Bremer: "Spanish soldiers were seated on tanks doing nothing"
http://www.eitb24.com/portal/eitb24/...Finternacional
Bremer: "Spanish soldiers were seated on tanks doing nothing"
2006/01/11
Under the title My Year in Iraq, the former American governor has published a book in which he assures that during the invasion, Spanish troops refused to help Americans more than once. "They were seated without moving their bottoms," he says in the text.
The former US Presidential Envoy in Iraq, Paul Bremer, criticises the behaviour of Spanish troops during the invasion of that country in his book My Year in Iraq, just released in the US. Bremer led the Acting Authority of the invading coalition in Iraq since May 2003 until June 2004, when powers were transferred to an acting Iraqi government.
In his book, a 400-page narration of his stay in Iraq, Bremer refers to the presence of Spanish militaries in the country several times. The book points out that the test for these troops was the rebellion of loyal forces against the Shiite clergyman Muqtada al-Sadr in the city of Nayab. According to Bremer, Spanish troops refused to help US troops, the target of al-Sadr's militia.
"They are seated on tanks, doing nothing," Bremer says referring to Spanish troops and adds that it "is outrageous. I call this the Coalition of those who are ready for nothing."
The ex governor also highlights that the brigade General Fulgencio Coll, Spanish commandant in Nayab, had been trying to negotiate with groups loyal to Muqtada after demanding the liberation of Mustafa al-Yacubi, Muqtada's right-hand man. "That morning the Spanish released an idiot statement on Yacoubi's arrest, saying Spanish troops had not led that operation, but the coalition of Baghdad had done so due to Yacoubi's part in the murder of a US soldier," Bremer points out. "The statement should have been utterly banned," he adds.
Bremer also narrates how he talked to the Spanish ambassador in hard terms. The latter answered that he didn't know about that and he would contact Madrid. Afterwards, he reminds that the then Foreign Affairs minister, Ana Palacio, called him from Madrid to say "she knew nothing" on the problems in Nayab and that she had talked to the Spanish president Jose Maria Aznar, who didn't believe the statement on Spanish troops. However, Bremer assures his informers had told him the Spanish "where still seated without moving their bottoms."
