Possible Extension of the Un
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
POSSIBLE EXTENSION OF THE U.N. MANDATE FOR IRAQ: OPTIONS HEARING BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS, HUMAN RIGHTS, AND OVERSIGHT OF THE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED TENTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION JULY 23, 2008 Serial No. 110–203 Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Affairs ( Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.foreignaffairs.house.gov/ U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 43–716PDF WASHINGTON : 2008 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800 Fax: (202) 512–2104 Mail: Stop IDCC, Washington, DC 20402–0001 VerDate 0ct 09 2002 11:21 Sep 03, 2008 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 5011 Sfmt 5011 F:\WORK\IOHRO\072308\43716.000 HINTREL PsN: SHIRL COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS HOWARD L. BERMAN, California, Chairman GARY L. ACKERMAN, New York ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey Samoa DAN BURTON, Indiana DONALD M. PAYNE, New Jersey ELTON GALLEGLY, California BRAD SHERMAN, California DANA ROHRABACHER, California ROBERT WEXLER, Florida DONALD A. MANZULLO, Illinois ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York EDWARD R. ROYCE, California BILL DELAHUNT, Massachusetts STEVE CHABOT, Ohio GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York THOMAS G. TANCREDO, Colorado DIANE E. WATSON, California RON PAUL, Texas ADAM SMITH, Washington JEFF FLAKE, Arizona RUSS CARNAHAN, Missouri MIKE PENCE, Indiana JOHN S. TANNER, Tennessee JOE WILSON, South Carolina GENE GREEN, Texas JOHN BOOZMAN, Arkansas LYNN C. WOOLSEY, California J. GRESHAM BARRETT, South Carolina SHEILA JACKSON LEE, Texas CONNIE MACK, Florida RUBE´ N HINOJOSA, Texas JEFF FORTENBERRY, Nebraska JOSEPH CROWLEY, New York MICHAEL T. MCCAUL, Texas DAVID WU, Oregon TED POE, Texas BRAD MILLER, North Carolina BOB INGLIS, South Carolina LINDA T. SA´ NCHEZ, California LUIS G. FORTUN˜ O, Puerto Rico DAVID SCOTT, Georgia GUS BILIRAKIS, Florida JIM COSTA, California VACANT ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey GABRIELLE GIFFORDS, Arizona RON KLEIN, Florida BARBARA LEE, California ROBERT R. KING, Staff Director YLEEM POBLETE, Republican Staff Director SUBCOMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS, HUMAN RIGHTS, AND OVERSIGHT BILL DELAHUNT, Massachusetts, Chairman RUSS CARNAHAN, Missouri, DANA ROHRABACHER, California Vice Chair RON PAUL, Texas DONALD M. PAYNE, New Jersey JEFF FLAKE, Arizona GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York JOSEPH CROWLEY, New York CLIFF STAMMERMAN, Subcommittee Staff Director NATALIE COBURN, Subcommittee Professional Staff Member PAUL BERKOWITZ, Republican Professional Staff Member ELISA PERRY, Staff Associate (II) VerDate 0ct 09 2002 11:21 Sep 03, 2008 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 F:\WORK\IOHRO\072308\43716.000 HINTREL PsN: SHIRL C O N T E N T S Page WITNESSES Ms. Danielle Pletka, Vice President, Foreign and Defense Policy Studies, American Enterprise Institute ............................................................................ 19 Steven Kull, Ph.D., Director, Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) .................................................................................................................... 22 Michael J. Matheson, Esq., Visiting Research Professor of Law, The George Washington University Law School .................................................................... 27 LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING The Honorable Bill Delahunt, a Representative in Congress from the Com- monwealth of Massachusetts, and Chairman, Subcommittee on Inter- national Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight: Statement and let- ter from Dr. Ayad Allawi, Head of the Iraqi National List .............................. 4 Ms. Danielle Pletka: Prepared statement .............................................................. 20 Steven Kull, Ph.D.: Prepared statement ................................................................ 25 Michael J. Matheson, Esq.: Prepared statement .................................................. 