Juan Cole

Accounts differ over Samarra’ The US military account of the events in Samarra’ to VOA is fuller than what we had before. Clearly this was a double bank robbery. The guerrillas are having to rob banks because their old cash hoards of Saddam dinars will become worthless on Jan. 15, after which only the new […]

Bremer and IGC to Defy Sistani Paul Bremer has worked out a deal with the Interim Governing Council to stick with caucus-type elections rather than one-person-one-vote popular elections this coming May, in defiance of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, who wants general elections. Sistani will be thrown a bone. The Basic Law crafted by the IGC, […]

Al-Hakim becomes President As AFP notes, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim has just become the president of the Interim Governing Council. Nine members are taking turns rotating into the role for a one-month term, based on alphabetical order. Al-Hakim is the first Shiite ayatollah to rise to such a high office in modern Iraq. He serves at […]

2 US Soldiers Killed Near Syria; Major Battle at Samarra’ leaves 46 Guerrillas Dead Guerrillas in the far west of Iraq, near the Syrian border, killed two US soldiers Sunday. That made 109 Coalition combat deaths for November. Guerrillas also killed two Korean electricians and wounded two others in an ambush near Tikrit. They were […]

IGC Fails to Agree on Election Formula Al-Sharq al-Awsat and al-Hayat reported completely differently on the 4-hour-long Interim Governing Council meeting on Sunday. Al-Sharq al-Awsat said that the 25 members had reached an agreement on the need to go to the Iraqi people in selecting a new government. But then it quoted some members as […]

Helen Thomas Blasts Rumsfeld for Closure of al-Arabiya Helen Thomas condemned the closure of al-Arabiya offices in Iraq: ‘The raid by the U.S.-appointed Iraqi officials on an Arab television network bureau in Baghdad and the ban on its broadcasts hardly fits my idea of how to spread democracy in the Middle East. Isn’t that the […]

Japan Roiled by Attack on Diplomats Despite the tough rhetoric about standing his ground by Japanese PM Junichiro Koizumi, opposition parties and other observers are bringing sharply into question the deployment of Japanese Self-Defense Forces in Iraq in the wake of the ambush of two Japanese diplomats on Saturday. According to Asahi Shimbun Katsuya Okada, […]

Shadid on Shiite Politics in Iraq As usual, Anthony Shadid of the Washington Post (an Arabist) does some of the best in-depth reporting on Shiite religious politics in Iraq. He managed to get an interview with Grand Ayatollah Hussain Bashir al-Najafi, the first I know of in English. His nuanced and informed report raises serious […]

Baathists Poisoning Water in Mosul Al-Sharq al-Awsat claims today that pro-Saddam forces are attempting to spread panic and dissension in Mosul by dumping poison and petroleum products into the water supply of several Mosul neighborhoods. Health workers verified the pollution of the water in three neighborhoods and alerted the residents.