Juan Cole

Iran: Revived Persecution of Baha’is 54 Arrested in Shiraz One unfortunate consequence of the bogus stories about Iran making minorities wear badges is that it could obscure the real human rights violations toward minorities in Ahmadinejad’s Iran. There is disturbing evidence that Iranian government institutions are beginning to track and monitor the Baha’i religious minority […]

Iraqi Currency My comment that I thought Amir Taheri was wrong to praise the stability of the Iraqi dinar, because the dinar is a managed currency and does not float freely, brought a rebuke from someone more knowledgeable about currency issues than I. Collier Lounsbury maintained that the stability was genuine and owing in some […]

Shiite Mosque Bombed Weapons from Bosnia flood Iraq Zarqawi’s Emirate of Baghdad Tribal clashes south of Baghdad at Suwayrah killed 16 on Tuesday. I presume that these casualties were announced late in the day, and are in addition to the 41 killed in sectarian violence on Tuesday, according to AP. If I am right, that […]

Bin Laden: Moussawi not a 9/11 Hijacker Anyone who has actually read a transcript of anything Zacarias Moussaoui has said has immediately recognized that he is not a high-powered al-Qaeda operative on the model of Muhammad Atta. In fact, anyone who has half a brain has been able to see that Moussaoui is just mentally […]

Critique of US Policy in Iraq Bush Administration policies in Iraq have largely been a failure. It has created a failed state in that country, which is in flames and seething with new religious and ethnic nationalist passions of a sort never before seen on this scale in modern Iraqi history. The severe instability in […]

Maliki Calls for Most Coalition Troops out by End of Year Well, there are two versions of Iraq’s future. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki suprised visiting UK PM Tony Blair with an announcement: “Mr Maliki said British troops would hand over responsibility in two provinces to Iraqi security forces by next month and that he expected […]

The Black Psy-Ops Campaign against Iran The Iranian regime is despicable in its lack of respect for basic human rights and in its regimentation of its citizens into a rigid theocracy. But it is no more of a threat to the United States than Burma or the Congo, both of which are just as oppressive. […]

Responses to Critics: Open Thread I don’t want to give the impression that I am unduly interested in the cottage industry that has grown up on the US Right of, let us say, severely critiquing my work. It comes with the territory that if you become a public figure, you get attacked. In fact, even […]

DaVinci Code as Parable of American Modernity Despite the scowls and titters of the critics, the DaVinci Code did $77 million at the box office in the US, better than Tom Cruise pulled in MI3. And the world-wide gross is already $224 million. What in the world accounts for the popularity of this complicated and […]