Juan Cole

Mars Rover “Spirit” Lands Safely!! NASA announced around 1 am Sunday 1/4 that the Mars Rover, Spirit, had landed safely on the surface and sent a signal showing that it was undamaged. This is a great relief. Mars is called the “death planet” by space aeronautics experts, since 2/3s of missions there have failed. Spirit […]

1 US soldier Killed, 4 wounded A US helicopter was shot down on Friday, killing one US soldier and wounding another. There are confusing reports from the scene. The US military asserts that its soldiers took fire from assailants dressed as journalists, and apprehended some. Reuters says that the people in custody are just innocent […]

Sunnis Protest Mosque Raid There was a large (1000 to 1500 strong) demonstration in the Yarmouk quarter of Baghdad against a US raid on two mosques in the district on Friday. The Guardian reported that Iraqi police and US troops raided the Ibn Taimiyah Mosque in the southwestern Yarmouk quarter of Baghdad on Thursday and […]

More Ethnic Violence in Kirkuk AP reported that in the northern, mainly Arab city of Mosul, on Wednesday assailants kidnapped and killed Adel Jabar Abid Mustafa, a Baathist whom Saddam had appointed dean of the faculty of political science at Mosul University. Thursday morning his body was found; he had been killed Mafia-style, two bullets […]

30 Bulgarians Refuse to Serve AFP reports that 30 Bulgarian soldiers in a 500-man battalion scheduled to go to Iraq have refused to serve there. A recent attack by guerrillas in Karbala wounded 64 Bulgarian troops and killed 4. AFP said, “Members of the replacement battalion on Friday demanded that a clause be written into […]

6 US troops wounded Weds.; Bomb blast in Baghdad Kills 8 Iraqis AP reported that on Wednesday, a bomb hidden in foliage outside a Baghdad restaurant exploded as a US army convoy passed. The guerrillas wounded 3 American soldiers and 3 Iraqi civilians, and killed an Iraq bystander. On Wednesday, as well, guerrillas set off […]

Top 5 Tasks Remaining in 2004 in the War on Terror US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld worried in a memo last fall that the US lacks a “metric” or a means of measuring success in the war on terror. If he does not have one, then I certainly do not. But as someone who […]

Bremer and CPA “Extremely Offended” at Call for UN Role A member of the Interim Governing Council, Mahmoud Osman, told al-Hayat newspaper that the Coalition Provisional Authority was extremely offended by the IGC’s call for the United Nations to play a role in the transition to Iraqi sovereignty. He said that Washington id not want […]

Ethnic Violence in Kurdistan Boils Over; 3 Dead on Thursday, 5 Dead on Wednesday On Thursday, Kirkuk Police Chief Turhan Yusuf said, “Unknown attackers stabbed two Kurds to death and threw their bodies near a bridge in the centre of the city.” This act was presumably in revenge for the shooting of 3 Arabs by […]