The Shiite world has been roiled for weeks by statements of Saudi, Wahhabi clergy in Mecca that Shiite shrines are works of idolatry and should be pulled down. Prime Minsiter Nuri al-Maliki used these anxieties politically to explain the violence at Karbala on Tuesday. Problem: the violence in Karbala was between two factions of Shiites […]
Maliki breaks with, Jails Mahdi Army 300 Arrested in Karbala
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ordered the arrest of 300 persons in Karbala connected to the Mahdi Army on Friday, blaming it for the outbreak of violence in the holy Shiite city on Tuesday. Apparently many of the arrests were arbitrary in the sense that being in the Mahdi Army was the basis for the arrest […]
Rubin on Hostage Release, Drug Policy in Afghanistan
Here’s some light reading for your Labor Day weekend. Afghanistan is pretty clearly becoming a problem for the US diplomatically and militarily of a major sort that would be front page news if it weren’t for the even more deadly horror show in Iraq. Barnett Rubin weighs in on the release of the Korean hostages […]
Arguments over Night of the Living Dead in Iraq
A Government Accounting Office report has found that the Iraqi government has not met 13 of 18 benchmarks set by the US Congress. The report was leaked before it could be doctored by the Bush administration, which promptly denounced it and pledged to . . . doctor it. Another thing that could be said is […]
The Nation: Corruption the Norm in Iraqi Gov’t USG Reports Al-Maliki has Impeded investigations
The Nation has gotten hold of a secret USG report that says that profound corruption is the norm in the Iraqi government. The intrepid David Corn writes: ‘ according to the working draft of a secret document prepared by the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, the Maliki government has failed in one significant area: corruption. Maliki’s […]
Cheney & Iran: Here We Go Again?
Barnett Rubin relays a message from a well-connected friend in Washington on the Cheney Administration’s plans to roll out a military confrontation with Iran in September. He writes at the Global Affairs blog: ” My friend had spoken to someone in one of the leading neo-conservative institutions. He summarized what he was told this way: […]
Sistani Aides Held by JAM Muqtada freezes Paramilitary for 6 months
Two senior aides to Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani–Abdul Mahdi al-Karbala’i and Ahmad al-Safi– were kidnapped on Tuesday by the Mahdi Army and are still being held as captives, according to the Kuwaiti News Organization. This report seems to confirm that the Mahdi Army attempted to take over the shrine of Imam Husayn in Karbala under […]
Akhavi on Neocolonialism
Khody Akhavi at IPS covers my talk last Friday at the New America Foundation, on my book, Napoleon’s Egypt: Invading the Middle East. He writes: ‘In Cole’s view, the Bush administration’s rhetoric of “liberating Iraq” from the clutches of a tyrannical leader with a hankering for weapons of mass destruction can’t mask its long-term neo-colonial […]
Shiite Militia Clashes at Karbala Killl 52, Wound 206 Mahdi Army Rampage against SIIC offices in Baghdad
Clashes between rival militias in the Shiite holy city of Karbala left some 52 dead and 206 wounded on Tuesday, according to late reports from Iraqi security officials. About a million Shiite pilgrims had converged on the city to commemorate the birthday of the Twelfth Imam, the 12th in the line of succession from the […]
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