.
On May 6 elections in
Britain
result in a hung Parliament although Conservatives make some gains; Labour
comes in 2nd, and the Liberal Dems. 3rd; Labour candidates
Shabana Mahmood,
Rushanara Ali (1975-), and
Yasmin Qureshi (1963-)
become the first British female Muslim and Asian MPs; on May 10 Gordon Brown
announces his intentions of resigning as MP in favor of Conservative
David William Donald Cameron
(1966-), who heads a coalition govt. with the Liberal Dems. headed by
Nicholas William Peter "Nick" Clegg
(1967-); on May 13
George Gideon Oliver Osborne
(1971-) becomes chancellor (until ?); English Muslim baroness
Sayeeda Hussain Warsi
(1971-) is promoted to chmn. of the Conservative Party, and on May 12 she
is appointed to Cameron's cabinet as minister without portfolio (first Muslim woman),
causing radical Islamist
Anjem
Choudary (1967-) (leader of the banned group Islam4UK) to comment "She may
look like a Muslim and have a Muslim-sounding name but she does not represent Islam
or anyone in this country who is a Muslim... She is a coconut, brown on the outside
but white on the inside. In fact, she is whiter than most of the other white people
in government. How can she be a Muslim and support the military involvement of the
British Army in Islamic countries?"; on May 13 Pres. Obama
announces
that Cameron is committed to continuing British assistance in the battle against
terrorism in Afghanistan for the long term.
On May 6 U.S. House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi
tells the Catholic Community Conference on Capitol Hill to speak from the
pulpit for immigration reform and tell the faithful that reform "is a manifestation
of our living the gospels", adding "We can't say to people, 12 million of you,
go bck to whever you came from or go to jail"; on May 13 she
calls for a "path to
legalization" for illegal aliens now in the U.S.
On May 7
Turkey
passes a series of constitutional amendments giving the Islamic part of the govt.
more power over the mainly secular judiciary.
On May 7 the PLO
announces that it accepts indirect peace talks with Israel, with U.S. Middle East
envoy George Mitchell acting as broker, becoming the first time since talks were
broken off after the offensive against Hamas in Gaza in 2008.
On May 7
foreign
domain names are launched on the Internet, incl. Arabic.
On May 7 stone-throwing Palestinians attack Israel soldiers in
Nabi
Saleh near Ramallah in the West Bank, setting fire to a historic Jewish cemetery.
On May 7 due to the Times Square Bomber, U.S. Afghan military cmdr.
Stanley
A. McChrystal meets with Pakistani military chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and
urges him to speed up their offensive against the Pakistani Taliban and al-Qaida in
North Wazaristan; meanwhile on May 8 Pakistan
announces
the test-firing of two nuclear-capable ballistic missiles, the Shaheen-1 (range 400 mi.),
and the Ghazvani (range 180 mi.).
On May 7 Islamic terrorists explode a bomb on a train station platform in
Derbent,
Dagestan, S Russia, killing one and injuring five.
On May 8 two explosing rip through Russia's largest underground coal mine
in Kemerovo,
killing 12, injuring 58, and trapping 83.
On May 8 Mexico extradites
Mario
Villanueva, former gov. (1993-9) of the Mexican state of Quintana Roo
to the U.S. to face charges of helping a cartel smuggle cocaine through
Cancun, becoming the first former Mexican state govt. to be extradited to
the U.S. on drug charges.
On May 8 the secret
Trilateral
Commission meets in Dublin, Ireland, causing enemies of a 1-world govt.
to go nonlinear again.
On May 9 a massive
Red
Square Military Parade (biggest since the collapse of the Soviet Union)
marks the 65th anniv. of the defeat of Nazi Germany after losing 27M people,
becoming the first time that soldiers from four NATO countries incl. China
and the U.S. are allowed to take part, joining 10K Russian troops; the new
Russian Mi-28 Havoc attack heli
(test-flown in Jan. 1988), their answer to the U.S. Apache is rolled out, along with the
Ka-52 Alligator gunship;
meanwhile on May 9 U.S. defense secy.
Robert Gates
complains that increasing health care costs, big-ticket weapons system, and a
top-heavy mgt. force require the Pentagon to make tough choices to hold down
spending despite angering "powerful people", and has ordered the Pentagon to
shave off 2%-3% from their $550B budget.
On May 9 Pres. Obama speaks at historically black
Hampton
U. in Va. (founded 1868), saying that giving all Americans access to education
is the responsibility of all Americans, "to offer every single child in this
country an education that will make them competitive in our knowledge economy";
he then disses modern info technology, incl. iPods, iPas, Xboxes and PlayStations
as "a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment rather than a tool of
empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation".
On May 9 Iran hangs
five members of the "anti-revolutionary" Kurdish Party of Free Life for Kurdistan
(PJAK) on charges incl. "waging war against God" (moharebe).
On May 10 Pres. Obama nominates U.S. solicitor gen. (first female dean of
Harvard Law School, who's never been a judge) (Jewish) (closet lesbian?)
Elena
Kagan (1960-)
for the U.S. Supreme Court, calling her a "trailblazing lady" who was admired
"across the ideological spectrum", and is known for a "habit of understanding
before disagreeing"; she is known for the soundbyte "Someone suspected of helping
finance al-Qaida should be subject to battlefield law - indefinite detention
without a trial - even if he were captured in a place like the Philippines rather
than a physical battle zone"; at Harvard she accepted a
$20M
gift from the Saudi royal family to establish a center for Islamic studies,
incl. horrible Sharia law.
On May 10 the G20 unleashes its $957B
Shock and Awe Rescue Plan,
causing a spectacular rally in Euro stocks and bonds, the biggest 1-day rise in
17 mo., reversing panic selling the week before.
On May 10
Benigno
Aquino III is elected pres. of the Philippines (until ?).
On May 10 the Obama admin. changes a 76-y.-o. rule on
union elections,
making it easier for them organize workers at U.S. airlines and railroads.
On May 10 insurgent attacks across
Iraq
kill 84+.
On May 10
Fahim
Ahmad, ringleader of the Toronto 18 suddenly reverses his plea to gilty
in the first terrorism case in Canada to be decided by a jury.
On May 10 British man
Paul
Chambers (1984-) is convicted of sending a menacing message over
Twitter for texting that if his flight was delayed by snow he would blow
up an airport; that he was joking didn't matter to mean judge Jonathan Bennett.
On May 10 Bangladeshi-born Muslim
Mohammed
Miah (1981-) allegedly kills a swan for food on the Great Ouse River in
Bedford, England, breaking an ancient English law that all of Britain's 30K
wild swans belong to the monarch, and is charged.
On May 11 a U.S. drone strike against the
Tehrik-e-Taliban
in North Waziristan (linked to Times Square Bomber Faisal Shahzad) kills 14 militants.
On May 11 a bug on
Twitter.com
allows users to force other users to follow them, especially celebs like Oprah,
Lad Gaga, Conan O'Brien, Perez Hilton, Justin Bieber, Barack Obama, and Britney Spears.
On May 11 First Lady Michelle Obama unveils a 120-page
White
House Task Force Report on Solving Childhood Obesity, with the goal of
returning the childhood obsesity rate to 5% by 2030, same as in the 1970s.
On May 12 (8:20 a.m.)
Wu
Huanming (b. 1962) charges into Shengshui Temple Kindergarten in Hanzhong, C China
with a cleaver and hacks seven children and two adults to death, then goes home
and kills himself; the 5th school rampage in less than 2 mo.
On May 12 a
Libyan Afriqiyah Airways
(Airbus A330-200) en route from Johannesburg crashes while trying to land at Tripoli
airport, killing 103, incl. Dutch passengers; an 8-y.-o. Dutch boy is the only survivor;
the aircraft is the same type as Air France Flight 447, which crashed in the Atlantic
on June 1, 2009.
On May 12 a NATO tanker carrying fuel for troops in
Spin
Boldak in S Afghanistan is blown up by a planted bomb.
On May 12 the govt. of
Yemen
announces that it refuses to extradite U.S.-born jihadist cleric Anwar al-Awlaki,
saying he will be tried in the Arabian Peninsula when captured.
On May 12 Pres. Obama and Afghan pres. Hamid Karzai make a joint appearance
at the White House, and Obama
says
that U.S. military action in Afghanistan and the surrounding region is
"in our national security interests" because of recent terrorist plots
in the U.S. that have ties to the region, while seeming open to the idea of
negotiating
and reconciling with elements of the Taliban; on May 13 U.S. state secy.
Hillary
Clinton vows that despite Karzai's plan to reintroduce Taliban extremists
into society, the U.S. will not abandon the women of Afghanistan to Sharia.
On May 12 U.N. officials reveal that up to one-third of the
Afghanistan poppy
harvest has been destroyed by a mysterious disease, implicating the U.S. and
NATO summer offensives.
On May 13 renegade Thai gen.
Khattiya
Sawatdiphol (Seh Daeng) (b. 1951) is shot in Bangkok during an anti-govt.
demonstration; the govt. calls him the main obstacle to a compromise plan to
end a 2-mo. sit-in in exchange for a Nov. election.
On May 13 Afghan and NATO forces kill 18 militants in
Helmand
province in S Afghanistan.
On May 13 the Obama admin. announces that the U.S. will join the U.N.-backed
Alliance
of Civilizations (founded 2005) to ease strains between the West and Islam;
the Bush admin. boycotted it for its anti-Israel and anti-West positions, and
connections with the Org. of the Islamic Conference (OIC).
On May 13
China
announces a deal to sell nuclear reactors to Pakistan to compensate for a
U.S.-India nuclear deal, despite Pakistan never signing the Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty, leaving the U.S. with the decision whether to come out against it or
keep trying to gain Chinese help against Iran's nuclear program.
On May 13 U.S. atty. gen.
Eric Holder
testifies before the House Judiciary Commitee, waffling about an answer as to whether
radical Islam was a motivating factor for the recent radical Islamic attacks on U.S.
soil, incl. the Xmas Condom Bomber and the Times Square Bomber.
On May 13
Emirates
Palace in UAE installs a gold-covered vending machine that dispenses gold bars
up to 10g each.
On May 14 Russia
announces deals
with Syria to sell them warplanes, anti-tank weapons, and air defense systems; at
least their 2nd rate compared to U.S. models which they are prohibited from buying?
On May 14 three suicide bombers at a sports field during a soccer game in the
Shiite town of
Tal
Afar in N Iraq kills 10+ and wounds 120.
On May 14 after leaders Abu Ayyub al-Masri (Abu Hamza al-Muhajir) and Abu Omar
al-Baghdadi are killed, an al-Qaida group in Iraq names new war minister
al-Nasser Lideen
Allah Abu Suleiman, and threatens Shiites with "dark days covered in blood";
meanwhile the
Pakistani Taliban
repeats their claim of responsibility for the Times Square Bombing, and warns
the U.S. that it will soon "burn", while calling for the overthrow of the govt.
of Pakistan for following "America's agenda".
On May 14
Sarah
Palin keynotes the Celebration of Life Breakfast of the Susan B. Anthony List
in Washington, D.C., saying that an "emerging feminist coalition" will produce
a "better America in this exceptional country" after the Nov. elections, harkening
back to the feminism of the Am. West frontier days.
On May 15 a spokesman for radical anti-U.S. cleric
Moqtada
al-Sadr announces that he won't keep Iraqi PM Nuri al-Maliki from keeping his
job despite his not meeting a demand to release 2K of his followers; meanwhile
former PM Iyad Allawi says that if violence continues in Iraq, civil war looms.
On May 15 the Sudanese army seizes control of a key Justice and Equality Movement
base in Jebel
Moun in W Darfur, Sudan after killing 100+ and capturing 61.
On May 15 former Mexican pres. candidate
Diego
Fernandez de Cevallos is reported missing after his car is found near his
ranch in Queretaro state along with "signs of violence".
On May 16 Arab-Am. Shiite Muslim
Rima
Fakih (1986-) of Dearborn, Mich. wins the Miss USA pageant in Las Vegas,
becoming the 2nd Muslim winner (first in 1983); judge
Oscar
Nunez tries to sink blonde-blue Miss Oklahoma Morgan Elizabeth Woolard with a
question about the new Ariz. immigration law, causing the crowd to boo her, and
causing many to think it prejudiced him against her and that she would have won
otherwise; criticism of the winner as "Miss Hezbollah" are soon shot down when the
real one disses her for her immodest dress etc. - oh how Donald Trump loves
that Saudi oil money?
On May 16 the Israeli govt. denies entry to leftist Jewish-Am. brain man
Noam
Chomsky at the Allenby Bridge border crossing in the Jordan Valley, then
admits that it made a mistake after checking on his background which incl.
opposition to the Palestinian right of return and a 1-state solution.
On May 16
Mary
Glasspool (1954-) of Baltimore, Md. is ordained in Long Beach, Calif.
as the Episcopal Church's 2nd openly gay bishop, following Gene Robinson of
N.H. in 2003.
On May 16-18 the
4th Internat. Conference
on Climate Change in Chicago, Ill. questions the extend of manmade global warming.
On May 17 Iran signs a
surprise
nuclear fuel swap deal with Western nations, brokered by Brazil and Turkey
(who secretly want to go nuclear along with them?), the first since 2004,
alleviating concerns that they're secretly building nukes, but not really,
since the deal involves only 50% of their enriched uranium stockpile,
while they continue to run the centrifuges; on May 18 the U.S. submits a
draft
Iranian sanctions resolution to the U.N. Security Council, targeting the
Rev. Guards, causing Iranian foreign minister
Manouchehr Mottaki
to tell the press "There is no chance for a new resolution", adding "A couple of
the members of the Security Council have come up with a new recipe in the kitchen.
It seems that this new dish they have prepared is not being given to the guests in
a timely manner, and the guests have already had their lunch"; on June 21
Brazil
announces that it is partially backing out of the Iran deal; meanwhile Congress
pushes for
unilateral gasoline sanctions.
On May 17 a Pamir Airways
local plane with 38 passengers and five crew crashes in the Hindu Kush region of
Afghanistan near Kabul, killing all aboard.
On May 17 the U.S. Supreme Court rules 5-4 in
Terrance
Jamar Graham vs. Fla. that juveniles (younger than 18) may not be sentenced to
life without parole unless guilty of homicide, expanding on their 2005 decision
that they can't be executed, saying that these practices have been "rejected the
world over" - except in Sharia countries?
On May 17 the U.S. Supreme Court rules 7-2 in
? v. ?
that federal officials can indefinitely hold inmates labelled "sexually dangerous"
even after their prison terms are served.
On May 17 Pres. Obama's aunt (Barack Sr.'s half-sister)
Zeituni Onyango (1953-),
who ended up in rundown public housing in South Boston, applied for asylum in 2002,
was rejected in 2004 and ordered to leave the U.S., but stayed illegally, until
Obama's election changed things in her favor enormously, while he kept her at arms
length and disavowed intervening in her situation, is granted asylum by an
immigration asylum, with the possibility of citizenship in six years.
On May 17 most of the police force of
La
Union, Guerrero, Mexico quit after armed gunmen ambush and wound two officers.
On May 17 the U.S. Supreme Court in
? v ?
cites the U.N. Child's Rights Treaty, which was never adopted by the U.S. as relevant
to its decision on a case, becoming a new low?
On May 18 a suicide bomber in a Toyota minivan explodes in a Nato convoy in
Kabul,
Afghanistan, killing 18 incl. five U.S. soldiers and one Canadian soldier,
and wounding 47, mostly civilians in rush-hour traffic; on May 18 a brazen
pre-dawn attack on
Bagram Air Base
in Afghanistan N of Kabul kill seven Islamic guerrillas and wounds six foreign
troops; the U.S. death toll in Operation Enduring Freedom tops the 1K mark.
On May 18 Pres. Obama visits steel tubular goods manufacturer
V&M
Star in C Ohio, telling them that without his economic stimulus package the
U.S. would be in a "deeper world of hurt", claiming the U.S. economy has begun
generating jobs again despite "unified, determined opposition of one party".
On May 18 a Pakistani Taliban attack in the NW town of
Dera
Ismail Khan kills 12, incl. a senior police officer they targeted.
On May 18
Baghdad
announces that it will enclose the city with a 15-ft. wall to keep suicide
bombers out, and is already constructing eight gateways.
On May 18 a new
U.S.
Senate Report on the Christmas Condom Bomber blames nearly every facet of
the U.S. intel community for failing to connect the dots and stop him, causing
nat. intel dir.
Dennis C. Blair
to resign on May 20, which House intel committee ranking Repub. Pete Hoekstra
of Mich. calls "the result of the Obama admin.'s rampant politicization of
national security and outright disregard for congressional intelligence oversight."
On May 18 (Tue.)
U.S. elections
go against the Dems. and Repubs., defeating 30-year Repub.-turned-Dem. Sen. Arlen Spector
and electing Tea Party candidate Rand Paul (son of Ron Paul) in Ky.
On May 18 (night)
Sarah
Ferguson, Duchess of York (1960-) is filmed taking a £27K ($40K) downpayment
on a £500K bribe from an undercover News of the World reporter to grant access
to her trade envoy ex-hubby Prince Andrew
On May 19 200+ Pakistani Taliban fighters attack a security post in
Orakzai
in NW Pakistan, killing 40 militants and two Pakistani soldiers; meanwhile
Pres. Obama
sends
his top nat. security advisers to Pakistan to reiterate the importance of cracking
down on terrorists after the Times Square Bomber incident.
On May 19 Dutch officials announce that terrorism suspect
Abdullah
Azam Saleh al-Qahtani, who was arrested in Iraq made comments leading them
to believe that Islamic terrorists are planning an attack on Dutch or Danish
fans at the World Cup in South Africa.
On May 19 after a 6-week occupation of downtown Bangkok, the Royal Thai Army
cruehes the barricades of
Red
Shirt protesters, causing them to retreat and set fire to the stock exchange,
and other bldgs, all causing exiled former PM
Thaksin Shinawatra
to say that this could lead to guerrilla warfare, which causes a Thai court to
order his arrest
on terrorism charges on May 25.
On May 19 Moroccan-born Muslim Kansas City auto parts dealer
Khalid
Ouazzani (1978-) pleads guilty to sending al-Qaida $23.5K in 2007-8; meanwhile
popular Raleigh, N.C. Muslim leader
Mohammed
"Moe" El-Gamal, pres. of the Muslim-Am. Public Affairs Council is arrested
on trrorism charges for exporting computer equipment to Libya.
On May 19
Cyclone
Laila hits Andhra Pradesh, India, killing 23 by May 21.
On May 19-20 Pres. Obama and Mexican pres. Felipe Calderon stage a
U.S.-Mexico Summit
in Washington, D.C. to join in a push for a major overhaul of U.S. immigration
rules, with Obama uttering the soundbyte that they have agreed to work toward
a U.S.-Mexico border that is "modern, secure and efficient" and stops the flow
of "drugs, weapons and cash" (not people?); after saying "In the 21st
century, we are defined not by our borders but by our bonds" and calling the
Ariz. law "a misdirected expression of frustration over our broken immigration
system", and mentioning that his admin. is taking a close look at its civil rights
implications, Obama calls for comprehensive immigration reform but admits that
he needs Repub. support to pass it; on May 20 a partisan Congress
greets
Calderon, who calls for more money to control the gun flow over the border and
a ban on assault rifles, and calling the Arizona Senate Bill 1070 "a law that
not only ignores a reality but also introduces a terrible idea of racial
profiling as the basis for law enforcement", becoming a first as a foreign leaders
slaps Congress in the face and they clap and cheer; on May 20 7-y.o. 2nd grader
Daisy
(of Peruvian descent)
makes nat. news by telling First Lady Michelle Obama that her hubby is "taking
everybody away that doesn't have papers", and that her mother doesn't have any,
after which the govt. says it won't deport them, and she asks to visit the White
House; on May 25 Pres. Obama announces that he's requesting $500M to send
1.2K
Nat. Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border (about 1/2 troop per mi.).
