DEADLY GREEN ZONE ROCKET ATTACK

"Two foreign contractors... have been killed and 15 wounded in a rocket attack on Baghdad's high-security Green Zone... The Green Zone houses government offices and many foreign embassies. The victims worked for a catering company contracted by the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq..."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7756274.stm

FINAL SOFA AGREEMENT ENDS U.S. PRESENCE AFTER 2011

"... the U.S.-Iraq Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) signed by U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker and Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari Monday closes the door to a further U.S. military presence beyond 2011 even more tightly than the previous draft and locks in a swift end to Iraqi dependence on the U.S. military that appears to be irreversible... The agreement ends the George W. Bush administration's aspiration for a long-term military presence, aimed both at projecting power in the region from bases in Iraq and at maintaining that Iraqi military dependence on U.S. training, advice and support. The agreement represents an acute embarrassment for the Bush administration... Once a Shi'a regime with close political and religious ties to Iran came to power, it was inevitable that reliance on U.S. military power would be only a temporary policy, to be phased out when conditions permitted it."
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=44747

SUICIDE ATTACKS BY WOMEN RELATIVES OF DEAD INSURGENTS

"... suicide attacks carried out by women have become more common. They are often the relatives of insurgents who have been killed by US or Iraqi forces..."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7745212.stm

DETAILS OF IRAQ TROOP PACT

The Status of Forces pact between Iraq and Bush Administration:

"... In three years there no longer would be any legal basis for U.S. armed forces or civilian contractors of the Department of Defense to remain in Iraq...

All U.S. combat troops, police trainers and military advisers would have to leave the country by Dec. 31, 2011...

If Iraq wants American forces to leave earlier, it could terminate the agreement with one year's notice...

All American combat troops … have no right, beginning next year, to venture off their bases and outposts without Iraqi authorities' approval and cooperation...

The Green Zone, where American contractors, some military personnel and officials live and work, would come under Iraqi control on the first day of next year...

Control of Iraqi airspace would be transferred to the Iraqis the day the agreement took effect, and after that the Iraqi government would issue annual permits to all U.S. military aircraft...

The agreement forbids attacks on other countries from inside Iraq, and if it were approved, beginning Jan. 1 all U.S. operations would have to be conducted in cooperation with the Iraqi government...

The military... would have to get arrest warrants from the Iraqi government, judicial orders for raids on homes and to consult in advance on every operation, including the attacks on high-value targets...

All detainees in American custody who are wanted by the Iraqi government would be handed over based on arrest warrants or else released, and anyone detained by U.S. forces during approved ... would have to be handed over to Iraqi authorities within 24 hours...

Iraqi authorities (would have) the right to prosecute private contractors, and it leaves a remote possibility that a U.S. service member could be prosecuted in Iraq for major and premeditated crimes… U.S. troops facing prosecution in Iraqi courts..."

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/117/story/56110.html

AGREEMENT IS ULTIMATE END OF THE OCCUPATION

"The status of forces of agreement between the United States and Iraq is now called the withdrawal agreement... an ultimate end to the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq... all U.S. combat troops, police trainers and military advisers would have to leave the country by Dec. 31, 2011... in three years there no longer would be any legal basis for U.S. armed forces or civilian contractors of the Department of Defense to remain in Iraq.... Obama's campaign plan to leave a residual force of some 30,000 American troops in Iraq would be impossible..."
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/117/story/56110.html

IRAQ DISMISSES ANTI-CORRUPTION OFFICIALS

"The (Iraqi) government... is systematically dismissing oversight officials who were installed to fight corruption in Iraqi ministries by order of the American occupation administration... The dismissals... come as estimates of official Iraqi corruption soar. One Iraqi former chief investigator recently testified before Congress that $13 billion in reconstruction funds from the United States has been lost to fraud, embezzlement, theft and waste by Iraqi government officials..."
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/18/world/middleeast/18maliki.html?_r=1&hp

AGREEMENT WOULD END BREMER ORDER 17 (A U.S. GET OUT OF JAIL CARD)

