Juan Cole

Constitution-Drafting Subcommittee Excludes Sunnis Chalabi to be Pardoned Hamza Hendawi reports that the new government will attempt to use high Sunni officials such as Defense Minister Saadoun Dulaimi and Vice Premier Abid Mutlak al-Juburi (Jiburi) to reach out to Sunni Arab moderates. Few expect this effort to have an effect on the guerrillas. But it […]

Al-Qaeda on Trial in Yemen Planned Attacks on Americans Reuters reports on the ongoing trial of 8 alleged al-Qaeda members in Yemen. In a dramatic new develeopment, the prosecutor said information had arisen that the group was planning to kill Americans in Saudi Arabia, and were working on plans for attacks in Gulf countries. It […]

US Releases Enemy Casualty Estimate of 100 The US military is conducting a major operation around Ubaidi, near Qaim on the border with Syria. The operation near the Euphrates was aimed at foreign jihadi bases. The Marines are reportedly surprised by the degree of preparation the guerrillas are showing. They also seem to have specialized […]

Bomb found at Sistani’s Home Shiite Tensions Rise over Killings AP writes, At least four car bombs exploded in Baghdad on Monday, Iraqi police and the U.S. military said. They included a morning suicide attack in southern Baghdad that killed two Iraqi policemen and a civilian at a checkpoint at a busy intersection, police said. […]

Al-Qaeda in Kuwait A Kuwaiti court sentenced 25 radical Muslim fundamentalists for plotting to go to Iraq to fight US troops, or to fund the effort. They were also accused of belonging to an illegal organization. Only as you read down the Reuters report does it gradually become apparent that the “forbidden organization” is . […]

The Price of Failure in Iraq Bob Dreyfuss writes in Rolling Stone: If it comes to civil war, the disintegration of Iraq will be extremely bloody. “The breakup of Iraq would be nearly as bad as the breakup of India in 1947,” says David Mack, a former U.S. assistant secretary of state with wide experience […]

8 US Servicemen Killed Over Weekend The NYT reports that guerrillas killed 8 US servicemen in separate incidents over the weekend. On Sunday, bombings in Samarra and Khalidiya killed 3 US servicemen. In Haditha on Saturday, guerrillas attacked and captured a hospital, killing 3 US Marines and a sailor when the US attempted to take […]

Ridley Scott’s Kingdom of Heaven I saw Kingdom of Heaven Sunday. The film has many virtues, with its attention to costume and scene. I could quibble. Medieval European swords of the 1100s could not be wielded in the way they were shown here; they were very heavy. And I doubt that whatever the catapults were […]

Mistaken Identity? Christina Lamb and Mohammad Shehzad in Islamabad suggest in the London Times that Abu al-Faraj al-Libi, arrested recently in Pakistan, is being confused with Anas al-Libi, a mastermind of the 1998 US embassy bombings in East Africa. Abu al-Faraj the Libyan, some observers suggest, is a third-tier al-Qaeda member largely known for involvement […]