Archives for July 2006

Israel’s Failed-State Strategy: Cole in Salon My essay on the crisis between Israel and the Gaza Palestinians is out in Salon.com. Excerpt: The actions of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert seem intended to create a failed state in Gaza and the West Bank, thus rendering the Israeli claim that “we have no one to talk […]

50 killed, as a Raft of Bodies are Found in Baghdad Muqtada Begins Vigilante Movement to Repair Samarra Shrine Aljazeera is reporting clashes between US troops and Mahdi Army elements in East Baghdad early Friday morning, with some attendant deaths. The puritan Shiite Mahdi Army follows Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Al-Hayat reports that [Ar.] Prime […]

13 Dead in Pilgrimage Bombing, 40 wounded Maliki Reconsiders US Troops’ Immunity Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki pledged Wednesday to reconsider current Iraqi policy, of allowing US GIS to enjoy a form of extraterritoriality and to be tried by the US for crimes commited while in uniform in Iraq. His remarks were sparked by public […]

Maliki’s Basra Security Initiative Fails 25 Bodies Found in Baghdad, Basra Al-Zaman/ AFP say that a firestorm of protest is building in Iraq over the alleged rape and killing of a 15 year old Iraqi girl in Mahmudiyah, and the murder of her family, by a US GI. MP Safiyah Suhail, a woman representative from […]

al-Hakim: Amnesty for Guerrillas who Killed US Troops Civil War Violence Kills 50 Iraqis, with 29 Bodies Found AFP reports an interview with Iraqi Shiite clerical leader Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, in which he urged that amnesty be extended to Iraqi guerrilla fighters who have attacked US troops. Al-Hakim is the leader of the Supreme Council […]

Fourth of July Puzzle Our game for the 4th is to identify how many of the complaints Thomas Jefferson and his colleagues directed against Britain and King George in the Declaration of Independence could either: 1. be directed by the current American public against the Bush Administration or 2. be directed by ordinary Iraqis against […]

Sunni Bloc Withdraws from Parliament AMS Condemns US over Rape Adnan Dulaimi of the Iraqi Accord Front (Sunni Arab fundamentalist) announced Sunday that his bloc had suspended its participation in parliament in protest against the kidnapping of one of its members. Taysir al-Mashhadani, a woman MP from Baqubah, was captured by gunmen on Saturday. The […]

Israelis Bombard Palestinian Prime Minister’s Offices Israeli war planes attacked the offices of Palestinian Prime Minsiter Ismail Haniyah of the Hamas Party early on Sunday morning, setting them afire. This looks so little like a rescue effort for missing Israeli serviceman, and so much like a war, that I am persuaded now of the theory […]

Massive Bomb in Sadr City Kills 74, Wounds 114 Bin Laden Warns on Shiite Militias Guerrillas detonated a massive car bomb at a market in Sadr City (Shiite East Baghdad). Late reports spoke of 74 dead [Ar.] and nearly 200 wounded, with the numbers likely to rise. The massacre came as Usamah Bin Laden issued […]