Juan Cole

Iraqi Minister calls Governing Council no more Democratic than Saddam In the speech he used to inaugurate his reelection campaign on Saturday, Bush boasted that the US had “liberated” 50 million persons in Afghanistan and Iraq. It is the problem with political rhetoric that it lacks all nuance or ambiguity. It is true that the […]

Muqtada calls for US withdrawal from Iraq From BBC World Monitoring: “HEADLINE: Shi’i cleric Al-Sadr denounces US presence in Iraq SOURCE: Voice of the Mujahidin, in Arabic 1200 gmt 20 Mar 04 BODY: Text of report by Iraqi Shi’i group’s Iran-based radio station Voice of the Mujahidin on 20 March On the first anniversary of […]

Clarke: I thought Rumsfeld was joking about Bombing Iraq! Long-time anti-terrorism official Richard Clarke, who served the US government for 30 years, has broken his silence about what he observed in the Bush White House in 2001, in a CBS 60 Minutes interview. ‘ Frankly, I find it outrageous that the President is running for […]

Pakistan’s Support for Taliban in 1990s: New Documents The National Security Archives has just published part 3 of the Taliban papers, from the US archives. Document 9 is interesting for the evidence it gives that the Pakistani government under PM Nawaz Sharif was heavily supporting the Taliban financially. It also shows that the Taliban/ al-Qaeda […]

Thousands of Shiites, Sunnis, March Against US in Baghdad Thousands of Shiites and Sunnis demonstrated in Baghdad after Friday prayers. I caught some of the demonstration on CNN, which reported 7,000 demonstrators, and some of them were carrying pictures of Muqtada al-Sadr. Interestingly, the rallies began at the shrine of Imam Musa al-Kazim in Kazimiyah, […]

Garner on Reasons for Delay in Returning Sovereignty to Iraq I can remember in April of 2003 when I complained on an email list about American plans to run Iraq for a while, when I got a protest message from a member of Jay Garner’s staff. Garner, the diplomat said, intended to turn sovereignty over […]

Can Iraq Embrace Democracy? Paul McGeough of the Australian newspaper, The Age wonders thoughtfully whether the US attempt to impose democracy on Iraq will succeed. He writes, ‘ The compound is just across the oozy waters of the Tigris River from downtown Baghdad, a commercial district that, superficially, has much of its old bustle back. […]

Women’s classes at Shiite Mosques Shiite women in Iraq are attending lessons in mosques, according to Ashraf Khalil, writing in Women’s eNews. Khalil does not know it, but there is a long tradition of women’s literacy based on religious classes in Iraq. Elizabeth Fernea discovered literate women actually leading other women in ritual commemorations in […]

Most of them are People who Come from the Area and have certain Sympathies . . . Barbara Ferguson reports that ‘ Major Jewish organizations are lobbying the Senate to approve a bill that would authorize federal monitoring of government-funded Middle East studies programs throughout US universities. ‘ Ori Nir of the Forward gives a […]