How US worked to get three soldiers off the hook for cameraman's death

[Solly Mack]

From El País (Spain)


"One of the biggest objectives at the US Embassy in Madrid over the past seven years has been trying to get the criminal case dropped against three US soldiers accused of the killing of a Spanish television cameraman.

According to a batch of secret cablegrams obtained by EL PAÍS through Wikileaks, US diplomats held a host of meetings about the case with then-Deputy Prime Minister María Teresa Fernández de la Vega, the then-ministers of justice and foreign affairs, Juan Fernando López Aguilar and Miguel Ángel Moratinos, as well as Attorney General Cándido Conde-Pumpido and High Court prosecutor Javier Zaragoza.


On May 25, 2007, US Ambassador Eduardo Aguirre, who served in Madrid between 2005-2008, wrote to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice days before her visit to Spain to tell her that the Zapatero government "has been helpful behind the scenes in getting the case appealed by the Spanish prosecutor." Aguirre recommended that Rice should express "continued US government concern" about the case when she met with Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and Foreign Minister Moratinos. "We want continued vigilance and cooperation by the government of Spain until the case is dropped," Aguirre wrote.

Couso's family filed a complaint with the High Court the month after he was killed. The US Embassy didn't concern themselves during the first year of the case because they saw it moving at a snail's pace through the judicial system. But when High Court Judge Santiago Pedraz began pushing his investigation, Embassy personnel began to move. On July 22, 2004, the US chargé d'affaires Robert Manzanares spoke to then-Secretary of State Bernardino León to deliver a letter from then-US Defense Secretary Colin Powell addressed to Moratinos concerning the Couso prosecution. On October 19, 2005, Pedraz issued international arrest warrants for Gibson, Wolford and De Camp. In explaining his initiative, Pedraz said it was the only way he could get the three soldiers to testify because he wasn't getting any cooperation from the US Justice Department."

[Solly Mack]

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