November 7, 2000 Election Day
http://www.nyas.org/publications/sciences/pdf/ts_11_00.pdf
One Million Black Votes Didn't Count in the 2000 Presidential Election
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0621-11.htm
December 12, 2000 Supreme Court Ruling of Gore v. Bush
http://straylight.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/00-949.ZPC.html
January 21, 2001 George Walker Bush Inauguration
Inauguration Protests Largest Since Nixon in 1973
http://www.commondreams.org/cgi-bin/print.cgi?file=/headlines01/0121-01.htm
February 4. 2001 Dick Cheney's Energy Task Force convenes in secret.
Enron testifies six times before it's results are
published on May 14, 2001.
http://energy.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressReleases.Detail&PressRelease_id=573&Month=5&Year=2004
February 9, 2001 USS Greenville during a public relations sailing, strikes the Japanese Schooling Vessel, Ehime Maru,
sinking it, ten miles off "Diamond Head, O'hau, Hawaii. Dead are four teenagers, two instructors and three crewmen with
another 12 injured.
http://gohawaii.about.com/library/weekly/aa021001a.htm
February 16, 2001 Six airmen are laid to rest following a training incident off Hawaii where two helicopters collided.
http://starbulletin.com/2001/02/16/news/story4.html
April Fool's Day, 2001 The chinese Spy Plane Incident
http://www.americans-world.org/digest/regional_issues/china/china9.cfm
May 5, 2001 Test launch of Missile Defense Shield
http://archives.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/asiapcf/east/05/08/missile.shield/index.html
May12, 2001 Pakistan takes firm stance against MDS with USA
Islamabad, May 12After initial hesitation, Pakistan has taken a firm stand against US President George Bush’s missile defence shield (MDS), saying that it would jeopardise strategic stability and trigger a new arms race.
“It would undermine international efforts aimed at arms control and disarmament,” country’s military ruler, Gen Parvez Musharraf said, announcing his regime’s stand for the first time on the US proposals to have MDS.
“We share the international concern at the development and deployment of ballistic missile defence,” he told a state banquet given in honour of visiting Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji here last night.
It was for the first time that General Musharraf reacted to MDS after India welcomed the US move to have missile defence as a step towards unilateral reduction of nuclear forces.
It is also significant that General Musharraf chose to announce this during the visit of Mr Rongji, whose government firmly opposed the plan.
The announcement also coincides with US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage’s visit to New Delhi. The Pakistan media today carried comments by Mr Vajpayee, welcoming the new US vision of disarmament. PTI
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2001/20010513/world.htm#5
September 2001 Despite the Bush administration’s bullish outlook on the deployment of a missile-defense shield during the next decade, there is a lot of work yet to be done in the laboratory, said U.S. government scientists.
http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/issues/2001/Sep/Future_Anti-Missile.htm
August 31, 2001 - Libya's Mohammar Quadaffi approaches the Vatican in request to speak with Western Leaders. He is refused by Blair and Bush.
September 11, 2001
International reaction
The attacks had major world-wide political effects. The attacks were denounced world-wide, with the headline of Paris,
France's "Le Monde" newspaper being prototypical: "Today We Are All Americans." Approximately one month after the attacks the
USA led a wide coalition of international forces into Afghanistan in pursuit of al-Qaeda forces. The Pakistani authorities
moved decisively to align themselves with the United States in a war against Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda. It gave the U.S. a
number of military airports and bases for its attack on Afghanistan. It arrested over six hundred supposed Al-Qaeda members
and handed them over to the U.S.[12]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11,_2001_attacks#International_reaction
October 7, 2001 - "Operation Enduring Freedom" launched.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Enduring_Freedom
December 17, 2001 Failure Raises Questions on Overall Program (of MDS)
http://cndyorks.gn.apc.org/yspace/articles/bmd/namdprogcancelled.htm
State of the Union Address 2002
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/01/20020129-11.html
February 2002 - from the Op-Ed that would appear in 2003 by Joe Wilson
"...In February 2002, I was informed by officials at the Central Intelligence Agency that Vice President Dick Cheney's office
had questions about a particular intelligence report. While I never saw the report, I was told that it referred to a
memorandum of agreement that documented the sale of uranium yellowcake — a form of lightly processed ore — by Niger to Iraq
in the late 1990's. The agency officials asked if I would travel to Niger to check out the story so they could provide a
response to the vice president's office..."
