Juan Cole

The USG Open Source Center translates an article from the Spanish newspaper El Mundo profiling Delbar Jan Arman, a former member of the Hizb-i Islami of Gulbadin Hikmatyar who fought the Soviets, and whose four-year tenure as governor of Zabul province in the Pashtun south was controversial because of charges of corruption and repression of […]

It seems fairly clear from McClatchy’s account that the slummy Sunni Arab district of al-Fadl in Baghdad went into rebellion against the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Saturday and Sunday, after the arrest of Adil al-Mashhadani. The latter was the leader of the Awakening Council or Sons of Iraq paramilitary that has been […]

Ten gunmen attacked a police training facility near Lahore on Sunday, killing 20 and wounding 150. They deployed 11 bombs and machine gun fire. Two the attackers were killed in a counter-attack. The police facility is near Wagah, the border crossing into India. Note that this site is very, very distant from the tribal regions […]

My column in Salon.com is out, “Obama’s domino theory,” in which I worry that “The president sounds like he’s channeling Cheney or McCain — or a Cold War hawk afraid of international communism — when he talks about the war in Afghanistan.” Excerpt: ‘[Obama’s] latter-day domino theory of al-Qaida takeovers in South Asia is just […]

Video of my conversation with Steve Clemons about my new book, Engaging the Muslim World, is up at the Washington Note website. Clemons is a canny observer of US foreign policy and knows the capital’s movers and shakers, so it was a special pleasure to think together with him about where US relations with the […]

The USG Open Source Center translates an editorial on Baluchistan from the Urdu newspaper “Jang.” There is now talk that the Obama administration will extend its Predator drone strikes into the Pakistani province of Baluchistan. On Saturday, “Jung” published among the more informed and sensible pieces on Baluchistan I have seen. The Baluch are only […]

The Shiite government of Iraq arrests Adil Mashhadani, an Awakening Council or Sons of Iraq leader who had turned against the radical Salafi fundamentalists and took a salary from the US to fight them. Then a major gunfight breaks out between the government and armed Sunnis in the Fadil district of Baghdad. The Nuri al-Maliki […]

NATO and Afghan troops raided a bomb-making cell of insurgents in the southern Pushtun province of Helmand, killing 19 guerrillas, it was announced on Saturday. Afghanistan president Hamid Karzai praised President Obama’s plan for Afghanistan on Saturday, and was especially happy about two elements– going after militants hiding out in neighboring Pakistan, and reaching out […]

The USG Open Source Center translates an Afghan editorial criticizing elements of President Obama’s new plan for Afghanistan. It displays the gravest doubts that he will find any moderate Taliban with whom to negotiate, but also rejects the idea of an influx of further Western troops. It also decries the tendency of Western politicians to […]