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Archives: May 2005

31 Dead 108 Wounded In Hillah Blasts

31 Dead, 108 Wounded in Hillah Blasts Basra InsecureSuicide bombers in the Shiite city of Hillah about an hour's drive south of Baghdad killed at least 31 persons and wounded 108 on…

Iraqi Islamic Party Leader Released Us

Iraqi Islamic Party Leader ReleasedThe US military has released Muhsin Abd al-Hamid, the leader of the Iraqi Islamic Party. The IIP runs the provincial council in Anbar and is the only major…

30 Dead Dozens Wounded By Guerrillas

30 Dead, Dozens Wounded by Guerrillas In Response to Operation Lightning Guerrillas in Baghdad fought determinedly against the 40,000 Iraqi soldiers fielded to crack down on violence in Baghdad. AFP writes,"Four car…

No God But God Max Rodenbeck Makes Odd

No God But God Max Rodenbeck makes odd statements and basic errors in his review of Reza Aslan's "No God but God" on the struggle between moderates and extremists in the Muslim…

43 Iraqis Dead In 2 Days Shiite

43 Iraqis Dead in 2 Days Shiite Pilgrims Massacred Killings in Sinjar, HillaWire services report that the unconventional sectarian civil war in Iraq continued on Saturday. Guerrillas in Qaim executed 10 Shiite…

Military Analysts Who Lived In

Military Analysts Who Lived in Aluminum Fairy Land RewardedTwo Army analysts who mistakenly claimed that aluminum tubing bought by Iraq was for centrifuges to enrich uranium received job performance awards during the…

Muqtada All Factions Must Participate

Muqtada: All Factions Must Participate in Constitution-MakingThe Herald Sun reports that late on Friday, ' "A suicide bomber blew up his vehicle near a police patrol, killing seven people, including three policemen…

Us Helicopter Shot Down 2 Soldiers

US Helicopter Shot Down, 2 Soldiers Dead PM Jaafari launches a Campaign around Baghdad Guerrillas shot down a US helicopter near Baqubah on Thursday, killing two US soldiers. Stephen Kamarow explains the…

Blog Casting And Future Of Blog

Blog-Casting and the Future of Blog AdvertisingCarl Bialik of the WSJ has an article on attempts to count various things about web logs, including how many there are, how many Americans read…

Bombings And Assassinations Continue

Bombings and Assassinations Continue US Military Sweep in Haditha Thursday morning's 70 minutes of mayhem began at 7:20 a.m. Baghdad time. Guerrillas detonated two bombs, and carried out two drive-by shootings and…

Islamism Versus Secularism In Iraq

Islamism versus Secularism in Iraq: A DebateI saw this debate on al-Jazeera (Doha) on Sunday in Arabic at 17:15 GMT, on 22 May 05. It was some of the best television discussion…

Sometimes You Are Just Screwed Readers

Sometimes You are Just Screwed Readers occasionally write me complaining that I do not offer any solutions to the problems in Iraq. Let me just step back from the daily train wreck…

14 Us Troops Dead In 3 Days Civil War

14 US Troops Dead in 3 Days Civil War in Telafar The Associated Press reports that a car bomb in Baghdad killed 3 US troops, and a drive-by shooting killed a fourth…

Zarqawi Wounded News That Abu Musab Al

Zarqawi Wounded?The news that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi may have been wounded, reported at a jihadi web site, dominated US television news on Tuesday.I'm not sure why. A report on a web site…

49 Killed 130 Wounded In Iraqs Day Of

49 Killed, 130 Wounded in Iraq's Day of Rage Car bombs and other attacks killed at least 49 Iraqis on Monday and left at least 130 wounded, according to AP. Four American…

Sadr Mediates Sunni Shiite Dispute Al

Sadr Mediates Sunni-Shiite Dispute Al-Sharq al-Awsat/ DPA: Young Shiite nationalist leader Muqtada al-Sadr said Monday that the attempts of his aides to mediate between the Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars and the…

100 Million Mishandled In Iraq

$100 Million "Mishandled" in Iraq An international audit has found that the Allawi government "mishandled" $100 million in petroleum funds that should have been used for development, and that the US Coalition…

8000 Antiquities Still Missing From

8,000 Antiquities Still Missing from IraqThe Independent summarizes a paper given by John Curtis of the British Museum at an art crime conference in London, concerning Iraq's ancient heritage looted while Americans…

14 Killed Sadr Tries To Mediate

14 Killed Sadr Tries to Mediate between Sunnis, Shiites At least 14 persons were killed in Iraq on Sunday in separate incidents. There was a car bomb in Tikrit, which wounded US…