August 11, 2002. SECURITY COUNCIL HOLDS IRAQ IN ‘MATERIAL BREACH’ OF DISARMAMENT OBLIGATIONS,OFFERS FINAL CHANCE TO COMPLY, UNANIMOUSLY ADOPTING RESOLUTION 1441 (2002)
Instructs Weapons Inspections to Resume within 45 Days,
Recalls Repeated Warning of ‘Serious Consequences’ for Continued Violations
http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2002/SC7564.doc.htm
September 12, 2002 Bush addresse the United Nation with overtures against Iraq
http://www.un.int/usa/02_131.htm
October 11, 2002
House Approves Force Against Iraq with arguments against.
US House Approves Resolution Authorizing Use of Force against Iraq The US House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to approve the No. 114 resolution which grants President George W. Bush
the power to use force in dealing with Iraq although many lawmakers expressed opposition to the motion during hectic debates
over the past few days.
http://english.people.com.cn/200210/11/eng20021011_104843.shtml
October 11, 2002
Senate approves Iraq war resolutionAdministration applauds vote
Friday, October 11, 2002 Posted: 12:35 PM EDT (1635 GMT)
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- In a major victory for the White House, the Senate early Friday voted 77-23 to authorize President Bush
to attack Iraq if Saddam Hussein refuses to give up weapons of mass destruction as required by U.N. resolutions.
Hours earlier, the House approved an identical resolution, 296-133.
...Resolution sharply divides DemocratsThe Senate vote sharply divided Democrats, with 29 voting for the measure and 21 against. All Republicans except Sen. Lincoln
Chafee of Rhode Island voted for passage.
Ahead of the vote, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle announced Thursday morning he would support Bush on Iraq, saying it is
important for the country "to speak with one voice at this critical moment."
Daschle, D-South Dakota, said the threat of Iraq's weapons programs "may not be imminent. But it is real. It is growing. And
it cannot be ignored." However, he urged Bush to move "in a way that avoids making a dangerous situation even worse."
Daschle had expressed reservations about a possible U.S. attack on Iraq, and he was not part of an agreement between the
White House and other congressional leaders framing the resolution last week.
Sen. Robert Byrd, D-West Virginia, attempted Thursday to mount a filibuster against the resolution but was cut off on a 75 to
25 vote.
http://archives.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/10/11/iraq.us/
January 23, 2003 State of the Union Address 2003
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/01/20030128-19.html
"... the British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa, ..." spoken by George Walker Bush.
February 5, 2003
INTERNATIONAL LAW ON THE USE OF FORCE
Powell's mission—like that of his colleagues over the past months—was to fit the Bush administration's case against Saddam
Hussein into the U.N. structures governing the use of force as laid out in the U.N. Charter. Whether the United States
chooses to continue to pursue this path or not has serious implications for the future of international law and the United
Nations.
The international legal rules governing the use of force take as their starting point Article 2(4) of the U.N. Charter, which
prohibits any nation from using force against another. The charter allows for only two exceptions to this rule: when force is
required in self-defense (Article 51) or when the Security Council authorizes the use of force to protect international peace
and security (Chapter VII).
http://www.worldpress.org/specials/iraq/
March 21, 2003 Bush begins his invasion into Iraq.
From the Sydney Morning Herald
Invasion beginsBy Paul McGeough in Baghdad and Lindsay Murdoch on the Kuwait/Iraq borderMarch 21 2003
At least five cruise missiles slammed into the heart of Baghdad this morning, setting two government buildings ablaze and
stabbing at the heart of the regime - Saddam Hussein's palace compound on the banks of the Tigris River - but still not
"shock and awe".
