MER Article Difficulties and Dangers of Regime Removal The swift success scored by the US in removing the Taliban regime in Afghanistan was a catalyst for hawks in George W. Bush’s administration to advocate further experiments in regime removal surgery. But hawkish euphoria at this accomplishment may have been conducive to self-deception in Washington. Afghanistan is not Faleh A. Jabar • 6 min read
Current Analysis Occupied Maan An expanded campaign to silence outspoken critics of the Jordanian government has followed the October 20 assassination of USAID official Lawrence Foley in Amman. On the pretext of unsubstantiated speculation that Foley's killing was orchestrated by a group of Islamist militants, the regime has arrested foreign and local Jillian Schwedler • 9 min read
Current Analysis Broadcast Ruse "Word got around the department that I was a good Arabic translator who did a great Saddam imitation," recalls the Harvard grad student. "Eventually, someone phoned me asking if I wanted to help change the course of Iraq policy." So twice a week, for $3000 a month, the Iraqi student tells the Voice Ian Urbina • 6 min read
Current Analysis Letter from France Despite intense pressure from Washington, several weeks into negotiations at the Security Council of the United Nations, France is holding to its position on how to resolve the current crisis in international policy toward Iraq. As stated by the minister of foreign affairs before the National Assembly, France prefers a Jean-Paul Chagnollaud • 6 min read
Current Analysis The US and the Kurds of Iraq As the winds of war steadily gather strength in the West, the Iraqi Kurds walk a tightrope between US interests and Iraqi government threats. Recognizing that it has little control over US decision-making, the Kurdish leadership is struggling to strike a delicate balance between a US-led "regime cha Maggy Zanger • 6 min read
Current Analysis Washington Pushes Turkey Toward "The Red Line" Top Pentagon brass may have doubts about the feasibility of the circulating war plans for Iraq, but George W. Bush's envoys have convinced Turkish decision-makers that a US military operation to overthrow Saddam Hussein's regime is inevitable. An official document recently leaked from Turkish Prime Minister Ertugrul Kurkcu • 6 min read
Current Analysis Sanctions Renewed on Iraq Concluding almost a year of diplomatic wrangling, the UN Security Council has agreed to revise UN sanctions on Iraq when the eleventh phase of the oil for food program ends on May 29. Under the oil for food program, Iraq is allowed to sell its oil on the world market Sarah J Graham-Brown • 8 min read
MER Article Refugees in Their Own Country Six bodies uncovered in February during construction on an old Iraqi army base in Iraqi Kurdistan were grim reminders of the Ba'th regime's past genocidal policies towards the Kurds. "The past is ever present in Kurdistan," as one Kurdish journalist says. But little reminder is needed of past atroci Maggy Zanger • 11 min read
Current Analysis Turkey's Ecevit When Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit arrives in Washington, DC this week to meet with President George W. Bush he will come bearing a symbolic gift: a replica of a 16th century Koran, beautifully embroidered and written with real gold lettering. The original of this Koran comes from the Topkapi Ertugrul Kurkcu • 7 min read
Current Analysis Iraq: Rolling Over Sanctions, Raising the Stakes Late in the evening of November 27, the US and Russia appear to have reached an agreement to once again roll over existing sanctions on Iraq for six months, by which time Secretary of State Colin Powell hopes the two powers will have agreed on a version of his proposed "smart sanctions." The Decembe Sarah J Graham-Brown • 7 min read
MER Article The Iraqi Klondike Talk of a "new Middle East" was very much in vogue in the early 1990s. With a seeming Pax Americana reigning over the region after the Gulf war, and with Israel and its neighbors apparently nearing a comprehensive settlement, it looked as if economic interests, not political rivalries, (Author not identified) • 14 min read
Current Analysis How the Sanctions Hurt Iraq (This article was updated on November 14, 2001.) Colin Rowat • 10 min read
