Annan: No Direct Elections are Possible before July 1 The Washington Post reports the following: Kofi Annan did as Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani asked, and […]

Iran, Iraq and Two Shiite Visions Veteran Middle East reporter Nicholas Blanford writes in the Christian Science Monitor about Grand Ayatollah Sistani and the implications […]

Sistani Interview in Der Spiegel If the article coming out on Saturday in Der Spiegel, the German news magazine, is accurate, it seems to me […]

Zarqawi Issue Still on the Front Burner Tony Karon at Time’s weblog and Jim Lobe in the Asia Times both write interestingly on the letter […]

11 Iraqis Killed, 55 Foreign Troops Wounded in Car Bombings Reuters reports that guerrillas launched two car bomb attacks against a military base near Hilla […]

Bush Contradicted Again President Bush keeps saying that everyone thought Iraq had weapons of mass destruction before the Iraq war, implying that if he was […]

Armed Militias of SCIRI, Da`wa Patrol Samawah AFP via az-Zaman: Security is being provided to the southern Shiite city of Samawah, pop. 350,000, by the […]

Laissez Faire Kaput Reuters confirms earlier reports that Tom Foley, the Coalition Provisional Authority official in charge of economic policy, has given up on a […]

Karbala Affairs az-Zaman reports that a CPA official* has forced the resignation of the governor and deputy govenor of Karbala province along with several members […]