There are signals that the Maliki Green Zone “government” is starting to get the message that the Status of Forces Agreement the US is pushing is not likely to win them friends at home. Aswat Al Iraq reported that Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabagh tried to head off criticism by saying:

“the Iraqi government has a vision of the agreement different from the one speculated by the U.S,” and he went on to insist that the Mailiki “vision” will “stress preservation of Iraq’s territorial, maritime and aerial sovereignty…”

While Maliki tries to head off opposition until he can manipulate faux approval of the SOFA, CTuttle of Main and Central points us to key information on just one of the claims both Mailiki and Crocker/Bush are making – that there will be no U.S. permanent bases:

NPR’s Diane Rehm asked NBC News Middle East correspondent Richard Engel about the report. Engel said that as part of “a face saving device,” the bases would technically be Iraqi and “U.S. troops would reside on them as tenants”:

ENGEL: That’s the question, is it permanent bases or is it not, and the details of this have not been published. The U.S. and Iraqi officials I’ve spoken to say they would not be U.S. permanent bases in Iraq, they would be Iraqi bases and that U.S. troops would reside on them as tenants and may even have to pay some sort of nominal rent, so there would be a face saving device.

Patrick Cockburn, writing in The Independent this week, provides a more complete look at what’s included in the draft agreement which the Bush Administration wants approved by the end of July:

The terms of the impending deal, details of which have been leaked to The Independent, are likely to have an explosive political effect in Iraq. Iraqi officials fear that the accord, under which US troops would occupy permanent bases, conduct military operations, arrest Iraqis and enjoy immunity from Iraqi law, will destabilise Iraq’s position in the Middle East and lay the basis for unending conflict in their country.

(snip)

America currently has 151,000 troops in Iraq and, even after projected withdrawals next month, troop levels will stand at more than 142,000 – 10 000 more than when the military "surge" began in January 2007. Under the terms of the new treaty, the Americans would retain the long-term use of more than 50 bases in Iraq. American negotiators are also demanding immunity from Iraqi law for US troops and contractors, and a free hand to carry out arrests and conduct military activities in Iraq without consulting the Baghdad government.

Cockburn followed that report the next day with word that not only is Ambassador "Um Um Um" Crocker insisting on an agreement that perpetuates US control of Iraq but that we are blackmailing the Iraqis to get it approved:

The US is holding hostage some $50bn (£25bn) of Iraq’s money in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to pressure the Iraqi government into signing an agreement seen by many Iraqis as prolonging the US occupation indefinitely, according to information leaked to The Independent.

And today, Grand Ayatollah Mudaressi issued the following warning from Karbala:

Speaking to reporters and clerics in Karbala, Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Taqqi al-Mudaressi said “the proposed security agreement between Iraq and the U.S lacks the overall and in-depth vision of Iraq’s general affairs”.

The cleric expected “the agreement would fail if the details of the deal remained as they are in the current draft”, adding “ signing the agreement came while Iraq is deprived of sovereignty under chapter seven of (the Security Council charter). He branded the agreement as “ a sort of US blackmailing and a sword strangling Iraqis”.

“Infringing Iraq’s sovereignty would not be in the U.S interests as a superpower because the agreement humiliates people’s dignity, pushing them to uprise and to start a new cycle of violence”, he pointed out.

Al Sadr has made it clear that his movement will oppose the SOFA:

"After every Friday prayers, everyone must protest and demonstrate until the agreement is cancelled," he said in a statement sent to AFP on Wednesday.

He said his powerful movement planned to send delegations to neighbouring countries and to the West and to international bodies such as the United Nations, the Arab League and the European Ubnion to explain its position.

He said the Iraqi government should consult the people before entering into any deal with Washington.

Also speaking out in clear opposition is the Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq who represent Sunni opposition to the occupation. Their leader Harith Al Dhari stated that the support for the agreement comes from those
whom:

the occupation has polished and presented to the world as the representatives of Iraq, but they represent no one but themselves, and that small group that is with them and with the occupation, pressing ever forward to carry out these agreements, to the extent that the ambassador Crocker goes to Najaf and boasts, announcing in his sly and scummy way, that it is the government of Iraq that is requesting the forming of this agreement. But their efforts are already exposed and widely understood, as a presentation of Iraq to the enemy on a plate of gold, just so that they can retain their positions and their privileges…

Even Bush’s friends in Saudi Arabia are protesting as seen in the Saudi establishmet Arabnews editorial on SOFA:

George W. Bush brought death and chaos to Iraq on the basis of lies. Now, as he staggers through the last months of his failed presidency, he is trying one more bit of trickery — forcing the Nuri Al-Maliki government to legitimize a long-term military occupation of Iraq in a treaty, which will make that sovereign country an American colony.

Here in the US, congressional leaders opposed a SOFA agreement with the demand that it be brought to the Senate for ratification as a treaty – an amendment to For H.R.5658, the FY09 National Defense Authorization Act from Congresswoman Lee which passed 234 to 183 states that :

no provision in any status of forces agreement (SOFA) negotiated between the United States and the Government of Iraq that obligates the United States to the defense of Iraq from internal or external threats shall have any legal effect unless the agreement is in the form of a treaty requiring the advice and consent of the Senate, or is specifically authorized by an Act of Congress.

While the passage of the Lee Amerdment 234-183 is good news, we need to insist that at minimum similar language in included in the final Defense Authorization which will begin debate this week. Given the kabuki we see with war funding over and over again, we need to remind our representatives that we are opposed to the terms of the SOFA as well as to the bypassing of Senate approval.

Meanwhile Herve Bar reporting for the AFP provides us with one more report of what a continuing occupation of Iraq by US forces as proposed in the SOFA looks like:

Iraqi teenager Abbas Khadum died in his father’s arms, one of 25 men who locals say were shot dead in a single day by US troops in a crackdown on Shia militiamen in east Baghdad.

His mother fought back tears while his father held a picture of the 19-year-old, his hair slicked back and dressed in a smart shirt buttoned up to his chin, as he gave his version of how US troops had killed his son.

(snip)

Khadum’s family live in the heart of the Al-Obeidi neighbourhood, where many followers of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr are rumoured to have sought refuge after being driven out of nearby Sadr City.

Khadum’s family home, an anonymous rectangular building with an iron gate, is around a dozen metres from a wide main road, part-hidden by a large concrete wall erected in mid May by US forces to disrupt militia activities.

(snip)

“In the middle of the night, the Americans positioned themselves on a roof of a nearby building site which overlooks the wall,” he said, his bespectacled face framed in a traditional red keffiyeh scarf.

“About 11 am, my son was due to go to university with his friends. With all the shooting, he told them not to come and meet him at the house, but to wait a few streets away.

“He left and then a few minutes later, I was called and told he had been wounded. I raced to him. He had been shot in the back, at shoulder level. He was still breathing. He died in my arms as we took him to hospital,” he said.

No wonder Friday’s statements about the SOFA negotiations by Abdellatif Rayan, “a media advisor for the U.S. forces in Iraq,” that “the U.S. forces have always been aiming at supporting the Iraqi government and people” sound so very hollow.

Related posts:

  1. Maliki vs. Odierno: Who Blinks First?
  2. The Major General’s Temper Tantrum
  3. Pride And Petulance
  4. The End of the Delusion in Iraq
  5. Torture: Obama Heeded Maliki on Abuse Photos, Says McClatchy; What That Says for Our Occupation