Recent Event Highlights: Eric Holder confirmed as new US attorney-general, Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki takes office, Alberto Gonzales sworn in as US attorney-general, Iraqi Transitional Government takes power, Hamid Karzai sworn in as Afghan president, US President George Bush is re-elected, and 7 more...
Created by Aljazeera on 29/08/2011
Last updated: 05/09/11 at 03:14
Tags: US 9/11 leadership changes al jazeera
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Al-Qaeda leader and founder Osama bin Laden, who claimed responsibility for the 9/11 attacks in 2004, is killed in a US military raid in Abottabad, Pakistan. Al-Qaeda confirmed the death and announced that its second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri had assumed the leadership role. [GALLO/ GETTY]
The Senate approves President Obama's appointment of Eric Holder as attorney-general, making him the first became the first African-American to hold the position. In 2009, Holder announced that several 9/11 suspects including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, would be transferred from military courts to the US district court of New York for trial. But in April 2011, he announced the reversal of this decision, citing restrictions imposed by the US congress on where the trials could be held “taking the decision from his hands”. [GALLO/GETTY]
Barack Hussein Obama is sworn in as the 44th president of the United States, and the first African-American in office, after defeating presidential Republican nominee John McCain. [GALLO/GETTY]
Asif Ali Zardari is sworn in as Pakistan’s new president, in a ceremony attended by Afghan President Hamid Karzai - in an apparent sign of closer ties to come between the two countries in their bid to fight tribal insurgency along their shared border. [GALLO/GETTY]
Musharraf, a key Us ally in the so-called War on Terror, resigns as president following a string of controversies and a move by opposition lawmakers to impeach him. He wrote in his 2006 memoirs that he was given an ultimatum by US President George Bush "to go back to the Stone Age" if he refused to aid in the war effort - though Bush denied this. Musharraf agreed to allow the US the use of three airbases for its war in Afghanistan. [GALLO/GETTY]
Brown succeeds Tony Blair as prime minister. Brown announced in a speech in June that he would "learn the lessons" from the mistakes made in Iraq, and a year later, he announces the UK will hold an inquiry into the Iraq war.
Tony Blair announces his intention to resign as prime minister and head of the UK Labour Party. He formally hands over leadership of the party on June 24, 2007 and tenders his resignation as prime minister on June 27, after which Gordan Brown, his successor, takes over. Blair had been a strong supporter of the foreign policy of US President George Bush, and involved UK troops in the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan and 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Maliki's government succeeds the Iraqi Transitional Government following a December 2005 election. He would go on to head a second cabinet, as acting interior minister, acting defence minister, and acting national security minister - this cabinet is approved on December 21, 2010. [GALLO/GETTY]
President Bush appoints Gonzales to the post, making him the first Hispanic attorney-general in US history. He is considered a key architect of the legal basis for the so-called War on Terror and as counsel to the White House, he helped draft a controversial 2002 memo that explored whether detainees captured in the war in Afghanistan were privy to the rights afforded other prisoners of war, as laid out in The Geneva Conventions. The memo concluded that they were not. Gonzales also helped draft a presidential order authorising the use of military tribunals to try “terror” suspects. During his tenure as attorney-general, the Justice Department was accused or improperly and potentially illegally, using the USA Patriot Act to uncover personal details about US citizens – but the charges were never formally proved. Gonzales eventually resigned from his post in 2007, replaced by Michael Mukasey. Bush praised Gonzales and attributed his resignation to his name having been "dragged through the mud" for "political reasons". [GALLO/GETTY]
Sovereignty for the country is transferred to the Iraqi Transitional Government, following elections for the country's national assembly. It is given a mandate to create a new constitution. The transitional government which over from an interim government created by the US-led military coalition. The interim president is Sheikh Ghazi Mashal Ajil al-Yawer, and the interim prime minister is Iyad Allawi, pictured. [GALO/GETTY]
Hamid Karzai is sworn in as the first democratically elected president of Afghanistan following the 2004 presidential poll. Two years earlier, Karzai was appointed interim president of the Afghan transitional administration. [GALLO/GETTY]
Voters elect Bush to a second four-year term in office over his rival, Democratic candidate John Kerry. The Bush campaign had argued that Kerry lacked the decisiveness and vision necessary for success in the so-called War on Terror. [GALLO/GETTY]
US-led military forces invade Iraq in a bid to depose its leader, who they accused of hiding weapons of mass destruction - a claim that was later disproved. The military campaign resulted in the toppling of the Saddam Hussein regime after 21 days of combat operations. He was captured on December 13, 2003 and executed in December 2006. His Ba'ath Party was removed from power and the country came under the authority of a multinational military coalition. [GALLO/GETTY]
The Taliban, led by Mullah Mohammed Omar (pictured), are removed from power in Afghanistan following the 9/11 attacks and the subsequent US-led war in Afghanistan. The US identified members of al-Qaeda, an organisation it said was based in, and allied with, the Taliban, as the perpetrators of the attacks. The Afghan United Front - or Northern Alliance, eventually succeeded in retaking most of Afghanistan from the Taliban with help from the US military and UK forces. [GALLO/GETTY]
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