Juan Cole

Increase in Iraq Deaths Despite Surge 6 US GIs killed over weekend McCain Continues Magical Mystery Tour For all those journalists and politicians who keep insisting that there are new “glimmers” of “hope” in Iraq because of the new security plan started 6 weeks ago, here is a sobering statistic from the Iraqi government. (I’m […]

Justice Minister Resigns over Political Deadlock; Talabani: Success in Talks with Sunni Guerrillas Iraqi Justice Minister Hashem al-Shibli, has resigned. A Sunni, he represented the Iraqi National List of Iyad Allawi. The BBC suggests that one of his motives was the contradiction between his constitutional duty to oversee the upcoming referendum in Kirkuk Province concerning […]

25 Dead in Sectarian Killings in Mosul; Muqtada Calls for Massive Demonstrations; Talabani admits that US is Occupying Iraq The sectarian killings in the northern city of Tal Afar appear to have spilled over onto another northern city, that of Mosul, where police found 25 bodies Thursday according to Reuters. Amer Mohsen at Iraqslogger summarizes […]

Bombers kill over 130, wounding over two Hundred US Embassy Orders Personal Armor in Green Zone Oh, yeah. Those rightwing Iraqi bloggers that Bush depends on for his news about the country have sure imposed security on Iraq by their sunny faces. Reuters reports on the horrific and massive bombings carried out by Sunni Arab […]

Shiite Fighters Kill 70 Sunnis in Tal Afar Saudi King Abdullah Condemns Illegitimate US Occupation of Iraq Kim Gamel of AP reports that Shiite militants and some Shiite policemen went on a rampage in the northern Turkmen city of Tal Afar on Wednesday, killing 70 Sunnis indiscriminately, injuring another 30, and kidnapping 40 others. The […]

Al-Dhari on Year 4 of American Iraq The US government Open Source Center translates an interview with Sunni fundamentalist leader Harith al-Dhari, a leader of the Association of Muslim Scholars, printed by al-Safir newspaper in Lebanon. ‘ Head of Iraqi Muslim Scholars Interviewed on 4th Anniversary of ‘Invasion’: Interview with Shaykh Harith al-Dari, head of […]

McCain Checks into Cloud Cuckooland 116 Iraqis Killed in Day of Carnage Senator John McCain has contracted Rumsfeld’s Disease. This malady consists of a combination of bad temper, misuse of language to obfuscate reality, and a Panglossian optimism in the face of stubborn, sanguinary facts on the ground. McCain, for instance, hailed that deployment of […]

Green Zone Takes Rocket Fire New Offer of Jobs to Baathists Guerrillas fired a rocket into the Green Zone on Monday, shaking the US Embassy and Iraqi government offices but causing no casualties. Iraq’s foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, has weighed in with Tehran to release 15 British sailors and Marines captured in what the Iranians […]

Guerrillas Kill 5 US Troops Shiite Reprisals in Haswa Allawi Bid for New Coalition Founders Iran is considering trying the 15 British sailors it captured at the mouth of the Shatt al-Arab waterway, in what it claims were Iranian territorial waters. British Prime Minister Tony Blair warned Iran that it should not underestimate the seriousness […]