On May 20 the U.S. Senate passes a sweeping
Wall St. Reform Bill
by 59-39, requiring it to be reconciled with the House version.
On May 20 Iranian pres. Imadinnajacket's chief of staff
Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei
utters the soundbyte "If the Zionist regime attacks Iran, the Zionists will
have no longer than a week to live."
On May 20 German foreign minister Guido Westerwell meets with Google co-founder
Larry Page
over its Street View service and its threat to data privacy; meanwhile
Google announces its new
Google
TV platform to bring "the Web to your TV and your TV to the Web".
On May 20 (evening) two Taliban militants blow themsevles up in
North
Waziristan to kill two men they believe are U.S. spies.
On May 21 after mo. of controversy the
Texas
State Board of Education by 9-5 approves new U.S. history curriculum standards
with a conservative Christian emphasis, which will end up being taught in other
states because nat. textbook publishers tailor their materials to big purchaser Texas.
On May 21 a U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security
document
is pub. saying that "the number and pace of attempted attacks against the United
States over the past nine months have surpassed the number of attempts during any
other previous one-year period."
On May 21 (evening) an al-Qaida in Iraq suicide bomber in a pickup truck
explodes in a commercial strip in the Shiite town of
Khalis
in Diyala province N of Baghdad, killing 21+ and wounding 50+ after
the roof of a cafe collapses and other catch fire, burning victims.
On May 21 Spanish matador
Julio
Aparicio slips while doing the faena (series of passes with cape and
sword prior to the estocada or death blow) on 1.1K-lb. bull Opiparo at the
Feria de San Isidor bullfighting event in Las Ventanas, Spain, and the
bull sticks his horn through his jaw, tongue and roof of his mouth,
leaving him in critical condition.
On May 22 (dawn) an
Air
India Express (Boeing 737) arriving from Dubai overshoots the runway
and crashes while trying to land in the rain at a tricky hilltop airport
in Mangalore in S India, killing 159 of 166.
On May 22 Pres. Obama delivers a commencement address at
West
Point Academy, pledging to shape a "new international order" based on
diplomacy and engagement rather than Pres. Bush's policy of preemtive war.
On May 22 (8 p.m.) Taliban fighters launch a ground assault against
Kandahar
Air Field 300 mi. SW of Kabul in S Afghanistan, wounding several coalition
troops and civilian employees, becoming the 2nd attack on a major military
installation this week.
On May 22
Charles Djou
becomes the first Repub. member of Congress for Hawaii in 20 years.
On May 23 Sicilian
Maria
Vittoria Longhitano (1975-) becomes the first Roman Catholic woman to be
ordained in Italy, by the breakaway Old Catholic church, which broke with the
RCC in the 19th cent. over papal infallibility, and is in full communion with
the Anglicans.
On May 24 Pres. Obama
orders
the U.S. military to coordinate with South Korea to "ensure readiness" for possible
aggression by North Korea; on May 25 North Korea
severs
all ties with South Korea as tensions soar; on May 26 U.S. state secy. Hillary
Clinton leaves Beijing after two days and arrives in Seoul in a show of support.
On May 24 Pres. Obama asks Congress for a new version of the
line-item
veto so he can slice pork projects from spending bills.
On May 24 Iran hangs
Abdolhamid Rigi,
brother of Pakistan-based terrorist group Jundallah's chief
Abdolmalek
Rigi, who is hanged on June 20.
On May 25 Pres. Obama meets with
small
business owners in the White House, calling himself a "fierce advocate"
for them, and calls on Congress to approve incentives for them.
On May 25 gunmen rob a
row of goldsmiths
in Baghdad in broad daylight, making off with gold and cash after killing 14.
On May 25
Kamla
Persad-Bissessar is elected as the first female PM of Trinidad and Tobago
(until ?), leading a 5-party coalition.
On May 25 Cancun mayor
Gregorio Sanchez
is arrested by Mexican federal police on drug and organized crime charges
while on a leave of absence to run for gov. of Quintana Roo state.
On May 26 Iran clashes
with Russia over its support of draft U.N. sanctions against it, becoming one
of their worst clashes since the Cold War.
On May 26 the
Red Cross
admits to giving first aid kits and basic training to the Taliban.
On May 26 New York City approves the controversial
Ground
Zero Mosque despite it being what amounts to a victory flag and
come-follow signal for Sharia-loving Islamic jihadists.
On May 26 the Dow Jones Industrial Avg. closes under 1K for the first time
since Feb. 8, falling 69 (0.7%) to 9,974.
On May 27 the Obama admin. pub. its first formal
Declaration of
Nat. Security Goals,
which break with the Bush policy and formalize Obama's new folly, er, approach
that the U.S. is not at war with Islam, only al-Qaida and affiliates, and
incl. the soundbyte "The burdens of a young century cannot fall on American
shoulders alone. Indeed, our adversaries would like to see America sap our
strength by overextending our power"; for the first time
homegrown
terrorists will be targeted; the report's main author if deputy nat.
security advisor Ben Rhodes.
On May 27
Apple
passes Microsoft as the world's largest tech co. by market capitalization.
On May 27 the misnamed
Gaza Freedom Flotilla
of six cargo ships (three flying Turkish flags, incl.
Mavi
Marmara, carrying 400 Turks who are members of the Islamic terrorist
Humanitarian Relief Foundation or IHH) carrying
10 tons of humanitarian aid incl. bldg. materials and medical supplies sets sail from Cyprus
for the Gaza Strip in a symbolic attempt by 680 Muslim and non-Muslim activists from 50 countries
to break the 3-year Israeli blockade by refusing to stop at an Israel port for inspection
and trucking of supplies by Israel into Gaza like is done every week with 10K tons of food
and other supplies; Pres. Obama's associates Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn
are closely associated with the Free Gaza Movement; some activists
chant Intifada songs, chant the
Islamic battle cry
"Khaibar, Khaibar, oh Jews, the army of Muhammad will return", and praise
martyrdom before departure; on May 31 (U.S. Memorial Day) (pre-dawn hours
of June 1 in Israel) the Israeli military
boards
the flotilla 75 mi. from the coast, initially carrying only paintball guns, then
meeting violent resistance, the Turkish jihadists taking four Israeli marines
hostage before other armed commandos storm aboard, killing nine activists and wounding 60+,
all on the Mavi Marmara,
while getting two Israeli commandos wounded while trying to board, then tows it to
Ashdod, later releasing the activists accused of attacking Israeli troops after an
internat. outcry; causing Israeli PM
Benjamin Netanyahu
to express regret and cancel a planned trip to the White House, later uttering the
soundbyte "The state of Israel faces an attack of international hypocrisy... it is
our right and obligation to prevent arms from reaching Gaza. This was not a Love Boat,
it was a Hate Boat"; Obama calls the raid "a tragic situation", adding "You've got a
loss of life that was unnecessary", calling for an "effective investigation";
on May 31 10K march in
Istanbul, Turkey
to denounce Israel, along with other demonstrations in London, Athens, etc.; in London
800 protesters attempt to storm
BBC Manchester;
a women's rally near the Qalandiya Checkpoint
between Rammalah and Jerusalem sees Am. journalist
Emily Henochowicz
loses an eye after being shot with a tear gas canister by Israeli border guards;
Turkey
threatens action against Israel, putting it on alert;
meanwhile on May 31 the U.N. Security Council
holds
an emergency meeting to discuss the Israeli raid, while Israeli foreign minister
Avigdor Liberman
claims that the flotilla organizers wanted blood to be shed, saying "Everything proves
that it was a group of terrorists who want to promote terror and cooperate with terror";
Arab-Israeli Knesset member
Hanib
Zoabi, who is aboard the Mavi Marmara calls the IDF operation "criminal";
on June 2 Israeli forces find
1M Euros on one
of the ships, intended for use by Hamas, along with a
weapons
cache; on June 2 pro-Palestinian activists send another boat, the Irish-flagged
Rachel
Corrie to challenge the Israeli blockade, while
Egypt opens
a temporary crossing into Palestinian territory, causing thousands of Gazans
to flock to it hoping to escape; on June 2 Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah
Ali
Khamenei calls for Israel's PM and defense minister to face trial for the raid;
on June 2 two rockets are fired from Gaza Strip by the
Islamic Jihad, causing
a retaliatory Israeli air strike that kills five; on June 2 after warning
Israel not to cause an incident, the Obama admin. sides with the flotilla, and
announces
that it considers the Israeli blockade of Gaza to be "untenable"; Turkish-born
Furkan
Dogan (b. 1990) is found among the dead activists, with four bullets
in his head and one in his chest, all at close range, causing the Israelis
to backpeddle; on June 5 after Irish Nobel Peace Prize winner
Mairead
McGuire says that the activsts are prepared to be arrested, the IDF
intercept the Rachel Corrie 35 mi. W of Gaza and escort it to Ashdod
without incident; this time the U.S.
warns
the flotilla not to cause an incident; on June 5
Arab foreign
ministers meet in Cairo go discuss the flotillas, and decide to "break
the Israeli siege imposed on Gaza", "in any legitimate way", incl. "resistance"
(violence); on June 6 Iranian supreme assashollah Ali Khamenei offers the
Iranian
Rev. Guards to escort future cargo ships to break the blockade; on June 7
the Israeli Navy kills six
Palestinian
divers, claiming they are terrorists; meanwhle on June 7 Global Muslim Brotherhood
leader Youssef Qaradawi warns Israel of Allah's
impending warath for having "killed God's prophets"; on June 9 48 trucks with
the cargo of the Freedom Flotilla is still waiting at
Kerem Shalom
crossing after Hamas refuses to accept it, and on June 17 the U.N.
agrees to
oversee the transfer; on June 11 Turkish pres.
Abdullah Gul
says that Israel must apologize and compensate the Turkish victims or it
might sever diplomatic relations; on June 14 Israel assembles a
investigative
commission; on June 15 the
Internat. Committee of the Red Cross
(ICRC) calls Israel's Gaza Strip blockade "collective punishment" and
a violation of the Geneva Conventions; on June 17 Syrian pres.
Bashar al-Assad
says that the Israeli attack on the flotilla has increased the chances of war
in the Middle East, and that the current Israeli admin. is a "pyromaniac" govt;
on June 19 the
Israeli
cabinet bows to pressure and eases restrictions on Gaza Strip, reserving
the right to inspect for military items; on June 20 Israel gives preliminary
plans for razing Palestinian homes in
E
Jerusalem as a prelude to building Israeli homes, pissing off the Obama admin. again.
On May 27 the U.S. House by 234-194 (incl. 5 Repubs.)
votes
to let the Defense Dept. repeal their 1993 "don't ask don't tell" policy.
On May 27 Pres. Obama hosts the first-ever White House (East Room) reception to mark
Jewish
Heritage Month; after being outed a videocam by Rabbi
David Nesenoff,
Lebanese-descent Arab-Am. veteran White House reporter
Helen
Thomas (1920-) (AKA the Sitting Buddha, who covered every U.S. pres. since JFK
and has her own reserved seat in the White House press room) stinks herself up with
remarks that the Jews should "get the hell out of Palestine" and return to Europe,
causing the Repubs. to try to get her fired from Hearst Newspapers; on June 5 she
apologizes, which doesn't stop her agency
Nine
Speaker Inc. from dumping her; on June 7 after the White blasts her remarks as
"offensive and reprehensible" she announces her retirement.
On May 28 two minority
Ahmadiyya
Muslim sect mosques in Lahore, Pakistan are hit by Muslim
suicide bombers, killing 80 and wounding 110+.
On May 28 10K-20K from around the U.S. march in
Phoenix,
Ariz. for and against the Ariz. immigation law.
On May 28
Zakir Naik
gives a public speech in Maldives renouncing Islam; too bad, after being
arrested and threatened with death he claims to revert to Islam.
On May 29 a
grand
council (jirga) of Afghans meets in Kabul, where the Afghan govt. offers
Taliban leaders exile overseas if they agree to stop fighting, along with
"de-radicalization" classes and thousands of new jobs for militants who renounce
violence.
On May 29 (4:00 p.m.) after snubbing Arlington Cemetery Memorial Day ceremonies
for his hometown of Chicago, Pres. Obama visits the home of friend
Marty
Nesbitt for a backyard cookout, but since his house is across the street from Nation
of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, there is a confrontation between the Secret
Service and Farrakhan's guard called the Fruit of Islam.
On May 29-30
Tropical Storm Agatha
in Central Am. kills 175 in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador;
Guatemala evacuates 112K and puts 29K into temp shelters; a giant sinkhole
opens up in Guatemala City after a landslide.
On May 30
Israel
announces that it is deploying three German-built subs in the Persian Gulf
near the Iranian coastline to intercept missiles.
On May 30 Turkish PM Recept Tayyip Erodgan
cancels
the Argentina leg of his Latin Am. tour after officials in Buenos Aires
call off an event inaugurating a monument to Turkish secular hero Kemal Ataturk,
blaming it on Armenian pressure over the 1915 genocide thang.
On May 30 U.S. gen.
Stanley
A. McChrystal says that Afghan insurgents are being trained and equipped
inside Iran.
On May 31 Pres. Obama's
Memorial
Day Address is rained out; vice-pres. Biden delivers his address at
Arlington Nat. Cemetery in sunny weather.
On May 31
World
No Tobacco Day is sponsored by the Am. Lung Assoc. and WHO.
On May 31 German pres. Horst Kohler announces his surprise
resignation
after suggesting that the country's mission in Afghanistan is partly
motivated by commercial concerns.
On May 31 the Mexican govt. removes the skulls and bones of a dozen historical
figures incl. Father Miguel Hidalgo from the
Angel
of Independence monument in Mexico City as part of Mexico's bicentennial celebration.
On May 31 the
Internat.
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) pub. a report claiming that Iran has enough
nuclear fuel to turn into two nuclear bombs after more refining.
On May 31 #3 al-Qaida leader
Mustafa
Abu al-Yazid (Osama bin Laden's brother-in-law) (an Egyptian) is reported
to have been killed in Pakistan by a U.S. missile strike.
On May 31 a judge in Mexico charges former "Survivor" producer
Bruce
Beresford-Redman with the murder of his wife during a vacation in Cancun.
On May 31 Pope Benedict XVI
appoints
a high profile team of bishops incl. the archbishop of New York to investigate
sexual abuse in Irish dioceses and seminaries.
On June 1 the U.S. debt reaches $13T.
On June 1 three gunmen attack a hospital in
Lahore, Pakistan,
killing eight then taking several hostages.
On June 1 the U.S. Supreme court by 5-4 rules in
Van
Chester Thompkins Jr.
that criminal suspects must explicitly invoke their right to remain silent
to force police to stop questioning; new justice Sonia Sotomayor dissents,
saying "Today's decision turns Miranda upside down. Criminal suspects must now
unambiguously invoke their right to remain silent - which, counterintuitively,
requires them to speak."
On June 1
Al
Gore announces that he will separate from his wife of 40 years
Tipper Gore.
On June 1 a WWII bomb explodes in
Goettingen,
Germany while being defused, killing three.
On June 2 Ala. U.S. Dem. Rep. (since 2003)
Artur Genestre Davis (1967-)
loses his bid to become the first African-Am. Ala. gov., losing
a primary to agriculture commissioner Ron Sparks by 62-38 after
alienating black voters by opposing Obama's health care reform package.
On June 2
Joran
van der Sloot (1989-), prime suspect in the June 2, 2005 disappearance
in Aruba of Ala. teenie Natalee Holloway is named as the main suspect
in the May 30 slaying of 21-y.-o. Stephany Flores in a hotel in Lima, Peru;
on June 7 he confesses to killing Flores after he caught her looking up
ifo. on his Aruba case on his laptop.
On June 2 English taxi driver
Derrick
Bird (b. 1958) shoots 12 random victims at point blank range during
a 3.5-hour spree in Cumbria, then kills himself.
On June 2 ex-Beatle
Sir
Paul McCartney receives the Gershwin Prize from the Library of Congress,
singing "Michelle" to First Lady Michelle Obama, and dissing the intelligence
of ex-pres. George W. Bush, with the soundbyte "It's great to have a
president who knows what a library is", drawing jeers from Repubs.
On June 2 weather forecasters predict that the
2010 Atlantic
Hurricane Season will be more active than in 2009, with 10 hurricanes,
five of them major, and a 76% change that a major hurricane will hit the
U.S. coastline, bringing in all that oil.
On June 3 Japanese PM Yukio Hatoyama
resigns
over his broken campaign promise to move a U.S. Marine base off the southern
island of Okinawa; his resignation was due to
pressure
by Pres. Obama; on June 4
Naoto Kan
becomes Japanese PM #? (until ?).
On June 3 ministers from the U.S. and the EU
promise
to protect the rights of all religions, esp., er, incl. Islam
in the fight against internat. terrorism.
On June 3 Pres. Obama
meets
for a half hour with Ariz. gov. Jan Brewer over their controversial
immigration law, and ease tensions.
On June 3 U.S. Sen.
Jim Webb
cancels a visit to Burma after reports by a high-level defector that the
Burmese military junta is mining uranium and working with North Korea
to develop nukes.
On June 3 Roman Catholic bishop (the pope's apostolic vicar in Anatolia)
Luigi
Padovese is stabbed to death in S Turkey in his house then beheaded
a day before he was scheduled to leave for Cyprus to meet with the pope
by Allah Akbar-shouting Islamic nutcase
Murat
Altun, who claims to have killed him for being homosexual; the govt.
tries to coverup by claiming he has psychological problems and that it
wasn't about Islam.
On June 3 Ohio residents
Hor
I. Akl (1973-) and Amera A. Akl (1973-) (dual citizens of the U.S.
and Lebanon) are arrested on charges of conspiracy to provide money to Hezbollah.
On June 3 Japan deploys the 200 sq. m (2.1K sq. ft.) solar sail
Ikaros
as part of an experiment to test its potential for space propulsion.
On June 3
New
Zealand bans the kosher slaughter of animals, pissing off the Jewish
community.
On June 4 the U.S. govt. announces that 431K new jobs were created in May,
dropping the unemployment rate to 9.7%; too bad, all but 20K of the jobs
were temporary Census jobs.
On June 4 African Union peacekeepers and Somali govt. forces
launch attacks against Islamic insurgent strongholds in N
Mogadishu,
Somalia, killing 17+ and wounding 61+ civilians.
On June 4 Pres. Obama
postpones
a planned trip to Australia and Indonesia to concentrate on the Gulf oil spill.
On June 4 U.S. atty.
Eric Holder
marks the 1st anniv. of Pres. Obama's Cairo Speech by vowing to prosecute
horrible Islamic, er, hate crimes aimed at Muslims, Arabs and Sikhs in the U.S.
On June 4 U.S. defense secy.
Robert
M. Gates has a combative exchange with a Chinese gen. over arms sales to
Taiwan, which caused China to cancel its military-exchange program with the
U.S. earlier in the year, saying that the U.S. is turning China into an enemy.
On June 5 after meeting with Orthodox archbishop Chrysostomos II the
day before, Pope Benedict XVI meets with N Cyprus Muslim Sufi leader Sheik
Mehmet
Nazim Adil (1922-) outside the Vatican embassy in Cyprus to discuss the
Turkish occupation since 1974, becoming the first pope to visit Cyprus,
and uttering the soundbybe that the plight of Christians in the Middle East
should be "a source of concern to all of Christ's followers"; meanwhile on June 6 the Vatican pub.
The
Catholic Church in the Middle East: Communion and Witness, which
criticizes Israel, Egypt, Islam, and even Christian fundamentalists for
using the Bible to justify Israeli occupation of Palestine.
On June 5 Muslim "New Jersey Jihadists"
Mohamed
Mahmoud Alessa (1990-) and Carlos Eduardo Almonte (1986-) are
arrested at JFK Internat. Airport in New York City en route to Somalia
to "wage violent jihad" and commit violent acts in the U.S.
On June 5 a riot in
Srinagar,
Kashmar begins after somebody is spotted with an undergarment allegedly
containing a blasphemous image of the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
On June 6 a car bomb explodes outside a police station in
Al-Amil,
Baghdad, killing six.
