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Updated: February 19, 2005
Center for Strategic Studies, University of Jordan
The study confirms that many Arabs perceive important differences
between the cultures and societies of the Arab world and the West. It
shows, also, that Arabs across the region hold more complex and nuanced
views than may have been expected. Most significantly, the study identifies
Arab reaction to Western, and most specifically US, foreign policy in
the region as being the single most important factor influencing Arab
opinions about the West. [full
text]
Middle East Report On-Line, February 2, 2005
Not so long ago in Egypt, elections for the parliament, bar
association and press syndicate, as well as presidential referenda, were
dismissed as mere beautifying accessories for an incorrigibly authoritarian
regime. In 2005, several developments promise to accentuate the significance
of these once nugatory rituals. [full
text]
International Crisis Group, January 26, 2005
While attention is focused on the insurgency against the
interim Iraqi government and the occupation troops, another conflict is
brewing in northern Iraq that could precipitate civil war, the break-up
of the country and, in a worst-case scenario, Turkish intervention. [full
text]
Human Rights Watch, January 25, 2005
Iraqi security forces are committing systematic torture and
other abuses against people in detention, Human Rights Watch said in a
new report released today. [full
text]
Jonathan Raban, New York Review of Books
If you live, as I do, in an American city designated as a
likely target by the Department of Homeland Security, the sheer proliferation
of security apparatus in the streets assures you that there is a war on.
Yet the nature and conduct of that war, and the character—and very existence—of
our enemy, remain infuriatingly obscure...[full
text]
International Crisis Group, December 22, 2004
In Iraq, the U.S. is engaged in a war it already may have
lost while losing sight of a struggle in which it still may have time
to prevail. Its initial objective was to turn Iraq into a model for the
region: a democratic, secular and free-market oriented government, sympathetic
to U.S. interests, not openly hostile toward Israel, and possibly home
to long-term American military bases. But hostility toward the U.S. and
suspicion of its intentions among large numbers of Iraqis have progressed
so far that this is virtually out of reach. [full
text]
International Crisis Group, December 23, 2004
In the weeks since Yasir Arafat's death on 11 November
2004, the Palestinian leadership has undergone a surprisingly smooth and
orderly transition. Israeli-Palestinian as well as Palestinian-Arab and
Arab-Israeli relations are witnessing levels of cooperation and coordination
not seen in years. [full
text]
Henry Siegman, New York Review of Books, December
2, 2004
When Ariel Sharon first announced his intention to "disengage"
unilaterally from Gaza and to dismantle four isolated settlements in the
northern West Bank, many observers believed he was on his way to fulfilling
their expectation that, sooner or later, he would transform himself into
an Israeli De Gaulle and make the tough decisions that would finally end
the Israeli– Palestinian conflict. [full
text]
International Crisis Group, November 24, 2004
On 15 November 2004, Iran and the EU-3 (France, Germany and
the UK) signed a new agreement on the nuclear standoff, with Iran accepting
more comprehensive suspension of uranium enrichment, and the Europeans
dangling more detailed economic rewards. This will keep the matter from
the Security Council for now and, like its predecessor agreement in 2003,
is a positive step that could temporarily interrupt nuclear efforts. But
at best it is only a prelude to more critical negotiations over long-term
arrangements that must include the U.S. [full
text]
Graham Fuller, Carnegie Endowment, September, 2004
Are Islam and Democracy compatible? And are Islamists willing
to accept a democratic order and work within it? Debate has swirled around
these two grand questions for decades and has produced a broad variety
of responses, often quite polarized. Whatever we may think about Islamists,
the topic matters vitally because in the Middle East today they have few
serious ideological rivals in leading opposition movements against a failing
