Head Shot : Lifting the Veil on the Sgrena / Calipari Incident

[struggle4progress]

MICHAEL LEONARDI
Rome, Italy, March 12, 2005

<snip> Who were Giuliana Sgrena's captors? Why would they say that they did not want witnesses of the blood bath in Fallujah? How is it that these captors would have the same threatening attitude toward journalists as the occupying forces? What were the circumstances of her release? Why was her trip home abruptly halted by American gunfire? If the attack was deliberate, why was her life spared? <snip>

Reporters Without Borders and the Iraqi Journalists Union have condemned the attack on the car carrying Giuliana Sgrena and Nicola Calipari. Reporters Without Borders, having plenty of experience with American deception and arrogance concerning their rules of engagement, has called for the United Nations to conduct an independent investigation into the tragedy. <snip>

Giuliana Sgrena wasn't the first Italian hostage to be liberated by the praised work of Nicola Calipari. As described by my colleague, he had also negotiated the freedom of Simona Torretta and Simona Pari, who, after their return to Italy, denounced the U.S. military as a brutal occupying force, called for the return of the 3,000 Italian troops stationed in Nassariya in southern Iraq, and heaped praise and words of support upon the Iraqi resistance fighters. It seems the last thing the Americans would want is an Italian negotiator working, against their wishes, to release journalists and human rights workers effectively exposing the atrocities of their illegal war. More insidiously, it seems that the Americans might view these actions by a junior partner in the Terror War as a punishable affront, using the murder of Calipari as a lesson to those wishing to play a small role on America's imperial stage. <snip>

http://www.pej.org/html/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=2082&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

[bloom]

1. It would stand to reason that ANY journalists

that are not embedded in Iraq are there to present the truth of the story that is not readily available otherwise. That they would be essentially against the war - against what the US military (+) is doing.

Otherwise - they would accept the standard line provided by the military and not risk their lives - so that others may be aware.



I went to a lecture/slide show of a photographer who had been there. He had also photographed the first Iraq war. He said many of his more disturbing photos were not shown. If they had been, he thought more people would have been against the second war.

The photos can be seen here:

http://dirckhalstead.org/issue0212/pt_intro.html

[HysteryDiagnosis]

2. It was stated by some government hacks that very few Iraqis

were massacred on the highway of death leaving Kuwait.... I think a picture is worth a thousand lies... and this seems to be a big one.

[Igel]

7. The "hack" said out that many of the troops abandoned their

vehicles in the traffic jam once the bombing started. Nobody disputes that the vehicles were destroyed; just that they were occupied.

Nobody's claimed that the US tried to gun down the soldiers making their way beyond where the convoy was, or those away from the road.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

3. Oh yeah.... they are going to love Amurka

for decades to come. Thanks for the sight. (sp) intended.

[Karenina]

4. The Amis hit their target.

One shot to the temple.

[DELUSIONAL]

5. "Petrolarch's imperial stage"

What a great word Petrolarch!

Says it all.

[bemildred]

6. Good piece.

I wonder if the whole things was a black op?