Arab World

The USG Open Source Center translates the fatwa of Ayatollah Kadhim al-Ha’iri (Haeri) condemning any security agreement between Iraq and the United States (Via BBC Monitoring). Haeri, an Iraqi, lives in Qom because he refuses to reside under foreign military occupation. He is sometimes called Iraq’s ‘fifth grand ayatollah.’ The other four live in Najaf […]

CNN is reporting that Shiite leader Sayyid Muqtada al-Sadr is demanding that any US-Iraqi security agreement be submitted to a national referendum. Al-Hayat reports in Arabic that he is in good company: ‘ Sources close to the office of the Shiite Supreme Exemplar, Ayatollah Ali Sistani, told al-Hayat that he called on the Iraqi prime […]

On Wednesday, the Sunni fundamentalist Iraqi Accord Front (IAF, Tawafuq) withdrew from talks on rejoining the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki of the Shiite fundamentalist Islamic Mission Party (Da’wa). Despite the confidence of Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, a Sunni, that his bloc would eventually rejoin the government, the development was a blow to […]

Former White House press spokesman Scott McClellan has come to the realization that Bush’s presidency veered badly off course and that the Bush White House was in “permanent campaign mode”– by which he appears to mean that the honesty and transparency necessary to govern were foregone in favor of constant propaganda of the sort it […]

Muqtada al-Sadr is urging Iraqis to hold weekly demonstrations after mosque prayers on Fridays against the proposed security agreement being negotiated by the al-Maliki government with the US. Sadr fears al-Maliki will give up too much of Iraq’s sovereignty. McClatchy says that Bush wants to give $600 million for the Iraqi police; but he wants […]

In a grim Memorial Day reminder of the risks facing US troops in Iraq, two sets of guerrillas used roadside bombs to kill and wound GIs on Monday. Sunni Arab guerrillas hit a US convoy in Salahuddin Province, killing one and wounding 2. Then in southern Iraq, a dissident Shiite group blew up a US […]

Hoda Abdel Hamid of Aljazeera English has made a multi-part documentary on the Iraq conflict from January, 2006, through the present, entitled “War Without End.” Truth in advertising: I make a couple of appearances as a commentator. This is Part I: and here is Part II:

Mark Kukis at Time reports on Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani’s insistence with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki that Iraq recover its sovereignty on all levels. The report is bolstered by this one on Iran’s al-Alam channel: The USG Open Source Center translates transcripts of Arabic language satellite stations reporting on the controversies over recent statements of […]

Memorial Day is about honoring those who have sacrificed themselves for the nation, in our armed forces. We cannot honor them properly unless we know the full extent of their sacrifice. We have to count the victims of Post Traumatic Distress Syndrome, what we used to call being shell-shocked, as victims of the war. The […]