Anyone know how to translate Italian? Guiliana interview here

[NVMojo]

http://www.repubblica.it/2005/c/sezioni/esteri/iraq45/nveloc/nveloc.html

[Contrary1]

1. Here you can get a loose translation using Babel...

http://babel.altavista.com/babelfish/tr

Paste the URL of the interview into the translate a web page feature,
then choose the Italian to English option in the drop down box.

[NVMojo]

2. Thanks, here's what someone sent me...

"The US soldiers prevented first aid for several minutes and prevented anyone from coming near the car", said Pier Scolari as he entered Celio (military) hospital. "Giuliana had had information that the USA wouldn't let her return home alive.

Giuliana Sgrena and wounded Italian military intel agent have been interviewed by Italian magistrate... after he left she spoke with press, said it was a PATROL not a checkpoint - suddenly found themselves in that shot at them, shot immediately with no warning whatsoever, instant massive hail of bullets and no chance to communicate - confirms the car was NOT speeding, was travelling at slowish normal speed.

"Non era un check point, ma una pattuglia che ha sparato appena dopo averci illuminato con un faro. Non si è capita la provenienza dei proiettili, precedentemente non avevamo incontrato posti di blocco".

" IT WAS NOT A CHECKPOINT BUT A PATROL THAT SHOT AT US IMMEDIATELY AFTER HAVING TURNED A LIGHT ON US. WE COULDN?T UNDERSTAND WHERE THE BULLETS WERE COMING FROM, BEFORE THAT WE HADN'T ENCOUNTERED ANY CHECKPOINTS" --Giuliana Sgrena

[Greyskye]

3. This contradicts previous article

The translation above indicates that they had not passed any checkpoints:

"IT WAS NOT A CHECKPOINT BUT A PATROL THAT SHOT AT US IMMEDIATELY AFTER HAVING TURNED A LIGHT ON US. WE COULDN?T UNDERSTAND WHERE THE BULLETS WERE COMING FROM, BEFORE THAT WE HADN'T ENCOUNTERED ANY CHECKPOINTS" --Giuliana Sgrena

The following quote was found here: http://www.news24.com/News24/World/Iraq/0,,2-10-1460_1671944,00.html

"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 700m from the airport, which means that they had passed all checkpoints."


:shrug:

[Contrary1]

4. Here's my problem with this incident:

If it was indeed an assassination attempt, which I believe our government would have no problem arranging, why is she still alive?

"'The US soldiers prevented first aid for several minutes and prevented anyone from coming near the car', said Pier Scolari as he entered Celio (military) hospital. 'Giuliana had had information that the USA wouldn't let her return home alive.'"

They could have easily killed everyone in the car leaving no witnesses.

[Igel]

5. Thanks for the link.

My Italian is really Spanish and French with a lot of Romance linguistics, but it's good enough for academic use.

"We weren't going very fast, given the circumstances ...
Our speed didn't justify the gunfire, our speed was normal and couldn't be misunderstood." On the other hand, being Italians ... (insert offensive stereotype about Italian driving here, and take it with the grain of salt intended).

At the same time, we have to assume since Saddam et al. are kept near the airport, and there are fairly frequent clashes with armed gunmen there, that there should be a patrols or checkpoints. So I can understand if they had passed checkpoints, or if they were coming up to a checkpoint near the airport. (700 meters = just over 1/2 mile) I guess for me to make sense of this I'd have to know what traffic is usually like on this road: do locals avoid it unless they have explicit permission?

If the US held her, as some say, why was she released? If the US wanted her dead, have the medics help her and airlift her out? Keeping the medics away from her for a few minutes makes sense, if you're a patrol afraid of a suicide car bomber.

I must say, I still don't know that I have a clue as to what happened there.