Juan Cole

Harkin: Cheney is Cowardly Iowa Senator Tom Harkin has let Dick Cheney have it over Cheney’s questioning of John Kerry’s ability to understand the war on terrorism–calling the vice president a “coward”. CNN quotes him, “It just outrages me that someone who got five deferments during Vietnam and said he had ‘other priorities’ at that […]

Majority Report Have been doing a lot of radio, which I enjoy because often the discussion can get to the bottom of things. Will be on Majority Report at Air America with Janeane Garofalo & Sam Seder Monday 8/16 around 8-9 pm EST.

Washington Post Online Discussion My online discussion with readers today is at Washingtonpost.com.

WaPo and NYT Duel on Sigificance of National Congress One of the wonderful things about the internet is that it is easier than ever to see lots of news reports on the same event and to get a sense of the different angles that reporters work in reporting them. There is a night and day […]

Fadlallah: Americans must be Forced to Withdraw Just saw an interview on al-Jazeerah with the Shiite leader Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Husain Fadlallah, who has been in Beirut since 1965 but is from Najaf. (Fadlallah, an independent, has strained relations both with the ayatollahs in Iran and with the Hizbullah in Lebanon, though he may have […]

Al-Haeri Weighs in Al-Jazeerah’s crawl is saying that Grand Ayatollah Kadhim al-Haeri, based in Qom, has issued a fatwa or ruling that no Iraqi Muslim may fight another Muslim on behalf of the current regime in Iraq and its American backers. Al-Haeri is sometimes called the “fifth” grand ayatollah of Najaf, the other four being […]

Thousands Stream to Najaf Thousands of Shiites are streaming toward Najaf in hopes of forming a human shield around Muqtada al-Sadr, according to al-Hayat. Many have already gathered at the gates to the old city in Najaf and around the shrine of Imam Ali. In the meantime, the Allawi government says it intends to send […]

Oil Pipeline Closed, Costing Iraqi Government $30 Million a day The continued instability in the Shiite areas of southern Iraq, especially threats of sabotage by Mahdi Army fighters, has led Iraqi authorities to shut down oil facilities in Basra again, according to AFP. Excerpts: ‘ . . . the Southern Oil Company announced the pipeline […]

It Takes a Following to Make an Ayatollah My op-ed on Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani and Muqtada al-Sadr is in Sunday’s Washington Post.