Injustice Sought
Again. Spanish judge reinstates charges against three American soldiers in the April 2003 Hotel Palestine incident. AP:
Judge Santiago Pedraz said he had obtained new testimony from witnesses contradicting the U.S. argument that the tank crew was responding to hostile fire when it shot at a Baghdad hotel housing Western journalists.
…
In a new 10-page indictment announced Thursday, Pedraz said he had obtained new testimony from three Spanish journalists who were at the hotel at the time of the shelling and looking out of a hotel window along with Couso.
These reporters — Jon Sistiaga, Olga Rodriguez and Jesus Quinonero — testified that the tank had not come under fire before shooting at the Palestine Hotel. They said that morning of April 8, 2003 was particularly quiet outside the hotel, the judge wrote.
AP neglects to note there is nothing new about that.
A number of reporters who were in the hotel have been widely reported saying the same thing. If the judge would actually review the evidence, he would see that there was fire in fact coming at the 4/64 tankers from up and down the opposite bank of Tigris, including several tall buildings, on the morning of April 8, 2003. A French reporter in the Palestine who wrote a particularly damning, though highly flawed report for Reporters San Frontieres, admitted to me that there was missile fire from a position downstream from the hotel that could easily have been mistaken for fire from the hotel. He did not include that in his report, however.
“There was nothing to film. It was a rather calm morning, and that is why they were all standing by the window,” the judge wrote.
That’s fine. I was on the other side of the river, a kilometer upstream with the tankers, and we had been taking fire all moning, some of it quite heavy.
This is getting tiresome. However, it is a serious matter that involves the persecution of three American soldiers for an accident of war, that is being revived at a time when we have a new administration that remains untested on its willingness to defend US interests. Although the Obama admin’s disinterest in persecuting US intelligence agents and the former adminstration is encouraging.
Full disclosure: I consider the accused soldiers — Sgt. Shawn Gibson, Maj. Philip Wolford and LTC Philip deCamp – to be friends, was embedded with the unit in question at the time, was within a few hundred feet of Gibson’s tank when it fired, and offered to go to Spain to testify on the Palestine incident, also on what cowards I consider the Spanish people to be, as represented by their courts and their government. Not to include my pal Barcepundit and other mortified, right-thinking Spaniards.
Barcepundit, writing on Pedraz’s latest windmill tilt, reminds us that there were reporters in the hotel who did not realize their own building had just been hit by a high-explosive anti-tank round.
As long as you are putting reporters on the witness stand, Judge Pedraz, I renew my offer. Please subpoena me to your court so that I may testify about the events of the day, about the deep contempt in which I hold you and your court, and also about the Spanish government’s disgraceful act of cowardice in the face of the enemy after the Madrid bombings.
Previously:
Spanish judge to Spanish AG: “How dare you attempt to render me unstupid?”
OK, that’s not exactly how he said it. But investigative judge Baltasar Garzon insists he will press ahead with the persecution of Bush admin officials on torture charges, despite a lack of jurisdiction, and despite the lack of interest in the duly elected lefty anti-war administration that otherwise can’t seem to get enough Bush-bashing.
Spanish prosecutors attempt to unstupid a judge … again.
… righteous Spanish judges concerned about misdeeds outside their borders may want to consider indicting socialist PM Zapatero for cowardice for his decision to yank Spanish troops from Iraq in the wake of the 2004 al-Qaeda bombing campaign on the Madrid train system.
Eyeballs Bush admin lawyers for war crimes charges … Gutless as usual. If I were a Spanish taxpayer, I’d be getting annoyed with the waste of my money about now, but then, if I was a Spanish voter, odds are I’d be a socialist …
A Spanish court finally exercises some. Murder charges dropped against three American soldiers in the Hotel Palestine incident.
Al-Qaeda-Cowed Nations Indicts US Soldiers
It was only a matter of time. Charges of homicide and “crimes against the international community” from a Spanish court against LTC deCamp, Maj. Philip Wolford and Sgt. Shawn Gibson in the death of Jose Cuoso in the Hotel Palestine in Baghdad, April 8, 2003.
Topics: Iraq, Spain, law & order, military, moronocy
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 11:50 am on Thursday, May 21, 2009
One Response to “Injustice Sought”
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May 21st, 2009 at 4:21 pm
“However, it is a serious matter that involves the persecution of three American soldiers for an accident of war, that is being revived at a time when we have a new administration that remains untested on its willingness to defend US interests.”
The matter is being revived specifically because we have a new administration, one that is willing to bend over and grab it’s collective ankles, a policy Obama and Hillary have referred to as “Smart Power”.
The Spanish leftards are encouraged by Obama’s antics, and are hopefull of succeeding. As opposed to the Bush Administration, which pretty much told them to take a flying leap at a rolling doughnut.