Juan Cole

Ship of State Springs a Leak James Ridgeway of the Village Voice recalls the ghost of corrupt vice presidents past in the light of the NYT’s revelations Tuesday that Richard Bruce Cheney was the one who revealed the name of undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson to his chief of staff, Irving Lewis Libby. Libby […]

37 Dead as Palestine Hotel is Attacked A set of 3 powerful bombings in Baghdad, along with other attacks and violence, left 37 dead and dozens wounded on Monday. Among the dead in Baghdad, al-Zaman says, was the director of the biggest of the American security companies in Iraq, which is responsible for safeguarding the […]

Rupert Murdoch and Judith Miller The extraordinary exchanges between New York Times editor Bill Keller and reporter Judith Miller over her role in the Plame scandal and reporting on non-existent weapons of mass destruction in Iraq have suggested to me a wider context of the entire matter. The wider context is that Rupert Murdoch, and […]

Wave of Assassinations, Bombings Oil Exports Halted Here’s the headline of The Times of Baghdad [al-Zaman] for Monday, October 24, 2005: Wave of Assassinations in Tikrit, Baqubah, Ramadi, and Mahawil; Oil Exports Halted from Basra & Ceyhan; Kidnapping of Director of Resources at Southern Petroleum Co.; A Sudanese Detonates a Car Bomb Near an American […]

Syria and the Fundamentalist Crescent? Some kind readers have requested that I say something about the report of UN-appointed German diplomat Detlev Mehlis concerning the assassination of Rafiq Hariri, the former prime minister of Lebanon. Mehlis is a careful and determined investigator and his findings, which fingered persons in the direct circle of Syrian dictator […]

Galbraith on Iraqi Army, Partition Former Ambassador Peter Galbraith wrote in response to a posting of last Thursday, and has kindly agreed to allow me to reprint the letter here: ‘ Dear Professor Cole: . . . You quoted today the Brattleboro Reformer’s account of my remarks last night to the Windham World Affairs Council. […]

Sistani Supports Conference for National Reconciliation Al-Hakim, Sadr Opposed Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani has thrown his weight behind the Arab League initiative for a national reconciliation conference in Iraq. Sistani has all along behind the scenes attempted to reach out to the Sunnis. He managed to convince a few to run on the United Iraqi […]

The Great Iran Crock, Blair and AEI Mahan Abedin demolishes the Blair government’s case for Iran giving bombs to Iran’s enemies in Iraq. By the way, this thing about the Lebanese Hezbollah really is just disinformation and lies. There are two organizations in southern Iraq called Hizbullah. One is a component of the Supreme Council […]

Four GIs Killed Khamenei Praises Iraq Constitution Guerrilla violence killed 4 US GIs on Friday, three west of Baghdad and one at Heet (Hit). Iran’s Supreme Jurisprudent, Ali Khamenei, on Friday praised Iraq’s constitution as “blessed,” praised the constitutional referendum, and looked forward to Iraqis going to the polls again on December 15. The Iranians […]