Archives: December 2005

Al Hakim Sees Baghdad As Federated

Al-Hakim Sees Baghdad as Federated Province Sadrists Urge Alliance with Sunni Arabs Al-Zaman/ AFP [Ar.]: Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the head of the victorious (fundamentalist Shiite) United Iraqi Alliance suggested Friday that Baghdad…

Iraq Petroleum Crisis Bahr Al Ulum

Iraq Petroleum Crisis Bahr al-Ulum Forced Out Drivers in Baghdad are waiting in lines a quarter of a mile long, according to the NYT, as the country faces a fuel crisis. They…

Iraq Petroleum Production Suffocating

Iraq Petroleum Production "Suffocating": Bahr al-UlumAn informed observer writes:' Reuters reports that “average exports in November fell to 1.21 million barrels a day – the lowest level since at least November 2003…

Middle East And America In 2005 How

The Middle East and America in 2005: How the Region Has ChangedThe Bush administration has several major policy goals in the Middle East, which are often self-contradictory. They include:1. Fighting terrorism emanating…

International Team To Assess Elections

International Team to Assess Elections Al-Hakim meets Talabani In Baghdad, , AP reports that the International Mission for Iraqi Elections will send a team of assessors to look into charges by Sunni…

10 20 Dead In Failed Terrorist Prison

10-20 Dead in Failed Terrorist Prison Break Sunni Arabs Demonstrate Against Election Results in Samarra Prison guards killed between 4 and 16 inmates when some of them attempted a jail break from…

Kurds Plan To Seize Kirkuk Militarily

Kurds Plan to Seize Kirkuk Militarily: Knight RidderTom Lasseter of Knight Ridder reports that the Kurds have seeded 10,000 peshmerga militiamen into the Iraqi army units in the north of Iraq, and…

Over 10000 Sunnis Secularists March In

Over 10,000 Sunnis, Secularists March in Baghdad against Election Results; Al-Hakim meets Kurdish Leaders AP reports that in Iraq, over 10,000 mainly Sunni Arab demonstrators rallied in downtown Baghdad on Tuesday, calling…

Top Ten Myths About Iraq In 2005 Iraq

Top Ten Myths about Iraq in 2005Iraq has unfortunately become a football in the rough and ready, two-party American political arena, generating large numbers of sound bites and so much spin you…

Over 20 Dead 46 Wounded In Guerrilla

Over 20 Dead, 46 Wounded in Guerrilla War; Governor of Diyala Wounded in Assassination Attempt Sunnis Threaten Boycott A wave of guerrilla bombings and apparently coordinated small arms attacks around north-central Iraq…

Shiites Sunnis Demonstrate Against One

Shiites, Sunnis, Demonstrate Against one Another over Elections; Five Percent of Ballots Fraudulent: IECIAccording to Sabrina Tavernise of the New York Times, Sunni Arab cabinet ministers requested that the United Iraqi Alliance…

Iraqi Christians In Peril This

Iraqi Christians in Peril this ChristmasBecause of the poor security, Iraqi Christians had to celebrate midnight mass at sundown instead. Many Christians have fled Iraq for Syria and elsewhere, while others are…

Sistani Calls For Government Of

Sistani Calls for Government of National UnityAccording to AFP, Iraqi national security adviser Muwaffaq al-Rubaie met Saturday with Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani and then conveyed the latter's hope that a national unity…

Interlibrary Loan Dhs Story Hoax Story

Interlibrary Loan/ DHS Story a HoaxThe story of the interlibrary loan request for Mao's Little Red Book that produced an interview by the Department of Homeland Security turns out to be a…

Achcar Comments On Ic 122405 Gilbert

Achcar Comments on IC 12/24/05Gilbert Achcar kindly writes:' Dear Juan Two remarks: 1) re: to the "informed reader" of your "informed comment" who wonders about the independent Sadrist list, Risaliyun, which you…

20000 Protest Election Fraud In Iraq

20,000 Protest Election Fraud in Iraq Leading Sunnis Scorned as BaathistsThe question of whether the December 15 elections might contribute to social peace in Iraq (always a chancy proposition) began to clarify…

Kashmir Earthquake Victims Tens Of

Kashmir Earthquake VictimsTens of thousands of earthquake victims in Pakistani Kashmir are facing winter with inadequate shelter, medicine and food.John Walbridge of Indiana University writes:You might want to inform your readers about…

Iraqi Elections Post Election

Iraqi Elections: Post-Election Coalition PossibilitiesAn informed reader writes:' “Moreover, a group of Sadrists, the Messengers, ran separately from the UIA in the south and are getting 3% of the seats.” There is…

Guest Editorial By Fisher State Dept

Guest Editorial by Fisher: State Dept. Replaces DoD in IraqIRAQ RECONSTRUCTION: STATE IN, PENTAGON OUTBy William FisherAfter a thousand days of widely acknowledged failure in the job of rebuilding Iraq, the Department…

