Juan Cole

Bush as Press Assassin? Baathist in a Mirror The Mirror broke the story on Tuesday that a secret British memo demonstrates that George W. Bush wanted to bomb Aljazeera’s offices in Doha, Qatar, in spring of 2004. The subject came up with Prime Minister Tony Blair of the UK, and Blair is said to have […]

Massacre in Kirkuk Bush Suppressed CIA Report exonerating Saddam of al-Qaeda Ties On Wednesday morning, a shaikh of the Dulaim tribe and 3 sons and a son-in-law were shot dead in West Baghdad. The Dulaim are mostly strong Sunnis and many Dulaim in Anbar province are part of the guerrilla movement. AP reports that in […]

Iraqis ask for Withdrawal Timetable AP reports on the results of the Cairo national reconciliation conference, attended by the major Iraqi political factions, including Sunni Arabs. Al-Hayat gives the orginal Arabic wording of some articles of the agreement. One provision says, “We demand the withdrawal of foreign forces in accordance with a timetable, and the […]

Sharon’s Critique of the Authoritarian Likud Party Ariel Sharon’s resignation from the Likud Party is a more forceful critique of that party than any I have offered. Likudniks are notoriously unable to deal with being criticized, so my simple and accurate characterization of the party as having colonialist and fascistic tendencies has driven its acolytes […]

Guest Editorial on Murtha: Achcar & Shalom “On John Murtha’s Position” by Gilbert Achcar and Stephen R. Shalom There is much of which to approve in the recent speech of Rep. John P. Murtha, Democrat of Pennsylvania, on Iraq. The hawkish Murtha had been critical of the Bush administration’s handling of the war for some […]

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Blogroll Political Journalism Talking Points Memo – Joshua Micah Marshall (Progressive politics, elegantly argued.) Air America (Progressive Web Site with Radio Stream) Huffington Post. Helena Cobban – Just World News (Veteran journalist, Middle East) The Global Beat: Resources for the Global Journalist TomDispatch.com (Tom Engelhardt, The Nation Institute) Majority Report Sam Seder and Janeane Garofalo […]

Iraqi Army Not Ready for at Least Two Years Zarqawi’s group rejects Talabani Parlay Offer Violence in Iraq on Sunday left 2 American and one British soldier dead, along with some 12 Iraqis, bringing the weekend death toll to around 120. An Iraqi poll suggests that a great many Iraqis want Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari […]

Zarqawi RIP? It just does not matter if Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is dead. US troops searched a house in Mosul where guerrillas took their own lives rather than be captured for signs that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi might be among the dead. A later US press release said that it doubted that al-Zarqawi had been killed. […]