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Bremer left Brass out of Loop on Iraqi Army Dissolution AFP reports that Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Peter Pace says that the Joint Chiefs were never consulted by Paul Bremer over his decision to simply dissolve the Iraqi army last May. Since actually having an Iraqi army might have made […]

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 of the provincial council. No reason was given for the move. On Tuesday, a former Baath official was shot dead in Karbala. There have been demonstrations against provincial councils and […]

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 plan to privatize 150 state-owned companies. The plan, submitted to the Interim Governing Council last fall, was shelved by that body. Many Iraqis feared that the state firms would be […]

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 paramilitary forces of the Da`wah Party and the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq. The Dutch and Japanese military contingents appear to be garrisoned outside the city. Samawah has […]

Women Demonstrate Demanding Equal Rights Small groups of women demonstrated in cities all over Iraq on Wednesday, demanding that equal rights for them be specified in the Fundamental Law now being drafted by the IGC, and that 40% of seats in parliament be set aside for women. The set-aside of seats for women has already […]

Arab-Americans and Bush I was glad to see Jack Shafer at Slate take on the awful NYT report about “Arab-Americans” giving big donations to Bush. Most of the donors cited were Iranians and Pakistanis. “Arab” is actually a linguistic category, like “Romance” or “Latin”. Most of the people in the arid zone stretching from Morocco […]

Sistani opposes Appointed Transitional Government The Jordan Times reported on the various plans being put forward for the July1 US hand-off to a sovereign Iraqi government. Since direct elections probably cannot be held before that date, the inclination seems to be to hand sovereignty to a perhaps expanded, but still appointed, Interim Governing Council. This […]

Japan invites Samawah Chieftains to Tokyo The tribal chieftains of the Samawah region have been invited to Tokyo in April for consultations about the best ways to rebuild their city, according to az-Zaman/ DPA. The Daily Star of Beirut recently published and interesting overview of the dire situation in Samawah. The assignment of Japanese Self […]

Ashura Coming Nir Rosen has an important piece in the Asia Times on the preparations for Ashura in Iraq. Ashura, the 10th of the month of Muharram, commemorates the martyrdom of the grandson of the prophet, Husayn. It is a time of mourning, sermons, poetry, weeping and processions with self-flagellation. Hundreds of thousands of Shiites […]