Juan Cole

Vice President: n. Political chief in charge of committing vice. The official can fulfill his public duties by committing a wide range of sins or crimes, including murder and treason (see Burr, Aaron and Breckenridge, John). Lazier and greedier incumbents have satisfied themselves with mere extortion, tax evasion, bribery, and conspiracy (see Agnew, Spiro). Energetic […]

The USG Open Source Center translates an article from the Kurdish press complaining that Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has been busily creating his own tribally based private militias, called ‘Isnad,’ and is using them to project his authority through brute force in various parts of Iraq. Iraq: What after Al-Maliki’s (Support) Councils?Kurdistani NuweTuesday, November 18, […]

Gitanjali Bakshi writes in a guest op-ed for IC: After months of slow but substantive progress, recent developments in Occupied Palestine, Israel and the U.S. have been largely unproductive. If we continue along this path in 2009, it will lead to a collapse in the on-going Israel-Palestine peace process. There are currently three main obstacles […]

Check out the terrific new politics and news site The Daily Beast.

Omid Memarian explains Iran’s turnaround on the Iraqi-US security agreement, which it was rejecting only last month: ‘Obama’s victory disarms leaders such as Ahmadinejad, who for decades have used inefficient American foreign policies as excuses to justify their own failures, mismanagement and corruption. Earlier this year, Ahmadinejad said that the “U.S. (political) establishment will not […]

Somali pirates have hijacked a Saudi oil super-tanker off the coast of Kenya and are steering it toward a Somali port. Somalia Riyadh

My column at Salon.com is out: “Should Obama chase Osama? On Sunday the president-elect told “60 Minutes” he wants to capture or kill bin Laden. Is he setting himself up for failure?” I argue that while actually stepping up pressure on al-Qaeda and quietly going after Bin Laden more vigorously would be all to the […]

Some observers are speculating that the abduction of an Iranian diplomat in Peshawar, northern Pakistan, may signal a new conflict between Iran and al-Qaeda or the Taliban. In the growing diplomatic tiff between Pakistan and Iran over the kidnapping in Peshawar of an Iranian diplomat, Hishmatullah Atharzadeh, the Pakistani authorities have blamed the Tehrik-i Taliban […]

Some observers are speculating that the abduction of an Iranian diplomat in Peshawar, northern Pakistan, may signal a new conflict between Iran and al-Qaeda or the Taliban. In the growing diplomatic tiff between Pakistan and Iran over the kidnapping in Peshawar of an Iranian diplomat, Hishmatullah Atharzadeh, the Pakistani authorities have blamed the Tehrik-i Taliban […]