Juan Cole

Kerry and Bush on Iraq War Bush asked Kerry if he would still have voted for the Iraq War if he had known in fall of 2002 everything he knows now about the non-existence of weapons of mass destruction. Kerry said “yes,” but that he would have handled things differently from Bush, giving the weapons […]

Correction to the NYT re: Sistani Alex Berenson’s otherewise fine article on the situation in Najaf contains an important error. This mistake may well not be Mr. Berenson’s fault. We professional writers know that between the time we submit something and it appears in press, it is massaged, edited and copy-edited, and with all the […]

Mahdi Army Fights on in Najaf, Sadr City The US military pounded Mahdi Army positions in the vast cemetery of Najaf again on Tuesday, with artillery and aerial bombardment. The Americans also began asking the civilian population (ordinarily nearly half a million strong) to leave the city, spurring fears that the US planned another massive […]

Iraq National Congress Office Closed Al-Hayat reports via Agence France Presse that the head of the office of Ahmad Chalabi’s Iraqi National Congress in Baghdad has been told by the caretaker Iraqi government that he had 24 hours to close the office. Ahmad Chalabi and his nephew Salem, previously darlings of the US Department of […]

POW Mistreatment an Issue between US and Iraq, Denmark and UK Death Penalty Condemned by Danish Defense Minister Danish Colonel Henrik Flach said Tuesday, “The British treat their prisoners in a manner which does not, as we think in Denmark, conform with the Geneva Conventions.” The 500-strong Danish contingent was condemned by a Danish army […]

“No Pakistani Official Made this Intelligence Leak” AP reports that Pakistani officials continue to insist that the leak of double agent Muhammad Naeem Nur Khan’s name to the press on Aug. 1 was done by “Coalition partners,” though they are circumspect about directly accusing the US. AP writes, ‘ The first official described the initial […]

Update on Khan Scandal We know that the Pakistani government has complained that the Bush administration blew the cover of Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan. Not only are the Pakistanis annoyed by the blown cover , they are also furious about the cavalier way the FBI used a fiction about a plot against the life of […]

Bush Administration Outing of Double Agent “Made no Sense”: Baer Jim Lobe has a good summary of the state of play in the scandal of the Bush administration outing of double agent Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan. Two important points. 1) Lobe implicitly takes on the argument of the rightwing bloggers that the press is to […]

1 British Soldier Dead, 5 Wounded in Basra Clashes Najaf in Flames; Oil Production Stopped Early Tuesday Baghdad time, there was talk of a truce in Najaf, after a fifth day of fierce fighting. Al-Jazeerah reported that Governor Adnan al-Zurufi was saying that Mahdi Army fighters had asked for a truce so as to remove […]