Update: Shooting fallout consumes Italian press (Sunday, 6 March, 2005)

[IndianaGreen]

Last Updated: Sunday, 6 March, 2005, 13:15 GMT

Shooting fallout consumes Italian press

The front pages of Sunday's Italian papers are dominated by the fallout from the tragic aftermath of the release in Iraq of journalist Giuliana Sgrena.

Initial shock at the shooting dead by US forces of top Italian secret service agent Nicola Calipari, a key player in Ms Sgrena's liberation, has given way to anger and polemic.

<snip>

The turn of events in Iraq "risks having very serious political consequences", says La Stampa, and "not only because of the resurgence of anti-Americanism" among the Italian Left.

"Rather, it is the state of relations between the two governments, Italian and American, that has undergone a sudden deterioration," the paper believes.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4323315.stm

[cal04]

1. Journalist suggests US targeted her/ransom

Speaking from the Rome hospital where she is being treated, Ms Sgrena said the troops may have targeted her because Washington opposes Italy's reported readiness to pay ransoms to kidnappers.

"The United States doesn't approve of this policy and so they try to stop it in any way possible," the veteran war reporter, 57, told Sky Italia TV.

Rome prosecutors have opened a second degree murder investigation into Mr Calipari's death and Italy's Justice Minister has signed documents requesting information from witnesses.

According to Italy's leading daily newspaper Corriere della Sera, the driver, an unidentified Italian agent, said: "We were driving slowly, about 40-50 km/h."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200503/s1317181.htm

[IndianaGreen]

3. Berlusconi has put himself in this untenable position

The vibrant Italian press, except for the newspapers owned by Berlusconi, are seriously questioning Italy's participation in the occupation of Iraq. Even the pro-government papers are demanding hard answers, rejecting the bullshit explanations given by the US military.

I hope and pray that Italy withdraws all of its troops out of Italy. This is what the vast majority of Italians want.

[IndianaGreen]

4. 40-50 km is about 30 miles an hour

Not the speeding that the MSM first reported here. The fact that a criminal investigation has been opened suggests that the Italian government knows this what a hit, not some innocent accident.

[ninkasi]

27. Nothing this government does at this point

surprises or shocks me. We have gone from being a country which erred, but sometimes tried to do the right thing, to being a lawless, bully regime, taken over by thugs and criminals of the worst kind.

They no longer feel the need to hide their criminal acts, and add insult to injury by presenting a false, pious face to the rest of the world, and spend many hypocritical hours dictating morality to others.

This is the worst government this country has ever been inflicted with. Those who voted for these bullies and cowards deserve their own special places in hell.

[Sparky McGruff]

38. Uh, oh...

"Speaking from the Rome hospital where she is being treated, Ms Sgrena said the troops may have targeted her because Washington opposes Italy's reported readiness to pay ransoms to kidnappers."

She better be careful, the right wing bloggers are going to have her fired! The underwear brigade is primed and ready!

[Seabiscuit]

42. Whether intentional or not, U.S. guilty of war crimes for this one.

If the U.S. military intentionally targeted that car, it's murder, and a war crime.

If the U.S. military (as the Bush administration is facetiously claiming) made a "mistake" and didn't know who they were shooting at, then they're killing people in Iraq indiscriminately and at random, also a war crime.

A pox on the House of Bush.

[bpilgrim]

2. TIPPING POINT

we on't be able to travel anywhere after this =(

peace

[jilln]

7. sure we can...

just remember to wear your Canadian flag T-shirt and put maple leaf buttons on all your luggage...

[HereSince1628]

19. Besides the GOP is trying to get a single passport for N. America

that way our US passports won't give us away.

[jilln]

43. I might support that!

But has anyone told them that North America includes Mexico?

[Seabiscuit]

46. Really? You mean Central America doesn't exist?

[kitty1]

31. I wonder what damning cell phone pics sgrena might have....

stored. They sure wouldn't want close ups of napalm or other chemical evidence from people's skin to show up in her articles. The Bush admin can lie all they want, but photos don't.

[rocktivity]

5. The headline strikes me as a little condescending

What SHOULD Italy's headlines be dominated by this Sunday--pasta recipies?

