Spain Goes Nuts

Ladies and gentlemen, it's incidents like this that prevent me from supporting the International Criminal Court.

MADRID, Spain — A judge has issued an international arrest warrant for three U.S. soldiers whose tank fired on a Baghdad hotel during the Iraq war, killing a Spanish journalist and a Ukrainian cameraman, a court official said Wednesday.

Judge Santiago Pedraz issued the warrant for Sgt. Shawn Gibson, Capt. Philip Wolford and Lt. Col. Philip de Camp, all from the U.S. 3rd Infantry, which is based in Fort Stewart, Ga.

Jose Couso, who worked for the Spanish television network Telecinco, died April 8, 2003, after a U.S. army tank crew fired a shell on Hotel Palestine in Baghdad where many journalists were staying to cover the war.

Reuters cameraman Taras Protsyuk, a Ukrainian, also was killed.

Pedraz had sent two requests to the United States — in April 2004 and June 2005 — to have statements taken from the suspects or to obtain permission for a Spanish delegation to quiz them. Both went unanswered.

He said he issued the arrest order because of a lack of judicial cooperation from the United States regarding the case.

This is precisely why journalists shouldn't flock to war zones like moths to a flame. I'm not sure if it's this incident or another that I remember, but I think that the tank in question was taking fire from the hotel. Leave it to the Spanish to not only turn tail and run after 3/11, but also to try to arrest three American military members on weak charges after a Spanish journalist, in Iraq, who had gone to a war zone, gets killed because he's in the same hotel as some guy firing off rounds at the tank.

What happened to you, Spain? You used to be cool.