Iraq PM says sovereignty violated by proposed US status agreement News
Iraq PM says sovereignty violated by proposed US status agreement

[JURIST] Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] Friday said that the proposed version of the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) [GlobalSecurity backgrounder], which will govern the legal status of US troops in Iraq beginning in 2009, violates Iraqi sovereignty. Al-Maliki told reporters that he particularly objects to provisions that would grant total legal immunity to US troops, allow the US to detain prisoners independent of Iraqi review, and give the US control over Iraqi airspace. Earlier this week, Iraqi lawmakers expressed their strong opposition to the proposal [McClatchy report], but US President George W. Bush told reporters [transcript] Wednesday:

First of all, I think we'll end up with a strategic agreement with Iraq. You know, it's all kinds of noise in their system and our system. What eventually will win out is the truth. For example, you read stories perhaps in your newspaper that the U.S. is planning all kinds of permanent bases in Iraq. That's an erroneous story. The Iraqis know — will learn it's erroneous, too. We're there at the invitation of the sovereign government of Iraq.

The two countries will need to sign a new SOFA in order for troops to remain in Iraq after their current UN mandate expires in December [Security Council release]. Reuters has more. AFP additional coverage.

The US has similar status agreements with other countries around the world. According to a report [CFR materials] by the Council on Foreign Relations [official website], legal immunity for US troops is one of the military's most desired provisions. That immunity is a particularly divisive issue in Iraq, which has previously asked the UN to nullify [JURIST report] the immunity granted to troops under the original mandate [Security Council Resolution 1546] due to past misconduct by US troops, including the Haditha killings and Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal [JURIST news archives]. Iraq has also asked the UN to lift the provision allowing the US to hold prisoners without Iraqi review [JURIST news report].

THIS DAY @ LAW

Thomas Becket, former Chancellor of England, murdered by Henry II's knights

On December 29, 1170, Archbishop Thomas Becket, former Chancellor of England, was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral by knights acting in the name of Henry II.

Becket and Henry had been entangled in a power struggle over, among other things, criminal jurisdiction over clergy. Read a contemporary account of the murder of Thomas Becket.

Texas attains US statehood

On December 29, 1845, Texas became the twenty-eighth state to join the United States of America when US President James K. Polk signed the Ordinance of Annexation. Texas had a complicated path to statehood because it had formerly been part of Mexico and then an independent republic. The US Congress passed the Annexation of the Republic of Texas Joint Resolution on March 1, 1845. Voters in Texas then approved the Ordinance of Annexation in October, before it was approved by the US Congress and signed into law by President Polk on this day in 1845. The US Supreme Court later ruled in Texas v. White that, despite its unique path to statehood, Texas did not have the right to secede from the union.