Juan Cole

Muqtada Condemns American Recall of the Baath According to AFP/al-Hayat, in Kufa Muqtada al-Sadr threatened “the Baathists” whom the Coalition had begun returning to the administration of the state. He said in his Friday prayer sermon that the Americans “are attempting to return the Baathists to the administration of the state. I will not permit […]

Wolfowitz Does Not Know How Many US Soldiers He has Sent to their Deaths In congressional testimony on Thursday, deputy secretary of defense Paul Wolfowitz, the major architect of the Iraq war, demonstrated appalling ignorance of the statistics on US casualties in Iraq. He said he thought that 500 US soldiers had lost their lives […]

Photographs of Abused Iraqi Prisoners Screen captures from the CBS 60 Minutes broadcast of photographs of abused Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghuraib prison are available at memory hole. Others are floating around the internet that are even more explicit. There was also apparently coerced male on male sexual activity. The genteel mainstream news reports of […]

Guest Commentary: Ray Close on ‘The Real Meaning of Fallujah’ Guest Commentary Ray Close ‘ The proposed plan to turn over control of the Fallujah security situation to an Iraqi force under the command of four retired generals is much more significant than might at first be apparent. On the strategic level, with regard to […]

10 US Troops Killed on Thursday Between a huge roadside bomb in Baghdad, a rocket propelled grenade attack in Sadr City, and an attack in the eastern city of Baqubah, guerrillas killed 10 US troops on Thursday. There were further airstrikes on the Julan district of Fallujah, but the day ended with a decision not […]

Stand-Down in Fallujah The US abruptly decided Thursday not to press the Marine assault on Fallujah. Instead, it is forming a 1000-man Iraqi unit to restore order in the city, led by a former Baath officer. There is controversy about who the commanding officer will be. Al-Hayat named Major General Jasim Muhammad Salih al-Muhammadi. Western […]

Haeri Criticizes Muqtada Ayatollah Kadhim al-Haeri, now in Qom, Iran, criticized Muqtada al-Sadr, according to AFP/ash-Sharq al-Awsat. Technically, Muqtada is under the authority of al-Haeri, though if Muqtada has managed to finish his studies and is a jurisprudent (mujtahid) he would not have to follow any other cleric blindly. Al-Haeri said that Muqtada had not […]

USA Today Poll: 57% of Iraqis say ‘US Out Now’ From March 22 to April 2, 60 trained Iraqi pollsters interviewed 3,444 randomly selected Iraqis for USA Today. This is one of the first polls in Iraq that seems to me well weighted statistically, though to be sure we’d have to know more than USA […]

Fallujah and Najaf al-Hayat reports that the Interim Governing Council continues to attempt to negotiate a settlement at Fallujah between guerrillas and the US Marines. The Marines called down 500-pound bombs and AC-130 howitzers on the Julan neighborhood again on Wednesday, in reply to heavy fire from insurgents based there. Eyewitnesses said 10 buildings were […]