Month

Archives: November 2006

Bush Will Speed Turn Over Of Security

Bush Will Speed Turn-over of Security Responsibilities Maliki Skipped Weds. Banquet, Snubs Bush over Memo Bush will speed the transfer of security responsibilities to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, it was announced…

Health Ministry Attacked Khamenei

Health Ministry Attacked Khamenei Calls for US Withdrawal Iraq's Shiite-run Health Ministry was attacked again Weds. morning, presumably by Sunni Arab guerrillas.Thomas Ricks and Robin Wright at WaPo examine the increasing tendency…

King Abdullah Ii Its Palestine Stupid

King Abdullah II: It's Palestine, Stupid US Troops may Leave al-Anbar A surprise for Americans: The most urgent and destabilizing crisis in the Middle East is not Iraq. It is, according to…

Hizb And Mahdi Do They Or Dont They

Hizb and Mahdi: Do they or Don't they? The NYT was told by somebody in Washington that Hizbullah has trained between 1,000 and 2,000 Mahdi Army militiamen. I don't know if I…

Will Bush Rehabilitate Baathists Al

Will Bush Rehabilitate the Baathists? Al-Zaman [in Arabic] is under the impression that Bush's talks with al-Maliki in Amman will aim in part at politically rehabilitating members of the Baath Party. The…

End Of Academic Freedom And Israel

The End of Academic Freedom and the Israel Lobby Terri Ginsberg and Rima Abdelkader survey the wreckage of a once proud tradition of American academic integrity.This is what I wrote last week…

What Is Mission Or Russian Roulette

What is the Mission? Or, Russian RouletteReuters reports::' BAGHDAD - The U.S. military said three of its soldiers were killed and two others wounded by insurgents in Baghdad on Sunday.RAMADI - U.S.…

Tribalfundamentalist Violence

Tribal/Fundamentalist Violence Guerrillas Economically self-sustaining That a tribal group and Sunni fundamentalists clashed in al-Anbar is believeable. That the tribe lost 9 and "al-Qaeda" lost 55 is not, unless it was a…

Dozens Of Bodies Found Firefight At

Dozens of Bodies Found Firefight at Taji Dhari Urges Arabs to turn on Maliki Police found 17 bodies in Baghdad on Saturday. They found 21 bodies of Shiites in Balad Ruz, a…

Peshmerga To Guard Mps Mashhadani Usg

Peshmerga to Guard MPs: MashhadaniThe USG Open Source Center translates this item from the Kurdistan press:'Iraqi Parliament To Entrust Kurdish Peshmerga With Guarding MPsUnattributed report: "Al-Mashhadani recommends the peshmerga to guard Council…

Sunnis Set Afire Mosques Attacked

Sunnis Set Afire, Mosques Attacked Nearly 100 Killed in Reprisals Muqtada Challenges Dhari The death toll in Thursday's massive assault on Sadr City by Sunni Arab guerrillas has risen above 200. Trains…

233 Dead In Civil War Carnage Health

233 Dead in Civil War Carnage Health Ministry Besieged 3,000 Widows Created Each Month So as Thursday began, Sunni Arab guerrillas surrounded and attacked the Ministry of Health, which is dominated by…

Breaking News Mass Slaugher In Baghdad

Breaking News: Mass Slaugher in Baghdad A string of car bombings in Sadr City and Kadhimiya (Shiite neighborhoods) wrought vast slaughter and destruction, leaving a death toll creeping toward 150 and over…

36 Killed In Iraqi Civil War Britain

36 Killed in Iraqi Civil War Britain may Leave Iraq British troops could withdraw from Basra by this spring. It is widely felt that the 7200 remaining troops are trapped in the…

Revolutionary Guards Head Us Forces In

Revolutionary Guards Head: 'US Forces in Middle East 'Extremely' Vulnerable The USG Open Source Center translates the following piece from Persian:'Iranian Guards Chief: US Forces in Middle East 'Extremely' VulnerableFars News Agency…

Bushs Cedar Revolution Collapses In

Bush's Cedar Revolution Collapses in Yet Another Policy Failure The assassination of Lebanese cabinet minister Pierre Gemayel on Tuesday has thrown that country further into yet more turmoil.The crisis is a further…

Car Bomb In Green Zone

Car Bomb in Green Zone Parliamentarians Trade Accusations The intrepid Edward Wong of the New York Times reports that a car bomb targetting the Iraqi speaker of parliament, Mahmud Mashhadani [Sunni], was…

Academics At Risk Please Donate To

Academics at Risk Please Donate to MESA A report on the Iraqi professors' panel at the Middle East Studies Association meeting that just wrapped up in Boston. Their stories of everyday life…

Street Battles In Baghdad 75 Bodies

Street Battles in Baghdad; 75 Bodies Found; Diplomatic Ties with Syria BruitedAl-Zaman reports in Arabic that on Monday running street battles erupted in several districts of Baghdad between guerrillas and Iraqi police.…

Joint Letter Of Middle East Studies

The joint letter of the Middle East Studies Association and the American Association of University Professors on the killing of Iraqi academics:'November 10, 2006Honorable Nouri Kamal al-MalikiPrime Minister of the Republic of…

Kissinger Says No Victory Possible

Kissinger Says no Victory Possible; Bombings in Baghdad, Hilla Kill 74; Chaos in Baquba Bush's visit to Indonesia, the most populous Muslim country, has elicited protests. In 2000, 75 percent of Indonesians…

18 Dead In Baquba Battle Rice Urges

18 Dead in Baquba Battle; Rice Urges Iraq to be more like Vietnam (???!!) AP says that Secretary of State Condi Rice asserted Saturday that Iraqis only have a future if they…

