Juan Cole

Thousands of Shiites Protest in Downtown Baghdad It wasn’t in the headlines in US media because of the violence in Fallujah, but several thousand angry Shiites demonstrated in downtown Baghdad on Wednesday, protesting the closure of the al-Hawzah newspaper of Muqtada al-Sadr by the Coalition Provisional Authority. The young radical cleric, Muqtada, has only occasionally […]

Zubaidi: No right of Return, Compensation for Iraqi Jews The Iraqi minister of Housing and Rebuilding, Bayan Baqir al-Zubaidi, denied Wednesday that the current Iraqi governing council had passed laws giving Iraqi Jews the right to return and to reclaim their lost property. (Until 1948 there was a large Iraqi Jewish community, and in the […]

Wolfowitz of Baghdad? Rumors are flying around official Washington that the new US ambassador in Iraq as of July 1 will be Paul Wolfowitz. He is currently deputy Secretary of Defense, but probably could not have continued into a second Bush term. He is associated with the worst mistakes of Iraq– concentrating in 2001 on […]

8% of Iraqi academics have Fled, 1000 Professionals Assassinated in past Year Ahmad Janabi reports that ‘ More than 1000 leading Iraqi professionals and intellectuals have been assassinated since last April, among them such prominent figures as Dr Muhammad al-Rawi, the president of Baghdad University. The identity of the assailants remains a mystery and none […]

UN Excluded from Overseeing Elections Al-Hayat reports that the Interim Governing Council (IGC) is rejecting any role for the United Nations in overseeing Iraqi elections save that of “help and consultation). Iraqi National Congress spokesman Intifadh Qanbar said that the UN delegation was told by the IGC that elections would have to be a purely […]

Sistani: Elections must be Held soon az-Zaman/Wire Services: A spokesman for Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani says that elections must be held as soon as possible, and that anything done before the people have spoken is illegitimate. He is quoted as saying that “the principal political forces are not calling for an Islamic republic.” He said […]

Is the failure of the Arab Summit a Failure of Bush’s Democratization Plan? Rob Collier of the San Francisco Chronicle examines the issues around the collapse of the Arab League summit that had been planned for Tunis, asking if the “Greater Middle East” plan of the Bush administration, which pushes democratization, is having any effect. […]

Changing Status of Shiites in Arab World Hamza Hendawi of AP reports on the implications of a Shiite-majority Iraqi government for Arab world politics. He points to the Shiite majority in Bahrain (though the emir there is a Sunni), and the substantial Shiite populations in Lebanon, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Hendawi notes that Shiites have […]

Shape of Things to Come UPI is reporting that the Interim Governing Council is considering the form of the Iraqi government to which sovereignty will be handed on June 30. Previous plans had called for a more representative and expanded body, of 100 or more delegates, with more representation for tribal sheikhs and clerics who […]