Is It Georges Fault Laura Bush Heckled

Is it George's Fault? Laura Bush Heckled at Wailing Wall over Pollard Affair And at Temple Mount by PalestiniansI was alarmed at the tenor of the reporting about First Lady Laura Bush's…

Muqtada Tries To Mediate Between

Muqtada Tries to Mediate Between Sunnis and Badr Three Sunni Arab organizations arranged a meeting of 1,000 Sunni notables on Saturday, in an attempt to form an umbrella group with greater political…

Us Public Confidence On Iraq

US Public Confidence on Iraq Plummeting A new Harris Interactive poll shows that US public confidence in the Iraq venture is falling rapidly.Question: How confident are you that U.S. policies in Iraq…

Sadrists Clash With Police In

Sadrists Clash with Police in Nasiriyah Baghdad Sunni Mosque Protest Ramadi Demonstrations against Koran DesecrationThousands of protesters rallied in Iraq (some reports say 6,000) on Friday denouncing the continued US military presence…

Why Jacoby Is Wrong Jeff Jacoby Argues

Why Jacoby is Wrong Jeff Jacoby argues that there is something peculiar about the reaction of Muslims to the allegations that the Koran was disrespected at Guantanamo prison by US military interrogators.Jacoby's…

23 Die In Iraq Violence Shiite Cleric

23 Die In Iraq Violence Shiite Cleric Assassinated Guerrilla attacks killed 23 persons in Iraq on Thursday, including one US serviceman. One bomb blew up near a Shiite mosque in Baghdad, and…

Best Of Web Scientists In South Korea

Best of the WebScientists in South Korea, unhampered by the tradition of anti-intellectualism that still bedevils the United States, have made a major breakthrough in stem cell research. They took eggs from…

Oil Official Killed Jarbas Home

Oil Official Killed Jarba's Home Attacked, 8 Dead Ahmad Seif of Reuters reports that An Oil Ministry official, "Ali Hameed, was shot outside his home as he left for work, police said."…

Lies That Led To War My Article Is

The Lies that Led to War My article is online at Salon.com about the Downing Street memo "The lies that led to war": A leaked British memo, and other documents, make it…

Dhari Amiri Trade Charges Sunni Shiite

Dhari, Amiri trade Charges Sunni-Shiite relations in Iraq at Nadir Al-Zaman/AFP/Reuters: "The Association of Muslim Scholars called upon Minister of the Interior Bayan Jabr and Defense Minister Saadoun Dulaimi to resign. AMS…

Sunni Leader Blames Shiites For

Sunni Leader Blames Shiites for AssassinationsHareth al-Dhari, a leader of the Association of Muslim Scholars and an important hard line Sunni cleric charged Wednesday that the Shiite Badr Corps paramilitary was behind…

18 Killed In Violence Kharrazi In

18 Killed in Violence Kharrazi in Baghdad Will blog more later on Wednesday.For now, Iran's foreign minister, Kamal Kharrazi made a historic visit to Baghdad on Tuesday. He pledged help in controlling…

Has Newsweek Retracted Update

Has Newsweek Retracted?Update: Riverbend weighs in with an Iraqi nationalist point of view on the allegations of Koran desecration in US military prisons. She points out that many Iraqis will find them…

Guest Editorial Fisher Iraq Real News

Guest Editorial: Fisher, "Iraq: Real News from the Battlefield" An Eyewitness Account from IraqIRAQ: REAL NEWS FROM THE BATTLEFIELDBy William FisherI long ago stopped believing anything our government told us about Iraq.…

24 Dead Dozens Wounded Sunnis Charge

24 Dead, Dozens Wounded Sunnis Charge Ethnic Cleansing Dulaimi Pledges end to Mosque Invasions AP reports that guerrillas killed at least 24 persons in Iraq on Monday, and wounded dozens. In addition,…

Revenge Of Stiff Or He Asked For It

Revenge of the Stiff Or, He Asked for ItCNN reports that Star Wars director George Lucas said his movies could apply to the Iraq war:''In terms of evil, one of the original…

Guantanamo Controversies Bible And

Guantanamo Controversies The Bible and the Koran The report in Newsweek that the US military desecrated the Koran as part of an attempt to break the Muslim prisoners there with humiliation techniques…

Over 30 Bodies Found Usa Today Ap

Over 30 Bodies Found USA Today/ AP report that on Sunday, more than 30 bodies were found in three separate sites. The bodies of thirteen men were found in a shallow grave…

Sistani Aide Killed Shiites

Sistani Aide Killed Shiites Demonstrate Against Kuwait, Nancy Ajram in Karbala Two clerics, one Sunni and one Shiite, were assassinated over the weekend. Guerrillas shot down Shaikh Qasim al-Gharawi, and his nephew,…