29 (III) VerDate 0ct 09 2002 11:21 Sep 03, 2008 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 F:\WORK\IOHRO\072308\43716.000 HINTREL PsN: SHIRL POSSIBLE EXTENSION OF THE U.N. MANDATE FOR IRAQ: OPTIONS WEDNESDAY, JULY 23, 2008 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SUBCOMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS, HUMAN RIGHTS, AND OVERSIGHT, COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS, Washington, DC. The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:12 p.m., in room 2172, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. William D. Delahunt (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Mr. DELAHUNT. The subcommittee will come to order. Today’s hearing is the seventh in a series held by this subcommittee re- garding the so-called Declaration of Principles and any possible agreements based on that document, which was signed by Presi- dent Bush and Prime Minister Maliki in November of last year. The Declaration of Principles initially embraced a pledge to es- tablish an indefinite, open-ended presence of United States combat forces in Iraq in order to, among other commitments, and I am quoting from that document, ‘‘Support the Republic of Iraq in de- fending its democratic system against internal and external threats, and to provide security assurances and commitments to the Republic of Iraq to deter foreign aggression.’’ These were extraordinary promises by President Bush. Many of us were taken aback not only by the breadth and depth of these commitments but by the position of the Bush administration that it was unnecessary to submit such an agreement to the United States Congress. This unprecedented claim to executive branch au- thority prompted Senator Clinton to file a bill in the Senate and our colleague, Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, who will join us later, to file a similar one in the House, the effect of which would be to require the submission of such an agreement to Congress for its ap- proval. In our first hearing on December 19, 2007, we reviewed the role that the Iraqi Parliament expected to play in the approval of the extension of the U.N. mandate to December 31, 2008, as expressed in a letter from a majority of members to Prime Minister Maliki and to the United Nations Security Council, calling for the inclu- sion of a timetable for the withdrawal of United States troops; oth- erwise, they registered their objection to the extension of the man- date. I would note for the record that all of the witnesses at this hear- ing agreed that Article 61 of the Iraqi Constitution, under that par- ticular Article, any United States-Iraq agreement which would sup- (1) VerDate 0ct 09 2002 11:21 Sep 03, 2008 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\IOHRO\072308\43716.000 HINTREL PsN: SHIRL 2 plant the U.N. mandate would have to be submitted to the Par- liament for approval. This was subsequently confirmed by cor- respondence with the United States Congress by members of the Iraqi Parliament representing a majority of that body and in the appearance before this subcommittee on June 3 of this year by two parliamentarians whose parties had signed this letter. Let me quote for the record from the letter: ‘‘We, the undersigned members of the council, wish to confirm your concerns that any international agreement that is not ratified by the Iraqi legislative power is considered unconstitu- tional and illegal in accordance with the current rulings and laws of the Iraqi public.’’ On Monday of this week, a statement by Prime Minister Maliki, which was reported in the newspaper Azaman, reaffirmed the con- stitutional requirement that the agreement, and, again, I am quoting from the Prime Minister himself, requires the approval of the representatives of the people in Parliament. Thus, it is indisputable that approval by the Iraqi Parliament is a prerequisite. When I was practicing law, we would describe it as a sina qua non, to any valid, legitimate, bilateral agreement. And yet, despite the recent dramatic change in public statements by both executive branches concerning a timetable for withdrawal of American troops by 2010, it is still very much in question whether an agreement can be consummated by December 31, 2008, given both the Iraqi Parliament’s limited calendar and the lack of even implementing legislation necessary for the consideration of any international agreement by that body. And such enacting legisla- tion requires a two-thirds vote itself. Furthermore, we hear from our colleagues in the Iraqi Par- liament that they feel that they have not been adequately informed as to the substance of the agreement and its implications for Iraqi sovereignty. I am not going to take any time today to debate what I feel to be the appropriate constitutional role of the U.S. Congress in this matter. We have had a hearing on that issue. However, most of the information that has come to Members both in the House and in the Senate has not come as a result of the detailed consultation with Congress that is provided for by the State Department’s own regulations that are described in Circular 175. As Chairman Berman of the full committee and Chairman Skel- ton of the Armed Services Committee recently said in a letter to President Bush dated June 12 of this year, and I am quoting from that letter, ‘‘Senior officials of the administration, including two Cabinet Secretaries, have pledged to keep Congress apprised of the progress of the negotiations throughout the course of those dis- cussions. Unfortunately, we do not believe that your adminis- tration has adequately fulfilled that pledge.’’