Archives for 2005

British Spies in Basra Fighting Weapons Smugglers 27 Killed, 62 Wounded in Violence Those two SAS special operations troops captured by the Basra police last Monday were one of 8 such teams charged with disrupting weapons smuggling from Iran into southern Iraq. The Iranian weapons smugglers are organized and powerful throughout the world. Among the […]

Grand Ayatollah Ishaq Fayyad’s Fatwa in Favor the Constitution KarbalaNews.net [Arabic] publishes a copy of the fatwa by Grand Ayatollah Ishaq Fayyad in favor of the Iraqi constitution: Fayyad, an Afghan Hazara by birth, came to Najaf at the age of 10 and has risen to be among the 4 top ayatollahs in Iraq. He […]

Cole on “The Issue” “The Issue,” a web-based interview show at Evolvetv.tv launches today with interviews of Juan Cole on Iraq. Given the meltdown during the past week of the mainstream television news organizations (apparently hurricanes outdraw Iraq by 30 to 1 in the ratings) with regard to world news, we will increasingly be dependent […]

Rebuttal by Achcar Gilbert Achcar replies to my response. I think we’ve reached the point where our positions are clear and I’m disinclined to respond further, despite my respect for the seriousness of the points made. ‘ Dear Juan, Many thanks for your friendly and stimulating reply. Here are a few comments on your rejoinder, […]

Why we Have to get the Troops Out of Iraq The hundreds of thousands of protesters who came out throughout the world on Saturday were demanding a US and British withdrawal from Iraq. The protesters are right that we have to get US ground troops out of Iraq. The issue is not the rights and […]

Tens of Thousands Demonstrate Against Iraq War Al-Hakim Calls for “Yes” on Constitution Arrest Warrant in Basra for British Over 100,000 protesters rallied in Washington, DC, against the Iraq War on Saturday. Protests were also held in London, San Francisco and other cities. US troops entered Sadr City or Eastern Baghdad on Saturday in search […]

Reader Response on Cole/Achcar Billmon carefully considers the pros and cons and finally decides to call for US troops out now because otherwise there is a real danger of the US becoming a progressively more fascist society, and because the only way for the US to prevent an all-out Iraqi civil war is to kill […]

Cobban Critique of Cole My good friend Helena Cobban offers her own critique of my position on the need for some way of forestalling massive conventional civil war in Iraq in the aftermath of an Anglo-American withdrawal of ground troops. She asks where a plan like mine has succeeded. I answer, Kosovo. I don’t want […]

Fadilah Calls for Defeat of Constitution Ayatollah Muhammad Ya`qubi, the leader in Najaf of the Fadilah (Virtue) Party–which has a big political and social base in the southern port city of Basra–has called on his followers to reject the new constitution because it does not go far enough toward consecrating Islamic law as the law […]