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Archives: February 2006

Over 1300 Dead In Sectarian Violence

Over 1300 Dead in Sectarian Violence Mortar Strike on Sunni Mosque Kills 4 Violence Subsides Ellen Knickmeyer and Bassam Sebti of the WaPo reports that since last Wednesday rioters and militiamen have…

Violence Kills 29 Despite Curfew In

Violence Kills 29 Despite Curfew in Iraq British Embassy in Tehran Torched Despite the daytime curfew, violence killed 29 in Iraq on Sunday and wounded dozens. A series of eight mortar shells…

Afghanistan Prison Riot 25000 Protest

Afghanistan Prison Riot 25000 Protest in Pakistan The Bush administration cannot even control the al-Qaeda operatives it has in prison! Much less the many walking around free because Bush wasted our resources…

Muqtada Calls For Sunni Shiite Marches

Muqtada calls for Sunni-Shiite Marches, Prayers Wants Pan-Islamic Resolution for US Withdrawal Al-Zaman / AFP report that [Ar.] young Shiite nationalist leader Muqtada al-Sadr, having arrived at Basra on Sunday from Iran,…

More Shrines Destroyed 60 Killed

More Shrines Destroyed, 60 Killed Sistani forms MilitiaKarbalaNews.net reports that [Ar.] guerrillas blew up a Shiite shrine in Bashir, south of Tuz Khurmato. This Turkmen region near Kirkuk is largely Shiite. It…

Violence In Baghdad Samarra Curfew

Violence in Baghdad, Samarra Curfew Partially Observed There was more violence on Friday in Iraq amid calls by clerical leaders for peace. The daytime curfew called for earlier was widely ignored, especially…

Suicide Bombing Of Saudi Oil Complex

Suicide Bombing of Saudi Oil Complex Foiled We all just dodged a bullet. But for how long?The good news is that the suicide bombing by unidentified radicals against the Saudi oil processing…

Dozens Of Mosques Attacked Over 100

Dozens of Mosques Attacked, Over 100 Dead, Thousands Protest CNN reports that 7 US GIs were killed in Iraq on Wednesday.There will be a curfew in the core Sunni Arab areas, including…

Sistani Threatens To Turn To Militia

Sistani threatens to turn to Militia Sadr Calls for Calm The shoe seems to be on the other foot now, with Muqtada al-Sadr attempting to cool Iraq's Shiites down and Grand Ayatollah…

Iran Blames Bush Sunni Shiite Clashes

Iran Blames BushSunni Shiite ClashesDan Murphy of the Christian Science Monitor has an excellent piece interpreting the significance of the turmoil over the bombing of the Askariyah shrine in Samarra.Shiites came out…

Shiite Protests Roil Iraq Tuesday Was

Shiite protests Roil IraqTuesday was an apocalyptic day in Iraq. I am not normally exactly sanguine about the situation there. But the atmospherics are very, very bad, in a way that most…

Bringing United Nations Back In There

Bringing the United Nations Back InThere will be anti-War protests in the coming month, as the 3-year anniversary of the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq approaches.I think it is time to demand a…

Thinking About Suing If Among My Loyal

Thinking about SuingIf among my loyal readers there are any attorneys with expertise in libel law, in the US or UK, who might be willing to consult on a possible series of…

Ambassador Versus Ayatollah Khalilzad

The Ambassador Versus the Ayatollah: Khalilzad to Iraq: No Shiite Control of Interior, Defense Sistani Contradicts HimOn Monday, the stage was set for an epic struggle between the two forces behind the…

Guerrilla War Still Going Strong

Guerrilla War Still Going Strong: Guerrillas kill 26, Wound 74 in Seven bombings, Other Attacks Al-Zaman [Ar.]: The Iraqi governent says that during the seven days ending on Sunday, guerrillas launched 111…

17 Dead In Guerrilla Violence Fadhilah

17 Dead in Guerrilla Violence Fadhilah Defends Constitution Robert worth of the NYT reports that some 17 persons were killed in guerrilla violence in Iraq on Sunday. Guerrillas used an explosive device…

What If Cheney Had Apologized For Iraq

What if Cheney had Apologized for Iraq?Satire alert for the humorless. What would it have looked like if Vice President Richard Bruce Cheney had apologized for Iraq the way he apologized for…

