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Update: Greyhawk at the Mudville Gazette has a great post describing exactly what happened that day as explained by an embedded reporter who was there when the tank commander fired on the Palestinian Hotel. The charges brought against the NCO, his commander, and battalion commander are even more ridiculous after reading the account from the reporter who was there. Truly a witch hunt going on here, but I’m sure the people conducting the witch hunt figure the embedded reporter is probably just part of the secret CIA conspiracy theory.

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Here is a perfect example of why the US will not ratify the UN’s International Criminal Court:

A Spanish judge issued an international arrest warrant Wednesday for three U.S. soldiers, charging them with murder for the death of Spanish TV cameraman Jose Couso in Baghdad, Iraq.

Couso, who worked for Spain’s Telecinco network, died at the Palestine Hotel on April 8, 2003, as U.S. forces advanced to take control of the city in April 2003.

Investigating magistrate Santiago Pedraz of the National Court will seek the extradition of the soldiers to Spain, a court spokeswoman told CNN.

They are wanted for “murder” and “a crime against the international community,” according to the warrant, a copy of which was viewed by CNN partner network CNN+.

The US won’t sign on to the International Criminal Court because of the fear that US soldiers will be arrested for political reasons which is exactly what this case is about. The cameraman was killed by a tank shell that struck the Palestine Hotel where journalists were staying at. The tank commander said he was shooting at what he though was an Iraqi spotter that had been calling in artillery grids. The Spanish media believes that he was deliberately targeting journalists.

They got another kook CIA conspiracy theory that the US forces in Baghdad were intentionally targeting specific journalists to silence them and Mr. Couso was one of them. I’m just trying to picture this scenario. You have an E-6 tank commander who has been in three weeks of sustained combat, he and his crew are going through the fight of their lives in Baghdad, and then this E6 receives a call from his CIA handlers to target the 15th floor of the Palestine Hotel to take out Mr. Couso who has been reporting negative war coverage and who is conveniently pointing his camera right out the window at them.

The military’s position seems much more plausible that the NCO thought he was firing at an Iraqi soldier calling in artillery grids. Should he have known that the building had journalists staying in it? It is easier said then done. When I moved through Baghdad with my unit during the war, we were given no grids to where all the journalists were staying at. We were more worried about detailed grids of where the enemy was at. Imagine that in a war. Plus detailed maps were in high demand at this time and the NCO may not have had a very detailed map to begin with.

Should he have fired at the building? It wasn’t a wise choice from the perspective of someone sitting on their couch, but you got to figure this guy had been getting fired at from roof tops for the past three weeks not to mention the fact mortar rounds are now landing all around him. If this E6 had to stop and ask permission to fire at someone on a rooftop every time he sees a possible threat, this guy probably wouldn’t have survived the war long enough to get indicted for war crimes.

However, the Spanish public in their anti-American, CIA conspiracy theory fury are demanding action from their politicians and how better to respond then to issue an arrest warrant, which the authorities know will have no success, and then tell your citizens we tried to arrest these criminals but the big, bad US imperialists won’t give them up to us.

What I find interesting is that these same people so enraged at these US soldiers are not as outraged or don’t demand indictments of terrorists that deliberately target, murder, behead, and video tape civilians and journalists in Iraq. That is why their claims ring hollow and the International Criminal Court rings even hollower.

This whole incident reminds me a lot about SOFA cases here in Korea, most notably the 2002 armored vehicle accident. The public is outraged and in an anti-American fury, fueled by kook conspiracy theories, and the politicians in their best effort to appease their constituents, issue arrest warrants knowing full well the US military will not hand over the soldiers to begin with. The politicians just want to pass the buck and blame everything on the big, bad, bully Americans instead of looking at other causes for the accident which I have long chronicled here such as sidewalks so pedestrians don’t have to walk in the road.

In the Spanish journalist’s case, why was he sticking a large video camera that could be mistaken for an RPG, out the window directly at a tank pointed right at him? Especially when he knew other cameramen pointing cameras had been mistaken for Iraqi soldiers before? Tough questions that nobody wants to answer.

It is also ironic that a country like Spain is demanding the arrest of US “war criminals” when they won’t even face up to their own past war crimes.

