Juan Cole

Najaf Strikes in Protest The holy city of Najaf announced a general strike for Thursday to protest the collapse of security that allowed such events as the assassination of the town’s most prominent judge. The announcement came after hundreds of protesters came out onto the streets Wednesday to protest the assassination of Muhan Jabr al-Shuwaili, […]

CBS Cancels Reagan Miniseries For further proof that the First Amendment only protects free speech from the US government (mostly), but not from the large corporations, CBS has caved to rightwing pressure to shelve their miniseries on Ronald Reagan. It was a relatively negative portrayal. But the presidents don’t belong to the right wing, they […]

Two Coalition Troops Killed, two Wounded Guerrillas exploded a roadside bomb in Baghdad late Monday night, killing one US soldier and wounding two others. A Royal Marine corporal had been killed last Friday, British authorities disclosed, while detailed to a special services unit operating outside the British sphere of responsibility. The unit was part of […]

Saddam is a sinful Aggressor and the American Forces are Guests in Iraq: Muqtada Trans. J. Cole The prominent Shiite Iraqi leader Muqtada al-Sadr called upon the American troops in his country to spare lives, and called them to unity and brotherhood with the Iraqi people. He affrimed that “Saddam Hussein and his followers are […]

Bremer: Students, Faculty may Travel Freely Abroad US civil administrator of Iraq Paul Bremer abrogated all restrictions on the travel abroad of students and faculty at Iraq’s universities on Tuesday, informing them that they were now free to go abroad whenever they had the proper travel documents. The Saddam regime used to forbid such travel […]

Gonul: We can Go in Anytime Turkish Minister of Defense Vecdi Gonul said Tuesday that Turkey retains the right to send reinforcements for its troops deployed near Northern Iraq to deal with threats from what he called Kurdish rebels. That included incursions into Iraqi Kurdistan. It now seems increasingly unlikely that Turkey will send troops […]

1 US Soldier Dead in Tikrit, One Wounded; Baghdad Shaken by blasts Guerrillas detonated an improvised explosive device near Tikrit on Monday, killing one soldier with the 4th Infantry Division and wounding another. Two Iraqis were killed and six wounded in Kirkuk when mortars fell on a civilian neighborhood. In Balad in the north, US […]

Bomb in Karbala kills 3, wounds 12 A car bomb exploded in the Shiite holy city of Karbala on Monday not far from the sacred shrine of Imam Husayn, the martyred grandson of the Prophet Muhammad. It killed 3 persons and injured 12, all passers-by. One report said the bomb went off near a hostel […]

Chief Judge of Najaf, Kidnapped, Executed; Baghdad Official Killed The chief judge in the Shiite shrine city of Najaf was kidnapped Monday, taken to the desert, and executed gangland style with bullets through his head. Judge Muhan Jabr al-Shuwaili had been in charge of investigating former Baath Party members and government employees in the region. […]