Juan Cole

Conflicting accounts of CIA and Saddam, 1959-1963 My posting last Saturday, For Whom the Bell Tolls: Top Ten Ways the US Enabled Saddam Hussein has elicited a very interesting account by a US government insider contesting the allegations about CIA-Saddam connections early in his life, specifically 1959-1963, and which denies CIA complicity in the first […]

US Reaction to 1963 Baath Coup Since the 1963 Baath coup has come up here twice this week, I thought readers might be interested in the three pieces of correspondence below, from the Foreign Relations of the United States, which is now being put on line. FRUS is anything but complete, and critics complain that […]

Rosen on Shiite Execution of Saddam Nir Rosen at Iraqslogger has a fine analysis of the Sunni Arab reaction to the hanging of Saddam, and includes a partial transcript of the highly sectarian, Shiite chanting at the scene by Iraqi politicians in attendance. I can confirm that Rosen’s partial transcript is accurate. Cindy Sheehan’s son […]

Saddam Buried Maliki’s New Strategy? Saddam Hussein was laid to rest in the village of al-Awjah near Tikrit, his birthplace. In Salahuddin Province there is anger about the haste with which Saddam was executed and its timing, early on the morning of the Eid al-Adha. Although the US press is reporting that there weren’t many […]

US Press on 3,000 US troops Killed in Iraq Allen Breed of AP writes poignantly about , the section at Arlington cemetery that contains the remains of some of the 3,000 GIs killed in combat in Iraq. Editor and Publisher breaks down the deaths of US troops in Iraq by category. Nadia Malik of the […]

What the Number 3000 Hides Iraqi guerrillas killed 6 more GIs and AP put the total dead in combat at 2998. The dreadful milestone of 3000 is upon us. Like all statistics, this one is deceptive. It does not include US troops killed in Afghanistan, that oddly forgotten war where the US still has a […]

The Murderer’s Gibbet Cole in Salon.com on the Saddam Execution My article on the execution of Saddam is out in Salon.com. Excerpt: ‘ The body of Saddam, as it swung from the gallows at 6 a.m. Saturday Baghdad time, cast an ominous shadow over Iraq. The execution provoked intense questions about whether his trial was […]

For Whom the Bell Tolls: Top Ten Ways the US Enabled Saddam Hussein The old monster swung from the gallows this morning at 6 am Baghdad time. His Shiite executioners danced around his body. Saddam Hussain was one of the 20th century’s most notorious tyrants, though the death toll he racked up is probably exaggerated […]

Riverbend is Back Riverbend weighs in on the condition of Iraq and Saddam’s impending execution. I disagree with her about Jalal Talabani (the old-time Kurdish politician who is now Iraq’s president), who has opposed the death penalty all his political life, and I think that he genuinely won’t sign the death decree for reasons of […]