You have to know that we are really sorry for this story. Giuliana Sgrena is not an Italian Fellow of mine. She's a supporter of Islam and she's against you and Mr. Bush. So, don't care what she says!
I have to wonder if this woman and her fellow communistos set this incident up to try to cause a falling out to happen between the U.S. and Italy. Perhaps to get the Italian population to become angry and cause Italian troops to pull out of Iraq. She and her type are so against the war I would believe they would try any kind of stunt to achieve that.
Much about this case reminds me of the phoney kidnapping/hostage incident involving Japanese "hostages." Some here wonder if this particular hostage was trying to smuggle out someone on our wanted list--and I wonder about that too--but mostly I suspect that this was staged to happen as it did for propaganda purposes.
No, they set it up as a way to launder money to the terrorists via a dubious "ransom." It would not look good for her to simply hand over a million Euro to them, but paying a "ransom" means she can maintain deniability and the terrorists can claim they are being magnanimous by not beheading her and pocketing the money instead. That was the set up part. The checkpoint was probably not thought through. She probably instructed her driver not to stop for the American soldiers that she has nothing but contempt for. Like most all journalists there, she thinks she is above them and doesn't have to obey the rules like everyone else.