Juan Cole

Iraqi and Arab Press Critical of Emergency Laws The BBC surveys reaction in the Iraqi and Arab press to the announcement of emergency laws by Prime Minister Iyad Allawi that could gut civil liberties in Iraq. Typical excerpts: The government has no option other than to declare a state of emergency through the national security […]

Zarqawi not al-Qaeda: Comment by David Wright David Wright, a former Defense Department analyst and former Army Reserve strategic intelligence analyst has sent the following letter to the Washington Post and shares it here as a guest commentary: ‘ In some of your reporting (but happily not all) you refer to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi as […]

Kenny Boy and W. Eric Boehlert of Salon.com quotes approvingly two major newspaper leads that did not shy away from mentioning explicitly the close ties between George W. Bush and Enron’s Ken Lay (now defending himself from criminal conspiracy charges): Los Angeles Times: “Lay lent Enron’s corporate jet to the younger Bush eight times during […]

Children Detainees in Iraq? “Save the Children” is intervening with Coalition members in Iraq in an attempt to secure the release of an estimated 100 Iraqi children being held as detainees. The US military and possibly Coalition partners have in many cases taken women and children hostage in order to force their male relatives among […]

Bush says Edwards lacks Experience George W. Bush alleged Thursday that John Edwards lacks the experience necessary to be president. The problem with this argument is that Bush lacked the experience necessary to be president when he ran in 2000, so this sort of cheap shot just hoists him by his own petard. Let’s just […]

7 Killed, including 4 Marines; Mortars land near Allawi’s INA Offices Wire services report that 7 persons were killed in separate incidents in Iraq on Wednesday, including 4 US Marines and two Iraqi National Guardsmen. Bombs and mortar fire struck downtown Baghdad near the offices of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi’s Iraqi National Accord and the […]

Shin Bet at Abu Ghuraib The respected journal of military affairs, Jane’s, is reporting that Israeli Shin Bet interrogators were used by the Americans at Abu Ghuraib. A twist: the article maintains that the US chose them because they were less likely to use heavy-handed torture techniques than secret police from US allies like Egypt […]

Veterans Protest War as Dishonest In a move reminiscent of the Vietnam era, some returning Iraq veterans are condemning the Iraq war as basically dishonest. They point out that no weapons of mass destruction have been found, even though that was the major pretext for the war. [Am traveling; hope to post more Thursday afternoon].

Car Bomb in Khalis kills 13; 3 Marines Die in al-Anbar On Tuesday, Australian Broadcasting says that guerrillas drove a car bomb into the midst of a funeral in Khalis, 80 km. north of Baghdad, and detonated it. They killed at least 13 persons and wounded 35. It says the funeral was for the brother […]