Archives for September 2005

Sunnis Seek Last-Minute changes in Constitution Shiite teachers in Baghdad and Iraqi police and 10 passengers on a government bus were killed in violence on Monday The Sunni National Dialogue Council and other Iraqi politicians meeting in Amman have complained that Iraqi Sunni Arabis are facing genocide and said they are mulling a campaign of […]

Kos Diaries Daily Kos Diaries on US troop withdrawals from Iraq: “Quit Your Bellyachin’”. and “Juan Cole says now is the time to leave Iraq” Stirling Newberry at BOP also has a good discussion. I should clarify that as several diarists noted, I do believe that the US has a duty to manage the withdrawal […]

De-Baathification Statistics Gilbert Achcar kindly shares his translation of the following from Al-Hayat: ‘ Ali al-Lami, member of the De-Ba’athification Commission, told Al-Hayat that the number of Ba’athists that were affected by De-Ba’athification “does not exceed 100,000 leading members out of 1 million Ba’athist in Iraq, of whom 80% were members of the first echelon […]

British Spies in Basra Fighting Weapons Smugglers 27 Killed, 62 Wounded in Violence Those two SAS special operations troops captured by the Basra police last Monday were one of 8 such teams charged with disrupting weapons smuggling from Iran into southern Iraq. The Iranian weapons smugglers are organized and powerful throughout the world. Among the […]

Grand Ayatollah Ishaq Fayyad’s Fatwa in Favor the Constitution KarbalaNews.net [Arabic] publishes a copy of the fatwa by Grand Ayatollah Ishaq Fayyad in favor of the Iraqi constitution: Fayyad, an Afghan Hazara by birth, came to Najaf at the age of 10 and has risen to be among the 4 top ayatollahs in Iraq. He […]

Cole on “The Issue” “The Issue,” a web-based interview show at Evolvetv.tv launches today with interviews of Juan Cole on Iraq. Given the meltdown during the past week of the mainstream television news organizations (apparently hurricanes outdraw Iraq by 30 to 1 in the ratings) with regard to world news, we will increasingly be dependent […]

Rebuttal by Achcar Gilbert Achcar replies to my response. I think we’ve reached the point where our positions are clear and I’m disinclined to respond further, despite my respect for the seriousness of the points made. ‘ Dear Juan, Many thanks for your friendly and stimulating reply. Here are a few comments on your rejoinder, […]

Why we Have to get the Troops Out of Iraq The hundreds of thousands of protesters who came out throughout the world on Saturday were demanding a US and British withdrawal from Iraq. The protesters are right that we have to get US ground troops out of Iraq. The issue is not the rights and […]

Tens of Thousands Demonstrate Against Iraq War Al-Hakim Calls for “Yes” on Constitution Arrest Warrant in Basra for British Over 100,000 protesters rallied in Washington, DC, against the Iraq War on Saturday. Protests were also held in London, San Francisco and other cities. US troops entered Sadr City or Eastern Baghdad on Saturday in search […]