Juan Cole

Rumsfeld, Bechtel and Iraq Well, the Democratic Party seems too nice or inept to do anything with it, but as the Washington Post points out, the good folks at the National Security Archive are continuing to document the long history of Republican Party coddling of Saddam Hussein, and their hypocritical winking at his use of […]

Breaking News: Shiite Badr Brigade HQ in Baghdad Bombed According to CNN, a huge bomb demolished the headquarters of the paramilitary Badr Brigade in Baghdad, the militia of the Shiite Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq. It killed one woman and injured 8 others. The building also housed some displaced families, but Western news […]

1 US Soldier Killed, Another Wounded along with Translator Guerrillas in northwest Baghdad mounted an ambush late Wednesday on a 1st Armored Division convoy, killing one US soldier, and wounding another. An Iraqi interpreter was also wounded.

Al-Hakim to ash-Sharq al-Awsat: Saddam must be Tried in Iraq In an interview with the London daily ash-Sharq al-Awsat, Shiite leader Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, current president of the Interim Governing Council, insisted that Saddam must be tried in Iraq by a war crimes tribunal. Apparently there has been some sort of controversy in the Shiite […]

Kofi Annan May visit Iraq; Tells Sistani Direct Elections Impractical Kofi Annan is seeking a Jan. 15 meeting with the countries involved in Iraq and with the Interim Governing Council, so as to determine what the UN role will be in that country. The UN was not mentioned in the November 15 agreement setting a […]

Should Saddam be Executed or Exhibited in Stocks and Spit on? Shiites Debate The Associated Press reports on the debate in the Shiite holy city of Karbala on what should be done with Saddam. Many residents of the city, which was brutally repressed during the 1990s, with thousands killed, want Saddam executed. AP says that […]

So this is Liberation? One of the prime messages the Bush Public Relations team has attempted to project to the US public is that the War on Terror, and the War on Iraq, were good for women’s rights in the Muslim world. Desperate for the votes of the “security moms” (soccer moms worried about al-Qaeda […]

Abdul Aziz al-Hakim Recognizes Justice of Reparations to Iran Reuters reports that Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the current president of the Interim Governing Council, has admitted that Iran has a just claim on Iraq for reparations for the Iraq-Iran War of 1980-1988, in which Saddam had ordered Iraqi armies to seize Iran’s oil-rich Khuzistan province but […]

Convalescence for the Iraqi Psyche Needed: Sunni-Shiite Clashes in Wake of Saddam Capture Maureen Fan of Knight-Ridder observes that the capture of Saddam by the Americans has exacerbated tensions between Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq: “The day after Saddam’s capture was announced, Shiites from Kadhimiya crossed the bridge and started dancing in the street in […]