Timeline – 2010 (SIADD)

January

 * January 1: A 28-year-old Somali Muslim intruder armed with an axe and knife entered the home of Kurt Westergaard, the Danish cartoonist who created the controversial cartoon of the Muslim prophet Muhammad wearing a bomb in his turban, and was subsequently shot and wounded by police. Westergaard was unharmed, because of the security precautions in his house. The suspect was arrested, taken into custody and charged with attempted murder of Westergaard and a police officer. According to PET intelligence, the suspect is closely linked to the Somali Islamist insurgency group al-Shabaab, commonly considered a terrorist organization, as well as al-Qaeda leaders in East Africa, and has been part of a "terror-related network" with Danish ties.


 * January 2: McCain would for the next days meet with his National Security Council, along with Director of the CIA Bobby Ray Inman and Director of FBI Robert Mueller, to discuss the attempted terrorist attack against Northwest Airlines Flight 253.


 * January 3: The McCain Administration and the British government would announce their increased funding to a counterterrorism police unit in Yemen to tackle the rising terrorist threat from the country. while the United Kingdom would give more than £100 million ($161 million) to Yemen in 2011, while the U.S. government would increase its funding to counterterrorism measures in Yemen from $ 4,4 million (2006) to $65,6 million.


 * President McCain endorsed the Republican candidate, State Senator Scott Brown, in the special election in Massachussets, saying that Brown's long record of public service fighting wasteful spending and higher taxes and as an officer on the Army National Guard, he understands the importance of a strong military and the necessity of protecting our interests around the world. Trailing Democratic candiate Martha Coakley with between 25 and 30% and with analyst expressing little chance for a Republican victory on January 19, McCain was Brown's first major endorsement and his first visitor, and political analysts said that McCain's endorsement was a big gamble - as Brown was considered a long-shot candidate running for the seat left vacant by the death of Edward M. Kennedy, McCain's endorsement might eventually prove to be a guarantee for Brown's victory or a big blunder. Brown has since called McCain his political role model.


 * January 4: The McCain administration is locked in internal debate over a top-secret policy blueprint for shrinking the U.S. nuclear arsenal and reducing the role of such weapons in America's military strategy and foreign policy. Officials in the Pentagon and elsewhere have pushed back against McCain administration proposals to cut the number of weapons and narrow their mission, according to U.S. officials and outsiders who have been briefed on the process. In turn, White House officials, unhappy with early Pentagon-led drafts of the blueprint known as the Nuclear Posture Review, steppes up their involvement in the deliberations and ordered that the document reflect McCain's preference for sweeping change.


 * January 7: Sam Nunn, the National Security advisor said that Americans would feel "a certain shock" when a report detailing the intelligence failures that could have prevented the Christmas Day attack were released later that day. He said that President McCain would be "legitimately and correctly alarmed that things that were available, bits of information that were available, patterns of behavior that were available, were not acted on."


 * January 8: At a press conference at the White House along with Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge and Deputy National Security Advisor John O. Brennan, President McCain would criticize the U.S. intelligence agencies for "failing to interpret, compile, use and share information they had available. The failure was a serious error that could have had catastrophic consequences." He would announce improved security measures at U.S. airports and aviation security, including the order to U.S. security agencies to work better together to prevent terrorism, invest significant amounts to improve security at U.S. airports (including the introduction of 3D full-body scanning x-ray technology) as well strengthen cooperation with other countries around the world. Under new rules prompted by the incident, airline passengers travelling to the U.S. from 14 nations will aslo undergo extra screening: Afghanistan, Algeria, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen.


 * January 10: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) is facing harsh criticism due to a quote in the book "Game Change" by Mark Halperin og John Heileman, where he is quoted as saying privately in 2008 that Obama could be successful as a black candidate in part because of his "light-skinned" appearance and speaking patterns "with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one." While Chairman of the Republican Party Michael Steele and Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas) called on Reid to give up his post, Reid's appology was accepted by Obama, saying that "Harry Reid called me today and apologized for an unfortunate comment reported today. I accepted Harry's apology without question because I've known him for years, I've seen the passionate leadership he's shown on issues of social justice and I know what's in his heart." President McCain would ask for restraint, saying that "while his remarks are embarrassing and racially insensitive, Obama has accepted his apology, and I am not intending to blow this particular case out of proporsions". He also urged the American people to join him in starting an open, honest and respectful debate on race.


 * January 11: A U.S. delegation consisting of Secretary of State Joe Lieberman and Defense Minister Robert Gates would travel to Yemen, where they met with President Ali Abdullah Saleh, Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Mujur, Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Kerbi and Defense Minister Brig. Gen. Muhammad Nasir Ahmad Ali to discuss increased military cooperation between Yemen and the United States in combatting al-Qa'ida on the Arabian Peninsula in Yemen, in response to the attempted terrorist attack against Northwest Airlines Flight 253.


 * Some Democrats in Congress would demand that the United States would hold back their guarantees of loan to Israel following the announcement by the Israeli government that they would begin construction of a 703 meter long barrier along the Israeli-Egyptian border at the cost of 1.5 billion Shekel.


 * January 12: A CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey show that 72% of people questioned in the poll said they have a moderate or great deal of confidence in the McCain administration to protect the public from future terrorist attacks, while 23 percent disapproved. While the survey showed that positive view of McCain on this matter was largest among Republicans (82%), the survey showed that 61% of independents and 51% of Democrats approve of how the president responded to the incident on Christmas Day. The survey also showed that the vast majority of Americans supported McCain's plan to introduce full-body scanners in airports across the country.


