Juan Cole

Partially Declassified NIE Bush became indignant on Tuesday during his news conference with Afghan President Karzai over the leaking of passages from the National Intelligence Estimate on trends in terrorism to the press. He said that in response he was going to have some of its key judgments declassified. I want to make 4 basic […]

Generals: Iraq War Has Fueled Terrorism; Iraqi Politicians Attack Talabani For his Call for US Bases Prominent retired US general bitterly criticized the conduct of the Iraq war by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on Monday at an open meeting sponsored by Congressional Democrats. Excerpts: ‘ The Iraq conflict, which began in March 2003, made […]

Cole on Democracy Now Streaming video of my appearance on Amy Goodman’s “Democracy Now” today, as well as a transcript, is now available. Thanks to Amy for provocative and highly informed questions! What would we do without her? Send money.

2 GIs Killed in Fallujah Sunni Fundamentalists Take Diyala Province 36 Dead in Civil War Violence Despite Bush’s media blitz and a number of speeches attempting to tie the Iraq War to September 11, the percentage of Americans who think the war was not worth it actually increased slightly between June and September, from 54 […]

Wallace, Bin Laden, Republicans and Clinton Here is the video of President Clinton on Fox Cable News. Wallace maintained that he also asked tough questions about failure to tackle Bin Laden of Republican politicians. Here is Wallace interviewing Republican Vice President Richard Bruce Cheney on Bin Laden in February, 2005. Compare these softballs to the […]

40 Dead in Tikrit Bombing Iraq conflict creating Terror Threat for US: NIE Bombings in Baghdad’s Sadr City region killed at least 40 and wounded a similar number on Saturday. 9 bodies of Iraqi policemen and members of security forces were found in Tikrit, north of Baghdad. 3 US GIs were announced killed. In the […]

Bin Laden Report Denied The report in a provincial French newspaper that Usamah bin Laden had a tropical disease that killed him in August makes no sense. It said that his disease led to paralysis of the legs. It would have to be polio! Unlikely except in East Africa. This report appears to be based […]

Negroponte, Lebanon and al-Qaeda US intelligence chief John Negroponte says he is worried about al-Qaeda getting a foothold in Lebanon. Reuters quotes him as saying, ‘ “He [Ayman al-Zawahiri] talked about the priority attached to being successful in Iraq so it could then be used as a platform to extend their activities into the Levant, […]

Nasrullah’s Speech Here is the BBC World Monitoring translation of Hasan Nasrullah’s speech on Friday to an enormous crowd in bombed-out South Beirut. ‘ BBC Monitoring International Reports September 23, 2006 Saturday LENGTH: 7402 words HEADLINE: HEZBOLLAH LEADER ADDRESSES “VICTORY RALLY” IN LEBANON – TEXT Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah has addressed in person a rally […]