Juan Cole

Annan: No Direct Elections are Possible before July 1 The Washington Post reports the following: Kofi Annan did as Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani asked, and delivered a considered judgment about whether direct elections can be held before June 30. Annan’s answer: No. That is not the answer Sistani wanted (see below). The US plan to […]

Iran, Iraq and Two Shiite Visions Veteran Middle East reporter Nicholas Blanford writes in the Christian Science Monitor about Grand Ayatollah Sistani and the implications of his movement for Iran. It is a fine, subtly argued piece. I think that if Iraq is able to hold and sustain regular parliamentary elections, with the Shiite clerics […]

Sistani Interview in Der Spiegel If the article coming out on Saturday in Der Spiegel, the German news magazine, is accurate, it seems to me to portend significant difficulties ahead for the US. Sistani clearly is insisting on a new United Nations Security Council Resolution that would set out the procedures and timetable for free […]

Zarqawi Issue Still on the Front Burner Tony Karon at Time’s weblog and Jim Lobe in the Asia Times both write interestingly on the letter attributed to Abu Mus`ab az-Zarqawi (i.e. Ahmad Fadil Al-Khalailah), the “Arab Afghan” leader of the al-Tawhid terrorist group that has for some time had a rivalry with al-Qaeda. A fine, […]

11 Iraqis Killed, 55 Foreign Troops Wounded in Car Bombings Reuters reports that guerrillas launched two car bomb attacks against a military base near Hilla yesterday, killing 11 and wounding over 100 others, including 55 Coalition troops under Polish command. AP said that “The wounded included 32 Iraqis and 26 Poles, as well as Hungarians, […]

Bush Contradicted Again President Bush keeps saying that everyone thought Iraq had weapons of mass destruction before the Iraq war, implying that if he was wrong, he was in good company. But Deutsche Welle reports of UN weapons inspector Hans Blix in February and March of 2003: ‘Blix recalled that the inspectors visited nearly 70 […]

Armed Militias of SCIRI, Da`wa Patrol Samawah AFP via az-Zaman: Security is being provided to the southern Shiite city of Samawah, pop. 350,000, by the paramilitary forces of the Da`wah Party and the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq. The Dutch and Japanese military contingents appear to be garrisoned outside the city. Samawah has […]

Laissez Faire Kaput Reuters confirms earlier reports that Tom Foley, the Coalition Provisional Authority official in charge of economic policy, has given up on a plan to privatize 150 state-owned companies. The plan, submitted to the Interim Governing Council last fall, was shelved by that body. Many Iraqis feared that the state firms would be […]

Karbala Affairs az-Zaman reports that a CPA official* has forced the resignation of the governor and deputy govenor of Karbala province along with several members of the provincial council. No reason was given for the move. On Tuesday, a former Baath official was shot dead in Karbala. There have been demonstrations against provincial councils and […]