Saudi Jihadis Return Disappointed From

Saudi Jihadis Return DisappointedFrom al-Hayat of May 14 via BBC World Monitoring:' Al-Hayat has learnt that two Saudi brothers who went to Iraq across the Syrian border for "jihad" against the occupation…

British Question Us Terms Of

British Question US terms of Engagement with the Enemy A Baghdad car bomb killed 4 on Saturday.The British officer corps is continuing in its efforts to convince the US military that its…

Did Elections Make Things Worse Hannah

Did the Elections Make things Worse? Hannah Allam of Knight Ridder raises the question of whether the January 30 elections made the situation in Iraq worse. Allam writes,"Two weeks of intense insurgent…

Afghan Newspaper Us Must Apologize For

Afghan Newspaper: US Must Apologize for Koran Desecration More Deaths in Demonstrations on FridayAn Afghan newspaper has said that the US must apologize for the desecration of the Koran alleged to have…

Koran Protests Spread Reach Indonesia

Koran Protests Spread, Reach Indonesia Backed by Afghan ClericsAfghan clerics supported demonstrations against the alleged US military desecration of the Koran as a way of breaking radical Muslim prisoners at Guantanamo. They…

7 Us Troops Dead Thursday Bombing Toll

7 US Troops Dead Thursday Bombing Toll 21 Dead, 70 Wounded ON Thursday near Qaim, a US armored vehicle was hit by a bomb, which killed 4 and wounded 10. The Washington…

Afghanistan Pakistan Protests Against

Afghanistan, Pakistan Protests against US Koran Blasphemy SpreadThe NYT reports that protests in Afghanistan against the alleged US desecration of the Koran spread on Thursday. One student was killed and 4 were…

Brigadier Assassinated Another Bomb In

Brigadier Assassinated, Another Bomb in BaghdadThe London Times Online reports that guerrillas detonated another bomb in a market in East Baghdad, killing 17 and wounding 80, catching up 8 cars and a…

American Blasphemy Against Koran

American Blasphemy Against Koran Sparks Riot, Protests in Afghanistan, PakistanThe Guardian reports that news (from Newsweek) that US soldiers desecrated the Koran--and at one point flushed pages of it down the toilet…

76 Killed On Wednesday Alone In Iraq

76 Killed on Wednesday Alone in Iraq Huge Basra BlastThe final death toll for victims of bombings in Iraq on Wednesday alone was 76, according to AFP. It adds: "In another incident,…

50 Dead 90 Wounded In Iraq Bombings On

50 Dead, 90 Wounded in Iraq Bombings on Wednesday Morning Qaim Campaign ContinuesOn Wednesday morning, a suicide bomber in a car detonated his payload near a market in Tikrit, killing 27 persons…

Constitution Drafting Subcommittee

Constitution-Drafting Subcommittee Excludes Sunnis Chalabi to be PardonedHamza Hendawi reports that the new government will attempt to use high Sunni officials such as Defense Minister Saadoun Dulaimi and Vice Premier Abid Mutlak…

Al Qaeda On Trial In Yemen Planned

Al-Qaeda on Trial in Yemen Planned Attacks on Americans Reuters reports on the ongoing trial of 8 alleged al-Qaeda members in Yemen. In a dramatic new develeopment, the prosecutor said information had…

Us Releases Enemy Casualty Estimate Of

US Releases Enemy Casualty Estimate of 100The US military is conducting a major operation around Ubaidi, near Qaim on the border with Syria. The operation near the Euphrates was aimed at foreign…

Bomb Found At Sistanis Home Shiite

Bomb found at Sistani's Home Shiite Tensions Rise over KillingsAP writes, At least four car bombs exploded in Baghdad on Monday, Iraqi police and the U.S. military said. They included a morning…

Al Qaeda In Kuwait Kuwaiti Court

Al-Qaeda in Kuwait A Kuwaiti court sentenced 25 radical Muslim fundamentalists for plotting to go to Iraq to fight US troops, or to fund the effort. They were also accused of belonging…

Price Of Failure In Iraq Bob Dreyfuss

The Price of Failure in Iraq Bob Dreyfuss writes in Rolling Stone:If it comes to civil war, the disintegration of Iraq will be extremely bloody. "The breakup of Iraq would be nearly…

8 Us Servicemen Killed Over Weekend

8 US Servicemen Killed Over WeekendThe NYT reports that guerrillas killed 8 US servicemen in separate incidents over the weekend. On Sunday, bombings in Samarra and Khalidiya killed 3 US servicemen. In…

Ridley Scotts Kingdom Of Heaven I Saw

Ridley Scott's Kingdom of HeavenI saw Kingdom of Heaven Sunday. The film has many virtues, with its attention to costume and scene. I could quibble. Medieval European swords of the 1100s could…