On June 6 JCS chmn. Adm.
Mike Mullen
says that al-Qaida in Iraq has been "devastated" by its string of recent setbacks.
On June 6 the new org.
Stop
Islamization of Am. stages a 10K-person protest against the proposed Ground
Zero (Cordoba) Mosque, which the Islam history ignoramus PC media ignores, pans, or smears.
On June 7 (2 a.m.) a 3.6 earthquake hits coastal waters W of downtown
Los
Angeles, Calif.
On June 7 Afghan pres. Hamid Karzai
removes
two top security officials, the interior minister and intel chief
for failing to stop an attack on a major peace conference.
On June 7 the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Siyassa reports the
Osama
bin Laden and six of his lts. have been hiding out for the past five years
in the mountains of Sabzevar in Khorasan province in NE Iran, guarded
by Iranian troops.
On June 7
10 NATO soldiers
are killed in Afghanistan, becoming their deadliest day in months, incl.
five U.S. soldiers killed in an IED blast in E Afghanistan; meanwhle
the war in Afghanistan official becomes the
longest
war in U.S. history, 104 mo.
On June 7
Yukiya
Amano, head of the Internat. Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) singles out
Iran as a "special case" for monitoring teams because of suspicions that
it's secretly building nukes.
On June 7 a former maj. in its army claims that
Myanmar
(Burma) is attempting to build a nuclear weapon; analysts claim their
program is primitive and poorly planned.
On June 7 the first lesbian couple weds in
Portugal,
Teresa Pires and Helena Paixao, 30-something divorcees, becoming the first
gay marrieds there.
On June 7 the Pew Research Center pub. a
Study
on Interracial Marriages, finding that one in seven U.S. marriages are
interracial or interethnic, incl. 26% of Hispanics, 16% of blacks, and 9%
of whites.
On June 7 a Gallup Poll shows that
6.2M
Mexicans say that they want to come to the U.S. permanently.
On June 8 (Super Tues.) primary elections in the U.S. give a V to three
candidates endorsed by Sarah Palin: Nikki Haley in S.C., Sharron Angle
in Nev., and Carly Fiorina in Calif.
On June 8 Iran opens its first
women-only bank branch
in Mashhad.
On June 8 Egypt begins allowing
Muslim Brotherhood MPs
into Gaza as part of an indefinite opening of the Rafah crossing.
On June 9 after Turkey and Brazil try an end-run that is rejected, the
15-member U.N. Security Council adopts
new
sanctions against Iran; Turkey and Brazil vote against them, and
Lebanon abstains; Imadinnajacket ridicules the new sanctions, calling
them a "used tissue", and on June 11 saying that Israel is "doomed";
the new sanctions incl. the power to inspect Iranian cargo, making war
with Iran inevitable?
On June 9 Pres. Obama announces a
$400M
aid package for Gaza, and tells Palestinian pres. Mahmoud Abbas
in the Oval Office "The current situation in Gaza is unsustainable",
this despite Abbas having supported the blockade since he's
anti-Hamas; on June 10 Abbas
tells
the Brookings Inst. that the prospects for a peaceful 2-state solution
"I fear is beginning to erode".
On June 9 a suicide bombing at a wedding ceremony in
Nagaan
in Afghanistan's Kandahar province kills 39 and wounds 73.
On June 10 Sen. Dems. by 53-47
defeat
a Repub.-led effort to strip the EPA of authority to regulate greenhouse
gases; sponsor Lisa Murkowski of Alaska issued the soundbyte "We need to be
growing our economy, not paralyzing it".
On June 10 Am. Muslim
Gregory
Houston Holt, who was once imprisoned for threatening pres. George
W. Bush's daughters is sentenced to life in prison for cutting his
girlfriend's threat; he wrote letters describing himself as the "American
Taliban" and calling for death to Ameria.
On June 10 U.S. gen.
Stanley
A. McChrystal says that the planned Kandahar offensive in Taliban land
in Afghanistan will take months longer than planned; meanwhile new British PM
David
Cameron visits Kabul, reaffirming British support for the effort.
On June 10 the U.S. govt. announces the arrest of 2.2K in 19 states as part of
Project
Deliverance targeting violent Mexican drug cartels.
on June 10 a bipartisan group in the U.S. House offers a
resolution
calling for the govt. of Iran to cease oppression of its people and political
dissidents, with Calif. Repub. rep. Dana Rohrbacher uttering the soundbyte
"Any enemy of the mullah is a friend of ours".
On June 10 the FBI opens a probe into a
security
breach of Apple's iPad that exposed personal info. of AT&T customers
incl. several high-ranking govt. officials.
On June 11 16-y.-o.
Abby
Sutherland (1994-), who attempted a solo around-the-world voyage in a
40-ft. boat is rescued in the Indian Ocean after becoming stranded.
On June 11 Pope Bendedict XVI
begs forgiveness
from God and victims for child sexual abuse by priests, and vows that the
Church will do everything in its power to ensure that it never happens again -
cancel the orders for the minidresses?
On June 11 a suicide car bomb in
Jalawla
70 mi. NE of Baghdad hits a joint U.S.-Iraqi patrol, killing two U.S.
and three Iraqi soldiers.
On June 11-15 riots in
Osh,
Kyrgyzstan kill 223 (official story) or 2K and injure 1.8K; on June 14
400K minority
Uzbeks
fleeing mobs in Kyrgyzstan mass at the border; by June 15 31 Americans
and 40 Europeans are
evacuated
to Bishkek.
On June 12 Iran marks the
1st
anniv. of Imadinnajacket's reelection with a heavy police presence to
scare potential protesters, who scrapped plans to protest on June 10; 900+
are arrested in Tehran.
On June 12 Pres. Obama urges Congress to approve
$50B
in emergency aid to state and local govts. to prevent "massive layoffs
of teachers, police and firefighters".
On June 12 the London Times reports that
Saudi
Arabia is preparing to stand down its air defenses to allow Israeli jets
to make a bombing raid on its enemy Iran's nuclear facilities.
On June 12
Mexico
has a record 85 deaths related to organize crime, the highest
since pres. Felipe Calderon took office in Dec. 2006; on June 12-16
an explosion of
Mexican
drug violence kills hundreds, causing pres. Felipe Calderon to issue a
5K-word manifesto saying that the fight against organized crime must continue
"or we will always live in fear"; on June 14 drug cartel hitmen in the
Mexican state of
Michoacan
(home state of pres. Felipe Calderon) kill 12 police officers in a prison
gun battle, along with 38+ inmates.
On June 13 attackers in military uniforms storm the
Central
Bank of Iraq, causing a standoff that kills 15 and wounds 50.
On June 13 a blast at a rally in
Uhuru
Park in Nairobi, Kenya kills three and injures 75.
On June 13 Arab League chief
Amr
Moussa visits the Gaza Strip, becoming the first senior Arab official
to do so since Hamas took over in 2007.
On June 13 the U.S. announces the finding of vast
mineral
riches in Afghanistan, incl. ron, copper, cobalt, gold and lithium,
worth $1T-$3T, turning the country into the new El Dorado.
On June 13 52-y.-o. Colo. Christian construction worker
Gary
Brooks Faulkner (1958-) is arrested in N Pakistan en route to
Afghanistan carrying a pistol and 40-in. sword plus Bible materials,
telling investigators that he is on a solo mission to kill Osama bin Laden;
he is released on June 24 and arrives in Denver around midnight, being
hailed as the Rocky Mt. Rambo - they should have helped him?
On June 14 the U.S. Supreme Court declines to hear the case of
Maher
Arar, a Canadian citizen who claims that U.S. officials deported
him to Syria in 2002 knowing that he would be tortured.
On June 14 the
EU
Foreign Affairs Council calls on Israel to open crossings into Gaza
immediately to transfer humanitarian aid, but allows them the right
to inspect for weapons.
On June 14 a video showing N.C. Dem. congressman
Bob
Etheridge repeatedly asking "Who are you?" then assaulting a college
student with a Webcam asking him "Do you support Obama's policies?" outside
a fundraiser headlined by Speaker Nancy Pelosi surfaces, causing him to
apologize, while the pro-Obama PC press buries the story.
On June 14 the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously
rules
that immigrants convicted of minor drug offense shouldn't face automatic deportation.
On June 14
Barcelona,
Spain announces a ban on Islamic face veils, becoming the first large city in
Spain to do it.
On June 14 Fox News reveals that the
Port
Authority of New York and New Jersey has been accepting bids for mgt. of
the proposed 1,776-ft. One World Trade Center Freedom Tower to the Arab-owned
Related Companies.
On June 14 U.S. ambassador
Luis
CdeBaca says that African-Am. citizens have been enslaved in
agricultural work in Fla. during the last six years.
On June 15 U.S. gen. (prostate cancer survivor)
David Petraeus
collapses at a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee, blaming
dehydration and a skipped breakfast; he
calls
the conflict a "roller coaster", and warns that the Afghan campaign could
be heading toward a crisis".
On June 15 the U.S. claims success after 56 countries on the
U.N. Human Rights Council
(less than a third) support a statement critical of Iran's human rights record.
On June 16 two successive earthquakes (one 7.0) hit
E
Indonesia off the N coast of Papua province, killing two.
On June 16 the U.S. House of Reps. by 233-169 passes the
Puerto Rico Dem. Act,
then by a 198-194 vote defeats an amendment requiring English as the
sole official language as a condition for Puerto Rican statehood.
On June 16 flash floods in the
French
Riviera kill over a dozen.
On June 16 Iranian pres. Imadinnajacket gives a
Speech
on the Jews in Shahre-Kord (near Isfahan), calling Jews "the filthiest
and greatest of criminals, who only appear to be human", then adding "I
hereby announce that from this point forward, one of the Iranian nation's
main aspirations will be to deliver the American people from its undemocratic
and bullying government."
On June 16 despite his big speech on the oil spill the night before, a
Rasmussen Poll
finds Pres. Obama's approval rating dipping to an all-time low of 42%,
with 44% strongly disapproving and 24% strongly approving, giving
him a pres. approval index of -20; a
Gallup Poll
for June 7-13 gives him an all-time low 46% approval rating, with 46%
disapproving, esp. those 65 and older, the married, and churchgoers;
the middle class seems to be
abandoning him,
with a majority approval rating only from those making less than $24K a year.
On June 17 plans to sell a Roman Catholic convent
Staten Island,
New York for use as a mosque are scrapped after community opposition.
On June 17 a nationwide alert is issued for
17 Afghan pilots
who went AWOL from
Lackland
Air Force Base in Tex.; seven turn themselves in; the rest are going to
be used for a false flag op by the U.S. in order to start another war?
On June 17 a mine blast in
Amaga,
Colombia kills 16 miners and traps dozens.
On June 17 the EU adopts new
sanctions
against Iran, causing it to threaten retaliation.
On June 18 convicted murderer
Ronnie
Lee Gardner is executed by firing squad in Utah, becoming the first
execution by that method in the U.S. in 14 years; the firing squad option
was elminated by Utah in 2004, but he was sentenced to death before that
and chose it over lethal injection.
On June 18 5-y.-o.
Viktor
Shmyakin (2005) is slaughtered by a knife-wielding Muslim fanatic shouting
"Allahu Akbar" in Dneprovka, Ukraine on the Crimea.
On June 18
Orlando, Fla.
becomes the first city to name a road after Pres. Obama; it is paid for by
an Obama stimulus.
On June 19 Swedish
Crown
Princess Victoria weds commoner gym trainer
Daniel Westling in a fancy $2.6M wedding attended by Europe's
royalty, becoming the biggest royal wedding since the 1981 marriage
of Prince Charles and Diana.
On June 19 Turkish warplanes attack Kurdish rebels in
N Iraq,
killing 12.
On June 19 al-Qaida gunmen shoot their way into intel HQ in
Yemen,
killing 11 and freeing several members.
On June 19 Egypt
announces
that a naval flotilla of 11 U.S. and one Israeli warships passed thrugh the
Suez Canal, while an Iranian flotilla approaches Gaza; on June 24 Iran
sends a letter
to the U.N. saying that the presence of Iranian and Lebanese ships in the
Gaza area would be considered a declaration of war on Israel, and is backing down.
On June 20 (11 a.m.) twin car bombs explode outside the state-run
Trade
Bank of Iraq in Baghdad, killing 27 and wounding 55.
On June 20 two bombs in push carts explode in
Lashkar
Gah in Helmand province, killing two and wounding 14 in the first
blast, and injuring five in the 2nd blast, incl. an Afghan soldier.
On June 20 former defense minister
Juan Manuel Santos
is elected pres. of Colombia with 69%, vowing to continue the fight against
the FARC leftist guerrilla group; he takes office on ? (until ?).
On June 20 the British govt. announces the foiling of a
Taliban
plot to kill Afghani schoolchildren on their first day of school
by planting bombs in the school.
On June 20 Hamas official
Mahmoud
Zahar announces that Palestinians should begin firing rockets at
Israel from the West Bank, not just Gaza.
On June 20 the U.S. Supreme Court by 6-3
upholds
a Bush era law barring Americans from providing "material support" to
foreign terrorist groups, rejecting free speech and free association
arguments; dissenter Stephen Breyer reads his dissent aloud in the
courtroom: "Not even the serious and deadly problem of international
terrorism can require automatic forfeiture of First Amendment rights";
the court ruling outlaws peaceful efforts, worrying ex-pres.
Jimmy Carter
that he may be prosecuted for monitoring fair elections in Lebanon et al.
On June 20 ex-Mossad chief (1989-96)
Shabtai
Shavit tells a conference in Tel Aviv that Iran should launch a
pre-emptive strike against Iran now to prevent it from getting nukes.
On June 20 German development minister
Dirk Niebel
is denied entrance to Gaza Strip by Israel, who claims the visit is a
publicity ploy by Hamas, causing an internat. flap.
On June 21 voters in
Fremont, Neb.
pass a law prohibiting businesses and landlords from hiring or renting to
illegal immigrants.
On June 21 a train crash in
Congo-Brazzaville
kills 76.
A rolling stone finally gathers some moss?
On June 22 U.S. gen.
Stanley
A. McChrystal is called to Washington to try to save his job after remarks
dissing Obama and Biden to Rolling Stone mag. are publicized, incl. an
aide calling vice-pres. Joe Biden "Joe Bite Me", tendering his resignation in
advance of his June 23 meeting with Obama, who says that he "exercised poor
judgment", while White House press secy.
Robert
Gibbs says that he made "an enormous mistake", adding "I think the magnitude
and graveness of the mistake here are profound" but wants to talk to him before
making a decision, "to see what in the world he was thinking", adding that Obama
is questioning whether he is capable and mature enough for his job; on June 23
after the meeting with him Obama announces that McChrystal has resigned and is
being replaced as CIC of Afghanistan by his boss David Betrayus, er, Petraeus,
with the soundbyte "The conduct represented in the recently published article
does not meet the standard that should be set by a commanding general. It
undermines the civilian control of the military that is at the core of our
democratic system, and it erodes the trust that's necessary for our team to work
together to achieve our objectives in Afghanistan"; Obama fires the capable gen.
despite Afghan leaders
lobbying
for him, saying that it could disrupt progress in the war and jeopardize the
offensive against the Taliban in S Afghanistan; the article
The Runaway
General by Michael Hastings is officially pub. on June 25, but online
articles are made available on June 22; on June 24 Obama
disavows
the July 2010 Afghan drawdown date, with the soundbyte "We didn't say we'd be
switching off the lights, we said we'd begin a transition phase that would allow
the Afghan government to take more and more responsibility" (before the Taliban
takes it over along with all them billions of infrastructure?); the
Taliban
in Afghanistan says that the dismissal is aimed at hiding U.S. failure in
Afghanistan, and that Petraeus is "no smarter"; meanwhile publisher
Mort
Zuckerman says that Obama is being increasingly viewed as incompetent by
the rest of the world when it comes to foreign policy, especially with his
ingenue view that the U.S. is not at war with the Muslim world, and the
25
Euro countries that have a combined 30K troops in Afghanistan see the firing as an
indicating that Obama is losing the war and it's time to pull their troops out
- never has a leftist antiwar rag got the chance to influence the war
machine like this?
On June 22 a bomb attack on a bus in
Istanbul,
Turkey kills four, one day after the Turkish military stepped up operations
against Kurdish PKK rebels.
On June 22 a female suicide bomber hiding the bomb beneath her burqa kills
two U.S. soldiers in
Kunar
Province, Afghanistan, becoming Afghanistan's first female suicide bomber.
On June 22 the U.S. Congress
finalizes
an Iran sanctions bill, and on June 24 votes 99-0 in the Senate and
408-8 in the House to approve them, with Dem. Mass. Sen. John Kerry uttering
the soundbyte "A nuclear-armed Iran would pose an intolerable threat to our
ally Israel, risk igniting an arms race in what is already one of the world's
most dangerous regions, and undermine our global effort to halt the spread of
nuclear weapons."
On June 22 Sarah Palin-endorsed
Nikki Haley
(daughter of Indian immigrants) becomes the first Repub. woman nominated to
run for gov. in S.C.; African-Am.
Tim
Scott defeats Paul Thurmond, son of late Sen. Strom Thurmond.
On June 22 Hillary Clinton attends a Gay Pride Month celebration, and
encourages
U.S. State Dept. employees to let their teenie kids know that it's okay to be gay.
On June 22 a
Pew
Research Center Poll finds that 40% of Americans believe that Jesus Christ
will return by 2050, while 71% believe that cancer will be bured, 66% think
that artificial limbs will work better than real ones, and 81% believe that
computers will be able to converse with humans; 58% believe that WWII will
happen by then, and 53% think there will be a nuclear terrorist attack on
U.S. soil; only 64% are optimistic about life, vs. 81% in 1999.
On June 23 Iran
announces
that it will send a ship carrying pro-Palestinian activists to break the Gaza
blockade; Iran
claims
that the Israeli Air Force unloaded military equipment at a Saudi Arabian base,
while a large U.S. forced is massed in Azerbaijan on the NW Iranian border.
On June 23 the senate of
Spain
votes 131-129 to ban the burqa despite opposition by PM Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.
On June 23 a federal judge sides with Google in the $1
Viacom Video Copyright
Infringement Suit.
On June 23 documents are
released
linking the govt. of Pakistan's Punjab province to $1M in donations to Jamaat
ud Dawa, an Islamic charity on the U.N. terrorist list that is affiliated with
the 2008 Mumbai attack.
On June 23 a 5.0 earthquake strikes the
Ontario-Quebec
border of Canada.
On June 24 Welsh-born atheist
Julia Eileen
Gillard (1961-) of the Labor Party becomes the PM #27 (first female) of
Australia (until ?).
On June 24 a new report by the
U.S.
Govt. Accountability Office (GAO) says that federal agencies are still failing
to "connect the dots" on security threats to the U.S.
On June 24 Pres. Obama
meets
with Russian pres. Dmitry Medveded in Washington, taking him to his favorite
hamburger joint, Ray's Hell Burger for cheddar cheeseburgers with jalapeno
peppers, mushrooms, and Coke, sharing french fries with him; Obama issues
a 10-page factsheet claiming to have "reset" the relationship with Russia,
and endorsing Russian membership in the World Trade Org. (WTO).
On June 24 at the annual meeting of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) in
New Zealand, China announces
that it will provide Pakistan with more nuclear reactors, with the U.S. not
opposing it because it wants China to help it impose harsher sanctions on Iran;
this will give Pakistan reactors Chasma I through IV.
On June 24 a high-speed train passing through a station hits a group of
partiers in
Castelldefels,
Spain, killing 12 and injuring 14.
On June 24 U.S. deputy White House nat. security adviser
John
O. Brennan says that dozens of Americans have joined terrorist groups
and are posing a threat to the U.S. and its interests abroad.
On June 24 a senior U.S. official is quotes as saying that a high level
U.S. envoy will arrive in an Arab country this week to hold meetings with
the leaders of Hamas and
deliver a message from the Obama admin., which asks Hamas not to comment on it.
