Middle East and North Africa

I.  The Fact of Occupation

 

            Relying on U.N. Security Council Resolution 1441 (2002) and on the sovereign authority of the United States to use force in assuring its own national security, President Bush has said that the United States and its allies will use armed force to disarm Iraq if Saddam Hussein and his sons do not leave Iraq within a 48-hour deadline.

 

One of the lead items on the agenda at the International Atomic Energy Agency Board of Governors meeting on 25 November 2004 will be to determine whether Iran is in compliance with its obligations under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), and if not, whether to refer Iran to the UN Security Council for possible enforcement action.

 

According to news reports, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has transferred about a dozen non-Iraqi prisoners out of Iraq in the past 18 months. Their destination has not been made known. The news reports say that the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel has prepared a draft legal opinion that would authorize the CIA to take Iraqis out of the country for brief periods of interrogation, and permanently to remove persons deemed to be illegal aliens under "local immigration law." [1]

 

            According to United Nations Security Council Resolution 1511, the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), the recognized occupying power in Iraq, [1] will dissolve on June 30, and an interim Iraqi government will begin to exercise Iraqi sovereignty. [2]   The United States, however, has repeatedly stated that its troops will remain in Iraq after the handover, pursuant to an expected request by the Iraqi government.  Given the questions surrounding the legitimacy of any Iraqi government, what would be the legal status of such a request?