Posted on 03/05/2005 3:44:09 PM PST by Racehorse
ROME Mar 5, 2005 — Italy demanded answers Saturday as former hostage Giuliana Sgrena was taken off a flight from Iraq wrapped in a plaid blanket and hooked to an intravenous drip for a shoulder wound inflicted when American troops fired on a car taking her to the Baghdad airport. The Italian agent who negotiated her freedom was hit and died in her arms.
The shooting at a U.S. checkpoint in Baghdad stoked anti-war sentiment in Italy, where the public was widely opposed to the government's decision to send 3,000 troops to help U.S.-led efforts to secure the country from a violent insurgency. President Bush promised a full investigation.
About 100 demonstrators outside the U.S. Embassy in Rome blocked traffic and one banner read: "USA, war criminals." A few dozen communist demonstrators at the U.S. Consulate in Milan handed out leaflets reading, "Shame on you, Bush."
[ . . . ]
"We thought the danger was over after my rescue," she told RAI News 24 television by telephone. "And instead suddenly there was this shooting, we were hit by a spray of fire. I was talking to Nicola … when he leaned over me, probably to defend me, and then he slumped over. That was a truly terrible thing."
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Our troops do not take pot shots.
They should be angry at the driver for provoking our troops into opening up on the vehicle in the first place.
Something happened to cause the soldiers to open fire, so far what do we know besides they had failed to provide knowledge to the soldiers of her passing through, they were in an unmarked car speeding towards the checkpoint and failed to yield when they were warned.
She wasn't worth it.
OpinPundit: "Lets take a closer look at alleged hostage Sgrena Giuliana her quotes and politics."
Yep. Certainly . . . curiously provocative, she is.
What was the Italian "spook" who was killed doing there in the first place?
Negotiating her release.
In any case, the Italians have nearly 3000 troops there, so they are bound to have some intel guys there.
But, they would be familiar with the airport road, and the checkpoints, and used to working with American soldiers, which makes what happened very strange.
If so, I'd say it worked. Here's hoping she enjoys it.
Will she get a Purple Heart for her shrapnel wound? Maybe she and Kerry can swap war stories.
The "Italics"...the "ITALICS"...please tell me you meant to type that..?
And it was with macho Italian bravado that the driver of that vehicle was approaching the US checkpoint at high speed, and showed no evidence of slowing down. At this point, none of the checkpoint soldiers had any idea whether the vehicle was maybe loaded with 500 pounds of TNT, and they took precautionary steps to deter its closer approach. Somebody died and others suffered serious wounds, but playing chicken with military checkpoints is counterproductive.
Iraq is still a very dangerous place, and reckons to remain so for some time to come.
You have been around long to remember the old days when the failure of one poster to close the Italics font would carry that font through subsequent posts until someone closed it. Those people would then announce "Italians off."
I simply reversed it. lol
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