Juan Cole

A common response from the Right to President Obama’s capping of CEO salaries and bonuses at $500,000 a year in companies that take big USG bailout money has been to warn that it will be difficult to attract the best management talent to run those firms. Uh, wasn’t it those geniuses, the ‘top management talent’ […]

Iran put a satellite into low earth orbit on Tuesday, in honor of the anniversary of the revolution that brought the Islamic Republic to power in 1979. US, German and other Western officials expressed anxiety that the same technology used in the launches could also be used to develop an Iranian ballistic missile. Iran insists […]

The USG Open Source Center translates a short interview with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on the timetable for US troop withdrawal from Iraq. ‘Al-Maliki Says Withdrawal of US Forces From Iraq ‘Might be Sooner’ Than ScheduleCorrected version: correcting source in line 1Iraq– OSC SummaryTuesday, February 3, 2009 . . . The Iraq Agency for […]

In Afghanistan on Monday, a suicide bomber dressed as a policeman infiltrated a police compound and detonated his payload, killing at least 25 officers of the law (according to late wire service reports). The bomber attacked in Tirin Kot, the capital of Oruzgan Province, from which Taliban leader Mulla Muhammad Omar hails. Chairman of the […]

Walter Posch writes in a guest op-ed for IC: Iran is generally viewed as to be one of the biggest challenges for the incoming administration. And for good reasons! After all previous administrations got their fingers burnt either way, by reaching out or by putting pressure on Tehran. The question what to do next depends […]

The big news out of the leaks from Iraq’s vote counters is that parties seeking a strong central government appear to have won big in the elections for provincial governments. There had been a split last fall. Some parties, such as the Kurdistan Alliance and the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, wanted Iraq to have […]

Early reports say that 60% of Iraqi’s electorate came out for Saturday’s election of provincial councils. The results will be announced by the end of this week, and only after “weeks” will the final tally be published. There was a lockdown of the whole country, in which US troops assisted, with no private automobiles allowed […]

Iraqis go to the polls Saturday to vote in the first provincial elections since January, 2005. This time, two big things are different. The Sunni Arabs are not boycotting the election, as they did 4 years ago; and the Shiite parties are competing against one another rather than running as a monolithic coalition. These two […]

The odd collection of con men, carpetbaggers, mercenaries, court jesters, and professional propagandists that gathered around W. the way pilot fish jostle about a great white shark has now scattered to more obscure reefs. Now, as Meyrav Wurmser admitted, they are thinking about how to make money. They seek perches in the “think tanks” of […]