Juan Cole

New Proposal for Mahdi Army in Najaf A new proposal has emerged for dealing with the stand-off in Najaf, whereby the US troops will withdraw from the city to their bases and Mahdi Army fighters will be amnestied for 72 hours to allow them to leave Najaf. This plan is intended to salvage a cease-fire […]

Revised text of U.N. draft resolution on Iraq proposed by United States and Britain (Via Associated Press): “The United States and Britain circulated the following revised draft U.N. resolution on Iraq to Security Council members Monday:” The Security Council, Marking a new phase in Iraq’s transition to a democratically elected government, and looking forward to […]

More on Ghazi al-Yawar From an informed Iraqi reader: I thought I’d tell you a little bit about Ghazi Al-Yawer’s background. He’s a very good guy, and highly educated by Shammar standards. He is, however, only the nephew of the paramount shaykh (his uncle Muhsin) and not a big shaykh on his own. His uncle […]

Washingtonpost.com: Iraq: New Government Takes Over The Washington Post online kindly had me on for an online discussion of the developments in Iraq today. For those who’ve asked for advance notice, I’ll be on the Lehrer News Hour Tuesday evening.

New Iraqi Government Announced How weak the Americans have become in Iraq became clear in Iraq on Tuesday when their choice for the ceremonial post of president of the transitional government had to withdraw in favor of Ghazi al-Yawar, the choice of the Interim Governing Council. Special UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi announced Pachachi as president […]

Ghazi al-Yawar on Iraqi Politics Here are some documents on the new Iraqi president. Some flavor of the new president can be gathered from this recent FNS interview. —- Federal News Service May 27, 2004 Thursday LENGTH: 489 words HEADLINE: INTERVIEW WITH GHAZI AL YAWAR, CURRENT PRESIDENT OF THE IRAQI GOVERNING COUNCIL, DISCUSSING THE EVENTS […]

Maneuvering over Transitional Government Continues Al-Hayat reports that Paul Bremer has put enormous pressure on the Interim Governing Council not to vote on its candidate for president, which might have had the effect of ensconcing the candidate. It is thought that 22 of the 25 IGC members favor Ghazi al-Yawer, a civil engineer and prominent […]

Miller as Chalabi Stenographer Franklin Foer’s profile of Judith Miller of the NYT and the way in which her over-dependence on the Iraqi National Congress and Ahmad Chalabi besmirched her journalistic career asks an implicit question. It is, “How could she have avoided this disaster?” I think the problem came about because she started doing […]

Kufa Fighting Flares; Bombs in Baghdad Fighting flared again Sunday and Monday between Mahdi Army militiamen and US troops, who are apparently trying to reconquer the police stations in the city. Fierce fighting continued late Monday. 2 US troops and dozens of Mahdi Army fighters are dead. CNN reports that local US military commanders insist […]