http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20100729/wl...9200738800

This is not the sort of thing that Obama needs to make a "Big Deal" out of, at least not in public. But quietly and without fanfare, he should send a private letter to the King and PM of Spain, informing them that if any US citizen is detained as a result of this judicial farce, the consequences will be "deeply unpleasant for Spaniards visiting/traveling in the US, including diplomats". Leave the "deeply unpleasant" wording deliberately ambiguous, and essentially dare them to do anything about it.

Blowback.

Let the Spanish pound sand.

(07-30-2010 06:24 PM)SumOfAllFears Wrote:  Let the Spanish pound sand.

Werd.

Spain needs our support for their efforts to work out of their debt hole. Perhaps we could make that contingent on this getting overturned. Except that we're probably going to need their support--and certainly the EU's--to work out of our own debt hole in a few years.

This is most likely a pyrrhic victory for the plaintiffs. The Spanish Courts regularly indict all kinds of world leaders and then overturn the ruling shortly later. I'd be surprised for this to go anywhere.

I will accept only rulings by our own military court system. If they're guilty, they should be punished justly.

The idea of universal jurisdiction as practiced by courts in a few European countries is a gigantic joke and in violation of any number of canons of international law and every European legal system. There's absolutely no way we'd extradite them, but obviously they might not want to leave the US on vacation.

(08-01-2010 12:15 PM)CitrusUCF Wrote:  There's absolutely no way we'd extradite them, but obviously they might not want to leave the US on vacation.

Which is why Obama should send that letter to Madrid.

Pinochet was held by British authorities based on a Spanish warrant.

You're in a war zone. Things blow up. We take great efforts to avoid mistakes, but they happen. I guess the Spanish have forgotten about what happens when wars are fought in cities?

(08-01-2010 03:08 PM)Hambone10 Wrote:  You're in a war zone. Things blow up. We take great efforts to avoid mistakes, but they happen. I guess the Spanish have forgotten about what happens when wars are fought in cities?

+1

Part of gorilla warfare is hiding behind civilians, When you get into a city shots come from every direction and no amount of 'press' flack jackets are going to stop that.

This is less about a 'war crime' than it is about the Spanish governments view on the war as a whole. They think the entire war is a war crime.

(08-02-2010 10:07 AM)Bull_In_Exile Wrote:  Part of gorilla warfare is hiding behind civilians

I would love to see gorillas trying to hide behind civilians as they fight each other, LOL.

(08-02-2010 10:07 AM)Bull_In_Exile Wrote:  

(08-01-2010 03:08 PM)Hambone10 Wrote:  You're in a war zone. Things blow up. We take great efforts to avoid mistakes, but they happen. I guess the Spanish have forgotten about what happens when wars are fought in cities?

+1

Part of gorilla warfare is hiding behind civilians, When you get into a city shots come from every direction and no amount of 'press' flack jackets are going to stop that.

This is less about a 'war crime' than it is about the Spanish governments view on the war as a whole. They think the entire war is a war crime.

I recently read a nice post about how the Spanish issued this warrant for the American soldiers, but never issued a warrant for any of the bombers, or their colleagues, who planned a subsequent TNT attack on the same hotel housing Spanish journos.

Why is that? Is it because there are no political points to score?

The leader of the bombers won't give them money and apologize