Archives for December 2008

The employees of the Interior and Defense ministries who were arrested earlier this week were released on Friday at the insistence of Interior Minister Jawad al-Bulani, who just returned from abroad. He appears to have seen the arrests as a strike at him and his ministry. Muntazir al-Zaydi, the journalist who shoebushed the US president, […]

Gitanjali Bakshi writes in a guest op-ed for IC: “The Mumbai attacks and a potential resurrection of the ‘War on Terror’ threaten to polarize the India-Pakistan, Israel-Palestine nexus. If not dealt with carefully, these attacks may exacerbate inter-state rivalries and consequently encourage the growth of terrorist networks instead of actually quelling the problem. * * […]

I present below the top 10 reasons for which President-Elect Obama should stick to his guns and withdraw US troops from Iraq despite any resistance he may get from the US officer corps and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. In fact, it was little noted in the US press that Gen. Ray Odierno, US commander […]

The Ninevah Provincial Council has voted to delay provincial elections, scheduled for January 31. The council does not actually have the authority to delay the elections, which have been set by the federal parliament. The move suggests severe Kurdish-Arab tensions in the province. Since Sunni Arabs, the majority in Ninevah and Mosul, boycotted the 2005 […]

The news from Iraq on Wednesday shows that the Iraqi government’s hold on power is fragile, and that it faces shadowy coup plotters from within and a continued guerrilla insurgency from without. Parliament is so divided that it had to go home after vehement wrangling in which the shoe-throwing journalist, Muntazar al-Zaidi, figured prominently. Al-Zaidi […]

Iraqi journalist Muntazar al-Zaidi suffered, according to his brother, “suffered a broken hand, broken ribs and internal bleeding, as well as an eye injury” and had to go to hospital after he protested Bush’s press conference in Baghdad by throwing shoes at the president. The Doha Center for Media Freedom has expressed concern about the […]

My debate with Michael Rubin about the Bush legacy in Iraq on the Lehrer News Hour for December 15 is now available at the PBS site, with a transcript and streaming video. Here are some excerpts from the transcript: ‘ RAY SUAREZ: Professor Cole, let me start with you. Over the weekend, President Bush said, […]

Thousands of Iraqis demonstrated on Monday, demanding the release of Muntazar al-Zaidi, the journalist who threw shoes at Bush. In the Shiite holy city of Najaf, south of Baghdad, crowds threw shoes at an American military patrol. Al-Hayat reports in Arabic that tribal chieftains in Kirkuk and Diyala Provinces showed solidarity with al-Zaidi and demanded […]

The USG Open Source Center translates reports on Dubai al-Sharqiyah Television in Arabic on 15 December regarding the throwing of shoes at George W. Bush during a news conference on Sunday: ‘Iraqi Officials Express Mixed Reactions to Shoe-Throwing IncidentIraq — OSC SummaryMonday, December 15, 2008 . . . — “The Iraqi Journalists Association (IJA) expressed […]