Juan Cole

Ashura Massacres Shake Iraq At Least 130 Killed The Western press reported on 130 of the iraqis killed in political violence in Iraq on Monday, and the some 200 wounded. It isn’t ordinary time in Iraq for the Shiites, it is ritual time, sacred time. It is a time of deep mourning, of grief and […]

Rightwing Smearers of Obama Don’t know a School from a Madrasa The rightwing smear campaign against Barack Obama, waged by a magazine funded by the far rightwing Korean businessman and part-time messiah, the Reverend Moon, has foundered on CNN’s good reporting. The allegation was that he had gone to a radical “Saudi-funded” madrasah. Wolf Blitzer […]

Sadrists Rejoin Government Talabani: US Should Talk directly to Syria Reuters reports on political violence in Iraq on Sunday. Two more US troops were killed, and the death toll in al-Anbar for Saturday was revised up to 5. In Baghdad, “A bomb killed at least six people and wounded 15 when it destroyed a minibus […]

22 US Troops Announced Killed 29 Bodies Found in Baghdad Reuters reports that police found 29 bodies in Baghdad on Saturday and 5 more in the northern city of Mosul. There was other major violence, with bombings, mortar attacks and assassinations in Baghdad, Kirkuk, Mosul and elsewhere. A suicide bomber attempted to get a car […]

Militiamen Wound 6 British Soldiers Sadrist Rejoin Parliament Shiite militiamen fired mortars at a British base at Basra, seriously wounding one British soldier and lightly injuring 5 others. The Sadr Bloc of deputies in Parliament, who had staged a walkout to protest PM Nuri al-Maliki’s meeting with George W. Bush, are now returning to the […]

US moves on Sadr Aide Bombings Wrack Baghdad, Mosul Baathists Plan Convention in Damascus US and Iraqi troops arrested Sadr aide Abdul Hadi Darraji in East Baghdad at midnight Iraqi time last night. The Sadr movement maintains he is just a spokesman and is not involved in militia operations. The US accuses him of running […]

Cheney blew off Iran in 2003 For the Love of God Impeach this Man Lawrence Wilkerson, an aide to Colin Powell when he was secretary of state says that Iran in 2003 offered to help stabilize Iraq and to cut off aid to Hizbullah in Lebanon and to Hamas. Wilkerson says that the State Department […]

Cole Appearance in SF Cancelled “Juan Cole will be speaking in San Francisco at the First Universalist Unitarian Church, 1187 Franklin St. at Geary, Saturday, January 20 at 5:00 pm.” Alas, my hosts could not make this happen after all. So sorry for the inconvenience.

Bombings in Sadr City, Kirkuk– Dozens Dead Al-Hakim Criticizes Bush on Irbil Raid Another big bombing by guerrillas in Shiite Sadr City killed 25. Guerrillas in Kirkuk set off a bomb that killed 10 and wounded 48. Militiamen in Basra used a roadside bomb to kill two Coalition, probably British troops. Reuters reports other political […]