Immunity Pact For American Troops in Iraq Still Unsettled

[Barrett808]

Immunity Pact For American Troops in Iraq Still Unsettled
Status-of-Forces Agreement Establishes Rules for Forces
By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, January 23, 2004; Page A12

The United States has yet to begin serious negotiations with Iraqis on an agreement to guarantee that American troops in Iraq will remain immune from arrest and prosecution by local authorities once a new Baghdad government takes over in June, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials.

The status-of-forces agreement, often one of the most sensitive pacts reached between the U.S. and countries that host American troops, will also set the rules for where U.S. troops will be based and the conditions under which they will operate.

"All these things have to be negotiated and agreed upon -- the areas they will be deployed, their bases and so on," Iraqi Governing Council President Adnan Pachachi said this week. "But we are still waiting for a draft" agreement from the United States, he added.

The U.S. timetable calls for reaching a forces agreement by March 31 with the governing council -- the U.S.-appointed group helping temporarily to run the country.

U.S. officials assume, but have no guarantees, that the agreement would be honored by the yet-to-be-created Iraqi government.

(more)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40114-2004Jan22.html

[arcane1]

1. Oh I'm sure the average Iraqi will LOVE that idea..

:eyes:

why does that give me a sick feeling?

[IndianaGreen]

2. There is no government in Iraq

and there is no amnesty for war crimes regardless of what deal the US works out with Chalabi or one of his clones.

What if Hitler's armies had asked for the same sort of immunity from the puppet regimes they installed in Occupied Europe?

[DuctapeFatwa]

3. Being held accountable for war crimes by any judicial body is not

consistent with US foreign policy.

[Karenina]

6. "Being held accountable for war crimes by any judicial body is not"

consistent with US foreign policy.

So ist das. :puke:

[teryang]

4. A SOFA granting full immunity?

This would represent nothing less than extra-territoriality, the nineteenth century imperialist bugaboo of the national independence movements of the twentieth century.

Ever heard of Mao Tse Tung or Ho Chi Minh? This is what full immunity brings to life.

What we have to look forward to with fools like Bremer, Chechny and Herr Rumsfeldt running our militarist rightest regime.

[saigon68]

5. Its like THE leaders of the Pack of Wolves

Deciding the sheep's rights to challenge the conduct of the rest of the Wolf pack.


DISGUSTING AS USUAL.