Juan Cole

Iraqi Women see Window of Opportunity Closing Scheherezade Faramarzi reports on women’s aspirations for Iraq. It sounds as though not only did Mr. Bremer not appoint many women to the Interim Governing Council, but even some of the ones left on it are Islamists who favor or acquiesce in Islamic personal status law. It really […]

Muqtada: The UN has Agreed to the Occupation of Iraq Excerpts from and comments by me on an IRNA (Iran) news agency interview with Muqtada al-Sadr, 23 Feb. 04 (courtesy BBC monitoring) follow. Muqtada al-Sadr, 30, is the son of revered Iraqi cleric Muhammad Sadiq al-Sadr, who was assassinated by Saddam in 1999. Muqtada has […]

Iraq as Election issue in Ohio Leo Shane II reports that many local voters continue to be concerned with the Iraq war as an issue even when it no longer affects them personally. In this sense, the current troop shift, whereby tens of thousands of National Guardsmen are being sent to Iraq for a year, […]

Bush started Iraq War Planning in February 2002 The Guardian reports that Rowan Scarborough reveals in his new book, ‘ On February 16, 2002, Bush signed a secret national security council directive establishing the goals and objectives for going to war with Iraq, according to classified documents I obtained,” Scarborough wrote ‘ This was already […]

Treasury Department attempts to stop Editing of Papers from Iran Those of you who care about what is left of the First Amendment in this country should read this article at Democracy Now on the Treasury Department’s threats to imprison and fine any of us editors who dare edit a paper for publication from a […]

UN: No Early Elections in Iraq Kofi Annan released his report on Monday suggesting that direct elections can’t take place in Iraq until December of 2004 or early 2005. He made no suggestions about how to establish a government in Iraq to which the US could hand over sovereignty as planned on June 30. He […]

Rumsfeld Warns Iran and Syria US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld had Iran and Syria exactly where they want him. he alleged that Syria accepted Baath escapees from Iraq during the war last spring, and that Iran is “harboring” al-Qaeda and allowing its men to slip through Iraq into Iran. I personally doubt that Iran […]

Sistani wants Deep UN involvement Al-Sabah newspaper in Kuwait, quotes a statement put out by Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani on Monday. DPA summarizes it: Sistani ‘ said the UN should play a central role in the transfer of power to the Iraqis’ and that he wanted the UN to “completely supervise the political process until […]

Delaying Elections is a Time Bomb: Mudarrisi Wire services report that Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Taqi al-Mudarrisi speculated that the transfer of sovereignty to Iraqis on June 30 would cause the guerrilla insurgency to decrease and “maybe disappear.” He followed that bit of optimism with a warning that delaying direct elections unduly was “a time bomb […]