Juan Cole

Ammar al-Hakim: Iranian Influence Over-Stated Admits Iraqi Government has Performed Poorly From Al-Sharq al-Awsat (“The Middle East”), London: An Interview by Ma`d al-Fayyad with Ammar al-Hakim, the son of the powerful Iraqi Shiite cleric Abdul Aziz al-Hakim (leader of the United Iraqi Alliance in Parliament). Translation courtesy the Foreign Broadcast Information Service of the US […]

The Welsh in Maysan: Anything but Quiet This article from last week was published obscurely but it is eloquent about the claim that the “problem” of insecurity is “only in four provinces.” Solidly Shiite Maysan, inhabited to a large extent by displaced Marsh Arabs, would be on no one’s list of the top security problems […]

Bush Dunnit George Stephanopolous dropped a bombshell on his show on Sunday. Toward the end, as Judd notes, he said, ‘ Definitely a political problem but I wonder, George Will, do you think it’s a manageable one for the White House especially if we don’t know whether Fitzgerald is going to write a report or […]

Talabani Calls for Jaafari’s Resignation Iraq Unravels President Jalal Talabani called Sunday for Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari to step down. Jaafari is the leader of the fundamentalist Shiite Dawa Party and was chosen prime minister by the United Iraqi Alliance, a Shiite coalition that has, with allies, about 54 percent of the seats in parliament. […]

Guest Editorial: Smith on Libertarians and Iraq Jan Smith of Ohio Wesleyan University writes: ‘ Thanks for today’s link to Justin Raimondo’s webpage. It is fascinating to see a libertarian blaming Israel for the Bush administration’s war in Iraq. For the libertarians themselves, or more precisely, the private elites they represent, has had far more […]

Iraqi Government Totters US Goes it alone Against Mighty Sadah British Leave Basra Base The wrangling between President Jalal Talabani (a Kurd) and Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari (a religious Shiite) may after all threaten the stability of the government. Aljazeerah says, “Kurdish officials warned on Saturday they would consider pulling out of the government if […]

Those People in Washington are Such Cutups Is Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald planning to bring criminal conspiracy charges against Karl Rove and Lewis Libby (I don’t like calling him “Scooter”; I don’t think he is cute)? It seems pretty clear that they were guilty of criminal conspiracy, and of making Scott McClellan lie about it. […]

A Government of War Criminals A Press of Agents Provocateurs A Bureaucracy of Foreign Spies Just reading ordinary press reports on the state of government and the press in Washington is like stepping into Orwell’s 1984. The Attorney General authorizes torture, the president orders it with weasel words, and the press acquiesces, mostly not even […]

110 Shiites Dead in 2 Days Talabani Blasts Jaafari for Illegalities AP reports that guerrilla violence in Iraq has taken the lives of 110 Shiites in two days. Sounds like a sectarian civil war to me. Al-Zaman/ AFP/ DPA: Iraq’s president, Jalal Talabani, launched charges on Friday against Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari of having contravened […]