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April 9, 2007 -- Spc. Mario Lozano of Manhattan remembers the moment in Baghdad that changed his life forever - when, with eyes "the size of apples," he saw a vehicle barreling directly toward him and he opened fire. "You have a warning line, you have a danger line, and you have a kill line," said Lozano, speaking out for the first time about the March 4, 2005, "friendly fire" incident in which he shot from a Humvee machine-gun turret at the vehicle, hitting an Italian war correspondent and killing an Italian intelligence officer. The nightmare resumes for Lozano, of...

ROME - A judge Wednesday ordered a U.S. soldier to stand trial in absentia for the fatal shooting of an Italian intelligence agent at a checkpoint in Baghdad, the prosecutor said. Spc. Mario Lozano is indicted for murder and attempted murder in the death of Nicola Calipari, who was shot on March 4, 2005, on his way to the Baghdad airport shortly after securing the release of an Italian journalist who had been kidnapped in the Iraqi capital, prosecutor Pietro Saviotti said. Another agent, who was driving the car, and the journalist, Giuliana Sgrena, were wounded. "This looks to me...

Jill Carroll's captors appear to be involved in some of the most high-profile kidnappings of Westerners in Iraq during the past two years. A Monitor investigation - including interviews with other kidnap victims, US, Iraqi, and Italian investigators, as well as court testimony in Iraq - ties her abductors, or others close to them, to at least five kidnapping incidents, including Ms. Carroll: [...] The strongest evidence suggests that the same group that took Carroll also abducted Ms. Sgrena, the Italian journalist. In early March, Abu Rasha, the leader of one of the three cells handling Carroll's kidnapping, went into...

Italian journalist and former Iraq war hostage Giuliana Sgrena offered yesterday to meet face-to-face with Spec. Mario Lozano, the New York City National Guardsman who shot her in a friendly fire mistake on a deserted road to the Baghdad airport last year. "I think that it would be useful for him and for me to have an exchange of opinion," Sgrena said during her first visit to the United States since the shooting. The shooting, which killed Nicola Calipari, the Italian government's second-ranking intelligence officer, just minutes after Calipari had secured Sgrena's release from Iraqi guerrillas, sparked a public furor...

BAGHDAD, April 6 (Reuters) - The U.S. military said on Thursday that Iraqi forces had captured a former senior intelligence official under Saddam Hussein who now has close ties to the al-Qaeda leader in Iraq Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. A military statement said Muhammad al-Ubaydi, who now heads the Secret Islamic Army in northern Babel province, was captured by Iraqi forces in southern Baghdad on March 7.

CALIPARI: A 'KIDNAPPERS' TRAP' KILLED HIM? (AGI) - Rome, 29 March - Could it have been a 'trap' of the journalist Giuliana Sgrena's kidnappers that killed the secret service man Nicola Calipari, who was in the car hit at a US checkpoint on 4 March last year, while travelling to Baghdad airport. This, according to Corriere della Sera this morning, is the version offered by a terrorist, Mustafa Mohammed Salman, currently imprisoned in Iraq, according to whom it was the Imam of the Sunnite mosque, the sheik Hussein (who Sgrena was supposed to meet with the day she was...

If a conservative is a liberal who's been mugged, what do you call a Swede who's been kidnapped? Somebody you wouldn't want to cross, that's for sure. Ulf Hjertstrom has redefined the term Stockholm Syndrome, the bizarre attachment some hostages develop for their captors, first observed during a bank robbery in the Swedish capital more than 30 years ago. No such bonds were forged between Mr. Hjertstrom, a Swedish oil engineer, and the Shura Council of the Mujahedeen of Iraq, which held him captive for 67 days. "I have now put some people to work to find these bastards," Mr....

Bush Calls Berlusconi to Reiterate Condolences Over Killing of Italian Agent by U.S. Troops in Iraq By ALESSANDRA RIZZO Associated Press Writer ROME May 4, 2005 — President Bush called Premier Silvio Berlusconi on Wednesday to express his regret for the March killing of an Italian agent by U.S. troops in Iraq. The call came days after Washington and Rome issued rival reports about the shooting death. Berlusconi's office described the conversation as "long and cordial" and said the two countries reaffirmed their commitment in Iraq. Berlusconi, a staunch ally of the United States, sent about 3,000 troops in Iraq...

It seems there are no secrets any more... even when you try to keep them. The Pentagon found that out to its cost over the past weekend when it released its report on the shooting death in Iraq of Nicola Calipari, an Italian intelligence agent. Calipari died while rescuing an Italian journalist who had been held hostage by Iraqi insurgents. As they drove to safety, the Italians ran into a U.S. Army checkpoint. The Americans opened fire on the car, killing Calipari as he tried to shield the journalist. 'Unredacted' NPR's Vicky O'Hara reported on a Defense Department document, which...

