Juan Cole

Bush’s speech on Iraq policy at 8:30 pm Sunday night struck me as weak compared to past addresses of his on the War on Terror. He seemed to me distracted and nervous, no doubt aware that after the UN and Najaf bombings, and with the steady drumbeat of US casualties, things are not going well. […]

*An assassination attempt against Grand Ayatollah Hussain Bashir al-Najafi has been foiled in Najaf reports AFP The Badr Corps militia of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq captured the man in Najafi’s home on Sunday. He confessed to being a member of the Fedayeen of Saddam Hussain, and also said that he had […]

*Ayham al-Samarrai, the new minister of electricity, has said that Coalition troops should withdraw from Iraqi cities within six months. (AFP) Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, Shiite cleric and member of the Interim Governing Council, has demanded that the US withdraw from the cities immediately.

*Guerrillas in cars sprayed machine gun fire at the headquarters of the Shiite al-Da`wa Party twice on Sunday. (Al-Zaman). No one was hurt. Four or five of the members of the Interim Governing Council have connections to al-Da`wa, including the temporary president, Ibrahim Jaafari, a party leader.

*About 5,000 Arab demonstrators rallied Saturday in Kirkuk, insisting that the US release Sheikh Hatam Al-Assy Al-Obeidi, a powerful tribal chieftain suspected in the sabotage of oil pipelines. They also demanded the resignation of Kirkuk’s Kurdish mayor, Abdul Rahman Zankane, saying that the city should be for all Iraqis, not just Kurds. (-AFP)

*Ex-Baathist provocateurs attempted to turn a peaceful demonstration by the unemployed in Basra into a violent riot on Saturday, but failed, according to al-Zaman. The Iraqi unemployment rate is usually given as 60%, and a lot of people are desperate.

*Officials in the northern city of Mosul (pop. 1.7 million) are saying that they have struck a deal with Syria such that it will provide the city with electricity in return for Iraqi petroleum. Such economic and political interactions between Iraq and Syria are inevitable, and raise severe questions about the American Enterprise Institute’s plan […]

*Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan angrily demanded a clarification from Iraq and the US about whether Turkish troops are wanted as peace enforcers. The new Iraqi foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, a Kurd, said that it was better if the Turks did not send troops. “’Otherwise, we are not that eager’ to get militarily involved, he […]

*For an expert look at some of the recent rather polemical books about Saudi Arabia, see long time Foreign Service Officer David Long’s review in the Forward. http://www.forward.com/issues/ 2003/03.09.05/arts1.long.html