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Religious Shiite Coalition Sweeping South; Allawi’s Showing Weak [If you’re in the giving mood this season, The History News Network” is a worthy cause.] Al-Zaman [Ar.]/ AFP: 10-11 million of Iraq’s 15 million potential voters came out on Thursday, according to al-Zaman. Of Iraqis abroad, 320,000 voted (a relatively small proportion of those eligible). The […]

The One that Got Away CNN is reporting that Iraqi authorities had arrested Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian terrorist, in Ramadi, but mistakenly released him. Nic Roberts reported that Zarqawi had put on weight, grown a beard, removed a tattoo, and was using a Kurdish passport, making him unrecognizable to Iraqi security forces. What I […]

What the Sunni Arab Vote Really Means According to wire services, Sunnis in Fallujah came out to vote: ‘ not only get rid of the Americans but to also get rid of the Shiite-dominated government. “It’s an extremist government [and] we would like an end to the occupation,” said Ahmed Majid, 31. “Really the only […]

High Turnout Expected as Iraqis go to Polls The guerrillas got off some mortars as voting began Thursday in Iraq, one striking the Green Zone in downtown Baghdad where the government offices are. A mortar was also fired in Mosul at a polling station but appears to have missed. A huge bomb was found and […]

Helman on Rice and the New Truman Doctrine Ambassador Gerald B. Helman writes: ” In an op-ed piece published in the December 11 Washington Post, Secretary of State Rice provides an important statement of the Administration’s global strategic posture. She underscores its importance by comparing the international environment the Administration confronted when it took office […]

Thousands of Shiites Demonstrate against Aljazeera; Four US troops were killed and a Sunni politician (Mizhar Dulaimi of Ramadi) was assassinated on Tuesday in the run-up to the Iraqi elections (scheduled for Dec. 15). Two days ago, another Sunni parliamentary candidate had been killed in Mosul. On Monday, Jalal al-Din al-Saghir, a Shiite candidate from […]

Street Battles, Bombings in Baghdad; Less Wealthy Candidates Cannot Campaign Baghdad was wracked with violence on Monday, witnessing a major carbombing at a police station, another carbombing in a southwest suburb, the discovery of four bodies of kidnapping victims, and two running street battles in Amiriyah and Ghazaliyah districts–with at least 43 persons wounded or […]

ABC/Time Poll on Iraq The full tabulation of the new ABC News/Time, et al., poll on Iraq is in pdf format on the web. Although a lot of Iraqis are optimistic about the future, and a lot say things aren’t going so badly for them personally, their view of where the country is at presently […]

Kashmir Crisis Enters Critical Phase The news from Kashmir, where 80,000 survivors of the earthquake now face severe winter weather and problems of food and shelter, is not good. The UN High Commissioner on Refugees is complaining about lack of resources. Let’s make a last push with the US Congress. A Hill staffer writes: “After […]