No ransom paid' for Sgrena

[cal04]

The suspected kidnappers of former Italian hostage Giuliana Sgrena said in a video broadcast by Italian media on Tuesday that no ransom was paid to end the journalist's month-long captivity. "The insurgency refuses to be paid," the voice-over of the video shown by public RAI television and news channel Sky24 said.

The voice added, however, that a ransom had been proposed, but did not give details. The suspected abductors also claimed that the United States had sought to kill Sgrena who was wounded when a US patrol opened fire on her vehicle on the road to Baghdad airport on Friday.


"The insurgency learnt that the CIA wanted to kill Giuliana, the journalist", the voice said according to the Italian translation on Sky24. The insurgency's intelligence official warned the journalist," the voice said, adding: "Everything we're saying can be verified." But the White House on Monday rejected as "absurd" suggestions that US soldiers in Iraq deliberately tried to Sgrena.

http://www.news24.com/News24/World/Iraq/0,,2-10-1460_1673176,00.html

[GetTheRightVote]

1. Looks like the WH and Military got caught with their hand in cookie jar

Hummmmmmmmmm ...........

:kick:

[Heyo]

2. Okay

I have to admit, I don't believe a single word of this steaming pile.

The insurgency "didn't want to be paid"?

They just kidnapped her.. for what?.. to warn her about the CIA since they are on the same side? So she could make that video?

Um. Okay.

:hurts:

Heyo

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

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[rodeodance]

5. What is in it for Iraly to stay in Iraq? I have never understood that.

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[rodeodance]

6. she has been hightly critical of the Bush/Irag war--there MSM is like ours

[DenverDem]

7. berlosconi, who owns the Italian media, is a big wrong wing crook

Sgrena has the goods on amerikkka's use of banned chemical warfare agents in Fallujah and silvio is doing a favor for his partners in busholini inc.

[bemildred]

9. Do you have a link for that?

I've never seen her quoted saying anything like that.

[Mika]

10. You might want to check this out

Democracy Now!
Monday, March 7th, 2005
Il Manifesto Founder on Sgrena Shooting: This Was an Attack on Unembedded Journalism

Links to watch, listen and/or read..
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/03/07/1449232

[bemildred]

11. Thank you, that clarifies a little, but I still haven't seen Sgrena quoted

saying that, it's always someone else saying that
she said it.

Edit:

I notice there is the "tank" again, I think that must be a
translation error.

[ebayfool]

14. Maybe, not? The only places that I've seen playing this up is MSM & ...

freepers. She was asked, through a translator, why she would be targeted - her reponse (again, via translator) was to the effect that she didn't know, maybe because of the ransom thing. She also said that the US government would be the ones to ask, she didn't do the shooting ... they did. Hardly going "on and on".

[2diagnosis]

8. Yes, they kidnapped her to protect her from US forces. The

Italians thought they could protect her but obviously rumsfeld had it out for her.

[alfredo]

12. If the kidnappers were going to kill her they would have

done the deed. I think her anti bush writing saved her life.

I don't buy the hit story. I think it was a fuck up all the way around. Unless the evidence points to a hit, I will modify my stance.

I am sure that the US (rumsfeld) didn't like what she was writing. If they wanted to liquidate her, they would have done it a long time ago. I bet she wasn't even on their radar because I don't think this administration really cares what others think. They know the media will cover for them.

[agitpropagent9]

13. i agree

and as botched as it was at the checkpoint, the italians handled this very badly, refusing escort by elite italian commandos and traveling in a rented vehicle with little (if any) coordination.

[chlamor]

15. Consider

-Not Speeding
-No checkpoint
-No Warning
-It was known who was in the car
-Delayed and cut off cell phone communications
-Car is missing

300 rounds fired and only one shot killed someone.
Was all the ammo fired a smokescreen to hide the sniper fire aiming at the one person who mattered-the target? The one who knows about chemical warfare in Fallujah.
Maybe everyone else was shooting to miss.

[alfredo]

17. I am not sure we can say exactly what happened there.

Let's see what washes out of the investigation.

We shouldn't put too much stock in her account, not because of anything political, but she had just finished a harrowing few months then suffered another horror just as it appeared she was on her way to safety. She's going to pay a heavy emotional price the rest of her life.

Has the driver made a statement?

[2diagnosis]

16. kidnappers were protecting her from the US military.

My only question is; after they realized that only one of the three were dead, why didn't they finish off the other two after the car was stopped?

[bemildred]

18. I have heard two explanations:

a.) That would not look "accidental".
b.) They were very near the airport and there was a danger of
observation, even recording.

Since facts are so hard to come by (i.e. where are the soldiers
involved, what do they have to say?) it's hard to tell, but it
is interesting that the military seems to be in no hurry at all
to get the matter resolved.