Sgrena's car proved she lied (with pictures)

The House Of Wheels ^ | 03/09/05 | Leigh Cartwright

[wheels128]

You'll remember that Giuliana Sgrena claimed her car was shot at "300 or 400 times", among other lies she told that I listed here. It was easy to dismiss that claim as a lie on the spot, but it's even easier now that La Republica has posted photos of the car, but the AP posted clearer images. And thanks to LGF, here they are:

As you can see, there's virtually no damage to the car at all. Here's some low-quality photos of an armoured car hit 36 times:

We can safely say that an ordinary car hit 300-400 times will have at least 10 times the damage as an armoured car hit 36 times. Three people in that car died, yet only one dies in Sgrena's less protected car that was hit ten times as much?

Captain's Quarters has more:

This clearly shows that the vehicle did not come under heavy fire but probably got shot by handheld weapon trying to disable the vehicle. This picture is last in the slideshow; others show bullet holes on the fringe of the front windshield, which otherwise remains intact.

Whatever else happened, this vehicle did not come under heavy-weapons fire or indiscriminate automatic-arms fire. The fact that it's still got all of its fenders and its hood intact tells us that. One tire got shot out and one front-windshield bullet, possibly two, are all that La Repubblica can point out.

Sgrena lied.

While you can excuse slight errors in her story, the fact that she has exaggerated the number of bullets that hit her car by anywhere from 75 to 200 times casts far too much doubt over the story for her to be taken seriously.

[Mo1]

FYI

[nopardons]

bttt

[bikepacker67]

She's a commie. Of COURSE she's a liar.

[Redcloak]

Perhaps she means to demean our soldiers' marksmanship.

[McGavin999]

Yeah, and I wish we knew the exact amount of the ransome. Whatever it was, it was way too much to give to terrorists to slaughter innocent Iraqis and American soldiers.

[mark502inf]

Check out this very revealing account by a Dutch journalist of the conversation he had with Sgrena on the airplane ride into Iraq here.

[Howlin]

Supposedly 6 million.

So, what have we learned class? That the Italians gave money to OUR enemy to keep the insurgency going.

[Mo1]

This whole thing smells IMO

[Mo1]

ineresting post

[afnamvet]

The Italian government allegedly paid six million to have Sgrena freed from her captors. Six million to insurgent scum. Italy, what were you thinking?

The coalition and especially our troops are the big losers of this exchange.

The photos of the car show very slight damage...not 300-400 hits.

This conclusively proves Sgena is a liar with an obvious agenda.

[DTogo]

If she's right, we have platoon of soldiers somewhere in Iraq who badly need a refresher in marksmanship.

[wheels128]

If she means to demean the marksmanship of the American troops, then she's failing miserably. We only know of three bullets that hit the car:

1. Into the engine;
2. Into a tire;
3. Through her shoulder and into Capilari's head.

I'd call that exceptional marksmenship, to put a car out of order and hit two occupants in three shots.

[Dad yer funny]

ping

[Redcloak]

She may mean that 397 rounds missed.

[Salman]

Yeah, and I wish we knew the exact amount of the ransom.

6,000,000 Euros

[beyond the sea]

So, what have we learned class? That the Italians gave money to OUR enemy to keep the insurgency going.

Yes, money they won't have to go somewhere else to look for.

[shezza]

It's the seriousness of the allegation that should be considered, not the evidence (or the lack thereof). Come on, don't tell me that even after Dan Ra^ther you don't know how the communist "reporters" operate.