:headbang:
rocknation

[Warren Stupidity]

8. hypothetically in this country under similar circumstances

the headlines would be dominated by:

1) the Jacko Trial!
2) Neoclown Triumph over Syria!
3) Hollywood Box Office Smash!
4) Disloyal Democrats Still Have no Plan for Scrapping SS!

Oh wait we are directly involved in this and that IS what the media is peddling here. It ain't hypothetical at all.

Two countries were involved in this scandal. One of them is having at it 24/7 dean scream tape loop in the media, the other is having nothing to do with it.

[hatrack]

26. Martha Stewart - STILL out of jail!!

It doesn't get more gut-bustingly important than THAT!!!!

[Blue_Tires]

9. soccer!

AC Milan > the rest of the world!

[rocktivity]

11. What's Italian for LOL?

They're acting just like those annoying "Jersey Girls" who kept harping about no investigation of their husbands being killed at the WTC. Isn't it time they sucked it in and gotten on with their lives?

:headbang:
rocknation

[The Zanti Regent]

21. Ridere Fuori Alto

Always willing to help out IG in these situations!

ZR

[NVMojo]

6. many headlines about it here, just scroll down.

http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/

[0007]

12. NewsMax is off the wall

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/3/6/81539.shtml

After her release and medical treatment for wounds sustained when her car attempted to run a U.S. checkpoint of Friday, Sgrena praised her terrorist captors for treating her humanely.

She was shot you fucking assholes, and is in a hospital in Italy for an operation today.

There are more lies if ya have the stomach to read such shit! Freeper alley stuff!

[Frederik]

37. That's how

Pravda would cover it if Soviet troops were involved back in the good old days.

[0007]

44. We are the new Pravda then.......

[seemslikeadream]

10. The Benefit of the Dumb

"It can't be just said that it was just an accident.
We can't accept this, it is not possible." - Giuliana Sgrena.


Blessed is the state that hides its most egregious crimes behind the smokescreen of incompetance.

Consider the attempted assassination of Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena.

Pier Scolari, Sgrena's partner, said yesterday "either this was an ambush, as I think, or we are dealing with imbeciles or terrorized kids who shoot at anyone." Since the latter has already been tragically demonstrated many times over in Iraq (graphically evidenced here), it makes an almost plausible explanation of what befell Sgrena's car, and a consoling fable to those who still balk at the notion that the United States has deliberately targetted journalists in Iraq. Which may very well be why the attempt on her life was made in this fashion.

Much of the world, and certainly much of Italy, has no qualms about assessing the contrary claims and evidence, and finding for intention. Most Americans, who lack a curious press in all but the most regrettable sense, will swallow their military's explanation, priding themselves on the fact that President Bush has promised an investigation, and presume the Italians were barrelling through a checkpoint. What did they expect, for Pete's sake? They had it coming.

The official line says that Sgrena's car ran a checkpoint at high speed. But "it wasn't a checkpoint," says Sgrena, and they weren't shot by sentries. It was "a patrol that started shooting after pointing some lights in our direction...we didn't understand where the shots came from.'' The car was only 700 metres from the airport, "which means that they had passed all checkpoints," adds Scolari.

The military contends it was uninformed about the progress of the negotions for her release, and was unaware Sgrena was on her way. But "the Americans and Italians knew about (her) car coming," Scolari says.

The US has the troops first firing warning shots, then shooting into the engine block to stop the vehicle. The Italians say they were hit by hundreds of bullets. The Observer reports up to 400 rounds struck their car "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." Sgrena's car, the US claims, is now "lost," and cannot be inspected.)

more
http://rigorousintuition.blogspot.com/

[Cooley Hurd]

15. The last paragraph says it all, IMHO...

The US personnel knew they were Italian immediately after the gunfire stopped, yet confiscated their cellphones (why would they do this if they knew they were allies?). And the most important piece of evidence, the car in which Sgrena was riding, turns up MISSING???

I heard today that, on one of the phone calls made by Nicola Calipari during the trip to the airport, he spoke in English. Who was he speaking English to?:shrug:

[rocktivity]

34. I fear that the cell phones have gone the way of the car

No cell phones, no way to prove that calls were made from the car to the Italian government!

:headbang:
rocknation

[rocktivity]

16. What's Italian for "What we have here is...failure to communicate"?

The military contends it was uninformed about the progress of the negotions for her release, and was unaware Sgrena was on her way. But "the Americans and Italians knew about (her) car coming," Scolari says.