On June 24 police raid a Catholic Church HQ in
Mechelen,
Belgium during a child abuse investigation; on June 27 Pope Benedict XVI
calls the raid deplorable".
On June 25 U.S. Congressional leaders
agrees
on the most sweeping reform of financial regulations since the Great
Depression of the 1930s, causing Pres. Obama to praise them for
strengthening his hand at the upcoming G20 meeting; on June 30 the
House passes them by 237-192.
On June 25 the first
U.S. predator drone
makes its first flights over the U.S.-Mexico border in W Tex. on an
intel-gathering mission.
On June 25
Hurricane Alex
forms in the Caribbean, dumpingdumps heavy rain in Central Am. and Yucatan
Peninsula, killing four, then moves into the Gulf of Mexico, attaining
hurricane status on June 30 as it approaches NE Mexico, becoming the first
hurricane of the season and first June hurricane in the Atlantic basin since
Allison in 1995.
On June 25-26 (night) the Israeli military bombs a
weapons
smuggling tunnel on the Gaza-Egypt border, killing two Palestinians.
On June 25-27 the
36th G8 Summit
in Huntsville, Ont., Canada; meanwhile on June 26-27 the
4th G20 Summit
is held in Toronto, Ont., Canada; over 400
protesters
are arrested; despite opposition by Pres. Obama, the G-20 nations reach a
compromise
and agree to cut budget defecits in half by 2013, with each country setting
its own pace; Italian PM
Silvio
Berlusconi says that world leaders "believe absolutely" that Israel
may take military action against Iran to prevent it from getting nukes,
and urges Iran to "respect rule of law" and "hold a transparent dialogue"
over its nuclear program.
On June 26 an armed mob attacks a political rally in
Chiapas,
Mexico, killing three and wounding six.
On June 26 Venezuelan pres.
Hugo
Chavez calls Israel (which he turned against after the 2009 Gaza Strip
offensive) "genocidal", and predicts that one day it will be "put in its
place", adding "It has become the assassin arm of the United States... it
is a threat to all of us" and that "the territory will one day return to
Syrian hands" - how much money did that cost the Arabs?
On June 27 a bomb blast in
Bugojno, Bosnia
(47 mi. SW of Sarajevo) kills a policeman and injures five others.
On June 27 CIA dir.
Leon
Panetta says that the last time the CIA had good intel on the location
of Osama bin Laden ws in "the early 2000s", and that there are less than
100 al-Qaida still in Afghanistan after they moved to the tribal areas of
Pakistan; he also
admits
that sanctions won't dissuade Iran from trying to get nukes.
On June 27 Czech Repub. pres. Vaclav Klaus appoints center-right leader
Petr Necas
as PM, making the govt. pro-U.S. and focused on fiscal austerity.
On June 27 after Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat approves the demotion of 22
ilegally-built Arab homes, 150 stone-throwing Palestinian protesters in
East
Jerusalem in the Silwan neighborhood wound six border police officers,
who respond with tear gas.
On June 28 the U.S. Supreme Court by 5-4 in
McDonald vs. Chicago
strikes down the 28-y.-o. handgun ban in Chicago, Ill., extending rights
to own guns to every state and city in the U.S., declaring that the right
to self-defense with them is fundamental, becoming a giant V for pro-gun
forces; Obama's appointee Sonia Sotomayor sides with the minority, as
does retiring justice John Paul Stevens.
On June 28 the U.S. Supreme Court rules 5-4 in
? v. ?
that a public law school did not violate the First Amendment by withdrawing
recognition from a Christian student group that discriminated against gay/lez
students; dissenter Samuel A. Alito Jr. calls it "a serious setback for
freedom of expression in this country".
On June 28 after Pres. Obama urges the Chinese to take a stronger stance on
the Mar. 26 warship sinking,
North Korea
accuses the U.S. of bringing weapons into the Panmunjom truce village in the
DMZ, and threatens a "new" nuclear deterrent.
On June 28 a group of 25 armed masked men attack and set fire to a
U.N.-sponsored
summer camp in Gaza.
On June 28 the FBI announces the arrest of 10 alleged
Russian
spies, eight of them on deep-cover assignments, incl. redheaded femme fatale
Anna
Chapman (1982-).
On June 28
Rodolfo
Torre of the PRI, the front-running candidate for gov. of the Mexican border
state of Tamaulipas is assassinated by drug cartels; on June 26 anti-drug-war
Mexican musician
Sergio
Vega is shot dead in Sinaloa hours after denying reports of his death;
Torre's older brother
Egidio
Torre is chosen to run in his place.
On June 28 French PM
Francois
Fillon urges French Muslims to reject full face veils, with the
soundbyte "The Islam of France, the Islam you practice daily, has nothing
to do with this caricature that dims the lights of your faith. You should
stand in the front line against this hijacking of the religious message...
It's up to you to make intelligence triumph over obscurantism and tolerance
over intolerance."
On June 29 a U.S. Senate panel unanimously approves Gen.
David
H. Patraeus as new Afghan war cmdr., vowing to continue Gen. Stanley
A. McChrystal's strategy of trying to avoid civilian deaths; the full
Senate confirms him 99-0 on June 30.
On June 29 (Tue.) a Conference Board report that consumer confidence fell
more than expected in June causes the Dow Jones to fall 268 points despite
a press briefing by Pres. Obama and Federal Reserve chmn. Ben Bernanke in
which Obama claimed that the economy is strengthening but much remains to
be done to put Americans back to work.
On June 29 a series of bombings and shootings in Iraq kill 13,
incl. an Iraqi army gen., four policemen in
Beiji
(155 mi. N of Baghdad), and a 9-y.-o. girl; meanwhile protests on the
outskirts of
Kabul
over a reported U.S. attack on a madrassa that disrespected its sanctity
by bringing in dogs and detaining people result in clashes with police that
injure 20, incl. 15 police; Afghan authorities claim that only Afghan police
were involved in the madrassa operation - what's your flavor?
On June 29 a U.S. drones kills 6+ in
Karikot
village in Pakistan's NW tribal belt.
On June 29 Nation of Islam leader
Louis
Farrakhan sends a letter to Jewish leaders asking them to repair the damage
they have caused blacks for cents., with the soundbyte "We could charge you
with being the most deceitful so-called friend, while your history with us
shows you have been our worst enemy."
On June 29 Pres. Obama holds his 2nd meeting with Saudi
King
Abdullah in the Oval Office, assuring him that he intends to close
the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, where almost 20 Saudis remain;
Saudi Arab has refused to accept Yemeni prisoners for its militant rehab
program; they also discuss "efforts to prevent violent extremism",
avoiding the term "radical Islam".
On June 29 Maoist rebels in
Chattisgarh,
India kill 26 Indian security personnel in an ambush.
On June 29 N.C. Repub. rep.
Sue Myrick
warns that Hezbollah terrorists might be hooking up with Mexican drug cartels
to stage "Israel-like bombings" against customs officials or Nat. Guard
units on the U.S.-Mexico border.
On June 30 a 6.2 earthquake near
Pinotepa Nacional
(80 mi. SW of Oaxaca) in S Mexico shakes bldgs. as far away as Mexico City
but does no serious damage.
On June 30
Jalalabad
Airfield, one of the biggest NATO bases in Afghanistan is attacked by the
Taliban.
On June 30 British defense secy.
Liam Fox
warns the U.S. and NATO against "premature" withdrawal from Afghanistan, saying
"To leave before the job is finished would leave us less safe and less secure."
On July 1 Pres. Obama gives a
Speech
on Comprehensive Immigration Reform, calling for a "clear national standard"
and "accountability", with the soundbyte "The system is broken and everybody
knows it", adding "Unfortunately, reform has been held hostage to political
posturing and special interest wrangling, to the pervasive sentiment in
Washington that tackling such a thorny and emotional issue is inherently bad
politics"; also "Our task now is to make our national laws actually work, to
shape the system that reflects our values as a nation of laws and a nation of
immigrants. That means being honest about the problem and getting past the
false debates that divide the country rather than bring it together"; also
"Americans are skeptical of amnesty but they're also skeptical of rounding up
and deporting all these people" because that "would tear at the fabric of
this nation because immigrants who are here illegally are already woven into
that fabric"; Repubs. respond by demanding that Obama visit the U.S.-Mexico
border to see for himself how bad it is and why it must be sealed - no
mention of TLW's Megamerge Dissolution Solution?
On July 1 Pres. Obama
signs
the tough new U.S. sanctions on Iran, saying "With these sanctions, along
with others, we are striking at the heart of the Iranian government's ability
to fund and develop its nuclear programs"; "We are showing the Iranian
government that its actions have consequences, and if it persists, the
pressure will continue to mount, and its isolation will continue to deepen";
"There should be no doube, the United States and the international community
are determined to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons"; too bad,
China and
Turkey soon take up the slack with fuel supplies to Iran.
On July 1 al-Qaida in Yemen begins promoting its first online propaganda newspaper
called Inspire
to recruit new Xmas Condom and Ft. Hood Massacre jihadists.
On July 1
Finland
becomes the first country to make broadband a legal right for every citizen.
On July 1 a triple suicide attack on the Sufi
Data
Darbar Shrine in Lahore, Pakistan kills 35 and injures 175 of thousands
visiting to see the remains of Sufi saint Abul Hassan Ali Hajvery.
On July 1 Saudi mother
Heila
al-Qusayyer, known as "the First Lady of al-Qaeda" is arrested for
running a cell of 60 Saudi militants, incl. young women.
On July 1 a Pew Research Center survey reveals that the
U.S.
recession that began 30 mo. earlier has caused 55% of all adults in
the workforce to become unemployed, take a pay cut, have their work
hours reduced, or redued to involuntary part-time workers.
On July 1 the town of
Teaneck,
N.J. makes history by appointing Muslim
Mohammed Hameeduddin for mayor,
and Orthodox Jew Adam Gussen as his deputy.
On July 2 the number of
combat-related U.S.
casualties in Afghanistan during the Obama admin. (452) passes the total
during the Bush admin. (448).
On July 2 (3:30 a.m.) six suicide bombers storm a U.S. Agency for Internat. Aid
(USAID) in
Kunduz,
Afghanistan, killing four and wounding several.
On July 2 a massive gun battle near
Nogales
near the U.S.-Mexico border kills 21 and wounds six.
On July 2 Pres. Obama
announces
that $795M of the economic stimulus will go toward expanding broadband
Internet access across the U.S.
On July 2 the U.N. creates
U.N. Women,
a billion dollar agency for radical feminism devoted to gender equlity.
On July 2
Rush
Limbaugh says that Pres. Obama destroyed the economy on purpose as a
"payback" for 230 years of white supremacy racism, and because he doesn't
like America - do you want heartburn pain now or later?
On July 3
Roza
Otunbayeva becomes pres. of Kyrgyzstan, the first female head of state
in C Asia (until ?).
On July 3 a fuel tanker flips and explodes in
Sange,
E Congo, killing 220+ and wounding 100+ villagers after they rush to siphon
the vehicle illegally.
On July 3 U.S. state secy. Hillary Clinton utters the
soundbyte
that intolerant govts. across the world are "slowly crushing" activist and
advocacy groups, singling out Cuba, Iran, Venezuela, Russia, China, Egypt,
Ethopia, Zimbabwe, and Congo.
On July 3
Saudi
King Abullah orders a halt to exploration for new oil fields, saying he
wants to preserve the wealth for future generations.
On July 3 the
Presbyterian
Church USA holds its annual meeting in Minneapolis, Minn., promoting
the Kairos Palestine Document
dissing Israel and cheering on the Palestinians.
On July 3-4 U.S. vice-pres.
Joe
Biden visits Iraq to try talking them into picking a new PM; too bad,
his visit is marred by nearby explosions, along with suicide bombers in
Mosul and Ramadi who kill four and injure 25.
On July 4 elections in
Mexico
are held amid fears of drug cartel violence, causing low voter turnout;
pres. Felipe's Calderon holds on to governorships despite hopes by the PRI.
On July 4 the annual July Fourth Hot Dog-Eating Contest in New York
sees prior champ
Takeru
Kobayashi jump up on the stage and get arrested Gestapo-style by the
pigs, who charge him with a trainload of nothing while the sheeplike public
doesn't get alarmed?
On July 4 Taliban militants behead school headmaster
Sakandar
Shah Mohammadi, head of Berooni School in Qara Bagh district, Ghazni
province in S Afghanistan, and torch two schools - stop the symptoms
of thought before they stop you?
On July 4 after escaping a juvenile detention center for the 4th time in
early 2008, 6'5 Wash.-born "Catch Me if You Can" wannabe
Colton A. "Colt"
Harris-More (1991-), known as the Barefoot Bandit for his modus operandi
while stealing small aicraft, boats and cars and doing burglaries in the
Pacific NW steals an airplane in Ind. and flees to the Bahamas, thumbing
his nose at the authories by racking up 50K fans on three Facebook accounts,
along with a tribute song on YouTube and more accounts on Twitter; too
bad, they
arrest
him on July 11 in Harbor Town, Eleuthera Island in the Bahamas after a
high-speed boat chase.
On July 4 26-y.-o.
Elnaz Babazadeh (b. 1984)
is raped and murdered by Basij forces in Tabriz, NW for not following
the Iranian Sharia dress code.
On July 5
Iran
complains that Britain, Germany and UAE are refusing to fuel its passenger
planes as per the sanctions they said would be nothing.
On July 5 Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian PM Salam Fayyad
hold their
first high-level talks
in the King David Hotel in Jerusalem; meanwhile Israel rejects a demand by
Turkey
to apologize over the Gaza Freedom Flotilla under threat of cutting ties.
On July 5
Lady
Gaga reaches a record 10M friends on Facebook, incl. 14K new ones a day.
On July 5 a
Report on
Terrorist De-Radicalization by the Nat. Consortium for the Study of
Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) at the U. of Md. et al. shows
that prison-based programs show promise if well-run.
On July 5 NASA chief (2009-) (first African-American)
Charles Frank
"Charlie" Bolden Jr. (1946-) tells Al-Jazeera network that Obama told him
"to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim
nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science and
engineering", which after a brouhaha White House press secy. Robert Gibbs denies,
even though he said the
same
thing on Feb. 16, but only mentioned Indonesia.
On July 6 (Tue.) during a 3-digit heat wave in the E U.S.,
Queen
Elizabeth II of Britain makes her first address to the U.N. Gen. Assembly
since 1957, when "Leave It to Beaver" was debuting, telling them "In my lifetime,
the United Nations has moved from being a high-minded aspiration to being a real
force for common good"; she also visits Ground Zero for the first time; on July 5
a fire at a transformer station in
Toronto,
Canada causes blackouts affecting 250K and disrupts a royal dinner.
On July 6 Pres. Obama
meets
with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu in the White House, and they pledge to
work toward a new round of Mideast peace talks, with Obama uttering the
sondundbyte "Those are goals that have obviously escaped our grasp for
decades now", adding "It's going to be difficult, it's going to be hard",
affirming the "special relationship" between the U.S. and Israel; Netanyahu
says
that reports of a growing rift are "flat wrong"; in their first meeting,
Obama left Netanyahu with his aides for hours in the West Wing to snub him
over the East Jerusalem issue; right-wing Israelis incl. Druze deputy minister
Ayoub
Kara to say that they still consider Obama "evil"; meanwhile Israel announces the
first
prosecutions of soldiers for killing civilians during the Dec. 2008-Jan. 2009
Gaza war, although it dismisses dozens of other cases.
On July 7 Pres. Obama takes advantage of Congress being in a 2-week recess
to appoint "Dr. Death Panel"
Donald M. Berwick (1946-),
a supporter of British socialized medicine, single-payer system, and death panels
as admin. of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid; Congress had been considering
his appointment and giving him questionnaires to fill out when they were sandbagged.
On July 7 UAE ambassador to the U.S.
Yousef
al-Otaiba states that he endorses a military attacks on Iran's nuclear sites as
preferable to the long-term risks, callig it a "cost-benefit analysis".
On July 7 NATO troops
mistakenly
kill five Afghan army allies in an airstrike against insurgents in E
Afghanistan, incl. three U.S. soldiers.
On July 7 a Sunni suicide bomber at a police checkpoint in a crowed of
Shiite pilgrims to the gold-dome shrine of Kadhimiya in
Bagdhad
kills 28+ and wounds 81; on July 7 another bomb targeting Shiite pilgrims in
Baghdad
kill seven, and a returning pilgram is shot dead outside Kirkuk.
On July 7 the
Turkish
supreme court strikes down parts of a proposed govt. package aimed at
restructuring the Turkish constitution to make it more like Western Europen
democracies, clearing the way for a referendum in Sept. backed by the anti-Islamist
Repub. People's Party, which claims that the changes are phony and an attempt
to give the increasingly Islamist state more control over military and legal
appointments.
On July 7 Pres. Obama gives an interview to Israeli TV, and
utters
the soundbyte that Israel is suspicious of him because his middle name is Hussein; he finally
reveals
the truth about his reaching-out to the Muslims, saying that it is designed
to reduce hostility toward Israel and the West, adding "The United States under my
administration has provided more security assistance to Israel than any
administration in history. And we've got greater security cooperation between our
two countries than at any time in our history. And the single most important threat
to Israel, Iran and its potential possession of a nuclear weapon has been my number
one foreign policy priority over the course of the last 18 months"; he also
mentions that his
middle
name Hussein "creates suspicion" among Israelis, countering that Rahm
Emanuel's middle name is Israel, and adding "My closeness to the Jewish American
community was probably what propelled me to the U.S. Senate".
On July 7 Bangladeshi publisher
Salah
Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, pub. of the anti-Islamist newspaper Weekly Blitz
is hauled into court for the 150th time for being pro-American and pro-Israel;
this time.
On July 8
Norway
and Germany arrest three suspected al-Qaida members suspected of plotting
to clone terrorist attacks in N.Y. and England.
On July 8
Malaysia
appoints the first two women Sharia judges; too bad, they are
barred from
hearing criminal cases.
On July 8 Pres. Obama
finally
explains why he has been reaching out to Muslims, namely, to reduce hostility
toward Israel and the West, saying that the fact that Israeli PM Benjamin
Netanyahu is perceived as a hawk "can be helpful in the sense tha any successful
peace will have to include the hawks and the doves, on both sides, and in the
same way that Richard Nixon here in the United States was able to go to China
because he had very strong anti-Communist credentials", adding "The United States
under my administration has provided more security assistance to Israel than
any administration in history. And we've got greater security cooperation
between our two countries than at any time in our history. And the single most
important threat to Israel, Iran, and its potential possession of a nuclear
weapon has been my number one foreign policy priority over the course of the
last 18 months."
On July 8 white former Oakland, Calif. transit police officer
Johannes Mehserle
(1982-) is found guilty of involuntary manslaughter of handicapped suspect
Oscar Grant (b. 1988) on Jan. 1, 2009 despite a videotape showing him pulling out
his gun and shooting him in the back on the ground, causing neighborhood outrage
and protests which turn violent, causing 50 arrests.
On July 8 a federal judge in Mass.
strikes
down as unconstitutional the U.S. Defense of Marriage Act that blocks
the federal govt. from recognizing same-sex marriage.
On July 9 (7:05 a.m. PT) the U.S. military
scrambles
two F-16 jets after Obama's air space is violated during his visit to Las Vegas, Nev.
On July 9 two suicide bombers explode outside a govt. office in
Khar,
Pakistan, killing 62 and wounding 111.
On July 9, 2010 Obama meets with Palestinian Nat. Authority pres. (2005-)
Mahmoud
Abbas (1935-),
expressing strong support for his "leadership on behalf of the Palestinian
people and his commitment to peace", days after Abbas told the Arab League
Summit "If you want war, and if all of you will fight Irael, we are in favor.
But the Palestinians will not fight alone because they don't have the ability
to do it."
On July 9 four men are arrested at a gas station in
Pretoria,
South Africa while trying to sell a nuclear device for $9M.
