Italian Opposition Slams Iraq Killing Findings

[Julius Civitatus]

By Paul Holmes

ROME (Reuters) - An angry opposition branded a report that clears U.S. soldiers of blame for killing an Italian agent in Iraq an insult to Italy Tuesday, but Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi rejected a call to discuss it in parliament.

In a brief statement to the Chamber of Deputies, Berlusconi said news stories about the purported findings of the joint probe were leaks and insisted the investigation was not over.

"The government ... will only speak about this when all the results of the enquiry are finalized," Berlusconi said, adding his government was in contact with the U.S. administration.

Military intelligence officer Nicola Calipari died when troops at a U.S. checkpoint opened fire late on March 4 as he was driving to Baghdad airport with Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena after obtaining her release from insurgent kidnappers.



A U.S. Army official, briefing reporters in Washington on the preliminary results of the investigation, said Monday the soldiers had followed their rules of engagement and should therefore face no charges of dereliction of duty.

The official said Italy, a close U.S. ally in Iraq, had balked at endorsing the report. Rome disagreed with its findings on the car's speed and whether the Italians kept U.S. troops informed.

"A unilateral conclusion absolving anyone of blame that the Italian side does not accept is an insult to the truth and to the memory of Nicola Calipari and a serious act of arrogance toward Italy," one opposition lawmaker, Giuseppe Fioroni of the center-left Margherita party, said in a statement.

The report was the latest in a series of U.S. military investigations into the killing of civilians by American forces in Iraq to have found no wrongdoing. (...)


It seems like Italians don't like to shut up and sit pretty when they are told to move along, "nothing to see here."