What Democracy? BUSHCO Hiding Iraqi Agreement Details From Americans-Iraqis Post Details On Website

[kpete]

Proposed SOFA Agreement Requires Congressional Approval Because It Contains Treaty Commitment»

Our guest blogger is Peter Juul, a Research Associate at the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

In Iraq, the proposed Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) with the United States is generating a heated and near-violent debate in parliament. But here in the United States, the Bush administration has kept a tight lid on the contents of the agreement.

The Bush administration argues that the SOFA is an “executive agreement” that, unlike treaties or other international agreements, does not require congressional approval. Only after the agreement passed the Iraqi cabinet last weekend did the Bush administration deign to give lawmakers a closed-door briefing on it. As Rep. William Delahunt (D-MA), who has held a number of hearings on the subject of a U.S.-Iraq security agreement, noted in an opening statement on Wednesday:

http://www.house.gov/delahunt/delahuntopening1119.pdf

… there has been no meaningful consultation with Congress during the negotiation of this agreement. And the American people have been kept completely in the dark.

Even now the National Security Council has requested that we do not show this document to our witnesses or release it to the public…

Now that’s incredible – meantime, the Iraqi government has posted this document on its media website, so that anybody who can read Arabic can take part in the discussion.

more at:
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/11/21/iraq-sofa-approval/

[msongs]

1. executive agreement - then the new executive can ignore or cancel with a NEW agreement nt

[leftstreet]

2. K&R Interesting

"This language suggests that the SOFA is, in fact, a treaty committing the United States to act in the defense of Iraq if its security is threatened. Even if it does not rise to the level of a firm security guarantee, the SOFA’s language is close enough to a treaty that Congress should have a say in it."