Juan Cole

Abuse Allegations are ‘a Big Deal’: WP. Sewell Chan of the WP has an article today, “U.S. Official: Abuse Allegations Are ‘a Big Deal’ .” Now this is more like it. I’m quoted: ‘ “The public relations damage is profound and permanent,” said Juan Cole, a professor of modern Middle Eastern history at the University […]

“Foreign Fighter” Myth Exposed Jim Krane of AP is throwing cold water all over the repeated allegations of the Interim Governing Council that foreign fighters are playing any significant role in the Iraqi insurgency against the US. In fact, almost all the Fallujah fighters are Iraqis, and the US has captured no one there for […]

Rant on US News Coverage It is remarkable how the US press allows themselves to be manipulated by the government. When the Abu Ghuraib story broke, Bush just issued a statement that he was disgusted, taking no responsibility. The headlines the next day? “Bush Disgusted by Photos.” The proper headline would have been “Permanent Damage […]

The US has Lost the Battle of the Photographs My essay, “The U.S. Has Lost the Battle of the Photographs,” is up through Tuesday at TomDispatch.com, veteran journalist Tom Engelhardt’s site for the Nation Institute. The war of guns is only part of any great military enterprise. It is always supplemented by a war of […]

Interrogator Diary Bilmon has , via a reader, Bernhard, managed a real journalistic coup. He found a cached diary, kept at a rightwing radio station, KSTP, of Joe Ryan, until recently a military interrogator at Abu Ghuraib prison. Quite aside from the issues Billmon raises, about the evidence for the continued presence at Abu Ghuraib […]

9 US Troops Killed in Iraq on Sunday Reuters is reporting that guerrillas launched a mortar attack on US troops at their base near Ramadi in al-Anbar province, killing 6 immediately and wounding 30, many of them seriously, so that the death toll will probably rise. At a US base near the northern city of […]

al-Wafd: American Prison Guards are “Dark Angels of Hell” As public revulsion at the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghuraib prison by American guards circles the globe, a second scandal hit, this time concerning British soldiers who abused their captives. Most troubling of all, Afghan politicians are now suggesting that the prisoner abuse scandal could […]

British Clash with Mahdi Army in Amara al-Hayat: 4 American troops were killed Saturday in separate incidents. In Amara, British troops clashed with the Army of the Mahdi, loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, killing several militiamen and taking 10 prisoner. About 6 British soldiers were wounded in the over 7-hour gun battle. A British […]

Arab Reaction to Photos of Prisoner Abuse The sexual and physical abuse of Iraqi prisoners of war, a direct violation of the Geneva Conventions by US soldiers at the Abu Ghuraib prison, has naturally produced outrage in the Arab world. This is a big thing, folks. I saw the American rightwing talking heads Friday evening […]