Juan Cole

Continued Clashes in Karbala Lead to Closure of Shrines al-Zaman: On Sunday, Shiite religious authorities in Karbala formally closed the shrines of Imam Husain and his half-brother Abu’l-Fadl Abbas, to pilgrims. This rare procedure has not been implemented for decades. It was felt necessary because although militiamen (including Badr Corps) loyal to Grand Ayatollah Ali […]

Continued Clashes in Karbala Lead to Closure of Shrines al-Zaman: On Sunday, Shiite religious authorities in Karbala formally closed the shrines of Imam Husain and his half-brother Abu’l-Fadl Abbas, to pilgrims. This rare procedure has not been implemented for decades. It was felt necessary because although militiamen (including Badr Corps) loyal to Grand Ayatollah Ali […]

Italians, Pushed out of Nasiriyah, Tell Bush to Back Off 10 Italian Troops Wounded, 20 Iraqis wounded, 2 Killed More heavy fighting at Nasiriyah on Sunday. AP reports that the Mahdi Army in Nasiriyah has tossed the Italians off their own base, just as had been done to the Ukrainians at Kut in early April. […]

Italians, Pushed out of Nasiriyah, Tell Bush to Back Off 10 Italian Troops Wounded, 20 Iraqis wounded, 2 Killed More heavy fighting at Nasiriyah on Sunday. AP reports that the Mahdi Army in Nasiriyah has tossed the Italians off their own base, just as had been done to the Ukrainians at Kut in early April. […]

Patel on Religious Authority For a quick primer on religious authority in Iraq, Sunni and Shiite, from an academic who has been living there for the past year, see David Patel’s piece, just published by the Carnegie Endowment for Peace. Patel writes, “Freed from state control, religious authorities—drawing on their moral authority and extensive mass […]

Patel on Religious Authority For a quick primer on religious authority in Iraq, Sunni and Shiite, from an academic who has been living there for the past year, see David Patel’s piece, just published by the Carnegie Endowment for Peace. Patel writes, “Freed from state control, religious authorities—drawing on their moral authority and extensive mass […]

Iran Strongly Condemns US Operations in Najaf, Karbala Supreme Jurisprudent Ali Khamenei of Iran finally broke his silence about the US military operations in Najaf and Karbala on Sunday. I had presumed that his earlier caution was a function of his support for Sistani and al-Hakim versus Muqtada al-Sadr. But apparently the rage in Iran […]

Iran Strongly Condemns US Operations in Najaf, Karbala Supreme Jurisprudent Ali Khamenei of Iran finally broke his silence about the US military operations in Najaf and Karbala on Sunday. I had presumed that his earlier caution was a function of his support for Sistani and al-Hakim versus Muqtada al-Sadr. But apparently the rage in Iran […]

Rumsfeld Plays “M”, Gives License to Kill Sy Hersh’s expose of an ultra-secret 00 unit of two hundred inside the Pentagon is probably the nail in the coffin of Rumsfeld’s tenure at the Department of Defense, and may well be a factor in the presidential elections. Disturbingly, Sen. Joe Lieberman endorsed torture as an information […]