Juan Cole

Talabani: Muqtada Welcome in Transitional Government Muqtada al-Sadr, the heretofore radical Shiite cleric of Kufa, would be welcome in the Iraqi government, according to Interim Governing Council president Jalal Talabani. So reports Howard LaFranchi of CSM. Al-Sadr had earlier been a harsh critic of the US and had urged nonviolent resistance to the occupation (though […]

Cordesman: Attacks on Americans will continue “until the day the US leaves” CPA under Fire According to Knight-Ridder, the US will double the number of State Department personnel in Iraq to 110, including a large number of the Department’s 402 Arabic speakers. (The State Department only has 402 Arabists??) The new team will oversee the […]

Supposed al-Qaeda links with Saddam People have asked me what I thought about the memo of Undersecretary of Defense for Planning Douglas Feith detailing 50 instances of contacts between al-Qaeda and the Iraqi Baath, published last weekend in the Weekly Standard to a huge yawn in most US media (Fox Cable News was peeing its […]

3 US Troops dead Guerrillas killed two American soldiers Monday in two different attacks. They ambushed on soldier while he was patrolling. They blew up a roadside bomb and killed another. A third soldier died from “nonhostile gunfire.” It is not clear if this is a euphemism for suicide, or for “friendly fire.”

US destroys Houses According to Jeff Wilkinson of Knight Ridder, the US military in its most recent shock and awe campaign has destroyed fifteen houses in and around Tikrit, which it said were used by guerrillas to plan attacks on Americans. Alas, it is unlikely that the houses were only inhabited by guerrillas. I saw […]

Haeri rejects Transitional Authority The San Francisco Chronicle’s Robert Collier has pulled off a coup, landing an interview with Grand Ayatollah Kadhim al-Haeri, a leading Iraqi religious authority still resident in Qom. Al-Haeri is a Khomeini style radical, unlike Najaf’s Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the leading religious authority in Iraq. Collier reports, “Haeri said Sunday […]

Khatami recognizes IGC According to AFP, Iran’s President Mohammad Khatami met with Interim Governing Council president Jalal Talabani on Monday. In a surprise announcement, Khatami said he recognized the legitimacy of the IGC in Iraq. “We recognise the Iraqi Governing Council and we believe it is capable, with the Iraqi people, of managing the affairs […]

Shiite Leaders Cautious, Critical of New Plan for Iraqi Government Stories in the Christian Science Monitor and the Washington Post have some reaction from Shiite leaders to the new plan for moving to a sovereign Iraqi government in June of 2004. Howard LaFranchi and Anthony Shadid both seem to report that Shiites are suspicious of […]

String of Assassination Attempts in Kirkuk: IGC member Shongol Chapouk escapes; Deputy Mayor Wounded The deputy governor of Kirkuk, Ismail Rajab al-Hadidi, was wounded along with his driver in an assassination attempt on Sunday. That incident was only one of a number in the past few days. In some instances, reprisal killings have been launched […]