Juan Cole

Iraq must be Kept together as a Single State The splitting up of Iraq into three countries would be unacceptable to all the neighbors, including Turkey and Saudi Arabia, and they are powerful enough that it probably cannot happen over their objections. Even President Khatami in Iran has begun speaking about the necessity to avoid […]

Diyala Bridge Cost Overruns More reader reactions to the Riverbend posting about US over-spending on construction projects in Iraq: From Nabil al-Tikriti: “Karen Magoon’s websearch is insufficient proof of the inaccuracy of the riverbend blog’s claim. I’ve been to Iraq a number of times, and through my relief work I’ve had quite a lot of […]

Three US Soldiers Dead, perhaps a dozen Wounded Guerrillas throughout northern Iraq subjected American troops to a large number of deadly attacks on Thursday, killing at least three US soldiers and wounding perhaps a dozen. Outside Tikrit, Saddam’s home town, guerrillas killed three US soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division and wounded two others. In […]

Police demonstrate in Basra The police chief of Basra has been removed from office by the British. About two hundred policemen loyal to him staged a protest Thursday.

Kurdish/Arab Violence in Kirkuk Dozens of armed Kurdish men in Kirkuk attacked Arab tribesmen near the city on Thursday afternoon, according to al-Hayat. The Kurds descended on the village of Hayfa, apparently intent on reclaiming it. Many Sunni Arabs had been given land by Saddam, at the expense of Kurds and Shiites. The head of […]

Uncompetitive Halliburton Contracts worth Billions in Iraq The contracts given last February by the US military to Halliburton for putting out petroleum fires and getting petroleum pumping again after the war were initially worth only a few million dollars, but their worth is now estimated at $3 bn. and it could go to $7 bn., […]

Ambassador Joe Wilson on Iraq – Interview by Josh Marshall The full story of Ambassador Joe Wilson’s investigation of (fraudulent) claims that Iraq had signed a deal to buy uranium from Niger is given in his interview with Josh Marshall in Talking Points Memo. Wilson, who served in the US embassy in Iraq until the […]

No Smallpox Program in Iraq, Either US Secretary of State Colin Powell said in his UN presentation that Iraq had the capacity to produce smallpox, one of the reasons it had to be attacked immediately. A special team scouring Iraq for a smallpox weapons program came up empty. The building the CIA thought might have […]

US Soldiers Wounded AFP reports “four more soldiers wounded in two separate attacks on convoys.”