 * At the headquarters of the Council of the European Union in Brussels, Belgium, the U.S. Special Envoy for the Middle East Richard Jones met with High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton, Envoy of the Quartet on the Middle East Tony Blair and foreign ministers David Miliband (United Kingdom), Bernard Kouchner (France), Guido Westerwelle (Germany), Franco Frattini (Italy), Miguel Ángel Moratinos (Spain) and Morten Høglund (Norway) to re-start the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians, with the goal of a two-state solution.


 * At 4:53:09 p.m. local time, an earthquake with magnitude 7.0 Mw centered approximately 10 miles (16 km) from Port-au-Prince, Haiti damaged most of Port-au-Prince's major landmarks, including the National Presidential Palace of Haiti, the National Assembly building, the Port-au-Prince Cathedral and at least one hospital. Tens of thousands were reported missing.


 * January 13: In response to the earthquake in Haiti, McCain said: "My thoughts and prayers go out to those who have been affected by this earthquake. We are closely monitoring the situation and we stand ready to assist the people of Haiti." Immediately after the earthquake, Secretary of State Lieberman said the United States would provide civilian and military disaster relief and humanitarian assistance to Haiti in form of 72 search-and-rescue personnel, six rescue dogs and up to 48 tons of equipment.


 * In Washington D.C., McCain' temper would come under scrutiny as a quote in the book "Game Change" by Mark Halperin og John Heileman said that during the 2008 presidential campaign McCain had yelled "FUCK YOU! FUCK, FUCK, fuck, fuck" at his wife Cindy. Press Secretary Brooke Buchanan would respond to this by saying that the relationship between the McCains was at its best, but that they at times quarrel like any other couple. Other politicians, including Sarah Palin, Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Rudy Guliani, Joe Biden and Barack Obama were also criticized in the book.


 * The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) said lawmakers should consider whether U.S.-led air strikes, drone attacks and, if necessary special forces on the ground in Yemen to defeat an emboldened al-Qaida force there. This was bluntly refused by the Yemeni government.


 * Televangelist Pat Robertson claimed that Haiti's founders had sworn a "pact to the Devil" in order to liberate themselves from the French slave owners and indirectly attributed the earthquake to the consequences of the Haitian people being "cursed" for doing so.


 * January 14: At a joint press conference with Vice President Pawlenty, Secretary of State Lieberman and Secretary of Defense Gates in attendance, McCain would announce a massive humanitarian and military response to the earthquake in Haiti. The United States would commit $100,000,000 to help Haiti recover from the earthquake, dispatch the Coast Guard cutters Forward and Mohawk to coordinate military aircraft over Haiti with satellite communications, two Coast Guard C-130s to fly up and down the coast looking for people needing help, while two Coast Guard helicopters arrived to provide rescue or other assistance. The Navy would dispatch the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson and its helicopters would provide critical air transport for relief workers, while the hospital ship USNS Comfort and other ships including destroyers would move toward Haiti to provide relief. The Marines would dispatch a a Navy amphibious assault ship carrying a force of about 2,200 Marines from Camp Lejeune to help provide security, support the embassy or support humanitarian work. The army would dispatch a more than 3,500-strong Army brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division based at Fort Bragg.


 * In her daily press briefing, White House Press Secretary Brooke Buchanan commented Robertson's commentary: "It never ceases to amaze that in times of amazing human suffering somebody says something that could be so utterly stupid." It was reported that McCain himself had referred to Robertson's commentary as "Bullshit" and said that Robertson was an "agent of intolerance corrupting influences on religion and politics."


 * Meanwhile, in Yemen, as the country's council of Muslim clerics called for jihad if foreign troops were to establish themselves in the country, Defense Minister Brig. Gen. Muhammad Nasir Ahmad Ali declared an open war on al-Qaida, saying that "The war security forces launched against al-Qaeda elements is open whenever or wherever we find these elements. Yemen is determined to clear its territory of al-Qaeda members."


 * January 15-16: President McCain travelled to Boston and Wrentham, Massachusetts, to campaign for Scott Brown in the Senate special election. At the campaign meetings McCain would praise Brown for his fiscal conservatism, his maverick stances and appeal to both Republicans and independents and his military service. "Scott Brown has a long record of public service fighting wasteful spending and higher taxes," McCain said. "As an officer on the Army National Guard, he understands the importance of a strong military and the necessity of protecting our interests around the world."


 * January 17: McCain met with former U.S. Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush at the White House, where he announced the establishment of the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund to raise contributions for relief and recovery efforts following the 2010 Haiti earthquake.


 * January 18: At 0950, seven Taliban militans launch a coordinated suicide attack in central Kabul, Afghanistan. Taliban gunmen attacked the presidential palace, the central bank and several government buildings. The shopping complex Gulbahar, and a cinema in the city was targetted by the attackers. Twelve people died in the attack, including the Taliban fighters, with dozens reported wounded. According to a statement on a Taliban website, the nearby Serena Hotel and government buildings were the intended target for the attack.


 * McCain would immediately condemn the attack, saying that "It is an indiscriminate attack on public areas of Kabul which shows the Taliban deliberately disregard the lives of ordinary Afghans. The United States and the rest of the international community stand united with the government of Afghanistan and express our condolences for the lives lost in the attack. This incident strengthens our resolve to build a safer, more secure Afghanistan."


