Is Iraqi Sovreignity A Myth?

Kudos to Magpie at Pacific Views for catching an important elusive tidbit of a Rumsfeld visit to Saddam Hussein. Reportedly, Rumsfeld offered a reduced sentence or even freedom as a bargaining chip in stopping the escalating violence in Iraq.

U.S. defense secretary offers Saddam a deal to put an end terror in Iraq, London-based al-Quds al-Arabia says U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld paid former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein a surprise visit during his trip to Iraq two weeks ago, an Arab newspaper reported on Thursday.

Only a few Iraqi officials in Jordan knew about this meeting, the London based Al-Quds Al-Arabi daily newspaper reported. It said Rumsfeld offered Saddam freedom and a possible return to public life in return for a televised request to armed Iraqi terrorists for a cease-fire with foreign liberating forces.

However, according to sources, Saddam rejected the offer.

Two weeks ago, the British Telegraph newspaper reported that Iraqi gunmen were offered a “deal” to halt all terror attacks in return for a reduced sentence for Saddam, who is expected to receive the death penalty.

However, an Iraqi government official estimated that Saddam's Baath party will request to return to politics.

While I believe that Hussein is still in U.S. rather than Iraqi custody, I did think that he was under Iraqi law and the Iraqi judicial system. If the above report is even marginally accurate, then it throws into question the whole issue of just how sovereign Iraq is.

If Iraq is a sovereign nation, can the U.S. determine the status and disposition of Iraqi prisoners? Particularly, the status of the former head of Iraq?

Of course, when you have an armed foreign military presence controlling your nation, sovereignty may be moot anyway. However, much is being made of the freedom of Iraq and its new government. Certainly the impression intended is that Iraq is a free and sovereign nation. That is obviously not so clear cut, and this report only enforces the lie to the myth.