"... as soon as the agreement is passed, Iraq will go to the United Nations Security Council to ask... for permission to abrogate Order 17 issued by US viceroy Paul Bremer..."
http://www.juancole.com/2008/11/iraqis-view-security-agreement-as.html

"... Order 17... essentially granted to every foreigner in the country connected to the occupation enterprise the full freedom of the land, not to be interfered with in any way by Iraqis or any Iraqi political or legal institution. Foreigners--unless, of course, they were jihadis or Iranians--were to be "immune from any form of arrest or detention other than by persons acting on behalf of their Sending States," even though American and coalition forces were to be allowed the freedom to arrest and detain in prisons and detention camps of their own any Iraqis..."
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20071008/engelhardt

DEMOCRACY TO DECIDE FATE OF U.S. TROOPS IN IRAQ

"... the Iraqi Cabinet on Sunday finally approved the contentious Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), which provides a legal basis for U.S. military operations to continue in Iraq after Dec. 31, when the U.N. mandate expires. But... The bilateral U.S.-Iraqi security pact is by no means a done deal: it must still be ratified by a fractured parliament... Washington can only sit back and watch as Iraq's exercise in democracy determines the fate of U.S. troops in the country."
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1859501,00.html?xid=thepage_newsletter

IRAQI SOLDIER KILLS TWO G.I.s

"... members of the Iraqi police and Iraqi army... said that an American military patrol had stopped Wednesday afternoon to inspect a checkpoint staffed by Iraqi soldiers in the predominantly Sunni Arab neighborhood of Zanjili, on Mosul’s west side. A heated argument ensued between one of the American soldiers and an Iraqi soldier identified as Barzan Mohammed Abdullah, prompting the American to curse the Iraqi, spit in his face and then slap him, the Iraqis said. The Iraqi soldier then opened fire on the Americans... killing two and wounding six. Other American soldiers responded with a barrage of fire directed at the Iraqi... killing him instantly... This accounting of the events was corroborated by a civilian witness..."
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/13/world/middleeast/13iraq.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

GREEN ZONE NOT SO SAFE

"... John McCain claimed absurdly that the US was on the verge of victory, and during his visits to the Green Zone his staffers annoyed US embassy officials by requesting them not to wear helmets and body armour when standing next the candidate. McCain's people feared this might undermine in the eyes of American television viewers their candidate's claim that US prospects in Iraq were rosier than had been reported..."
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/patrick-cockburn-the-us-can-quit-iraq-or-it-can-stay-but-it-cant-do-both-1009598.html

U.S. NOT AWARE OF IRAQI DEATHS IT HAS CAUSED

"... how many Iraqi lives have been lost because of the U.S. occupation? The answer is one million, and it exceeds the death toll of the 1994 Rwandan genocide... the most ominous consequence of media censorship (is) a public lack of awareness... a February 2007 Associated Press poll in which U.S. citizens were asked how many Iraqis died because of the U.S. occupation. The most common answers placed casualties at below 10,000..."
http://ipsnorthamerica.net/news.php?idnews=1817

IRAQI CHANGES TO U.S. SOFA SECURITY AGREEMENT

"... the five new changes requested by the Iraqi government:
1- the title will be changed to "agreement on complete US withdrawal from Iraq".
2- ensure that Iraq does have legal jurisdictions over US troops...
3- ensure that 2011 is the final date for withdrawal all US troops...
4- allow the Iraqi government to inspect US military mail.
5- a ban on attacking any neighboring countries from Iraq.
http://raedinthemiddle.blogspot.com/2008/11/iraqi-government-requests-5-changes-in.html

U.S. ATTACK ON SYRIA SURPRISES IRAQ, MAY CAUSE EARLY WITHDRAWAL

"The United States raid on Syria on October 27, which led to the killing of eight civilians, sent shockwaves throughout Iraq... Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki... was completely dumfounded... Here was the prime minister of Iraq, an ally of Iran and a former resident of Syria, watching Syria being attacked from his own territory - without his knowledge..."

"... Now, Maliki wants to delete any reference in the draft SOFA (status of forces agreement) to the possibility of American troops staying until after 2011. According to the draft, the Americans will withdraw from towns and villages by June 2009, and from all of Iraq in 2011..."

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JK01Ak05.html