Iraqi Press Highlights For Feb

Iraqi Press Highlights for Feb. 19Key bits of information from the Iraqi press, selected from a mass of such articles in the Foreign Broadcast Information Service report for Sunday, Feb. 19. A…

20 Dead In Bombings Gunfights

20 Dead in Bombings, Gunfights Including GI Guerrillas set off several bombs in Baghdad on Saturday, targetting policemen. They also bombed Tikrit, Baqubah and Fallujah. Deaths in these bombings and in other…

Muqtada Al Sadr On Aljazeera Ready To

Muqtada al-Sadr on Aljazeera "Ready to attack the Americans if they Attack Iran or Syria" "In a Democratic Iraq, Kurds will not need Own Region" Muqtada al-Sadr gave an extended interview on…

Iranians Demand British Withdrawal

Iranians Demand British Withdrawal from BasraBombs in Baghdad and Yusufiyah; reprisal killings in Baghdad; and major pipeline sabotage targeting fuel supplies to the capital. Also, the audacious kidnapping of one of the…

Further Abu Ghraib Photos Us

Further Abu Ghraib Photos US Constitution RIP Salon.com has gotten hold of a complete set of images of torture from Abu Ghraib. This is the material that the US government has been…

Iraq Seethes Over Abu Ghraib 11 Dead

Iraq Seethes over Abu Ghraib 11 Dead, 30 Wounded in guerrilla ViolenceThree major bombings in Baghdad and shootings there and elsewhere killed 11 persons in Iraq on Thursday and left 30 wounded.Bush…

New Abu Ghuraib Photos Published Bombs

New Abu Ghuraib Photos Published Bombs in Baghdad A series of bombings killed at least 8 persons and wounded over a dozen in Baghdad on Wednesday. Four guerrillas were killed in running…

Sunni Guerrilla Movement Consolidating

Sunni Guerrilla Movement Consolidating, Implacable: ICG The International Crisi Group has released a study of the Sunni Arab guerrilla movement in Iraq, using internet posting, videos and other sources over the past…

Top Ten Ways Iraq Is Like Harry

Top Ten Ways Iraq is like Harry Whittington1. Cheney attacked secular Iraq, mistaking it for an ally of Usamah Bin Laden. Cheney attacked Harry Whittington, mistaking him for a small bird.2. Iraq…

Basra Province Boycotts British

Basra Province Boycotts British, demands Danish Withdrawal Thousands of Islamist Kurds demonstrate against Caricatures Guerrillas at Balad, a largely Shiite town north of Baghdad, killed a local clan leader and his family…

Plame Wilson Had Worked On Iran Anti

Plame Wilson Had worked on Iran Anti-ProliferationValerie Plame Wilson and her team at the CIA were working on Iran counter-prolifetation efforts, according to Larisa Alexandrovna of Raw Story. It has been known…

Guerrilla Violence Kills 26 Wounds 47

Guerrilla Violence Kills 26, Wounds 47 Negotiations on New Government BeginA suicide bomber detonated his belt at a line of persons in Shiite East Baghdad waiting for government checks on Monday, killing…

Jaafari Wins On Basis Of Dawa Sadrist

Jaafari Wins on Basis of Dawa, Sadrist Vote Some Question Stability of United Iraqi Alliance in AftermathAl-Zaman/AFP reports that the internal vote of the fundamentalist United Iraqi Alliance that elected Ibrahim Jaafari…

Jaafari Prime Minister 2006 2010 But

Jaafari Prime Minister 2006-2010 But is not Allowed on US TelevisionBreaking news: The United Iraqi Alliance, a coalition of Shiite fundamentalist parties, has chosen Ibrahim Jaafari to be prime minister of Iraq…

Bombings Assassinations Continue As

Bombings, Assassinations Continue As Political Process Stalls A bomb rigged to a motorcycle exploded outside a restaurant in Baghdad on Sunday morning, wounding at least 9 persons.Political assassinations and bombings were carried…

18 Dead 60 Wounded In Bombings Sunni

18 Dead, 60 Wounded in bombings Sunni Mosque Targeted Al-Zaman/ AFP reports that on Friday guerrilla violence left 18 Iraqis dead and 60 wounded. The first car bomb in the Dora section…

