Juan Cole

Muqtada: “Outside Powers Should Not Interfere in Elections” Pachachi: Expatriate Iraqis must Vote Al-Sharq al-Awsat: Shaikh Nasir al-Sa`idi, the Friday prayers leader of al-Muhsin Mosque in Sadr City, read out a sermon written by radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr that called on “neighbors and non-neighbors of Iraq” to refrain from interfering the in the internal affairs […]

Polling Sites, Soldiers, Electoral Workers Targeted Guerrillas bombed a polling site in Sharqat north of Baghdad, destroying it but causing no casualties. In Baghdad, a policemen, two Iraqi soldiers and a civilian were killed in separate incidents. In Mosul, guerrillas detonated a car bomb as a US convoy went by, but no word on whether […]

7 Dead, 38 Wounded in Shiite Mosque Bombing Two Aides of Sistani Killed Guerrillas parked a car bomb outside a Shiite mosque in the eastern village of Khan Bani Saad on Thursday evening. Then, as Shiites exited the mosque after evening prayers, they detonated it, killing at least 7 and wounding 38. Nine shops nearby […]

Election News: No Ayatollahs, no Israelis Al-Hayat: The Iraqi National Accord has lodged a formal complaint with the Iraqi electoral commission against the use by the United Iraqi Alliance of the name and images of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani in their campaign posters. Sistani sponsored the negotiations that led to the establishment of the coalition […]

Absolutely? Sometimes you have to go to the regional newspapers for the punchy editorials. The Pentagon’s announcement that the search for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction officially ended quietly in late December provokes the Virginia Pilot to observe, “And America is left with a seemingly endless war in Iraq, but without a rationale for it.” […]

Falling like Flies 53 Iraqi Parties Withdraw from Elections Xinhuanet reports that: ‘ According to the Al Furat newspaper, 53 political parties and organizations as well as 30 individuals have asked their names to be dropped from the election lists in a bid to show their rejection of elections under US occupation. ‘ There had […]

Pressman: Implications of Abu Mazen Jeremy Pressman of the University of Connecticut Political Science Department shares his thoughts in a guest editorial on the victory of Mahmud Abbas in the Palestinian elections last Sunday Implications for the Middle East of Mahmud Abbas’s Victory Jeremy Pressman With Mahmud Abbas’s clear victory in Sunday’s Palestinian presidential elections, […]

The Third Baath Coup? If, as I have argued, the Baathists along with some Salafi (Sunni fundamentalist) allies are behind the guerrilla war, what do they want? They want to drive the Americans out of Iraq and make a third Baath coup, putting the Shiite genie back in its bottle and restoring Sunni Arab primacy. […]

Allawi: “Pockets” Will not be Able to Vote Michael Georgy of the Scotsman reports from Baghdad that interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi admitted on Tuesday that “pockets” of Iraq won’t be able to vote on January 30 because of poor security. I suspect the pockets amount to about 3 million persons. Georgy also says […]