This is another one of those only in USFK stories:

Did U.S. Army Maj. Jeffrey L. Brown rape a private first class and then have consensual sex with her friend ?another 19-year-old soldier ?on the same night in September 2003? And did he maintain a six-month sexual relationship with the friend?

Brown pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

This is what MAJ Brown said his intentions were:

He said his client did nothing more than help the women: from offering them a place to sleep when they were too drunk to return to their camp one night to baby sitting one’s dog and ?later ?helping her seek to abort a baby fathered by another man.

Even if his side of the story is true, he is still guilty of stupidity, unprofessional conduct, and fraternizing. Officers especially field grade officers do not have young female soldiers sleep over at their home even if he only has good intentions. It creates a perception of fraternization with enlisted troops that is contrary to good order and discipline. Also if these soldiers were so drunk they couldn’t get back to camp he should of contacted the soldiers’ commander or first sergeant to come pick them up, instead of letting them sleep over at his place. Then to volunteer for dogsitting duty and helping with an abortion later on is even more ridiculous and unprofessional.

Sexual assault cases similar to this usually involving NCO’s and soldiers seem to happen here regularly. This one is a little bit different since it involves a field grade officer, never the less it is still a black eye that USFK has not been able to shed here in Korea. Hopefully justice will be served in this case, but rest assured there are going to be plenty more of them.

Aid sent from South Korea to Iraq was recently seized according to the JoongAng Ilbo:

A total of 14 South Korean vehicles carrying aid shipments for the Iraqi people have been seized by armed Iraqi militants since last month, the Foreign Ministry said yesterday.

However, no South Korean nationals were captured or detained during the seizures, the ministry said, adding that all 14 vehicles belonged to the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA).
“The South Korean vehicles were seized by armed Iraqi militants on two occasions, Sept. 19 and 21, while transporting aid materials from the Jordanian port of Aqaba to Baghdad,” the ministry said.
The KOICA is a foreign ministry-affiliated organization that provides humanitarian assistance and other support to underdeveloped and developing countries.

According to Reuters the stolen aid was mainly computer equipment:

Armed Iraqis stole millions of dollars worth of personal computers and Internet equipment donated by South Korea while it was being transported near Baghdad late last month, a South Korean official said on Tuesday.

The Korea International Cooperation Agency, a government-linked aid agency, supplied the equipment for use in Iraqi universities, the official from the South Korean foreign ministry said.

Here is what bothers me about these news articles. First of all, don’t call these thugs militants or militia they are criminal gangs. At least the articles didn’t call them Iraqi resistance fighters like many other news media articles do. Many of the so called Iraqi resistance are in fact mafia style gangs using the flag of jihad as cover for their criminal activities to make themselves rich.

These gangs need to keep Iraq unstable in order to continue their business enterprise. So these gangs that do heists like this one and kidnapping for profit will also pay “insurgents” on the side to put out road side bombs and take pot shots at soldiers in order to keep the perception of instability. Criminals thrive in an unstable environment that keeps foreign aid coming in to hijack, foreigners to kidnap, and citizens terrified.

Here is the second thing that bothers me. Everyone knows that the highway running between Jordan and Baghdad is a haven for kidnappers and hijackers; why wasn’t the aid convoys protected? Especially after the first convoy was hijacked on 19SEP, why in the world wasn’t the second aid convoy on 21SEP protected? The Korean government and media always make a big deal about how Korea is the third largest troop contributor in Iraq yet they can’t send one platoon of soldiers to defend these aid convoys? This is one of the things soldiers do, they defend convoys. If Korea is not willing to defend their own international aid it may be time to get out of Iraq.

However international aid is not the primary concern of the Korean government; the government is more concerned about preventing soldier casualties than ensuring Iraqi aid is protected and distributed. The Korean government keeps the ROK Army soldiers quarantined on their compound outside of the friendly Kurdish city of Irbil doing nothing more than distributing toilet seats and playing Starcraft in their on post PC Bang.

To be fair the ROK Army is more than capable of conducting convoy security missions. They are also capable of doing much more in Iraq than the current mission they are tasked with. So I by no means blame the ROK Army for the predicament they are in, in Iraq. The lack of political will and leadership by their own government has made the proud ROK military look like a window dressing coalition army, while criminal gangs are stealing Korean aid meant for the Iraqi people. The ROK Army deserves better then this. Iraq deserves better then this.

