title: Mohamed Farrah Aidid

text: Requiring more formal training, Aidid, having been recognized as a highly qualified officer, was selected to study advanced post graduate military science at the Frunze Military Academy (Военная академия им. М. В. Фрунзе) in the Soviet Union for three years, an elite institution reserved for the most qualified officers of the Warsaw Pact armies and their allies.


title: Mohamed Farrah Aidid

text: In 1969, a few days after the assassination of Somalia's President Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, a military junta known as the Supreme Revolutionary Council (SRC), led by Major General Mohamed Siad Barre, would take advantage of the disarray and stage a bloodless coup d'état on the democratically elected Somali government. At the time Aidid was serving as Lieutenant Colonel in the army with 26th Division in Hargeisa. He was also the Head of Operations for the Central and Northern Regions of Somalia. After the assassination, he was relieved of his duties and was recalled to Mogadishu to lead the troops guarding the burial of the deceased President. By November 1969, he had quickly fallen under suspicion by high ranking members of the Supreme Revolutionary Council, including Barre. Without trial, he was subsequently detained in Mandhera Prison along with Colonel Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed for nearly six years. Both Colonel Aidid and Yusuf were widely regarded to be politically ambitious officers, and potential figureheads in a future coup attempt. Aidid claimed that his imprisonment was a result of encouraging President Barre to transfer power over from the Somali military to civilian technocrats.


title: Mohamed Farrah Aidid

text: Aidid was eventually released in October 1975, and he returned to service in the Somali National Army to take part in the 1977-1978 Ogaden War against Ethiopia. During the war he was promoted to brigadier general and became an aide-de-camp to President Mohammed Siad Barre. Headquartered in Hargeisa, Brig Gen Aidid and Maj Gen Gallel would command the 26th Division on the Dire Dawa Front. After the war, having served with distinction, Aidid worked as a presidential staffer to Barre before being appointed intelligence minister.Under pressure from President Barre, Aidid gave a written guarantee in 1978 that Col Abdullahi Yusuf would not attempt a coup d'eat. Yusuf would go on to break the pledge in a failed coup attempt and escaped to Ethiopia. Aided was left stranded but was rescued by a high ranking ally in the regime, and was consequently saved from any punishment.


title: Mohamed Farrah Aidid

text: In 1979, Barre appointed Aidid to parliament, but in 1984, after perceiving him as a potential rival, sent him away to India by making Aidid the ambassador for Somalia.


title: Mohamed Farrah Aidid

text: He would use his time in the country to frequently attend lectures at the University of Delhi and with the aid of Indian lecturers at the University of Delhi, completed three books ("A Vision of Somalia, The Preferred Future Development in Somalia and Somalia from the Dawn of Human Civilization to Today") .


title: Mohamed Farrah Aidid

text: By the late 1980s, Barre's regime had become increasingly unpopular. The State took an increasingly hard line, and insurgencies, encouraged by Ethiopia's communist Derg administration, sprang up across the country. Being a member of the Hawiye clan, a high ranking government official and an experienced soldier, Aidid was deemed a natural choice for helping lead the military campaign for the United Somali Congress against the regime, and he was soon persuaded to leave New Delhi and return to Somalia. Aidid defected from the embassy to India in 1989 and then left the country to join the growing opposition against the Barre regime. Following his defection, he had received an invitation from Ethiopian President Mengistu Haile-Mariam, who would go on to give Aidid permission to create and run a USC military operation from Ethiopian soil. From base camps near the Somali-Ethiopian border, he began directing the final military offensive of the newly formed United Somali Congress to seize Mogadishu and topple the regime.


title: Mohamed Farrah Aidid

text: The USC was at that time split into three factions: USC-Rome, USC-Mogadishu, later followed by USC-Ethiopia; as neither the first two former locations were a suitable launching pad to topple the Barre regime. Ali Mahdi Mohamed, an influential member of the congress who would later become Aidids prime rival, opposed Aidids involvement in the USC and supported the Rome faction of the Congress, who also resented Aidid. The first serious signs of fractures within the USC came in June 1990, when Mahdi and the USC-Rome faction rejected the election of Aidid to chairman of the USC, disputing the validity of the vote. That same month Aidid would go on to form a military alliance with the northern Somali National Movement (SNM) and the Somali Patriotic Movement (SPM). In October 1990, the SNM, SPM and USC would sign an agreement to hold no peace talks until the complete and total overthrow of the Barre regime. They further agreed to form a provisional government following Barres removal, and then to hold elections.


title: Mohamed Farrah Aidid

text: By November 1990, the news of Gen. Aidid's USC forces overrunning President Siad Barres 21st army in the Mudug, Galgudud and Hiran regions convinced many that a war in Mogadishu was imminent, leading the civilian population of the city to begin rapidly arming itself. This, combined with actions of other rebel organizations, eventually led to the full outbreak of the Somali civil war, the gradual breakup of the Somali Armed Forces, and the toppling of the Barre regime in Mogadishu on 26 January 1991. Following the power vacuum left by the fall of Barre, the situation in Somalia began to rapidly spiral out of control, and rebel factions subsequently began to fight for control of the remnants of the Somali state. Most notably, the split between the two main factions of the United Somali Congress (USC), led by Aidid and his rival Ali Mahdi, would result in serious fighting and vast swathes of Mogadishu would consequently destroyed as both factions attempted to exert control over the city.


title: Mohamed Farrah Aidid

text: Both Ali Mahdi and Aidid claimed to lead national unity governments, and each vied to lead the reconstruction of the Somali state.


title: Mohamed Farrah Aidid

text: Aidids wing of the USC would morph into the Somalia National Alliance (SNA) or USC/SNA. During the spring and summer of 1992, Former President Siad Barres army attempted to retake Mogadishu, but successful joint defence and counterattack by Aidids USC wing, the Somali Patriotic Movement (SPM), the Somali Southern National Movement (SSNM) and Somali Democratic Movement (SDM) (all united under the banner of the Somali Liberation Army) to push the last remnants of Barres troops out of southern Somalia into Kenya on June 16, 1992 would lead to the formation of the political union known as the Somali National Alliance. This absorption of different political organizations was critical to Aidid’s approach to taking the presidency.


title: Mohamed Farrah Aidid

text: As leader of the Somali National Alliance, Aidid, with presidential aspirations, expressed the goal of using the SNA as a base for working toward forming a national reconciliation government and claimed to also be aiming for an eventual multi-party democracy. To this end Aidid required and sought political agreements with the only two remaining major factions, the Somali National Movement (SNM) and Somali Salvation Democratic Front (SSDF), to leave his main rival Ali Mahdi Mohamed isolated in an enclave in North Mogadishu.


title: Mohamed Farrah Aidid

text: Aidids grip on power in the SNA was fragile, as his ability to impose decisions on the organization was limited. A council of elders held decision making power for most significant issues and elections were held that threatened Aidids chairmanship.


title: Mohamed Farrah Aidid

text: In April 1992 the United Nations intervened in Somalia, creating UNOSOM I. United Nations Security Council Resolution 794 was unanimously passed on 3 December 1992, which approved a coalition led by the United States. Forming the Unified Task Force (UNITAF), the alliance was given the task of assuring security until humanitarian efforts were transferred to the UN.


title: Mohamed Farrah Aidid

text: Aidid initially publicly opposed the deployment of United Nations forces to Somalia, but eventually relented. He and UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros Ghali both despised one another. Before being Secretary-General, Boutros Ghali had been an Egyptian diplomat that had supported President Siad Barre against the USC in the late 80s and early 90s.


title: Mohamed Farrah Aidid

text: In January 1993, Special Representative of the UN in Somalia, Ismat Kittani, requested the Aidid come to the Addis Abba Peace Conference set to be held in March.


title: Mohamed Farrah Aidid

text: Aidid subsequently declared himself President of Somalia in June 1995. However, his declaration received no international recognition, as his rival Ali Mahdi Muhammad had already been elected interim president at a conference in 1991 in Djibouti and recognized as such by the international community.


title: Mohamed Farrah Aidid

text: On 24 July 1996, Aidid and his men clashed with the forces of former allies Ali Mahdi Muhammad and Osman Ali Atto. Atto was a former supporter and financier of Aidid, and of the same subclan. Atto is alleged to have masterminded the defeat of Aidid. Aidid suffered a gunshot wound in the ensuing battle. He later died from a heart attack on 1 August 1996, either during or after surgery to treat his injuries.


title: Mohamed Farrah Aidid

text: During the leading up to the civil war, Aidid's wife Khadiga Gurhan sought asylum in Canada in 1989, taking their four children with her. Local media shortly afterwards alleged that she had returned to Somalia for a five-month stay while still receiving welfare payments. Gurhan admitted in an interview to collecting welfare and having briefly traveled to Somalia in late 1991. However, it was later brought to light that she had been granted landed immigrant status in June 1991, thereby making her a legal resident of Canada. Additionally, Aidid's rival President Barre had been overthrown in January of that year. This altogether ensured that Gurhan's five-month trip would not have undermined her initial 1989 claim of refugee status. An official probe by Canadian immigration officials into the allegations also concluded that she had obtained her landing papers through normal legal processes.


title: Mohamed Farrah Aidid

text: Hussein Mohamed Farrah, son of General Aidid, emigrated to the United States when he was 17 years old. Staying 16 years in the country, he eventually became a naturalized citizen and later a United States Marine who served in Somalia. Two days after his father's death, the Somali National Alliance declared Farrah as the new president, although he too was not internationally recognized as such.


title: Aly Raisman

text: Alexandra Rose Raisman (born May 25, 1994) is a retired American artistic gymnast and two-time Olympian. She was captain of both the 2012 "Fierce Five" and 2016 "Final Five" U.S. women's Olympic gymnastics teams, which won their respective team competitions.


title: Aly Raisman

text: At the 2012 Olympics in London, she won gold medals in the team and floor competitions, as well as the bronze medal on the balance beam, making her the most decorated American gymnast at the Games. At the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, she won a gold medal in the team event, making her and teammate Gabby Douglas the only Americans with back-to-back team gold medals. Raisman also won silver medals in the individual all-around and for floor exercise. She is the third-most decorated American gymnast in Olympic history behind Shannon Miller and Simone Biles, with six Olympic medals.


