Juan Cole

Pipeline Sabotage, Baghdad Bombing Ten people were killed and 11 kidnapped in Iraq on Saturday. The current Marine offensive against guerrillas in Ramadi killed 3 and wounded 15. Al-Hayat reports this as a major US campaign in Anbar province. Guerrillas blew up a northern pipeline on Saturday. Other guerrillas exploded a bomb in Baghdad, while […]

5 US Troops Die Sistani Blesses Jaafari Ibrahim Jaafari, the candidate for prime minister of the religious Shiite coalition, met Friday with Grand Ayatollah Sistani,who “blessed” (i.e. endorsed) his candidacy. This blessing will help Jaafari with the some 30 members of his United Iraqi Alliance coalition who are said to be wavering in their support […]

30 Dead in Iraq Violence AP reports that the one-day total for war-related violence in Iraq, including the police station bombing in Tikrit reported here yesterday morning, came to 30. That is about 11,000 persons a year if the rate were constant and extrapolated out. In fact, the wire services manage to report only a […]

Koufax Complete List I’ve gotten around to stealing code for the complete list of Koufax Award Winners at Wampum. Best Blog (Non-Sponsored): Daily Kos Best Blog (Pro): Talking Points Memo by Josh Marshall Best Writing: Hullaballoo by Digby Best Post: “If America Were Iraq…” at Informed Comment by Juan Cole Best Series (tie): The Rise […]

Bomb Blasts in Tikrit, Haglaniyah, Mosul Produce Dozens of Casualties AP reports on violence in Iraq Tuesday: ‘ A car bomb exploded near police headquarters in the Iraqi city of Tikrit on Thursday, killing at least 10 people, witnesses said. More than a dozen cars were set ablaze after the massive blast . . . […]

Were the Shiites Cheated? And What does Allawi Want? Al-Hayat has a long interview with an “informed Iraqi source” who is close to US officials in Iraq. He maintains that the US officials there were astounded that the United Iraqi Alliance did so well, and that they felt helpless and resigned as the process unfolded. […]

Show Trials and Phony Confessions Target Syria AP reports on a televised confession of someone who said he was a Syrian agent in Iraq in charge of terrorist operations. The confession was broadcast on US-backed al-Iraqiyah television, and was produced presumably by the former Baath domestic intelligence officers appointed by Iyad Allawi. These confessions are […]

Association of Muslim Scholars Denies Negotiations with US Gilbert Achcar kindly supplied the following translation: The following interesting excerpt from today’s (Feb 23) Al-Hayat (my translation from Arabic): ‘ A member of the Association of Muslim Scholars [believed to be the most popular group among Arab Sunnis in Iraq] has denied that the contacts held […]

Iraq-Blogging Nick Turse at tomdispatch.com skewers Donald Rumsfeld’s various rhetorical strategies of evasion whenever he has been asked hard questions about Abu Ghraib, the situation in Iraq, etc.: ‘ I was truly curious: Was it a budgetary problem — the lack of CD burners, or floppy disks, or available computers at the Pentagon? Or was […]