They were uninformed that a plane was waiting to her at Baghdad airport that THEY were guarding? THEN WHY WAS IT ALLOWED TO LAND???

:headbang:
rocknation

[The Zanti Regent]

20. Che cosa abbiamo qui è un'omissione di comunicare

Pays to google (1)

[DELUSIONAL]

29. You aren't supposed to use critical thinking . . .

You must just believe -- everything the US Government says - no matter how illogical and impossible it might be.

BELIEVE -- IT TELL YOU JUST BELIEVE!

[AlamoDemoc]

13. Well, Well!

"Rather, it is the state of relations between the two governments, Italian and American, that has undergone a sudden deterioration," the paper believes.

As they say "The Chickens have Come Home to Roast"

[progressivebydesign]

14. Gee.. and the military can't exactly LOCATE the car they shot up...

.. wow. Who'da thunk it. Finding the car would probably show that they were shot from the SIDE not the front, and that is why the driver was not killed, and the backseat passenger was.

[Disturbed]

17. Law Suit?

Can the family of the person killed & the reporter that was wounded that was file a suit?

[CHIMO]

18. A Murder

Investigation has been opened by an Italian official. I believe it is a magistrate.

[eridani]

22. An email from an Italian friend

Something that hasn't been outlined enough: the outrage is also due to the fact that the victim wasn't a simple operative, or a soldier like countless others.

He was simply the man responsible of foreign operations of our secret service, and if it seems little to you, he had 26 years of service always as an operative, and was held in high esteem by both the ruling and the opposition parties (that's not an easy thing to achieve).

Imagine the number 2 of the CIA killed in a senseless shooting by a foreign (supposedly allied) army, or imagine a Jack Ryan killed like that, and you'll get the idea.

S.

[Nancy Waterman]

23. This may be another BIG piece of the puzzle

Giuliana Shooting, Questions Raised

From The Laura Flanders Show (March 5th, 2005)

While US military spokespeople allege that Calipari's car was speeding, unidentified, towards an Army checkpoint, Sgrena's life-partner, Pier Scolari, told Italian media that Calipari's car was a few hundred meters from the airport and already past all US checkpoints when the attack began.

Sermonti, who spoke with Scolari, says, further, that "Calipari was speaking in English with someone in the airport telling them to get ready when, just as they reached the airport, without any warning, the opened fire."

snip

According to Scolari, says Sermonti, Giuliana had been warned by her captives that "the Americans didn't want her to get out of Iraq."

At the time of her abduction, Giuliana was heading to an area of Baghdad where witnesses from Fallujah are staying to interview Fallujah refugees about the US assault on their city last year. Says Sermonti:

"SHE HAD SOME INFORMATION ABOUT THE USE OF ILLEGAL WEAPONS by US forces in Fallujah that was very sensitive. A very hot topic. There were rumors of some use of chemicals and a number of weapons that are not legal -- like and phosphorus."


from Laura Flanders' interview with Fabio Sermonti on Air America Radio:

[jayfish]

25. Jives With What Sgrena Said This Morning.

"We weren't going very fast, given the circumstances. It was not a checkpoint, but a patrol that started firing right after lighting up a spotlight. The firing was not justified by the movement of our automobile,"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10647-2005Mar5.html

Just the how though, not the why.

Jay

[rocktivity]

24. Hmmm, maybe HE was the real target...

:headbang:
rocknation

[Nancy Waterman]

28. This Guardian article

says it might have been because the US was not happy the Italians negotiated with terrorists.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1432040,00.html

Personally, I hope it comes out it has more to do with the illegal chemical weapons used in Falluja becasue it is time the stories about the depleted Uranium in the last and the current Gulf Wars get an airing. All of these stories tie in together. And if one gets traction, they might all get heard.

[IndianaGreen]

30. Transcript: Giuliana Sgrena interview with BBC

Transcript: Giuliana Sgrena interview
In an interview with the BBC's World Today programme, freed Italian hostage Giuliana Sgrena began by describing the conditions in which she had been held hostage for a month.

When did you become aware that your car was being fired at?

We had no signal. We were just on the way to the airport. They started to shoot at us without any light or signal. There was no block, there was nothing. It was so immediate. I didn't know how I was alive after all that attack.

