Juan Cole

Barzani Threatens Secession; Sistani Aide Assassinated; 4 GIs Killed Massoud Barzani reacted angrily to criticisms of him by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and many other Iraqi politicians for his call that the Iraqi flag not be flown in Iraqi Kurdistan. Al-Hayat reports [Ar.] that in a speech before the opening session of the Kurdish parliament […]

South Asian Pilgrims Slaughtered; Sistani Retires from Politics Upbraids Government for lack of Security 11 Pakistani and 3 Indian Shiite pilgrims that passed through al-Anbar Province and reached al-Nakhib to the west of Karbala, to which they were making pilgrimage–were captured, robbed, tortured and killed on Saturday. Their women relatives were allowed to go free. […]

Smearing the Wilsons The Washington power elite, like sharks, smells blood in the water. The midterms may well be a political earthquake. If the Dems take the House, investigatory committeess are suddenly going to be subpoenaing documents on the high crimes and misdemeanors of the Bush adminstration. Traitor Rove’s and Traitor Libby’s outing of Valerie […]

Barzani Forbids Iraqi Flag; Baker in Baghdad The Pentagon says that violence was up substantially this quarter over last in Iraq. There was a decline violence and deaths in August, but July was so hellish that it frankly does not mean much. At August’s rates nationwide, surely 10,000 would be dying a year, which is […]

Mortar Shells Kill Dozens of Shiites in East Baghdad Iraq to take over Dhi Qar Province Reuters reports political violence throughout the country, which left at least 67 dead and dozens wounded. In the single biggest incident, Mortar shells slammed into a Shiite neighborhood in East Baghdad, causing a building to collapse on inhabitants and […]

Google and Michigan’s Library Google books is an astonishing, epochal development. But I am tired of journalists who write about it ignoring the fact that the core of the digitized collection is the 7 million volumes at the University of Michigan. It is always mentioned that Harvard and Oxford are participating. Last I knew, Oxford […]

Naguib Mahfouz, RIP Nobel prize-winning Arabic novelist and short story writer Naguib Mahfouz is dead at 94. Do yourself a favor and read him. If you want a window on Arab culture, forget the posturing politicians (who mostly actually work in English and French), and the American pundits who interpret the Arab world to us […]

Bush Maintains ending US Occupation of Iraq will Infuriate Terrorists Bush says that ending the Iraq occupation will open America to a terrorist attack. I can’t imagine why he says that. If we weren’t occupying Iraq, how would that infuriate al-Qaeda and the Muslim radical fringe? Can you imagine the discussions in the cave in […]

Diwaniyah Ceasefire in Doubt Spike in Death toll Continues, with over 50 dead Dan Murphy of the CSM writes about the increasing fragmentation of Iraqi politics and militias at the local level. He argues that Muqtada al-Sadr and even the powerful Kurdish warlords are losing control to local militant groups that take the law in […]