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Juan Cole

Iraq
Abdul-Ahad: Baghdad is "Calmer" Because they Made it into Prison Cells

Abdul-Ahad: Baghdad is "Calmer" Because they Made it into Prison Cells

Juan Cole

The Guardian’s Ghaith Abdul-Ahad went back to Baghdad to see the effects of last year’s troop escalation (“surge”). He argues that the US military’s blast walls and forcible division of the city into isolated micro-neighborhoods are the cause of the reduction in deaths, not extra troops. The Real News provides a transcript.

Iraq
Bush Suppressed Evidence Iraq Had no WMD

Bush Suppressed Evidence Iraq Had no WMD

Juan Cole

For critics of Ron Suskind’s revelations that Bush and Cheney suppressed evidence that Iraq had no WMD, check out the below: Tyler Drumheller from a 2006 “60 Minutes” interview. Or how about the column of Imad Khadduri, an actual, living breathing Iraqi nuclear scientist, who before the war condemned Bush administration charges on WMD as […]

Uncategorized
John H. Brown on Bushian Propaganda

John H. Brown on Bushian Propaganda

Juan Cole

John H. Brown, who resigned in protest from the State Department in March of 2003, on the difference between public diplomacy and propaganda with regard to the Iraq War:

Uncategorized
Swat Violence termed 'Near Civil War'; Obama Slammed in Pakistan

Swat Violence termed ‘Near Civil War’; Obama Slammed in Pakistan

Juan Cole

The Pakistani Army, in fierce fighting with tribal forces organized by the Tehrik-i Taliban, claims to have killed some 90 of the enemy in the past week, as the Swat Valley was engulfed in something close to a civil war. Meanwhile, the Tehrik-i Taliban seems to be behind the burning of girls’ schools in Swat. […]

Uncategorized
Bush Pressured FBI to Blame al-Qaeda for Anthrax; McCain fingered Iraq on Letterman; Can’t we Change the Name of Washington National Airport?

Bush Pressured FBI to Blame al-Qaeda for Anthrax; McCain fingered Iraq on Letterman; Can’t we Change the Name of Washington National Airport?

Juan Cole

One thing I haven’t seen mentioned with regard to the attempt to implicate Iraq in the anthrax scare in fall of 2001 is the reason Iraq was hard to rule out as a source. It was that it clearly originated in labs in Ames, Iowa. The Reagan administration had permitted the provision to Iraq of […]

Iraq
2 US Soldiers Killed; Parliament Tries Again

2 US Soldiers Killed; Parliament Tries Again

Juan Cole

The Iraqi parliament will make another attempt on Tuesday to pass a provincial elections law that resolves controversies over how to treat troubled Kirkuk Province. AFP summarizes political violence in Iraq on Monday, which included the killing of 2 US GIs, strikes at Iraqi security forces on Palestine Street in Baghdad and an attempt on […]

Uncategorized
Breakthrough on Solar Energy Storage

Breakthrough on Solar Energy Storage

Juan Cole

MIT has made a breakthrough in energy storage, one of the main obstacles to effective use of solar energy: “Inspired by the photosynthesis performed by plants, Nocera and Matthew Kanan, a postdoctoral fellow in Nocera’s lab, have developed an unprecedented process that will allow the sun’s energy to be used to split water into hydrogen […]

Uncategorized
Hersh: Cheney Office Considered Manufacturing Provocation to Start War with Iran

Hersh: Cheney Office Considered Manufacturing Provocation to Start War with Iran

Juan Cole

Think Progress has an exclusive report on New Yorker journalist Seymour Hersh’s discovery that Cheney’s office considered, then rejected, getting up a provocation against Iran as a pretext for going to war. The discussion in Cheney’s office was provoked by the Iranian speedboat incident in January, 2008, in which the Bush administration alleged that five […]

Iraq
Provincial Elections Law Postponed; Parliamentary Recess and Gridlock; Preachers Urge Voter Registration

Provincial Elections Law Postponed; Parliamentary Recess and Gridlock; Preachers Urge Voter Registration

Juan Cole

An extraordinary Iraqi parliamentary session planned for Sunday to settle the provincial election law was cancelled at the last minute. Parliament is on recess in August. So to recap: No provincial election law means, probably, no provincial elections this year. No oil law. No significant Shiite-Sunni reconciliation. Politics gridlocked in Iraq. Westerners look for public […]

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