title: Aly Raisman

text: Raisman was also a member of the gold-winning American teams at the 2011 and 2015 World Championships, and the world bronze medalist on floor exercise in 2011. She is also a two-time national champion on floor exercise (2012, 2015), the 2012 national champion on balance beam, and a five-time medalist in the all-around at the national championships (silver in 2016, bronze in 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2015). In 2013, she was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.


title: Aly Raisman

text: Raisman was born on May 25, 1994, in the Boston suburb of Needham, Massachusetts, to Lynn (née Faber), a former high school gymnast, and Rick Raisman. She has three younger siblings: Brett, Chloe, and Madison. Raisman is Jewish, and has said, "I take a lot of pride in being able to not only represent the U.S.A, but also the Jewish community everywhere."


title: Aly Raisman

text: Raisman began gymnastics when she was eighteen months old. She attributes her initial love for the sport to the "Magnificent Seven", the gold-medal-winning U.S. women's team at the 1996 Summer Olympics, whose performances she watched on VHS.


title: Aly Raisman

text: She trained at Exxcel Gymnastics and Climbing through Level 8, when she moved to Brestyan's American Gymnastics Club under coaches Mihai and Silvia Brestyan. Raisman graduated from Needham High School in 2012, after completing her senior year via online classes while training for the Olympics.


title: Aly Raisman

text: In April, Raisman competed at the American Classic in San Diego, where she placed tenth in the all-around with a score of 53.383. In July, she competed at the U.S. Classic in Des Moines, Iowa, and placed twelfth in the all-around with a score of 54.050.


title: Aly Raisman

text: In August, Raisman competed at the National Championships in Dallas. She placed third in the all-around with a two-day combined score of 112.600. In event finals, she placed fifth on vault, scoring 29.650 over two days, and second on balance beam, scoring 28.950.


title: Aly Raisman

text: In November, she competed at the Junior Pan American Championships in Aracaju, Brazil, where she contributed scores of 14.950 on vault and 14.050 on floor exercise toward the American team's first-place finish. Individually, she placed third in the all-around (56.200), and first on vault (14.700) and floor (14.400).


title: Aly Raisman

text: In March, Raisman competed at the American Cup in Worcester, Massachusetts. She placed second with an all-around score of 58.900. Later that month, she competed at the City of Jesolo Trophy in Jesolo, Italy, and won the all-around with a score of 57.650.


title: Aly Raisman

text: In May, she competed at the Pacific Rim Championships in Melbourne. She helped the American team win the gold medal and placed second in the all-around competition with a score of 58.250. In event finals, she placed seventh on uneven bars, scoring 13.025; second on balance beam, scoring 14.675; and second on floor, scoring 14.625.


title: Aly Raisman

text: In July, Raisman placed fifth at the U.S. Classic in Chicago with a score of 55.700. In August, she competed at the National Championships in Hartford, Connecticut, and placed third in the all-around with a two-day combined score of 115.650. In event finals, she placed third on balance beam, scoring 28.300, and third on floor, scoring 29.500.


title: Aly Raisman

text: In October, she competed at the 2010 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Rotterdam. She contributed scores of 15.066 on vault, 14.333 on balance beam, and 14.500 on floor toward the American team's second-place finish. Individually, she placed thirteenth in the all-around final with a score of 55.699, and fourth in the floor final with a score of 14.716.


title: Aly Raisman

text: In March, Raisman placed third at the American Cup in Jacksonville, Florida, with a score of 58.565. Later that month, she placed third at the City of Jesolo Trophy with a score of 57.400.


title: Aly Raisman

text: In July, she won the all-around at the U.S. Classic in Chicago with a score of 57.250. In August, she competed at the National Championships in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and placed third in the all-around with a two-day combined score of 114.600. In event finals, she placed sixth on balance beam (27.900) and third on floor (29.150).


title: Aly Raisman

text: In October, Raisman competed at the 2011 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Tokyo. She became team captain when Sacramone was injured before the competition. "I'm the oldest of all my siblings, so it just kind of came naturally," she said. "I didn't really think of it as being the team leader; I just wanted to help the others out." She contributed scores of 14.950 on vault, 14.866 on balance beam, and 14.666 on floor toward the American team's first-place finish. Individually, she placed fourth in the all-around with a score of 57.558. In event finals, she placed fourth on balance beam, scoring 15.066, and third on floor, scoring 15.000. Here Raisman became famous for her first tumbling pass (round off one and a half step out round off back handspring tucked Arabian double front to punch front layout (punch front tuck during 2011), due to both its originality and high degree of difficulty.


title: Aly Raisman

text: In November, Raisman decided to become a professional athlete, giving up her NCAA eligibility and a scholarship to University of Florida. She signed with the Octagon sports management firm. She said: "It was a hard decision, but I've always thought about it in the back of my mind. I just wanted to try it and have no regrets, because I thought if I didn't try to go pro, I'd always wonder. I know all the girls at Florida, and they love it there so much. But not a lot of people get the opportunity to be a professional gymnast and be able to have sponsors. I love fashion, so it's cool to be sponsored by Ralph Lauren."


title: Aly Raisman

text: At the beginning of March, Raisman competed at the American Cup in New York City, placing second with a score of 60.823. At the end of March, she competed at the City of Jesolo Trophy, where she finished second with a score of 59.050.


title: Aly Raisman

text: In May, she competed at the U.S. Classic in Chicago and won the all-around with a score of 60.350. National Team Coordinator Márta Károlyi said: "I was very impressed by Raisman's general manner of how she handled this competition. You could not tell that she feels any pressure, and we really, really need that. At the Olympics…we need the girls to believe that they're ready, and then they are successful, so that was very good."


title: Aly Raisman

text: In June, Raisman competed at the National Championships in St. Louis. She placed third in the all-around with a two-day combined score of 120.950, and finished first on beam (30.650) and floor (31.250). Károlyi said: "She is just so solid. She goes out there and doesn't act like she's bothered by anything. She knows she's trained, she knows she's ready, and she doesn't put any extra pressure on herself. I really love to have this kind of gymnast. She gives her heart." Sacramone added: "I don't think she necessarily gets enough credit for how well she competes. At the last two world championships, I don't think she's made any mistakes. She's the backbone. If you want her to go and do something, do a solid routine, she's going to do it."


title: Aly Raisman

text: At the beginning of July, Raisman placed third all-around at the Olympic Trials in San Jose, California, with a two-day combined score of 120.950. She placed first on balance beam (30.350) and floor (31.100). Afterward, she was chosen as a member of the team that would be sent to the 2012 Summer Olympics. Raisman was the oldest at 18 and named captain of the team.


title: Aly Raisman

text: In July, Raisman was the focus of a documentary on Comcast SportsNet titled "Aly Raisman: Quest for Gold". She was filmed for nine months, from the 2011 World Championships until the Olympic Trials. Along with the rest of the U.S. women's Olympic gymnastics team, she was featured on the cover of the July 18, 2012, issue of "Sports Illustrated". This was the first time an entire Olympic gymnastics team had been featured on the magazine's cover.


title: Aly Raisman

text: At the end of July, Raisman competed at the Olympics in London. She helped the American team (nicknamed the "Fierce Five") qualify in first place to the team final, and also qualified in second place to the individual all-around with a score of 60.391, fifth to the beam final with a score of 15.100, and first to the floor final with a score of 15.325. In the team final, she contributed scores of 14.933 on balance beam and 15.300 on floor toward the American team's first-place finish.


title: Aly Raisman

text: In the individual all-around, she scored a 15.900 on vault, 14.333 on bars, 14.200 on beam and 15.133 on floor for a total of 59.566, tying with Aliya Mustafina of Russia. However, she lost the bronze in a tie-breaker and placed fourth. (The tie-breaker counted the three highest apparatus scores; Mustafina's totaled 45.933 and Raisman's totaled 45.366.)


title: Aly Raisman

text: In the balance beam final, Raisman won the bronze medal. She initially scored 14.966, but after Károlyi requested a video review, the judges re-evaluated and granted Raisman's routine an extra tenth in difficulty. As a result, she scored 15.066, matching Romania's Cătălina Ponor for third place, and won the tie-breaker, which prioritized execution score over difficulty score.


title: Aly Raisman

text: In the floor final, Raisman placed first with a score of 15.600, becoming the first American woman to win a gold medal on floor. It was also the highest score on floor exercise recorded at a major international competition in the 2009-2012 Olympic quad. She performed to the tune of "Hava Nagila" and dedicated her floor routine to the 11 Israeli Olympians who were killed by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich.


title: Aly Raisman

text: In September 2012, Raisman was injured during the Kellogg's Tour of Gymnastics Champions in Ontario, California. She fell while performing a Maloney on the uneven bars and landed off the mats, bruising her knees. This occurred shortly after teammate McKayla Maroney injured herself performing a flyaway dismount on the same bars.


title: Aly Raisman

text: Raisman was given the honor of igniting the 2013 Maccabiah Games flame in Jerusalem. Raisman attended Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts in 2013 before returning to her professional career.


title: Aly Raisman

text: In 2014, Raisman returned to gymnastics at the October national training camp, her first since the Olympics. Longtime coach Mihai Brestyan had Raisman do a year of conditioning before allowed her to return to the apparatus. After the November training camp, she was named again to the U.S. National Team, along with Olympic teammate Gabby Douglas.


title: Aly Raisman

text: Raisman made her comeback to competition at the City of Jesolo Trophy in late March. There, she received the gold medal with the U.S. team and won individual bronze medals in the all-around (behind Simone Biles and Bailie Key), with a score of 59.100, and the floor exercise (behind Biles and Erika Fasana of Italy), with a score of 14.850.


title: Aly Raisman

text: On July 25, Raisman competed at the U.S. Classic. She performed her Amanar vault for the first time since 2012 and scored a 15.400. She placed ninth on bars (14.200), second on beam (15.100), and fifth on floor, where she fell during a new, difficult routine and scored 14.350. She finished fifth in the all-around with a total score of 59.050.


