Juan Cole

Of Mushrooms and Peak Experiences The magic mushrooms really do work. Depending on what you mean by “work.” I suspect that these mushrooms were used to make the soma of the ancient Hindu scriptures, and the haoma of ancient Iran. The mushroom-produced drug induces feelings of oneness with the universe and afterwards, a sense of […]

190 Dead in Mumbai Train Bombings The likelihood is that the sophisticated coordinated attack on the trains in India’s western commercial hub of Mumbai (Bombay) was carried out by al-Qaeda-linked groups seeking the independence of Muslim-majority Kashmir from India. It is also possible that they are seeking, as Peter Bergen suggested on CNN, to encourage […]

Over 60 Dead as Faith-Based Killings Continue Kurds to the Rescue? By my count, nearly 200 Iraqis have been killed in civil war violence during the past 3 days, dozens of them murdered for having the wrong religious identity (Shiite or Sunni). The Associated Press reports that bombings and shootings took the lives of 60 […]

Gaza Crisis The Israeli air force bombed a civilian Palestinian house that they said was being used to plot out terrorist attacks. As a home, it contained innocent civilians including at least two now-dead children. CSM gives further details of the humanitarian crisis into which Olmert’s invasion and bombings have plunged the people of Gaza. […]

Over 55 Killed, Including 25 in Sadr City Bombings Iraq to Ask UN to Withdrew US Troop Immunity Guerrillas detonated two huge car bombs in a Shiite neighborhood on Monday, killing 25 and wounding 41. The guerrillas set both off in the Talbiyah district of Sadr City, a stronghold of the Sadr Movement of Muqtada […]

Food, Water Running out For Gaza’s Children The humanitarian crisis in a civilian Gaza under attack from Israel is worsening, according to United Nations agencies. They had already warned over the weekend that given that half of Gazans are children, that the adult unemployment rate is 40 percent, and that malnutrition had already been widespread, […]

At least 80 Dead in Civil War Bloodbath Government Forced to Depend on Local Gunmen “”We will complete the mission and I will make my judgments as to the troop levels necessary to achieve victory, not based upon political polls or focus groups, but based upon the measured judgment of our commanders on the ground […]

European Union Condemns Israeli Predations Israelis Kill Little Girl, Other Family Members 50,000 Turks Demonstrate The Daily Telegraph Reports: ‘Three Palestinian family members, including a six-year-old girl, were killed yesterday in an air strike near Gaza City as Israel rejected a call by Hamas Premier Ismail Haniya for a mutual ceasefire. The girl, her elder […]

National Unity Government on Vergeof Collapse As Sunnis Threaten Pull-out; A Million Sadrists Prepare for Samarra Trek Guerrillas killed 3 US troops and a female Iraqi translator for the US military on Saturday. Guerrillas detonated a car bomb outside a Shiite mosque in Baghdad Saturday evening, killing 3 persons. Also late Saturday evening, Iraqi troops […]