 * An ABC News investigation revealed that coded references to New Testament Bible passages about Jesus Christ are inscribed on high-powered rifle sights provided to the U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and in the training of Iraqi and Afghan soldiers. The maker of the sights, Trijicon, has a $660 million multi-year contract to provide up to 800,000 sights to the Marine Corps, and additional contracts to provide sights to the U.S. Army. U.S. military rules specifically prohibit the proselytizing of any religion in Iraq or Afghanistan and were drawn up in order to prevent criticism that the U.S. was embarked on a religious "Crusade" in its war against al Qaeda and Iraqi insurgents.


 * McCain would along with Former Secretary of State Gen. Colin Powell be engaged in community service to honor slain civil rights hero Martin Luther King Jr., while also visiting the American Red Cross headquarters.


 * January 19: In the 2010 United States Senate special election in Massachusetts in order to fill the vacant Massachusetts Class I Senate seat created by the death of Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy on August 25, 2009, Republican Party candidate Scott Brown suprisingly wins with a large margin (51.9%) over Democratic Party candidate Martha Coakly (47.1%). McCain would be among the first to congratulate him with his victory.


 * January 25: President McCain delivered his first State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress. Among the topics that McCain covered in his speech were proposals for job creation, federal deficit reduction, change of structure of government in Washington, D.C., campaign finance regulation and foreign policy. He also criticized the heated political tone between Democrats and Republicans.


 * Ali Hassan Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti, first cousin of former President of Iraq Saddam Hussein and the former Ba'athist Iraqi Defense Minister, Interior Minister, military commander and chief of the Iraqi Intelligence Service, known as "Chemical Ali" by Iraqi Kurds for his use of chemical weapons in attacks against the Kurds in the north in the 1980s, was executed by hanging after being sentenced to death for a forth time on January 17.


 * January 26: McCain would travel to Afghanistan and Iraq. In Afghanistan, McCain met Afghan president Hamid Karzai, the Head of ISAF and U.S. Forces Afghanistan Gen. Stanley McChrystal and U.S. soldiers at Bagram Air Base. He then continued to Iraq, where he met Iraqi president Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to discuss the upcoming parliamentary election due March 7, 2010. He also visited U.S. soldiers fighting in the Iraq War.


 * January 27: McCain travelled to Batumi, Georgia. While there, he was awarded the Order of the National Hero of Georgia for his strong support for Georgia during the 2008 Georgia-Russia War by Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili. During the war, he had stated that now "we are all Georgians" and vehemently criticising the actions of Russia. Saakashvili said McCain called him during the war and told him "not to surrender and not to say no to freedom" when "some well-known world figures were telling us to stop resistance." He continued that "The fact that a part of Georgia is free today is the achievement of our friends. It was the idea of freedom that stopped [Russian] tanks in Georgia". McCain said the award was "an expression of partnership and solidarity between our two nations, confronted by common challenges, bound by common interests, and united by common democratic values. Of all the honours I've received in my life the National Hero Award is among the most meaningful and it is one that I would cherish forever." At the beginning of the ceremony, McCain was also handed what Saakashvili said was a golden pistol that once belonged to an American pilot captured by Soviet troops in Vietnam. He said it had been sold during the August war to a Georgian businessman by a Russian general.


 * January 28: International Conference on Afghanistan was held at Lancaster House in London, where members of the international community discussed the further progress on the Petersberg agreement from 2001 on the democratization of Afghanistan after the ousting of the Taliban regime. The one-day conference, hosted by the United Kingdom, the United Nations, and the Afghan government, meant to chart a new course for the future of Afghanistan and brought together foreign ministers and senior representatives from more than 70 countries and international organizations. The conference was also attended by the Afghan president Hamid Karzai, the Afghan Minister of Foreign Affairs Spanta, U.S. President John McCain and Secretary of State Joe Lieberman, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, UN envoy Kai Eide and the British Secretary of State David Miliband, as well as the former Afghan minister of finance Ashraf Ghani and the British prime minister Gordon Brown. Afghanistan agreed to timetables to take control of certain military and police functions, and launched a program to lure Taliban insurgents back to mainstream life with financial incentives.


 * January 29: The Pentagon announced a proposed weapons sale to Taiwan worth $6.4 billion. The sale consisted of 60 Blackhawk helicopters, 114 missiles, 2 naval minesweepers and tracking devices.


 * January 30: China announced a series of moves against the U.S. in retaliation for a proposed weapons sale to Taiwan worth $6.4 billion. Beijing would suspend military exchanges with the U.S., review co-operation on major issues like the Iranian and North Korean nuclear programs and impose sanctions on companies selling arms, including Sikorsky Aircraft, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and McDonnel Douglas.

February

 * February 1: McCain, with Secretary of the Treasury Warren Buffett in attendance, announced his proposal for the fiscal year 2011 federal budget. He indicated that jobs, health care, clean energy, education, and infrastructure will be priorities. The total requested spending was $3.363 trillion and the federal deficit is forecast to be $656 billion in 2010 and $581 trillion in 2011. Total debt is budgeted to increase from $12.9 trillion in FY2009, to $13.563 trillion in FY2010, and $14.14 trillion in FY2011. While acknowledging that his planned "Crusade against Pork Barrel Spending" was not going as fast as he liked, he said that the economy is still vulnerable, and that they had managed to reduce the yearly federal deficit from $838 billion in 2010 to $656 billion in 2011; a reduction of $182 billion.


 * Republicans and fiscally conservative Democrats would praise his proposed budget, while the majority of Democrats and some Republicans would criticize him; Democrats over the reduced federal spending and both Democrats and Republicans over the lack of earmarks.


