Posted on 03/05/2005 8:54:10 AM PST by Lessismore
ROME - The companion of freed Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena on Saturday leveled serious accusations at US troops who fired at her convoy as it was nearing Baghdad airport, saying the shooting had been deliberate.
"The Americans and Italians knew about (her) car coming," Pier Scolari said on leaving Rome's Celio military hospital where Sgrena is to undergo surgery following her return home.
"They were 700 meters (yards) from the airport, which means that they had passed all checkpoints."
The shooting late Friday was witnessed by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's office which was on the phone with one of the secret service agents, said Scolari. "Then the US military silenced the cellphones," he charged.
"Giuliana had information, and the US military did not want her to survive," he added.
When Sgrena was kidnapped on February 4 she was writing an article on refugees from Fallujah seeking shelter at a Baghdad mosque after US forces bombed the former Sunni rebel stronghold.
Sgrena told RaiNews24 television Saturday a "hail of bullets" rained down on the car taking her to safety at Baghdad airport, along with three secret service agents, killing one of them.
"I was speaking to (agent) Nicola Calipari (...) when he leant on me, probably to protect me, and then collapsed and I realized he was dead," said Sgrena, who was being questioned on Saturday by two Italian magistrates.
"They continued shooting and the driver couldn't even explain that we were Italians. It was really horrible," she added.
Sgrena, who was hospitalized with serious wounds to her left shoulder and lung after arriving back in Rome Saturday before noon, said she was "exhausted because of what happened above all in the last 24 hours".
"After all the risks I have been running I can say that I'm fine," she said.
"I thought that after I was handed over to the Italians danger was over, but then this shooting broke out and we were hit by a hail of bullets."
The chief editor of Sgrena's left-wing newspaper Il Manifesto Gabriele Polo meanwhile branded Calipari's death a "murder".
"He was hit in the head," he said.
Calipari will be given a state funeral Monday.
Italian intelligence agent, what's that???
Snort. It sounds to me as though they're still trying to get their stories straight.
And they're gonna need a better story. Sheesh.
Thanks for the clarification.
So it's clear from his most recent statements that he thinks this was intentional. I still say we (the U.S.) should hang back and investigate responsibly while not saying too much and let this reporter and her friends make ever wilder accusations. It's not making them look good.
If they didn't want her to survive, she wouldn't have. Can't believe the propaganda that's being spewed on this story.
The agenda is clear enough for anyone to follow.
Terrorists do not release hostages unless a) bribed b) it's staged.
This is apparently a Communist sympathetic to Islamic terrorists that wishes to use her role as a "journalist" to overthrow berlusconi and the alliance by spreading propaganda to the Italian citizenry. I doubt she wishes the details of how she became a hostage and how she secured release to become known. the Italian Government probably wants those details kept quiet as well.
Of course OUR Media wishes to aid in any way they can, but they are NOT going to keep the facts from the public because of our alternative news sources. Nor will they escape fury at labeling our troops murderers. That IS what they are attempting to do, and it'll backfire since we followed procedures. It was the driver at fault.
The only concern is how effective the propaganda is against berlusconi. I suspect we'll give him leeway to make a few press manueveurs of outrage in hopes he can defeat this woman and her "friends" in the Italian MSM.
Uh huh. So they're saying basically that a random patrol shined a spotlight into the car, said "Yep, that's her. That's the Italian we've been ordered to kill in order to 'silence' her" then commenced firing?
Like I said... hang back, investigate, let the Italians hang themselves with their statements.
I don't see the point in denigrating our coalition allies. By the way their intelligence agents are very effective, especially in Iraq, where their information has saved many American lives.
Snort is right--this story is changing more often than John Kerry changes opinions!
This is the hole in the story, if they were within the airport security perimeter why would they be 1- speeding and 2- refuse to stop even when challenged.
I guess they didn't consider American troops with a roadbloack setup inside a perimeter to be a checkpoint.
There's only one thing I wanna know: Why the heck did they refuse to stop?
Exactly. If our troops wanted her dead, she would be.
Amazing propaganda ping!
And if the Italians paid a ransom for this wench, they just increased the risk for every Italian in Iraq. Smooth move.
Typical Italian driver.......
Well, I'm being accused by some of being a tinfoil hatter, but my guess is that they were bringing something (or someone) through the checkpoint that they didn't want to be seen by US forces. Ransom could mean many things, including but not limited to just money.
Hmmmm, they had already passed the checkpoints and yet the car was hit head on in the engine block. What was it doing, backing all the way to the airport?
Not necessarily a random patrol, since that highway is routinely patrolled. The patrols are there to prevent Iraqis from placing IEDs etc., and are obviously authorized to shoot any vehicle that they consider a threat. I am curious about the discrepencies that are emerging in the two accounts, but I have thus far only seen preliminary and somewhat vague accounts.
Well, it does make clear that this happened at night, rather than in daylight... so we have a car speeding along in the dark, ignoring multiple verbal, visual, and gunfire warnings.
It's almost as if they wanted something like this to happen, or were so self-important as to think they could behave in a militarized zone exactly as they do in the streets of Rome.
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