Juan Cole

Violence in Baghdad, Samarra Curfew Partially Observed There was more violence on Friday in Iraq amid calls by clerical leaders for peace. The daytime curfew called for earlier was widely ignored, especially in East Baghdad or Sadr City, where the Mahdi Army militiamen were out in force, driving around in heavy vehicles. *Samarra:Borzou Daragahi of […]

Suicide Bombing of Saudi Oil Complex Foiled We all just dodged a bullet. But for how long? The good news is that the suicide bombing by unidentified radicals against the Saudi oil processing center in largely Shiite Abqaiq (Baqiq) was foiled, though bombs did go off. Saudi Arabia, dominated by hard line Wahhabi Sunnis, produces […]

Dozens of Mosques Attacked, Over 100 Dead, Thousands Protest CNN reports that 7 US GIs were killed in Iraq on Wednesday. There will be a curfew in the core Sunni Arab areas, including Baghdad, to prevent the worshippers from rioting afer the Friday prayers ceremony. Sunni Arabs in Iraq blamed US troops for not protecting […]

Sistani threatens to turn to Militia Sadr Calls for Calm The shoe seems to be on the other foot now, with Muqtada al-Sadr attempting to cool Iraq’s Shiites down and Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani threatening to create a paramilitary to protect Shiites. Al-=Hayat says that [Ar.] the Sunni cleric Abdul Ghafur al-Samarra’i led a demonstration […]

Iran Blames BushSunni Shiite Clashes Dan Murphy of the Christian Science Monitor has an excellent piece interpreting the significance of the turmoil over the bombing of the Askariyah shrine in Samarra. Shiites came out in the thousands all over the Shiite south on Wednesday to protest. Quoting Sunni Arab spokesmen, the wire services are saying […]

Shiite protests Roil Iraq Tuesday was an apocalyptic day in Iraq. I am not normally exactly sanguine about the situation there. But the atmospherics are very, very bad, in a way that most Western observers will miss. The day started out with a protest by ten thousand people in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, […]

Bringing the United Nations Back In There will be anti-War protests in the coming month, as the 3-year anniversary of the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq approaches. I think it is time to demand a timetable for US withdrawal from Iraq. I suspect a majority of Iraqi parliamentarians want that. The Sunni Arabs demand it. The […]

Thinking about Suing If among my loyal readers there are any attorneys with expertise in libel law, in the US or UK, who might be willing to consult on a possible series of lawsuits for reckless defamation of character resulting in professional harm–done on a contingency basis– I’d much appreciate hearing from you.

The Ambassador Versus the Ayatollah: Khalilzad to Iraq: No Shiite Control of Interior, Defense Sistani Contradicts Him On Monday, the stage was set for an epic struggle between the two forces behind the scenes in Iraqi politics, US Ambassadro in Baghdad Zalmay Khalilzad and Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani of Najaf, the spiritual leader of Iraq’s […]