title: Aly Raisman

text: On August 13 and 15, Raisman competed at the National Championships in Indianapolis and finished third, behind Biles and Maggie Nichols, with a two-night total of 118.550. She fell on balance beam on Night 1, scoring a low 13.750, but went on to post the highest floor exercise score of the night, 15.550. With a two-night total of 31.050 on floor, she beat Biles, the reigning world champion on the event, by 0.300. After the competition, Raisman was named to the national team for the first time since 2012 and received an invitation to the World Championships selection camp in September.


title: Aly Raisman

text: Raisman started the year at the 2016 City of Jesolo Trophy in March, and finished sixth in the all-around. She finished first on floor with a score of 15.050, beating teammate Ragan Smith by half a point. She also finished third on beam with a score of 14.750, behind Smith and Laurie Hernandez.


title: Aly Raisman

text: At the Pacific Rim Championships, Raisman won gold with the U.S. team, contributing a 15.200 on vault, 14.800 on beam, and 15.600 on floor. She then won the silver medal in the all-around, behind Biles, with a score of 59.900. She won a second silver medal on the balance beam (15.100), behind Smith, and gold on floor (15.100).


title: Aly Raisman

text: Raisman then won the U.S. Classic in Hartford with a score of 59.250. She placed first on vault (15.700) and floor (15.500); third on beam (15.000), behind Biles and Alyssa Baumann; and scored a 13.050 on uneven bars, finishing seventeenth on that event.


title: Aly Raisman

text: On June 24 and 26, Raisman competed at the National Championships. She scored 60.450 on the first night and 60.650 on the second, finishing in second place behind Biles. Her day one scores were 15.350 on vault, 14.150 on uneven bars, 15.350 on balance beam and 15.600 on floor. Her day two scores were 15.500 on vault, 14.150 on bars, 15.300 on beam and 15.700 on floor. She also placed second on beam and floor behind Biles, and twelfth on bars. At the Olympic Trials in July, she scored a total of 119.750 over two nights, putting her in third place behind Biles and Hernandez. She placed second on floor, third on vault and beam, and eleventh on bars. After the Trials, she was named to the 2016 U.S. Olympic women's gymnastics team alongside Biles, Douglas, Hernandez, and Madison Kocian. Raisman and Douglas are the first U.S. women since 2000 to make back-to-back Olympic gymnastics teams. Raisman was again the oldest and named captain of the team.


title: Aly Raisman

text: There was some question heading into the women's qualifications which of Aly Raisman, Laurie Hernandez, and defending Olympic all-around champion Gabby Douglas would get a chance to qualify for the all-around finals, since the first spot in the finals was previously given to Simone Biles. Douglas, despite trailing Raisman and Hernandez in the all-around throughout the year, was considered very strong on the uneven bars, the event that someone would be required to sit out to make way for bars specialist Madison Kocian. Due to her weakness on uneven bars many speculated Raisman would be the one to miss out on an all-around opportunity but her strong performances in podium training on all events, and an injury to Laurie Hernandez, meant it would be Hernandez to sit out uneven bars, giving Raisman the chance to qualify to the all-around. During the first night of women's gymnastics competition at the 2016 Summer Olympics, Raisman and the U.S. women qualified into the team final in first place with a score of 185.238, almost 10 points ahead of the second-place qualifying team. Individually, Raisman qualified second to the all-around final (with a score of 60.607, behind teammate Biles), just edging out defending Olympic all-around winner Douglas who placed third behind Raisman but was bumped due to the two-per-country rule. Raisman also qualified to the floor exercise final (with a score of 15.275, again behind Biles), where she was the defending Olympic champion from the London Games. She also posted one of the highest beam scores in qualification, an event she was the defending Olympic bronze medalist, but due to the two-per-country rule was bumped from event finals by her teammates Simone Biles and Laurie Hernandez.


title: Aly Raisman

text: On the second day of competition in the team final, Raisman competed on vault, balance beam, and floor exercise to help secure the gold medal for the U.S. team and defend the title she earned with the Fierce Five in 2012. Individually, she scored 15.833 on vault, 15.000 on beam and 15.366 on floor. At the end of the competition, she and her teammates dubbed themselves "The Final Five", because they were the last Olympic team Marta Karolyi would name before she retired as team coordinator. These were the last Olympics where the teams would consist of five gymnasts, as it was announced earlier in the year that, starting with the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, that competing teams would be reduced to four gymnasts.


title: Aly Raisman

text: In the all-around final, Raisman scored a 15.633 on vault, 14.166 on bars, 14.866 on beam and 15.433 on floor to place second with a total score of 60.098, earning a silver medal, behind Biles and ahead of Russia's Aliya Mustafina. She was most noted for bursting into tears after the completion of her floor routine in the final rotation, having avenged the heartbreak of losing an all-around medal via a tiebreak four years earlier.


title: Aly Raisman

text: In the floor final, Raisman again finished second behind Biles, with a score of 15.500, bringing her to a total of six Olympic medals. This made her the second most decorated American Olympic gymnast behind Shannon Miller. Raisman received praise for her dignity and maturity as well as for her performances, which had improved from 2012.


title: Aly Raisman

text: Raisman is Jewish with roots in Romania. In 2016, she joined UNICEF Kid Power as a brand ambassador Kid Power Champion.


title: Aly Raisman

text: In November 2017, Raisman came forward as one of the many victims sexually abused by the former Olympic team physician, Larry Nassar, starting from the age of 15. On January 19, 2018, Raisman was one of several victims that read impact statements at Nassar's sentencing. On February 28, 2018, Raisman filed a lawsuit against USA Gymnastics and the USOC, claiming both organizations "knew or should have known" about the ongoing abuse. On May 16, 2018, it was announced that Raisman and the other survivors of the USA Gymnastics sexual abuse scandal would be awarded the Arthur Ashe Courage Award. On May 30, 2018, Raisman appeared in the Maroon 5 music video "Girls Like You" featuring Cardi B, wearing a T-shirt with the words "Always Speak Your Truth".


title: Aly Raisman

text: Raisman was a contestant on season 16 of "Dancing With the Stars" and finished in fourth place with two-time champion Mark Ballas. She was credited as "Alexandra Raisman" during the competition.


title: Aly Raisman

text: She also made an appearance with the rest of the Fierce Five during the previous season of DWTS, when she appeared during a freestyle dance with 2008 Olympic gold medal winner Shawn Johnson and Johnson's partner that season, Derek Hough.


title: Aly Raisman

text: Raisman and fellow Olympic teammate Simone Biles appeared in the 2017 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. Raisman also participated in the 2018 edition to show empowerment for women following the Nassar abuse scandal.


title: Aly Raisman

text: In November 2017, Raisman released her memoir book "Fierce: How Competing for Myself Changed Everything".


title: Aly Raisman

text: In November 2019, Raisman had a cameo in the "Charlie's Angels" reboot film, written and directed by Elizabeth Banks.


title: Aly Raisman

text: On September 24, 2021, "Aly Raisman: Darkness to Light" advocates for survivors of abuse, on Lifetime.


title: David Corenswet

text: David Packard Corenswet (born July 8, 1993) is an American actor. After graduating from the Juilliard School in 2016, he began guest starring in television series, including "House of Cards" in 2018. He then starred in the Netflix series "The Politician" (2019–2020) and "Hollywood" (2020), both created by Ryan Murphy, the Netflix movie "Look Both Ways" (2022), the HBO miniseries "We Own This City" (2022), and the A24 movie "Pearl" (2022).


title: David Corenswet

text: Corenswet was raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His father, John Corenswet, was from a prominent Jewish family in New Orleans, and worked as a stage actor in New York City for many years before becoming a lawyer; his mother is a lawyer who specializes in nonprofit organizational conflict resolution; his sister is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School.


title: David Corenswet

text: Corenswet's maternal grandfather is Edward Packard, creator of the "Choose Your Own Adventure" book concept and author of more than 50 books in the series. His maternal grandmother was a prominent Quaker activist.


title: David Corenswet

text: Corenswet graduated from The Shipley School and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in drama in 2016 from the Juilliard School in New York City. He applied and was accepted to Juilliard while a freshman at the University of Pennsylvania.


title: David Corenswet

text: As a child actor, Corenswet appeared in numerous professional theater productions, including the Arden Theatre Company's 2002 production of Arthur Miller's "All My Sons", the Philadelphia Shakespeare Festival's 2003 production of "Macbeth", the Walnut Street Theatre Company's 2003 production of "La Vie En Bleu", and the People's Light and Theatre Company's 2004 production of "The Forgiving Harvest", among others.


title: David Corenswet

text: Corenswet wrote the screenplay for and acted in "Following Chase" (2011), directed by Greg Koorhan. He next co-wrote, produced, and starred in a two-season sketch-comedy web series, "Moe & Jerryweather" (2014-2016).


title: David Corenswet

text: In 2016, director Rob Reiner cast Corenswet as a co-lead in his planned television series, "The Tap", set at Yale College in 1969. Corenswet played a student. USA Network ordered the pilot episode, which was filmed in 2017, but declined to pick up the series.


title: David Corenswet

text: In Corenswet's first film role after graduating from Juilliard, he starred as Michael Lawson in "Affairs of State" (2018), a political thriller. The film also stars Thora Birch, Mimi Rogers, and Adrian Grenier. "Los Angeles Times" described the film as "well-acted".


title: David Corenswet

text: Corenswet then appeared in several guest-star roles, including in "House of Cards", "Elementary", and "Instinct".


title: David Corenswet

text: In "The Politician" (2019–2020), he portrays River Barkley, the lover and high-school political rival of Payton Hobart (Ben Platt). "Vanity Fair" described River as a "wealthy, sporty, straight-A student".


title: David Corenswet

text: Corenswet stars as Jack Castello in "Hollywood" (2020), a Netflix limited series about the post-World War II film business in Los Angeles. Corenswet is also an executive producer on the series. He stars alongside Patti LuPone, Dylan McDermott, Darren Criss, and Holland Taylor. "Men's Health" magazine praised Corenswet's performance as that of a "breakout lead". "IndieWire" called it "another star-proving turn from David Corenswet."