On July 9 Iranian woman
Sakineh
Mohammadi-Ashtiani is spared death by stoning for alleged adultery
via an announcement by the Iranian embassy in London, but the option of
executing her remains on the table in the horrible Islamic Repub. of Iran as
Iranian human rights judge
Mohammad Javad Larijani,
says that Iran's Sharia judicial system and the "sacred sentences of Islam"
won't change under "Western attacks" and "media pressure"; on July 30
she is sentenced to hanging, and Brazilian pres. Lula offers her
asylum -
send in James Bond 007?
On July 9 a bomb in a box of chocolates left at the home of a
Tex.
oil exec in Houston, Tex. explodes, injuring no one - the start of a new trend?
On July 10 the Obama admin. opens up 1.8M acres of the
Alaskan
Nat. Petroleum Reserve, an important area for bird migration, pissing
off environmentalists.
On July 10 Pres. Obama makes it easier for
veterans
with post-traumatic stress discorder to receive federal benefits.
On July 10 ear-chewing Am. boxer (Muslim convert)
Mike Tyson
visits Mecca, posting a photo of himself in front of the Kaaba on the Internet.
On July 10 five U.S. troops and a dozen civilians are killed in battles in
E
and S Afghanistan.
On July 10-11 a surprise raid by Colombian forces on the camp of FARC leader
Guillermo
Seanze kills twelve bodyguards and their top female cmdr. Magaly Grannobles.
On July 11 a
total
solar exlipse is visible in an 11km arc over the Pacific.
On July 11 Pres. Obama reaches 537 days in office without issuing a
pardon
or commuting a sentence, passing John Adams; on Nov. 24 he will reach
Clinton's record of 672 days; the avg. is 133 days.
On July 11
Bangladesh
jails 11 policeman on suspicion of carrying out an extrajudicial killing
two years ago, becoming a first.
On July 11 Al-Shabab sets off two bombs among fans watching the World Cup
final in
Kampala,
Uganda, killing 64.
On July 11 a taped conversion is aired between often-drunk Hollywood star
Mel Gibson
(1956-) and his babe Oksana Grigorieva, admitting to hitting her while
carrying her 8-mo.-o. daughter Lucia, making threats, and uttering the N-word,
all of which causes the PC police to call for his career to end pronto;
later L.A. detectives investigate allegations of
extortion
by Grigorieva.
On July 11 Alan Simpson (Repub.) and Erskine Bowles (Dem.), head of Obama's
nat. debt commission
tell
the Nat. Governors Assoc. that the federal debt next year is expected to
exceed $14T ($47K per capita), and "is like a cancer", requiring new measures
incl. curtailing of popular tax breaks like the home mortgage deduction and
instituting a financial trigger mechanism for gaining Medicare coverage.
On July 12 Russian pres. Dmitry Medvedev
says
that "Iran is nearing the possession of the potential which in principle
could be used for the creation of a nuclear weapon"; on June 11 Iranian
atomic chief Ali Akbar Salehi announces that Iran has produced 20kg of
20% enriched uranium.
On July 12 the 1.3K-member
Shinnecock
Nation wins a 32-y.-o. lawsuit giving them ownership of 750 acres of
land in the rizty Hamptons of Long Island, N.Y., allowing them to set up
a reservation.
On July 12
Israel's
Labor Party threatens to leave Benjamin Netanyahu's govt. coalition if
he doesn't make serious progress toward a final-status agreement with the
Palestinians on a 2-state solution in the upcoming months.
On July 12 the
Internat.
Criminal Court issues a 2nd arrest warrant for Sudanese pres. Omar Bashir,
and charges him with three counts of genocide in Darfur.
On July 12
Ustad
Ahmad Farooq, al-Qaida official in charge of the Da'wah and Media Dept.
for Pakistan releases an interview claiming that their war in Afghanistan and
Pakistan is a bona fide jihad per Islamic Sharia law, with the soundbyte:
"The battle which is being fought here in Pakistan... cannot be described as
khurooj [rebellion against an Islamic state]; it is jihad. The way we are
confronting America in Afghanistan and any army that is siding with America,
whether it be the Afghan National Army or different tribal chieftains, is the
same way we are confronting America in Pakistan and the Pakistani Army that
is aiding America. That is jihad, and this too is jihad. It is a duty
incumbent upon every individual."
On July 13 (eve of Bastille Day) France's lower house of parliament by 335-1
finally approves a ban on
face veils (niqabs) in public, subject to a 150 euro fine, with men who
force a woman to wear them subject to a 30K euro fine and a year in jail;
the law never mentions any religion; the senate will vote on it in Sept.;
leading Saudi cleric
Sheikh
Aed al-Qarni condemns France for their face veil ban, but approves of
Muslim women going without them if they're illegal because "We must not
confront people in their own country or other countries, or bring hardship
on ourselves".
On July 13 news from Iraqi civilians that
Iranian
trucks filled with missiles have recently passed through Iraq en route
to Syria surface.
On July 13 the NAACP passes a
resolution
condemning the Tea Party for not expelling "racists from the ranks", causing
Sarah Palin to respond that it doesn't allow them in the first place.
On July 13 U.S. Army Gen.
Ray
Odierno warns reporters that Iranian-supported militants might try to
attack U.S. soldiers as they try to leave Iraq this summer.
On July 13-14 Taliban attacks in S Afghanistan kill 8+ members of the U.S.-led
NATO forces, incl. three who are killed in a night assault on a police post in
Kandahar.
On July 14 the U.S. hands over
Tariq
Aziz and 28 other officials of Saddam Hussein's regime to the Iraqi govt.
On July 14
Typhoon
? hits the Philippines, killing 26, with 38 missing.
On July 14 (9:30 a.m.) a fire at the
Clairton
Cook Works of U.S. Steel in Allegeny Cunty, Penn. injures 15.
On July 14 a
quarterly report
shows that Pres. Obama's Recovery Act created between 2.5M-3.6M jobs,
more than expected, even though the U.S. is
lagging
far behind other major economies in restoring lost jobs; Obama meets with
Warren
Buffett to discuss the economy.
On July 15 Sunni Baluchi Jundullah insurgents stage a double suicide bombing in a Shiite mosque in Zahedan in SE Iran to avenge the execution of their leader, killing 27, incl. members of the Rev. Guard, and wounding 169; Iranian cleric Hujjat al-Islam Kazem Sadiqi charges the U.S. with putting them up to it. On July 15 (8 p.m.) a Ford Focus owned by the La Linea drug gang rams two federal police vehicles in Juarez, Mexico, then explodes, killing two police officers and a paramedic, becoming the first car bomb attack by Mexican drug trafficers; 4K have been killed in Ciudad Juarez since Jan. 1, 2009; the explosive used was Tovex. used in mining. On July 15 Venezuela charges Luis Enrique Acosta Oxford (1969-) and Carmen Cecilia Nares Castro (1975-) with "disseminating false rumors" to "destabilize the banking system" via Twitter. On July 15 a Jordanian Gaza Aid Convoy of 25 trucks and 150 activists leaves Amman; on July 18 it is turned back by Egypt at the port of Nuweibeh; unlike when Israel turns back a convoy, there is no internat. outcry; meanwhile Olympia Food Co-op in Wash. becomes the first U.S. store to boycott Israeli goods. On July 15 Muslim-Am. Yahya Wehelie (1984-) is allowed to fly back to Va. from Yemen on a waiver, but remains on the no-fly list. On July 15 Pres. Bush's top political advisor Karl Rove says that his biggest mistake was not fighting back against the Dems. who accused Bush of lying to support the Iraqi invasion. On July 16 Pres. Obama's approval rating for handling the Afghan war hits a record low of 43%, down from 52% in Dec.; former Carter nat. security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski tells MSNBC's Morning Joe: "I think we're now going through a phase in which there is a sense of pervasive malaise which affects different groups in society in different ways... There's no grand mobilizing idea. And I have a sense that Obama, who started so well, and who really captivated people - he captivated me - has not been able to generate yet some sort of organizing idea for an age which combines a malaise that's pervasive and percolating." On July 16 a fire in the 5-story Soma Hotel in Sulaimaniyah in N Iraq kills 29, nearly half foreigners. On July 16 U.S. federal authorities arrest dozens in the largest Medicare Fraud Bust in history, with a total of $251M allegedly scammed. On July 16 the Federal Election Commission finances the 2008 pres. campaign of Joe Biden $219K for violations. On July 16 Russia and Iran sign a "roadmap" to future economic cooperation in oil, gas and petrochemicals. On July 17 the U.S. Treasury Dept. places Anwar al-Awlaki on its global terrorist list, prohibiting Americans from doing business with him et al.; on July 20 a message from him appears on Islamic Web sites, warning that Pres. Obama will get U.S. forces stuck in Yemen the same as Pes. Bush in Afghanistan. On July 17 Muslims in Grenoble, France riot after armed Muslim casino robber Karim Boudouda (b. 1983) is killed by police while fleeing and shooting at them; the rioters also shoot at police - great idea Muslim immigration, eh? On July 17 Muslim jihadists murder seven Christians in Maza village near Kos, Nigeria. On July 17 a gay pride parade by 8K in Warsaw, Poland is the first held in a former Communist bloc country; it is met with jeers from some in the crowd. On July 18 a predawn attack on partygoers by drug dealers in Torreon, Mexico kills 17 and injures 10; they are later revealed to be prisoners in Gomez Palacio the guards let out and armed for the mission; on July 26 prison guard Ofelia Veronica Lares Rodriguez (1965-) is stabbed to death by inmates during a demonstration; on July 28 four journalists covering the prison protests are reported missing. On July 18 militants armed with assault rifles ambush a civilian convoy in Char Khel village in the tribal region of Kurran in NW Pakistan, killing 16. On July 18 yet another suicide bombing in Radwaniya SW of Baghdad kills 48+, most of them members of the formerly (until 2006) pro-al-Qaida Sunni Awakening militia who are waiting in line for their paychecks. On July 18 a suicide bombing in Kabul kills three civilians three days before the 60-nation Kabul Conference on July 21, where Hamid Karzai calls for all foreign troops to pull out by 2014. On July 18 the 6.7 2010 Alaska Earthquake is centered 27 mi. W of Nikolski in the Aleutian Islands; no tsunami results. On July 18 after U.S. special envoy George Mitchell brokers it, a summit in Cairo is held by Israel PM Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian Authority pres. Mahmoud Abbas, and Egyptian pres. Hosni Mubarak; too bad, Netanyahu and Abbas won't meet together, and see Mubarak separately. On July 18 to maintain its secular lifestyle Syria bans the face veil (niqab) in public univs. On July 19 (2 a.m.) the Uttarbanga Express and Vanachal Express collide in Kolkata, India, killing 49 and injuring 150+. On July 19 Pres. Obama tasks Repub. lawmakers for blocking a $34B extended unemployment benefits package for millions of Americans because of insistence of commensurate spending cuts, after which on July 20 after Carte Patrick Goodwin (1974-) is sworn in as the replacement for Robert Byrd, the filibuster is broken and it passes the Senate 59-39 on July 21. On July 19 Hillary Clinton announces $500M in new development projects for Pakistan to help it fight the Taliban and al-Qaida - or to finance them? On July 19 longtime dictator (since 1980) Desire (Desiré) "Desi" (Dési) Delano Bouterse (1945-) is elected pres. of Suriname; he is sworn in on Aug. 3 (until ?). On July 19 Christian brothers Rashid Emmanuel (b. 1978) (a pastor) and Sajid Emmanuel (b. 1986), charged with capital blasphemy for writing a pamphlet containing statements against Muhammad are shot dead outside court after being acquitted, causing clashes in their Christian community and police refinforcments to be called in. On July 19 Germany launches the HATIF (Arabic for phone) Program for Islamic extremist radicals who want to quit; there are 36K+ in Germany out of a Muslim pop. of 3.8M-4.3M (4.6%-5.2% of the pop.). On July 19 Israel's outgoing U.N. ambassador Gabriela Shalev tells the press that the #1 threat to Israel is not Iran but efforts by EU courts and U.N. committees to delegitimize the Jewish state, which she calls "the most isolated, lonely country in the world." On July 19 a video clip of African-Am. U.S. Dept. of Agriculture official (first black head of the Ga. office) Shirley Sherrod on the Web site of Andrew J. Breitbart (1969-) (former associate of Arianna Huffington) talking about wittholding help to a white farmer in Douglas, Ga. on Mar. 27 causes her to resign; it incl. the soundbyte "I was trying to decide just how much help I was going to give him. I was struggling with the fact that so many black people had lost their farmland, and here I was faced with having to help a white person save their land. So I didn’t give him the full force of what I could do. I did enough"; too bad, it dates back to 1986 when she was working for a private firm, and she was using it to illustrate how she changed and gave up racism, the video having been edited to sucker punch her; the NAACP initially supports her firing, but then flops, claiming to have been "snookered"; on July 21 White House press secy. Robert Gibbs apologizes to her, and agriculture secy. Tom Vilsack reinstates her; she claims to have been directly pressured by the White House to resign before Glenn Beck's Fox News show comes on at 5 p.m. ET via phones to her in her car before she can leave Ga.; on July 22 Pres. Obama apologizes to her; on July 28 she announces that she plans to suing Breitbart. On July 19 the U.S. Senate unanimously passes the U.S. SPEECH Act, stopping the Muslim jihad practice of "libel tourism, such as in the case of Dr. Rachel Ehrenfield, who was sued by a Saudi financier in England over 23 copies of her book on Islamic terror financing sold in the U.K.; the act bars enforcement of foreign libel judgements against U.S. persons if they would not have been found liable in a U.S. court applying First Amendment protections. On July 19 Amazon.com announces that ebooks have outsold hardcover books 143-100 for the past 3 mo., signalling the end of the paper-based book?; paperbacks are still #1. On July 20 Russia announces that it won't sell "large missile systems" to Iran. On July 20 an explosion in a 3-story bldg. near Sana'a, Yemen kills two and injures four; 500 detonators are found in the site. On July 20 a record heat wave in Russia sees 71 drown in a single day in reservoirs and ponds, with over 90 injured. On July 20 a new Israeli report on the 2008-9 Gaza War says that the Israeli army is taking steps to reduce the number of civilian casualties in future wars incl. restricting the use of white phosphorus. On July 21 Kurdish PKK rebels blow up an Iranian-Turkish natural gas pipeline in N Kurdistan. On July 21 the U.S. announces new sanctions on North Korea, warning it of serious consequences if it attacks South Korea. On July 21 Hamid Karzai agrees to a U.S. withdrawal plan giving Afghan forces control by next summer. On July 21 Sudanese Jem rebels in Darfur sign an agreement to stop using child soldiers. On July 21 an al-Qaida in Mesopotamia car bomb in crowds near a Shiite mosque in Abe Sayeda, Iraq kills 13 and wounds 24. On July 21 Exxon Mobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and Royal Dutch Shell commit $1B to create a rapid-response system to deal with future deepwater oil spill a la BP's. On July 21 Am. Muslim converts Paul Rockwood and his wife Nadia are charged with lying to federal officials about compiling a hit list of 15 people they believed had harmed Muslims and deserve to die. On July 22 Tropical Storm Chanthu causes floods and landslides killing 700+ in S China. On July 22 the Internat. Court of Justice rules 10-4 that the declaration of independence from Serbia of Kosovo was legal according to internat. law. On July 22 a rocket attack at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad in the Green Zone kills three guards and wounds 15, incl. two Americans; meanwhile Iraqi officials disclose that four al-Qaida suspects escape from a prison that the U.S. handed over to their control a week earlier; on July 23 Al-Qaida in Iraq claims responsibility for suicide recent suicide bombings in Qom and elsewhere, saying it hopes they will inspire others to martyrdom. On July 22 Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah makes a surprise announcement that his party is likely to be implicated in the Feb. 14, 2005 assassination of Lebanese PM Rafiq Hariri. On July 22 a House investigative committee charges former House Ways and Means Committee chmn. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) with 13 counts of ethics violations. On July 22 U.S. Sen. Dems. pull the plug on Cap and Trade legislation until after the midterm elections in Nov., preferring a limited bill targeted at electric utilities and responding to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. On July 22 the U.S. freezes the assets of Gul Agha Iskakzai, head of the Taliban's financial commission, along with two others who raised money for the Taliban and its Pakistan-affilate the Haqqani Network, and calls on Pakistan to follow suit. On July 22 a Gallup Poll indicates that Bill Clinton is more popular than Barack Obama by 61%-52%; George W. Bush comes in at 45%. On July 23 Mauritanian commandos backed by French troops raid a terrorist camp at night in the Sahara Desert, killing six members of Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb; four members escape. On July 23 North Korea threatens the U.S. and South Korea with "nuclear deterrence" if they go ahead with naval maneuvers on July 26 in the Sea of Japan. On July 23 the U.S. State Dept. announces to the Palestinian Nat. Authority that it is upgrading its status from bureau to gen. delegation, allowing its office to fly their flag. On July 23 a NATO rocket in Sangin District, Helmand Province in Afghanistan kills 52 civilians, incl. women and children, causing Afghan pres. Hamid Karzai on July 26 to condemn the strike and call on NATO to make avoiding civilian casualties their top priority. On July 23-25 the United Nat. Antiwar Conference in Albany, N.Y. sees 850 turn against Israel, demanding an end to all U.S. aid, and backing the Palestinian cause - Arab oil money gets results? On July 24 a bombing in S Afghanistan kills five U.S. service members; meanwhile two U.S. troops are abducted by the Taliban after leaving Kabul. On July 24 a panic among partygoers in an overcrowded tunnel in Duisburg, Germany after the Love Parade ("world's largest techno music party") kills 19 and injures 342. On July 25 a cache of 90K secret records of U.S. screwups in the Afghan War from Jan. 2004 to Dec. 2009 from WikiLeaks is announced after they gave them to several major newspapers incl. the New York Times, the U.K. Guardian, and Der Spiegel; the records reveal that the Pakistani govt. helps the Taliban, that an incident in 2007 shows they might have acquired SAMs, that the U.S. set up a secret black unit to hunt down and "kill or capture" sans trial Taliban leaders, and that Iran helps smuggle arms to the Taliban; on July 26 White House press secy. Robert Gibbs says that the leaked documents pose a security threat to the U.S.; despite the fallout; on July 29 Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid says that his men are studying the leaked reports so they can hunt down informants; on July 27 Jon Sewart expresses outrage that the U.S. gave Pakistan $6.6B in aid in 2002-8, and pledged another $7.5B over the next five years, even as it financed, trained and colluded with the Taliban against the U.S. On July 25 radical Israeli Arab Islamic movement leader Raed Salah receives a 5-mo. jail sentence for spitting at a border policeman during a protest in East Jerualem in 2007; his 9-mo. sentence was shortened. On July 25 a suicide bomber in a white minibus detonates in front of the office of Al Arabiya in Baghdad, killing six and wounding 16. On July 25 a bus explodes at a bus stop in Bangkok, Thailand, killing one and wounding 10. On July 25 the 2010 African Union Summit convenes in Kampala, Uganda, becoming dominated by discussion of attacks by the Islamic group Al Shabab. On July 26 the EU tightens its sanctions on Iran, with new steps to block oil and gas investment and curtail its refining and natural gas capability. On July 26 the road used by Shia pilgrims to Najaf in Karbala, Iraq is hit by a twin car bombs that kills 19. On July 26 Cuban Rev. Day celebrations in Santa Clara are held sans Fidel Castro, while his brother Raul doesn't speak, and Hugo Chavez cancels his trip to Cuba, becoming the first in which neither Castro speaks. On July 26 a U.N.