Spam is a food that has taken on a life of it’s own here in South Korea as is described in this LA Times article:

“Spam really is a luxury item,’’ said Han Geun Rae, 43, an impeccably dressed fashion buyer who was loading gift boxes of Spam into a cart at Shinseyge department store in advance of the recent Chusok holiday.

The mystery of the success of Spam in Korea as described in the article is attributed to the post war years here in Korea:

Not coincidentally, Spam also is popular in Hawaii, the Philippines, Owinaka, Guam and Saipan, all places with a history of U.S. military presence. The “Miracle Meat in a Can,” as it was touted after its launch in 1937, was a staple of the military diet during World War II and later the 1950-1953 Korean War.

It is harder to explain Spam’s popularity today in the world’s 11th-largest economy, where there is no shortage of fresh meat and things associated with the U.S. military are considered low-class.

Low class? How does the LA Times explain all the black marketing of US military commissaries and PX’s? They aren’t black marketing only Spam but lots of other “low class” American products.

Then:

Dongnipmun Gate (Independence Gate) was constructed in 1898 by Dr. So Jae-pil who prior in 1896 founded Korea’s first private newspaper the “The Independence”. Dr. So built the gate on the site of the Yongunmun Gate, which was the gate that emissaries of the Korean government would meet Chinese delegates and offer Korea’s yearly tribute to the Chinese. Dongnimmun Gate was constructed to resemble Paris’ Arch of Triumph. Years later in the vicinity of the “Independence Gate” the Imperial Japanese colonizers of Korea built the Soedaemun Prison to incarcerate Korean independence fighters.

You can see that 80 years ago the Dongnimmun Gate was in the vicinity of huts and open land. The large home in the background is where the Korean dignitaries would meet and entertain the Chinese delegation that came for their yearly tribute..

Now:

Today you can see that the old Dongnimmun Gate is surrounded by freeways and heavy traffic. It also located adjacent to a popular local park that is also home ot the Soedaemun Prison Museum.

Our buddies the French are at it again:

A French-led cultural diversity pact transparently designed to stem U.S. cultural hegemony is likely to be ratified by an overwhelming majority at UNESCO’s 33rd plenary meeting opening this Friday. But in an echo of the Kyoto treaty on climate change, the U.S., which rejoined the UN cultural agency only two years ago, is miffed because it believes the pact would allow countries to erect trade barriers against lucrative American exports like Hollywood blockbusters.

The draft pact draws attention to the “distinctive nature” of cultural goods and services, and gives countries a right “to maintain, adopt, and implement policies and measures that they deem appropriate for the protection and promotion of the diversity of cultural expressions on their territory” when they feel that diversity is under threat. It aims to acknowledge each country’s uniqueness in the face of globalization.

Basically what this is saying that a country now has the right to ban American products in their country for “cultural diversity” reasons. In reality this is just a way around fair trade laws to prevent US companies from entering foreign markets. However, if a country tries to block US imports under this law I would expect the US to go to the WTO to fight it.

I look at this way, if you don’t want your people watching Hollywood movies than make better domestic movies. Korea has done this very well. That got a booming domestic film market that is competing strongly with Hollywood films. With the crappy movies coming out of Hollywood now a days, it is not that hard to make a better movie. If your country cannot make a better movie than the Fantastic Four, your country has got bigger problems than a UN “cultural diversity” law will be able to solve.

It is the same thing with Coke. Make your own domestically produced soda. How hard can it be to make soda? Develop your own domestic capabilities instead of blaming the US for destroying “cultural diversity”. If the domestically produced products were better and cheaper people would buy them.

Here is a truly sad article in the Korea Times about a 35 year old daughter pleading to have her father who was abducted 18 years ago by North Korean agents while fishing returned to South Korea:

Choi Woo-young, 35, president of the Families of the Abducted and Detained in North Korea (FAD), still vividly remembers the day when her father and 11 other fishermen were abducted by North Koreans.
“The entire family got together to hold a service to honor our ancestors. My younger brother suddenly rushed into the house, saying that he heard that my father’s fishing boat, Tongjin-ho, was kidnapped,’’ said Choi, daughter of Choi Chong-suk, the captain of the boat.

