Mistaken U.S. attack wounds Italian journalist

[LoungeMachine]

Originally posted by BigBadBrian
You're not a Christian...you're an idiot of the first magnitude. Go get a life. Cat knows more about being a Christian that you'll ever dream about. Piss off.

I stand with Brie on this one.

and Russ was right as usual.....

[FORD]

US attack against Italians in Baghdad was deliberate: companion

Published: 3/5/2005

Latest wire from AFP


ROME - The companion of freed Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena on Saturday leveled serious accusations at US troops who fired at her convoy as it was nearing Baghdad airport, saying the shooting had been deliberate.

"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 700 meters (yards) from the airport, which means that they had passed all checkpoints."

The shooting late Friday was witnessed by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's office which was on the phone with one of the secret service agents, said Scolari. "Then the US military silenced the cellphones," he charged.

"Giuliana had information, and the US military did not want her to survive," he added.

When Sgrena was kidnapped on February 4 she was writing an article on refugees from Fallujah seeking shelter at a Baghdad mosque after US forces bombed the former Sunni rebel stronghold.

Sgrena told RaiNews24 television Saturday a "hail of bullets" rained down on the car taking her to safety at Baghdad airport, along with three secret service agents, killing one of them.

"I was speaking to (agent) Nicola Calipari (...) when he leant on me, probably to protect me, and then collapsed and I realized he was dead," said Sgrena, who was being questioned on Saturday by two Italian magistrates.

"They continued shooting and the driver couldn't even explain that we were Italians. It was really horrible," she added.

Sgrena, who was hospitalized with serious wounds to her left shoulder and lung after arriving back in Rome Saturday before noon, said she was "exhausted because of what happened above all in the last 24 hours".

"After all the risks I have been running I can say that I'm fine," she said.

"I thought that after I was handed over to the Italians danger was over, but then this shooting broke out and we were hit by a hail of bullets."

The chief editor of Sgrena's left-wing newspaper Il Manifesto Gabriele Polo meanwhile branded Calipari's death a "murder".

"He was hit in the head," he said.

Calipari will be given a state funeral Monday.

03/05/2005 13:43 GMT
AFP and Turkish Press

[diamondD]

If the military wanted her dead, they would have finished the job.

[kentuckyklira]

Re: Mistaken U.S. attack wounds Italian journalist

Originally posted by scorpioboy33
American troops fired on a car rushing Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena to freedom on Friday after a month in captivity, killing the Italian intelligence officer who helped negotiate her release and wounding the reporter



God a couple of years ago Americian Pilots Murdered Canadian Soliders in Afganistan...now this....I wonder how man innoncents die at the hand of Moronic American Soliders...putz...
It kind of reminds me of when they fired upon an ambulance trying to return that american Solider Lady.
Than of course they had to STORM the hospital to "free" here....truly pathetic

More proof that a major amount of US servicemen are triggerhappy moronic goons!

[BigBadBrian]

Originally posted by diamondD
If the military wanted her dead, they would have finished the job.

Indeed.

[BigBadBrian]

Re: Re: Mistaken U.S. attack wounds Italian journalist

Originally posted by kentuckyklira
More proof that a major amount of US servicemen are triggerhappy moronic goons!

Kinda like your ancestors, huh?

[kentuckyklira]

Re: Re: Re: Mistaken U.S. attack wounds Italian journalist

Originally posted by BigBadBrian
Kinda like your ancestors, huh?

True, but we learned from past mistakes!

[LoungeMachine]

Injured Italian Reporter Says U.S. May Have Shot Her on Purpose
March 6 (Bloomberg) -- Giuliana Sgrena, the Italian reporter wounded on Friday by U.S.-led forces after she was freed from her captors in Iraq, said the military may have targeted her deliberately.

Sgrena, 57, who had been held for one month in captivity, was injured and an Italian intelligence officer Nicola Calipari was killed when coalition forces fired on their vehicle as it approached a Baghdad checkpoint on March 4.

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 said in the article. 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 Friday 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.

No Justification

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.

Sgrena's convoy approached the checkpoint at a ``high rate of speed,'' according to Marine Sergeant Salju Thomas on Friday by telephone from Baghdad. ``It'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.

U.S. soldiers ``knew everything about our mission,'' Sgrena's driver was cited by daily Corriere della Sera today as telling the prosecutors. The driver was also injured.

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 after the accident.

The reporter's wounds aren't life threatening, according to Il Manifesto, the newspaper for which she writes.

`Very Religious'

Sgrena was held hostage by five or six ``very religious'' people, including a woman, she told prosecutors on her return to Rome, according to Corriere. They spoke to her in Arabic, French, and broken English, she wrote in Il Manifesto today.

There will be a state funeral for Calipari in Rome tomorrow. Calipari helped free three other hostages in Iraq, Berlusconi said, without elaborating. The officer saved Sgrena's life by shielding her with his body, Berlusconi said.

Berlusconi and President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi joined Calipari's family late yesterday at Rome's Ciampino airport, to receive his flag-draped coffin carried by a military honor guard, the Associated Press reported.

The prime minister has pledged to leave Italy's 3,000 soldiers in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah until the new government in Baghdad asks for a withdrawal. Italy has the fourth- largest contingent of the 29 countries with soldiers in Iraq. Only the U.S., U.K. and South Korea have more.

Sgrena, who appeared in a Feb. 16 video pleading for Italy to withdraw its soldiers from Iraq, was headed toward the airport for a homebound flight when she was shot. She arrived back in Italy yesterday, having undergone two operations during the night, Italy's TG5 television news reported.

[Nickdfresh]

You're a postin' maniac today Lounge, I was just about to put this up. :D

[scorpioboy33]

Originally posted by LoungeMachine
I stand with Brie on this one.

and Russ was right as usual.....

thank you for your consideration in this most important period of transition

[scorpioboy33]

Originally posted by LoungeMachine
I stand with Brie on this one.

and Russ was right as usual.....

thank you for your consideration in this most important period of transition

[rustoffa]

Originally posted by scorpioboy33
thank you for your consideration in this most important period of transition

I guess the lack of punctuation denotes more insight to come?

Go on.......

[scorpioboy33]

naw I have emptied myself of all knowledge, insights and ideas...sad huh

[rustoffa]

Fuck, have a gatorade or something.

Is it that bad?

[scorpioboy33]

nah not so bad actually...
Bruce Springsteen is releasing a new album followed by a tour. And Canada stands as the best country in the world . Could be much worse actually.