Timeline

(6 of 7)

Nov. 25, 2009 WikiLeaks releases more than 500,000 pager messages sent in New York City on 9/11; some are official messages, but most are from ordinary people searching for news about their loved ones

Dec. 1, 2009 In a speech at West Point, Obama announces he'll dispatch an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan, redoubling America's efforts. TIME cover: "It's His War Now"

Dec. 6, 2009 In an interview with George Stephanopoulos, Defense Secretary Robert Gates says that "it's been years" since the U.S. had good intelligence on bin Laden's whereabouts

Dec. 8, 2009 The New York Times publishes a story about a Muslim community center, later known as Park 51, planned for construction near Ground Zero

April 5, 2010 WikiLeaks releases video footage showing 12 people, including two Reuters journalists, being shot dead by a U.S. Army Apache helicopter gunman; the U.S. military refuses to punish the helicopter crew, saying, "At the time, we weren't able to discern whether [the Reuters employees] were carrying cameras or weapons."

May 1, 2010 Street vendors discover a car bomb in New York City's Times Square; the bomb is disarmed before it causes any casualties. Two days later, authorities arrest Faisal Shahzad, a 30-year-old Pakistani-born resident of Bridgeport, Conn., as he sits aboard a flight bound for Dubai

June 7, 2010 Federal officials arrest Private First Class Bradley Manning, a military intelligence analyst, for allegedly leaking the helicopter-attack video; he is later charged with aiding the enemy, theft of public records, computer fraud and transmitting classified information to an unauthorized third party, among other things

June 23, 2010 Obama accepts the resignation of General Stanley McChrystal, commander of U.S. troops in Afghanistan, after the general spoke disparagingly about the Administration in a Rolling Stone article. David Petraeus is tapped to replace him

July 25, 2010 In the largest leak since the Pentagon Papers, WikiLeaks releases the Afghanistan war logs, a cache of some 76,000 classified U.S. military reports from the war in Afghanistan that detail unreported incidents of coalition forces killing Afghan civilians, raise questions about potential war crimes committed by coalition forces, note Pakistani support for the Taliban and expose Task Force 373, a unit commissioned with killing Taliban leaders

Aug. 19, 2010 The last U.S. combat brigades depart Iraq, seven years after the U.S.-led invasion that left more than 4,400 American service members and tens of thousands of Iraqis dead. Some 50,000 troops remain in the country to advise Iraqi security forces and protect U.S. interests

August 2010 A firestorm erupts over the proposed plan to construct Park 51 two blocks from the World Trade Center site. TIME cover: "Is America Islamophobic?"

August 2010 Obama receives a tip that bin Laden is in Pakistan. The next month, CIA agents begin working to confirm intelligence