Juan Cole

Iraq as failed State The Fund for Peace has an important new study on Iraq that warns it has become a failed state. . Newsday says: ‘ Dr. Pauline H. Baker, author of the report, describes a failed state syndrome as a condition in which a number of trends reinforce each other to produce spiraling […]

Clancy on Wolfowitz I just heard Tom Clancy on Deborah Norville’s show. She asked him about some persons he had met in the Defense Department. When she brought up Paul Wolfowitz, and asked his impression, Clancy said “Is he working for our side?” Clancy said he was involved in a red team exercise in the […]

Sistani’s Fatwa on the New Government Fatwa of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani on the New Government trans. J. Cole “In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. From the office of his excellency Grand Ayatollah Sistani, may God extend his shadow. Peace be upon you, and the mercy and blessings of God. Many of […]

Tenet Resigns I have no inside sources on why George Tenet just resigned as director of the Central Intelligence Agency. But I can think of three reasons for which he ought to have resigned. First, it was announced on Wednesday that President George W. Bush had retained counsel with regard to the Plame investigation. Last […]

Shiites Disgruntled with Caretaker Government James Drummond reports for the Financial Times that al-Da`wa and the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) have expressed dissatisfaction at how the caretaker government was formed. These two major Shiite political groupings just got one post each. Ibrahim Jaafari of al-Da`wa is one of two vice presidents, […]

14 Dead in Iraq; More Fighting between Sadrists and US Troops; Between a huge car bomb in Adhamiyah in Baghdad (which killed 4 and wounded many others) and new clashes with US troops, some 14 Iraqis died in violence on Wednesday. Guerillas also targetting a big US military arms depot in Kirkuk, setting off a […]

Chalabi Spy Case James Risen and David Johnston have a story in the New York Times on Wednesday about the spying charges against Ahmad Chalabi. He is accused of passing to Iran the highly classified information that the US had broken Iranian codes. Although the Iranians use a number of cyptographic systems, and couldn’t know […]

Making Americans Safer The frankly idiotic US battles fought near Shiite shrines in Najaf and Karbala have created a new, seething rage toward the US in many Shiite Muslim communities throughout the world. The riots in Karachi on Tuesday, protesting a bombing at a Shiite mosque in Pakistan’s major port, involved setting fire to American […]

New Proposal for Mahdi Army in Najaf A new proposal has emerged for dealing with the stand-off in Najaf, whereby the US troops will withdraw from the city to their bases and Mahdi Army fighters will be amnestied for 72 hours to allow them to leave Najaf. This plan is intended to salvage a cease-fire […]