title: David Corenswet

text: In "We Own This City," a 2022 HBO limited series from "The Wire"’s writers and executive producers David Simon and George Pelecanos, Corenswet co-stars as the veteran police investigator David McDougall, whose work helps uncover years of corruption in the Gun Trace Task Force of the Baltimore police department. The series is based on actual events that unfolded in 2016.


title: David Corenswet

text: Corenswet co-stars as Jake in "Look Both Ways", a 2022 Netflix original romantic comedy-drama film. Directed by Wanuri Kahiu and written by April Prosser, it also stars Lili Reinhart, Luke Wilson, Andrea Savage, Danny Ramirez, and Aisha Dee.


title: David Corenswet

text: In “Pearl,” a 2022 psychological slasher film directed by Ti West, Corenswet co-stars as The Projectionist. Martin Scorsese described the film as “mesmerizing” and “enthrall[ing].”


title: David Corenswet

text: Corenswet joins Natalie Portman, Moses Ingram, Mikey Madison, and Dylan Arnold in the forthcoming Apple TV+ series “Lady in the Lake,” directed by Alma Har'el. The series has finished filming, and will debut in 2023.


title: David Corenswet

text: Corenswet will play the male lead in an hour-long television pilot from 20th Television, to be filmed in 2023: “The Answers,” FX’s adaptation of Catherine Lacey’s novel of that name. He will play the role of Christopher Skye, a charismatic but troubled movie star involved in an enigmatic, futuristic dating experiment.


title: Wesley Clark

text: Wesley Kanne Clark (born December 23, 1944) is a retired United States Army officer. He graduated as valedictorian of the class of 1966 at West Point and was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to the University of Oxford, where he obtained a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. He later graduated from the Command and General Staff College with a master's degree in military science. He spent 34 years in the U.S. Army, receiving many military decorations, several honorary knighthoods, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Clark served as the Supreme Allied Commander Europe of NATO from 1997 to 2000, commanding Operation Allied Force during the Kosovo War.


title: Wesley Clark

text: In 2003, Clark launched his candidacy for the 2004 Democratic Party presidential primaries. After winning only the Oklahoma state primary, he withdrew from the race in February 2004, endorsing and campaigning for the eventual Democratic nominee, John Kerry. Clark leads a political action committee, "WesPAC", which he formed after the 2004 primaries and used to support Democratic Party candidates in the 2006 midterm elections. Clark was considered a potential candidate for the Democratic nomination in 2008, but, on September 15, 2007, endorsed Senator Hillary Clinton. After Clinton dropped out of the presidential race, Clark endorsed the then-presumptive Democratic nominee, Barack Obama.


title: Wesley Clark

text: Clark has his own consulting firm, Wesley K. Clark and Associates, and is chairman and CEO of Enverra, a licensed boutique investment bank. He has worked with over 100 private and public companies on energy, security, and financial services. Clark is engaged in business in North America, Africa, Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and Asia. Between July 2012 and November 2015, he was an honorary special advisor to Romanian prime minister Victor Ponta on economic and security matters.


title: Wesley Clark

text: Clark's father's family was Jewish; his paternal grandparents, Jacob Kanne and Ida Goldman, immigrated to the United States from Belarus/the Russian Empire, in response to the Pale of Settlement and anti-Jewish violence from Russian pogroms. Clark's father, Benjamin Jacob Kanne, graduated from the Chicago-Kent College of Law and served in the U.S. Naval Reserve as an ensign during World War I, although he never participated in combat. Kanne, living in Chicago, became involved with ward politics in the 1920s as a prosecutor and served in local offices. He served as a delegate to the 1932 Democratic National Convention that nominated Franklin D. Roosevelt as the party's presidential candidate (though his name does not appear on the published roll of convention delegates). His mother was of English ancestry and was a Methodist.


title: Wesley Clark

text: Kanne came from the Kohen family line, and Clark's son has characterized Clark's parents' marriage, between his Methodist mother, Veneta (née Updegraff), and his Jewish father, Benjamin Jacob Kanne, as "about as multicultural as you could've gotten in 1944".


title: Wesley Clark

text: Clark was born Wesley J. Kanne in Chicago on December 23, 1944. His father Benjamin died on December 6, 1948; his mother then moved the family to Little Rock, Arkansas. The move was made to escape the cost of living in the city of Chicago, for the support Veneta's family in Arkansas could provide, and her feeling of being an outsider to the religion of the Kanne family. Once in Little Rock, Veneta married Victor Clark, whom she met while working as a secretary at a bank. Victor raised Wesley as his son, and officially adopted him on Wesley's 16th birthday. Wesley's name was changed to Wesley Kanne Clark. Victor Clark's name actually replaced that of Wesley's biological father on his birth certificate, something Wesley would later say that he wished they had not done. Veneta raised Wesley without telling him of his Jewish ancestry to protect him from the anti-Jewish activities of the Ku Klux Klan in the southern U.S. Although his mother was Methodist, Clark chose a Baptist church after moving to Little Rock and continued attending it throughout his childhood.


title: Wesley Clark

text: He graduated from Hall High School with a National Merit Scholarship. He helped take their swim team to the state championship, filling in for a sick teammate by swimming two legs of a relay. Clark has often repeated the anecdote that he decided he wanted to go to West Point after meeting a cadet with glasses who told Clark (who wore glasses as well) that one did not need perfect vision to attend West Point as Clark had thought. Clark applied, and he was accepted on April 24, 1962.


title: Wesley Clark

text: Clark's military career began July 2, 1962, when he entered the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. He later said that Douglas MacArthur's famous "" speech was an important influence on his view of the military. The speech was given to the class of 1962 several months before Clark entered West Point, but a recording was played for his class when they first arrived.


title: Wesley Clark

text: Clark sat in the front in many of his classes, a position held by the highest performer in class. Clark participated heavily in debate, was consistently within the top 5% of his class as a whole (earning him "Distinguished Cadet" stars on his uniform) and graduated as valedictorian of West Point. The valedictorian is first to choose a career specialty in the Army, and Clark selected armor. He met Gertrude Kingston, whom he later married, at a USO dance for midshipmen and West Point cadets.


title: Wesley Clark

text: Clark applied for a Rhodes Scholarship during his senior year at West Point, and learned in December 1965 that he had been accepted. He spent his summer at the United States Army Airborne School at Fort Benning, Georgia. He completed his master's degree in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE) at Magdalen College at the University of Oxford in August 1968. While he was at Oxford, a Jewish cousin of Clark's who lived in England telephoned him and informed him of his Jewish heritage, having received permission from Veneta Clark. Clark spent three months after graduation at Fort Knox, Kentucky, going through Armor Officer Basic Course, then went on to Ranger School at Fort Benning. He was promoted to captain and was assigned as commander of the A Company of the 1st Battalion, 63rd Armor, 24th Infantry Division at Fort Riley, Kansas.


title: Wesley Clark

text: Clark was assigned to the 1st Infantry Division and flew to Vietnam in July 1969, during the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. He worked as a staff officer, collecting data and helping in operations planning, and was awarded the Bronze Star for his work with the staff. Clark was then given command of A Company, 1st Battalion, 16th Infantry of the 1st Infantry Division in January 1970. In February, only one month into his command, he was shot four times by a Viet Cong soldier with an AK-47. The wounded Clark shouted orders to his men, who counterattacked and defeated the Viet Cong force. Clark had injuries to his right shoulder, right hand, right hip, and right leg, and was sent to Valley Forge Army Hospital in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, to recuperate. He was awarded the Silver Star and the Combat Infantryman Badge for his actions during the encounter.


title: Wesley Clark

text: Clark converted to Catholicism, his wife Gertrude's religion, while in Vietnam. He saw his son, Wesley Clark, Jr., for the first time while at the Valley Forge Hospital. Clark commanded C Company, 6th Battalion, 32nd Armor, 194th Armored Brigade, a company composed of wounded soldiers, at Fort Knox. Clark has said this command is what made him decide to continue his military career past the eight-year commitment required by West Point, which would have concluded in 1974. Clark completed his Armor Officer Advanced Course while at Fort Knox, taking additional elective courses and writing an article that won the Armor Association Writing Award. His next posting was to the office of the Army Chief of Staff in Washington, D.C., where he worked in the "Modern Volunteer Army" program from May to July 1971. He then served as an instructor in the Department of Social Sciences at West Point for three years from July 1971 to 1974.


title: Wesley Clark

text: Clark graduated as the Distinguished Graduate and George C. Marshall Award winner from the Command and General Staff College (CGSC), earning his military Master of Arts degree in military science from the CGSC with a thesis on American policies of gradualism in the Vietnam War. Clark's theory was one of applying force swiftly to achieve escalation dominance, a concept that would eventually become established as U.S. national security policy in the form of the Weinberger Doctrine and its successor, the Powell Doctrine. Clark was promoted to major upon his graduation from the CGSC.


title: Wesley Clark

text: In 1975, Clark was appointed a White House Fellow in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) as a special assistant to its director, James Thomas Lynn. He was one of 14 appointed out of 2,307 applicants. Lynn also gave Clark a six-week assignment to assist John Marsh, then a counselor to the president. Clark was approached during his fellowship to help push for a memorial to Vietnam veterans. He worked with the movement that helped lead to the creation of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. Clark served in two commands with the 1st Armored Division based in Germany from August 1976 to February 1978, first as S-3 of the 3rd Battalion, 35th Armor and then as S-3 for 3rd Brigade. Clark's brigade commander while in the former position said Clark was "singularly outstanding, notably superb". He was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal for his work with the division.


title: Wesley Clark

text: The brigade commander had also said that "word of Major Clark's exceptional talent spread", and in one case reached the desk of then Supreme Allied Commander Alexander Haig. Haig personally selected Clark to serve as a special assistant on his staff, a post he held from February 1978 to June 1979. While on staff at Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE), Clark wrote policy reports and coordinated two multinational military exercises. As a result of his work on Haig's staff, Clark was promoted to lieutenant colonel and was awarded the Legion of Merit. After his European post, he moved on to Fort Carson, Colorado, where he served first as the executive officer of the 1st Brigade, 4th Infantry Division from August 1979 to February 1980, then as the commander of the 1st Battalion, 77th Armor, 4th Infantry Division from February 1980 to July 1982. According to the American journalist David Halberstam, the commander at Fort Carson, then Major General John Hudachek, had a reputation of disliking West Point graduates and fast-rising officers such as Clark. Still, Clark was selected first in his year group for full colonel and attended the National War College immediately after his battalion command. Clark graduated in June 1983, and was promoted to full colonel in October 1983.


