Juan Cole

Washingtonpost.com: Iraq: New Government Takes Over The Washington Post online kindly had me on for an online discussion of the developments in Iraq today. For those who’ve asked for advance notice, I’ll be on the Lehrer News Hour Tuesday evening.

New Iraqi Government Announced How weak the Americans have become in Iraq became clear in Iraq on Tuesday when their choice for the ceremonial post of president of the transitional government had to withdraw in favor of Ghazi al-Yawar, the choice of the Interim Governing Council. Special UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi announced Pachachi as president […]

Ghazi al-Yawar on Iraqi Politics Here are some documents on the new Iraqi president. Some flavor of the new president can be gathered from this recent FNS interview. —- Federal News Service May 27, 2004 Thursday LENGTH: 489 words HEADLINE: INTERVIEW WITH GHAZI AL YAWAR, CURRENT PRESIDENT OF THE IRAQI GOVERNING COUNCIL, DISCUSSING THE EVENTS […]

Maneuvering over Transitional Government Continues Al-Hayat reports that Paul Bremer has put enormous pressure on the Interim Governing Council not to vote on its candidate for president, which might have had the effect of ensconcing the candidate. It is thought that 22 of the 25 IGC members favor Ghazi al-Yawer, a civil engineer and prominent […]

Miller as Chalabi Stenographer Franklin Foer’s profile of Judith Miller of the NYT and the way in which her over-dependence on the Iraqi National Congress and Ahmad Chalabi besmirched her journalistic career asks an implicit question. It is, “How could she have avoided this disaster?” I think the problem came about because she started doing […]

Kufa Fighting Flares; Bombs in Baghdad Fighting flared again Sunday and Monday between Mahdi Army militiamen and US troops, who are apparently trying to reconquer the police stations in the city. Fierce fighting continued late Monday. 2 US troops and dozens of Mahdi Army fighters are dead. CNN reports that local US military commanders insist […]

Portrait of a Rebellion In These Times has made my analysis of the Shiite rebellion of the past two months available online. It came out about a week ago and so before the recent “truce,” but is still valuable for a narrative of the background. In these Times May 24, 2004 “Portrait of a Rebellion […]

Wrangling over President delays Announcement Rajiv Chandrasekaran of the WP summarizes the deadlock on the new prime minister among the Iraqi Governing Council, Paul Bremer, and special UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi. The Council opposes the naming of Adnan Pachachi as transitional president, because he is perceived as too complaisant toward the US. It wants Shaikh […]

Sites of the Day Veteran journalist Helena Cobban’s Just World News site is worth checking out. She writes frequently on the Middle East and knows it well. Abbas Kadhim, Calling it Like it Is. Viewpoint of an Iraqi Shiite philosopher at UC Berkeley on current affairs and the Iraq crisis. Joshua Landis has begun a […]