Readers 'declassify' US document When news started circulating in Italy that a heavily censored Pentagon report into the death of secret agent Nicola Calipari had been decrypted, many thought it must be the work of some top-notch hacker. In fact, it turned out that the classified document, containing top-secret details - such as the name of the soldier who fired the deadly rounds of ammunition - could be made readable with two simple clicks of your computer mouse. A few hours after the Pentagon published the report on its website, a few Italian readers found they could make the blacked-out...

ROME - Italian investigators blamed U.S. military authorities for failing to signal there was a checkpoint ahead on the Baghdad road where American soldiers killed an Italian agent, and concluded that stress, inexperience and fatigue played a role in the shooting, according to a report released Monday. The probe found no evidence that the March 4 killing of intelligence agent Nicola Calipari was deliberate. The Italians challenged the American contentions that the car was traveling more than 50 mph, saying it was going half that speed. But, despite their refusal to sign off on the U.S. report that the soldiers...

ROME (AP) - Italian investigators have concluded that stress, inexperience and fatigue among U.S. soldiers played a role in the shooting death of an Italian agent in Baghdad, according to a report released Monday. [snip] The probe found no evidence that the March 4 killing of intelligence agent Nicola Calipari was deliberate.[snip] Calipari was killed just after he secured the release of Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena from Iraqi militants who held her hostage for a month. U.S. soldiers fired on the Italians' vehicle as it approached the checkpoint near Baghdad's airport. Sgrena and another Italian agent were wounded.[snip] U.S. investigators,...

Italian media have published classified sections of an official US military inquiry into the accidental killing of an Italian agent in Baghdad. The 40-page report was censored by the Pentagon before being officially published on Saturday. Italy has refused to accept the US report's findings and is to publish its own version of events later this week. Details of the official report were published in newspapers on Sunday with censored material restored in full. Missing text A Greek medical student at Bologna University who was surfing the web early on Sunday found that with two simple clicks of his computer...

The XM25 fires a High Explosive (HE), air bursting 25mm round capable of defeating an enemy behind a wall, inside a building or in a foxhole.

Copy-and-Paste Reveals Classified U.S. Documents Although about a third of the report was classified, some clever individual discovered that by copying the hidden .pdf text and pasting it into a word processor the classified information was made visible. Below is the full text of the .doc document.

Los Angeles Times editors have edited a Reuters story to remove critical facts supporting the U.S. position on an important international issue.This morning's L.A. Times publishes an article about the March 4 shooting by U.S. soldiers of a car bearing Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena. The shooting killed Italian intelligence officer Nicola Calipari, and created an international controversy, which strained U.S.-Italian relations. An important contested issue in the controversy was the speed of the car as it approached a U.S. checkpoint. Sgrena has maintained that the car was traveling at a "regular speed" -- no more than 25-30 mph. Americans have...

ROME, May 1 (Reuters) - Italy, stung by a U.S. report it felt put much of the blame on Rome for a "friendly fire" killing in Iraq, will publish its own version of events on Monday that is likely to question the testimony of American troops. Relations were strained when U.S. troops at a roadblock shot an Italian agent who had just rescued a hostage in Baghdad on March 4; they soured further this weekend when Washington blamed the Italians for poor communications and not heeding warnings. The United States said it would not discipline the U.S. soldiers although it...

Original story: I have an unconfirmed story that CBS is reporting an American satellite recorded video that shows the car carrying Giulliana travelling at over 60 mph! If this proves to be true her entire story falls apart. Update: It's confirmed, Pentagon sources maintain that the distance the car travelled (91 meters)and the time it took (3 sec.) means the vehicle WAS travelling at a speed greater than 60mph. So, as we suspected Giuliana Sgrena is a communist agenda driven hyper pacifist lying POS. Update II: It appears from the animation video that the approaching Sgrena car WAS warned with...

BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 30 - The car carrying the Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena that was struck with a deadly hail of gunfire as it sped toward Baghdad International Airport on March 4 ignored warnings from American soldiers who used a spotlight, a green laser pointer and warning shots to try to stop it as it approached a checkpoint, the American military said in a report released Saturday evening. The gunfire killed Nicola Calipari, an Italian intelligence agent who was in the back seat with Ms. Sgrena. The driver and Ms. Sgrena were wounded. Lt. Gen. John R. Vines, the ground...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The U.S. military confirmed on Saturday that it will not discipline troops who shot dead an Italian intelligence agent in Baghdad two months ago. [snip] A 42-page report into the killing of Nicola Calipari and the wounding of the Italian journalist whose freedom he had just secured from kidnappers found that the Italians had failed to tell U.S. troops of their plans to drive into Baghdad airport and had ignored warning lights intended to make them stop.[snip] "The ... investigation concluded that the vehicle approaching the checkpoint failed to reduce speed until fired upon and that the...