*The American team in Iraq is being shaken up big time. Barbara Bodine, a long-time diplomat and Arabist, who has effectively been the US mayor […]

*According to al-Hayat, Ayatollah Muhammad Baqir al-Hakim, just returned from Iran, has called for a state in which all would feel secure and in which […]

* Breaking news. Ayatollah Muhammad Baqir al-Hakim has returned to Iraq, stopping first in Basra with a hundred-vehicle convoy. He is reported to have addressed […]

*US Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz criticized Turkey in an interview on CNN for not giving practical support to the US war effort in […]

*Jay Garner has added two further members to a nine-man leadership council (it is so far all men). One will represent the Shiite al-Da`wa Party […]

*The humanitarian and security crises continue to grow in American-occupied Iraq. Electricity has been returned to only 9 of 21 major cities, and much of […]

In my view the really big news today is the growing rapprochement between Pakistan and India. On Tuesday, Pakistani PM Zafarullah Jamali put forth six […]

*AFP is reporting that Jay Garner, head of the Pentagon’s reconstruction effort in Iraq, has appointed 5 Iraqi leaders as the core of a new […]

*Emile Lahoud, the president of Lebanon, rejected US Secretary of State Colin Powell’s demand that the Hizbullah militia in south Lebanon be replaced. He said […]