The force of the missiles, low powered compared with some of the massive warheads promised by the US, pointed to a new turn
in the Bush battle plan, after a surprise opening missile strike earlier in the day on a military complex on the outskirts of
the city.
US and British troops invading from Kuwait seized the Iraqi border town of Umm Qasr this morning, the official Kuwaiti News
Agency said. Iraqi state television denied that the town had fallen.
Meanwhile, US forces launched a massive artillery assault on Iraqi positions near the Kuwait border early today. Artillery
units of the US First Marine Division fired a barrage of 200 rounds from heavy howitzers.
Their target was the Iraqi 51st Mechanised Division across the border. As well, American Apache attack helicopters launched
Hellfire missiles into the Iraqi positions. The massive assault lit up the sky with bright orange explosions in an awesome
display of firepower which continued for two hours.
In Baghdad, air raid sirens wailed at 8.48pm and 20 minutes later as a building, thought to be the headquarters of Saddam's
oil ministry, was engulfed in a massive fire ball. The missiles whipped in from the south, exploding with a low percussion
thud that reduced the building to ghostly flames and a plume of smoke.
The next target was only metres away and it too went up in a spectacular hit, minutes later. This building, which earlier in
the day boasted two anti-aircraft batteries which were stationed on its rooftop, and the oil ministry, are next to Saddam's
planning headquarters, where the Jumhuriya bridge meets the west bank of the river.
A short time later, two missiles appeared to slam into the presidential compound itself. The chances of the security paranoid
Saddam or members of his family being on the premises at a time like this are zero, but there were reports that a house in
which the president's wife and daughters lived was hit.
Baghdad - the regime and the city - emerged dazed from the first US strikes and fearful of what might be in store for them in
the coming night.
Iraqi forces had retaliated in the wake of the opening US assault, firing three Scud missiles into Kuwait, one of which was
taken out by a US-operated Patriot missile battery before it neared Kuwait City. The two reportedly landed harmlessly in the
deserts of north Kuwait.
Light traffic returned to Baghdad's streets, but only for the daylight hours. The telephone system either was shut down or on
the brink of collapse - international calls were impossible; local calls were a lottery.
Foxholes and barricades were still being built around the city - and what the Herald presumed to be waste cardboard on a busy
intersection proved to be a foxhole when several soldiers were seen emerging from beneath it.
Iraqi officials said that one person had died and several had been injured in US-led attacks on a customs post on the
Jordanian border and on a TV station at Ramadi, a Saddam stronghold west of Baghdad. There was further scattered US bombing
beyond Baghdad in the mid-afternoon, but the day's strikes were focused on the Al Rasheed military complex, about 15km south
-east of the capital, and, according to Iraqi street talk, an elaborate presidential palace next to Saddam International
Airport.
Reports from Washington say that the CIA was convinced that it had a surveillance fix on Saddam in a bunker within the
complex.
Both sites are close to one of Saddam's more impressive personal security facilities - the palace is cheek-by-jowl with the
airport, from which a French construction contractor built Saddam two escape routes in the mid-80s, a tunnel and a separate
access road.
A hectoring Information minister, Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf, accused Mr Bush of deliberately attempting to assassinate Saddam.
"Bush has committed a despicable crime against humanity. The only way to describe the rulers of the US and Britain is that
they are mercenaries and war criminals," he said.
Like most of his colleagues, Mr al-Sahhaf arrived at a press conference in the drab military ensemble of the Baath Party.
Most senior officials have switched to the same garb - even the director general of information, Uday al-Taie. Yesterday he
arrived at work in the early hours in a smart suit and tie. By mid-morning he too was in fatigues.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/03/21/1047749918896.html?oneclick=true
The rest is current history with an American death toll to date of 2063 with war wounded at 15,477 and Iraqi death of 26,931 minimally with estimates exceeding 100,000.
