Juan Cole

Destruction of Key Bridge Halts Southern Rails Muqtada Aide Declares East Baghdad an American no-go Zone Ash-Sharq al-Awsat: Guerillas blew up a key bridge just south of Baghdad Friday, halting rail traffic to four southern provinces from the capital, including Hilla, Amara, Nasiriyah, and Basra. Meanwhile, the port of Basra was unable to export any […]

Iraqi Impotence in Every Sense Viagra importation and use is way up in Iraq. Pharmacists say that the violence and tension has reduced Iraqi libido, so more men need help to get interested in sex. The pills are being smuggled or imported. The psycho-biological effects of national crisis are increasingly easy to trace in this […]

42 Killed, 138 Wounded in 3 Thursday Bombings Coalition Soldier Among Dead The LA Times reports that guerrillas detonated two enormous bombs in Iraq on Thursday. A suicide bomber blew up an Iraqi army recruitment office in downtown Baghdad. He killed 35 Iraqis and injured 138, according to Baghdad health authorities. Later on Thursday, a […]

Bush and Cheney Stick with the Cover Story On Thursday both President Bush and Vice President Cheney stuck with their assertions of a close tie between Saddam Hussein and Usamah Bin Laden. Cheney even had the nerve to attack the New York Times for daring to report the findings of the 9/11 commission that there […]

Prince of the Marshes in Legal Trouble The LA Times has picked up a story that had already hit the London press two weeks ago, having to do with Abdul Karim Mahoud al-Muhammadawi, against whom murder accusations have surfaced. Known by his nom de guerre of Abu Hatim (Abu Hatem), Sheikh al-Muhammadawi began waging guerrilla […]

2 US Troops, Oil Official killed; 21 Wounded in Rocket Attack Reuters reports a string of attacks and mayhem yet again on Wednesday, with the petroleum industry a special target. Guerrillas attacked a U.S. base near Balad in the Sunni heartland on Wednesday with rockets, killing two US troops and wounding 21 other persons. Assassins […]

Muqtada Asks Militiamen to Leave Najaf Creates Party for January Elections Az-Zaman: Muqtada al-Sadr asked his supporters who had headed to Najaf to fight the Americans to now leave the city and return to their own cities only hours after US President George W. Bush announced that the United States does not oppose a political […]

Someone Tell Cheney The 9/11 commission says that there was no link between Iraq and September 11. Duh. But someone tell Dick Cheney, please. He apparently doesn’t read the newspapers, either. Anyone who followed September 11 knew that the money trail went back to Afghanistan via the UAE and Pakistan, and that not a dime […]

Iraq’s Oil Exports Nixed by Basra Sabotage US Commits $2 billion of Past Iraq Oil Revenues