UPDATE: SOFA vote in parliament has been delayed until Thursday.

Juan Cole linked to this pdf, which he reports is the official version, obtained by McClatchy on Tuesday.

This is ludicrous. Our ambassador should be recalled to testify before congress.

Thanks, LD, I’m looking forward to having a looksee after I download it.

Iraq to hold referendum on US pact

Not sure if that is just to appease Iraqi citizens. Once signed, the SOFA agreement can be ’stopped’ after written notification by either the US, or the Iraq government. There is a one year waiting period after the notification before SOFA ceases.

Here’s a searchable copy of the shiny object.

The McClatchy article states there are differing interpretations between the Iraqui’s understanding of SOFA and that of the Americans. Iraq should be wary; look what Addington’s interpretation of our Constitution has brought down upon us.

It seems that the Iraqi Parliament “punted” by agreeing to the Sunni calls for a general referendum before it’s enacted. This allows time for the “language” to be clarified and will require the US to actually try to promote it with the public.

In other words the US is gonna be in the position of having to tell the public that the really DON’T intend to use Iraq as a staging base for attacking other countries, and that there REALLY won’t be permanent basing of troops in the country, etc. etc.

Digg