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SPANISH JUDGE ISSUES INTERNATIONAL ARREST WARRANT FOR 3 US TANK TROOPS RESPONSIBLE FOR KILLING SPANISH JOURNALIST
20 October 2005 Spanish Judge Santiago Pedraz has issued an international arrest warrant for 3 US soldiers who were operating a tank when it fired on the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad, in April 2003. The hotel was known to be the lodging headquarters for international journalists in Baghdad, and was not considered a military target. The troops who fired the shots that killed Spanish cameraman José Couso (Telecinco) and Ukrainian cameraman Taras Protsyuk (Reuters), have claimed they believed they were under attack, but the incident was recorded by television journalists, and no version of the footage shows any shots at all coming from the direction of the Palestine Hotel. Judge Pedraz says he issued the warrant because Spanish investigators were not receiving judicial cooperation from the Bush administration or the Pentagon. This despite the fact that soldiers' accounts differ from televised images of the incident which were broadcast around the world the day before the Hussein regime officially fell. Earlier that same day, an Al-Jazeera reporter was killed when a US missile struck the network's headquarters in Baghdad. It is unclear whether US authorities will cooperate with the Spanish court in its ongoing investigation or whether the US military will honor the warrant brought by Judge Pedraz. According to the Spanish newspaper El Mundo, the Pentagon says it has collaborated with Spanish authorities to bring to light facts surrounding the killings. But the Pentagon's rebuttal to Judge Pedraz specified that Central Command had investigated the incidents and determined the soldiers had acted "appropriately", clearly suggesting US authorities will not extradite the troops. Spanish authorities confirm having made two direct petitions for cooperation, asking that the soldiers be produced for deposition, and Judge Pedraz's declaration states that "to date no response has been received". Evidence available in the public domain seems to suggest that US authorities have not actually provided any direct cooperation with Spanish investigators, instead using their own investigative process as a single, final, albeit non-judiciary accounting, of events. [For more: BBC]
SADDAM DECRIES TRIAL PROCESS, QUESTIONS AUTHORITY OF JUDGE, REFUSES TO ID HIMSELF At the opening of his trial, Saddam Hussein, charged with ordering the killing of 143 Shi'a —presumably opponents to his rule— in 1982, was defiant. He decried the judicial process set up to judge him as illegitimate, questioned the authority of the judge overseeing the proceedings, and refused to acknowledge his identity. [Full Story] REUTERS REPORTS 3 JOURNALISTS AMONG ABUSED IRAQIS The Reuters News Agency is reporting that 3 Iraqi journalists working for the agency were beaten and sexually abused when they were detained in January, while covering the story of a downed helicopter. The abuses occurred not at Abu Ghraib prison, but at the Volturno Forward Operating Base, near Fallujah. Reuters latest publication of the story is due to the fact that the Pentagon has not responded to requests for a review of an initial military report that found no torture had occurred (issued long before the Abu Ghraib photos had become public). [Full Story] |
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