Juan Cole

Political Maneuvers in Baghdad The Saudi-backed London daily al-Hayat [Life] [Ar.] argues that the visit (demarche would be more like it) of Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and her British counterpart Jack Straw to Baghdad is a (succssful) attempt to break up the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance bloc in parliament and to sideline Ibrahim Jaafari. […]

Guest Comment: Paying the Price at the UN for Iraq Ambassador Gerald B. Helman writes: ‘ At some point, historians, scholars and foreign affairs practitioners will undertake an evaluation of the consequences for U.S. security of the invasion of Iraq, and the (eventual) U.S. withdrawal. One specific consequence evident now is the failure by the […]

42 Bodies Found in Iraq 19 Others Killed in Separate Incidents In a macabre harvest, 42 bodies were found in various places in Iraq on Saturday, killed in night-time sectarian reprisals. AP counts another 19 killed in separate incidents in Baghdad, Basra and elsewhere. In Basra, a Sunni cleric was killed. On Friday evening a […]

UIA Member Calls for Jaafari to Step Down A member of the United Iraqi Alliance called publicly Saturday for Ibrahim Jaafari to step down as candidate for prime minister from the coalition. The UIA groups at least 7 Shiite religious parties, and it is being alleged that 4 of them have lost faith in Jaafari. […]

Ayatollah Yaqubi Demands Khalilzad’s Expulsion Maliki: “US Will Destroy Iraq” Mortar shells, bombings and assassinations killed 9 in Iraq on Friday, in Baghdad and Kirkuk. A US soldier was killed in Anbar Province. Some prominent Shiite clerics used their Friday sermons to call for the expulsion from Iraq [Ar.] of US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad. They […]

The Neocon Imaginary Middle East: Again Speaking of political frauds, the Web site Newshog has nailed Kenneth R. Timmerman for falsely alleging that Iran has bought nuclear warheads from North Korea. In fact, Jane’s Defense Weekly reported that Iran bought some ancient missile from Pyongyang, and there was never any question of a warhead. Timmerman […]

Al-Anizi: The US is Training an Insubordinate Iraqi Army Sistani Blows off Bush Guerrillas shot dead 8 oil workers at the Baiji refinery north of Baghdad. The guerrillas have for some time had a strategy of cutting the capital off from fuel and electricity as far as they can, and their sabotage in Baiji is […]

Attacks on Businesses Multiply Political Gridlock Continues A US soldier was killed in Habbaniyah and another was shot dead south of Baghdad. Guerrillas tried to kill the head of the Sunni Endowments Board and also an important banker, along with several other bombings and shootings. Steven Hurst of AP argues that the tactics used in […]

If you can’t do it, Just make it up Has any conflict since the Spanish American War been so much a fantasy of the yellow press and government hawks as the Iraq War? The Independent has gotten hold of some of the black psy-ops “newspaper articles” peddled by the Lincoln Group to Iraqi newspapers (it […]