Juan Cole

They may as Well have Voted in May Hamza Hendawi draws aside the strange curtain that had fallen over election preparations in Iraq. Ash-Sharq al-Awsat also reports on the issue, saying the the registration of voters and parties will begin on November 1 and last until December 15. Some 12 million voters will be eligible […]

Quotes of the Day Sy Hersh in the UC Berkeley News: “How could eight or nine neoconservatives come and take charge of this government?” he asked. “They overran the bureaucracy, they overran the Congress, they overran the press, and they overran the military! So you say to yourself, How fragile is this democracy?” . Apparently […]

Mosque Arms Stockpiles Targeted in Ramadi Alexandra Zavis of AP reports that US troops raided 7 mosques in Ramadi on Tuesday and arrested a leading Sunni clergyman, Abdul Alim al-Saadi, and his son. The move came after the outbreak of fighting between US troops and local guerrillas at Ramadi. On Monday night, guerrillas had fired […]

Sistani Rules that Believers Must Register to Vote Barzani threatens to Fight for Kirkuk KarbalaNews.net reports that Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani has issued a formal legal ruling requiring believers to register to vote in the voter registration drive set to begin on November 1. The ruling says, “It is incumbent upon all citizens eligible to […]

3 US Soldiers Killed, 5 Wounded 2 Iraqis Killed, 27 Wounded wire services report that guerrillas killed at least three US soldiers in separate attacks on Monday. In Mosul, a guerrilla detonated his car bomb in front of a US military convoy, killing at least one US soldier and two Iraqis, and injuring 27 persons […]

Cheney Pressured CIA Philip Sherwell’s article for the Telegraph about the bad feeling between the Bush administration and the old guard at the CIA has an interesting tidbit buried in the middle of it. ‘ In the latest clash, a senior former CIA agent revealed that Mr Cheney “blew up” when a report into links […]

Women’s Issues in Iraq Ash-Sharq al-Awsat reports that Safiya al-Suhail, the shaykha or female tribal leader of the Banu Tamim tribe, has been appointed Iraqi ambassador to Egypt, and that Egypt has accepted her credentials. On Monday the first national women’s conference in the new Iraq was held, with panels on security issues and women, […]

Al-Qaeda, Baader-Meinhoff and the Patriot Act David K. Moore writes: ” I have to bring something up about the analogy to the Red Army Faction. I was in college in Germany 75-76, when Baader and Meinhoff were killed (or committed suicide). What happened to Germany due to their actions is a cautionary tale for America. […]

How Would Cheney Complete the “War on Terror”? Vice President Dick Cheney today attacked John Kerry. ” Cheney and two other speakers at the rally also criticized Kerry for saying in a recent interview in The New York Times Magazine that, “We have to get back to the place we were, where terrorists are not […]