Juan Cole

Deputy Governor of Basra Assassinated AFP reports that guerrillas shot and killed Hazem Ainachi in Basra on Tuesday morning as he got in his car to go to work. Ainachi, acting governor of Basra and a member of the governing council in the southern city, had earlier held the posts of coordinator of the Basra […]

Iran in Bush’s Sights The same techniques used to get up the Iraq war are now being applied by the political Right in the United States, including President Bush, to Iran. These include innuendo, guilt by association, vague fears, and hyped capabilities. If Bush gets a second term, it seems very likely that his administration […]

Fresh Wave of Violence in Iraq Leaves 10 Dead, 62 Wounded Reuters reports that a suicide bomber set off a massive explosion by targeting a fuel tanker near a police station in Baghdad on Monday, killing 9 and wounding 62. There have been five such bombings of police or national guards in recent days, and […]

Guest Editorial: Pressman on The Wall Today we feature two guest editorials on the Israeli security wall, which is being built largely on Palestinian territory and involves a de facto unilateral annexation of that territory, hurting innocent Palestinian townspeople and farmers who see their property bifurcated. The World Court at the Hague has now ruled […]

Beinin Guest Editorial: The US Congress Defies the World Court Our second guest editorial on the issue of the Wall is by the distinguished academic Joel Beinin of Stanford University. The US Congress Defies the World Court on Israel’s Separation Barrier by Joel Beinin Today the United Nations General Assembly is likely to vote to […]

Muqtada’s Newspaper Reopens Al-Hawzah, the newspaper of the radical young Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, will be allowed to publish again. The decision was taken by Prime Minister Iyad Allawi after the newspaper’s staff approached his government. The Americans had closed the newspaper in March, as a prelude to their failed attempt to arrest Muqtada and […]

Rockefeller on Feith UPI runs a guest editorial by Greg Guma that signals a long-delayed outbreak of public candor in the US print press about the sinister role of Undersecretary of Defense for Planning Douglas Feith in a disinformation campaign aimed at provoking a US war on Iraq, primarily for rightwing Israeli purposes. Sen. Jay […]

Airstrike on Fallujah Leaves 14 Dead Bombing in Tikrit, Kidnappings in Kirkuk AP reports that 14 died and 7 were wounded in an American airstrike on an Al-Tawhid facility in Fallujah that was supporting a trench line for radical Sunni fighters. Al-Tawhid has vowed to assassinate Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and has put a bounty […]

15 Killed, including a US Soldier; Dozens Wounded Minister of Justice Narrowly Escapes Guerrillas attempted but failed to assassinate the Iraqi Minister of Justice, Malik Dohan al-Hassan, 83, with a suicide bomb on Saturday. The powerful explosion did kill 3 of his bodyguards and two civilians, including his nephew, and wounded 8 others. Credit for […]