Juan Cole

al-Hakim: IGC will Invite UN Election Commission to Iraq Abdul Aziz al-Hakim met Thursday with Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani in Najaf, and afterwards announced that the Interim Governing Council will write to Kofi Annan asking that the UN send a commission to Iraq to deal with election issues. Sistani wants the commission to make a […]

IGC Will Implement Islamic Law in Personal Status Earlier this year, the Interim Governing Council abolished secularism. This is an item I hadn’t come across at the time, and it doesn’t seem to have attracted much press. The IGC has allowed Iraqis to follow religious law in personal status matters. This practice is common in […]

9 US Soldiers Killed in Helicopter Downing AP reports that the Blackhawk helicopter downed on Thursday near Fallujah was hit by a rocket. It was a clearly marked medical helicopter, and all 9 US servicemen aboard were killed. Given the mortar attack on Wednesday and this attack on Thursday, a two-day record for US troops […]

Pachachi: Fundamental Law to be Drafted by Jan. 31 This month’s president of the Interim Governing Council, Adnan Pachachi, said in a Thursday news conference in Baghdad that he hoped the IGC would finish drafting in January the Fundamental Law that would govern the forthcoming Iraqi elections, and that in February it will be presented […]

No WMD. Nada. Bupkes*. A message of mine replying to the argument that Iraq did have some WMD but that its nuclear program was not as far along has had been thought (!!) (See also the Carnegie report at [warning: pdf] WMD in Iraq, which is particularly critical of Colin Powell’s UN speech.) I think […]

36 US troops Wounded in Mortar Attacks Guerrillas launched some six mortar rounds at Logistical Base Seitz west of Baghdad on Wednesday, wounding 36 US soldiers. (Reuters initially gave the toll as 35, but a late report in the Financial Times said 36). The U.S. military said that in the latest attack on Wednesday night, […]

Iranians more Favorable on Iraq The Financial Times reports that Britain’s special representative in Iraq, Jeremy Greenstock, has said that he finds a big change in the Iranian attitude toward the Iraq situation. Ever since the US announced the November 15 accord that promises a sovereign Iraqi government by July 1, the Iranians have been […]

Sistani, Kofi Annan, Consult by Phone Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan had a telephone conversation Wednesday about the transition to an Iraqi government this summer, according to sources close to Sistani, as reported by the Baghdad daily az-Zaman. Sistani has renewed his call for general elections this spring instead of […]

Kurdish official Calls for Campaign of Civil Disobedience Nushirvan Mustafa, the number 2 man in the Kurdish Patriotic Union, has demanded that the Interim Governing Council recognize Kurdish plans for a loose federation and a Kurdish super-province by February. If it refused to do so, he called on the Kurdish leadership to announce a campaign […]