Juan Cole

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 […]

Guerrilla War Still Going Strong: Guerrillas kill 26, Wound 74 in Seven bombings, Other Attacks Al-Zaman [Ar.]: The Iraqi governent says that during the seven days ending on Sunday, guerrillas launched 111 attacks on Iraqi army and police and on US and Coalition forces. These attacks left over 100 Iraqis dead and over 200 wounded. […]

17 Dead in Guerrilla Violence Fadhilah Defends Constitution Robert worth of the NYT reports that some 17 persons were killed in guerrilla violence in Iraq on Sunday. Guerrillas used an explosive device to kill the police chief of Kirkuk and two aides. The Sunni Arab fighters are resisting a take-over of the city by the […]

What if Cheney had Apologized for Iraq? Satire alert for the humorless. What would it have looked like if Vice President Richard Bruce Cheney had apologized for Iraq the way he apologized for shooting a hunting buddy? This is the original link [Imaginary] Transcript of Vice President Dick Cheney’s interview Wednesday with Brit Hume of […]

Iraqi Press Highlights for Feb. 19 Key bits of information from the Iraqi press, selected from a mass of such articles in the Foreign Broadcast Information Service report for Sunday, Feb. 19. A reader asked me if I was deliberately repositing nuggets of key information down in the text, with an eye to giving an […]

20 Dead in Bombings, Gunfights Including GI Guerrillas set off several bombs in Baghdad on Saturday, targetting policemen. They also bombed Tikrit, Baqubah and Fallujah. Deaths in these bombings and in other gunfights came to at least 20. One American soldier was among those killed. Four bodies of persons killed execution-style showed up in Baghdad […]

Muqtada al-Sadr on Aljazeera “Ready to attack the Americans if they Attack Iran or Syria” “In a Democratic Iraq, Kurds will not need Own Region” Muqtada al-Sadr gave an extended interview on Saturday on Aljazeera, which I am going to blog here. What follows is a quick paraphrase of the interview done while watching it. […]

Iranians Demand British Withdrawal from Basra Bombs in Baghdad and Yusufiyah; reprisal killings in Baghdad; and major pipeline sabotage targeting fuel supplies to the capital. Also, the audacious kidnapping of one of the wealthiest bankers in Iraq which leaves 5 of his bodyguards dead. Al-Zaman / AFP report that guerrillas fired five rockets at the […]

Further Abu Ghraib Photos US Constitution RIP Salon.com has gotten hold of a complete set of images of torture from Abu Ghraib. This is the material that the US government has been declining to release. The pictures are not of new abuse, though it is clear that many of the same sorts of torture as […]