Juan Cole

Electricity Riots in Najaf Amara Council Dissolved Al-Zaman: For the second straight day on Sunday, angry crowds attacked the Electricity Office in downtown Najaf, protesting interruptions in the electricity supply that stretched to as many as 18 hours straight in recent days. The lack of electricity hurts local industry and agriculture, and leaves the population […]

Rocco Martino: ‘I am the Source of the False Niger/Iraq Uranium Story’ The Sunday Times on Sunday and the Financial Times on Monday report that an Italian businessman and fraudster named Rocco Martino has said that he was the source of the false stories and documents related to Iraq’s alleged attempts to buy uranium from […]

Allawi Snubs Iran Caretaker Prime Minister Iyad Allawi cancelled his planned visit to Iran, even as he was being feted in Kuwait. He has sent a ministerial delegation instead, according to al-Hayat, in protest against Iranian meddling in Iraq. Allawi’s Minister of Defense Hazem Shaalan, has recently spoken out vocally against Iran, calling it Iraq’s […]

Fierce Firefight in Fallujah Leaves 13 Dead, 14 Wounded AP reports that US Marines in Fallujah came under fire late Thursday, starting a firefight that continued through Friday and spilled over into an industrial area of the city. The Marines fired mortar rounds and called in close air support. AP writes, “Many of those wounded, […]

Did al-Qaeda Game Bush into Iraq War? Douglas Jehl of the New York Times explains how Ibn al-Shaykh Libi, a high al-Qaeda official of Libyan extraction, was captured in fall of 2001 and alleged to CIA interrogators that Iraq had provided al-Qaeda with training in chemical and biological weapons. Later on, Abu Zubaydah and Khalid […]

Muqtada warns Muslim Nations In his Friday prayer sermon on Friday before hundreds of followers in Kufa, radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr warned Muslim nations not to send troops to Iraq, warning that they would be considered collaborators with the US Occupation, and would risk being hit as such by Iraqis. His warning was echoed […]

Humanitarian Crisis looms in Basra Reuters reports that a high UN official has raised the specter of a serious humanitarian crisis (i.e. lots of people dying) in Basra this summer. The problem is that there is only half as much potable water as people need for a population of 1.3 million, and the temperature has […]

National Congress Postponed Fighting in Nasiriyah In a sign that the political situation in Iraq is even worse than anyone had suspected, the caretaker Iraqi government has had to postpone the holding of national congress until mid-August. The complicated selection process for choosing delegates had favored the expatriate parties and politicians, and had stirred up […]

The Kerry Plan on Iraq: How it Could Work if the UN were Brought In In his speech to the National Democratic Convention, John Kerry devoted a few passages to Iraq. He said: “I know what we have to do in Iraq. We need a president who has the credibility to bring our allies to […]