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INFO RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEHNO/USMISSION USNATO PRIORITY 1803
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHDC PRIORITY

C O N F I D E N T I A L PRAGUE 000038 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
EUR/NCE FOR FICHTE 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/10/2016 
TAGS: PREL PGOV MASS MARR EZ
SUBJECT: MISSILE DEFENSE: CZECH PARLIAMENTARIANS ENCOURAGED 
BY EUCOM LEGAL BREIFING 
 
REF: 2006 STATE 142152 
 
Classified By: Political Counselor Michael Dodman 
for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) 
 
1) (U) Summary: On January 9 at Prague request, EUCOM Staff 
Judge Advocate Col. William Lietzau took time away from 
briefing the Czech Government on the Military 
Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act (reftel) to answer a 
request from Czech Parliamentarians for a meeting. COL 
Lietzau answered questions on the U.S. legal principles and 
practices that are applied when U.S. personnel are based in a 
host country. The Parliamentarians' request stemmed from the 
ongoing possibility of the Czech Republic hosting a U.S. 
missile defense facility. After many probing questions the 
parliamentarians indicated their general support for U.S. 
legal practices and expressed gratitude that the United 
States had been so forthcoming in providing information that 
had been difficult to obtain from the Czech government. End 
summary. 
 
2) (U) EUCOM Staff Judge Advocate Col. William Lietzau 
January 9 briefed Czech government representatives on the 
Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act (tasking in ref A, 
meeting reported septel). During this visit to Prague Lietzau 
also answered a request from the Parliamentary foreign 
affairs and defense committees to provide information on the 
U.S. legal practices that are used when U.S. forces are based 
overseas. (Note: Parliamentarians had on several occasions 
complained to Emboffs that they were receiving insufficient 
information on this topic from the Czech government, and that 
the missile defense issue in the public arena was being 
hijacked by critics who claimed that U.S. forces would act 
criminally and with impunity if based in the Czech Republic. 
End note) 
 
3) (U) CSSD Deputy Jan Hamachek, chairof the Foreign Affairs 
committee, opened by thanking Lietzau for making himself 
available. Hamachek asked if Lietzau could comment on how 
U.S. and Czech law might interact if U.S. forces were to be 
based in the Czech Republic. Lietzau gave a general briefing 
on the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), the NATO 
Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), bilateral additions to the 
NATO SOFA, and the practical day-to-day jurisdictional issues 
that arise when troops are based overseas. He outlined three 
categories of crimes - 1) those military-specific offenses 
under U.S. military law committed in the course of military 
duty (a tiny category), 2) those exclusive to Czech law 
(another tiny category), and 3) the vast majority of crimes 
falling both under the law of the host country and of the 
United States (the only category that seemed to arise in real 
world situations). 
 
4) (U) CSSD Deputy Miloslav Sousek recalled the Czech 
experience of Soviet military occupation, explaining that 
crimes committed inside Soviet bases had always been off 
limits for Czech authorities and crimes committed by Soviet 
troops outside the bases had been the subject of 
jurisdictional disputes. Lietzau responded that, while he 
could not speak to what a future basing agreement might say, 
as a general rule host countries have the option to exercise 
their jurisdiction to prosecute crimes committed on their 
territory, including on bases occupied by U.S. personnel. He 
explained that for practical reasons, host countries 
generally tend to prefer that U.S. authorities conduct most 
prosecutions of this sort. Lietzau also added that the Soviet 
model Sousek had described was completely foreign to his own 
experience. 
 
5) (C) KSCM (Communist) Deputy Katerina Konecna sought 
clarification, questioning if Czech authorities would 
exercise sole criminal jurisdiction on the territory of a 
U.S. facility. Lietzau responded that a U.S. base is still 
host country territory, and that criminal jurisdiction can 
still be exercised by a host country. 
 
6) (U) Lietzau answered several other questions from 
politicians on topics that included: the strictness of the 
UCMJ, differences in SOFAs for different countries, and the 
working relationships between U.S. military police and 
civilian authorities in Europe. Lietzau was careful to say 
that he was not in a position to outline what the U.S. would 
want to include in the legal agreement that would be 
negotiated if the U.S. were to offer a missile defense 
facility to the Czech Republic. Hamacek closed the meeting by 
reiterating his appreciation for the U.S. briefing, and 
bemoaning the fact that he could not get similarly detailed 
 
information from the Czech government. 
 
7) (C) Comment: For months one of the most common claims by 
Czech critics of U.S. missile defense has been that U.S. 
personnel would imperil the local population through reckless 
and criminal conduct. Many parliamentarians, while fairly 
sure this would not be the case, lacked information that 
would allow them to distinguish U.S. forces living in an 
allied country from the Czech experience of living under the 
thumb of the Soviet Army. This gathering of parliamentarians 
influential in defense and foreign affairs was clearly very 
pleased to be briefed by a senior expert, and to have their 
questions answered in a manner that would allow them to 
answer the critics with facts, rather than guesswork. After 
the meeting, one of the parliamentary deputies approached a 
member of the Embassy staff to say that the opposition CSSD 
party, currently divided on the missile defense issue, was 
particularly receptive to this kind of information at this 
stage in their internal debate. Embassy Prague will continue 
to provide information on missile defense to Czech leaders 
while being careful to ensure that the overall effort retains 
a Czech face. End comment. 
GRABER