Sunnis Seek Negotiations With Shiite

Sunnis Seek Negotiations with Shiite Parties Saddam says Americans Lied Saddam Hussein took advantage of being before the cameras again on Thursday to engage in some grandstanding. He reiterated charges that he…

Iraq Update Bulgaria And Ukraine Began

Iraq Update Bulgaria and the Ukraine began their pull-out of troops from Iraq.For real news, go to the San Francisco Chronicle.Robert Scheer points out that Iran yet again won the Iraqi elections.…

Republic If You Can Keep It Congress

A Republic, If you Can Keep ItCongress has banned harsh treatment of terrorism suspects in US custody and demanded a quarterly report on such activities. People like Dick Cheney who favor an…

Shiite Religious Parties Dominate 10

Shiite Religious Parties dominate 10 of 18 Provinces Talabani calls for Government of National Unity The Los Angeles Times reports that the secular Iraqiya list of Iyad Allawi so far seems only…

Fundamentalist Shiites Will Dominate

Fundamentalist Shiites Will Dominate New Parliament Secularists Lose Badly Bush Poll Numbers on Iraq Fall The American public is not in a mood to be swayed by mere speeches or yet more…

Arato Guest Editorial On Election

Arato Guest Editorial on the ElectionElection, Government Formation and the Question of Historic Compromise in IraqAndrew Arato"In the midst of the great noise of December 15, 2005 the electoral outcome is rather…

Demonstrations Over Fuel Price

Demonstrations over Fuel Price Increases in IraqAl-Zaman: Now that the elections are safely over, the government of Ibrahim Jaafari has tripled the price of gasoline and made substantial increases in the price…

Bushist Police State And Interlibrary

The Bushist Police State and Interlibrary Loan "Alice: While you talk, he's gone!More: And go he should, if he was the Devil himself, until he broke the law!Roper: So now you'd give…

Parties Jockey For Power In Wake Of

Parties Jockey for Power in Wake of Elections; Dulaimi willing to Ally with Shiites Since Bush is going to say Sunday that the Sunni Arab participation in the elections suggests a near…

Bush Spying On Americans Wire Tapping

Bush Spying on AmericansWire tapping the telephones of American citizens without a court order is illegal.They impeached Clinton for a minor dalliance in which he didn't even get to third base. But…

Religious Shiite Coalition Sweeping

Religious Shiite Coalition Sweeping South; Allawi's Showing Weak [If you're in the giving mood this season, The History News Network" is a worthy cause.]Al-Zaman [Ar.]/ AFP: 10-11 million of Iraq's 15 million…

One That Got Away Cnn Is Reporting

The One that Got AwayCNN is reporting that Iraqi authorities had arrested Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian terrorist, in Ramadi, but mistakenly released him. Nic Roberts reported that Zarqawi had put on…

What Sunni Arab Vote Really Means

What the Sunni Arab Vote Really Means According to wire services, Sunnis in Fallujah came out to vote: ' not only get rid of the Americans but to also get rid of…

High Turnout Expected As Iraqis Go To

High Turnout Expected as Iraqis go to Polls The guerrillas got off some mortars as voting began Thursday in Iraq, one striking the Green Zone in downtown Baghdad where the government offices…

Helman On Rice And New Truman Doctrine

Helman on Rice and the New Truman Doctrine Ambassador Gerald B. Helman writes:" In an op-ed piece published in the December 11 Washington Post, Secretary of State Rice provides an important statement…

Thousands Of Shiites Demonstrate

Thousands of Shiites Demonstrate against Aljazeera; Four US troops were killed and a Sunni politician (Mizhar Dulaimi of Ramadi) was assassinated on Tuesday in the run-up to the Iraqi elections (scheduled for…

Street Battles Bombings In Baghdad

Street Battles, Bombings in Baghdad; Less Wealthy Candidates Cannot Campaign Baghdad was wracked with violence on Monday, witnessing a major carbombing at a police station, another carbombing in a southwest suburb, the…

Abctime Poll On Iraq Full Tabulation

ABC/Time Poll on IraqThe full tabulation of the new ABC News/Time, et al., poll on Iraq is in pdf format on the web. Although a lot of Iraqis are optimistic about the…

Kashmir Crisis Enters Critical Phase

Kashmir Crisis Enters Critical PhaseThe news from Kashmir, where 80,000 survivors of the earthquake now face severe winter weather and problems of food and shelter, is not good. The UN High Commissioner…

Anti Muslim Race Riots In Australia

Anti-Muslim Race Riots in AustraliaThe government of John Howard has belatedly called for religious tolerance in Australia after a race riot broke out there, wherein Australian surfers and rowdies directed violence against…

Sistani Counsels Shiites Against

Sistani Counsels Shiites Against Wasted Votes Sunni Arabs Plead for TalksKnight Ridder reports on dirty campaign tricks and over-heated rhetoric in the Iraq political campaign.Robert Collier of the San Francisco Chronicle has…

