Juan Cole

Attention: Readers of Soldiers of Fortune Magazine Walter Pincus writes for the Washington Post about a new contract being let by the US government for a private mercenary force to guard the Green Zone, the headquarters of the American administration of Iraq in Baghdad. ‘ The threats that the private security force will be asked […]

Zawahiri Cornered? I know that the mass media is concentrating on the firefight in Waziristan, where the Pakistani army has pinned down some 400 fighters, who are putting up fierce resistance. Although they are said to be al-Qaeda, I doubt it is known for sure who exactly they are. There is speculation that Ayman al-Zawahiri […]

Rosen: “Furious Survivors Attacked Cameramen” Nir Rosen, intrepid Baghdad-based reporter has thoughtful reflections in the Asia Times on the huge car bombing of the Mount Lebanon Hotel on Wednesday.

Moroccan Radical Cell suspected in Madrid Bombing ash-Sharq al-Awsat: The Madrid bombings shed new light on persons wanted before, on suspicion of being involved in the Casablanca bombings of 16 May. Among them is Ammar Azizi, whose name has already been mentioned in the list of top al-Qaeda suspects compiled by Spanish judge Balthazar Garzon. […]

Bombings in Baghdad and Basra The Washington Post reports Thursday, in the wake of the huge car bomb in Karrada, Baghdad, on Wednesday that demolished the Mount Lebanon Hotel and surrounding buildings:: “Near Baqubah, a machine-gun toting man opened fire on a small bus carrying employees of a U.S. funded radio and TV station, killing […]

Kurdish Demonstrations in Irbil on Behalf of Kurds of Syria Reuters reports that some 5000 Kurds demonstrated in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil, waving Kurdish flags, in support of the Kurds of Syria. There was a soccer riot in the northeastern town of Kameshli last Friday, which sparked Arab-Kurdish fights that later spread to […]

New Government will not be “Expansion” of Governing Council The Iraqi newspaper az-Zaman managed to get an interview with an unnamed Coalition Provisional Authority official who sketched in some ideas about the shape of the new Iraqi government to which the US and the UK will transfer sovereignty on June 30. He expected a large […]

“Coalition” Forces in Iraq: Tomdispatch.com Gavan McCormick writes about the Japanese and other supporting troop contingents in Iraq. He says of them that they. . . “have added up to a strange imperial legion of occupation. Almost all of these forces, ranging from the symbolic to the microscopic, represented interests that had absolutely nothing to […]

Comments on ABC Iraq Poll David Patel, in Basra responds with some thoughtful comments on the recent ABC News poll from Iraq. Some readers have asked me about the finding that Iraqis generally think they are better off than during the Saddam era, but are very worried about the security situation. This finding doesn’t surprise […]