2000 – The Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft began its orbit around the asteroid Eros.
2002 – In Kabul, Afghanistan, Abdul Rahman, the Air Transportation Minister, was reported killed by a mob of Muslim pilgrims at Kabul Airport seeking transport to Mecca. Hamid Karzai later said senior officials were responsible and blamed the killing on a personal vendetta. Gen. Tawhidi and Gen. Beg were among the accused. Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah later said the attack was not premeditated.
2002 – In the Netherlands Slobodan Milosevic spoke on his own behalf on the 3rd day of his trial. He denied all blame for a decade of carnage in the Balkans and displayed pictures of victims of NATO air raids. Milosevic justified his actions as a “struggle against terrorism” and said he was a victim of twisted facts and “terrible fabrication.”
2002 – Palestinian Abu Zubaydah (30) was identified as the new chief of operations for al Qaeda and was believed to be organizing al Qaeda remnants for new attacks against the US.
2003 – Major powers rebuffed the United States in the U.N. Security Council and insisted on more time for weapons inspections in Iraq. Earlier, chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix told the Council his teams had not found any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq but also stating that Iraq has still failed to fully cooperate.
2005 – President Bush asked Congress for an estimated $82 billion in additional funds to cover the costs of continuing military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
2007 – Operation Imposing Law, also known as Operation Law and Order, Operation Fardh al-Qanoon or Baghdad Security Plan(BSP), a joint Coalition-Iraqi security plan conducted throughout Baghdad, begins. Under the Surge plan developed in late 2006, Baghdad was to be divided into nine zones, with Iraqi and American soldiers working side-by-side to clear each sector of Shiite militias and Sunni insurgents and establish Joint Security Stations so that reconstruction programs could begin in safety. The U.S. military commander in Iraq, David Petraeus, went so far as to say Iraq would be “doomed” if this plan failed. Numerous members of Congress stated the plan was a critical period for the U.S. presence in Iraq.
https://thisdayinusmilhist.wordpress.com/2014/02/14/february-14/
