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Juan Cole

Uncategorized
Will the Next President be Irrelevant?

Will the Next President be Irrelevant?

Juan Cole

With Obama’s win in South Carolina, it seems clear now that it is a four person race for the White House. On the Democratic side, it will be Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama. On the Republican side, it will be John McCain or Mitt Romney. McCain is still foolishly trying to own the Iraq quagmire, […]

Uncategorized
Extra Police Protection for Sistani; Sadrists flee Wave of Arrests

Extra Police Protection for Sistani; Sadrists flee Wave of Arrests

Juan Cole

Al-Hayat reports in Arabic that Iraqi security forces have since Friday evening instituted extra measures to protect the four grand ayatollahs who serve as spiritual leaders of the Shiite community in Iraq, and who live in Najaf. The precautions were taken after an assassination attempt against the representative of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani in Karbala […]

Iraq
Sunni-Shiite Pact in Parliament

Sunni-Shiite Pact in Parliament

Juan Cole

The USG Open Source Center translates a broadcast by the Iranian Al-Alam satellite television station reporting on a new pact between the [Shiite] Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq and the [Sunni coalition, the] Iraqi Accord Front, especially the latter’s Islamic Iraqi Party. This alliance probably comes in response to the move of other parties to […]

Iraq
OSC: Iraqi Kurd official says Kurds unequal US ally

OSC: Iraqi Kurd official says Kurds unequal US ally

Juan Cole

The USG Open Source Center translates an opinion piece from a major Kurdish Iraqi newspaper containing quotes from a Kurdish official about the Kurdish-US relationship. The piece maintains that the alliance is one of convenience on the US side; is not as strong as that between Washington and Kuwait; and may not last if the […]

Iraq
Maliki Announces Push on Mosul; ICTJ says Iraq Debaathification law Makes things Worse

Maliki Announces Push on Mosul; ICTJ says Iraq Debaathification law Makes things Worse

Juan Cole

According to al-Hayat in Arabic, Iraqi preachers on Friday expressed outrage over the Israeli siege of Gaza and condemned Arab governments for doing nothing about it. They also condemned the bombing in Mosul and the doomsday group, Supporters of the Mahdi, in the Shiite south. Al-Hayat reports in Arabic that the Iraqi parliament still has […]

Iraq
Mosul Police Chief Killed; Karbala’i Escapes Assassination

Mosul Police Chief Killed; Karbala’i Escapes Assassination

Juan Cole

The police chief of Mosul and two other officers were killed by a suicide bomber when they came to the site of the recent powerful explosion. The death toll from that bomb rose to 40. A bomb lightly wounded Abdul Mahdi Karbala’i, the representative in the holy Shiite city of Karbala of Grand Ayatollah Ali […]

Uncategorized
Beinin Guest Op-Ed: The People in Gaza Challenge Sham Peace Process

Beinin Guest Op-Ed: The People in Gaza Challenge Sham Peace Process

Juan Cole

by Joel Beinin About 3:00 am on Wednesday morning Jan. 23, well-coordinated explosions demolished the iron wall built by Israel to seal the southern border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt (the Philadelphi axis). Tens of thousands of Palestinians streamed across the border and entered the Egyptian side of the town of Rafah, which had […]

Uncategorized
OSC: HAMAS-Iraq Launches ‘Avenging Gaza’ Campaign Against US Forces in Iraq

OSC: HAMAS-Iraq Launches ‘Avenging Gaza’ Campaign Against US Forces in Iraq

Juan Cole

The USG Open Source Center summarizes and translates a posting on a jihadi web site of Iraqi guerrillas vowing to “avenge Gaza” by targeting American troops and the Iraqis that cooperate with them. ‘HAMAS-Iraq Launches ‘Avenging Gaza’ Campaign Against US Forces in Iraq 19 JanJihadist Websites — OSC SummaryThursday, January 24, 2008 . . . […]

Iraq
159 Killed or Wounded in Massive Mosul Blast; Dems take on Bush over Iraq SOFA

159 Killed or Wounded in Massive Mosul Blast; Dems take on Bush over Iraq SOFA

Juan Cole

Guerrillas were stockpiling munitions in an unoccupied building in the Zanjabili district near the Houston-sized northern city of Mosul. Someone informed the Iraqi security forces of the stockpile, and apparently the guerrillas had good intelligence on such things, so they blew up the arms warehouse to deny it to their foes. It blasted surrounding apartment […]

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