Posted on 03/12/2005 4:46:21 PM PST by MadIvan
THE Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, has promised President George W Bush that he will not pay more ransoms to free hostages in Iraq.
The Italian government has denied newspaper reports that $6m (£3.1m) was paid for the release of Giuliana Sgrena, who worked for the Communist daily Il Manifesto. But senior officials and intelligence sources have confirmed that money did change hands.
The affair ended when American soldiers opened fire on the car carrying Sgrena and killed the intelligence officer who had freed her.
Last year Italy paid a reported $5m (£2.6m) for the freedom of two aid workers, Simona Pari and Simona Torretta. Hours after Sgrena was seized, Berlusconi announced that “negotiations” had begun.
The reports of ransom payments have infuriated American officials, who say they fund violence and encourage more kidnappings. Mel Sembler, the American ambassador in Rome, told Berlusconi last week that the money bankrolled “the war being waged by Sunnis in Iraq”.
In response, Berlusconi has agreed to a change in policy. When a speaker during a debate in parliament urged an end to ransom payments, he nodded and said: “Certainly, certainly.”
Gustavo Selva, chairman of the standing committee for foreign affairs in the lower house of parliament, said: “From now on there will be no more ransoms, no more concessions. If there are more kidnappings, the Italians will act in full agreement with the Americans. Intelligence services will try to locate the hostage and a military raid will be launched if necessary.”
In return, Bush agreed to Italy assigning a military officer and a diplomat to an American team investigating the incident.
Selva claimed that the attack on the Toyota Corolla carrying Sgrena and Nicola Calipari, the intelligence officer, to Baghdad airport had been prompted by a satellite monitoring system. This detected that their vehicle did not have clearance from US military authorities. A signal alerted a mobile checkpoint near the airport and its soldiers opened fire.
“The Italian team should have known what to expect, but it appears they didn’t realise how sophisticated the American military are,” said Selva.
“The Italian team should have known what to expect, but it appears they didn’t realise how sophisticated the American military are,” said Selva.
Frankly, I think he's trying to put a bit of the ol' worry bug in any "insurgents" (that actually hurt to type!), nee' Terrorists minds about just exactly what the US Military can and can't do. Don't be out driving after curfew, the satellites (or UAV's) may pick up your heat source and "blammo", your gone.
Yeah, U.S. military vehicles have the capability to track each other using the "blue force tracker" system. I've never heard of putting this system into civilian cars. But now that I think about it, it might make sense to do this in Iraq for friendly vehicles.
The Italian gov't should toss the communist journalist back to the terrorists.
I wish they'd replay the video showing her pleading for her life over and over again. What a clown.
I hope Gustavo Selva is right. The allies should all have the same single policy regarding kidnappings. PERIOD.
What particularly galls many Italians is that Sgrena considereed herself among friends. She even declared that her crying and begging for mercy was "hammed up" in agreement with the terrorists.
Though that wasn't known, it was common knowledge that she was ideologically on the side of the enemy... and that being known, no effort at all, either through ransom-paying or military action should've been made to free her. She was already free. It was her pondered choice to be foolish, her choice to be with friends. They should've left her to boil in her own broth.
Did she really? Where did you see that?
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
This scumbag Sgrena cost a man his life, but I am not sure how much sympathy I have for him, either. I don't know if the dead security officer was ordered by his government to go "negotiate" for Sgrena's pitiful life, or if he wanted to help Sgrena because he liked her and sided with her politically, or if he was part of a kidnapping hoax orchestrated by Sgrena.
But no matter what, this experienced security officer HAD to know the protocol of civilian vehicular traffic in an area (the airport road) dangerous enough to require checkpoints and American troops. And regardless of that apparent incompetence, the root cause of the whole clusterf@@@ was that pig Sgrena.
Ciao Texasflower
http://www.corriere.it/Primo_Piano/Cronache/2005/03_Marzo/07/sgrena_video.shtml
Sgrena: il video era «drammatizzato»
PARIGI - Il video trasmesso da Al Jazira a metà febbraio in cui si vedeva Giuliana Sgrena in lacrime e psicologicamente molto provata era una «drammatizzazione» espressamente voluta e cercata dai rapitori. Lo ha affermato la stessa giornalista italiana in un'intervista che apparsa martedì sul quotidiano francese «Libération»...
Sgrena: the video was «dramitized»
The video transmitted by Al Jazira mid February showing a Giuliana Sgrena in tears and shattered was a "dramatization" expressly ordered and demanded by the kidnappers. The selfsame Italian Journalist stated as much in an interview that appeared this Tuesday in the French Newspaper «Libération»...
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