Juan Cole

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 […]

Kurds win on Loose Federalism in IGC’s Fundamental Law Kurdish Interim Governing Council member Dara Nour Eddine announced that the IGC had agreed to put language in the Fundamental Law it is now crafting that permits the status quo to continue in the Kurdish regions. Earlier, the IGC had proposed simply declaring that the status […]

Bombing Wounds 37, Kills 5 at Shiite Mosque in Baqubah The WP reports that on Friday in the eastern city of Baqubah, guerrillas detonated a bicycle bomb in front of a Shiite mosque as worshippers were leaving. Another huge car bomb had been found and deactivated in front of the city’s other major Shiite mosque. […]

al-Hakim: IGC will Invite UN Election Commission to Iraq Abdul Aziz al-Hakim met Thursday with Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani in Najaf, and afterwards announced that the Interim Governing Council will write to Kofi Annan asking that the UN send a commission to Iraq to deal with election issues. Sistani wants the commission to make a […]

IGC Will Implement Islamic Law in Personal Status Earlier this year, the Interim Governing Council abolished secularism. This is an item I hadn’t come across at the time, and it doesn’t seem to have attracted much press. The IGC has allowed Iraqis to follow religious law in personal status matters. This practice is common in […]