Juan Cole

Sistani Insists on General Elections After weeks of silence and rumors that he might back down on his demand that free and fair elections be held in Iraq, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani has come out and reiterated the demand. Reuters reports that Sistani said, “”The ideal mechanism…is elections which a number of experts confirm can […]

Mahmud Osman: We don’t want to Kurdify Kirkuk Kurdish politician and IGC member Mahmud Osman gave a long interview to the London daily ash-Sharq al-Awsat in which he maintained that the Kurds do not wish to visit any injustices on Turkmen and Arabs in the city of Kirkuk. They simply wish to bring back to […]

Questions about Clark’s “Consistency” on Iraq and al-Qaeda Edward Wyatt of the New York Times paints Gen. Wesley Clark as “inconsistent” for saying in October, 2002, that there were links between al-Qaeda and Saddam’s Iraq, but for later saying that there were no such links. Then he brings up the early interview in which Clark […]

What does it mean that Saddam is a P.O.W.? IGC Annoyed Just when you think you’ve got Rumsfeld figured out, he throws a spit ball that loops around your elbow. I thought Iyad Alawi’s declaration that the Interim Governing Council would try Saddam in a secret trial was probably the last word on the subject. […]

Bremer Opposes Kurdish Canton; Talabani insists on it In an interview with the London daily al-Hayat, US civil administrator of Iraq Paul Bremer has come out against the idea of consolidating the provinces of Iraq into ethnic cantons. He said, ”The US president did not send young American men and women half way across the […]

Situation in Basra David Patel kindly writes from Basra with more information about the situation there, some of it contradicting the report in ash-Sharq al-Awsat that I summarized recently: “I noticed you have a few posting on Basra. Here are some observations: Sayyid Ali al-Mussawi is not Sistani’s rep in town (as you say in […]

Higher 2-day Casualty Totals I had written on Friday, “(More troops have been killed on a single day in the past, but 44 killed-and-wounded must be the highest 2-day total since May 1; maybe since March 19?)” Reader Robert Lyday replies: “Nope. Looking more like 42 casualties that day, not 44, but anyway……..on December 9 […]

A Cheney Coup D’Etat? And the Death of Crassus in Iraq I knew that Paul Wolfowitz, Deputy Secretary of Defense, and Douglas Feith, Undersecretary of Defense for Planning, came into office in January of 2001 intending to get up a war against Iraq. But I had long assumed that they were frustrated to be serving […]

British Kill 6, Injure 11 in Amarah Unemployment Riots Crowds gathered in Amara Saturday to protest continued joblessness and also to indicate their displeasure with the mayor of the city. Although the BBC calls him “elected,” few open elections have been permitted in Iraqi cities, which has caused protests in several of them in past […]