Spain orders arrest of US troops

[Redleg]

The U.S. Army has developed a track record of killing non-embedded journalists, both Americans and foreigners. It wants journalists to be embedded in order to control their movements, contacts and perspective. It makes life generally difficult and sometimes miserable for non-embeds and I suspect that in some cases they are intentionally targeted. This shooting of a hotel full of non-embeds is very suspicious indeed; it is part of a pattern and it should be fully investigated by another institution than the one primarily responsible for the shooting.

An investigation by both the Military and Committee to Protect Journalists has been conducted - and seemly discounted by the judge in Spain and you. An accusation based upon emotion does not equate to delibrate targeting of journalists. Unfortunate circumstances and the desire to report from the front lines lead to the deaths of many of the journalists - and some were unfortunate accidents like the events around the Palestine Hotel.

I find it amusing that some American posters reacted so incredulously to the report about the Spanish arrest warrants, and immediately came up with improvised arguments that the soldiers must have been innocent, that the Spanish judge must be out of order and that the warrants must be politically motivated. I could state with equal force that the shooting of the Spanish journalist must have been politically motivated, and I would be equally wrong.

Oh but the arrest warrant is politically motivated regardless of what you believe to be right or wrong. Just look at how the Spanish Public Prosecutor reacted to the filing of the arrest warrants.

And the National Court prosecutor's office said later Wednesday it would appeal the arrest warrant on the ground the magistrate has no jurisdiction in the case, Spanish news reports said.

Two investigations have been conducted one by the Military of the United States - and one by the Committe to Protect Journalists come to basically the same conclusion that the Hotel was not delibrately targeted. Even look at your comments show that your jumping to conclusions that are not there faster then the ones you are attempting to blame.

Dutch authorities recently arrested an Angolan peace negotiator named Membe on Dutch soil at the request of the United States, because Membe is being accused in the U.S. of having been involved in the kidnapping of an American twenty-five years ago. The terms of Mr Membe's possible transfer to the U.S. are now being negociated. The kid-napping took place twenty-five years ago in the midst of a civil war where the American had no business being, and the only indication of Mr Membe's alleged involvement with the kidnappers is that he seems to have been the boy who brought the kidnapped American his food and some outside messages.

Yet, we consider the case on its merits because that is part and parcel of the civilised discourse between nations. I reckon Mr Membe, surviving as a youth in the midst of a civil conflict that makes the American Civil War look like a convent, had to make some 'split-second decisions' in his lifetime as well. But some decision just don't stand up to scrutiny.

Oh look attempting to place another judgement in the discussion, and speaking of merits - I guess you wish to ignore what a journalist group has to say about the Palestine Hotel?

On this particlur issue has a previous investigation by a governemental agency determined that no crime has been conducted by the individaul. Not just an official investigation but also a private one, has determined the same conclusion. Attempting to compare situations and leaving out the critical piece that two investigations have been done and both show that no willful violation of the laws of war, nor the deliberate targeting of journalists was done.

Speaking of Hyperbole - next you will want to bring me up on Murder Charges for my particaption in Desert Storm.

[Adrian II]

Two investigations have been conducted, one by the Military of the United States - and one by the Committe to Protect Journalists (..)

Yes, I am aware of it. We have one report from the U.S. Military (the perpetrator, hardly a credible judge) and one from the CPJ based solely on reporters' accounts. After the CPJ filed a FOA request for the Army report and got a sanitised version of it in early 2004, they were very disappointed. 'The failure of the U.S. military to provide an honest and open accounting of what occurred keeps alive questions about whether U.S. forces are taking the necessary steps to avoid endangering journalists' (CPJ executive director Ann Cooper).

I mean: come on, earlier in the morning of that same April 8th, the U.S. bombed the Al-Jazeera office in Bagdad (just like they had bombed the Al-Jazeera office in Kabul two years before) and killed their cameraman; half an hour later an American tank intentionally destroyed the Abu Dhabi TV office, and half an hour after that it fired at the Palestine and killed another two non-embedded journalists. That is a bit rich for a coincidence. I think Eason Jordan may have had a point when he remarked (during the Davos Forum 2005) that U.S. forces deliberately target journalists. This has to be investigated and the fact that the United States are not cooperating does not release other people from their obligations.