John O. Brennan Counterterrorism advisor to President Obama When did his time as a counterterrorism advisor to Obama begin? President Obama then appointed him to be his Deputy National Security Advisor for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, the President's What led to his appointment? In August 2009, Brennan criticized some Bush-administration anti-terror policies, Did he have a hand in any historically significant counterterrorism? Brennan was present in the Situation Room in May 2011 when the United States conducted the military operation
What military operation was that?
What military operation was concerned in the Situation Room in May 2011?
In late 2008, Brennan was reportedly the top choice to become the next Director of the CIA in the incoming Obama administration. However, Brennan withdrew his name from consideration because of opposition to his CIA service under President George W. Bush and past public statements he had made in support of enhanced interrogation and the transfer of terrorism suspects to countries where they might be tortured (extraordinary rendition). President Obama then appointed him to be his Deputy National Security Advisor for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, the President's chief counterterrorism advisor and a position that did not require Senate confirmation.  In August 2009, Brennan criticized some Bush-administration anti-terror policies, saying that waterboarding had threatened national security by increasing the recruitment of terrorists and decreasing the willingness of other nations to cooperate with the U.S. He also described the Obama administration's focus as being on "extremists" and not "jihadists". He said that using the second term, which means one who is struggling for a holy goal, gives "these murderers the religious legitimacy they desperately seek" and suggests the US is at war with the religion of Islam.  In an early December 2009 interview with the Bergen Record, Brennan remarked, "the U.S. intelligence and law enforcement communities have to bat 1.000 every day. The terrorists are trying to be successful just once". At a press conference days after the failed Christmas Day bomb attack on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, Brennan said U.S. intelligence agencies did not miss any signs that could have prevented the attempt but later said he had let the President down by underestimating a small group of Yemeni terrorists and not connecting them to the attempted bomber. Within two weeks after the incident, however, he produced a report highly critical of the performance of U.S. intelligence agencies, concluding that their focus on terrorist attempts aimed at U.S. soil was inadequate. In February 2010, he claimed on Meet the Press that he was tired of Republican lawmakers using national security issues as political footballs, and making allegations where they did not know the facts.  Brennan was present in the Situation Room in May 2011 when the United States conducted the military operation that killed Osama bin Laden. He called President Obama's decision to go forward with the mission one of the "gutsiest calls of any president in memory." In the aftermath of the operation, Brennan said that the U.S. troops in the raid had been "met with a great deal of resistance," and bin Laden had used a woman as a human shield. CANNOTANSWER
that killed Osama bin Laden.
Operation Dawn, code-name Fajr (الفجر) in Arabic, was an Egyptian military operation planned to strike the Israeli Air Force, in the prelude to what would become the Six-Day War. The Egyptian attack plan was to also involve strategic bombing of major ports, the Negev Nuclear Research Center near Dimona, airfields and cities. Arab armies would then attack,  effectively cutting Israel in half with an armoured thrust from northern Sinai via the Negev desert.

Chronology
Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser had provoked Israel when he closed the Straits of Tiran on May 22, 1967. He was intent on reversing previous military defeats. The Egyptian army mobilized in the Sinai desert, and was poised to launch what Nasser called "the operation that will surprise the world". The operation was set to take place on May 27, 1967.  Abdel Hakim Amer, an Egyptian general, planned the operation.

According to the Israeli diplomat Michael Oren, Operation Dawn was called off after Nasser was informed by the Soviet Union that the United States was aware of the plan.  Israel sent urgent messages to the United States on May 25, 1967, saying an attack from Egypt was imminent. Israel then invaded on June 5, 1967.

Debate about whether Egypt had really posed an imminent military threat
The White House ordered an intelligence assessment, which found the Israeli claims unfounded. Israeli prime minister Eshkol wrote on a copy of one of the urgent messages transmitted to the United States "All to create an alibi".

According to John Quigley, there is thin evidence that there was any Egyptian plan to attack Israel that would actually have been carried out.

Some Israelis claimed that they knew from "Egyptian uncovered documents" that there was an Egyptian plan to attack and cut off Negev, capture Eilat, and make occupied land contiguous to Jordan.

References

External links 
 Six Day War site information on early stages of the war - Operation Dawn

Six-Day War Operation Septentrion was a 36-hour military operation of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), a NATO-led security mission, that took place December 16–18, 2009, in the Uzbin Valley of eastern Afghanistan.

A part of the War in Afghanistan, it involved a force of 1,100 troops, including 750 or 800 members of the French Foreign Legion, 200 United States Special Forces and Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers.

Background
Sixteen months before the operation, the Uzbin Valley ambush, on August 18, 2008, by the Taliban in the area of Surobi, Afghanistan, had killed ten French soldiers and wounded twenty-one.

Goals
The operation's purpose was "reaffirming the sovereignty of Afghan security forces in the north of the Uzbeen Valley", according to a French military spokesperson, as well as to plant the Afghan flag in what was called a key strategic village. (While 75 percent of the Uzbin Valley had been under ISAF control, the rest of the valley had been under the control of the Taliban.)

Fighting
During more than 90 minutes of combat, several US soldiers were wounded, including three serious injuries. The Taliban fighters attacked with rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and heavy machine gun fire; for the coalition forces, the French troops used shells, backed up by French Tigre and US Apache helicopters and fighter jets. At least one Taliban fighter was killed and three were injured, according to Lieutenant-Colonel Hervé Wallerand, who led the operation.

Strategy
The French employed what was called the "Mikado strategy" (la stratégie du Mikado), after the game Mikado (known in North America as "pick-up sticks"), because of the need to plan every move carefully with constant awareness that one wrong step could risk everything being lost. In particular, the Mikado strategy emphasizes consulting with local inhabitants in a shura (or consultation) to minimize the risk of local civilians conspiring against the ANA and ISAF forces. For this reason the operation was preceded by "weeks of negotiations with local villagers", according to the BBC News.

Aftermath
In July 2011, the Croix de la Valeur Militaire ("cross of military valour"), a French military decoration, was presented to five Americans – Cpt. Thomas Harper, Master Sgt. David Nuemer, Sgt. 1st Class Ryan Ahern, Staff Sgt. Casey Roberts and Sgt. Ryan Meister – for their service during the operation.

See also

 2009 in Afghanistan
 Coalition combat operations in Afghanistan in 2009
 Groupement tactique interarmes de Surobi

References

External links
  Operation Septentrion video (requires Lightbox video). French Ministry of Defense.

2009 in Afghanistan
Military operations of the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021) involving France
Military operations of the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021) involving the United States
NATO operations in Afghanistan
Recipients of the Cross for Military Valour Operation Strength was the codename for several military operations in the 20th century

It can refer to:

 Operation Strength (1941), an aircraft reinforcement mission in the Arctic campaign of the Second World War. 
 Operation Strength (1972) (6 February – 17 March 1972) was a Royalist military offensive of the Laotian Civil War.
 Operation Strength II (6–31 March 1972) was a Royalist military offensive of the Laotian Civil War. A follow-up to Strength I.