status quo. This essay will argue that democracy and political Islam are
potentially quite compatible in principle, and the record indicates as
much. [full
text]
Stanley Hoffman, New York Review of Books,
October 21, 2004
The war in Iraq has become a costly trap from which the United
States should extricate itself soon. With the election only a few weeks
away, the Republican administration insists on "staying the course," on
denouncing all the different insurgents as desperadoes, and on reassuring
the public that things are improving just as more than one thousand American
soldiers have died and attacks are sharply increasing. Those who have
put their hopes in a change of administration have several reasons for
being frustrated and disappointed. [full
text]
U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, September 30, 2004
The former Regime had no formal written strategy or
plan for the revival of WMD after sanctions. Neither was there an identifi
able group of WMD policy makers or planners separate from Saddam. Instead,
his lieutenants understood WMD revival was his goal from their long association
with Saddam and his infrequent, but fi rm, verbal comments and directions
to them. [full
text, summaries]
U.S. Senate
Articles on Higher Education in Iraq
Academe, September-October, 2004
Between Saddam and the American Occupation: Iraq's Academic Community Struggles for Autonomy
Iraqi Universities Struggle to Rebuild the "House of Knowledge"
Baghdad University: A Day in the Life
Chicago Council on Foreign Relations, September 28, 2004
There is lower support for stationing
U.S. troops abroad, particularly in Middle Eastern
or Islamic countries. Yet Americans are still committed
to playing an engaged role in the world and support
taking action when clearly threatened, especially against
terrorism. They do not want to play a dominant role,
supporting diplomatic and multilateral approaches to
international problems in even greater numbers than in
2002. [web page and full text]
International Crisis Group, September 28, 2004
The Palestinian Authority (PA), indeed the Palestinian political system as a whole, face their most acute crisis since the Oslo process was launched eleven years ago. Palestinians need to put their house in order despite adverse circumstances precisely to overcome them. In doing so they should be supported by the international community and -- at a minimum -- not obstructed by Israel. [full text]
CSIS, September, 2004
Although Iraq’s governing institutions lack adequate
capacity and negative trends dominate security, jobs, and services like
electricity and sewage, Iraqis themselves remain optimistic, according
to a new CSIS report. “Security and economic problems continue to overshadow
and undermine efforts across the board,” states the report....[full
report]
International Crisis Group, September 3, 2004
Without genuine reconstruction and a sustained recovery plan,
any political success will be short-lived. Coalition Provisional Authority
(CPA) performance fell far short of expectations and needs and offers
a fragile, dysfunctional legacy on which to build. The Interim Iraqi Government,
its still-to-come elected successor, and the international community can
ill afford to repeat its mistakes. [article]
Christoph Wilcke, Middle East Report , Fall,
2004
Speaking to the American Enterprise Institute on February
26, 2003, George W. Bush invoked the examples of Germany and Japan to
underline that, the United States would leave behind in Iraq "an atmosphere
of safety, in which responsible, reform-minded local leaders could build
lasting institutions of freedom." [article]
Larry Diamond, Foreign Affairs, July-August,
2004
Iraq today falls far short of what the Bush administration
promised. As a result of a long chain of U.S. miscalculations, the coalition
occupation has left Iraq in far worse shape than it need have and has
diminished the long-term prospects of democracy there. Iraqis, Americans,
and other foreigners continue to be killed. What went wrong? [article]
Middle East International, August 26, 2004
The uprising led by radical Shi’ite leader Muqtada al-Sadr
is likely to be a turning point in the interim administration of Prime
Minister Iyad Allawi. If it ends well, it will be a major boost to his
efforts to do away with militias and re-establish the central power of
the state. If it ends badly, it could make southern Iraq ungovernable.