title: Wesley Clark

text: Following his graduation, Clark worked in Washington, D.C., from July 1983 to 1984 in the offices of the Chief and Deputy Chiefs of Staff of the United States Army, earning a second Legion of Merit for his work. He then served as the Operations Group commander at the Fort Irwin Military Reservation from August 1984 to June 1986. He was awarded another Legion of Merit and a Meritorious Service Medal for his work at Fort Irwin and was given a brigade command at Fort Carson in 1986. He commanded the 3rd Brigade, 4th Infantry Division there from April 1986 to March 1988. Veneta Clark, Wesley's mother, died of a heart attack on Mother's Day in 1986. Regarding his term as brigade commander, one of his battalion commanders called Clark the "most brilliant and gifted officer [he'd] ever known". After Fort Carson, Clark returned to the Command and General Staff College to direct and further develop the Battle Command Training Program (BCTP) there until October 1989. The BCTP was created to use escalation training to teach senior officers war-fighting skills, according to the commanding general at the time. On November 1, 1989, Clark was promoted to brigadier general.


title: Wesley Clark

text: Clark returned to Fort Irwin and commanded the National Training Center (NTC) from October 1989 to 1991. The Gulf War occurred during Clark's command, and many National Guard divisional round-out brigades trained under his command. Multiple generals commanding American forces in Iraq and Kuwait said Clark's training helped bring about results in the field and that he had successfully begun training a new generation of the military that had moved past Vietnam-era strategy. He was awarded another Legion of Merit for his "personal efforts" that were "instrumental in maintaining" the NTC, according to the citation. He served in a planning post after this, as the deputy chief of staff for concepts, doctrine, and developments at Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) at Fort Monroe, Virginia. While there, he helped the commanding general of TRADOC prepare the army for war and develop new post-Cold War strategies. Clark pushed for technological advancement in the army to establish a digital network for military command, which he called the "digitization of the battlefield". He was promoted to major general in October 1992 at the end of this command.


title: Wesley Clark

text: Clark's divisional command came with the 1st Cavalry Division at Fort Hood, Texas. Clark was in command during three separate deployments of forces from Fort Hood for peacekeeping in Kuwait.


title: Wesley Clark

text: His Officer Evaluation Report (OER) for his command at Fort Hood called him "one of the Army's best and brightest". Clark was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal for his work at Fort Hood and was promoted to lieutenant general at the end of his command in 1994. Clark's next assignment was an appointment as the Director, Strategic Plans and Policy (J5), on the staff of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), from April 1994 to June 1996. In this position, he helped develop and coordinate world-wide US military policy and strategy. He participated with Richard Holbrooke in the Dayton Peace Process, which ended the Bosnian war in former Yugoslavia. During this period, he also participated in "back-stopping" nuclear negotiations in Korea, planning the restoration of democracy in Haiti, shifting the United States Southern Command headquarters from Panama to Miami, imposing tougher restrictions on Saddam Hussein, rewriting the National Military Strategy, and developing Joint Vision 2010 for future US war-fighting.


title: Wesley Clark

text: Army regulations set a so-called "ticking clock" upon promotion to a three-star general, essentially requiring that Clark be promoted to another post within two years from his initial promotion or retire. This deadline ended in 1996 and Clark said he was not optimistic about receiving such a promotion because rumors at the time suggested General Dennis Reimer did not want to recommend him for promotion although "no specific reason was given". According to Clark's book, General Robert Scales said that it was likely Clark's reputation for intelligence was responsible for feelings of resentment from other generals. Clark was named to the United States Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM) post despite these rumors. Congress approved his promotion to full general in June 1996, and General John M. Shalikashvili signed the order. Clark said he was not the original nominee, but the first officer chosen "hadn't been accepted for some reason".


title: Wesley Clark

text: Clark began planning work for responses to the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina upon his appointment in 1994 as the Director, Strategic Plans and Policy (J5) on the JCS staff. While collecting information to outline military options for resolving the conflict, Clark met with Bosnian Serb military leaders including Ratko Mladić, who was later accused of war crimes and genocide. Clark was photographed exchanging hats with Mladić, and the photo drew controversy in the United States. A "Washington Post" story was published claiming Clark had made the visit despite a warning from the U.S. ambassador. Some Clinton administration members privately said the incident was "like cavorting with Hermann Göring". Clark listed the visit in the itinerary he submitted to the ambassador, but he learned only afterwards that it was not approved. He said there had been no warning and no one had told him to cancel the visit, although two Congressmen called for his dismissal regardless. Clark later said he regretted the exchange, and the issue was ultimately resolved as President Clinton sent a letter defending Clark to the Congress and the controversy subsided. Clark said it was his "first experience in the rough and tumble of high visibility ... and a painful few days". Conservative pundit Robert Novak later referred to the hat exchange in a column during Clark's 2004 presidential campaign, citing it as a "problem" with Clark as a candidate.


title: Wesley Clark

text: Clark was sent to Bosnia by Secretary of Defense William Perry to serve as the military member to a diplomatic negotiating team headed by assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke. Holbrooke later described Clark's position as "complicated" because it presented him with future possibilities but "might put him into career-endangering conflicts with more senior officers". While the team was driving along a mountain road during the first week, the road gave way, and one of the vehicles fell over a cliff carrying passengers including Holbrooke's deputy, Robert Frasure, a deputy assistant Secretary of Defense, Joseph Kruzel, and Air Force Colonel Nelson Drew. Following funeral services in Washington, D.C., the negotiations continued and the team eventually reached the Dayton Agreement at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, and later signed it in Paris on December 14, 1995.


title: Wesley Clark

text: Clark returned to the European theater and the Balkans following his USSOUTHCOM position when he was appointed to U.S. European Command in the summer of 1997 by President Clinton. He was, as with SOUTHCOM, not the original nominee for the position. The Army had already selected another general for the post. Because President Clinton and General Shalikashvili believed Clark was the best man for the post, he eventually received the nomination. Shalikashvili noted he "had a very strong role in [Clark's] last two jobs". Clark noted during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services committee of the 105th Congress that he believed NATO had shifted since the end of the Cold War from protecting Europe from the Soviet Union to working towards more general stability in the region. Clark also addressed issues related to his then-current command of USSOUTHCOM, such as support for the School of the Americas and his belief that the United States must continue aid to some South American nations to effectively fight the War on Drugs. Clark was quickly confirmed by a voice vote the same day as his confirmation hearing, giving him the command of 109,000 American troops, their 150,000 family members, 50,000 civilians aiding the military, and all American military activities in 89 countries and territories of Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. The position made Clark the Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR), which granted him overall command of NATO military forces in Europe.


title: Wesley Clark

text: The largest event of Clark's tenure as SACEUR was NATO's confrontation with the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in the Kosovo War. On September 22, 1998, the United Nations Security Council introduced Resolution 1199 calling for an end to hostilities in Kosovo, and Richard Holbrooke again tried to negotiate a peace. This process came to an unsuccessful end, however, following the Račak massacre. Then U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright tried to force Yugoslavia into allowing separation of Kosovo with the Rambouillet Agreement, which Yugoslavia refused. Clark was not at the Rambouillet talks. He separately tried to convince Yugoslavian president Slobodan Milošević by telling him "there's an activation order. And if they tell me to bomb you, I'm going to bomb you good." Clark later alleged that Milošević launched into an emotional tirade against Albanians and said that they'd been "handled" in the 1940s by ethnic cleansing.


title: Wesley Clark

text: On orders from President Clinton, Clark started the bombings codenamed Operation Allied Force on March 24, 1999, on orders to try to enforce U.N. Resolution 1199 following Yugoslavia's refusal of the Rambouillet Agreement. However, critics note that Resolution 1199 was a call for cessation of hostilities and does not authorize any organization to take military action. Secretary of Defense William Cohen felt that Clark had powerful allies at the White House, such as President Clinton and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who allowed him to circumvent The Pentagon in promoting his strategic ideas. Clark felt, however, that he was not being included enough in discussions with the National Command Authority, leading him to describe himself as "just a NATO officer who also reported to the United States". This command conflict came to a ceremonial head when Clark was not initially invited to a summit in Washington, D.C., to commemorate NATO's 50th anniversary, despite being its supreme military commander. Clark eventually secured an invitation to the summit, but was told by Cohen to say nothing about ground troops, and Clark agreed.


title: Wesley Clark

text: Clark returned to SHAPE following the summit and briefed the press on the continued bombing operations. A reporter from the "Los Angeles Times" asked a question about the effect of bombings on Serbian forces, and Clark noted that merely counting the number of opposing troops did not show Milošević's true losses because he was bringing in reinforcements. Many American news organizations capitalized on the remark in a way Clark said "distorted the comment" with headlines such as "NATO Chief Admits Bombs Fail to Stem Serb Operations" in "The New York Times". Clark later defended his remarks, saying this was a "complete misunderstanding of my statement and of the facts," and President Clinton agreed that Clark's remarks were misconstrued. Regardless, Clark received a call the following evening from Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Hugh Shelton, who said he had been told by Secretary Cohen to deliver a piece of guidance verbatim: "Get your fucking face off the TV. No more briefings, period. That's it."


