Juan Cole

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. […]

Reading into the Mind of a Terrorist See Mark Clayton’s summary of some of the techniques used by the 9/11 hijackers to stay in their monstrous mindset. It is based in part on some of my own work. I put up parts of a paper I gave on it (the link is to the left). […]

4 US troops killed, 1 wounded, 7 Ukrainian Troops wounded Guerrillas in Blid, 60 miles north of Baghdad, attacked US troops Tuesday with rockets and automatic weapons, killing two. Monday night, north of Baghdad, a US tank hit a land mine, and it was destroyed, killing two soldiers inside. In Kut, guerrillas ambushed a Ukrainian […]

Feldman: Iraq will be an Islamic Republic at Odds with the West Noah Feldman, an independent consultant to the Coalition Provisional Authority and to President Bush has [written a report]* to the White House casting severe doubts on the likelihood that Iraq will emerge as a Western-style democarcy with separation of religion and state and […]