The fishing boat was captured by the North near the maritime border on the West Sea on Jan. 15, 1987.

“He went out to sea to fish, and it was the last time I saw his face. He is still a 42-year-old father to me although 18 years have passed since his disappearance,’’ she said.

(…)

Ahead of her father’s 60th birthday, which falls on Oct. 26, she put an advertisement in a local newspaper yesterday with a message to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il to return her father and the other crew members.

What is really amazing is that there are 3,790 other South Koreans just like this woman’s father that have been reportedly kidnapped by North Korea. You would think the South Korean government would be working hard at winning the release of these prisoners. No, think again:

“I am disappointed with the government although it said it was trying its best. But there have not been any visible results. When the South Korean government sent North Korean “long-term unconverted prisoners’’ to the North, we were hoping that our family members could return to the South,’’ she said.

She said that the South Korean government should place priority on the abduction issue in its relations with North Korea as Japan has done.

“The Tokyo government received Pyongyang’s apology about the abduction of a dozen Japanese, but the Seoul government didn’t even try to raise the issue of thousands of detained citizens in the North,’’ she said.

“When I saw the abducted Japanese return to their country, I felt a sense of shame due to our government’s lack of concern about this matter,’’ she added.

You can say what you want about Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi but he cares about his citizens, unlike some politicians here in Korea. It is the same thing with President Bush. He would reduce Pyongyang into a parking before 3,790 Americans ever got kidnapped by North Korean agents. You would think that if President Roh put a little pressure on the North Koreans, he would be able to get some of the hostages returned. He could pressure the North Koreans by with holding fertilizer and other aid unless they give up some of the hostages, but no they give them all the aid they want and even gave them back their spies that were arrested and held here in Korea. Absolutely mind boggling.

Sad story, I sincerely hope this woman will be able to get her father returned.

North Korea has now responded to Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s visit to the controversial Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo:

North Korea has become the latest country to criticize Tokyo over Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s visit to a controversial war shrine. Koizumi visited the Yasukuni monument on Monday.

The secretive Stalinist state added that the shrine is “a symbol of militarism, in spite of the unvarying opposition from the international community,” AP said.

“A symbol of militarism”? Give me a break, the North Koreans are complaining about a shrine promoting militarism when their entire country promotes militarism.

In fact if you believe this Chosun Ilbo report the North Koreans should get along well with Koizumi because his dad allegedly recruited Koreans in Japan to return to North Korea:

The father of Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was a key figure in efforts to lure Koreans living in Japan to North Korea. Junya Koizumi died in 1969.

With promises that North Korea was a “Paradise on Earth,” repatriation organizations between 1959 and 1984 sent 93,340 Koreans to the Stalinist country. Despite opposition from the South Korean government, leading Japanese politicians and intellectuals on Nov. 17, 1958 formed a repatriation association which was to support efforts to send Koreans to the North. Once repatriated, these people would find themselves slandered as “a disruption to society,” Japanese spies or collaborators, and a significant number were carted off into forced labor and never heard from again.

Nobody forced them to go to North Korea. Also how come the South Koreans didn’t try to take them in? Yes, Koizumi is stupid for doing his shrine visits, but the reaction by everyone else in the neighborhood is even stupider and hippocritical. Just more mindless Japan bashing if you ask me.

So who knows where this building is located? I guarantee everyone has seen this building before, just looks different from above.

All you Hanchongryun types out there get your bamboo poles, rocks, masks, and anti-American slogans ready because both US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and President George Bush are coming to a city near you.

First of all Secretary Rumsfeld is coming to Korea this week to not only meet with Korean military officials but also US soldiers in Korea:

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld will meet with U.S. troops in South Korea this week, senior defense officials said on Friday.

They declined to give specific information on when Rumsfeld would be in each country. It was also unknown Friday which troops Rumsfeld will meet with in South Korea.

Then next month it will only get better when President Bush comes to Pusan for the APEC summit:

US President George W. Bush will travel to Japan, China, South Korea, and Mongolia in November, White House spokesman Scott McClellan confirmed.

The trip will by anchored on the November 18-19 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum summit in the South Korean city of Busan.

Hopefully they will leave the children at home this time but I doubt it.

Also it looks like Mongolia is the happening place this winter for US officials. Maybe they saw these photos linked from Marmot’s site.