-backed tribunal sentences Khmer Rouge chief jailer Kaing Guek Eav (Duch) (pr. DOIK) to 35 years for overseeing 16K deaths, of which he will only serve 19, becoming the first senior KR member to be convicted - 1 year in priz per 1K deaths? On July 26 an epidemiological study pub. by the Internat. Journal of Environmental Studies and Public Health reports higher rates of cancer in Fallujah than those in the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, pointing to the use of depleted uranium by U.S. forces. On July 26 Hollywood dir. Oliver Stone gives an interview, claiming that Jews are "the most powerful lobby in Washington, and dominate the media, also defending Hitler and Stalin, saying "Hitler was a Frankenstein but there was also a Dr. Frankenstein, German industrialists, the Americans and the British. He had a lot of support", also "Hitler did far more damage to the Russians than the Jewish people - 25 or 30 [million killed]"; he adds that Stalin "fought the German war machine more than any person"; in actual fact, Jews do control Jewywood? On July 26 the U.S. Defense Dept. announces that it can't account for $8.7M of $9.1B in Iraqi oil revenue entrusted to it from 2004-7. On July 26 Iranian pres. Madmaninastraightjacket announces that he expects the Great Satan U.S. to launch a military strike in the next 3 mo. on "at least two countries" in the Middle East, without specifying which; meanwhile Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu calls Iran "the ultimate terrorist threat", and the 101st Airbone 4th Brigade Combat Team, the last brigade of Pres. Obama's Afghan surge prepares to head for Afghanistan; on July 28 47 (nearly one-third) of House Repubs. led by Louie Gohmert (R-Tex.) introduce a resolution backing an Israeli strike on Iran. On July 26 anti-Mexican-immigrant former Colo. rep. Tom Tancredo leaves the Repub. Party to run for Colo. gov. on the ticket of the Am. Constitution Pary to run against Dem. John Hickenlooper, mayor of Denver, insuring the latter's big V? On July 26 an Israeli AF heli (Sikorsky Yasour CH-53) crashes over the Carpathian Mts. in Romania, killing six; it had been doing hi-risk drill attacks on mountain tunnels like are found with Iran's nuclear facilities. On July 27 the House passes a $59B war funding bill by a 308-114 vote, with 102 Dems. voting against, revealing a split with Pres. Obama. On July 27 British PM Cameron visits Turkey, and calls Gaza a "prison camp", saying "the situation in Gaza has to change", calling for Israel (but not Egypt?) to lift its blockade; this despite a new luxury mall opening in Gaza earlier in July; Cameron also also calls for new special relationship with its former colony India - a family that saves together stays together? On July 27 (a.m.) a boat strikes an oil well, causing a new oil-gas leak in Bayo St. Dennis, La. On July 27 U.S. vice-pres. Joe Biden releases a video in which he claims that $600B in stimulus funds have already been spent, adding "Americans deserve a government that actually works" and "We're building a government that delivers more bang for the buck than ever before." On July 27 U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson launches a campaign to renew the Bush tax cuts, saying that it would be "devastating" and "castrophic" not to; Donald Trymp chimes in about Obama that "He's taking away a lot of incentives from a lot of people that produce a lot of taxes". On July 27 French PM Francois Fillon says in a radio broadcast that France is "at war against al-Qaida" after Aqmi (al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb) claimed to have executed a French humanitarian worker, adding "These people are indescribably cruel", and "France does not practice revenge, however, we have agreements with regional governments, especially Mauritania to track these terrorists and bring them to court." On July 28 Pres. Obama snubs the 100th anniv. of the Boy Scouts of Am. to appear on July 29 on the ABC-TV daytime show The View (first U.S. pres. to visit a daytime talk show), which helped him get elected with its daily pro-Obama propaganda to a mainly woman audience, where he admits that the wasn't invited to Chelsea Clinton's wdding, and never heard of Snooki (Nicole Polizzi), star of the MTV reality show "The Jersey Shore", and calls Am. blacks as a race "mixed up", saying "We are sort of a mongrel people. I mean, we're all kinds of mixed up. That's actually true of white people as well, but we just know more about it". On July 28 the U.S. House votes to reduce the 1986 disparity in sentencing between crack and powder cocaine that make 5g of crack equal to 500g of powder, raising it to 28g of crack. On July 28 a passenger jet crashes into the hills overlooking Islamabad, Pakistan in poor weather, killing all 152 aboard. On July 28 #2 al-Qaida man Ayman al-Zawahri releases a recording slamming France's face veil ban, calling Muslim women who defy it "holy warriors" against the "secular Western crusade", and urging all Muslims to continue their jihad against the West. On July 28 24-y.-o. Latvian-born Jewish Tex. beautician Anna Fermanova is arrested for allegedly spying for the Kremlin by smuggling night vision weapons. On July 28 the Japanese Mitsui O.S.K. Lines oil tanker M. Star is rocked by an explosion near the mouth of the Persian Gulf, causing a "huge wave" to be blamed, after which Islamic terrorists are blamed. On July 28 the Slovenian malware writer whose code infected 12M computers worldwide is arrested. On July 28 retired Pakistani gen. Hamid Gul denies allegations that he was a key link between the Taliban in Afghanistan and their backers in Islamabad. On July 28-Aug. 4 floods in Pakistan kill 1.4K and maroon 300K in three of five provinces. On July 29 Moscow, Russi suffers a record 37.7C (99.86F) temp, 0.2C higher than on July 26, and the hottest in 130 years. On July 29 STS-134, the final mission of Space Shuttle Endeavour launches; NASA replaces it with Project Consellation, incl. space vehicles Ares I and Ares V, and the Orion. On July 29 the former supt. of Arlington Nat. Cemetery admits that as many as 6.6K graves might have been mixed-up with the wrong bodies or names. On July 29 Mexican Sinaloa drug cartel lord Ignacio "Nacho" Coronel (b. 1954) is killed by the Mexican army. On July 29 Catalonia, Spain votes 68-55 to end bullfighting, the first time it has been outlawed in Spain. On July 29 two Armenians file a class action suit against Turkey over the Armenian genocide, seeking hundreds of millions in damages. On July 29 Repub. leader Newt Gingrich (1943-) gives a Speech on Banning Sharia in the U.S. at the Am. Enterprist Inst., becoming the first U.S. politician to wake up to the threat of Islam and its horrible Muslim-supremacy Sharia and its threat to the U.S. Constitution. On July 30 the Iranian resistance Mujahedeen Org. of Iran (PMOI) is taken off the U.S. State Dept. list of foreign terrorist groups after a long court battle. On July 30 Pres. Obama visits Detroit, Mich. to tout the revival of the U.S. auto industry and his bailout of GM and Chrysler, uttering the soundbyte "If some folks [the GOP] had their way... your jobs might not exist." On July 30 Gaza militants fire a rocket into the Israeli city of Ashkelon N of Gaza City, causing damage but no injuries, causing Israel to retaliate with air strikes in Gaza City on three rocket manufacturing sites, injuring eight in a Hamas-run police training center, and killing senior Hamas member Saed Al Bitran; an explosion at the home of bomb-maker Abu Anas el-Danaf in C Gaza is caused by an accidental detonation according to the Israelis; meanwhile the Arab League endorses direct Palestinian talks with the Israelis, but leaves the timing to the former, causing Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal to diss the Arabs, after which on Aug. 1 Pres. Obama warns Mahmoud Abbas that unless the Palestinian Nat. Authority agrees to joint direct peace talks with Israel within weeks it might downgrade its relationship. On July 30 Afghan protesters shout "Death to America" and set fire to vehicles in Kabul after a SUV accident kills four Afghans. On July 30 the U.S. House by 209-193 passes offshore oil drilling reforms On July 30 King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and Syrian pres. Bashar al-Assad meet in Beirut to calm tensions over the Lebanese PM assassination scandal; Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and King Abdullah II of Jordan reiterate their support for a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria; meanwhile on July 30 a Gallup poll shows U.S. support of Israel at a near all-time high of 67%, and support for the Palestinian Nat. Authority at only 20%. On July 30 a 5.6 earthquake in NE Iran S of Neyshabur 445 mi. E of Tehran injures 110+. On July 30 senior U.N. official Jean-Paul Laborde says that terrorism in Africa is increasingly linked to organized crime, and calls for stronger steps to break the connection. On July 30 Mexican Roman Catholic priest Carlos Salvador Wotto (b. 1927) is found dead in Oaxaca with signs of torture on his body, incl. cigarette burns; meanwhile Mexico's biggest TV network Televisa cancels its popular news show after four reporters are kidnapped by drug gangs. On July 30 German foreign minister Guido Westerwelle angers conservatives by leaving the possibility of EU membership for pesky Turkey, calling them to have a "privileged partner" rather than full member status. On July 30 "The Vampire Chronicles" author Anne Rice (who shocked fans in 1998 by returning to Roman Catholicism) announces that "Today I quit being a Christian. I'm out", adding "I remain committed to Christ as always. but not to being 'Christian' or to being part of Christianity. It's simply impossible for me to 'belong' to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group. For ten years, I've tried. I've failed. I'm an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else." On July 31 the $5M wedding of Chelsea Clinton (1980-) and Marc Mezvinsky (a Jew) in the 50-acre Astor Courts estate in Rhinebeck, N.Y. is the affair of the year; Pres. Obama isn't invited. In July at least 66 U.S. troops are killed in Afghanistan, the deadliest mo. in the 9-year Afghan War; 270 Afghan civilians are killed. In July the U.S. loses 131K jobs, incl. 143K census jobs; private employment only rises 71K (vs. 31K in June). In July the U.S. govt. begins shutting down Web sites TVShack.net, Moves-Links.TV, FilesPump.com et al. for streaming copyright-protected videos, and announces a gen. crackdown in the works. In July a total of 34 U.S. citizens or residents have been charged with ties to internat. Islamic jihadists in the past 18 mo. In July the U.S. reestablishes the U.S. Navy's 10th Fleet, and stations four upgraded Ticonderoga class cruisers equipped with Aegis ballistic missile systems in the Persian Gulf? In July the state of Israel stinks itself up with a conviction of "rape by deception" of Palestinian man Saber Kushour for having consensual sex with a Jewish Israeli woman after passing himself off as a Jew. In July 24-y.-o. Augusta State U. grad student Jennifer Keeton (1986-) sues her univ. after being told she must undergo a remediation program due to her Christian beliefs on homosexuality and transgenered persons. In July the Tucker Carlson Web site Daily Caller reveals emails from the private e-mail list JornoList, showing how liberal-leftist journalists conspired to get Obama elected by refusing to cover Rev. Jeremiah Wright et al.
On Aug. 1 1.2K Nat. Guard troops begin arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border; the buildup takes several weeks; they aren't used for law enforcement against border-crossers, pissing off anti-immigration forces. On Aug. 1 Pres. Obama says that his goal for the Afghan war is not to turn it into a "model of Jeffersonian democracy" but to keep it from returning to being a terrorist haven, calling it "difficult, very difficult, but it's a fairly modest goal"; meanwhile Netherlands becomes the first NATO to pull its troops out of Afghanistan; U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff adm. Mike Mullen says that the U.S. has a plan to attack Iran, but thinks it's a bad idea, although their getting nukes is unacceptable, causing Rev. Guard deputy chief Yadollah Javani to say that "if Americans commit the slightest mistake" security in the Persian Gulf will be jeopardized, not mentioning prior threats to target Tel Aviv. On Aug. 1 the Islamic Jihad announces that is resuming suicide attacks on Israel from the West Bank. On Aug. 2 Iranian pres. Imadinnajacket calls on Pres. Obama for a televised debate to see who's got the best solution to the world's problems. On Aug. 2 struggling Newsweek mag. is sold for $1 to Jewish-Am. billionaire Sidney Harman (1919-) and his wife Jane. On Aug. 3 Israeli and Lebanese forces exchange fire near the Lebanese border, injuring two on the Israeli side and one on the Lebanese side, becoming the first border clash since the 2006 war. On Aug. 3 the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Service stinks itself up by announcing that undocumented immigrants trying to leave the U.S. could face arrest at the border. On Aug. 3 five rockets fired from the Sinai Peninsula are fired at Eilat, Israel, and miss, killing a taxi driver in Aqaba, Jordan. On Aug. 3 Pakistani official Raza Haider is murdered while attending a funeral at a mosque in Karachi, causing street violence that kills 45, injures 93, and torches dozens of stores and vehicles. On Aug. 3 after being caught stealing beer from a warehouse where he worked as a driver, Am. Muslim Omar Thornton (b. 1976) goes on a shooting spree, killing eight and wounding two before committing suicide. On Aug. 3 Am.Muslim Shaker Masri (1984-) is arrested for trying travel to Somalia to become a suicide bomber for al-Qaida. On Aug. 4 an explosion near the convoy of Iranian pres. Ahmadinejad in Hamadan (280km SW of Tehran) is later claimed to be a firecracker. On Aug. 4 a controversial new Kenyan Constitution enacting Islamic Sharia is passed, and signed into law on Aug. 27; despite supposedly not being a citizen of Kenya, Obama personally campaigned for it as far back as 2006; outlaw Sudanese pres. Umar al-Bashir is present at the signing. On Aug. 4 federal judge Vaughn Walker rules that Calif.'s 2008 Proposition 8 banning gay marriage is unconstitutional because he says so, despite the will of millions of voters, pissing many off, and causing Pres. Obama to finally state that he's against gay marriage but in favor of civil unions. On Aug. 4 Pres. Obama celebrates his 49th birthday; it later comes out that he dialed three Christian pastors to pray with him as he flew on Air Force One to Chicago. On Aug. 5 Russian PM Vladimir Putin bans wheat exports after a summer drought causes millions of acres to wither, pushing world wheat prices up; in Aug. Russian wildfires spread across six provinces contaminated by the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, bringing poisonous smog to Moscow. On Aug. 5 the U.S. Dept. of Justice announces four separate indictments charging 14 with terrorism for providing aid to Al Shabab (al-Shebaab) in Somalia. On Aug. 5 the U.S. Senate approves $600M for border security, incl. 1.5K new agents; Pres. Obama signs in on Aug. 13. On Aug. 5 Tariq Aziz, leading lt. of Saddam Hussein accuses the U.S. of "leaving Iraq to the wolves", calling Pres. Obama a hypocrite who promised "to correct some of the mistakes of Bush" and is about to "leave Iraq to its death". On Aug. 5 Harvard senior Caroline Giuliani (1990-), daughter of former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani is arrested for shoplifting $100 worth of makeup at Sephora on E. 86th St. in Manhattan; after they find out who she is, the store owners drop the charges. On Aug. 5-9 First Lady Michelle Obama goes on a controversial trip to Spain, causing critics to compare her to Marie Antoinette; on Aug. 7 she visits Ronda in S Spain, favorite haunt of Orson Welles and Ernest Hemingway; on Aug. 8 she meets with King Juan Carlos I in Mallorca; meanwhile on Aug. 8 Pres. Obama plays pick-up basketball with some NFL pros at a birthday-weekend White House BBQ. On Aug. 6 rapper Wyclef Jean announces his candidacy for pres. of Haiti on Larry King Live; on Aug. 20 Haiti's electoral council rules him ineligible because he didn't live in Haiti for five years before the elction. On Aug. 6 the U.S. sends its first delegation led by ambassador John Roos to Hiroshima, Japan to observe the anniv. of the U.S. atomic bomb attack, causing an outcry that Pres. Obama is about to apologize for it; U.N. secy.-gen. Ban K-Moon also attends, calling for Obama to attend personally. On Aug. 6 mudslides in Kashmir, India kill 125+. On Aug. 6 a new poll of Arab opinion finds that a majority now believe that a nuclear-armed Iran would be a positive development in the Middle East. On Aug. 7 the Taliban announces the murder of eight "Christian missionary" medical doctors in Afghanistan, who were found shot dead on Aug. 6, incl. British surgeon Karen Woo, who was set to get married in two weeks, and Colo. dentist Thomas Grams (b. 1959-); the internat. Christian aid group Internat. Assistance Mission denies that the medics were proselytizing. On Aug. 7 Saudi Arabia reaches a deal with BlackBerry on granting access to user data so they can monitor messages to stop them from banning it in their country as a security risk. On Aug. 7 Fidel Castro makes his first official govt. appearance since his emergency surgery in 2006, calling on Pres. Obama to prevent a global nuclear war. On Aug. 7 a power generator explosion in Basra, Iraq kills 25+. On Aug. 7 politicians in Lebanon get pissed-off at calls from Israel to restrict U.S.sale of advanced weapons to their army after the recent border incident. On Aug. 7 Pakistani pres. Asif Ali Zardari visits Birmingham, England and addresses a political rally, where protesters criticizing him for touring overseas while floods are devasting his countries incl. one shoe-thrower. On Aug. 8 Sky News reports that British couple Gul and Bagum Wazir of Birmingham have been murdered in a suspected "honor killing". On Aug. 9 the U.S. announces a 10-year $30B deal to sell F-15 aircraft to the Saudis, minus advanced long-range weapons systems opposed by Israel. On Aug. 9 the Masjid Taiba Mosque in Hamburg Germany, once frequented by the 9/11 attackers Mohammed Atta et al. is shut down by the govt. for being involved in violent extremism again. On Aug. 9 radical Indonesian Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir is arrested for supporting a terrorist group in Aceh. On Aug. 9 Ed Stafford (1976-) becomes the first to walk the length of the 4K-mi. Amazon River after 859 days, starting on Apr. 2, 2008. On Aug. 10 the U.S. House adjourns after passing by 247-161 a $26B state aid bill to prevent layoffs of 160K teachers and cuts to Medicaid. On Aug. 10 white radio personality Dr. Laura Schlesinger draws the PC police for saying the n-word 5x on the air during a call with an African-Am., after which she is forced to resign. On Aug. 11 Sudanese-born Ibrahim al-Qosi, former cook and driver for Osama bin Laden is sentenced to 14 years in prison by a Guantanamo Bay tribunal. On Aug. 11 Iran and Russia issue a surprise joint announcement that Russia will load the nuclear fuel to activate Iran's first nuclear reactor on Aug. 21, causing speculation of an Israeli airstrike; meanwhile AP reports that Arab nations are urging the U.S. to end its support of Israel's nuclear secrecy and push for an internat. inspection program. On Aug. 11 White House press secy. Robert Gibbs sticks his foot in his mouth, complaining about the "professional left" and claiming "those people ought to be drug tested." On Aug. 12 shocking photos surface of Turkish chemical weapon attacks on Kurdish PKK rebels. On Aug. 13 (Fri. the 13th) Pres. Obama gives a 2010 Iftar speech to commemorate the Muslim holy day of Ramadan, defending the super-controversial Ground Zero Mosque, with the soundbyte "This is America, and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakeable", and full of history ignoramus remarks, incl. "Islam has always been part of America and American Muslims have made extraordinary contributions to our country", and has been a major force in "advancing justice, progress, tolerance and the dignity of all human beings", causing an outcry, after which on Aug. 14 he backs down a bit, saying that he upholds the principle that govt. should treat everyone equal, regardless of religion, but wasn't commenting on this particular project, with the soundbyte "I was not commenting and I will not comment on the wisdom of making the decision to put a mosque there. I was commenting very specifically on the right people have that dates back to our founding"; on Aug. 18 a Gallup Poll finds that 37% of Ams. disapprove of Obama's comments and only 20% approve; on Aug. 16 Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) comes out against the mosque, saying to build it elsewhere; meanwhile Ground Zero Mosque (renamed Park51) imam Feisal Abdul Rauf (a Kuwaiti-born Egyptian Sufi), who claims it is "about promoting integration, toleration of difference,and community cohesion through arts and culture", and later claims it's only a community center with a small mosque inside, until an ad they placed for it says it must accomodate 1K at one time is exposed as having attended a 2007 conference in Indonesia of the terrorist group Hizb-ut Tahrir al Islami (Islamic Party of Liberation), which seeks a global caliphate and is banned in several countries; on Dec. 8, 2009 the NYT ran a pro-mosque article quoting Rauf as saying "New York is the capital of the world, and this location close to 9/11 is iconic"; apparently choosing to ignore this, on Aug. 19 Assoc. Press (AP) tells its staff to quit