Spain sides with the terrorists... Again...

In all this, note there's nothing about the press taking risks by placing themselves in the middle of a war zone. Note to dumb Spanish judge's and reporters, If you place yourself in a position to be used as a human shield by the enemy, you will get killed.

A Spanish judge on Thursday upheld an indictment against three members of an American tank crew, deemed responsible for the April 2003 death of a Spanish journalist in Baghdad.

In August 2003, US military inquiry exonerated the tank crew for firing a 120mm shell into an upper floor of the Palestine Hotel, an attack that killed Ukrainian ReutersTV cameraman Taras Protsyuk, 35, and Spanish cameraman for Telecinco, Jose Couso, 37.

The tank crew claimed they fired on the Palestine--home base for much of the Western press corp--because they thought they saw a spotter guiding hostile fire from the top floor, an explanation that convinced the military's inquiry to rule they had acted within the rules of engagement.

The Spanish state's legal team mounted the same defense--that the tank crew was acting to defend themselves in a war zone--in their latest appeal to have the charges dismissed.

But Judge Santiago Pedraz issued his ruling Thursday rejecting the appeal on the grounds that the American troops had used indiscriminate and excessive force for the circumstances. Pedraz said there was no evidence of a spotter in the hotel, though it wouldn't have made a difference:

"Even if there was a spotter, the reaction was still disproportionate, because it was not an attack on U.S. forces, and because they knew about the hotel and who was inside it--journalists, persons protected by the fourth Geneva Convention," Pedraz said in his ruling. "The collateral damage that would be produced was predictable, that is the death and injury of those staying at the hotel," Pedraz said.

The US has said it will not extradite the three members of the tank crew, though Pedraz has issued several arrest warrants for them.

If the soldiers travel to any country with an extradition treaty with Spain, they could run the risk of arrest under Spain's international warrant.

The three American soldiers were part of the U.S. 3rd Infantry, based in Fort Stewart, Georgia.


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