Cole On Danish Caricatures In Salon_09

Cole on Danish Caricatures in Salon.comMy article on cartoongate is out over at Salon.com.Excerpt: ' After the cartoons were published on Sept. 30, right-wing Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen reacted to…

Everything West And Middle East Need

Everything the West and the Middle East Need Could have been Learned in Kindergarten 1. Don't make fun of people for things they were born with, like big noses, skin color or…

Condaleeza Rice Is Liar Blames Syria

Condaleeza Rice is a Liar Blames Syria, Iran for Inciting Violence over Caricatures of ProphetSecretary of State Condi Rice on Wednesday blamed Iran and Syria for inciting violence over the Danish caricatures…

Politics Of Race And Religion In

The Politics of Race and Religion in DenmarkA reader living in Denmark writes:' I was most surprised to hear that there had been a demonstration of "as many as" 5000 Muslims here…

Guerrilla Violence Leaves 9 Iraqis 4

Guerrilla Violence Leaves 9 Iraqis, 4 GIs Dead Shiites Targeted during Festival CBS says that Sunni-Shiite violence in Iraq is increasing, as is Sunni frustration with Shiite death squads.Bombings and other violence…

5000 Sadrists Demonstrate Against

5,000 Sadrists Demonstrate Against Denmark in Kut Sadr Pledges Solidarity with Syria against 'Israel, UK, US' AP reports that the young Shiite nationalist leader Muqtada al-Sadr has been behind many of the…

More On Hypocrisy Of West And

More on the Hypocrisy of the West and CartoongateThe Danish newspaper that published the caricatures of Muhammad refused to carry cartoons lampooning Jesus of Nazareth, The Guardian revealed on Monday.' In April…

Caricatures Roil Muslim World Beirut

Caricatures Roil Muslim World Beirut Embassy Torched Iraq Demonstrations, Threats against Danish Troops Before I launch into this report, I want to underline that few places in the Muslim world have seen…

Fact File On Reaction To Danish

Fact File on Reaction to Danish CaricaturesIt is being alleged in some quarters that the controversy over the Danish caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad is somehow artificial or whipped up months later…

Nearly 2 Dozen Dead In Attacks Us Uk

Nearly 2 Dozen Dead in Attacks US, UK to Seek Long-Term Bases Bush is asking for yet another commitment of $120 billion for Iraq (and a little of it is for Afghanistan).…

Muslim Protests Against Anti Muhammad

Muslim Protests Against Anti-Muhammad Caricatures Several readers have asked what I think about the protests among Muslims against the caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad published by a Danish newspaper.Of course people are…

George “Gen. Jack Ripper” Bush

George "Gen. Jack Ripper" Bush Another leaked British memo ("everywhere you dig you find a body") reveals that Bush and Blair sat around on January 31, 2003, thinking up crazy schemes to…

Shiite Control Of Interior Red Line Al

Shiite control of Interior a Red Line Al-Zaman reports [Ar.] that Abdul Aziz al-Hakim of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq is still determined to try to obtain for his…

Guerrillas Kill 37 Iraqis Wound 90 5

Guerrillas Kill 37 Iraqis wound 90; 5 GIs Killed Muqtada Threatens "The Most Violent Response" to US Attack Guerrillas set off two bombs in the al-Amin quarter of Baghdad on Thursday, killing…

Sunni Arab Politicians Threaten Civil

Sunni Arab Politicians threaten Civil Disobedience At least 14 were killed in bombings and violence in Iraq on Wednesday. One bomb targeting Shiites killed 8 in Baghdad. Two Iraqi television journalists were…

Arguing With Bush Middle East Portion

Arguing with BushThe Middle East portion of Bush's State of the Union address was a real disappointment. Here is some of the text, with my comments.' In 1945, there were about two…

How To Tell If Bush Is Serious About

How to Tell if Bush is Serious about Ending US Dependence on Foreign PetroleumBush said last night he wanted to end the dependence of the United States on foreign petroleum. That is…

14 Bodies In Baghdad Us Talks With

14 Bodies in Baghdad US Talks with Guerrillas Halted Altogether 14 dead bodies showed up in the capital of Baghdad on Tuesday, all shot in what were probably sectarian reprisals. Four Iraqi…