using the term "Ground Zero Mosque" because it's two whole blocks (600 ft.) away; on Aug. 19 N.Y. Roman Catholic archbishop Timothy Dolan says that he prays for compromise, offering to help relocate the mosque; Manhattan developer Sharif el-Gamal (1973-), whose co. Soho Properties owns the former site at 45 Park Place where there was an old Burlington Coat Factory for $4.8M in 2009 used to be a Manhattan waiter at Serafina on the Upper East Side - has closet Muslim pres. Obama finally succeeded in turning a critical mass of the American people against him? On Aug. 14 Fatah al-Islam terrorist group leader Abed al-Rahman Awad is killed in Lebanon in a shootout with Lebanese troops. On Aug. 14 three incl. a policeman are killed in Yala, Thailand by Muslim separatists, who have killed 4K+ in the rubber-rich region bordering Malaysia, which was a Muslim sultanate until its annexation in 1909 by Buddhist Thailand. On Aug. 15 al-Qaida #2 man Ayman al-Zawahiri releases an audio tape calling for Turkey to cut all ties with Israel and withdraw their NATO forces from Afghanistan. On Aug. 15 a Rasmussen Poll reveals that 76% of Americans believe it likely that a terrorist group will detonate a nuke on Am. soil in the next 25 years, with 45% believing it very likely. On Aug. 15 Israel begins dismanting a barrier wall in Jerusalem that had been erected to protect residents from Palestinian sniper fire from the West Bank. On Aug. 15 Turkey allows Orthodox Christians to worship at Sumela Monastery after 88 years of closure. On Aug. 15 the Talibn orders the stoning for adultery of a young couplefor adultery in the NE province of Kunduz, sparking outrage, incl. pres. Hamid Karzai. On Aug. 16 5 mo. after an inconclusive vote the party that won the most seats in Iraq's Mar. election suspends talks on forming a coalition. On Aug. 16 Iran announces that it will build 10 new uranium enrichment plants inside mountain strongholds starting in Mar. - I can give you what you want? On Aug. 16 Mexico's supreme court upholds a law permitting gay adoption on Aug. 9 it upheld gay marriage; meanwhile gunmen kidnap and murder Edelmiro Cavazos, mayor of Santiago in N Mexico, after which six police offers are arrested for involvement. On Aug. 16 Pres. Obama holds a Hollywood fundraiser, saying that he and Congressional Dems. have passed the most progressive legislation in decades - the beautiful people? On Aug. 17 U.S. treasury secy. Timothy Geithner raises basic questions about the govt.'s long-standing role in subsidizing the $10.7T housing market, saying "It is not tenable to leave in place the system we have today." On Aug. 17 a suicide bombing among Iraqi army recruits outside the army's 11th div. HQ in downtown Baghdad kills 51 and wounds 119. On Aug. 17 (eve.) a Palestinian Arab man enters the Turkish embassy in Tel Aviv, Israel and begins firing before he is shot by staff; he had earlier tried to take hostages at the British embassy using a fake gun; the Turkish govt. complains to Israel to increase the security at the embassy. On Aug. 17 France rejects a petition calling for it to pay $17B in reparations to Haiti for its oppression 2 cents. earlier. On Aug. 17 former Israeli soldier Eden Aberjil (1984-) stirs up a firestorm of controversy after posting photos of herself in uniform smiling among blinded Palestinian prisoners on Facebook. On Aug. 17 two Muslim suicide bombings target vacationers in Pyatigorsk in the Caucasus region of Russia. On Aug. 17 Amin Al-Hindi, last surviving planner of 1972 Munich Massacre dies in Jordan, and Palestinian Authority chmn. Mahmoud Abbas stinks himself up by giving him a military funeral and calling him a "patriotic leader" and "martyr". On Aug. 18 business leaders of Monterrey, Mexico, the country's wealthiest, most modern and safe city take out a newspaper ad begging pres. Felipe Calderon to send in more soldiers to stem the increasing drug violence. On Aug. 19 the U.S. troop death count in Afghanistan reaches 575, the same as during the Bush years, making it Obama's war? On Aug. 19 the Obama admin. convinces ' Israel that Iran's ability to make a "dash" for a nuke will take at least another year. On Aug. 19 ML baseball star pitcher Roger Clements is indicted by a federal grand jury for lying to Congress about steroid use; he continues to deny it and vows to fight the charges. On Aug. 19 Pew Poll finds that 18% of Americans believe that Pres. Obama is a Muslim (incl. 31% of Reubs.); on Aug. 19 a Time mag. poll raises the figure to 24% (incl. 46% of Repubs.); on Aug. 27 a new Gallup Poll shows Muslims giving Obama the highest rating of any religious group (78%), with Mormons the lowest (24%); Jews slide from 77% in early 2009 to 61%; on Aug. 29 to silence all objections, Obama appears on "NBC Nightly News", and claims that he isn't worried about the polls, saying "the facts are the facts" and still claiming to be Christian, adding that he can't go around with his "birth certificate plastered on his forehead", and that he has faith in "the American people's capacity to get beyond all this nonsense"; on Aug. 29 Obama's former pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright gives a Sun. sermon claiming that anybody who believes that Obama is a Muslim is a "psychopath". On Aug. 20 Hillary Clinton announces new Israeli-Palestinian talks, with Benjamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas promising a 1-year time limit, and Pres. Obama to invite them to Washington on Sept. 2. On Aug. 20 Pakistan announces that it will clamp down on charities linked to Islamic militants who are seeking to exploit flood relief. On Aug. 20 a Saudi judge stirs internat. outrage by asking several hospitals to damage a man's spinal chord as punishment for paralyzing another man with a cleaver; on Aug. 23 the high court in Tabruk reverses him, saying the victim should accept monetary compensation. On Aug. 21 Russia helps fuel-up the Bushehr Reactor Iran's first nuclear reactor, promising to monitor and remove spent fuel that could be used to build nukes; meanwhile Israel announces that reactor is "totally unacceptable", and that a country that "so blatantly violates U.N. resolutions, IAEA decisions should not enjoy the fruits of using nuclear energy"; meanwhile former top U.N. nuclear official Olli Heinonen admits that Iran has enough uranium for 1-2 bombs, but claims that they wouldn't try it with only this amount. On Aug. 21 Sweden revokes an arrest warrant for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for rape, but keep him under suspicion of a lesser charge of molestation. On Aug. 21 a stray bullet hits El Paso, Tex. from the Mexican side of the border, causing a furor. On Aug. 21 the Third Annual Topless Sat., founded by Rael is held in 9 U.S. cities incl. Denver, Chicago, and Miami to fight for equal rights for women. On Aug. 22 Iranian pres. Straightjacket inaugurates Iran's first domestically-built unmanned drone aircraft bomber, calling it an "ambassador of death for the enemies of humanity", with "a main message of peace and friendship"; it can carry four cruise missiles and has a 1K km (600 mi.) range; on Aug. 23 Iran announces that it will also step up production of the new Zolfaghar and Seraj (Light) assault boats carrying cruise missles. On Aug. 22 Bangladesh bans all enforced Islamic dress codes, incl. veils and skull caps in public places. On Aug. 23 the Pentagon refutes the Taliban claim that Pvt. Bowe Bergdahl has converted to Islam and joined their cause. On Aug. 23 Iraq announces that it is tightening security around oil installations after news that al-Qaida plans to attack them when U.S. forces leave. On Aug. 23 U.S. Gen. David Petraeus claims that the Taliban's momentum has been reversed in S Afghanistan. On Aug. 23 the ever-less-sovereign U.S. makes its First Report to the U.N. Human Rights Council on internal conditions, saying that the U.S. doesn't have a perfect record esp. with minorities and women, and that "Although we have made great strides, work remains to meet our goals of ensuring equality before the law for all"; it also claims that the U.S. is committed to closing Gitmo and "fixing our broken immigration system" - what should we do next, masters? On Aug. 23 white New York City college student Michael Enright asks a cab driver if he's a Muslim, then after receiving an affirmative answer stabs him; after leftists try to use it as ammo in favor of the Ground Zero Mosque, it is revealed the he supports it too, and the cabbie didn't - and that's why he stabbed him? On Aug. 23 Frank Johansson, head of the Finnish branch of Amnesty Internat. calls Israel a "scum state", stirring controversy, after which under pressure he (insincerely?) apologizes; on Aug. 24 British former PM Tony Blair utters the soundbyte that any attempt to delegitimize Israel is an affront to people "everywhere, in every part of humanity who share the values of a free and independent spirit". On Aug. 23 Miss Mexico Ximena Navarrete (1988-) of Guadalajara wins the Miss Universe contest in Las Vegas Nev.; Miss USA Rima Faikh (first Muslim-Am. winner) doesn't make it to the final round; it was rigged because this is the centennial of Mexico's independence? On Aug. 24 the Mexican military discovers 72 massacred bodies of migrants from Central and South Am. in a ranch in ever-violent Tamaulipas, Mexico, and get into a gunfight with Zeta drug cartel members, who flee after one Mexican marine and three gunmen are killed; on Aug. 27 a car bomb explodes in San Fernando, Mexico in front of a major TV station in the same N Mexican state, and a prosecutor investigating the massacre disappears,while a string of four bombings in 24 hours injures 17. On Aug. 24 a suicide attack in Mogadishu, Somalia by Al Shabab kills 32 incl. six parliamentarians. On Aug. 25 a string of attacks against the Iraqi govt. kills 43. On Aug. 25 an attempted suicide attack against an army barracks near Nouakchott, Mauritania is foiled when soldiers shoot the driver of the truck. On Aug. 25 former U.S. pres. Jimmy Carter arrives in Pyongyang, North Korean on a private mission to free imprisoned African-Am. Aijalon Gomes (1979-) of Boston, Mass., who is serving eight years for illegal entry via China; he arrives in Boston with Carter on Aug. 27. On Aug. 25 a day after Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah asks Lebanon to seek their assistance, Iran announces that it's ready to sell arms to Lebanon. On Aug. 25 Egyptian pres. Hosni Mubarak announces that Egypt's first nuclear power plant will be built at El Dabaa on the Mediterranean coast - there goes the neighborhood? On Aug. 25 Canadian police arrest three Islamic terror suspects, Hiva Alizadeh, Misbahuddin Ahmed, and Khurram Syed Sher, who appeared on Canada's version of "American Idol". On Aug. 26 EU foreign policy chief Lady Catherine Ashton rebukes Israel for convicting Palestinian protester on Aug. 23 of inciting protests in the West Bank village of Bilin plus not having a permit. On Aug. 26 Mexican pres. Felipe Calderon proposes legislation to stop money laundering by organized crime. On Aug. 26 aging demented Cuban dictator Fidel Castro pontificates that documents posted on WikiLeaks.org prove that Osama bin Laden is a paid CIA agent that Pres. Bush made pop-up when needed to scare the world, saying "Bush never lacked for bin Laden's support. He was a subordinate." On Aug. 28 conservative Mormon talk show host Glenn Beck holds his Restoring Honor to America rally at the Lincoln Memorial on the 47th anniv. of MLK Jr.'s "I Have a Dream Speech", which he claims is accidental; 100K-300K attend to hear about how the U.S. needs to return to God; the crowd is not all-white but racially diverse; MLK Jr.'s niece Alveda King speaks at the rally, along with Sarah Palin; the rally raises $5.5M for wounded soldiers; on Aug. 29 Beck appears on Fox News Sunday, and utters the soundbyte that despite his claim to be a Christian, the American people don't recognize "Obama's version of Christianity". On Aug. 28 the Iraqi govt. goes on high alert against terrorist attacks as the U.S. combat mission winds down. On Aug. 28 Islamic jihadists in U.S. Army uniforms launch pre-dawn attacks at Forward Operating Base Salerno, a major NATO base in Khost province in E Afghanistan 60 mi. SE of Kabul near the Pakistan border and the nearby camp where seven CIA employees were killed last year in a suicide attack; this time they are repelled with no casualties. On Aug. 28 Israel places its largest-ever order for military fuel with the U.S., increasing speculation of a planned attack on Iran. On Aug. 28 Israeli rabbi Ovadia Yosef, head of the ultra-Orthodox Shas Party gives a Sat. evening sermon with the soundbyte "May God strike them [Palestinians] down with the plague along with all the nasty Palestinians who persecute Israel", causing an outcry and the U.S. State Dept. to condemn his remarks. On Aug. 28 Belgian cardinal Godfried Danneels is revealed to have tried to stop a sex abuse victim from going public, causing an outcry. On Aug. 29 a bus runs off a highway and overturns 55 mi. S of Quito, Ecuador, killing 36 and injuring 12. On Aug. 29 a 50-y.-o. gunman opens fire in Bratislava, Slovakia, killing six and injuring 14 before committing suicide. On Aug. 29 Mt. Sinabung on Sumatra Island in Indonesia erupts for the first time in 400 years. On Aug. 29 the U.S. birth rate for 2009 is announced at 13.5 per 1K, down from 14.3 in 2007, and the lowest in U.S. history; in 1820 it was 55.2. On Aug. 30 prosecutors in Clark County, Nev. file felony cocaine possession charges on Paris Hilton after a weekend arrest. On Aug. 31 Pres. Obama announces the end of the U.S. mission in Iraq; the last brigade team, the 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Div. left on Aug. 18, after which the troop level fell below 50K on Aug. 24, down from a max of 165K in 2007. In Aug. the Big Am. Egg Recall sees 500M eggs sold under 24 brands recalled for salmonella infestation. In Aug. Pres. Obama's Summer of Recovery proves a bust as a Reuters poll shows that 75% of Americans are very worried about joblessness, and 67% are very concerned about massive govt. spending; unemployment remains hovering near 10%.
On Sept. 1 the U.S. draws down to 50K troops in Iraq. On Sept. 1 three bombs explode in a Shiite religious procession in Lahore, Pakistan, killing 18 and wounding 150. On Sept. 1 U.S. Pfc. Nasser Abdo makes news for refusing to fight in Afghanistan, saying "I don't believe I can involve myself in an army that wages war against Muslims. I don't believe I could sleep at night if I take part, in any way, in the the killing of a Muslim." On Sept. 1 Hamid Karzai's brother Mahmoud Karzai calls for the U.S. to intervene to head off a meltdown of Kabul Bank, Afghanistan's biggest bank, which he is a major shareholder in, after which depositors throng its branches, causing Hamid on Sept. 2 to tell Afghans not to panic; on Sept. 7 Mahmoud Karzai's Kabul Bank assets are frozen. On Sept. 1 a poll by the Arab World for R&D shows that most Palestinians don't want a state next to Israel, with 78.2% wanting Israel to be gone, 17.7% accepting a 2-state solution, and 9.6% accepting a joint state. On Sept. 1 former U.S. Sen. (R-Wyo.) (1979-97) Alan Kooi Simpson (1931-), co-chair of Pres. Obama's fiscal commission apologizes for an Aug. 24 e-mail to Nat. Older Women's League exec dir. Ashley Carlson calling Social Security "a milk cow with 310 million tits". On Sept. 1 former British Labour PM (1997-2007) Tony Blair (1953-) releases his new memoir "A Journey"; on Sept. 3 he gives an interview on it, calling radical Islam the greatest threat facing the world, saying that after 9/11 he didn't understand it yet, but that its roots go far deeper than he thought, and "if they could, they would use nuclear, chemical or biological weapons" and kill 300K not just 3K, saying "This is actually more like the phenomenon of revolutionary Communism", and "It's the religious or cultural equivalent of it, and its roots are deep, its tentacles are long, and its narrative about Islam stretches far further than we think into even parts of mainstream opinion who abhor the extremism, but sort of buy some of the rhetoric that goes with it"; on Sept. 4 he holds the first public signing of his memoir in Dublin, Ireland, where protesters hurl shoes and eggs at him; on Sept. 5 he warns that Iran's nuclear program must be stopped by tougher sanctions followed by a military action. On Sept. 1 Iranian consul Hossein Alizadeh resigns in Oslo, and requests asylum in Finland. On Sept. 1 the Pentecostal Dove World Outreach Center in Gainsville, Fla., led by pastor Terry Jones (who posted a sign outside his church in 2009 reading "Islam is of the Devil") gains mass media attention for his July announcement of a public burning of 200 Qurans on 9/11, calling it Internat. Burn a Koran Day, complete with a Facebook page, causing Pope Benedict VI, Hillary Clinton, U.S. atty. gen. Eric Holder, U.S. Gen. David Petraeus, Sarah Palin, Franklin Graham, and Pat Robertson, and Pres. Obama (who calls it a "stunt" that is "contrary to American values") to ask them not to do it; on Sept. 6 hundreds of Afghans protest the planned action outside Kabul, shouting "Death to America"; the FBI announces that an Islamic extremist relatiatory attack is likely; Terry Jones is revealed to have led a 1K-member congregation in Cologne, Germany, where he preached hatred of Islam, and got a 3K Euro fine in 2002 for claiming a fake doctorate before he was kicked out by the church in 2008 for financial irregularities; Sept. 9 after FBI agents visit him and tells him about a blizzard of death threats, Terry Jones cancels the planned Quran BBQ after being told that the Ground Zero Mosque will moved, calling it "a sign from God", which Imam Rauf denies, saying "We're not here to barter", after which Fla. imam Muhammad Musri claims he only told him he'd go to New York with him and discuss moving it, pissing Jones off, causing him to say "I've been lied to", and that the event is only suspended not cancelled; meanwhile Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan. vows to hold a Quran BBQ if they don't, then flops and vows never to do it; on Sept. 12 two Iranian grand ayatollahs issue fatwas calling for death for all who insult the Quran or burn it; on Sept. 9 the Council on Am.-Islamic Relations (CAIR) announces it will distribute 200K Korans, and on Sept. 10 Muslim Al-Tahadi jihadist Abu Suleiman Al-Nassir posts a call on the Web for Am. Muslims to murder Terry Jones; Jones' 225 Qurans are given to the Christian Defense Coalition, who distributes them to Christian churches as a reminder to pray for Muslims and share the love of Christ with them; meanwhile reports that authorities in Iran have have intercepted and burned hundreds of Bibles are ignored by the PC media. On Sept. 2 a shootout between soldiers and drug cartel members in Ciud Mier in Tamaulipas, Mexico kills 25 cartel gunmen. On Sept. 2 EU trade commissioner Karel De Gucht warns on a Flemish radio show that the Jewish lobby has a grip on U.S. politics so there is no point in more Middle East peace talks; on Sept. 3 she is forced to issue a clarification that her views are personal. On Sept. 2 the shallow water Mariner Energy facility S of Vermillion Bay in La. explodes; there are no injuries; some report seeing an oil slick. On Sept. 2 Middle East expert Arnaud de Borgegrave tells Newsmax.TV that the odds of an Israeli strike on Iran is "a 50-50 proposition", adding "It seems to be moving up the ladder." On Sept. 2 (1 p.m.) leftist eco-terrorist James Jay Lee (b. 1967) takes three hostages at the Md. HQ of Discovery Channel, saying that he has been inspired by Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" and is pissed-off at their rejection of his ideas for a new show; he is shot dead by police. On Sept. 2 Pakistani state minister for industries Ayatullah Durrani publicly asks Pres. Obama to offer Eid prayers at the Sept. 11 Eid-ul-Fitr festival and declare himself the leader (caliph) (Amur-ul-Momineen) of all Muslims, saying "This is a golden opporunity, Muslims badly need it", and that Obama's elevation to the caliphate would be the "key to success". On Sept. 3 Iranian armed forces chief of staff Hassan Firouzabadi announces that if Irael attacks its nuclear facilities it will retaliate by attacking theirs. On Sept. 3 Turkey grants limited military concessions to the U.S. to use its territory, allowing them to move technical and logistical military equipment while withdrawing from Iraq; in 2003 it refused to allow U.S. troops to invade Iraq via its SE border. On Sept. 3 World Qods (Jerusalem) Day massive rallies in Iran calling for the "ignominious annihilation" of the "usurper Zionist regime" in Israel; meanwhile on Aug. 29 Arab League head Amr Moussa, who earlier had doubted that the Israeli-Palestinian talks would be successful says that they will be the last round of negotiations because Arabs are ready for full peace with Israel in exchange for a pullout of the lands occupied in 1967 incl. East Jerusalem; on Sept. 5 foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman warns Israelis to remember what happened after the Oslo peace talks with the 2nd Intifada, and says that there will be no peace in our time; meanwhile U.S. envoy Michael Oren warns that Hezbolllah has 15K rockets on the Lebanese border hidden under homes, hospitals and schools with enough range to hit Eilat, Israel. On Sept. 3 after Arab pressure, Internat. Atomic Energy Agency head Yukiya Amano (IAEA) invites Israel "to consider to accede" to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, causing foreign minister Avigdor Liberman to call it a political ploy to divert attention from the "real proliferation challenges" of Iran and Syria. On Sept. 3 a car bomber in Tajikistan kills two police and wounds 25, becoming the first Islamic suicide bombing in the country since 2005. On Sept. 3 an explosion in a Shiite procession in Quetta, Pakistan kills 65 and wounds 150. On Sept. 3 a mudslide buries a bus in Guatemala, killing 28 and injures 30, with 40 missing. On Sept. 3 U.S. district judge Richard Kopf overturns a Neb. law banning flag mutilation, clearing the way for protesters from the Westboro Baptist Church of Kan. to trample U.S. flags at religiously-motivated military funeral protests; the members also announce that they burn Korans - nyaa? On Sept. 4 (4:35 a.m.) a 7.1 earthquake hits 19 mi. W of Christchurch, New Zealand, causing $1.4B damage and injuring two. On Sept. 4 Christians announce their concern about Muslim plans to pour tons of concrete on top of a wall above Jesus' Garden Tomb in Jerusalem for a Muslim cemetery. On Sept. 4 top Iranian cleric grand ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi calls the Holocaust a "superstition", and that "Zionists say that people of the world should be forced to accept this". On Sept. 4 Afghan pres. Hamid Karazi announces the formation of a High Council for Peace to hold talks with the Taliban in Afghanistan. On Sept. 5 an early morning car bomb at a military HQ in Baghdad kills 12 and wounds 20, and is followed by a 2.5 hour gun battle as two men in explosive vests slip into the old defense ministry bldg. and throw grenades at Iraqi soldiers until they are killed. On Sept. 5 an Islamic suicide bomber on a Russian military base in Dagestan kills five soldiers and wounds 36. On Sept. 5 Iranian pres. