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Wave of Kidnappings Continues in Baghdad Jack Fairweather of the Independent reports that the wave of kidnappings that has racked Baghdad continues, at an average of 2 a day. The typical ransom is $25,000. If we extrapolate out that rate, it is 720 abductions per 5 million people per annum (.014 percent of the population […]

1 US Soldier killed, 1 Wounded; Spanish Base Shelled Wire services say that one US soldier was killed and another wounded Tuesday in a roadside bombing by guerrillas near Baquba north of Baghdad. Also, on Monday night three mortar shells hit the Spanish base at Diwaniyah, but produced no casualties. Diwaniyah is in the south, […]

Sistani: No Demonstrations Over Interim Constitution az-Zaman: Ibrahim Jaafari, leader of the al-Da`wa al-Islamiyah Party in Iraq, who is close to Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, revealed Tuesday that the ayatollah had pledged not to call for street protests against the Fundamental Law signed Monday. The son of Grand Ayatollah Ali Bashir al-Najafi, a Pakistani close […]

Can We all Get Along? My op-ed, Conquering the divide (about Sunni-Shiite divisions), appeared in the Guardian yesterday. I conclude, Iraq’s future very much depends on whether the Sunni Arabs and Kurds will prove able to accommodate themselves to it, and whether the Shia can and will allay their fears of a tyranny of the […]

Impressions from Iraq: ‘It was Kind of Scary’ USC’s Daily Trojan profiles Sharif Ossayran, an Iraqi expatriate who went back to his home country and then returned to report on its condition. He did not like what he saw, and has switched from supporting Bush to supporting Kerry because he believes Kerry will bring in […]

US Press as “Stenographers” for Bush War Reuters reports that the University of Maryland’s Center for International and Security Studies released a report on Tuesday slamming the US press for not questioning the arguments put forward by the Bush administration for war, and acting as a virtual stenographer for the White House. Interestingly, Susan Moeller, […]

Cobban on Interim Constitution Veteran journalist Helena Cobban has more discussion of the Fundamental Law signed Monday, its implications for Iraq, and the continued reservations about it coming from the Shiites.

3 Killed, 20 wounded as Tens of Thousands of Kurds March in Joy in Kirkuk The Guardian reports that tens of thousands of Kurds marched in Kirkuk to celebrate the signing of the interim constitution. They incorrectly believed that it accepted a consolidated Kurdistan and gave Kirkuk to the Kurds. Oil-rich Kirkuk, with a population […]

Turkey on Interim constitution: “It Increases our Concerns.” The new Iraqi basic law deeply angered the Turkish government by offering what it saw as a dangerous degree of autonomy to the Kurdish regions. AFP reported, ‘ “The interim law does not satisfy us, it increases our concerns,” Justice Minister Cemil Cicek said. “We see it […]