Juan Cole

Constitutional Wrangling in Iraq Americans fear Blowback The process of writing the Iraqi constitution is well advanced, and drafts are circulating. But the work has run into snags over some big issues such as federalism, the place of religious law, and the shape of the Kurdistan province. None of us outside observers can figure out […]

Sharon to Condi: F– You! Haaretz reports on US Secretary of State Condi Rice’s visit to Israel: ‘ U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spent Thursday in Jerusalem, where she met with Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom. Rice told Shalom that coordinating the pullout plan with the PA [Palestinian Authority] was critical and must be continued. […]

Reader Comment on Gaza Pullout Roger Wyatt writes from the U.K. ‘ I find your blog enormously stimulating and admire your prolific output. Your comments on the Israeli colonisation of Palestinian land are spot on. During the first Palestinian intifada I was a volunteer at Kibbutz Kissufim just outside the Gaza Strip (ok, at that […]

London Police Shoot Suspected Terror Network Member London plainclothes police were on the trail of a suspected member of a terror network when he bolted in a subway. He was wearing a thick coat in the middle of a humid summer day, and it appears that the police were afraid he might be concealing a […]

The Networks of the London Bombing: Shehzad Tanweer and Jaish-e Muhammad Anger over Guantanamo I have been trying to trace the influences on and organizational contacts of the July 7 bombers in London. Let me start with 22-year-old Shehzad Tanweer of Leeds. His family is originally from a Punjabi village near Faisalabad, Kottan (Chak number […]

20 Dead in Guerrilla Violence Sunnis Pull out of Constitution Drafting Committee Guerrillas abducted two Algerian diplomats on Thursday, in a continuing campaign to isolate the new elected government internationally. All the Sunni members of the Constitution-drafting committee have suspended their membership in the committee and are boycotting its meetings. They protest that the clerical […]

Jaafari and Shahrudi Alireza Doostdar writes: ‘ I just read your . . . article on Salon (The big winner is… Iran), and had a comment on the section on Iraqi PM Ja’fari’s meeting with Iran’s judiciary chief Ayatollah Shahrudi. Shahrudi had apparently called for Iraqi judicial cooperation with the “Islamic Human Rights Organization” in […]

Forensic Evidence Leads to 2 Arrests London police commissioner Sir Ian Blair announced that substantial forensic evidence had been recovered in relationship to Thursday’s bombings. Two arrests have been made, one of them near a bomb site, another near the Downing Street prime minister’s residence. Since there are eyewitnesses to the attempted bombings who saw […]

Blogging London from UK Blogger comment from Tim Worstall. And the Guardian news blog. AFP has an updated report that depends heavily on Sky News. Highlights: From Sky News: ‘ “They said the strong smell of acetone would have sparked fears of a chemical attack. And the smell indicated that the explosives had been made […]