Juan Cole

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 […]

Portrait of a Rebellion In These Times has made my analysis of the Shiite rebellion of the past two months available online. It came out about a week ago and so before the recent “truce,” but is still valuable for a narrative of the background. In these Times May 24, 2004 “Portrait of a Rebellion […]

Wrangling over President delays Announcement Rajiv Chandrasekaran of the WP summarizes the deadlock on the new prime minister among the Iraqi Governing Council, Paul Bremer, and special UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi. The Council opposes the naming of Adnan Pachachi as transitional president, because he is perceived as too complaisant toward the US. It wants Shaikh […]

Sites of the Day Veteran journalist Helena Cobban’s Just World News site is worth checking out. She writes frequently on the Middle East and knows it well. Abbas Kadhim, Calling it Like it Is. Viewpoint of an Iraqi Shiite philosopher at UC Berkeley on current affairs and the Iraq crisis. Joshua Landis has begun a […]

Muqtada Misses Friday Prayers; More Violence Near Najaf Reuters reports Friday that a day after an apparent agreement between the Interim Governing Council and Muqtada al Sadr, his followers were disappointed to find that he did not appear for Friday prayers in Kufa (he has been hiding out in nearby Najaf). Some 5,000 followers had […]

Wedding Party Bombing Controversy The controversy on the US bombing of what appears to have been a wedding party near Syria continues to boil, with this al Jazeerah editorial taking the con side to the story, while Gen. Kimmit sticks to his guns. I thought readers might be interested in an assessment by an academic […]

They Even Changed its Name? Nathan Brown, a Middle East expert at George Washington University, writes: “With little fanfare, the name of Iraq seems to have been changed. In light of all that is happening, this is hardly the most significant issue facing Iraq at the moment. But in view of the brief flap engendered […]

Abuse of Women Detainees Iraqi women were also abused at Abu Ghuraib, according to the Taguba report and reports of photographs seen by the US Congress. As this Islamist PakNews story notes, most of the reporting on torture and abuse of detainees at Abu Ghuraib has focused on men. It is clear, however, that Iraqi […]

Thoughts on Torture Guest Editorial By William R. Polk Displays of naked Iraqi prisoners being humiliated in American military prisons have shocked not only Arabs and Europeans but also most Americans. They need not have been surprised – torture is not new. Widely practiced by the Germans during World War II, it was standard French […]