[article]
Jon Alterman, Policy Review, June 2004
The U.S. strategy, as it has been executed, is based on building out from a core of like-minded liberal reformers in the Arab world. In many ways, it is an obvious way to start....But if we are honest with ourselves, we need to recognize that, as a group, such liberals are increasingly aging, increasingly isolated, and diminishing in number. These liberals are losing a battle for the hearts and minds of their countries, and populations are increasingly driven toward younger and more disaffected personalities. [full article]
Council on Foreign Relations, July 2004
Today, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have positioned American troops along Iran’s borders, making the United States and Iran wary competitors and neighbors who nonetheless possess some overlapping interests. All of this is occurring against a backdrop of the problems posed by Iran’s nuclear program and its involvement with terrorism. Clearly, contending with Iran will constitute one of the most complex and pressing challenges facing the next U.S. administration. [full article]
Yossi Alpher, Forward
The new rabbinic pronouncements, rendered loudly from
the bare hilltops of Judea and Samaria, that label Prime Minister Sharon
a traitor and that imply — in veiled and barely deniable innuendo — that
he could or should or must be murdered, are merely one end of the spectrum
of right-wing settler opposition to disengagement. [full
article]
Ori Nir, Forward
Cooperation between Israel and the United States helped
produce a series of intelligence failures in the lead up to the Iraq war,
according to separate reports issued by members of the Senate and the
Knesset. [full
article]
Roni Ben Efrat, Challenge July-August, 2004
After four years of public silence, Malka states that his assessment, all along, has been completely different: At Oslo, the strategic goal of Arafat and the PLO was a viable Palestinian state beside Israel. Arafat wanted all along to reach a political solution, but his flexibility was limited by Palestinian public opinion. He asked for recognition in principle of the Palestinian right of return, but he was ready to apply that right in a merely symbolic form. [full article]
Michael Ware, Interviewed by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, July 1, 2004
I've been joining their groups, visiting then in their safe houses, their villages, I've been travelling with them, I've seen their weapons caches, I've been trying to keep as close tabs as possible over the last 12 months. I've seen the shift. [full interview]
GAO, June 2004
The United States, along with its coalition partners and various
international organizations and donors, have committed billions of dollars
to the reconstruction of Iraq in the face of an unstable security situation and
other challenges. [full report]
Akiva Eldar, Ha'aretz. June 11, 2004
Is Yasser Arafat really aiming for the destruction of Israel,
rather than a solution to the conflict? This perception has been turned
into conventional wisdom in Israel - but many in the intelligence community
just don't believe it. [continue]
Human Rights Watch, June 9, 2004
Since late April 2004, when the first photographs appeared
of U.S. military personnel humiliating, torturing, and otherwise mistreating
detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, the United States government has
repeatedly sought to portray the abuse as an isolated incident, the work
of a few “bad apples” acting without orders. [continue]
International Crisis Group, June 7, 2004
Unless Washington works harder and in a new way, especially
at pursuing a balanced Israel-Palestinian peace process, the BMEI, promising
as it may have been, is likely to be overwhelmed by the rising tide of
Middle Eastern violence and anti-Americanism. [ continue]
Mark Danner, New York Review of Books, June
24 issue
Behind the exotic brutality so painstakingly recorded in
Abu Ghraib, and the multiple tangled plotlines that will be teased out
in the coming weeks and months about responsibility, knowledge, and culpability,
lies a simple truth, well known but not yet publicly admitted in Washington:
that since the attacks of September 11, 2001, officials of the United
States, at various locations around the world, from Bagram in Afghanistan
to Guantanamo in Cuba to Abu Ghraib in Iraq, have been torturing prisoners.