title: Wesley Clark

text: The bombing campaign received criticism when it bombed the Radio Television of Serbia headquarters on April 23, 1999. The attack which killed sixteen civilian employees was labeled as a war crime by Amnesty International and as an act of terrorism by Noam Chomsky. NATO expressed its justification for the bombing by saying that the station operated as a propaganda tool for the Milošević regime. Operation Allied Force experienced another problem when NATO bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade on May 7, 1999. The operation had been organized against numerous Serbian targets, including "Target 493, the Federal Procurement and Supply Directorate Headquarters", although the intended target building was actually 300 meters away from the targeted area. The embassy was located at this mistaken target, and three Chinese journalists were killed. Clark's intelligence officer called Clark taking full responsibility and offering to resign, but Clark declined, saying it was not the officer's fault. Secretary Cohen and CIA Director George Tenet took responsibility the next day. Tenet would later explain in testimony before the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on July 22, 1999, that the targeting system used street addresses, which gave inaccurate positions for air bombings. He also said that the various databases of off-limit targets did not have the up-to-date address for the relatively new embassy location.


title: Wesley Clark

text: The bombing campaign was ended on June 10, 1999, on the order of Secretary General of NATO Javier Solana after Milošević complied with conditions the international community had set and Yugoslav forces began to withdraw from Kosovo. United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244 was adopted that same day, placing Kosovo under United Nations administration and authorizing a Kosovo peacekeeping force. NATO suffered no combat deaths, although two crew members died in an Apache helicopter crash. A F-117A was downed near the village of Budjanovci. The bombing resulted in an estimated 495 civilian deaths and 820 wounded, as reported to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia estimated that the number of civilians killed is higher than 2,000 and that more than 5,000 have been wounded. Human Rights Watch estimates the number of civilian deaths due to NATO bombings as somewhere between 488 and 527.


title: Wesley Clark

text: Milošević's term in office in Yugoslavia was coming to an end, and the elections that came on September 24, 2000, were protested due to allegations of fraud and rigged elections. This all came to a head on October 5 in the so-called Bulldozer Revolution. Milošević resigned on October 7. The Democratic Opposition of Serbia won a majority in parliamentary elections that December. Milošević was taken into custody on April 1, 2001, and transferred to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia on June 28 to face charges of war crimes and genocide. Clark was called to testify in a closed session of Milošević's trial in December 2003. He testified on issues ranging from the Srebrenica massacre to conversations Clark had had with Milošević during his career. Some anti-war activist groups also label Clark and Bill Clinton (along with several others) as war criminals for NATO's entire bombing campaign, saying the entire operation was in violation of the NATO charter.


title: Wesley Clark

text: One of Clark's most controversial decisions during his SACEUR command was his attempted operation at Priština International Airport immediately after the end of the Kosovo War. Russian forces had arrived in Kosovo and were heading for the airport on June 12, 1999, two days after the bombing campaign ended, expecting to help police that section of Kosovo. Clark, on the other hand, had planned for the Kosovo Force to police the area. Clark called then-Secretary General of NATO, Javier Solana, and was told "of course you have to get to the airport" and "you have transfer of authority" in the area.


title: Wesley Clark

text: The British commander of the Kosovo Force, General Mike Jackson, however, refused to block the Russians through military action saying "I'm not going to start the Third World War for you." Jackson has said he refused to take action because he did not believe it was worth the risk of a military confrontation with the Russians, instead insisting that troops encircle the airfield. The stand-off lasted two weeks. Russian forces continued to occupy the airport, until eventually an agreement was secured for them to be integrated into peace-keeping duties, while remaining outside of NATO command.


title: Wesley Clark

text: The refusal was criticized by some senior U.S. military personnel, with General Hugh Shelton calling Jackson's refusal "troubling". During hearings in the United States Senate, Senator John Warner suggested that the refusal might have been illegal, and that if it was legal, rules potentially should be changed. Still, British Chief of the Defence Staff Charles Guthrie agreed with Jackson. Jackson also received a lot of praise. Clark would retire soon after. Jackson continued his career after the Pristina Incident: He was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (1998), received the Distinguished Service Order (1999), became Commander-in-Chief, Land Command (2000), and finally, in 2003, Chief of the General Staff, which is the highest position in the British Army.


title: Wesley Clark

text: Clark received another call from General Shelton in July 1999 in which he was told that Secretary Cohen wanted Clark to leave his command in April 2000, less than three years after he assumed the post. Clark was surprised by this, because he believed SACEURs were expected to serve at least three years. Clark was told that this was necessary because General Joseph Ralston was leaving his post as the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and would need another 4-star command within 60 days or he would be forced to retire. Ralston was not going to be appointed Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff due to an extramarital affair in his past, and the SACEUR position was said to be the last potential post for him. Clark said this explanation "didn't wash"; he believed the legal issues did not necessarily bar him from a full term. Clinton signed on to Ralston's reassignment, although David Halberstam wrote that the president and Madeleine Albright were angered at Clark's treatment. Clark spent the remainder of his time as SACEUR overseeing peacekeeper forces and, without a new command to take, was forced into retirement from the military on May 2, 2000.


title: Wesley Clark

text: Rumors persisted that Clark was forced out due to his contentious relationship with some in Washington, D.C.; however, he has dismissed such rumors, calling it a "routine personnel action". The Department of Defense said it was merely a "general rotation of American senior ranks". However, a NATO ambassador told the "International Herald Tribune" that Clark's dismissal seemed to be a "political thing from the United States". General Hugh Shelton, working for the competing presidential campaign of John Edwards in 2003–2004, said of Clark during his 2004 campaign that "the reason he came out of Europe early had to do with integrity and character issues, things that are very near and dear to my heart. I'm not going to say whether I'm a Republican or a Democrat. I'll just say Wes won't get my vote." Shelton never elaborated further on what these issues were.


title: Wesley Clark

text: Clark was chairman of the investment bank Rodman Renshaw, which filed for bankruptcy. The bank's questionable practices and Clark's direct role were detailed in the hit documentary film "The China Hustle".


title: Wesley Clark

text: Clark began a public speaking tour in the summer of 2000 and approached several former government officials for advice on work after life in government, including House Speaker Newt Gingrich, White House Chief of Staff Mack McLarty, and Richard Holbrooke. Clark took McLarty's advice to move back to Little Rock, Arkansas, and took a position with Stephens Inc, an investment firm headquartered there. He took several other board positions at defense-related firms, and in March 2003 he amicably left Stephens Inc to found Wesley K. Clark & Associates. Clark wrote two books, "Waging Modern War" and "Winning Modern Wars". He also authored forewords for a series of military biographies and a series of editorials. In 2021 he published academic article Hybrid Warfare and the Challenge of Cyberattacks in The Challenge to NATO: Global Security and the Atlantic Alliance.


title: Wesley Clark

text: Clark had amassed only about $3.1 million towards his $40 million goal by 2003, and he began considering running for public office instead of pursuing his business career.


title: Wesley Clark

text: Clark has said that he began to truly define his politics only after his military retirement and the 2000 presidential election, won by George W. Bush. Clark had a conversation with Condoleezza Rice in which she told him that the war in Kosovo would not have occurred under Bush. Clark found such an admission unsettling, as he had been selected for the SACEUR position because he believed more in the interventionist policies of the Clinton administration. He said he would see it as a sign that things were "starting to go wrong" with American foreign policy under Bush. Clark supported the administration's War in Afghanistan in response to the September 11, 2001, attacks but did not support the Iraq War.


title: Wesley Clark

text: Clark met with a group of wealthy New York Democrats including Alan Patricof to tell them he was considering running for the presidency in the 2004 election. Patricof, a supporter of Al Gore in 2000, met with all the Democratic candidates but supported Clark in 2004. Clark said that he voted for Al Gore and Ronald Reagan, held equal esteem for Dwight D. Eisenhower and Harry S. Truman, and was a registered independent voter throughout his military career. Clark stated that he decided he was a Democrat because "I was pro-affirmative action, I was pro-choice, I was pro-education ... I'm pro-health care ... I realized I was either going to be the loneliest Republican in America or I was going to be a happy Democrat." Clark said he liked the Democratic party, which he saw as standing for "internationalism", "ordinary men and women", and "fair play".


title: Wesley Clark

text: A "Draft Clark" campaign began to grow with the launch of DraftWesleyClark.com on April 10, 2003. The organization signed up tens of thousands of volunteers, made 150 media appearances discussing Clark, and raised $1.5 million in pledges for his campaign. A different website, DraftClark2004.com, was the first organization to register as a political action committee in June 2003 to persuade Clark to run. They had presented him with 1000 emails in May 2003 from throughout the country asking him to run. One of DraftClark2004's founders, Brent Blackaby, said of the draft effort: "Just fifty-two years ago citizens from all over the country were successful in their efforts to draft General Eisenhower. We intend to do the same in 2004 by drafting General Clark. If he runs, he wins."


title: Wesley Clark

text: In June 2003, Clark said that he was "seriously consider[ing]" running for president in an appearance on "Meet the Press".


title: Wesley Clark

text: Clark announced his candidacy for the Democratic presidential primary elections from Little Rock on September 17, 2003, months after the other candidates. He acknowledged the influence of the Draft Clark movement, saying they "took an inconceivable idea and made it conceivable". The campaign raised $3.5 million in the first two weeks. The internet campaign would also establish the Clark Community Network of blogs, which remains in use and made heavy use of Meetup.com, where DraftWesleyClark.com had established the second-largest community of Meetups at the time.


title: Wesley Clark

text: Clark's loyalty to the Democratic Party was questioned by some as soon as he entered the race. Senator Joe Lieberman called Clark's party choice a matter of "political convenience, not conviction". Republican governor Bill Owens of Colorado and University of Denver president Marc Holtzman have claimed Clark once said "I would have been a Republican if Karl Rove had returned my phone calls." Clark later claimed he was simply joking, but both Owens and Holtzman said the remark was delivered "very directly" and "wasn't a joke". Katharine Q. Seelye wrote that many believed Clark had chosen to be a Democrat in 2004 only because it was "the only party that did not have a nominee". On May 11, 2001, Clark also delivered a speech to the Pulaski County Republican Party in Arkansas saying he was "very glad we've got the great team in office, men like Colin Powell, Don Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, Paul O'Neill—people I know very well—our president George W. Bush". "U.S. News & World Report" ran a story two weeks later claiming Clark had considered a political run as a Republican.