4 Us Troops Killed Election Violence

4 US Troops Killed Election Violence in Najaf, Mosul Guerrillas killed four GIs in separate incidents, some with small arms fire. A suicide bomber targeted an Iraqi army unit in Balad and…

Iraq Round Up For Saturday Eric Blacks

Iraq Round-Up for Saturday Eric Black's interview with me about the upcoming Iraq elections is at the Minneapolis Star Tribune.Clerics are using the mosque to try to get out the vote for…

Guest Editorial Achcar On Sadr

Guest Editorial: Achcar on Sadr Initiative"A PAN-IRAQI PACT ON MUQTADA AL-SADR'S INITIATIVEGilbert AchcarDecember 9, 2005As part of his effort to influence the political forces in Iraq prior to the forthcoming parliamentary election,…

43 Killed 70 Wounded By Bus Bomber And

43 Killed, 70 Wounded by Bus Bomber And Rumsfeld's False AnalogyA suicide bomber jumped on a bus in Baghdad just as it was about to head south for Nasiriyah on Thursday, eluding…

Talabani To Meet With Resistance

Talabani to Meet with Resistance Leaders; Shiite Coalition in Friction Al-Hayat: President Jalal Talabani [Ar. ULR] is preparing a meeting in Sulaimaniyah to be attended by the Americans and by leaders of…

Cole And Franken Al Franken Is In Ann

Cole and Franken Al Franken is in Ann Arbor and I'll be on with him today, in the studio at 1-2 pm EST. It should also be available in streaming video.

Bush Praises Mosul Najaf Unrest In

Bush praises Mosul, Najaf Unrest in Kurdistan President Bush in his speech on Thursday maintained that it was a good thing that about half of Ninevah province voted in the referendum on…

Election Violence In Egypt Kills 8

Election Violence in Egypt Kills 8 Afghanistan Bombing kills 2 Election violence claimed at least 8 lives in Egypt on Wednesday, and wounded dozens. The Muslim Brotherhood has vastly increased its representation…

Dean V

Dean v. Bush: "Winning" in Iraq Or Winning Smart?Speaking in San Antonio on Monday, Democratic National Committee head Howard Dean said that the US cannot win in Iraq. The link just given,…

36 Dead 72 Wounded In Attack On Police

36 Dead, 72 Wounded in Attack on Police AcademyTwo suicide bombers, alleged to be brothers, attacked a police academy in eastern Baghdad on Tuesday, killing 36 cadets and policemen and wounding some…

20 Bodies Found Crowds Demonstrate For

20 Bodies Found Crowds demonstrate for, against Trial of Saddam Twenty bodies were discovered in Iraq on Monday at two different sites on the road from Baghdad to Amman. Some nine bodies…

Us Abusing Its Mandate In Iraq Un

US Abusing its Mandate in Iraq: UN Rights Official Extraodinary Rendition and the Attack on the US ConstitutionReuters's Paul Tait reports from Baghdad that John Pace, human rights chief for the United…

Allawi Attacked By Mob In Najaf In

Allawi Attacked by Mob in Najaf; In Baghdad, 2 GIs Killed Former interim prime minister Iyad Allawi and his entourage were attacked by mobs on Sunday. Najaf governor Asad Abu Kalal complained…

Sistani Endorses Religious Candidates

Sistani Endorses Religious Candidates 19 Iraqi Soldiers Killed Guerrillas near the town of Adhaim, northeast of Baghdad, mounted a coordinated ambush of Iraqi troops on Saturday, killing 19 and wounding 4. The…

How Bush Created Theocracy In Iraq My

How Bush Created a Theocracy in IraqMy article, "How Bush Created a Theocracy in Iraq, is now up at TruthDig.com. It begins, "The Bush administration naively believed that Iraq was a blank…

18 Gis Killed In 72 Hours Anti Prison

18 GIs killed in 72 Hours Anti-Prison Demonstrations in Baghdad From Wednesday to Friday, guerrillas in Iraq killed 18 US troops. The most tragic single incident came on Friday, when guerrillas used…

Guerrillas Gather At Ramadi Us Riposte

Guerrillas Gather at Ramadi US Riposte Iraq has banned non-Iraqi Arabs from coming to Iraq in the build-up to the December 15 elections. I think they would have been better off banning…

Questions About Readiness Of Iraqi

Questions about Readiness of Iraqi Army New US Assault The strategy of the Bush administration in Iraq depends heavily on standing up battle-ready units of the new Iraqi army. The USA Today…

Guest Editorial Achcar Indeed They Are

Guest Editorial: Achcar & Shalom, on US Withdrawal"Strategic Redeployment" vs. "Out Now" Gilbert Achcar and Stephen R. ShalomWhatever the limitations of Rep. Murtha's call to redeploy U.S. troops from Iraq that we…

Poll Shows Mixed Results For Bush

Poll Shows Mixed Results for Bush Highlights of the CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll on Bush and Iraq. It is a very small poll with a whopping plus or minus %5 percent margin of…