Archives for June 2007

Samarra Shrine Attacked The Golden Dome or Askariya Shrine in Samarra had its minarets blown up on Wednesday. The shrine is among the holiest in the Shiite world, dedicated to the father and grandfather of the hidden Twelfth Imam. Millenarian Shiites believe that the hidden Imam will one day return to restore the world to […]

Fox News: Bimbos in, Iraq out Mashhadani to Sue Iran: Captured Diplomats Must not Be Harmed Fox Cable News spent more time than other cable news networks covering Anna Nicole Smith, and spent much less time covering Iraq than the other networks. Gee, back in 2003 they seemed to have a lot about Iraq. I […]

Militiant Sufism in Iraq The USG Open Source Center translates an interview with a spokesman for a militant offshoot of the Naqshabandi order in Iraq that fights the US military presence. Naqshbandis are known as a Sunni Sufi order and have been more “orthodox” and tied to legalism than most other mystic brotherhoods. Many Kurds […]

Ban Ki-moon: Surge Failing Diyala Bridge Blown Up Mashhadani not going Quietly UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in his quarterly report on Iraq that the “surge” in Iraq is failing. The file of the original document can be found via this page. Ban writes, ‘ 3. Despite the initial success of stepped-up security measures […]

Iranian Media on Iraq & the US The USG Open Source Center translates or paraphrases reports in the Iranian press last week regarding Iran-Iraq relations and the US presence in Iraq. Iran: Highlights: Iranian Media on Iraqi Developments – – 1- 7 June 2007 Iran — OSC Summary Friday, June 8, 2007 The following are […]

Bush uses Sudan, Iran Assets in Iraq US GIs Killed, Trapped in Bridge Rubble; Al-Mashhadani Dismissed as Speaker; Clashes, Demonstrations in Sadr City Remember all that Bush administration bluster against Sudan? Turns out that the CIA is using Sudanese spies against the Iraqi guerrillas. Bush sees no enemies among the oil states, only opportunities to […]

Nearly 50 Dead Saturday US Fires on Baquba Mosque Muqtada: Postpone Kirkuk Referendum Police found 24 bodies in Baghdad on Saturday, according to Reuters. 3 soldiers were found shot dead in Kirkuk. A dead policeman was found in the southern Shiite city of Diwaniya. A suicide truck bomber attacked an Iraqi miltiary checkpoint near Iskandariya […]

Guest Essay: Polk on Iraq William R. Polk Fact Sheet on Iraq What is Iraq: Iraq was created by Great Britain at the end of the First World War from three provinces of the defeated Ottoman Empire. While it is common to think of it as still those three parts – the Kurdish Muslims in […]