title: Wesley Clark

text: Clark, coming from a non-political background, had no position papers to define his agenda for the public. Once in the campaign, however, several volunteers established a network of connections with the media, and Clark began to explain his stances on a variety of issues. He was, as he had told "The Washington Post" in October, pro-choice and pro-affirmative action. He called for a repeal of recent Bush tax cuts for people earning more than $200,000 and suggested providing healthcare for the uninsured by altering the current system rather than transferring to a completely new universal health care system. He backed environmental causes such as promising to reverse "scaled down rules" the Bush administration had applied to the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts and dealing with the potential effects of global warming by reducing greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles, livestock flatulence and other sources. Clark also proposed a global effort to strengthen American relations with other nations, reviewing the PATRIOT Act, and investing $100 billion in homeland security. Finally, he released a budget plan that claimed to save $2.35 trillion over ten years through a repeal of the Bush tax cuts, sharing the cost of the Iraq War with other nations, and cutting government waste.


title: Wesley Clark

text: Some have speculated that Clark's inexperience at giving "soundbite" answers hurt him in the media during his primary campaign. The day after he launched his campaign, for example, he was asked if he would have voted for the Iraq War Resolution, which granted President Bush the power to wage the Iraq War, a large issue in the 2004 campaign. Clark said, "At the time, I probably would have voted for it, but I think that's too simple a question," then "I don't know if I would have or not. I've said it both ways because when you get into this, what happens is you have to put yourself in a position—on balance, I probably would have voted for it." Finally, Clark's press secretary clarified his position as "you said you would have voted for the resolution as leverage for a UN-based solution." After this series of responses, although Clark opposed the war, "The New York Times" ran a story with the headline "Clark Says He Would Have Voted for War". Clark was repeatedly portrayed as unsure on this critical issue by his opponents throughout the primary season. He was forced to continue to clarify his position and at the second primary debate he said, "I think it's really embarrassing that a group of candidates up here are working on changing the leadership in this country and can't get their own story straight ... I would have never voted for war. The war was an unnecessary war, it was an elective war, and it's been a huge strategic mistake for this country."


title: Wesley Clark

text: Another media incident started during the New Hampshire primary September 27, 2003, when Clark was asked by Space Shuttle astronaut Jay C. Buckey what his vision for the space program was after the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. Clark responded he was a great believer in the exploration of space but wanted a vision well beyond that of a new shuttle or space plane. "I would like to see mankind get off this planet. I'd like to know what's out there beyond the solar system." Clark thought such a vision could probably require a lifetime of research and development in various fields of science and technology. Then at the end of his remarks, Clark dropped a bombshell when he said "I still believe in . But I can't believe that in all of human history we'll never ever be able to go beyond the speed of light to reach where we want to go. I happen to believe that mankind can do it. I've argued with physicists about it. I've argued with best friends about it. I just have to believe it. It's my only faith-based initiative." These comments prompted a series of derisive headlines, such as "Beam Us Up, General Clark" in "The New York Times", "Clark is Light-Years Ahead of the Competition" in "The Washington Post", "General Relativity (Retired)" on the U.S. News & World Report website, and "Clark Campaigns at Light Speed" in "Wired" magazine.


title: Wesley Clark

text: Several polls from September to November 2003 showed Clark leading the Democratic field of candidates or as a close second to Howard Dean with the Gallup poll having him in first place in the presidential race at 20% as late as October 2003. The John Edwards campaign brought on Hugh Shelton—the general who had said Clark was made to leave the SACEUR post early due to "integrity and character issues"—as an advisor, a move that drew criticism from the Clark campaign. Since Dean consistently polled in the lead in the Iowa caucuses, Clark opted out of participating in the caucuses entirely to focus on later primaries instead. The 2004 Iowa caucuses marked a turning point in the campaign for the Democratic nomination, however, as front-runners Dean and Dick Gephardt garnered results far lower than expected, and John Kerry and John Edwards' campaigns benefited in Clark's absence. Clark performed reasonably well in later primaries, including a tie for third place with Edwards in the New Hampshire primary and a narrow victory in the Oklahoma primary over Edwards. However, he saw his third-place finishes in Tennessee and Virginia as signs that he had lost the South, a focus of his campaign. He withdrew from the race on February 11, 2004, and announced his endorsement of John Kerry at a rally in Madison, Wisconsin, on February 13. Clark believed his opting out of the Iowa caucus was one of his campaign's biggest mistakes, saying to one supporter the day before he withdrew from the race that "everything would have been different if we had [been in Iowa]."


title: Wesley Clark

text: Clark continued to speak in support of Kerry (and the eventual Kerry/Edwards ticket) throughout the remainder of the 2004 presidential campaign, including speaking at the 2004 Democratic National Convention on the final evening. He founded a political action committee, WesPAC, in April 2004. Fox News Channel announced in June 2005 that they had signed General Clark as a military and foreign affairs analyst. He joined the Burkle Center for International Relations at UCLA as a senior fellow. A managing partner of the companies that support the center, Ronald Burkle, described Clark's position as "illuminat[ing] the center's research" and "teaching [the] contemporary role of the United States in the international community".


title: Wesley Clark

text: Clark campaigned heavily throughout the 2006 midterm election campaign, supporting numerous Democrats in a variety of federal, statewide, and state legislature campaigns. Ultimately his PAC aided 42 Democratic candidates who won their elections, including 25 who won seats formerly held by Republicans and 6 newly elected veteran members of the House and Senate. Clark was the most-requested surrogate of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee throughout the 2006 campaign, and sometimes appeared with the leadership of the Democratic Party when they commented on security issues.


title: Wesley Clark

text: Clark has opposed taking military action against Iran and in January 2007 he criticized what he called "New York money people" pushing for a war. This led to accusations of antizionism.


title: Wesley Clark

text: In September 2007 Clark's memoir "A Time to Lead: For Duty, Honor and Country". In the book Clark alleged that during a visit to the Pentagon in the autumn of 2001 after 9/11, a "senior general" told him that the Office of the Secretary of Defense had produced a confidential paper proposing a series of regime change operations in seven countries over a period of five years. He had made the allegation a number of times in public and media appearances in 2006 and 2007. The book also described a conversation Clark had with Paul Wolfowitz in May 1991 after the Gulf War, quoting Wolfowitz as lamenting the non-removal of Saddam Hussein, but also telling him that "...we did learn one thing that's very important. With the end of the Cold War, we can now use our military with impunity. The Soviets won't come in to block us. And we've got five, maybe 10, years to clean up these old Soviet surrogate regimes like Iraq and Syria before the next superpower emerges to challenge us...".


title: Wesley Clark

text: Clark serves on the Advisory Boards of the Global Panel Foundation and the National Security Network. He is also the chairman of Enverra, and was also chairman of Rodman & Renshaw, a New York investment bank, and Growth Energy. His chairmanship at Rodman & Renshaw is part of the documentary The China Hustle. Clark is interviewed about his involvement in selling toxic stocks of unregulated Chinese companies; eventually though, he exits the interview to avoid association with Rodman & Renshaw, which went bankrupt in 2013. The film speculates that the company used his name as chairman to gain legitimacy for its operations.


title: Wesley Clark

text: Clark was mentioned as a potential 2008 presidential candidate on the Democratic ticket before endorsing Hillary Clinton for president. Before that time, he was ranked within the top Democratic candidates according to some Internet polls. After endorsing Hillary Clinton, Clark campaigned for her in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and Ohio and in campaign commercials. There are many reports that Clinton had already decided to choose Clark to be her running mate had she won the nomination. The Clinton campaign even considered picking Clark as a running mate with the team running together in the primaries, though the idea was later abandoned. After Barack Obama secured the Democratic nomination, Clark voiced his support for Obama. Clark was considered to be one of Obama's possible vice-presidential running mates. Clark, however, publicly endorsed Kansas governor Kathleen Sebelius for the position, introducing her as "the next Vice President of the United States" at a June 2008 fundraiser in Texas. Obama eventually chose Joe Biden as his running mate.


title: Wesley Clark

text: On June 29, 2008, Clark made comments on "Face the Nation" that were critical of Republican John McCain, calling into question the notion that McCain's military service alone had given him experience relevant to being president. "I certainly honor [McCain's] service as a prisoner of war", Clark said, "but he hasn't held executive responsibility. That large squadron in the Navy that he commanded—it wasn't a wartime squadron. He hasn't been in there and ordered the bombs to fall." When moderator Bob Schieffer noted that Obama had no military experience to prepare him for the presidency nor had he "ridden in a fighter plane and gotten shot down", Clark responded that, ultimately, Obama had not based his presidential bid on his military experience, as McCain has done throughout his campaign. Clark's retort, however, is what drew rebuke. In referring to McCain's military experience, he stated: "Well, I don't think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president." Both the McCain and Obama campaigns subsequently released statements rejecting Clark's comment. However, Clark has received the backing of several prominent liberal groups such as MoveOn.org and military veteran groups such as VoteVets.org; Obama ultimately stated that Clark's comments were "inartful" and were not intended to attack McCain's military service. In the days following the controversial interview, Clark went on several news programs to reiterate his true admiration and heartfelt support for McCain's military service as a fellow veteran who had been wounded in combat. In each program, Clark reminded the commentator and the viewing public that while he honored McCain's service, he had serious concerns about McCain's judgment in matters of national security policy, calling McCain "untested and untried".


title: Wesley Clark

text: In Clark's book "Winning Modern Wars", published in 2003, he describes his conversation with a military officer in the Pentagon shortly after 9/11 regarding a plan to attack seven countries in five years: "As I went back through the Pentagon in November 2001, one of the senior military staff officers had time for a chat. Yes, we were still on track for going against Iraq, he said. But there was more. This was being discussed as part of a five-year campaign plan, he said, and there were a total of seven countries, beginning with Iraq, then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and finishing off Iran." Clark regards the 2003 invasion of Iraq as "a huge mistake".


title: Wesley Clark

text: On November 5, 2017, the Paradise Papers, a set of confidential electronic documents relating to offshore investment, revealed that online gambling company The Stars Group, then Amaya, along with its former member of board of directors Wesley Clark, did business with offshore law firm Appleby.


title: Wesley Clark

text: Clark was the host of "Stars Earn Stripes", a reality television program that aired on NBC for four episodes in 2012. The program followed celebrities who competed in challenges based on U.S. military exercises.


