Juan Cole

Iyad Alawi takes over Presidency of IGC Iyad Alawi became president of the Interim Governing Council on October 1, in accordance with a compromise that lets each of 9 IGC members take one-month rotations as leaders. Alawi, b. 1945, was trained as a physician (a neurologist) at Baghdad University and practiced in the UK He […]

Wesley Clark Calls for Criminal Investigation of Bush Iraq policy Presidential hopeful Gen. Wesley Clark said Friday he believes the Bush administration should be investigated for possible criminal wrongdoing in the case it made to the American people that Iraq was an immediate threat, according to the Telegraph. He said an independent counsel should look […]

“A Land Ruled by Chaos” – Goldenberg Suzanne Goldenberg’s long account of her recent journey to Iraq in The Guardian sounds an awful lot more like the Iraq visible in Arabic-speaking journalists’ accounts than the recent fluff pieces by non-Arabists like Max Boot and Patrick Clawson. Some quotes: “Iraq under the US-led occupation is a […]

References “Clark: Bush Should Face Inquiry” http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main. jhtml?xml=/news/2003/10/04/wclark04. xml&sSheet=/portal/2003/10/04/ixportaltop.html Robin Wright and Maggie Farley, “US Tries,” http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/ complete/la-fg-chalabi3oct03,1,1966418. story?coll=la-iraq-complete Robin Wright, “Iran May Assist” http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/ la-fg-usiran4oct04-1,1,6759673.story? coll=la-home-headlines Goldenberg, “A Land Ruled by Chaos” http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/ Story/0,2763,1055766,00.html

4 US soldiers wounded in Iraq Two US soldiers were wounded in a firefight in Falluja on Thursday, in which some civilians were also injured. Guerrillas in Kirkuk set off six explosions, using mortars or rocket-propelled grenades. They wounded two US soldiers. Then two suicide bombers set off another two explosions. Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez […]

“Unfortunate,” Says Rumsfeld; Kay Mission Fails David Kay reports a failure to find any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and asks for $600 mn. to allow him to go back with a team and look more. The old American saying, no use throwing good money after bad, applies here. Kay says he has evidence […]

Chalabi Outlines Goals of New Iraqi Government Addressing the UN, Iraqi member of the US-appointed Interim Governing Council Ahmad Chalabi laid out his vision of a new Iraqi government. Chalabi said that, “The pillars of this system are, first, a separation of powers,by writing a constitutional framework that ensures noninterference between the judicial, legislative, executive […]

CIA Spy Case: Blaming the Victim The Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them Machine has been revved up against Ambassador Joe Wilson for daring dispute the Bush administration. Attempts are being made to tag Wilson as a leftie Democrat with an axe to grind against Bush. But Wilson served under Republican as well […]

IGC Forbids Parties to Interfere in Government Appointments The Interim Governing Council on Thursday prohibited political parties from intervening in the appointment process in government ministries. Political Parties are not to open offices or hold party meetings on the premises of any of the Ministries. (Usually things are only forbidden if they are actually already […]