Posted on 03/07/2005 5:10:50 AM PST by Anglo
A state funeral for the Italian intelligence officer who died while saving a journalist just hours after she was released from a month in captivity in Iraq is taking place.
Nicola Calipari died when shielding Giuliana Sgrena from gunfire as their car drove towards an American checkpoint in Iraq.
The coffin of Mr Calipari has lain at tomb of the Unknown Soldier They were on their way to the airport when the American troops opened fire. Mr Calipari died from a single gunshot wound to the head.
About 10,000 Italians have filed past his coffin as it lay in state for the past two days a t Rome's Vittoriano monument. They have hailed Mr Calipari a hero.
The killing has put a strain on the close personal relationship between Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian premier, and George W Bush, the American president. Many Italians have been against the war and the presence of 3,000 Italian troops as part of the US-led coalition.
Journalist Ms Sgrena, writing in the newspaper Corriere della Sera over the weekend said the Americans starting firing a hail of bullets at the car.
But America said the car was speeding towards their checkpoint. Ms Sgrena, who writes for the communist newspaper Il Manifesto, is in hospital in Rome recovering from shrapnel wounds.
She was abducted Feb 4 in Baghdad and released after negotiations between Mr Calipari and the Iraqi insurgents on Friday.
Ms Sgrena said that it was possible they were targeted deliberately because the United States opposes Italy's policy of negotiating with kidnappers.
"I believe, but it's only a hypothesis, that the happy ending to the negotiations must have been irksome," she said. "The Americans are against this type of operation. For them, war is war, human life doesn't count for much."
Ms Sgrena has rejected the US military's account of the shooting, claiming instead that American soldiers gave no warning before they opened fire.
The White House said it was a "horrific accident" and promised a full investigation.
Neither Italian nor US officials gave details about how authorities won Ms Sgrena's release. But Giovanni Alemanno, agriculture minister, was quoted as saying it was "very probable" a ransom was paid.
Italian military officials said two other intelligence agents were wounded in the shooting; US officials said it was only one.
I don't want to blame the soldiers but I think they're not well trained for a 'peace keeping' mission.
That's neither here nor there in this situ. Given that the Italians were within 1000 yards of the Baghdad airport, they should have expected to encounter soldiers and not 'peacekeepers'. Here's one perspective on Baghdad's Airport Road:
Traveling on a Highway of Dread
The unanswered questions are why the Italians didn't inform anyone--coalition, Iraqi...--of what they were up to & why they were trying to slip out of town without making an accounting, answering questions or providing information that would lead to the apprehension of the 'kidnappers'. Baghdad certainly isn't 'safer' because of what they did--and if they paid ransom or were complicit in an extortion scheme, Baghdad is less safe as a result.
And then, we could get into the subject of the Italians' total disregard for the sovereignty of Iraq, a nation in which Sgrena was a 'guest'.
So according to the division it was not a checkpoint. It was a patrol.
'Checkpoints' are fixed targets. 'Patrols' are moving ones. Think about it.
Encountering a 'patrol' within 1000 yards of Baghdad Airport is something to be expected.
MHalblaub is definitely a foreigner - probably European because of his global warming concerns for the Alps.
His/her English is bad.
But a troll? Not sure yet.
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