title: Wesley Clark

text: Wesley Clark has been awarded numerous honors, awards, and knighthoods over the course of his military and civilian career. Notable military awards include the Defense Distinguished Service Medal with four oak leaf clusters, the Legion of Merit with three oak leaf clusters, the Silver Star, and the Bronze Star with an oak leaf cluster. Internationally Clark has received numerous civilian honors such as the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany and military honors such as the Grand Cross of the Medal of Military Merit from Portugal and knighthoods. Clark has been awarded some honors as a civilian, such as the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement presented by Awards Council member and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General John M. Shalikashvili, USA, in 1998, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2000. The people of Gjakova, Kosovo, named a street after him for his role in helping their city and country. The city of Madison in Alabama has also named a boulevard after Clark. Municipal approval has been granted for the construction of a new street to be named "General Clark Court" in Virginia Beach, Virginia.


title: Wesley Clark

text: He has also been appointed a Fellow at the Burkle Center for International Relations at UCLA. He is a member of the guiding coalition of the Project on National Security Reform. In 2000 he was appointed an honorary Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. In 2013, General Clark was awarded the Hanno R. Ellenbogen Citizenship Award jointly presented by the Prague Society for International Cooperation and Global Panel Foundation .


title: Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action

text: The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA; (, BARJAM)), commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal or Iran deal, is an agreement on the Iranian nuclear program reached in Vienna on 14 July 2015, between Iran and the P5+1 (the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council—China, France, Russia, United Kingdom, United States—plus Germany) together with the European Union.


title: Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action

text: Formal negotiations toward JCPOA began with the adoption of the Joint Plan of Action, an interim agreement signed between Iran and the P5+1 countries in November 2013. Iran and the P5+1 countries engaged in negotiations for the next 20 months and, in April 2015, agreed on an "Iran nuclear deal framework" for the final agreement. In July 2015, Iran and the P5+1 confirmed agreement on the plan, along with the "Roadmap Agreement" between Iran and the IAEA.


title: Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action

text: After the Trump administration twice certified Iran's compliance in 2017, in May 2018 the United States withdrew from JCPOA as Trump pledged he would negotiate a better deal. Trump left office without fulfilling that pledge and analysts determined Iran had moved closer to developing a nuclear weapon since the American withdrawal.


title: Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action

text: Under the JCPOA, Iran agreed to eliminate its stockpile of medium-enriched uranium, cut its stockpile of low-enriched uranium by 98%, and reduce by about two-thirds the number of its gas centrifuges for 13 years. For the next 15 years, Iran agreed to enrich uranium only up to 3.67%. Iran also agreed not to build any new heavy-water facilities for the same period of time. Uranium-enrichment activities will be limited to a single facility using first-generation centrifuges for 10 years. Other facilities will be converted to avoid proliferation risks. To monitor and verify Iran's compliance with the agreement, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will have regular access to all Iranian nuclear facilities. The agreement provides that in return for verifiably abiding by its commitments, Iran will receive relief from the U.S., European Union, and United Nations Security Council nuclear-related sanctions.


title: Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action

text: On 12 October 2017, U.S. President Donald Trump announced that the United States would not make the certification provided for under U.S. domestic law, but stopped short of terminating the deal.


title: Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action

text: In 2018, IAEA inspectors spent an aggregate of 3,000 calendar days in Iran, installing tamper-proof seals and collecting surveillance camera photos, measurement data, and documents for further analysis. IAEA Director Yukiya Amano stated (in March 2018) that the organization has verified that Iran is implementing its nuclear-related commitments. On 30 April 2018 the United States and Israel said that Iran had not disclosed a past covert nuclear weapons program to the IAEA, as required by the 2015 deal.


title: Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action

text: On 8 May 2018, Trump announced United States withdrawal from JCPOA. Following the U.S. withdrawal, the EU enacted an updated blocking statute on 7 August 2018 to nullify U.S. sanctions on countries trading with Iran. In November 2018 U.S. sanctions came back into effect intended to force Iran to dramatically alter its policies, including its support for militant groups in the region and its development of ballistic missiles.


title: Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action

text: In May 2019, the IAEA certified that Iran was abiding by the deal's main terms, though questions were raised about how many advanced centrifuges Iran was allowed to have, as that was only loosely defined in the deal.


title: Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action

text: On 1 July 2019, Iran announced that it had breached the limit set on its stockpile of low-enriched uranium, which the IAEA confirmed.


title: Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action

text: On 5 January 2020, in the aftermath of the Baghdad Airport Airstrike that targeted and killed Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, Iran declared that it would no longer abide by the deal's limitations but would continue to coordinate with the IAEA, leaving open the possibility of resuming compliance. In December 2020, Iranian officials expressed further willingness to rejoin the deal, provided that U.S. officials make assurances regarding lifting sanctions and also rejoin the deal.


title: Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action

text: A nuclear weapon uses a fissile material to cause a nuclear chain reaction. The most commonly used materials have been uranium 235 (U-235) and plutonium 239 (Pu-239). Both uranium 233 (U-233) and reactor-grade plutonium have also been used. The amount of uranium or plutonium needed depends on the sophistication of the design, with a simple design requiring approximately 15 kg of uranium or 6 kg of plutonium, and a sophisticated design requiring as little as 9 kg of uranium or 2 kg of plutonium. Plutonium is almost nonexistent in nature, and natural uranium is about 99.3% uranium 238 (U-238) and 0.7% U-235. Therefore, to make a weapon, either uranium must be enriched, or plutonium must be produced. Uranium enrichment is also frequently necessary for nuclear power. For this reason, uranium enrichment is a dual-use technology, a technology that "can be used both for civilian and for military purposes". Key strategies to prevent proliferation of nuclear arms include limiting the number of operating uranium enrichment plants and controlling the export of nuclear technology and fissile material.


title: Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action

text: Iranian development of nuclear technology began in the 1970s, when the U.S. Atoms for Peace program began providing assistance to Iran, which was then led by the Shah. Iran signed the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) in 1968 as a non-nuclear weapons state and ratified the NPT in 1970.


title: Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action

text: In 1979 the Iranian Revolution took place, and Iran's nuclear program, which had developed some baseline capacity, fell into disarray as "much of Iran's nuclear talent fled the country in the wake of the Revolution." Furthermore, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini initially opposed nuclear technology, and Iran engaged in a costly war with Iraq from 1980 to 1988.


title: Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action

text: In the late 1980s Iran reinstated its nuclear program, with assistance from Pakistan (which entered into a bilateral agreement with Iran in 1992), China (which did the same in 1990), and Russia (which did the same in 1992 and 1995), and from the A.Q. Khan network. Iran "began pursuing an indigenous nuclear fuel cycle capability by developing a uranium mining infrastructure and experimenting with uranium conversion and enrichment".


title: Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action

text: In August 2002 the Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran, an Iranian dissident group, publicly revealed the existence of two undeclared nuclear facilities, the Arak heavy-water production facility and the Natanz enrichment facility. In February 2003 Iranian President Mohammad Khatami acknowledged the existence of the facilities and asserted that Iran had undertaken "small-scale enrichment experiments" to produce low-enriched uranium for nuclear power plants. In late February International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors visited Natanz. In May 2003 Iran allowed IAEA inspectors to visit the Kalaye Electric Company but refused to allow them to take samples.


title: Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action

text: In June 2003, an IAEA report concluded that Iran had failed to meet its obligations under the safeguards agreement, and Iran, faced with the prospect of being referred to the UN Security Council, entered into diplomatic negotiations with France, Germany, and the United Kingdom (the EU 3). The United States refused to be involved in these negotiations. In October 2003 the Tehran Declaration was reached between Iran and the EU 3; under this declaration Iran agreed to cooperate fully with the IAEA, sign the Additional Protocol, and temporarily suspend all uranium enrichment. In September and October 2003 the IAEA conducted several facility inspections. This was followed by the Paris Agreement in November 2004, in which Iran agreed to temporarily suspend enrichment and conversion activities, "including the manufacture, installation, testing, and operation of centrifuges, and committed to working with the EU-3 to find a mutually beneficial long-term diplomatic solution".


title: Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action

text: In August 2005, the newly elected president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, promptly accused Iranian negotiators who had negotiated the Paris Accords of treason. Over the next two months, the EU 3 agreement fell apart as talks over the EU 3's proposed Long Term Agreement broke down; the Iranian government "felt that the proposal was heavy on demands, light on incentives, did not incorporate Iran's proposals, and violated the Paris Agreement". Iran notified the IAEA that it would resume uranium conversion at Esfahan.


title: Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action

text: In February 2006 Iran ended its voluntary implementation of the Additional Protocol and resumed enrichment at Natanz, prompting the IAEA Board of Governors to refer Iran to the UN Security Council. After the vote, Iran announced it would resume enrichment of uranium. In April 2006 Ahmadinejad announced that Iran had nuclear technology but said that it was purely for power generation, not weapons. In June 2006 the EU 3 joined China, Russia, and the United States, to form the P5+1. The following month, July 2006, the UN Security Council passed its first resolution (nr. 1696), demanding Iran stop uranium enrichment and processing, because of "serious concern" about "a number of outstanding issues and concerns on Iran's nuclear programme, including topics which could have a military nuclear dimension". Another UN Security Council resolution followed in December 2006 (nr. 1737); others followed later. The legal authority for the IAEA Board of Governors referral and the Security Council resolutions derived from the IAEA Statute and the United Nations Charter. The resolutions demanded that Iran cease enrichment activities, and the second resolution (Dec. 2006) also imposed sanctions on Iran, including bans on the transfer of nuclear and missile technology to the country and freezes on the assets of certain Iranian individuals and entities, in order to pressure the country.


title: Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action

text: In July 2006, Iran opened the Arak heavy water production plant, which led to one of the Security Council resolutions.


title: Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action

text: Four more UN Security Council resolutions concerning Iran's nuclear program followed: 1747 (March 2007), 1803 (March 2008), 1835 (September 2008), and 1929 (June 2010). In Resolution 1803 and elsewhere the Security Council acknowledged Iran's rights under Article IV of the NPT, which provides for "the inalienable right ... to develop research, production and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes".