Italian hostage freed in Iraq, then shot by US soldiers

[Broken Glass Can]

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The original story, "speeding past a checkpoint" from the Baghad commander, is now being described by Bush as a tragic accident

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Either way (speeding or not), it is a tragic accident likely due to a lack of communication, but to blame soldiers on the ground and cry "murder" is caving in to the leftists in the Italian political scene. As I said before, if they wanted the people in the car dead, they would ALL be dead.

[smudgex68]

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As I said before, if they wanted the people in the car dead, they would ALL be dead.

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I agree that any idea by the left that this was a plot to kill a left-wing journalist is ridiculous.

And I'm sure they could have killed all if they wanted, just killing one and wounding the other 3 takes a lot of skill (especially as they originally said they were firing at the motor block to stop the vehicle).

It does make you wonder though how many Iraqis experience a similar fate of which we are unaware.

[BCPVP]

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According to the Italian news this morning:
The US had been advised of their arrival at the airport
They had already passed thru other US checkpoints
They were 600 m from entering the airport
Over 100 rounds were fired into the car
The US soldiers did not subsequently approach the car and offer aid, thus the agent died from his wounds
Sgrena has stated they were not speeding

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1) Had the individual soldiers been made aware, or was it just a message to the State Dept, etc?
2) What difference does it make whether they'd been passed through other checkpoints? If you speed towards a checkpoint or patrol, I don't think the soldiers have enough time to play telephone tag to find out if it's friendly or not.
3)Distance to the airport is irrelevant. Driving towards a U.S. military patrol/checkpoint w/out identifying yourself is asking for trouble.
4)100 rounds? Sounds a little high. That's about 5 guys emptying their M16s into a car. Nonetheless, I'd hope that we wouldn't get thrifty with bullets when you think your life is in danger.
5) I would hope that the soldiers would NOT approach the car. Assuming they were trying to stop the car instead of kill everyone inside of it, what sense does it make to waltz over there and get blown up by whoever's got their finger on the button?! DUH!
6) I don't know how credible the journalist is. She's probably a little shaken from the event and I'm sure she's not going to admit that they were being reckless and speeding. I trust our boys over some commie journalist.

And it makes no sense for us to want to execute civilians allies. Why would we try and scare off allies?


And thatpfunk, I knew he was kidding. But it's hard to laugh about someone being killed and several people being wounded.

[Broken Glass Can]

<font color="red"> No surprise that Sgrena has gone down this road. Politics means more to this communist "journalist" than the truth. </font>


Sgrena has suggested US troops deliberately tried to kill her

Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena has suggested US troops deliberately tried to kill her moments after she was released by her kidnappers in Baghdad.
Ms Sgrena, writing in her left-wing newspaper Il Manifesto, described how her car came "under a rain of fire".

At that moment, she said she recalled her captors' words that some Americans "don't want you to go back".

The US military, who said troops fired on the speeding car after it failed to stop, has opened a full investigation.

A top Italian secret service agent, Nicola Calipari, died in the incident as he shielded Ms Sgrena from the gunshots.

He had led the efforts to negotiate the release of the correspondent, held captive in Iraq for more than a month.

The body of Mr Calipari, who is being treated as a national hero, is lying in state in an imposing monument in the centre of Rome before a state funeral on Monday.

The incident in Baghdad threatens to have continuing political fallout in Rome, says our correspondent there David Willey.

Pressure will grow on Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, a staunch ally of US President George W Bush, to reconsider the wisdom of keeping on Italian peacekeepers in Iraq, our correspondent says.

Already, the Italian foreign ministry has warned all Italian nationals to avoid travel to Iraq.

Sgrena's account

Details remain unclear about exactly what happened as the car carrying the Italian journalist, Calipari and two other agents made its journey towards Baghdad's airport late on Friday.

The US military says that the car was speeding as it approached a checkpoint and that soldiers used hand signals, flashed lights, and fired warning shots in an attempt to stop it, before opening fire.

In her account for Il Manifesto, Ms Sgrena said the kidnappers had released her willingly.

When she got in the car, Calipari took off her blindfold and was "an avalanche of friendly phrases, jokes".

"Nicola Calipari was seated at my side. The driver had spoken twice to the embassy and to Italy that we were on our way to the airport that I knew was saturated with American troops. We were less than a kilometre they told me... when... I remember there was shooting.

"The driver began screaming that we were Italian, 'We're Italian! We're Italian!'"

Ms Sgrena has said the car was not going particularly fast.

Upon her release, she said, "They [the kidnappers] said they were committed to releasing me, but that I had to be careful 'because there are Americans who don't want you to go back'."

In another interview with Sky Italia TV, she said it was possible the soldiers had targeted her because Washington opposed the policy of negotiating with kidnappers.

"Everyone knows that the Americans do not like negotiations to free hostages, and because of this I don't see why I should exclude the possibility of me having been the target," she said.

She said she did not know if a ransom was paid for her release - a policy the US does not approve either.

Ms Sgrena was abducted on 4 February, and later appeared in a video begging for help and urging foreign troops to leave Iraq.

Much of the country was opposed to the US-led war in Iraq and the government's decision to send 3,000 Italian troops to Iraq.

[BCPVP]

If we wanted her dead, she'd be dead.

[smudgex68]

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I trust our boys over some commie journalist.


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I don't doubt the courage of many US soldiers in Iraq, for which we should be thankful. However, with now over 50% reservists, non-professional soldiers these events are likely to be more common, minaly affecting the innocent Iraqi civilian population. Better command and training are desperately needed for the US troops out there facing these hostile conditions.

Reception for the hero saving a woman's life after being fired on by panicking US troops

[mojorisin24]

[ QUOTE ]
According to the Italian news this morning:
The US had been advised of their arrival at the airport
They had already passed thru other US checkpoints
They were 600 m from entering the airport
Over 100 rounds were fired into the car
The US soldiers did not subsequently approach the car and offer aid, thus the agent died from his wounds
Sgrena has stated they were not speeding

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1. This is Iraq, where one of our enemies main weapons is VBIED's (vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices). Speeding or not, all vehicles MUST stop when instructed by US forces. Any failure to do so is considered a threat, and force protection allows that spraying the car's engine block with machine gun fire is the appropriate action to take.

2. The agent in the car died because he was shot in the temple and killed instantly, not because US forces did not approach the car fast enough to offer aid.

3. Sgrena stating they were not speeding is irrelevant. Her memory of what happened could be be almost entirely different after suffering the type of trauma she has.

And regardless of how many checkpoints they had already passed through, the bottom line is that they did not follow correct protocol when approaching this particular one. US troops do not shoot randomly at cars unless provoked, and perhaps most telling is that this was the only civilian-casualty incident reported that day from the checkpoint. Logic dictates that the Italians' car was breaking the rules, and in a war-zone, that'll get you killed.

[thatpfunk]

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And thatpfunk, I knew he was kidding. But it's hard to laugh about someone being killed and several people being wounded.

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But you had no problem making fun of Ted Kennedy and drunk driving? How ironic... [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

[BCPVP]

One thing you should know about comedy is that for the humor to be seen in a tradegy, there usually needs to be a span of time between. People can make jokes like, "So besides that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?" know, but right after he was shot, it wouldn't have been funny. Far more time has elapsed since Ted Kennedy's accident than has this accident.

[mojorisin24]

The road you speak of is the connecting highway from Baghdad to the main airport, without question the most dangerous roadway in Iraq. American troops are expected to be more aggressive than usual in such a battle climate.