Juan Cole

Preachers denounce IGC; Sistani calls for Disarming of the Militias Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani called Friday for the country’s militias to be disarmed. He said a new Iraqi army needed to be established as soon as possible, and that the soldiers of the old army should be called back to duty where they had not […]

Baath Guerrillas Call for 3-day Strike Sunni Arab nationalists passed around fliers Friday warning government employees, shopkeepers and bus and cab drivers to stay home over the weekend. “Anyone who does not take this seriously will be responsible for his life and his possessions.” http://wvgazette.com/ section/News/2003103126

Washington Post Profiles Followers of Muqtada Anthony Shadid discusses the appeal of Muqtada and the politics of anti-Occupation sentiment in the slums of East Baghdad. One Shiite told him that if Muqtada weren’t there, and someone else called for an immediate end of the occupation, he would follow him. http://msnbc.com/news/987346.asp?cp1=1

WP: Crackdown on Muqtada al-Sadr Imminent David Ignatius argues that the US still plans to crack down on Shiite radical Muqtada al-Sadr and his movement. He says the Pentagon feels that in the firefights between the Sadrist Army of the Mahdi and US troops recently in East Baghdad and Karbala, Muqtada “crossed a line.” They […]

Rail, Old Baghdad Explosions Guerrillas sabotaged a US military train shipment near Haditha west of Baghdad on Thursday, after which the shipment was looted of equipment, including computers. Afficionados of the film Lawrence of Arabia will remember the bedouin guerrillas blowing up Ottoman train shipments during WW I at British instigation. Baghdad police foiled an […]

Mitchell: Land Reform essential for Democracy Professor Timothy Mitchell, of the New York University Political Science Department, spoke on contemporary Middle East affairs in Ann Arbor on Thursday. Mitchell is among the more original and insightful thinkers about the region. One point he made was that successful democratization, whether in Japan, India or elsewhere, has […]

Some Business Dealings of the CPA in Iraq may contravene International Law I was glad finally to see some experts in international law raise questions about the American shock therapy plan for Iraq, which involves selling off state owned enterprises and allowing foreign firms to buy 100% of them and then immediately to export the […]

Feldman Denies Writing Report Informed Comment received an email from Professor Noah Feldman saying that he had not, as al-Zaman alleged, written a report for the CPA on the likely form of the Iraqi constitution. It appears that al-Zaman was summarizing an article in the Daily Telegraph, and mistook a few oral comments for a […]

Eyewitness Account of the Attack on the Al-Rashid Hotel Posted by permission: “10/26/03 Today things hit closer to home than previous acts of violence here in Baghdad. It was near 6:00 AM in the morning and I was half awake, I usually get up at that time. Then, boom, a thunderous thud rattled the building. […]