[continue]
Mark Danner, New York Review of Books, June 10 issue
Last November in Iraq, I traveled to Fallujah during the
early days of what would become known as the "Ramadan Offensive"—when
suicide bombers in the space of less than an hour destroyed the Red Cross
headquarters and four police stations, and daily attacks by insurgents
against US troops doubled, and the American adventure in Iraq entered
a bleak tunnel from which it has yet to emerge. [continue]
The Fund for Peace, May 25 2004
In the six months reviewed in this report, Iraq descended
into what may be described as a failed state syndrome, a condition in
which a number of trends reinforced each other to produce spiraling conflict
that the country has little or no independent capacity to stop. [continue]
[Report
#1]
Council on Foreign Relations, June 2, 2004
The US-led occupation government has begun to gradually
hand over power to the interim government named June 1, but it will remain
the main authority in Iraq until the official transfer of sovereignty
June 30. Many questions remain about how power will be exercised after
that date. [continue]
Middle East Research and Information Project, May 2004
As right-wing pundits echoed Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK)
in expressing “outrage at the outrage” over activities at Abu Ghraib prison
some characterized as “prankish,” and liberals tired of wringing their
hands decided to wash them instead, members of Congress got a preview
of hundreds more snapshots and videotapes showing the kinds of violence
and human suffering Americans were spared from watching by blanket censorship
of negative images during the first year of the Iraq campaign. [continue]
Center for Defense Information (CDI) Board of Directors
Dinner, May 12, 2004
...what I thought I would do tonight is go through the ten
crucial mistakes to this point that we've made. Because I think it helps
frame what, in fact, has happened over time ... and is going to be the
first part of that history. And I will conclude with maybe some thoughts
on the way ahead, at least from my point of view. [more]
Strategic Studies Institute, US Army War College, May 2004
U.S.political and military difficulties in Iraq have prompted
comparisons to the American war in Vietnam. The authors conclude that
the military dimensions of the two conflicts bear little comparison. Among
other things,the sheer scale of the Vietnam War in terms of forces committed
and losses incurred dwarfs that of the Iraq War. They also conclude, however,
that failed U.S. state-building in Vietnam and the impact of declining
domestic political support for U.S. war aims in Vietnam are issues pertinent
to current U.S. policy in Iraq. [more]
Human Rights Watch, May 20, 2004
The Israeli military’s use of tanks and helicopters yesterday
to fire on non-violent demonstrators in the southern Gaza Strip constituted
an unlawful and unnecessary use of force, Human Rights Watch said today.
At least eight people were killed and dozens were injured. [more]
Amnesty International Press Release, May 18, 2004
Israel's unjustified destruction of thousands of Palestinian
and Arab Israeli homes as well as vast areas of agricultural land has
reached an unprecedented level and must stop immediately, Amnesty International
said today. [more]
Carnegie Endowment, May 2004
Juan Cole, Le Monde Diplomatique, May 2004
Washington never predicted, even never seemed to consider
that the most successful way to revive Iraqi nationalism, and beyond that
Arab nationalism, was to occupy the country and treat it contemptuously
and rapaciously: this has created unexpected alliances between enemies.
[full article]
MSNBC, May 4, 2004
Complete text of Article 15-6 Investigation of the 800th
Military Police Brigade by Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba [full
report]
Seymour Hersch, The New Yorker, April 30, 2004
In the era of Saddam Hussein, Abu Ghraib, twenty miles west
of Baghdad, was one of the world’s most notorious prisons, with torture,
weekly executions, and vile living conditions. [full
article]
Human Rights Watch, April 30, 2004
The promised U.S. investigation into the mistreatment of
Iraqi prisoners should not stop with the lower-level soldiers who were
immediately involved, Human Rights Watch said today. The United States
should also investigate the superiors of these soldiers to see whether
they ordered or knowingly tolerated these abuses. [more]
International Crisis Group, April 27, 2004
The situation in Iraq is more precarious than at any
time since the April 2003 ouster of the Baathist regime, largely reflecting
the Coalition's inability to establish a legitimate and representative
political transition process. [summary
and report]
WMD IN IRAQ: Evidence and Implications
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, January
9, 2004
This new study details what the U.S. and international
intelligence communities understood about Iraq's weapons programs before
the war and outlines policy reforms to improve threat assessments, deter
transfer of WMD to terrorists, strengthen the UN weapons inspection process,
