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Spanish Judge Orders Arrest & Extradition of U.S. Soldiers in Death of Spanish Journalist
The judge said the action was needed because the U.S. had provided "no judicial cooperation" in trying to resolve the death. We hear response from the Couso family and air excerpts from the documentary "Hotel Palestine: Killing the Witness," featuring eyewitnesses to the shooting including reporters and two of the U.S. soldiers facing arrest.
A Spanish court has issued international arrest warrants for three U.S. soldiers connected to the killing of Spanish tv cameraman Jose Couso in Iraq.
On April 8 2003, the U.S. military opened fire on the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad, killing two journalists: Taras Protsyuk, a Reuters cameraman from Ukraine, and Couso who worked for the Spanish TV network, Telecinco.
On Wednesday, the Spanish judge Santiago Pedraz issued arrest warrants for Lt. Col. Philip de Camp, Captain Philip Wolford and Sgt. Shawn Gibson all of the US Army's 3rd Infantry Division. The judge also requested the soldiers be extradited to Spain.
The soldiers have not been formally indicted but if they were brought to trial they could face jail sentences of up to 20 years for murder and "crimes against the international community".
Under Spanish law, a crime committed against a Spaniard abroad can be prosecuted in Spain if it is not investigated in the country where it is committed.
In a statement issued to Democracy Now, Army spokesperson Lt. Col. Barry Venable defended the actions of the American troops in Iraq.
He said "U.S. Central Command fully investigated the incident and determined that the U.S. service members acted appropriately during that combat action."
Venable also said the Pentagon has "cooperated previously with the Spanish Government, including by providing information concerning the incident and resulting investigation."
But Spanish officials disagree. The arrest warrant said the U.S. had provided "no judicial cooperation" in trying to resolve the death.
After the judge issued the arrest warrants, Jose Couso's borhter, Javier held a press conference in Madrid.
* Javier Couso, brother of slain journalist Jose Couo, speaking to reporters in Madrid Wednesday.
* Maribel Permuy Lopez, mother of Jose Couso. She was interviewed in Washington D.C. on Sept. 24 at the antiwar march.
We turn now to the documentary, "Hotel Palestine: Killing the Witness," produced by Jose Couso's network, Telecinco, and broadcast on Spanish TV. It includes interviews with numerous journalists who were inside the Palestine Hotel, the AP reporter embedded with US forces at the time of the attack as well as two of the soldiers named in the warrants as well as two of the soldiers wanted in Spain, Shawn Gibson and Lt. Col. Philip de Camp.
LISTEN ONLINE:
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/10/20/1410259
On April 8 2003, the U.S. military opened fire on the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad, killing two journalists: Taras Protsyuk, a Reuters cameraman from Ukraine, and Couso who worked for the Spanish TV network, Telecinco.
On Wednesday, the Spanish judge Santiago Pedraz issued arrest warrants for Lt. Col. Philip de Camp, Captain Philip Wolford and Sgt. Shawn Gibson all of the US Army's 3rd Infantry Division. The judge also requested the soldiers be extradited to Spain.
The soldiers have not been formally indicted but if they were brought to trial they could face jail sentences of up to 20 years for murder and "crimes against the international community".
Under Spanish law, a crime committed against a Spaniard abroad can be prosecuted in Spain if it is not investigated in the country where it is committed.
In a statement issued to Democracy Now, Army spokesperson Lt. Col. Barry Venable defended the actions of the American troops in Iraq.
He said "U.S. Central Command fully investigated the incident and determined that the U.S. service members acted appropriately during that combat action."
Venable also said the Pentagon has "cooperated previously with the Spanish Government, including by providing information concerning the incident and resulting investigation."
But Spanish officials disagree. The arrest warrant said the U.S. had provided "no judicial cooperation" in trying to resolve the death.
After the judge issued the arrest warrants, Jose Couso's borhter, Javier held a press conference in Madrid.
* Javier Couso, brother of slain journalist Jose Couo, speaking to reporters in Madrid Wednesday.
