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Al-Hakim: “US Troops Out!” Le Monde reported Monday that Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the cleric who leads the United Iraqi Alliance, rejects a long-term presence for US troops in Iraq: Permanent American bases in Iraq? The question seems so incongruous to His Most Austere “Eminence Abdul Aziz Al-Hakim,” (as the leader of the Shiite party which […]

Guerrillas Kill 33, Wound Dozens The guerrilla war in Iraq boiled along on Monday. In addition to the operations around Baquba reported yesterday morning, AP describes several further attacks: ‘ In Balad, southeast of Baqouba, a car bomb killed 12 people. In Baghdad, gunmen killed two police officers and wounded a third. Two civilians also […]

Foreign Occupation has Produced Radical Muslim Terrorism Fareed Zakariya argues that Bush got one thing right. Zakariya writes: ” Bush never accepted the view that Islamic terrorism had its roots in religion or culture or the Arab-Israeli conflict. Instead he veered toward the analysis that the region was breeding terror because it had developed deep […]

12 Killed, 26 Wounded at Baquba Roundup: Looting, Kidnapping, and Shortage of Recruits The Iraqi parliament will meet March 16, whether or not it can form a government at that time, it was announced on Sunday. The hang-up so far has been that the Kurds have insisted on up-front acquiescence in their demands by the […]

US Intervention in 1957 Lebanese Elections A reader writes by email concerning the question of whether the United States engineered the parliamentary elections of 1957 in Lebanon in an attempt to give President Camille Chamoun a second (unconstitutional) term: In regards to the US role in these elections, the remarks of former Ambassador Richard Parker […]

Asad Pledges 2-Stage Withdrawal President Bashar al-Asad of Syria gave a major policy speech [Arabic link] to the Syrian parliament on Saturday on Lebanon. He pledged a withdrawal of Syrian troops to the Biqaa Valley (a largely Sunni Arab area near the Syrian border), after which the troops would then be stationed along the Syria-Lebanon […]

Kurdish-Shiite Negotiations Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani put pressure Saturday on the United Iraqi Alliance to maintain its unity and to speed up the formation of a new government. Intrepid PBS reporter Elizabeth Farnsworth of the Lehrer Hour did a piece from Qom this week about the influence of Grand Ayatollah Sistani in Iran, via his […]

Samarra Turmoil AFP reports that Iraqi police in Samarra announced a daytime curfew aimed at preventing the holding of mass demonstrations called for by the Association of Muslim Scholars. This curfew is apparently authorized by the State of Emergency extended through the end of March by interim PM Iyad Allawi. There has been a lot […]

Constitutional Issues Professor Nathan Brown has written an overview of constitutional issues (link is pdf). Andrew Arato writes by email: This is the more or less complete picture for what 2/3 votes are needed for, according to the Transitional Administrative Law, in the National Assembly and for what 50% + 1 majorities are enough. [Many […]