 * February 2: White House Press Secretary Brooke Buchanan announces that President McCain will meet with the Dalai Lama during his visit to Washington, D.C. in mid-February. The announcement was met with a warning by Zhu Weiqun, the vice director of the United Front Work Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC), who said that: "If the American leader chooses to meet the Dalai Lama, it will threaten the trust and cooperation between China and the United States".


 * February 3: President McCain hosts a meeting of Governors in the State Dining Room. Afterwards, he holds a Cabinet-level exercise in crisis-management in preparation for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.


 * In Norway, the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet publishes on its front page a caricature of the Muslim prophet Muhammad portrayed as a pig. The caricature was originally posted at the Facebook page of the Norwegian Police Security Service (Norwegian: Politiets sikkerhetstjeneste, PST). This would spark intense demonstration against the newspaper over the following weeks.


 * February 6: President McCain speaks at a gathering of the Republican National Committee's Winter Meeting at the Capitol Hilton in Washington, D.C. The president's motorcade encounters trouble due to the blizzard that affected the region when a snow-laden tree branch fell on a vehicle carrying journalists as it returned to the White House; no one was injured.


 * February 8: As the budget reaches the Congress, McCain stated in a White House Press Conference that he would veto any federal budget which includes pork barrel spending, thus antagonizing some Democrats further.


 * February 10: President McCain meets with his National Security Team in preparation for the planned ISAF offensive in Helmand province in Afghanistan, Operation Moshtarak.


 * Charles Nesbitt Wilson (born June 1, 1933), a United States naval officer and former 12-term Democratic United States Representative from the 2nd congressional district in Texas, died at Lufkin Memorial Hospital in Lufkin, Texas after suffering from cardiopulmonary arrest. He was best known for leading Congress into supporting Operation Cyclone, the largest-ever Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) covert operation, which under the Reagan administration supplied military equipment, including anti-aircraft weapons such as Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, and paramilitary officers from their Special Activities Division to the Afghan Mujahideen during the Soviet war in Afghanistan.


 * February 11: President McCain would express his condolences to his family, saying that: "Yesterday, America lost one of our finest patriots. A patriot who dedicated his life to fight Communist tyranny. Who dedicated his career to help the Afghan people. He will never be forgotten by the people of the United States nor the Afghan people." Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said that "America has lost an extraordinary patriot whose life showed that one brave and determined person can alter the course of history", while Atta Mohammed Nur, a major commander in the war against the Soviets, expressed his condolences by saying that "When we got the Stingers, it changed the situation on the front line totally. Mr. Wilson is in the heart of the Afghan people. Never will the Afghan nation forget him."


 * Februart 12: After the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet refused to apologise for printing a caricature of the prophet Muhammad, and Muslim taxi drivers initiated a strike on February 6, around 3000 Muslim demonstrators took to the streets in downtown Oslo Friday afternoon to protest against newspaper Dagbladet's publishing of a caricature of the prophet Mohammad. The demonstrators marched peacefully past the Parliament buildings and down to the Central Station.


 * February 13: Operation Moshtarak (Dari for Together) is initiated. A total of 15,000 ISAF forces launches in the early hours an offensive towards the town of Marjah, which lays in the area that is described as the "poppy-growing belt" of Helmand Province in southern Afghanistan. The main target of the offensive is Marjah, which had been controlled for years by Taliban militants as well as drug traffickers. Around 2,500 Afghan troops participated, along with 4,000 British, 9,000 American as well as Danish and Estonian forces. U.S. forces consisted of 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines, 1st Battalion, 6th Marines, 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines, 4th Battalion, 23rd Stryker Infantry, 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion as well as support units. As such, the offensive has been described as the largest since the fall of the Taliban, whose government was ousted from Kabul and Kandahar in October-December 2001, but proceeded to resist in the following years in an ongoing guerrilla war known as the Taliban insurgency. This became especially clear during the violent campaign in the midst of the Afghan presidential elections in 2009.


 * February 14 - 25: McCain would head daily meetings with his National Security Council regarding the development of Operation Moshtarak in Helmand province in Afghanistan.


 * February 17: Mohyeldeen Mohammad, a 24-year old Muslim from Norway styding Sharia law in Saudi Arabia, would shock the Norway as he said Norway was at war with Islam, expressed his support of executing homosexuals by stoning and saying that Muslims who supported democracy were infidels.


 * February 18: McCain met with the Dalai Lama at the White House. At the meeting McCain would stress his "strong support for the preservation of Tibet's unique religious, cultural and linguistic identity, and the protection of human rights for Tibetans," and praised the Dalai Lama's "commitment to nonviolence and his pursuit of dialogue with the Chinese government". Controversially, he would also state that he does not "recognize the Chinese supremacy over Tibet" and "fully supports" Tibetan independence.


 * February 19: President McCain and Secretary of Veteran's Affairs Chuck Hagel attended a gathering of veterans of the Battle of Iwo Jima and their families gathered at the National Museum of the Marine Corps to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the iconic World War II battle.


 * China would condemn McCain's support for Tibetan independence and expressed strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition to the meeting. A spokesman for China's Foreign Ministry said that "China demands the U.S. seriously consider China's stance, immediately adopt measures to wipe out the adverse impact, [and] stop conniving and supporting anti-China separatist forces."


