Juan Cole

Sistani warns of his own Assassination, Civil War al-Hayat: Muhammad Bahr al-Ulum, March’s president-for-a-month of the Interim Governing Council, revealed in a news conference on Wednesday that Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani had warned late last week that “the enemies of Iraq” were “plotting to kill him [Sistani] in order to spark a civil war in […]

Wave of Kidnappings Continues in Baghdad Jack Fairweather of the Independent reports that the wave of kidnappings that has racked Baghdad continues, at an average of 2 a day. The typical ransom is $25,000. If we extrapolate out that rate, it is 720 abductions per 5 million people per annum (.014 percent of the population […]

More on Interim Constitution Roger Myerson, a professor of economics at the University of Chicago, shared with me the following on the Interim Constitution, and has kindly consented to my reprinting it here: “Article 55 . . .may be a key to the evolution of power in Iraq. This article specifies that any group that […]

1 US Soldier killed, 1 Wounded; Spanish Base Shelled Wire services say that one US soldier was killed and another wounded Tuesday in a roadside bombing by guerrillas near Baquba north of Baghdad. Also, on Monday night three mortar shells hit the Spanish base at Diwaniyah, but produced no casualties. Diwaniyah is in the south, […]

Sistani: No Demonstrations Over Interim Constitution az-Zaman: Ibrahim Jaafari, leader of the al-Da`wa al-Islamiyah Party in Iraq, who is close to Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, revealed Tuesday that the ayatollah had pledged not to call for street protests against the Fundamental Law signed Monday. The son of Grand Ayatollah Ali Bashir al-Najafi, a Pakistani close […]

Can We all Get Along? My op-ed, Conquering the divide (about Sunni-Shiite divisions), appeared in the Guardian yesterday. I conclude, Iraq’s future very much depends on whether the Sunni Arabs and Kurds will prove able to accommodate themselves to it, and whether the Shia can and will allay their fears of a tyranny of the […]

Impressions from Iraq: ‘It was Kind of Scary’ USC’s Daily Trojan profiles Sharif Ossayran, an Iraqi expatriate who went back to his home country and then returned to report on its condition. He did not like what he saw, and has switched from supporting Bush to supporting Kerry because he believes Kerry will bring in […]

US Press as “Stenographers” for Bush War Reuters reports that the University of Maryland’s Center for International and Security Studies released a report on Tuesday slamming the US press for not questioning the arguments put forward by the Bush administration for war, and acting as a virtual stenographer for the White House. Interestingly, Susan Moeller, […]

Cobban on Interim Constitution Veteran journalist Helena Cobban has more discussion of the Fundamental Law signed Monday, its implications for Iraq, and the continued reservations about it coming from the Shiites.