Dhari Controversy Security Guards

Dhari Controversy; security Guards KilledTraveling and I am posting via my Treo so no hyperlinks. 14 Bodies found in Baghdad, 2 near Fallujah. 3 more private security guards attacked Friday in south.…

Arrest Warrant For Harith Al Dhari Of

Arrest Warrant for Harith al-Dhari of AMS; Higher Education Abductees Tortured; Militias Capture 14 Western Security Guards Militiamen in southern, largely Shiite Iraq took 14 private security guards captive, employees of the…

Abizaid Opposes Withdrawal Increase In

Abizaid Opposes Withdrawal, Increase in Troop Levels; Nearly 100 Killed, including 6 GIs Hayden: Almost Satannic Terror Reuters was able to find out about and report nearly 100 killings in the ongoing…

Dozens Kidnapped At Higher Ed Ministry

Dozens Kidnapped at Higher Ed Ministry; Other Killings leave 117 Dead Western news organizations were able to identify 117 killings in Iraq's civil war on Monday, though one suspects they only scratched…

Civil War Violence Kills 100 Abizaid

Civil War Violence Kills 100; Abizaid Meets Maliki; Olmert Thinks Iraq is Stable Guerrillas attempted to assassinate Iraqi Vice President Adil Abdul Mahdi on Monday, but only succeeded in killing two of…

3 Gis 4 British Killed Guerrillas Slay

3 GIs, 4 British Killed Guerrillas Slay over 100 al-Maliki shuffles Cabinet The Democratic Congress will pass a resolution in January asking that troops start coming home by mid-2007 in a phased…

Sunnis Kill 10 Kidnap 50 Shiites Gis

Sunnis Kill 10, Kidnap 50 Shiites; GIs face Sniper Fire CBS News and the Associated Press report that on Saturday:'(CBS/AP) Sunni gunmen ambushed a convoy of minibuses at a fake checkpoint on…

Sistani Aide Americans Bomb Both Sides

Sistani Aide: Americans Bomb both Sides 4 US GIs killed on Friday Al-Sharq al-Awsat reports that Ahmad al-Safi, a representative of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, preached a Friday prayers sermon in the…

Democratic Senate Ponders Iraq Massive

Democratic Senate Ponders Iraq Massive Bombings Shake Shiite districts in Baghdad Since the Democrats now have a majority in the Senate, Barbara Slavin writes, they are poised to have a major role…

Prosterman Guest Editorial Where Is

Prosterman Guest Editorial: Where is Ike? WHAT THIS COUNTRY NEEDS IS A PRESIDENT WITH IKE’S INTEGRITY AND COURAGESUEZ & BUDAPEST – 50 YEARS LATERH. Scott Prosterman Last week marked the 50th Anniversary…

Al Zaman Good Riddance To Rumsfeld

Al-Zaman: Good Riddance to Rumsfeld Osman: Abu Ghraib scandal should have required his Resignation The Times of Baghdad [al-Zaman] editorializes in the third person on the resignation of US Secretary of Defense…

What Does It Mean For Iraq Fourth

What does it Mean for Iraq?The fourth popular revolution of the twenty-first century (after the Ukraine, Lebanon and Kyrgyzstan) swept America on Tuesday, as voters engaged in the moral equivalent of storming…

Is Bush Unhinged Calling Hannah Arendt

Is Bush Unhinged? Calling Hannah Arendt Journalist Bill Gallagher of Detroit's Channel 2 News joins Andrew Sullivan in asking the increasingly unavoidable question: Is George W. Bush Criminally Insane? Gallagher writes: '…

Baquba Police Kill 20 Pro Saddam

Baquba Police Kill 20 Pro-Saddam Demonstrators; Khalilzad to Depart Someone, [presumably, Shiite militiamen] fired mortar rounds into the Sunni Arab Adhamiya district of Baghdad on Monday, wounding 7. Al-Zaman (Arabic) says that…

Iran Iraqi Shiites Celebrate Mosul

Iran, Iraqi Shiites Celebrate Mosul, Baquba, West Baghdad Demonstrate The US military announced that guerrillas had killed 3 US GIs in Iraq over Saturday and Sunday.Only 8 percent of Americans are satisfied…

Saddam To Hang Shiites Kurds Celebrate

Saddam to Hang; Shiites, Kurds Celebrate Some Sunnis Protest The Daily Telegraph reports that the death verdict against Saddam Hussein announced Sunday has sharpened further Iraq's already parlous ethnic tensions. Shiites in…

Iraq Jittery Over Saddam Verdict

Iraq Jittery over Saddam Verdict Dozens of Sunnis killed by Police Commandos Special Police Commandoes killed 53 al-Qaeda fighters in Iraq on Saturday, according to Iraqi officials. Or you could say that…

Top Ten Ways We Know We Have Lost In

Top Ten Ways we know We have Lost in IraqTop Ten Ways you can tell we have have lost in Iraq:10. When your daily news frequently includes an item like this: Reuters…

Chirac Calls For Withdrawal Timetable

Chirac Calls for Withdrawal Timetable 5 GIs die in Iraq Bombings, killings continued apace. The US military announced the deaths of 5 US GIs by Iraqi guerrillas on Thursday. Guerrillas in east…

Iraqi Government Negotiations With

Iraqi Government Negotiations with Sunni GuerrillasThe US Government Open Source Center translates the following from al-Ra'y:'Iraqi Reconciliation Conference Postponed 'To Allow For More Time for Dialogue'Report by Faysal Malkawi in Amman: "Contacts…