and avoid politicization of the intelligence process. [read
the report]
National Security Archive, December 23, 2003
Newly declassified documents posted today on the Web
by the National Security Archive show the British Embassy in Baghdad recommending
Saddam Hussein to London in 1969 as a "presentable young man"
with an "engaging smile," "with whom, if only one could
see more of him, it would be possible to do business." [more
articles and historical information]
International Crisis Group, December 23, 2003
For the foreseeable future, Iraq's security will be
in the hands of Coalition forces. As a result, how the Coalition Provisional
Authority (CPA) chose to deal with the country's former military and how
it is now going about starting up a new army may not have immediate security
implications. But both courses have decisive political implications, and
both appear, at a minimum, to have been poorly thought out and recklessly
implemented. [more]
Common Dreams, December 15, 2003
Despite imposing a brutal totalitarian system and a
cult of personality around his leadership, the United States joined the
Soviets, French and British in recognizing Iraq’s importance in the
regional balance of power. All maintained a largely cooperative relationship
with Saddam Hussein’s exceptionally oppressive regime, much to the
chagrin of human rights advocates. [more]
Human Rights Watch, December 12, 2003
The use of cluster munitions in populated areas caused
more civilian casualties than any other factor in the coalition´s
conduct of major military operations in March and April, Human Rights
Watch said. U.S. and British forces used almost 13,000 cluster munitions,
containing nearly 2 million submunitions, that killed or wounded more
than 1,000 civilians. [more]
Human Rights Watch, December 11, 2003
Iraqis rightly insist that trials for past atrocities
are of the utmost importance,” said Richard Dicker, director of the
International Justice Program at Human Rights Watch. “But any tribunal
set up to try these crimes should be fair and effective. Justice must
be done and be seen to be done. [more]
New Yorker, December 8, 2003
The Bush Administration has authorized a major escalation
of the Special Forces covert war in Iraq. Its highest priority is the
neutralization of the Baathist insurgents, by capture or assassination.
[more]
International Crisis Group, November 24, 2003
In a public opinion poll jointly sponsored by the James
A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University in Houston
and the International Crisis Group released today, majorities among both
Israelis and Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza expressed their
support for a peace proposal that would resolve the key issues of borders,
Jerusalem, refugees and the role of the international community. [more]
Foundation for Middle East Peace, November-December,
2003
The creation of a "Fortress Jerusalem" is
symbolized not only by burgeoning communities of Israeli settlements,
but most starkly by the construction of physical barriers of walls, fences,
barbed wire, and trenches that threaten to encircle the city in the north,
east, and south. [full
report]
The New York Review of Books, December 4, 2003
The invasion and conquest of Iraq by the United States
last spring was the result of what is probably the least ambiguous case
of the misreading of secret intelligence information in American history.
Whether it is even possible that a misreading so profound could yet be
in some sense "a mistake" is a question to which I shall return.
Going to war was not something we were forced to do and it certainly was
not something we were asked to do. It was something we elected to do for
reasons that have still not been fully explained. [full
article]
The Guardian, November 16, 2003
British warnings that America was failing before the
war to prepare properly for a crumbling security situation in Iraq after
Saddam Hussein was ousted were ignored by Vice President Dick Cheney and
the Pentagon. [full
article]
International Crisis Group, November 13, 2003
As attacks against the occupying forces and suicide
bombs against civilian targets intensify, the need for a new political
formula that will increase the powers, legitimacy and representative quality
of Iraqi governing institutions is becoming more urgent than ever. The
response to date, reflected in United Nations Security Council Resolution
1511, has been to tie the transfer of the exercise of sovereignty to the
drafting of an Iraqi constitution, its adoption in a referendum and ensuing
national elections. [executive
summary and full text]
Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA)
- 2 October 2003
From January through September 2003, PIPA/Knowledge
Networks conducted seven different polls that dealt with the conflict
with Iraq. Among other things, PIPA/KN probed respondents for key perceptions
and beliefs as well for their attitudes on what US policy should be. In
the course of doing this, it was discovered that a substantial portion
of the public had a number of misperceptions that were demonstrably false,
or were at odds with the dominant view in the intelligence community.