* Maribel Permuy Lopez, mother of Jose Couso. She was interviewed in Washington D.C. on Sept. 24 at the antiwar march.
We turn now to the documentary, "Hotel Palestine: Killing the Witness," produced by Jose Couso's network, Telecinco, and broadcast on Spanish TV. It includes interviews with numerous journalists who were inside the Palestine Hotel, the AP reporter embedded with US forces at the time of the attack as well as two of the soldiers named in the warrants as well as two of the soldiers wanted in Spain, Shawn Gibson and Lt. Col. Philip de Camp.
LISTEN ONLINE:
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/10/20/1410259
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A Spanish judge issued an international warrant Wednesday calling for the arrest and extradition to Spain of three US Army personnel in connection with the April 8, 2003 killing of television cameraman José Couso in Iraq.
The arrest warrant stems from the shelling on that date of Baghdad’s Hotel Palestine, where over 100 international journalists were staying during the US invasion of Iraq. A tank round fired into the hotel’s 15th floor fatally wounded Couso, a 37-year-old cameraman for the Spanish network Telecinco, and Taras Protsyuk, 35, a Ukrainian cameraman who worked for the British news agency Reuters. The two were rushed to a Baghdad hospital but died within hours. Several other journalists were also wounded in the attack.
Charged in connection with the incident are Lieut. Col. Philip DeCamp, commander of the Fourth Battalion of the Third Infantry Division; Capt. Philip Wolford, company commander of the tank unit that fired the fatal round; and Sgt. Shawn Gibson, the noncommissioned officer who fired the tank’s cannon into the hotel.
Judge Santiago Pedraz of Spain’s High Court issued the warrant, saying that the three were wanted for questioning on charges of murder and war crimes under the Geneva Conventions. Conviction on these counts would result in 20 years imprisonment.
The judge stressed that the warrant was required because of the total refusal of Washington to cooperate in the Spanish investigation into the killing. Ordering their arrest, he said, “is the only effective measure to ensure the presence of the suspects in the case being handled by Spanish justice, given the lack of judicial cooperation by US authorities.”
The Spanish court issued two formal requests. The first, in April 2004, asked the US Departments of State, Defense and Justice to share the results of any US investigations into the incident. The second requested that a Spanish judicial commission be allowed to take testimony from the three accused military personnel on US soil. Washington never bothered to reply to either appeal.
The attack on the Hotel Palestine took place as US troops were storming Baghdad. Journalists who had been covering the war from the Iraqi capital had been advised to move to the hotel, evacuating the Hotel Rashid, which US military officials had warned could be subject to attack.
After the shelling of the hotel, Sergeant Gibson and Captain Wolford claimed that they had fired on the building because they believed that an Iraqi spotter was using it to direct Iraqi resistance fire against the US invaders.
The company’s tanks flew a battle flag with a skull and cross swords together with their logo, “The assassins.”
Journalists inside the hotel were shocked by the attack. First, it was well known to the US military that the media were using the hotel. Second, it was one of the most identifiable buildings on Baghdad’s skyline, clearly marked as Hotel Palestine. And finally, scores of journalists were clearly visible on both the roof and the balconies of the hotel observing and filming the movement of American forces into the city.
The Pentagon crafted a totally different justification for the attack. At Central Command’s Doha headquarters, Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks told the media that the tank had responded after US forces came under fire directed from the hotel’s lobby. When reporters asked why, if this were the case, the shell was lobbed into the 15th floor, Brooks responded that he “may have misspoken on exactly where the fire came from.”
The US military stuck to this pretext, however, with Centcom issuing a statement saying that American soldiers had come under “significant fire from the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad.”
Independent investigations and the testimony of many of the journalists in the hotel at the time have exposed this explanation as a lie.
“There is simply no evidence to support the official US position that US forces were returning hostile fire from the Palestine Hotel,” the Committee to Project Journalists (CPJ) concluded following an exhaustive investigation based on the testimony of at least a dozen members of the media who were witnesses to the attack. “It conflicts with the eyewitness testimony of numerous journalists in the hotel,” the report added.
