Archives for September 2005

Member of Parliament killed 24 Bodies Found The deputy speaker of the Iraqi parliament, Husain Shahristani, had the final text of the constitution “read” in parliament so as to meet a criterion for the validity of the process in the eyes of the United Nations. The parliament did not vote on the draft, contrary to […]

The Egyptian Elections and Bush’s War My article, “Bush’s war and the Egyptian elections”, which argues that “Mubarak’s rigged victory shows that right-wing predictions of an “Arab spring” were wishful thinking.” – is out at Salon.com. ‘The groundhog did not see its shadow in Egypt last week. Hosni Mubarak’s victory in the Egyptian presidential election […]

Security Situation in Baghdad Sinking like the Titanic An observer in Iraq writes to me: “The situation has deteriorated in Baghdad dramatically today. Five neighborhoods (hay) in Baghdad are controlled by insurgents, and they are Amiraya, Ghazilya, Shurta, Yarmouk and Doura. It is very bad. My guys there report that cars have come into these […]

52 Dead, Dozens Wounded Guerrilla violence, including a massive car bomb, killed 52 Iraqis on Saturday. The biggest incident occurred at a market at Nahrawan, a town just east of Baghdad that is largely Shiite, where a car bomber killed 30 persons and wounded another 38. Another bombing took place at Baqubah, killing at least […]

More on Hitchens and Cole I’ve now seen a transcript showing that Christopher Hitchens in his debate with George Galloway said that I “claimed” to know “farsi” but had “never stepped foot in the region.” As I noted on Friday, these are bizarre things for him to say. To say that someone “claims” something, according […]

25 Dead, Dozens Wounded Sadrists in Tuz Khurmato Targeted At least 25 Iraqis were killed in guerilla violence on Friday and dozens wounded. The biggest incident was a huge bomb at a Turkmen Shiite mosque in the town of Tuz Khurmato south of Kirkuk, which killed 14 worshippers and wounded 28. The mosque is affiliated […]

Union Opposition to Petroleum Industry Privatization The General Union of Oil Employees in Basra has issued a strong statement against privatization of the Iraqi petroleum industry.: GUOE Position on Privatisation August 2005 – Statement by Union President Hassan Jum’a Awwad Al-Assadi, translated from Arabic by Dr Kamil Mahdi, University of Exeter In The Name of […]

32 Dead in Guerrilla Violence Al-Hayat: Some 30 policemen were killed in 3 suicide bombings Thursday, and 60 were wounded. Also killed was a Shiite religious leader. The body was discovered of a leader of the Dawa Party (the same fundamentalist Shiite party to which Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari belongs). The body of Shaikh Mahdi […]

Hitchens, Galloway and Cole I just haven’t had time to watch the Hitchens/ Galloway debate, and won’t have time to do it until this weekend. Kind readers are messaging me to say that they thought they heard my name come up. In response to Galloway’s citation of my article critiquing Hitchens’s defense of the ongoing […]