2002 – US forces in Afghanistan killed 5 enemy fighters and captured 32 during a raid at Deh Rawod, north of Kandahar. US air strikes at Char Chine, killed 5 civilians.
2002 – Former US President Jimmy Carter arrives in Cuba for a five-day visit with Fidel Castro becoming the first President of the United States, in or out of office, to visit the island since Castro’s 1959 revolution.
2003 – L. Paul Bremer, the new American civilian administrator, took over the task of piecing Iraq together. He replaced retired Army Lt. Gen. Jay Garner.
2003 – US officials said Rihab Rashid Taha, called “Dr. Germ” for her work with germ warfare agents, was reported to be in coalition custody. Ibrahim Ahmad Abd al Sattar Muhammad, No. 11 on the most-wanted list, was also reported in custody.
2003 – North Korea declared that the 1992 agreement with South Korea to keep the Korean Peninsula free of nuclear weapons was nullified, citing a “sinister” U.S. agenda.
2003 – In Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, multiple, simultaneous car bombings at 3 foreign compounds killed 30 people, including 8 Americans and 9 suicide bombers. The next day Saudi authorities linked Khaled Jehani (29) head of a 19-member al-Qaida team to the carnage. Ali Abd al-Rahman al-Faqasi al-Ghamdi, a senior al Qaeda figure, surrendered Jun 26. On Jan 8, 2004, 8 accomplices were arrested in Switzerland.
2003 – Homeland Security Department launches TopOff II, a week-long national training exercise for emergency prepardness and response.
2004 – In Iraq US soldiers backed by tanks and helicopters battled fighters loyal to a radical cleric near a mosque in Karbala, hours after Iraqi leaders agreed on a proposal that would end his standoff. As many as 25 insurgents were killed.
2005 – A United States Senate probe releases evidence showing two prominent British and French politicians received vouchers for millions of barrels of Iraqi oil in exchange for their support of Saddam Hussein’s regime. George Galloway is accused of using the Mariam Appeal, the children’s leukemia charity he founded, to conceal the transfer of 3 million barrels of oil, although he denies any wrongdoing.
2006 – The U.S. FBI raids the home of Kyle “Dusty” Foggo, outgoing number three man at the CIA, in an investigation into political corruption, including the use of prostitutes and bribery in connection with lobbyist Brent Wilkes, revealed to be the “no. 1 unindicted co-conspirator” in the Randy “Duke” Cunningham scandal. Foggo was convicted of honest services fraud in the awarding of a government contract and sentenced to 37 months in the federal prison at Pine Knot, Kentucky.
2007 – U.S. and International Security Assistance Forces (ISAF) killed Mullah Dadullah, a notorious Taliban commander in charge of leading operations in the south of the country; eleven other Taliban fighters were killed in the same firefight.
2008 – Basra “residents overwhelmingly reported a substantial improvement in their everyday lives” according to the New York Times. “Government forces have now taken over Islamic militants’ headquarters and halted the death squads and ‘vice enforcers’ who attacked women, Christians, musicians, alcohol sellers and anyone suspected of collaborating with Westerners”, according to the report; however, when asked how long it would take for lawlessness to resume if the Iraqi army left, one resident replied, “one day”.
https://thisdayinusmilhist.wordpress.com/2014/05/12/may-12/
