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Jaafari Decides to Exclude Allawi Al-Zaman/ Reuters reports that prospective Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari has decided to give up attempting to form a government of national unity that would include the Iraqiya list of outgoing PM Iyad Allawi, which consists in significant part of secularist ex-Baathists. It has been reported that Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani […]

Guerrillas Kill 16 in Iraq Associated Press reports that a ‘series of explosions shook the Iraqi capital Saturday. The deadliest was a roadside bomb that exploded near an Iraqi army convoy on the outskirts of Baghdad, killing nine soldiers and wounding 20 . . . The attack occurred near the Abu Ghraib prison . . […]

11 Killed, 26 Wounded in Bombing of Shiite Mosque AFP reports that a bomb killed 9 and wounded 26 at a Shiite mosque in Baghdad on Friday. Other sources put the death toll at 11. Shaikh Sadruddin al-Qubanji, the clerical representative of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq in Najaf, said in his […]

Moussaoui Pleads Guilty Trial Begins in Spain Zacarias Moussaoui pled guilty Friday to September 11- related charges. But he appears actually to have been envisaged as a “second wave”, and wanted to hijack a plane and fly it into the White House. Moussaoui is clearly mentally disturbed and his being unbalanced led to his arrest. […]

Guerrillas Shoot down Helicopter, Killing 11 (6 Americans) AP reports that guerrillas shot down a helicopter carrying civilian security guards on Thursday. A jihadi website claimed that the guerrillas executed the one survivor of the crash, a Bulgarian. There are thousands of civilian security guards in Iraq of various nationalities. If the Iraqi guerrillas are […]

The New McCarthyism at Columbia My extended op-ed on the Columbia affair (“The new McCarthyism: A witch hunt against a Columbia professor, and the New York Times’ disgraceful support for it, represent the gravest threat to academic freedom in decades”) is out in Salon.com. I had earlier addressed the controversy briefly here.

Al-Qaeda Fights on in Mecca Two Muslim radicals and two policemen died Thursday in a running gun battle between the authorities and the jihadis in the Muslim holy city of Mecca. The Saudis said that the gunmen were linked to al-Qaeda. There has been a string of such violent incidents between the Saudi military and […]

Assassination Attempt on Allawi 70 Bodies Recovered in Iraqi Massacres Retired Gen. John Keane, back from a fact-finding trip to Iraq, told The Hill that he thinks the Iraqi guerrilla opposition is planning “spectacular” attacks to derail th political process in the country. His thesis was given some support by events on Wednesday. A suicide […]

20 Killed, 42 Wounded US Troops Humiliate Member of Parliament Guerrillas killed some 20 persons in Iraq on Tuesday and late Monday night, according to ash-Sharq al-Awsat. In the upscale Sunni Azamiyah district of Baghdad, a suicide bomber killed 4 National Guards and wounded 38 persons when he attacked a police recruitment center. Gunmen assassinated […]