 * February 20: Norwegian Prime Minister Siv Jensen would announce at a press conference that she would under no circumstances apologise for Dagbladets publishing of the caricature of the prophet Muhammad, and said that the "islamisation" of Norway was well under way with a small number of extremist trying to damage the Norwegian freedom of speech. While meeting praise in Denmark, Sweden, France and Italy, Muslim countries would openly condemn Norway for her statement, burning Norwegian flags and protesting against the caricatures. Danish media would state that the "second Muhammad caricature controversy" was under way.


 * February 22: President McCain and Secretary of Energy T. Boone Pickens would announce the United States Nuclear Power Renewal Plan. Using France as a role model, the plan would include the construction of 45 new nuclear reactors to be built in the United States by 2030, research in new-generation nuclear reactors as well as research in expanded use in Thorium (Th 90), which has potential advantages over a uranium fuel cycle, including greater abundance on Earth, superior physical and nuclear properties of fuel, enhanced proliferation resistance, and reduced nuclear waste production. As part of the plan, McCain announced $4.3 billion in federal loan guarantees to help Southern Company build two new nuclear reactors in Burke County, Georgia.


 * February 25: Secretary of State Lieberman announced that UN sanctions on Iran would be ready by 30-60 days, gaining support from countries that earlier were sceptical of sanctioning Iran, including Russia (due to the McCain administration's negotiations on the missile defence shield in Eastern Europe), Brazil and others.


 * In Marjah, the Afghan flag was raised over as the first phase of the U.S.-led offensive to capture a key Taliban stronghold on Thursday came to an end, with the U.S. Marines commander declaring it a "historic day". Mohammad Gulab Mangal, governor of Helmand province, raised the green, red and black national flag in Marjah, watched by Brigadier General Larry Nicholson, the commander of the U.S. Marines in southern Afghanistan. "It's a very historical day, a new beginning," Nicholson told AFP at the ceremony, attended by a crowd of several hundred residents, watched over by U.S. Marine snipers stationed on the roofs of surrounding buildings.


 * February 26: McCain headed a bipartisan health care summit at Blair House. The main themes are cost control, deficit reduction, insurance reform and expanding coverage. As the Republicans and Democrats fight eachother over the aspects of health care reform, with McCain especially focusing on opposition to special deals inserted in the Democratic counterproposition to the Senate health care bill, and advocating cross-state line health insurance and medical malpratice reform.


 * February 28: Canada defeated the United States in overtime, 3-2, on on Sidney Crosby's overtime goal in the Gold Medal Game in men's ice hockey at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver. McCain lost a friendly wager with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper over who would win the finals. White House spokesman Brooke Buchanan said President McCain had wagered a case of Yuengling, a Pennsylvania regional brew, while Harper wagered 24 bottles of Molson. The beer battle pitted Canada's oldest brewery against the oldest beer maker in the United States. According to Buchanan McCain would as a joke also add a few bottles of Anheuser-Busch beers from his wife Cindy's wholesale and distribution company Hensley & Co.

March

 * March 1: McCain travelled to Bethesda, Maryland, for a routine medical examination at the National Naval Medical Center, where he later visited soldiers who were wounded in the Iraq War and the War in Afghanistan.


 * March 2: McCain would travel to Kabul, Afghanistan, where he met with Afghan president Hamid Karzai. They would discuss the progress of Operation Moshtarak, the campaign against corruption in Afghanistan as well as address the issue of civilian casualties.


 * March 3: McCain would travel to the Helmand province, where he visited the city of Lashkar Gah, the British-Danish Camp Bastion, U.S., Afghan and British troops participating in Operation Moshtarak as well as a flag raising ceremony in the newly secured Marjah. While in Marjah, he would also meet with the town elders for a Shura, where he promised that "We have made regretable mistakes in the past. But we have learned from them. We will not abandon you. Not as long as I am President."


 * March 6: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would state on state TV that "September 11 was a big lie and a pretext for the war on terror and a prelude to invading Afghanistan." He called the attacks a "complicated intelligence scenario and act."
 * The Palestinians agreed to restart peace negotiations with Israel, with the United States as mediator.


 * March 7: In Iraq, the parliamentary election was held as scheduled. The election decided the 325 members of the Council of Representatives of Iraq who will elect the Prime Minister of Iraq and the President of Iraq. The election was planned for the same day as a referendum on the Status of Forces Agreement. Despite that al-Qaida bomb attacks claimed the lives of 24 Iraqis, the turn-out was quite high, at 62.4%.
 * In a press conference at the White House, President McCain praised Iraqis’ resolve, saying that "I congratulate the people of Iraq for casting their ballots in this important parliamentary election. I have great respect for the millions of Iraqis who refused to be deterred by acts of violence, and who exercised their right to vote today. Their participation demonstrates that the Iraqi people have chosen to shape their future through democratic political processes."


 * In Afghanistan, President Hamid Karzai visited the former Taliban stronghold of Marjah, which was re-taken by U.S. and Afghan forces during Operation Moshtarak. Karzai asked wary residents to back his government in return for security and reconstruction projects. "The promises that we have made for security and reconstruction, we will fulfil them. Are you with me or against me?" Karzai asked the turbaned and bearded elders packed in the town's mosque. The elders shouted: "We are with you, we are supporting you", but during the meeting some of them expressed concern about former corrupt local officials.


