Juan Cole

Jaafari and Shahrudi Alireza Doostdar writes: ‘ I just read your . . . article on Salon (The big winner is… Iran), and had a comment on the section on Iraqi PM Ja’fari’s meeting with Iran’s judiciary chief Ayatollah Shahrudi. Shahrudi had apparently called for Iraqi judicial cooperation with the “Islamic Human Rights Organization” in […]

Forensic Evidence Leads to 2 Arrests London police commissioner Sir Ian Blair announced that substantial forensic evidence had been recovered in relationship to Thursday’s bombings. Two arrests have been made, one of them near a bomb site, another near the Downing Street prime minister’s residence. Since there are eyewitnesses to the attempted bombings who saw […]

Blogging London from UK Blogger comment from Tim Worstall. And the Guardian news blog. AFP has an updated report that depends heavily on Sky News. Highlights: From Sky News: ‘ “They said the strong smell of acetone would have sparked fears of a chemical attack. And the smell indicated that the explosives had been made […]

More Bomb attempts in London The Wikipedia entry is already a useful starting place. One caution: UK authorities are denying the rumors of chemicals and say these were small conventional bombs. Around noon EST on Thursday I live-blogged the press conference by London officials: Sir Ian Blair says there are four scenes. At each of […]

Advantage Iran My article at Salon.com, “The Iraq War is Over and the Winner is . . . Iran” is just out online. Excerpt: ‘ the Bush administration cannot have been filled with joy when Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari and eight high-powered cabinet ministers paid an extremely friendly visit to Tehran this week. The […]

State Memo on Plame Stamped “Secret” Walter Pincus and Jim VandeHei have dug around and discovered that the State Department memo mentioning Valerie Plame (Wilson) as a CIA operative is itself stamped “Secret” and makes it clear she is undercover and that the cover should not be blown. The memo was on Air Force One […]

Four Sunnis pull out of Constitution Committee in Protest A Dozen Dead in New Attacks Arab News reports that ‘ Over a dozen more people lost their lives in Iraq yesterday, including eight killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside the gates of an army recruiting center in Baghdad, the latest attack against […]

Pakistan Arrests 200 after London Bombing Pakistan is in the midst of a major crackdown on the leaders of radical Muslim groups, several of which had earlier been banned without much visible effect. Pakistani security forces have raided Muslim seminaries or madrasahs associated with the radical groups, and have arrested 200 persons, mostly apparently for […]

Gaza and the Orange Shirt Protests Or the Middle East Made Simple These are the people of Gaza: Even in ordinary circumstances, Gaza is a mess— a crowded slum with nearly a million and a half people crammed into a tiny portion of the strip, living in grinding poverty. Children’s health statistics have been plummeting. […]