Juan Cole

Breaking News: Same as Headline Below Still watching CNN. With 30% of precincts reporting, Kerry has a very impressive lead over Dean still. Kerry is getting in the high 30s, Dean only in the 20s. Blitzer began by saying CNN exit polls were showing a tight race, but unless it is the upper middle class […]

Breaking News: Kerry Leads, Dean close second, Edwards and Clark tied for Third I’m watching CNN. With just 13% of precincts reporting, Kerry has the lead over Dean in New Hampshire. The exit polls seem to show that the race is much closer than Kerry supporters had hoped. Edwards and Clark both have 13% of […]

Annan Will Send UN Election Team to Iraq Kofi Annan will send an election commission to Iraq, the Washington Post reports. This United Nations commission was the idea of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, and initially the Coalition Provisional Authority headed by Paul Bremer was said to be “deeply offended” by the Iraqi attempt to involve […]

Bombs Rock Baghdad on Monday Powerful explosions rocked downtown Baghdad at 10:35 pm local time on Monday, as a rocket also landed in a parking lot near the American headquarters. It is where Coalition Provisional Authority head Paul Bremer and his aides park, but no casualties were reported. Sirens went off and US officials at […]

Kerry, Edwards surge in New Hampshire; Health Care beats Iraq as Concern Only 10 percent of the voters in New Hampshire think Iraq is the most pressing issue in the campaign. I was surprised to find that 22 percent put health care as an issue first, as opposed to 16 percent who focused on the […]

Iraqi Women’s Rights Imperiled Sarah el Deeb of the Associated Press explores the implications for Iraqi women of the US tendency to appoint men to high office, to exclude women, and to bow to vocal patriarchalists whenever challenged. Western commentators, including George W. Bush, who think women’s rights have actually improved in Iraq since the […]

Controversy over 45 Minute Claim Nick Theros is denying stories that appeared in Newsweek and theThe Guardian that claim to demonstrate how expatriate networks suckered the United States and Tony Blair into believing exaggerated claims about Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction capacitities. Here’s the story: Patrick Theros (an Ann Arborite) is a former US ambassador […]

Mahatma Sistani? From a European peace worker in Iraq, a week or so ago: “I have heard that Sistani has promoted among his followers the Gandhian method of disobedience against the occupation power, if the situation seems to go out of hand [i.e. if the US rejects direct elections].” If this report is correct, it […]

6 US Soldiers killed over Weekend, Over a Dozen Wounded; 2 Iraqi police dead, dozens wounded; Helicopter Crash The low-grade guerrilla war against the US military continued at a heated pace over the weekend.. On Sunday, a soldier died of wounds inflicted by a rocket-propelled grenade attack near Beiji, north of Baghdad.. In a separate […]