Itallian Hostage shot by US soldiers

[Vonwert]

http://www.rr.com/html/fs.cfm?p=16&m...arentview=NEWS

Did anyone hear about this?

I thought it just shows how crappy intelligence is when determining who to shoot.

[The Toecutter]

Re: Itallian Hostage shot by US soldiers

I've seen it.

However, this is an odd case. In the past, most often the soldiers have killed journalists intentionally. One was even tortured in Abu Ghraib. I found this one to be kind of interesting since it seems to have lacked any intention to kill.

[The Toecutter]

Re: Itallian Hostage shot by US soldiers

Hmm, this article is interesting. I'm still forming an opinion on this, of course.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4323361.stm

Hostage's shooting 'no accident'

Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena has said she cannot accept US troops accidentally fired on her car after her kidnappers freed her in Baghdad.
Ms Sgrena told the BBC Americans guarding Baghdad airport might not have been informed about her arrival, but their actions could not be excused.

Earlier, she suggested US troops might have deliberately tried to kill her.

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

An Italian secret service agent, Nicola Calipari, who negotiated Ms Sgrena's release, died as he shielded Ms Sgrena from the shots.

Warning

Ms Sgrena told BBC News she could not say "why they shot at us in this way".

"But it's a very big responsibility and we ask a response on what happened," she said.

"It can't be just said that it was just an accident. We can't accept this, it is not possible."

She said Italian officials knew her car was on the airport road and she assumed they had informed the Americans.

She could not say if she was deliberately shot at "because we can't say if there was misinformation, but also misinformation in this case is a responsibility because you are in a war field".

"You have to have the responsibility to pass immediately any information and the information was given to the Italians that we were on the road so I think that they have given the information to tell the Americans that we were on the road."

Earlier, 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.

And writing in her left-wing Il Manifesto newspaper, she said upon her release her kidnappers warned her to be careful 'because there are Americans who don't want you to go back'."

State funeral

Ms Sgrena paid tribute to Mr Calipari, whom she described as "a very special man" who gave her hope.

Italian media say at least 10,000 people have visited Rome's Vittoriano monument, where the body of Mr Calipari, who is being treated as a national hero, is lying in state.

He will be given a state funeral on Monday.

"I am very very sad, I am very painful for him," she said.

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.

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.

[archerarmored]

Re: Itallian Hostage shot by US soldiers

silly spaghetti should have stopped, i dont really care about other people's safety when it's competing with soldiers. i say they can shoot whoever the hell they want if they think that person has a truckload of dynamite in the back

[The Toecutter]

Re: Itallian Hostage shot by US soldiers

Oh, but there's more:

'The worst moment was when the person who had saved me died in my arms'

By Bruce Johnston in Rome, Philip Sherwell in Washington and Colin Freeman in Baghdad
(Filed: 06/03/2005)

The Italian woman hostage freed in Iraq has described how she hugged the secret service agent who died shielding her from a hail of bullets fired by American soldiers at a Baghdad airport roadblock.

In an emotional meeting in a Rome hospital yesterday, Giuliana Sgrena, a journalist, met the widow of Nicola Calipari, the Italian intelligence agent who last week negotiated her release by Iraqi kidnappers, and described the last moments of the man who gave his life to save her own.

"Giuliana embraced Nicola Calipari twice: the moment she was freed and when she realised that he was dead," said Gabriele Polo, her editor at Il Manifesto, a communist newspaper, after talking to her in hospital.

Miss Sgrena, 56, told her boyfriend, Pier Scolari: "The worst moment for me was when I saw the person who had saved me die in my arms."

As a bitter row escalated yesterday over who was to blame for the tragedy, she described in her first interview since being flown back to Rome how the car in which she was travelling was hit by a "rain of fire".

A State Department official said earlier that the Italians had not informed the American embassy in Baghdad or its military commanders that Miss Sgrena had been freed and was on her way to the airport. United States army officials also said that the unmarked car had ignored signals to slow down as it sped at night towards an American roadblock on a highly dangerous stretch of road where dozens of soldiers and civilians have been killed by suicide car bombers.

However, Mr Scolari, a fellow Left-winger who had been talking to the passengers of the car with Italian government officials on a mobile telephone when the shooting occurred, rejected this account. He said that the Americans had been informed that the car was coming through and that it was just 700 yards from the airport and travelling at moderate speed in heavy rain.

Miss Sgrena told investigating magistrates last night that her car came under fire from a US army patrol, and not at a checkpoint. "Our car was not being driven in a way that would have justified opening fire on it," she said. "It was moving in a way which gave no rise to any misunderstanding."

In an interview from her hospital bed, where she is receiving treatment for shoulder injuries sustained in the attack, Miss Sgrena described how Mr Calipari was talking to her when the car was riddled with bullets. "He was telling me what had been happening in Italy when I was away when he suddenly leant against me, probably to protect me. Then he collapsed and I realised he was dead.

"The firing continued because the driver couldn't manage to explain that we were Italian. It was absolutely terrible. I was particularly upset because I thought that by this stage, after I was handed over to the Italians, that the worst was over." Mr Scolari said that the shoot-out occurred just as the Palazzo Chigi (the prime minister's residence) was making telephone contact with the car's passengers.

Rosa Calipari, the agent's widow, visited the hospital to meet the woman her husband saved and discover more about his final moments. "His wife wanted to know what his last words were," said Mr Scolari. He said Miss Sgrena told Mrs Calipari that her husband was shot in the head and died instantly.

Miss Sgrena was abducted by gunmen from outside Baghdad university a month ago and a harrowing video was later released showing her pleading for her life. Details of her release and whether a ransom was paid have not been disclosed.

President George W Bush has telephoned Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister and his ally in the US-led war on terror and in military operations in Iraq, expressing regret over the incident and promising a full investigation.

In a statement, the US army said soldiers of the 3rd Infantry Division "killed one civilian and wounded two others when their vehicle travelling at high speeds refused to stop at a check point. A patrol observed the vehicle speeding towards their checkpoint and attempted to warn the driver to stop by hand and arm signals, flashing white lights, and firing warning shots in front of the car. When the driver didn't stop, the soldiers shot into the engine block, which stopped the vehicle, killing one and wounding two others."

The latest shooting incident has again focused attention on rules of engagement for US soldiers at checkpoints. However, the Baghdad airport road is one of the most dangerous stretches of highway in the world and any driver using it knows it is crucial to approach roadblocks with extreme caution.

In Italy, the condemnation of American actions was led by colleagues of Miss Sgrena on Il Manifesto, a bitter critic of US actions in Iraq. Magistrates in Rome have opened an investigation into a possible murder.

Miss Sgrena's words fuelled national rage and Mr Berlusconi was said to be "furious". The shooting has prompted the worst diplomatic crisis between Italy and America since 1998, when a low-flying US marines jet cut a ski-lift cable in the resort of Cavalese, killing 20 people.


http://portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/m.../06/wirq06.xml

[archerarmored]

Re: Itallian Hostage shot by US soldiers

yeah that's going to look bad on his resume