1115.org

Maliki says talks on Iraq-US pact deadlocked - AFP (6/13/08):

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki says talks with the United States on a longterm security agreement have reached a “dead end.” Al-Maliki says the talks slumped because each side refused the other’s demands. He says the initial framework agreed upon was to have been an accord “between two completely sovereign states.” But he says the U.S. proposals “do not take into consideration Iraq’s sovereignty.”

Wait, Iraq is like the 51st state, no?

Oh, right:

President George W Bush and Tony Blair gave warning last night of a major military crackdown in Iraq after they startled the world by handing over sovereignty in secret two days early.
[…]
The transfer was contained in a document signed by Paul Bremer, the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority, and handed over to Mr Allawi, marking the formal end of the 15-month occupation.

News of the handover was given to Mr Bush at the Nato summit in Istanbul in a hand-written note from Condoleezza Rice, his national security adviser.

Good thing that note was never notarized. But we’re four years down the road, and Bush still doesn’t know what sovereign means.