There are now several version available of the Status of Force Agreement (SOFA) the U.S. is pursuing with Iraq.
There are two translations from the Arab version. One from Iraq blogger and activist Raed downloadable here. The other one is by McClatchy’s Baghdad Bureau available here. So far the U.S. keeps the official English version secret. But McClatchy obtained a copy (pdf). Its team reports:
The Bush administration has adopted a much looser interpretation than the Iraqi government of several key provisions of the pending U.S.-Iraq security agreement, U.S. officials said Tuesday — just hours before the Iraqi parliament was to hold its historic vote.
These include a provision that bans the launch of attacks on other countries from Iraq, a requirement to notify the Iraqis in advance of U.S. military operations and the question of Iraqi legal jurisdiction over American troops and military contractors.
To illustrate the differences lets compare the three editions. For obvious reasons we pick article twenty four.
Raed’s translation:
Article Twenty Four
Withdrawal of U.S. forces from IraqRecognizing the improvement of the Iraqi security forces and their
increased capabilities, and the fact that they are in charge of all
security operations, and based on the strong relationship between the
two sides, both sides have agreed on the following:1- All U.S. forces must withdraw from all Iraqi territories no later than December 31st 2011.
2- All U.S. combat forces must
withdraw from all cities, towns, and villages as soon as the Iraqi
forces take over the full security responsibility in them. The U.S.
withdrawal from these areas shall take place no later than June 30th,
2009
Raed marked the changes from an earlier
version he obtained. The "all"s marked above were added in the more
recent one. The "must" in 1 was changed from "shall" the "must" in 2
was changed from "will".
The English version obtained by McClatchy seems to include most of the
changes Raed marked throughout the agreement text. But article twenty
four is different in the English version:
Article Twenty Four
Withdrawal of the United States Forces from Iraq.Recognizing the performance and increasing capacity of the Iraqi
Security Forces, the assumption of full security responsibility by
those Forces, and based upon the strong relationship between the
Parties, an agreement on the following has been reached:1 – All the United States Forces shall withdraw from all Iraqi territory no later than December 3, 2001.
2 – All United States combat forces shall withdraw from Iraqi cities,
villages and localities no later than the time at which Iraqi Security
Forces assume full responsibility for security in an Iraqi province,
provided that such withdrawal is completed no later than June 30, 2009.
Notice that the English version still includes "shall" where the Arabic
one included "will". In 2 the English version seems a bit more
ambivalent too.
The English translation of the Arabic text as provide by McClatchy reads:
Admitting
to the performance of Iraqi forces, their increased capabilities and
assuming full responsibility for security and based upon the strong
relationship between the two parties the two parties agreed to the
following:All U.S. forces are to withdraw from all Iraqi territory, water and airspace no later than the 31st of December of 2011.
All U.S. combat forces are to withdraw from Iraqi cities, villages,
and towns not later than the date that Iraqi forces assume complete
responsibility of security in any Iraqi province. The withdrawal of
U.S. forces from the above-mentioned places is on a date no later than
the 30 June 2009.
I
will let you decide how important these differences are. I for one
believe that some lawyers could argue a lot about them. There are also,
likely false, rumors of secret SOFA articles. How would those pass the Iraqi parliament?
What still bothers me the most is that the Strategic Framework
Agreement (SFA) that was signed by Maliki and U.S. ambassador Crocker
together with the SOFA has still not officially been made public and
that everyone is mute about it. Imad Khadduri provides a link to an Arabic version. At his site Badger translates a short part of that in a comment and muses:
Notice that according to this (1) the close cooperation in defence and security
arrangements has been inserted into the long-term strategic framework
agreement; and (2) while the cooperation is in defence and security
arrangements, what is contemplated at the end of this section is the
takeover by the Iraqi forces of full responsibility for security,
the word defence being missing there. It is enough to make you wonder,
and particular in the light of the fact that the final version of this
seems to be something of a secret.
I continue to believe that The Iraq SOFA Is A Shiny Object that is supposed to keep our eyes away from the problematic text of the SFA.
How much sovereignty does Iraq have when the U.S. is issuing solicitations for ammunition for the Republic of Iraq? What does the SFA say about that? Will the U.S. keep control over Iraqi arm purchases?