Juan Cole

Cole on Air America I will be on the Al Franken Show at 1 pm Wednesday. If you miss that (or are a glutton for punishment) I’ll also be on The Majority Report on Wednesday at 8:25.

Iraqi Military Delegation to Iran Carries US Message Secular Sunni Arabs cry Political Betrayal The sister of Interior Minister Bayan Jabr was kidnapped on Tuesday. Three months ago, his brother had been kidnapped. Al-Hayat [Ar.] reports that Salih Mutlak of the secular Sunni National Dialogue Council accused the (Sunni) National Accord Front of “political betrayal” […]

Ahmadinejad Clarification on Israel An informed commentator writes: Regarding his views of the Holocaust and other issues that have been discussed on this forum, the IRI President has offered some explanations. Part of it reads: “One must distinguish between Zionism and Judaism. The Jews have always lived in security and prosperity in Islamic lands, and […]

Sunnis Join Talks on National Unity Government; Guerrillas kill 19 AP correspondent Sinan Salaheddin reports that the Sunni fundamentalist National Accord Front [Accordance is not an English adjective] broke ranks on Monday with its partners in the Rejection Bloc. The NAF had earlier joined the National Dialogue Council of Salih Mutlak (Neobaathist) and the National […]

Reconstruction Aid to Afghanistan Halved; Or, “Don’t Forget to Write!” Now that it has been announced that the US won’t seek more reconstruction aid for Iraq. it also turns out that the Bush administration has reduced reconstruction aid in Afghanistan from $1 bn. a year to a little ove $600 mn. The US is pulling […]

Guerrillas Target Police all over Iraq with 13 Car Bombs on New Year’s Day Over 2 Dozen Casualties Al-Sharq al-Awsat [Ar.]: Baghdad rang in the New Year with a sting of 8 coordinated car bombs that left at least 24 persons injured. A further five car bombs were detonated in Kirkuk, Tikrit and Miqdadiyah. Other […]

Ten Amazing Predictions for 2006 1. Al-Qaeda’s Ayman al-Zawahiri, whom the Bush administration has failed to capture after all this time, and who was probably responsible for the July 7 bombings in the London subway and the bombings in the Sinai in Egypt, will strike at US allies again in 2006. 2. Saudi Arabia will […]

Sadrists Reject Allawi Coalition Al-Hakim Seeks position of Party Overseer Al-Hayat[Ar.]: The fundamentalist Shiite coalition, the United Iraqi alliance, one of the leaders of which will be prime minister in the new government, continues to construct its internal alliances. It will appoint as “Political Overseer” [marja`iyyah siyasiyya) Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the head of the Supreme […]

Al-Hakim Sees Baghdad as Federated Province Sadrists Urge Alliance with Sunni Arabs Al-Zaman/ AFP [Ar.]: Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the head of the victorious (fundamentalist Shiite) United Iraqi Alliance suggested Friday that Baghdad province join Kurdistan, the Middle Euphrates, and the deep south as a confederacy with special privileges, overseen by a federal government. He said […]