 * March 8: As Vice President Pawlenty was arriving for a three-day visit to the Middle East, the Israeli government announces the plans for construction of 112 new housing units in a disputed area of East Jerusalem claimed by both Israelis and Palestinians.
 * March 9: The commander of ISAF and U.S. Forces in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, vowed that coalition forces "are absolutely going to secure Kandahar," as security efforts expand in the country's south. "We already are doing a lot of security operations in Kandahar, but it's our intent - under President [Hamid] Karzai - to make an even greater effort there," Gen. Stanley McChrystal told a joint news conference Monday with Mark Sedwill, the NATO senior civilian representative to the country, and U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. McChrystal indicated a military operation could begin in the volatile Kandahar province as early as this summer, but both Sedwill and McChrystal cautioned that much political groundwork lay ahead for NATO-led coalition troops before an offensive can begin. Just as in the recent Marjah operation, the goal, they said, is to gain the support of the Afghan people.
 * Israel announces the the plans for construction of 1,600 new housing units in a disputed area of East Jerusalem. While being softer than the European Union and the UN in their criticism of Israel, Vice President Pawlenty said that it was "unfortunate to announce this at a time when the United States is planning to restart the peace negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestnians."


 * March 10: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan visited Iran, where he expressed his support for the Iranian nuclear program, and criticized the West's plans for increased sanctions on Iran. "I don't believe that any further sanctions will yield results," Erdogan told journalists in Riyadh on Tuesday, adding that earlier rounds of sanctions "have never yielded results." He insisted that Iran's nuclear rights should be respected, saying that "We believe there should be cooperation, not polarization, in the region. We support dialogue and diplomacy for solving the problem about Iran's nuclear program. During the solution process, Iran should be given the right to have civilian nuclear energy meant for peaceful purposes. On the other hand, we want the Middle East to be turned into a nuclear weapons-free zone."
 * Israeli officials appologized for the timing of the last announcement. Pawlenty visited Ramallah to meet the Palestinian leadership under Mahmood Abbas.


 * March 13: President McCain had what the White House described as an “encouraging” phone conversation with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev as the two countries sought to work out the remaining issues on a treaty to significantly reduce nuclear arsenals. National Security Advisor Sam Nunn said the two presidents reviewed progress toward an arms control accord that would succeed the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, which expired in December. “The results of their talks are encouraging, and both leaders are committed to concluding an agreement soon,” Nunn said. The Kremlin, was even more positive, saying “it is now possible to talk about specific dates for the submission of the draft START treaty for signing by the heads of state.”


 * In Kandahar, 5 suicide attacks carried out by the Taliban killed 35 people and wounded 57 others.The first explosion, a suicide car bombing, took place near the province's main prison. At the same time, a second suicide car bomb went off in front of the police headquarters. The third attack was carried out by a suicide bomber on a motorcycle near Provincial council chief Ahmad Wali Karzai's home, while another targeted suicide attack by a bomber on a bicycle targeted a bus station. According to Ahmad Karzai, the attacks were intended as diversions from the main strike on the prison. Saturday's fatalities included 13 police officers and 22 civilians, including six women and three children. Among the wounded were 40 civilians and 17 police officers.


 * In Georgia, panic gripped the people when a pro-government television station broadcast a fake report that Russian tanks had entered the capital and President Mikheil Saakashvili had been killed. Imedi TV introduced the report as an “imitation of possible events”, but the warning was lost on many viewers as mobile phone networks crashed and residents of Tbilisi rushed into the streets.The report thrust the ex-Soviet neighbours back to August 2008, when Russia crushed an assault by U.S. ally Georgia on the rebel region of South Ossetia in a five-day war and sent tanks to within 45 km (28 miles) of Tbilisi. When people was told it was a false alarm, dozens of angry Georgians converged on Imedi, where opposition politician Nino Burjanadze told reporters the stunt was “disgusting”.


 * March 14: Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi said that "The Mujahedeen's successful operation in the heart of Kandahar city was a message to Stanley McChrystal and a reaction to the U.S. coming operation in Kandahar province. The Mujahedeen of the Islamic Emirate are fully prepared and ready to fight the Americans, NATO and their allies, no matter whichever part of Afghanistan they may be [in]."


 * March 15: After being criticized by some Democrats on Capitol Hill for avoiding the health care issue by travelling to Afghanistan, McCain would on Monday call for daily meetings between Senate and House Democrats and Republicans to reach a final agreement on the health care reform. The first meeting would take place on Wednesday.


 * March 16: The special envoy to the Middle East, Richard Jones, visits both Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu and the President of the Palestinian National Authority Mahmoud Abbas to restart peace negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians. He criticizes the Israeli decision to construct settlements in East Jerusalem, saying that "Netanyahu, as a man willing to reach a peace agreement with the Palestinians, should reconsider their plans. The decision only contributes to deteriorate the already fragile peace that now exist between the Israelis and the Palestinians."


 * In a new phone call, President McCain would in a phone conversation with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev hear the Russian president raise several fresh hurdles, including the McCain administration's proposal for a joint Russian-U.S. missile defence shield in the Czech Republic, Poland and Azerbaijan.


 * March 17: Secretary of State Joe Lieberman travelled to Russia, where he met with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and foreign minister Sergey V. Lavrov for high-level meetings in Moscow to conclude the final parts of the delayed nuclear arms control pact to replace START I. Despite the Russian president's hurdle during his phone conversation with U.S. President McCain the previous day, both Lieberman and Lavrov would state that the talks were back on track, though administration officials conceded there were still differences over a handful of issues like transparency and the missile defense system. However, Lavrov expressed confidence last week that a deal could be reached by the end of the month.


 * Meanwhile, in the Middle East, a Palestinian Kassam rocket hits close to the Israeli town of Sderot. Two were treated for shock.


