2002 – Lucas John Helder (21) of Pine Island, Minn., was arrested following a car chase near Lovelock, Nevada, and charged for the recent series of mailbox pipe bombs. Helder said he was trying to make a “smiley face” pattern on the map of his bombings.
2003 – President Bush ordered U.S. sanctions against Iraq lifted, allowing U.S. humanitarian aid and remittances to flow into Iraq.
2004 – Donald Rumsfeld, US Defense Secretary, testified before Congress for 6 hours and apologized for Iraqi prisoner abuse by US soldiers.
2004 – The CGC James Rankin set the historic “Francis Scott Key” buoy off of Fort McHenry, Maryland, near the Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland. The buoy marks the spot where the British warship on which Francis Scott Key, the author of the Star Spangled Banner, was held aboard during the bombardment of Fort McHenry by the Royal Navy during the War of 1812. Each year the buoy is set in the spring, marking the historic location of the event, and is then removed in the fall.
2004 – American businessman Nick Berg is beheaded by Islamic militants. The act is recorded on videotape and released on the Internet.
2007 – A group of six radical Islamist men, allegedly plotting to stage an attack on the Fort Dix military base in New Jersey, United States, were arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). They were subsequently charged with planning an attack against U.S. soldiers. The alleged aim of the six men was said to be to “kill as many soldiers as possible”. Five of the men arrested, according to news reports, intended to attack the Fort Dix military base and kill as many servicemen as they could. The sixth man arrested, Abdullahu, has been charged with aiding and abetting in the possession of firearms by the Duka brothers. The group revealed to the FBI informant (a conversation which was recorded) that the five other men intended to “hit a heavy concentration of soldiers […] You hit four, five or six Humvees and light the whole place [up] and retreat completely without any losses”. The men attempted to purchase weapons from an FBI informant, including AK-47s, M16s, M60s, rocket propelled grenades, rockets, semi-automatic Sig Sauer 9 mm handguns, Smith & Wesson 9 mm, C-4 plastic explosive, and nitroglycerin. The informant told them that the weapons would come from an underground military dealer from Baltimore, Maryland who had recently returned from Egypt.
2009 – The private military company Xe (formerly Blackwater Worldwide) ends its operations in Baghdad, Iraq.
2009 – Somali pirates hijack the Netherlands’ MV Marathon and attack the U.S. Navy cargo ship USNS Lewis and Clark which took evasive action to prevent a successful attack. Suspected pirates then fired small arms weapons from approximately two nautical miles toward Lewis and Clark, which fell one nautical mile short of the ship’s stern. Lewis and Clark continued to increase speed and the skiffs ceased their pursuit of the U.S. ship.
https://thisdayinusmilhist.wordpress.com/2014/05/07/may-7/
