Spanish judge wants to question US soldiers about Spanish journo’s Iraq death News
Spanish judge wants to question US soldiers about Spanish journo’s Iraq death

[JURIST] A Spanish court official said Tuesday that a Spanish judge wants to question three US soldiers in connection with the 2003 killing of Spanish cameraman Jose Couso in Iraq when a US tank fired on a Baghdad hotel housing foreign journalists. High Court Judge Santiago Pedraz began requesting information [JURIST report] about the death of Couso in 2004, although the Pentagon had previously cleared the soldiers [Reporters Without Borders report] of any responsibility. If questioned in Spanish court, the soldiers would be treated as suspects for murder facing a sentence of 15 to 20 years in jail, and for allegedly committing crimes against the international community which carries a sentence of 10 to 15 years in jail. An anonymous US State Department source told Reuters it would be "a very, very cold day in hell before that would ever happen", and legal sources for the US Army also say that it is unlikely that the soldiers would be questioned. If warrants were issued for the soldiers' arrest, they would only be valid for arrest in Spain. Reuters has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Ku Klux Klan founded

The US hate group known as the Ku Klux Klan was founded on December 24, 1865 in Pulaski, Tennessee as a reaction to reconstruction efforts following the Union victory in the American Civil War. The group would later become notorious for its attacks on Black Americans, being targeted by the Enforcement Act of 1871, which imposed civil and criminal liability for deprivation of constitutional rights. Read the Enforcement Act of 1871.  

Hamid Karzai born

On December 24, 1957, Hamid Karzai was born in Karz, Afghanistan. He would go on to become in 2004 his country's first elected president after the end of Taliban rule in 2001.