The CPJ and others concluded that the shelling of the hotel was not deliberate, but rather an act of gross negligence involving the unnecessary and disproportionate use of force that violated international law.
The question remains, however, why did the administration and Pentagon feel compelled to concoct a lie about taking fire from the hotel?
Read More
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/oct2005/sold-o21.shtml
The arrest warrant stems from the shelling on that date of Baghdad’s Hotel Palestine, where over 100 international journalists were staying during the US invasion of Iraq. A tank round fired into the hotel’s 15th floor fatally wounded Couso, a 37-year-old cameraman for the Spanish network Telecinco, and Taras Protsyuk, 35, a Ukrainian cameraman who worked for the British news agency Reuters. The two were rushed to a Baghdad hospital but died within hours. Several other journalists were also wounded in the attack.
Charged in connection with the incident are Lieut. Col. Philip DeCamp, commander of the Fourth Battalion of the Third Infantry Division; Capt. Philip Wolford, company commander of the tank unit that fired the fatal round; and Sgt. Shawn Gibson, the noncommissioned officer who fired the tank’s cannon into the hotel.
Judge Santiago Pedraz of Spain’s High Court issued the warrant, saying that the three were wanted for questioning on charges of murder and war crimes under the Geneva Conventions. Conviction on these counts would result in 20 years imprisonment.
The judge stressed that the warrant was required because of the total refusal of Washington to cooperate in the Spanish investigation into the killing. Ordering their arrest, he said, “is the only effective measure to ensure the presence of the suspects in the case being handled by Spanish justice, given the lack of judicial cooperation by US authorities.”
The Spanish court issued two formal requests. The first, in April 2004, asked the US Departments of State, Defense and Justice to share the results of any US investigations into the incident. The second requested that a Spanish judicial commission be allowed to take testimony from the three accused military personnel on US soil. Washington never bothered to reply to either appeal.
The attack on the Hotel Palestine took place as US troops were storming Baghdad. Journalists who had been covering the war from the Iraqi capital had been advised to move to the hotel, evacuating the Hotel Rashid, which US military officials had warned could be subject to attack.
After the shelling of the hotel, Sergeant Gibson and Captain Wolford claimed that they had fired on the building because they believed that an Iraqi spotter was using it to direct Iraqi resistance fire against the US invaders.
The company’s tanks flew a battle flag with a skull and cross swords together with their logo, “The assassins.”
Journalists inside the hotel were shocked by the attack. First, it was well known to the US military that the media were using the hotel. Second, it was one of the most identifiable buildings on Baghdad’s skyline, clearly marked as Hotel Palestine. And finally, scores of journalists were clearly visible on both the roof and the balconies of the hotel observing and filming the movement of American forces into the city.
The Pentagon crafted a totally different justification for the attack. At Central Command’s Doha headquarters, Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks told the media that the tank had responded after US forces came under fire directed from the hotel’s lobby. When reporters asked why, if this were the case, the shell was lobbed into the 15th floor, Brooks responded that he “may have misspoken on exactly where the fire came from.”
The US military stuck to this pretext, however, with Centcom issuing a statement saying that American soldiers had come under “significant fire from the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad.”
Independent investigations and the testimony of many of the journalists in the hotel at the time have exposed this explanation as a lie.
“There is simply no evidence to support the official US position that US forces were returning hostile fire from the Palestine Hotel,” the Committee to Project Journalists (CPJ) concluded following an exhaustive investigation based on the testimony of at least a dozen members of the media who were witnesses to the attack. “It conflicts with the eyewitness testimony of numerous journalists in the hotel,” the report added.
The CPJ and others concluded that the shelling of the hotel was not deliberate, but rather an act of gross negligence involving the unnecessary and disproportionate use of force that violated international law.
The question remains, however, why did the administration and Pentagon feel compelled to concoct a lie about taking fire from the hotel?
Read More
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/oct2005/sold-o21.shtml
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