<http://www.celluloid-wisdom.com/pw/index.php?/weblog/entry/18065/>
Sunday, March 06, 2005 Through the Looking Glass with Giuliana Sgrena, 2 (with interpolations) >From Bloomberg News: Giuliana Sgrena, the Italian reporter wounded on March 4 by U.S.-led forces after she was freed from her captors in Iraq, said the military may have targeted her deliberately. Question 1: why? Sgrena, 57, who had been held for one month in captivity, was injured and Italian intelligence officer Nicola Calipari was killed when coalition forces fired on their vehicle as it approached a Baghdad checkpoint. Writing in Italy's Il Manifesto newspaper, Sgrena said her kidnappers had warned her to pay attention once she was freed, because the U.S. wanted her dead. At the time, she judged their words to be "superfluous and ideological,'' she wrote. "They told me to beware because 'there are Americans who don't want you to return','' Sgrena wrote in the article. Question 2: why? Why wouldn't the US military want Sgrena to return? And why would the people who kidnapped her and videotaped her begging for her life care enough about her to warn her about a possible US assassination attempt (in the unlikely event they even knew about one)? In fact, one would expect such "ideological" kindappers to see a US military assassination of Sgrena as a propaganda victory for their cause, no....? So again: why? When she was shot, her captors' advice "risked acquiring the taste of the most bitter of truths,'' she wrote. U.S. President George W. Bush telephoned Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on March 4 to express regret about the incident and offer cooperation in an investigation, according to White House spokesman Scott McClellan. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called Italian Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini yesterday to reiterate the U.S. will do all it can to uncover what happened, la Repubblica reported today [...] [...] The shooting was "without reason,'' Sgrena said yesterday from a Rome military hospital, where she is being treated for her wounds, reported daily Corriere della Sera. "I cannot find any justification for it,'' she was cited as saying. Question 3: Care to venture a guess? Who is Giuliana Sgrena that the US would care enough to attempt to assassinate her? A foreign reporter with a well-know leftwing political agenda that would color any story she told anyway? Why is she important? Why would she be targeted? Why? Sgrena's convoy approached the checkpoint at a "high rate of speed,'' according to Marine Sergeant Salju Thomas on March 4 by telephone from Baghdad. "t's an extremely threatening act,'' Thomas said. "That's the exact same thing that car bombers do.'' Sgrena denied that the convoy carrying her, Calipari and two other Italian agents was speeding when it crossed the checkpoint, and said the shots were from elsewhere, Italy's Ansa news agency said yesterday. "It wasn't a checkpoint, but a patrol that started shooting after pointing some lights in our direction,'' the Ansa news agency cited Sgrena as telling prosecutors [...]. Question 4: why? [...] The U.S. wasn't informed of the last phases of Italy's negotiations with the kidnappers, as it opposed any ransom being paid for Sgrena, said Il Sole/24 Ore. A ransom of "several million dollars'' was paid in another Arab country at about the time of her release, the daily newspaper said today. If the US was NOT aware of the ransom being paid-and the argument for the US having "targeted" Sgrena was that it disapproved of the the negotiating methods of its Italian allies-doesn't this revelation of US ignorance put to rest any remaining suggestion of motive (other than "Bush is Hitler")-even for the most dedicated of anti-American conspiracy theorists? So then: why? The Italian government said it was the U.S. military that fired on the vehicle. A U.S. military spokesman confirmed the incident but wouldn't say who fired the shots. The shooting was "a grave accident that someone will have to take responsibility for,'' Italy's Prime Minister Berlusconi said at a press conference held in Rome. The reporter's wounds aren't life threatening, according to Il Manifesto, the Communist newspaper for which she writes. Sgrena, an opponent of the war in Iraq, was held hostage by five or six "very religious'' people, including a woman, she told prosecutors in Rome, reported Corriere. They spoke to her in Arabic, French, and broken English, she wrote in Il Manifesto. Well, most "very religious" people I know aren't big on kidnappings and ransom demands, but, y'know, if you say so, Sgrena� Again, I wasn't there, so I don't know what happened. But until someone can tell me WHY the US would target Sgrena-and how they knew where she'd be in time to plan an orchestrated "hit"-I'm going to side with the soldiers on the ground. (yesterday's post here) **** update: LGF has pictures and video of the car. The first thing you notice?-the windshield is still intact. Charles points out that a car supposedly "riddled with bullets" is likely to have a broken windshield. Unless of course the soldiers were firing at the engine block (as they reported), or the car was moving quickly, and the soldiers were forced to fire at its flanks and rear as it sped past� (h/t Stephen_M, in the comments) **** update 2: Evidently, the AP report used footage of a different car entirely. Which makes me wonder if these news services weren't simply making shit up to fit their stories for all those years before blogs took to scrutinizing them so closely. Posted by Jeff Goldstein @ 10:35 AM -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED]> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Take a look at donorschoose.org, an excellent charitable web site for anyone who cares about public education! http://us.click.yahoo.com/_OLuKD/8WnJAA/cUmLAA/TySplB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? 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