Juan Cole

Israelis Bombard Palestinian Prime Minister’s Offices Israeli war planes attacked the offices of Palestinian Prime Minsiter Ismail Haniyah of the Hamas Party early on Sunday morning, setting them afire. This looks so little like a rescue effort for missing Israeli serviceman, and so much like a war, that I am persuaded now of the theory […]

Massive Bomb in Sadr City Kills 74, Wounds 114 Bin Laden Warns on Shiite Militias Guerrillas detonated a massive car bomb at a market in Sadr City (Shiite East Baghdad). Late reports spoke of 74 dead [Ar.] and nearly 200 wounded, with the numbers likely to rise. The massacre came as Usamah Bin Laden issued […]

Poll: Iraq could cost Republicans in November Election Muqtada: US must Set Withdrawal Timetable A new poll shows that Bush is so disliked that for 36 percent of the public, his endorsement of a candidate would be a negative. Less that half that would view it as a positive. And although American men are evenly […]

Iraq War Broke Back of US Counter-Terrorism: Experts Fresh bombings and assassinations, and the discovery of 18 bodies brought the death toll in Iraq on Thursday to some 34. A new poll of counter-terrorism and national security experts finds that 84 percent of them believe the US is not winning the war on terror, and […]

Members of Israeli Parliament on the Gaza Operation The USG Open Document Center translates this report from Israeli news broadcasts in Hebrew: Israel: Islamic Movement, MKs Comment on Gaza OperationIsrael — OSC ReportThursday, June 29, 2006 T17:23:50Z Ro’i Nahmias reports at 1036 GMT on Ynetnews: “The northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel aggressively […]

Israel Detains Palestinian Ministers Knocks out Electricity to Half of Gazans Half of the Palestinians in Gaza, who were already living pretty miserable lives after decades of marginalization and brutalization by the Israelis, were left without electricity yesterday. Palestinian officials like Saeb Erekat rejected the idea that knocking out electricity for hundreds of thousands of […]

Bombings in Baghdad, Baquba, Mahaweel Guerrilla Groups offer Truce if US will Withdraw Reuters details Iraq’s ongoing civil war violence: Guerrillas bombed a market in the Shiite quarter of Kadhimiyah, Baghdad, killing one person and wounding 8. Guerrillas detonated a car bomb near a throng of workers who had gathered to look for work at […]

Defending Markos And the Discourse Revolution I’ve been doing a lot of traveling recently, some of it abroad, and have barely been able to keep up with Iraq, much less with the blogosphere. I was sorry, as a result to have missed yearly Kos and to have been unable to return Markos Moulitsas’s kindnesses (i.e. […]

Iraqi Sermons from June 23, 2006 The USG Open Source Center translates sermons in Iraq on 6/23/2006: “At 0845 GMT Baghdad Satellite Channel in Arabic, reportedly sponsored by the Iraqi Islamic Party, carries a live relay of Shaykh Harith al-Ubaydi’s sermon from the Sunni Al-Shawwaf Mosque in Baghdad. In his sermon, Shaykh Harith Al-Ubaydi touches […]