 * March 18: Israel is again targeted by Palestinian rockets, as the kibbutz Netiv Ha'asara is targeted by Kassam rockets. A guest worker from Thailand was killed. The unknown terrorist group Ansar al-Sunna claimed responsibility for the attack. That night, IAF aircraft struck six targets in Gaza in response to a Kassam attack that killed a foreign worker in Netiv Ha'asara Thursday. The army said it struck three smuggling tunnels on the Egyptian border, a weapons production facility and two tunnels intended for infiltration into Israel to carry out attacks. Two Palestinians were reportedly wounded in the strikes.


 * March 19: The Middle East Quartet urges the Israeli government to cease all settlement activity and illegal outposts on the West Bank. Later that evening, fourteen Palestinians were reportedly wounded when the IAF struck several targets in the Dahaniya airport in the southern Gaza Strip in response to rocket attacks.


 * March 20: A Kassam rocket launched by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip hit an open area in the Sha'ar Hanegev region on Saturday evening. The rocket was the fourth projectile to hit Israel's South on Saturday. No one was hurt and no damage was reported in any of the attacks. Meanwhile, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called for Palestinian militants to stop firing rockets from Gaza into Israel and also urged that Hamas release kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit on humanitarian grounds. After spending the day talking to Palestinian Authority leaders in the West Bank, Ban came to have dinner with President Shimon Peres in Jerusalem. In welcoming Ban, Peres called on PA President Mahmoud Abbas to start negotiations straight away. "Let us not waste time," he said. "Things have to move."


 * In Russia, thousands of people rallied across Russia Saturday to denounce the government's economic policy and demand more freedom in a new challenge to the Kremlin reflecting increasing disillusionment and a growing potential for protests. Many participants in the rallies, dubbed the Day of Wrath by the opposition, demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. In St. Petersburg, 1,000 people demonstrated holding placards Putin's team must resign!. In Vladivostok, an opposition rally drew about 1,500 people, and similar protests were to be held in many other cities throughout Russia on Saturday. Between 3,000 and 5,000 demonstrators gathered in the Baltic city of Kaliningrad despite a decision by the opposition leaders to cancel the protest. They chanted Government should resign! and called for the ouster of the provincial governor. Police didn't intervene in the St. Petersburg protest, but they barred protesters chanting anti-Putin slogans from holding a rally on a downtown Moscow. City police spokesman Viktor Biryukov said 70 people had been detained for taking part in the protest, which was not authorized by authorities.


 * President McCain would once again criticize Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin for his "authoritarian style of government" and called the protests a "test in how much criticism the Russian authorities can tolerate."


 * March 21: The Czech Republic would offer Prague as a location for the United States and Russia to sign a revamped nuclear arms reduction treaty, once it has been agreed to.


 * Ukrainian President Viktor F. Yanukovich would offer Kiev as a location for the United States and Russia to sign the revamped nuclear arms reduction treaty. Though the peace agreement is unrelated to Ukraine, having the treaty formally signed in Kiev, the capital, would be rich in symbolism for a country whose recent internal politics became a tug of war between Russia and the West for economic and political influence. Mr. Yanukovich, though he is generally viewed as leaning heavily toward Russia, has promoted the idea of Ukraine as bridge between East and West, rather than a country that falls readily within either sphere of influence. Russian officials welcomed the offer, but according to Ukraine's new foreign minister, Kostyantyn Gryshenko, the United States would prefer Prague, where President McCain gave a speech on disarmament last year.


 * March 25: The government of the Czech Republic agreed to host an early April signing ceremony for the new treaty, which would sharply reduce the number of nuclear weapons and nuclear launchers deployed by the world's two nuclear superpowers, the U.S.A. and Russia. The agreement on a signing ceremony indicates a final deal on the successor to the now-lapsed Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START I. "The petition came the last night, and we agreed. There is no date chosen yet, though. They only asked if it was possible (for Prague to host the meeting)," Jiří Beneš from the Press office of the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. A senior U.S. official said that: "We are still working to finalize a new START treaty but we have talked to our Czech allies and the Russians about a signing in Prague when the treaty is finished. Prague is where the president delivered a speech outlining his arms control and nonproliferation vision last spring and where we always wanted to do a signing."


 * March 26: After months of deadlock and delay, President John McCain and President Dmitri Medvedev of Russia would in a phone conversation complete the agreement, committing the world's biggest nuclear powers to deep weapons cuts. "I'm pleased to announce that after a year of intense negotiations, the United States and the Russian Federation have agreed to the most comprehensive arms-control agreement in nearly two decades," McCain told reporters.


 * In Moscow, Medvedev hailed the agreement -- which also must be approved by Russian lawmakers -- as reflecting a "balance of the interests of both countries." Russia made clear, however, that it reserved the right to suspend any strategic arms cuts if it felt threatened by future U.S. deployment of a proposed Europe-based missile defence system that Moscow bitterly opposes.


 * The agreement replaces the START I treaty that expired in December. Each side would have seven years after the treaty takes effect to reduce stockpiles of their most dangerous weapons - those already deployed - to 1,550 from the 2,200 now allowed and also cut their numbers of launchers in half.


 * McCain and Medvedev will sign the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) in Prague, capital of the Czech Republic, a former Soviet satellite now in NATO. The April 8 meeting will be close to the anniversary of McCain's speech in Prague offering his vision for eventually ridding the world of nuclear weapons, and should help build momentum for a nuclear security summit he will host in Washington on April 12-13.


 * The treaty does not impose limits on U.S. development of a missile defence system in Europe, which had been a major sticking point in negotiations. Washington insists such an anti-missile shield would be aimed at Iran, not at Russia.


