Juan Cole

At least 12 persons died violently in the guerrilla war on Saturday in Iraq. There was a major battle over control of police stations in Khalis, and Marines found more bodies in Mosul. The U.S. military said that guerrillas had launched a major campaign of intimidation aimed at frightening Sunni Arabs into boycotting the forthcoming … Continue reading “Dead Wrong on the Iraqi Elections”

The Red Crescent has finally been allowed into Fallujah (its earlier exclusion was probably a violation of international law). Its spokesman is saying that less than 200 civilian families appear to still be there. If this estimate is true, it suggests that by the time of the U.S. assault, only about 5,000 persons were left … Continue reading “Iraq and Damned Statistics”

I just checked my campus mail and found a letter in it from Colonel Yigal Carmon, late of Israeli military intelligence, now an official at the Middle East Media Research Organization, or MEMRI. He threatened me with a lawsuit over blog comments I made at Informed Comment. This technique of the SLAPP, or Strategic Lawsuit … Continue reading “Repressive MEMRI”

I just checked my campus mail and found a letter in it from Colonel Yigal Carmon, late of Israeli military intelligence, now an official at the Middle East Media Research Organization, or MEMRI. He threatened me with a lawsuit over blog comments I made at Informed Comment. This technique of the SLAPP, or Strategic Lawsuit … Continue reading “Repressive MEMRI”

A complete English transcript of the bin Laden audiotape released last week has now been posted by al-Jazeera. The Arabic text, for those who can use it, has also been posted. A reinterpretation of the speech, put in motion by the neoconservative organ MEMRI, has been flying around the web, suggesting that bin Laden is … Continue reading “Osama Threatening Red States?”

The complete lack of interest of the Bush administration in actually securing dangerous materials connected to the old, abandoned Iraqi nuclear program has long belied Bush’s stated concern with Iraq’s alleged weapons as a pretext for the war. James Glanz, William J. Broad, and David E. Sanger with Khalid al-Ansary reveal in the New York … Continue reading “Bush Is Making Us Safer?”

I find the cover page at the International Republican Institute Web site concerning its recent polling in Iraq to be extremely disturbing. IRI is of course closely linked to the U.S. Republican Party and does the polling with U.S. tax dollars (i.e., you and I are paying for it). The Web site tries to spin … Continue reading “Spinning Iraqi Opinion at Taxpayer Expense”

Brig. Gen. Muhammad Abdullah Shahwani, the head of the Iraqi secret police, has charged 27 employees in the Iranian embassy in Baghdad with espionage and sabotage. He blames them for the assassination of over a dozen members of the Iraqi secret police in the past month. He claims to have seized from “safehouses” Persian documents … Continue reading “Neo-Ba’athists vs. the Shi’ites”

First, the CIA comes out and says it can’t find any convincing evidence that Saddam Hussein harbored Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Zarqawi’s presence at certain points in Iraq has long been argued as a proof of his links to terrorism and al-Qaeda (even though Zarqawi’s Monotheism and Jihad is a bitter rival of al-Qaeda rather than … Continue reading “WMD Myth Meant to Deter Iran”

How to understand the sudden outbreak of candor among Bush administration officials (or former officials) about Iraq in the past couple of days? In the vice presidential debate on Tuesday evening, Dick Cheney said, "I have not suggested there’s a connection between Iraq and 9/11." Well, maybe not in so many words, but Cheney hinted … Continue reading “Bush Aides Backtracking on Iraq”