[full
text of paper]
International Crisis Group - 9 September 2003
The massive car bomb in Najaf on 29 August 2003, which
took the lives of over 90 Iraqis, including the prominent cleric Ayatollah
Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim, has put renewed focus on the fate of the country’s
Shiites. The attack comes in the wake of the attempted killing of other
prominent clerics, including Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Saed Al-Tabatab’i
al-Hakim, al-Hakim’s uncle. Although it is too soon to assign blame, it
is not too soon to assess potential consequences [paper]
Washington Post - 9 September 2003
U.S. intelligence agencies warned Bush administration
policymakers before the war in Iraq that there would be significant armed
opposition to a U.S.-led occupation, according to administration and congressional
sources familiar with the reports. [article]
International Crisis Group - 29 August 2003
The horrific bombing of the UN headquarters in Baghdad
on 19 August 2003 has focused renewed attention on the question of who,
if anyone, is capable of governing Iraq in the current highly volatile
environment and, in particular, on what ought to be the respective roles,
during the occupation period, of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA),
the Interim Governing Council and the United Nations. This report proposes
a new distribution of authority between the three...[full
report]
International Crisis Group - 27 July 2003
Settlement expansion in the Palestinian occupied territories
is endangering the viability of the Roadmap and, most importantly, of
the two-state solution it contemplates and which forms the core of President
Bush’s stated vision. Freezing settlements is not the Roadmap’s only requirement
and, to Israelis, may not appear as the central one. But unless action
is urgently taken, there is a serious risk that Israeli steps will jeopardise
any realistic prospect of a fair and sustainable territorial solution.
[article]
Iraq: Basra: Unprotected Munitions Injure Civilians
Human Rights Watch - May 6, 2003
Exploding munitions are hurting people every day, especially
children," said Reuben Brigety II, researcher in the Arms Division of
Human Rights Watch. "British forces should immediately secure these sites
to stop these tragic accidents. [article]
Dual-Use Material and the Weapons
Search in Iraq
MERIP - May 2, 2003
Before the US-British invasion of Iraq, most skeptics
did not argue that Saddam Hussein's regime possessed no illicit weapons
of mass destruction. Rather, the majority of the international community
doubted that Iraqi non-conventional weapons capabilities posed a pressing
threat to the peace. [article]
Joint Agency Statement on Iraq
ReliefWeb - May 2, 2003
Already under severe strain and under-resourced before
the war began, hospitals, water plants and sewage systems have been crippled
by the conflict and looting. Hospitals are overwhelmed, diarrhoea is endemic
and the death toll is mounting.... Clean water is scarce and diseases
like typhoid are being reported in southern Iraq. [article]
Shiite Religious Parties Fill Vacuum
in Southern Iraq
MERIP - April 22, 2003
Religious Shiite parties and militias in Iraq have recently
stepped into the gap resulting from the collapse of the Baath Party, especially
in the sacred shrine cities. This development must have come as a shock
to Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, who in early March preferred
Iraqis as US allies to Saudis, saying that they are secular and "overwhelmingly
Shia, which is different from the Wahhabis of the peninsula, and they
don't bring the sensitivity of having the holy cities of Islam being on
their territory." [article]
Iraq: U.S. and Allies Must Protect Refugees
Human Rights Watch - April 23, 2003
The United States and allied forces, as occupying powers in Iraq, have an obligation to protect refugees living inside the country from threats, physical attacks and forced displacement, Human Rights Watch said today. A group of more than 1,000 Iranian Kurd, Palestinian, Sudanese, Somali
and Syrian refugees have faced threats and attacks during the past week,
according to reports collected by the United Nations High Commissioner
for Refugees (UNHCR). [article]
U.S. Use of Clusters in Baghdad Condemned
Human Rights Watch - April 16, 2003
The U.S. Central Command should respond publicly to
evidence that U.S. forces used cluster munitions in a populated area of
Baghdad, Human Rights Watch urged today. According to a report in yesterday’s
Newsday, a Central Command spokeswoman has anonymously confirmed that
U.S. forces have hit urban areas of Baghdad with cluster munitions, stating
that they were aimed at Iraqi artillery and missile systems located inside
the city. [article]
Contact: dan@eklectiqs.com
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