Why do you think the Americans opened fire?

We were not a hidden car. We were just a car on the road with lights and we were not running without any signal. So you have to ask the Americans because we don't know what happened.

Did the Americans continue to fire when your car had come to a halt?

Our car was destroyed. And then the driver got out and was shouting "we're Italian, we're Italian". So they came and they saw what happened. But I was badly injured so I can't explain exactly what happened after because I was waiting for 20 minutes on the road for a military car to bring me to the hospital.

I don't know if they knew what they were doing or not but it's a big responsibility so they have to respond to what happened because it's impossible to shoot a car on a road to the airport without giving any signal, any stop or any check.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4324251.stm

[cosmicdot]

32. " ... and polemic." now, there's a word one doesn't see every day ...

of course, this article is BBC .......

doubt if the Leadership Institute covers terms like that during its $50 'course'

[bemildred]

33. Struck me too. Must be a new writer. nt

[redacted]

35. Live video news coverage from RAI News 24:

For live broadband video news coverage of what's happening in Italy, paste this address in Windows Media Player in the "Open URL" dialog box:

mms://fastreal.fastweb.it/rainewshigh

Audio is in Italian, but one doesn't need the audio to get a good idea of what's happening there tonight. The pictures speak for themselves. These folks are very, very upset.

[The_Casual_Observer]

36. The idiot American GIs don't care who they kill in Iraq, other than

another GI. God help you if you find yourself having to drive up to a checkpoint in Iraq. They first fire waring shots into the air. If you don't hear them, or aren't paying attention, or don't understand what they want, they immediately level the guns directly at the windshield and apply deadly force.

[DoYouEverWonder]

39. Do you get the feeling

we blew it big time?

[jmcgowanjm]

40. When we invaded w/o a second UN Res, we moved into Fascism

The US is the Nazi now.
911 was our Reichstag fire
The Patriot Act. our legalizing the illegal.
Gitmo,AbuGhurayb, Manhattan Detention Center
are our rampups to concentration camps.
DU and WMD are our road to genocide.

Information has thus been militarised.

http://www.ilmanifesto.it/pag/sgrena/en/420dc28e4ad0d.html

Anyone interested in Fallujah these days?

IRR030605
First week of March sees relentless Resistance attacks on
US, puppet troops in al-
Fallujah.

At 1:00am Monday morning Mecca time, Mafkarat
al-
Islam posted a report on the previous week’s Resistance
activity in al-Fallujah. In all 27 US and Iraqi puppet troops
and
three spies were killed and four Humvees destroyed during
the week. In addition the Resistance mounted incessant
rocket attacks on the occupation and its
stooges.

How about ar Rutbah?

Iraqi Resistance forces shot down a US Cobra helicopter
on Saturday evening near the city of ar-Rutbah on the way
to Jordan in al-Anbar Province.

Resistance sinks US patrol boat near al-Hadithah killing five US troops early Sunday.

ar-Ramadi.

Six US troops reported killed in pre-dawn fighting northeast
of ar-Ramadi.

Fierce fighting broke out between the Iraqi Resistance and
US occupation troops who are deployed in large numbers in
the as-Sufiyah area northeast of ar-Ramadi. The
correspondent for Mafkarat al-Islam in ar-Ramadi reported
that the fighting took place at around 1:30am Sunday
morning, local time

www.freearabvoice.com

[jmcgowanjm]

41. And after 040703 when Russian diplomatic convoy attacked.

We should've known that the US would
stop at nothing. I mean, if you can target
the Russian Ambassador and get away with it,
what's to stop us?

The US and Iraq had been told of the convoy's route,
Russian officials said. Witnesses said the convoy deviated
from its intended path when a firefight blocked the road
ahead.

The RTR journalist said: "We were going through the last
Iraqi positions, past tanks and trenches, and just as we
crossed their lines, the Americans opened fire very
heavily. Shells hit an Iraqi tank in front of us, and shells
landed 50 to 70 metres away from us. The Iraqi car in front of
us was completely destroyed, killing all four
occupants."

http://www.boycottusa.org/news/war_iraqnews_guardian7Apr_03.htm

[gatlingforme]

45. I don't believe anything this adminstration says.

[Seabiscuit]

47. It's nice to know you're one of 60K+ of us here on DU that don't either.