 * March 29: In the Russian capital Moscow, 39 people were killed and over 100 injured when two suicide bombings carried out by two women detonated during the morning rush hour at two stations of the Moscow Metro (Lubyanka and Park Kultury), with roughly 40 minutes of interval between them. Preliminary investigation indicated that the bombing was perpetrated by the Chechen separatists. Russian officials called the incident "the deadliest and most sophisticated terrorist attack in the Russian capital in six years", a reference to the Avtozavodskaya and Rizhskaya bombings in 2004. Two Chechen women were believed to have detonated the explosions in consecutive suicide attacks. Russian authorities released photographs of both women showing their facial features to be intact and possibly identifiable. Russia's FSB security service said these "black widows", whose bodies were recovered, could be wives of deceased rebel husbands from North Caucasus.


 * Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said: "We will continue the operation against terrorists without hesitation and to the end. It is difficult to prevent such terrorist attacks and to provide security on transport. It is necessary to tighten what we do, to look at the problem on a national scale, not only relating to a certain populated area but on a national scale. Obviously, what we have done before is not enough." After an emergency meeting he ordered senior officials to fight terrorism "without hesitation, to the end." Stating that "The policy to suppress terrorism in our country and the fight with terrorism will be continued." He said Russia would act without compromise to root out terrorists and ordered security to be boosted across the country. "We will carry out uncompromising operations against terrorists to the end." While he opined that human rights must be respected during police operations. He also ordered new laws to combat militant attacks urging for steps to make law-enforcement agencies work more efficiently, to increase the safety of transport systems and public places and to improve the implementation of Russia's anti-terrorism statutes.


 * Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said: "It is well known that today a terrible crime against civilians in its effects and disgusting in its character was carried out ... I am sure that police will do their best to find and punish the criminals. The terrorists will be destroyed."


 * U.S. President McCain condemned bombings, offering his condolences to the Russian people. In a statement issued by the White House, McCain said: "We have had our share of differences over the years. But today, we are all Russians. The American people stand united with the people of Russia in opposition to violent extremism and heinous terrorist attacks that demonstrate such disregard for human life, and we condemn these outrageous acts. I send my deepest condolences to the people of Russia after the terrible loss of life and injuries resulting from the bombings on the Moscow metro. My thoughts and prayers go out to those who lost loved ones, and I wish all who sustained injuries a successful recovery. It is times like these where Russia and the West need to cooperate more closely to fight international terrorism."


 * The attack also sparked widespread condemnation and expressions of condolence from foreign heads of state and government and various organisations. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he was "appalled by the attacks and says such acts could never be justified". French President Nicolas Sarkozy condemned the attacks "in strongest terms", calling them dishonorable and recreant while offering total solidarity with Russians "to confront this cowardly and horrible act." German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed her "shock and horror" and offered her condolences, while Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Qin Gang, said "We strongly condemn the terrorist attack in Moscow subway, and express deep condolences over the deaths." NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen also condemned the attacks, saying there can be no justification for terrorist attacks against innocent civilians, and expressed his condolences to the victims’ families and wished quick recovery to the wounded. He said NATO stays committed to cooperation with Russia in fighting international terrorism.


 * March 30: After months of arguing and 15 intense days of negotiations, a group of 5 Democratic senators lead by Tom Harkin (D-IA) and 5 Republican senators lead by Mike Enzi (R-WY) presented their plan for health care reform - the Comprehensive Bipartisan Heath Care Reform bill. Supported by former senators Tom Daschle, Bob Dole and Howard Baker, the plan was described as an expanded version of the Daschle-Dole-Baker plan.


 * The new plan focused on open-market competition rather than government funding or control, and included: requirement of all Americans and legal residents to have health insurance; Create state-based health insurance exchanges through which individuals and employers can purchase health coverage, with premium credits available to individuals/families with incomes up to 400% of the federal poverty level; Require employers to provide coverage to employees or pay a fee based on annual payroll, with exceptions for certain small employers; Provide certain small employers a credit to offset the costs of providing coverage; Impose new regulations on plans participating in the exchanges and in the individual and small group insurance markets; Expand Medicaid to 100% of the poverty level; A mandate that individuals purchase insurance but also a requirement that employers offer coverage or pay a certain percentage of their payroll (maximum 3%); Subsidize premiums for families earning up to 400% of the federal poverty level -- $88,000 for a family of four; Tax credits for individuals and for families who do not subscribe to or do not have access to health care through their employer; A "Guaranteed Access Plan" to help people who are denied coverage by insurance companies due to pre-existing conditions to go over state borders to find health care insurance; Medical malpractice reform, which would reduce malpractice premiums paid by doctors and hospitals and reduce the amount of unnecessary, defensive medicine performed to avoid potential lawsuits.


 * McCain would later that day express his support for the bill, stating that "while I don't agree with everything in the bill, it is important that we reach a bipartisan agreemment as soon as possible. The bill includes many good Conservative elements while having many good elements to attract Democratic support. I urge my fellow Republicans and Democrats to vote in favor of this bill."


 * March 31: In Kizlyar, in Russia's North Caucasus republic of Dagestan, a car bomb was detonated at about 08:30 local time outside the offices of the local interior ministry and the FSB security agency in the town. Another bomber wearing a police uniform then blew himself up 20 minutes later as a crowd gathered. 12 people were killed and another 18 injured.


 * Chechen rebel leader Doku Umarov claimed responsibility for personally ordering the attacks, in a video released on the internet. He said the attacks in Russia would continue.