Juan Cole

Al-Maliki Acceptable, Say Kurds, Sunni Arabs The Financial Times reports on the reaction of the Kurdish and Sunni Arab blocs to the selection of Jawad al-Maliki, 56, as the candidate for prime minister of the United Iraqi Alliance: ‘ “We have no objection to Jawad al-Maliki,” said Iyad al-Samarrai, of the Sunni-led Iraqi Islamic party. […]

Maliki the Shiite Candidate Breaking news: CNN is reporting that United Iraqi Alliance has informally decided to replace Ibrahim Jaafari with MP Jawad al-Maliki of the Islamic Dawa Party as its candidate for prime minister. The formal decision will be made on Saturday. ——- Here are some documents from the Open Source Center of the […]

Jaafari seeks Party Re-Vote on his Candidacy AP reports that Ibrahim Jaafari, nominated in February for a second term as prime minister by the United Iraqi Alliance (Shiite religious parties), has agreed that a party convocation should reconsider his candidacy on Saturday. The meeting of parliament planned for that day has been put off. AP […]

Cost of War Heading toward One Trillion Dollars Some less ethical automobile salesmen will deploy a tactic called “low-balling.” The young naive couple comes in and sees a coupe they like. They think it is beyond their means, maybe in the $30,000s. He’ll quote them $26,000. There will be financing. They get excited. Maybe, just […]

WSJ: $20 Billion a Year in Lost Arab Tourism Meanwhile, hassling Arab visitors and making their visas difficult to get and being mean to them while they are here is costing the US $20 billion a year in lost tourism, and universities have lost $42 million in tuition money, and hospitals have lost wealthy Arab […]

20,000 Kidnapped? Parliament to Open Amid Continued Violence Guerrilla violence killed at least 19 persons on Wednesday in Iraq. Some reports say that among the victims were two school teachers in a Shiite district, who had their throats slit in front of their students, by terrorists. There are reports that local police are denying the […]

James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism 2005 I kept meaning to blog the nice award ceremony held April 12 in New York at Hunter College, at which the 2005 James Aronson Awards for Social Justice Journalism were handed out. The unsinkable Molly Ivins was given a lifetime achievement award. She couldn’t be there in […]

A Golden Oldie: Character Assassination You really only have to write the reply once; the smears don’t change over time. From December 2004: Yes, I’m aware that Daniel Pipes of the so-called Middle East Forum sent some puppy out to slime me over at David Horowitz’s Frontpagerag. So this is the way it goes with […]

Political Crisis Worsens as Sectarian War Threatens The Financial Times reports further on the fighting in Adhamiyah on Monday and Tuesday, asking whether the incident suggests greater Sunni Arab backing for the guerrillas. But I am told, and the Baghdad press also reports, that the real significance here was that the Shiite death squads in […]