Juan Cole

Hero of the Day Our hero of the day is Rabbi Arik Ascherman, who put himself in front of a bulldozer in a protest against the Israeli government’s razing of the home of the Maswada family in Beit Hanina. The Israeli government has demolished an estimated 9000 or so homes in the West Bank and […]

Another Helicopter Shot Down; Bomb in Baqubah; 4 Killed at Fallujah Protests In the eastern city of Baqubah, guerrillas detonated a car bomb outside a police station, killing several people. The US lost yet another helicopter to hostile fire near Habbaniyah in the Sunni heartland, but this time the crew was safe. In Fallujah, hundreds […]

Continued Demonstrations in Kut: Ukrainians kill 1, wound 2 Demonstrators; Kut Governor resigns Demonstrations against unemployment and the poor economic situation in Kut continued for the fourth day on Tuesday. Demonstrators traded gunfire with the Iraqi police. Ukrainian forces fired at the crowd, killing one demonstrator and wounding two others. az-Zaman reports that the governor […]

Mass demonstrations by Women, Others, against Sudden Islamization of Law The Baghdad/London daily az-Zaman reports that there were widespread demonstrations on Tuesday by women against the order decreeing abolition of Iraq’s uniform civil codes in favor of religious law, which they say “repeals women’s rights” in Iraq. This story appears to have been completely missed […]

Clark Gains on Dean in New Hampshire Wesley Clark is gaining on Howard Dean in New Hamphire, at least in the polls. Clark has raised $10 mn. in a short period of time, and if he can win big in any of the southern states in February, he would attract more money.

1 US Soldier Killed; Ukrainian Troops fire over Heads of Kut Protesters Nadia Abou al-Magd reports for AP that guerrillas detonated a roadside bomb on Monday in Baghdad that killed one US soldier and wounded two. Late on Monday, explosions shook the downtown hotel district, but caused no casualties. Near Ramadi on Monday, guerrillas exploded […]

Bremer Will seek Compromise with Sistani The Arabic press on Tuesday morning mostly reported that Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani had been rebuffed by the Interim Governing Council and by US civil administrator Paul Bremer in his demand for an open, transparent, general election. In contrast, Steven R. Weisman of the New York Times reports that […]

International Law still Allows the US to hand Saddam over to Iraqis for trial Ma`d Fayyad of ash-Sharq al-Awsat filed a story on Tuesday in which he quoted several experts in international law to the effect that the US military’s declaration that Saddam is a POW would not prevent him from being turned over for […]

Sistani Insists on General Elections After weeks of silence and rumors that he might back down on his demand that free and fair elections be held in Iraq, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani has come out and reiterated the demand. Reuters reports that Sistani said, “”The ideal mechanism…is elections which a number of experts confirm can […]