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visits Qatar, and utters the soundbyte "The U.S. and the Zionist entity will not be able to hit Iran right now. This is a wish... Any Israeli attack against Iran means the elimination of the Zionist entity from the world map"; meanwhile it is revealed that at least five Iranian cos. in Afghanistan have a $1K bounty on the head of any U.S. soldier killed by a Taliban member, also paying them monthly salaries of $233 and offering them $6K to blow up a U.S. military vehicle, and that Hezbollah is hitting U.S. targets in Iraq as a subcontractor for Iran and Syria. On Sept. 6 (Labor Day) Pres. Obama announces a 6-year $50B Infrastructure Plan to revamp aging roads, railways and runways. On Sept. 6 a Taliban suicide bomber rams his car into a police station in Lakki Marwat in NW Pakistan, killing 19; meanwhile the Taliban threatens violent attacks on polling places in the Sept. 18 Afghanistan parliamentary elections. On Sept. 6 the Palestinian Nat. Authority objects to holding internat. meetings in Jerusalem, calling it a "provocation" because most of the world doesn't recognize it as Israel's capital. On Sept. 6 the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency IAEA releases a report saying that Iran is "hampering" their work, and possessed 2.8 tons of enriched uranium; the White House calls it "troubling". On Sept. 6 Pres. Obama gives a speech in Milwaukee, Wisc., where he utters the immortal soundbyte "Some powerful interests who had been dominating the agenda in Washington for a very long time and they’re not always happy with me, they talk about me like a dog. That's not in my prepared remarks, but it's true." On Sept. 6 French pres. Nicolas Sarkozy vows to go ahead with plans to strip French citizenship from Muslim immigrants who attack police, but rules it out for those who practice polygamy or promote female circumcision. On Sept. 6 a fire at a private stable near Charles Town Races in W. Va. kills 27 thoroughbred racehorses. On Sept. 6-13 a wildfire burns 6.4K acres in Four Mile Canyon near Boulder, Colo., burning 159 homes incl. the homes of four firefighters, becoming the worst fire in Colo. history.; it starts in a fire pit of a volunteer fireman. On Sept. 7 Hillary Clinton hosts a Ramadan dinner with Muslims on Capitol Hill - does she wear a burqa? On Sept. 7 former Obama Office of Mgt. and Budget (OMB) dir. Peter Orszag breaks with Obama and recommends extending the expiring Bush tax cuts for two years. On Sept. 7 Pres. Obama issues a Rosh Hashana Message to the Jewish community, uring them and Arabs to "seize peace", adding "We had an opportunity to move forward, toward the goal we share — two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security." On Sept. 7 prominent Christian, Jewisha and Muslim leaders hold an "emergency summit" in Washington, D.C. to denounce "the derision, misinformationa and outright bigotry" over Am. Muslims, esp. in the Ground Zero Mosque debate - they never denounce the intolerance, bigotry, supremacy, anti-Semitism etc. of Muslims worldwide? On Sept. 7 a bomb in a residential compound for police in Islamabad, Pakistan kills 18, incl. children, and injures 50. On Sept. 7 the govt. of Iraq announces the return of hundreds of Iraqi antiquities from the U.S.; meanwhile 632 pieces repatriated last year are announced as missing. On Sept. 7 transit strikes cripple London and France. On Sept. 7 Chicago mayor Richard M. Daley announces that he won't run again, and Pres. Obama okays Rahm Emanuel to go for it, and he resigns on Oct. 1. On Sept. 7 (7 p.m.) 300 Egyptian security forces attack the St. Macarius of Alexandria Monastery in Wadi Rayan, Fayoun Province (90 mi. S of Cairo) to stop them from building new limestone brick cells for the monks. On Sept. 8 Sri Lanka removes term limits for the pres., causing critics to say this could lead to a dictatorship. On Sept. 8 Italian Roman Catholic priest Piero Gheddo says that the low birth rate in Europe coupled with mass Muslim immigration will lead to Islam "sooner rather than later conquering the majority in Europe". On Sept. 8 it is announced that the Obama. admin. increased the federal debt by $2.526T, more than the cumulative total of all U.S. presidents from Washington to Reagan combined. On Sept. 8 Danish 2005 Muslim-offending Muhammad cartoonist Kurt Westergaard is awarded the M100 Media Prize in Berlin, Germany by chancellor Angela Merkel. On Sept. 8 Gaza terrorists launch a mortar attack on children and parents in S Israel hours before the start of the Jewish New Year Rosh Hashanah. On Sept. 8 the U.S. blacklists the German-based European-Iranian Trade Bank AG, saying it finances weapons proliferation. On Sept. 8 the city council of Hartford, Conn. begins kicking off meetings with Islamic prayers from the Quran to show solidarity with Muslims, sparking outrage. On Sept. 8 the Obama admin. wins a major victory from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, allowing it to shield Bush-era crimes from judicial review as "state secrets". On Sept. 8 a survey carried out by the Palestinian Authority claims that 63.1% of 1.5M Palestinians in Gaza live below the poverty line, a higher percentage than the same size pop. in Rwanda. On Sept. 9 Calif. U.S. district judge Virginia A. Phillips overturns the U.S. military ban on openly gay service members. On Sept. 9 an Islamic suicide car bomber in Rostov-on-Don, Russia kills 17 and wounds 130+. On Sept. 9 a federal jury convicts Peter Seda, co-founder of the Islamic charity Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation in Ashland, Ore. for helping smuggle $150K to Islamic terrorists in Chechnya. On Sept. 9 the Here You Have E-Mail Virus attacks major corps. and govt. orgs. incl. Comcast and NASA. On Sept. 9 an Iranian dissent group claims that Iran is developing a secret nuclear site called Behjatad-Abyek (Code Name 311) near Qazvin, 120 mi. W of Tehran. On Sept. 9 a natural gas line ruptures in San Francisco, Calif., causing a massive fireball and destroying 50+ homes. On Sept. 9 Muslim-Am. Yvonne Hiller shoots and kills two co-workers and injures a 3rd at a Kraft plant in NE Philly using a .357 Magnum. On Sept. 9 Forbes mag. pub. a cover story article from Dinesh D'Souza titled How Obama Thinks, containing the soundbytes "Barack Obama is the most antibusiness president in a generation, perhaps in American history. Thanks to him the era of big government is back", and claiming that he adopted "the cause of anti-colonialism" from his dead Kenyan father, which is praised by Newt Gingrich, causing White House Press secy. Robert Gibbs and call it a "publication you would see in a dentist's office, so lacking in truth and fact. I think it represents a new low." On Sept. 9-11 the Muslim Eid al-Fitr date falls near 9/11 for the first time since 2001, causing Am. Muslims to tone down festivities. On Sept. 10 Pres. Obama holds a news conference (first since May), fielding questions on the dismal chances for Dems. in the Nov. election, dissing Repubs. for "holding middle class tax relief hostage because they're insisting we've got to give tax relief to millionaires and billionaires, which would cost, over the course of 10 years, $700 billion and economists say is probably the worst way to stimulate the economy. That's an example of what this election is all about"; he also pontificates about Pastor Terry Jones' "stunt" and how it threatens American lives abroad, reminding us that he's commander in chief and seeming to regret not ordering U.S. marshals to arrest him for endangering troops, saying "You don't play games with that", and repeating his support of Muslims' right to build a mosque anywhere they can get away with, esp. Ground Zero, never mentioning that he could work with the Muslims to move it in a compromise, cautioning Americans not to "turn on each other", and uttering the soundbyte: "We are not at war against Islam, we're at war against terrorist organizations that have distorted Islam or falsely used the banner of Islam to engage in their destructive acts - we've got to be clear about that"; he also announces the appointment of Austan Dean Goolsbee (1969-) chmn. of the Council of Economic Advisers (until ?); meanwhile thousands protest the Pastor Terry Jones Koran Burning media stunt in Afghanistan, burning effigies of Pastor Terry Jones, and resulting in at least one death as German troops shoot a protester outside a NATO base; meanwhile Iranian pres. Imanutjob says that Quran burning is a "Zionist plot" that will hasten Israel's annhilation, and Newt Gingrich calls on Obama to come out against the Ground Zero Mosque to show the Am. people some "even-handedness"; meanwhile CIA dir. Leon Panetta tells his employees in a 9/11 memorial message that "The enemy is defined not by any religion, but by their actions, their atrocities", saying "We are united by our shared belief in liberty, equality, tolerance, fairness, and better lives for our children" (so we are at war with Islam?); meanwhile a new U.S. Terror Report fromthe former heads of the 9/11 Commission says that the U.S. has been slow to take seriously threats posed by homegrown Islamic radicals and failed to put systems into place - duh, no brainer with a president like Obama? On Sept. 10 Pres. Obama awards a Medal of Honor to U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta (1985-), becoming the first awarded since the Vietnam War. On Sept. 10 former Osama bin Laden comrade Norman Benotman calls for al-Qaida to stop its U.S. campaign, saying that the 9/11 attacks only brought sufferings to ordinary Muslims. On Sept. 10 a record 25 are killed by drug gangs in Juarez, Mexico; meanwhile 85 inmates scale the walls of Reynosa Prison and escape, while pres. Felipe Calderon denies a statement by Hillary Clinton that Mexico resembles Colombia in the 1990s, saying "We face an increasing threat from a well-organized network, drug-trafficking threat that is, in some cases, morphing into, or making common cause with, what we would consider an insurgency." On Sept. 11 Pres. Obama marks the 9th Anniv. of 9/11 at the Pentagon, giving a speech with the soundbyte "We define the character of our country", continuing his act of pretending Islamic jihad doesn't exist by calling al-Qaida "some small band of murderers", while Vice-Pres. Joe Biden attends services at Ground Zero which begin with a moment of silence at 8:46 a.m when the first plane hit the North Tower of the WTC, and First Ladies Michelle Obama and Laura Bush mark it at the Shanksville, Penn. Flight 93 Memorial Site; New York anti-mosque activists Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller of Stop Islamization of Am. and the Freedom Defense Initiative lead 40K in a protest against the Ground Zero Mosque (Cordoba House) (Park51) in New York City, where Dutch politician Geert Wilders delivers his No Mosque Here Speech, with the soundbytes "A tolerant society is not a suicidal society", "We must draw the line so that New York, rooted in Dutch tolerance will never become New Mecca", and "We must not give a free hand to those who want to subjugate us"; too bad, the already-subjugated major media skunk it despite giving unlimited publicity to the 1-man band Pastor Terry Jones; N.J. Transit worker Derek Fenton bravely burns pages from his Quran at Ground Zero, and is taken away by the pigs for questioning, then released, after which he is fired; six men from Gateshead, Tyneside, England are later arrested for filming themselves burning Qurans on 9/11. On Sept. 11 Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu demands that Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state, saying "That is the real basis of the end of demands from the state of Israel and the end of the conflict between the two peoples", but adds that he will not make it a precondition of talks; he also says that Israel won't continue the freeze on Jewish construction in Judea and Samaria beyond Sept. 26; on Sept. 15 the 2nd round of talks in Sharm e-Sheikh ends with no movement on the construction moratorium issue. On Sept. 11 Saudi diplomat Ali Ahmad Asseri asks the U.S. govt. for asylum because the Saudi govt. refused to renew his diplomatic passpart and fired him discovering he has a Jewish woman friend and is gay, saying he fears for his life and that if he returns "they will kill me openly in broad daylight". On Sept. 12 Pres. Obama extends the 9/11 state of emergency for another year. On Sept. 12 Turkish voters by 58-41 pass a sweeping constitutional reform package, veering it toward Sharia and away from secularism by reining in the possibility of secular military coups while protecting individual and women's rights on paper, but with no teeth for enforcement, allowing Islamist officers expelled from the military to appeal to the courts, which are controlled by Islamists; no surprise, Pres. Obama praises Turkey for this move, while Israeli defense minister Amos Gilad says that "If there is not a change in personality, then Turkey will become Iran number two". On Sept. 12 in an effort to save midterm elections for the Dems., Pres. Obama flops and backs extending the Bush-era tax cuts, but only for the 98% of Ams. making less than $250K a year. On Sept. 12 Repub. leader Newt Gingrich says that Pres. Obama harbors a deep-seated animosity toward the West coming from his daddy's rebellion against British rule in Kenya, calling him "factually insane", and his worldview "outside the comprehension" of most Americans. On Sept. 13 the Obama admin. closes a $60B arms deal with retro Sharia country Saudi Arabia, the biggest U.S. arms deal in history, incl. 84 F-15s, 70 Apache helis, 72 Black Hawk helis, and 36 Little Bird helis; Pres. Obama's Nobel Peace Prize isn't even 1 year old; meanwhile a U.S. envoy to the IAEA Glyn Davies urges Arab states to withdraw a resolution calling on Israel to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, saying it would give a negative signal to peace talks. On Sept. 13 deadly riots in Kashmir kill 16 after Iranian TV broadcasts images of Ams. desecrating the Quran, causing U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer to jump and claim that Quran-burning is like "shouting fire in a crowded theater" and hence can be banned, not mentioning that it should be the press that is punished not the individual for broadcasting the event worldwide and creating the crowded theater; the next day he flops and says that the Constitution does protect book burning, with the soundbyte "We protect expression that we hate" - so he loves the holy Quran and wants everybody to imbibe its evil ideology? On Sept. 13 Cuba announces that its bad economy is forcing it to fire 1M state by employees by next Mar. On Sept. 13 the FBI bans 16-y.-o. English teenie Luke Angel (1993-) from the U.S. for life for sending a drunken email to Pres. Obama that calls him a "punk". On Sept. 13 Italy announces that it's presenting a resolution to the U.N. to protect the rights of religious minorities in Pakistan from Muslims. On Sept. 13 the decision of the city council of Hartford, Conn. to reverse its decision to host an Islamic prayer in favor of an interfaith moment of silence pisses off area Muslims, who demand Islamic prayer sessions. On Sept. 13 an Australian jury hears testimony about a planned attack by five Muslim men on Holsworth Army Base. On Sept. 13 blonde Mexican reporter Ines Sainz receives catcalls in the New York Jets locker room, causing the PC police to come out. On Sept. 13 the Royal Canadian Mounted Police pub. their annual report for 2010-1, containing the first mention of a possible coup d'etat. On Sept. 14 Sarah Shourd of the U.S. is released after 400 days in solitary confinement in Iran (July 2009) for alleged spying after paying £500K bail. On Sept. 14 Mexican immigration minister (since 2006) Cecilia Romero Castillo resigns three weeks after the massacre of 72 Central and South Am. migrants. On Sept. 14 (9 p.m.) a bomb alert at the Eiffel Tower in Paris causes 25K to be evacuated. On Sept. 14 a panel of U.S. nat. security experts releases a report saying that Pres. Obama is abandoning the U.S. to Muslim Sharia by his policy of delinking Islam to terrorism et al., threatening subversion of the U.S. Constitutional govt. On Sept. 14-18 Category 3 Hurricane Karl forms off the coast of Venezuela then hits the Yucatan Peninsula, killing three. On Sept. 15 Western govts. accuse Iran of trying to intimidate the IAEA by barring some nuclear inspectors; the U.S. warns them of possible diplomatic consequences. On Sept. 15 U.S. homeland security secy. Janet Napolitano tells the Congressional Hispanic Caucus that the U.S.-Mexico border is largely secured, and asks lawmakers to quit "moving the goalposts". On Sept. 15 Gaza militants fire mortars and rockets at S Israel to stop peace talks, causing Israeli aircraft to bomb a smuggling tunnel at the Egyptian border, killing a Palestinian. On Sept. 15 Iranian pres. Madmaninastraightjacket interviews head-covered Andrea Mitchel on NBC Nightly News, saying that "Muslims do not hate America". On Sept. 15 Pres. Obama addresses the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Inst. 33rd Annual Award Gala in Washington, D.C., and omits the word "Creator" from the Declaration of Independence. On Sept. 15 NASA launches ARTEMIS-P1, the first spacecraft to achieve a kidney-shaped Earth-Moon libation orbit around the L1 and L2 Lagrangian points.
On Sept. 16 ailing Mexico celebrates its bicentennial, complete with a $40M celebration - how long till the Megamerge Dissolution Solution? On Sept. 16 South Korean pres. Lee Myung-bak names Kim Hwang-sik as PM of South Korea (until ?). On Sept. 16 U.S. secy. of state Hillary Clinton leaves the Middle East with no sign of breakthrough in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks after three days. On Sept. 16 (5:20 p.m.) a 100 mph tornado-like storm hits Brooklyn, N.Y., killing one and leaving 25K without power. On Sept. 16-19 Pope Benedict XVI visits Britain (at a cost of 10M pounds to the British govt.), offering to "extend the hand of friendship", and urging it to resist "more aggressive forms of secularism" after the queen welcomes him at Holyroodhouse in Edinbugh, praising Britain for fighting Hitler's "atheist extremism", and saying that though it had a "great history of anti-Catholicism" it also had a "great history of tolerance"; he also expresses a "great sadness" for the pedophile priest scandal, saying "It is difficult to understand how this perversion of the priestly ministry was possible", and why the "authority of the Church" was not "sufficiently vigilant"; the Vatican is shocked at the hostile British reaction to him; on Sept. 15 six Algerian Muslims are arrested for a plot to kill him, then released after the police decide there's "no credible threat"; during his flight from Rome, he said the child sex abuse scandal by the clergy was a great personal shock to him; the pope meets with the secy.-gen. of the Muslim Council of Britain; on Sept. 18 the Raelians file suit against the pope, claiming that he violated human rights by claiming that condoms don't stop the spread of AIDS. On Sept. 17 Pres. Obama announces the appointment of Harvard law prof. (consumer advocate) Elizabeth Warren as the head of a new co