Posted on 03/05/2005 6:21:41 PM PST by Lessismore
Bush promises Italian leader a full investigation
The Italian journalist kidnapped in Iraq arrived back in Rome yesterday as fury and confusion grew over the circumstances in which she was shot and one of her rescuers was killed by American soldiers. The shooting in Iraq on Friday evening, which occurred as Giuliana Sgrena was being driven to freedom after being released by her captors, was fuelling anti-war activists in Italy and putting pressure on Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
'The hardest moment was when I saw the person who had saved me die in my arms,' she said. Her poignant words and weak, haggard appearance as she had to be helped from the jet that brought her back from Baghdad are fuelling national rage.
Berlusconi, a staunch ally of the US who defied widespread public opposition to the Iraq war and sent 3,000 troops, took the rare step of summoning US ambassador Mel Sembler to his office.
He demanded that the US 'leave no stone unturned' in investigating the incident. President George Bush called Berlusconi to promise a full investigation.
Sgrena, 56, a journalist for the Communist newspaper Il Manifesto, was hit in the shoulder when US soldiers opened fire on the car she was travelling in as it approached a checkpoint less than a mile from Baghdad airport. The Italian secret service officer who had negotiated her release was killed as he shielded her from the gunfire. Two of his colleagues were also hurt.
Berlusconi prides himself on his close personal friendship with President George Bush, but he was grim-faced when he told reporters that someone would have to take responsibility 'for such a grave incident'.
The US Army claimed the Italians' vehicle had been seen as a threat because it was travelling at speed and failed to stop at the checkpoint despite warning shots being fired by the soldiers. A State Department official in Washington said the Italians had failed to inform the military of Sgrena's release.
Italian reconstruction of the incident is significantly different. Sgrena told colleagues the vehicle was not travelling fast and had already passed several checkpoints on its way to the airport. The Americans shone a flashlight at the car and then fired between 300 and 400 bullets at if from an armoured vehicle. Rather than calling immediately for assistance for the wounded Italians, the soldiers' first move was to confiscate their weapons and mobile phones and they were prevented from resuming contact with Rome for more than an hour.
Enzo Bianco, the opposition head of the parliamentary committee that oversees Italy's secret services, described the American account as unbelievable. 'They talk of a car travelling at high speed, and that is not possible because there was heavy rain in Baghdad and you can't travel at speed on that road,' Bianco said. 'They speak of an order to stop, but we're not sure that happened.'
Pier Scolari, Sgrena's partner who flew to Baghdad to collect her, put an even more sinister construction on the events, suggesting in a television interview that Sgrena was the victim of a deliberate ambush. 'Giuliana may have received information which led to the soldiers not wanting her to leave Iraq alive,' he claimed.
Sgrena was kidnapped on 4 February as she interviewed refugees from Falluja near a Baghdad mosque. Two weeks later her captors issued a video of her weeping and pleading for help, calling on all foreigners to leave Iraq. Italian journalists were subsequently withdrawn from the city after intelligence warnings of a heightened threat to their safety.
Italian newspapers reported yesterday that Sgrena had been in the hands of former Saddam loyalists and criminals, and that a ransom of between £4 million and £5 million had been paid for her release. The military intelligence officer who lost his life, Nicola Calipari, 51, was hailed as a national hero.
She didn't want to be questioned by the pro-American Iraqis.
Wonder why.
Didn't they run a road block? (rhetorical question)
Let me think about this one. You threaten one of my soldiers and you die. What was the question again?
Damn!!! Missed her!!
Get on the clue train Silvio. If Socialist and Red Party groups want to vent their spleen on the US - that's not news. Neither is the fact that cars speeding toward US troops in present day Iraq are typically car bombs.
It's pretty obvious that the driver who tried to run the roadblock is responsible for the consequences, despite the rantings of the anti-American left both here and abroad.
I don't think the Italians want to admit that their people's actions may have caused this incident. It's unfortunate, but in war zones unfortunate things sometimes happen. I would hope that our people did not act outside the rules of engagement, but I suppose anything is possible.
I will wait for the full report. As of now, the U.S. troops acted within their mandate. It remains to be proven otherwise.
This is a sad incident. I do not approve of paying ransom for hostages. This only encourages future kidnappings. I am not convinced a ransom was paid at this point.
I'm glad she is safe but it does seem that they didn't coordinate with the Americans nor had a armored humnvee escort then.....what would they have us do.......invite them in for tea????????
Wasn't there some talk about whether she had acually been kidnapped or not?
Let's see. She's still alive. She wasn't driving, so she didn't threaten anyone. A senior Italian intelligence agent is dead. Another Italian agent is critically wounded. One of the last European coalition members is pissed. The conservative Berlusconi is under severe pressure from his electorate.
A really wonderful turn of events.
Something about this has my spidey sense tingling. Could this be some crazy martyrdom operation to drive a wedge in the coalition?
I don't put anything past the lefties anymore....
I wish only this disgusting b*tch had been the one who died, just like her terrorist brothers whom she so revered and praised in her Communist rag for 2 years.
It makes my heart sink that such a brave man should die protecting someone so unworthy of his sacrifice. My prayers go out for the family of this fine man. But my most bitter enmity and hopes for a slow and painful recovery go out to this scum of the earth Sgrena, who wrote thousands of words in praise of those who have the blood of our soldiers--and Italian soldiers too--on their hands.
The Italian people should be ashamed of themselves for honoring her in any way. She is a piece of excrement.
This will supply some fresh material for the America haters our there. Of course they will ignore the fact that the car was speeding and failed to stop and car bombs are common in Iraq, but that's okay for them. Since when do Communists and anti-Americans care about facts?
Well, if what she says is true, then how can she be alive? If they'd been under fire from an armored vehicle as she claims, wouldn't the entire car have been ripped apart from the hundreds of bullets fired?
If those agents were going to pick up the journalist and take her to Baghdad Airport, they should have taken the steps to previously coordinate their actions with all American unit commanders along their intended route.
In the modern battle field of instant death for a two second lapse of judgment, IFF (Identification Friend or Foe) is Rule Number One for Staying Alive.
The Italian agents, of all people, should have realized that approaching a U.S. checkpoint without IFF and at a high rate of speed and refusing to stop would earn them an immediate Darwin Award.
Most of Europe has been at peace for too long and Europeans have lost the basic skills to survive in a battlefield.
Now there's a very credible story. /sarc
well maybe for the most part but the lefties are no where to be found in Iraq.....the media is left up to it's own devices.....they know the risks......we report....you decide..
Exactly. 300 to 400 bullets on a car would have killed everyone in it.
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