Juan Cole

A massive suicide bombing at a restaurant just north of Kirkuk killed 55 persons and wounded 120 on Thursday. The restaurant was the site of parleys between Arab tribal shaikhs and officials of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan seeking a political solution to the disposition of the oil city of Kirkuk, which is claimed by […]

It is official. According to a bipartisan Senate report, then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and President George W. Bush bear responsibility for the torture and abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, Bagram and Guantanamo and the tossing aside of the Geneva Conventions, which are part of US law. It mystifies me as to why […]

My column is out at Salon.com: “Does Obama understand his biggest foreign-policy challenge? The president-elect wants to work with the Pakistani government to “stamp out” terror. It’s not nearly that simple.” excerpt: ‘ To some extent, then, Pakistan’s powerful national-security apparatus has been divided against itself for much of the past decade. The contradictory agendas […]

McClatchy has gained access to a confidential United Nations document on the Lashkar-e Tayiba, the Pakistan-based terrorist group suspected of being behind the attack on Mumbai. McClatchy writes: ‘ A U.N. document obtained by McClatchy said that LeT has sent operatives to attack U.S. troops in Iraq, established a branch in Saudi Arabia and been […]

The Iranian government has just closed down the popular Hamsarchat.net internet dating service, accusing it of “promoting prostitution.” The site advertised itself as a way to find a spouse. Actually, the Iranian government has closed down internet dating services on other occasions in the past. In 2003, security forces arrested 68 young Iranians for actually […]

President-elect Barack Obama told the Chicago Tribune, “I think we’ve got a unique opportunity to reboot America’s image around the world and also in the Muslim world in particular.” He pledged an “unrelenting” wish to “create a relationship of mutual respect and partnership in countries and with peoples of good will who want their citizens […]

The Pentagon’s acting Inspector General says that despite the foreseeable need for armored vehicles in Iraq that could withstand roadside bombs, and despite the increasingly obvious need for such vehicles as the guerrilla war unfolded, the Pentagon was slow to deploy such vehicles. The article does not mention the infamous exchange between Secretary of Defense […]

Pakistan confirmed the arrest in Pakistani Kashmir of Zaki ur Rahman Lakhvi and Zarar Shah, leaders of the Lashkar-i Tayiba accused by the Indian government of having masterminded the attack on Mumbai. Zarar Shah’s arrest is particularly interesting, since he is thought to be a liason to a network of retired officers of the Inter-Services […]

Homo sapiens sapiens did not have children with Neanderthals according to researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology who have been analyzing Neanderthal DNA. There has long been speculation on this issue. These findings, if true, show that contemporary human beings are all Africans who developed in Africa recently (100,000 years ago?). Such […]