Mistaken Identity Christina Lamb And

Mistaken Identity?Christina Lamb and Mohammad Shehzad in Islamabad suggest in the London Times that Abu al-Faraj al-Libi, arrested recently in Pakistan, is being confused with Anas al-Libi, a mastermind of the 1998…

2 Day Bombing Total Of 100 Dead

2-Day Bombing total of 100 Dead, Hundreds Wounded Zarqawi Threatens to Hit American HomelandOn Saturday, Guerrillas in Baghdad targeted a convoy of vehicles of the sort used by notables with a massive…

Will Iran Get Bomb It Seems Pretty

Will Iran get the Bomb? It seems pretty obvious that Iran will get the nuclear bomb and there is not much anyone can do about it. I'm not saying it is a…

Salon Article On Iraq Strife My

Salon Article on Iraq StrifeMy article on the bombing campaign and increased ethnic strife in Iraq is at Melting pot of blood, is at Salon.com

30 Killed In Bombings In Iraq Dozens

30 Killed in Bombings in Iraq, Dozens Wounded Ash-Sharq al-Awsat estimates the number of dead in Iraq from bombings and attacks in Iraq on Thursday at 30. AFP, apparently filing a bit…

Irbil Toll Rises To 60 Dead 100

Irbil toll Rises to 60 dead, 100 Wounded The death toll in Wednesday morning's Irbil bombing has risen to 60, with 150 wounded, according to the New York Times. The Ansar al-Sunna,…

Sunni Shiite Rioting At Baghdad

Sunni-Shiite Rioting at Baghdad University Sunni, Kurdish Recriminations on CabinetA riot broke out at Baghdad University on Tuesday and continued Wednesday, pitting furious Shiite students against Sunni Arab students and professors, over…

Al Libi Captured Capture Of Abu Faraj

Al-Libi Captured The capture of Abu Faraj al-Libi, a high al-Qaeda operative, in Pakistan is further proof that if you are interested in a "war" on terrorism, your best tools are counter-terrrorism…

Franklin Arrested Pentagon Official

Franklin Arrested Pentagon official Lawrence Franklin has been arrested and charged by the FBI with having shown classified documents to two officials of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Steven Rosen, AIPAC…

Breaking News 50 Dead In Irbil Bombing

Breaking News: 50 Dead in Irbil Bombing, 100 Wounded A man with high explosives on his person detonated his payload in the midst of a crowd of civilians lined up to apply…

Sunni Vp Boycotts Swearing In Ceremony

Sunni VP Boycotts Swearing-In Ceremony 8 US Troops Wounded at Qaim and Ramadi, Dozens of Iraqis KilledIraq's government was sworn in on Tuesday. But the key ministries of Defense (which will go…

Is Bigotry All Right In Politics John

Is Bigotry All Right in Politics?John Aravosis argues that Pat Robertson should be a political pariah after his remarks on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday that Muslim Americans are not fit to…

Madison And Algeria Many Many Thanks

Madison and AlgeriaMany, many thanks to Armando and other diarists at Daily Kos for a thorough, impassioned and learned debate on my rant about the dangers of the Republican Senators ending the…

Boycott Of Israeli Universities Wrong

Boycott of Israeli Universities Wrong: AAUPThe American Association of University Professors has quite rightly come out against a recent resolution of the British Association of University Teachers (one of two main such…

Disaster Of Destroying Voice Of

The Disaster of Destroying the Voice of America Arabic Service Corey Pein in the Columbia Journalism Review writes about the current state of play with regard to "Radio Sawa."The real tragedy here…

Us Military Tied Down By Afghanistan

US Military Tied down by Afghanistan, IraqThe US troops in Afghanistan and Iraq pretty much exhaust the conventional army capacity of the US military (and then some-- the reserves are being over-used).…

Jaafari Rethinks Debaathification 23

Jaafari Rethinks Debaathification 23 Killed in ViolencePrime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari caused a major stir with a speech on Monday that seemed to back off the policy of debaathification or the exclusion from…

41 Killed 76 Wounded In Bombings Among

41 Killed, 76 Wounded in Bombings Among Wounded: 5 US Soldiers The guerrilla campaign of mass violence continued unrelentingly on Sunday. Guerrillas in the far northern, largely Turkmen city of Telafar, sent…

Nuclear Option Algeria And David Humes

The Nuclear Option, Algeria and David Hume's Perfect CommonwealthWhat has the Algerian Civil War of the 1990s got to do with the dictatorial way the US Senate Republicans have begun acting with…

11 Killed 40 Wounded In Saturday Bomb

11 Killed, 40 Wounded in Saturday Bomb Marathon Guerrillas detonated at least 5 bombs in Baghdad on Saturday, killing 11 and wounding 40 persons. It was the second day of mayhem in…