Juan Cole

50 Kidnapped in Baghad There were large numbers of bombings and assassinations in Iraq on Saturday. The most horrible incident Was the abduction of up to 50 Iraqis. The USG Open Source Center paraphases briefly highlights from the Iraqi press for July 15: Al-Adalah runs on page 2 a 1,200-word text of a statement by […]

Global Protests at Indiscriminate Israeli Bombings of Lebanon The Associated Press puts the Israeli offensive against Lebanon on Friday succinctly: ‘ Israel again bombarded Lebanon’s airport and main roads in the most intensive offensive against the country in 24 years. For the first time, it struck the crowded Shiite neighborhood of south Beirut around Hezbollah’s […]

30 Dead in Mosque Bombings, Other Violence Civil War violence left at least 30 dead in Iraq on Friday, says AFP. It writes, ‘In Baghdad, where a massive security crackdown is on since last month, at least seven worshippers were killed after Friday prayers in a bombing outside a Sunni mosque, a security official said. […]

Condi told by Olmert to Back off? Steve Clemons reports that the Israelis have told US Secretary of State Condi Rice to back off her calls for Israel to exercise restraint in its responses to Hizbullah.

Iraqis Condemn Israeli Attacks Both Sunni and Shiite clerics and politicians condemned the Israeli attack on Lebanon on Friday. The Friday sermons were thunderous. Money and resources will likely flow to Hizbullah and the Palestinians. More later.

Is the Arab Spring turning to Dust under Israeli Bombardment? Petroleum hit $76.70 a barrel on Thursday, a record high price, in reaction to the new Middle East crisis. (Though in real terms, the 1980 post-Iranian revolution crisis price was probably $80 a barrel in today’s dollars). To those of you in the Gen-X and […]

Mashhadani: Jews the Source of all Iraq’s Problems And, remember how the Bush administration trumpeted the December 2005 elections in Iraq and the joining in of the country’s Sunni Arabs as a great advance? In fact, of course, what really happened was that hard line Sunni fundamentalists not much different from Hamas got 44 seats […]

Muqdadiyah Massacre of Shiites Baghdad Sunni Neighborhoods Organize Militias At Muqdadiyah, a mixed Sunni-Shiite town north of Baghdad, guerrillas came to a bus station, separated out 24 or more Shiites from the other passengers, and took them to a nearby village where they killed most of them (al-Zaman says they murdered 22). The massacre is […]

The Beginning of a New War? Will it Spill over on Iraq? All hell broke loose on Wednesday in the Mideast, with a Hizbullah attack on the Israeli army and Israeli reprisals, and the Israeli dropping of a 500 pound bomb on Gaza. I roundly condemn Hizbullah’s criminal and stupid attack on Israel and escalation […]