posted March 07, 2005 10:42 AM              

Getty


Former hostage Giuliana Sgrena, shown here after her release, says she believes she may have been the target of U.S. soldiers.

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Hostage Disputes U.S. Account
Hostage Returns Home

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Italian Hostage Shot

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· U.S. Checkpoints Raise Ire
· Italy Demands Answers
· Shiite Leader Calls for Unity

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Photos: A Hostage's Ordeal

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ROME (March 7) - Hundreds of people packed a church in Rome Monday to pay their last respects to an Italian intelligence officer shot and killed by American troops in Iraq while escorting an ex-hostage to freedom.

U.S. Ambassador Mel Sembler joined Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and other Italian dignitaries at the state funeral of Nicola Calipari.

Mourners stood as an honor guard slowly carried the casket, draped with an Italian flag, into Santa Maria degli Angeli Church. In the front row, Calipari's relatives gripped each other's hands and dabbed away tears.

''He died as a hero, and I cannot forget he had also helped to free us,'' Maurizio Agliana, one of four Italian security guards kidnapped in Iraq last April, told the crowd.

The body was returned from Iraq late Saturday. Tens of thousands of people viewed it Sunday while it lay in state at Rome's Vittoriano monument.

Giuliana Sgrena, the hostage whose life Calipari saved, said it was possible they were targeted deliberately because the United States opposes Italy's policy of negotiating with kidnappers, and promised Calipari's widow to find out why they were attacked.

Calipari was killed when U.S. troops at a checkpoint fired at their vehicle Friday as they headed to the airport shortly after her release. Sgrena, a journalist who was abducted Feb. 4 in Baghdad, was recovering in a Rome hospital from a shrapnel wound to the shoulder and was not expected to attend the funeral.

Calipari was to be awarded a gold medal of valor for heroism. An autopsy was performed Sunday, and the Italian news agency ANSA quoted doctors as saying he was struck in the temple by a single round and died instantly.

A Hostage's Ordeal

Sgrena said Calipari died shielding her. She offered no evidence to support her claim that the attack was deliberate, and in an interview published in Monday's edition of the daily Corriere della Sera, she said she doesn't know what led to the attack.

''I believe, but it's only a hypothesis, that the happy ending to the negotiations must have been irksome,'' she said. ''The Americans are against this type of operation. For them, war is war, human life doesn't count for much.''

In separate remarks Sunday, she said: ''The fact that the Americans don't want negotiations to free the hostages is known.''

''The fact that they do everything to prevent the adoption of this practice to save the lives of people held hostage, everybody knows that,'' she added, speaking to Sky TG24 television by telephone. ''So I don't see why I should rule out that I could have been the target.''

Sgrena said she had spoken with Calipari's widow.

''The only thing that I promised and I want to guarantee to her is that we must know the truth, because such exceptional people cannot die for no reason,'' Sgrena told private TG5 TV. ''If someone is responsible, we need to know.''

The White House described the shooting as a ''horrific accident'' and promised a full investigation. But Sgrena has rejected the U.S. military's account of the shooting, claiming that American soldiers gave no warning before they opened fire.

The shooting has fueled anti-American sentiment in Italy, where a majority of people opposed the war in Iraq and Berlusconi's decision to send 3,000 troops after Saddam Hussein's ouster.

''Italy is a great country, and this is why we must ask for precise and detailed explanations of what happened from the American government and get them quickly,'' Sandro Bondi, national coordinator of Berlusconi's Forza Italia party, was quoted as saying by ANSA.

Neither Italian nor U.S. officials gave details about how authorities won Sgrena's release after a month in captivity. But Agriculture Minister Giovanni Alemanno was quoted as saying it was ''very probable'' a ransom was paid. U.S. officials have cautioned against ransoms, saying they encourage further kidnappings.

Sgrena, who works for the communist newspaper Il Manifesto - a fierce opponent of the war and a frequent critic of U.S. policy - said she knew nothing about a ransom.

In an article Sunday, Sgrena said her captors warned her shortly before her release to beware of the Americans. She later told Italian state TV RAI that ''when they let me go, it was a difficult moment for me because they told me, 'The Americans don't want you to return alive to Italy.''' She didn't elaborate.

Her editor, Gabriele Polo, said Italian officials told him 300 to 400 rounds were fired at the car. Italian military officials said two other intelligence agents were wounded in the shooting; U.S. officials said only one was.

White House counselor Dan Bartlett said it was crucial that the facts be determined before judgments were made about the shooting. Speaking Sunday on CNN, he called the shooting ''a horrific accident'' and pledged a full investigation.

03-07-05 0657EST

posted March 07, 2005 05:16 PM            

The driver was going full speed to the check point, swerving in and out of other cars, and ignored the arm waving, flashing lights, screams and even warning shots. No one else was hurt (even though there was adequate traffic) with the exception of the driver.

posted March 07, 2005 05:30 PM              

In an article Sunday, Sgrena said her captors warned her shortly before her release to beware of the Americans. She later told Italian state TV RAI that ''when they let me go, it was a difficult moment for me because they told me, 'The Americans don't want you to return alive to Italy.''' She didn't elaborate.

I WOULDN'T BLAME THEM FOR NOT STOPPING.

The Italians DID NOT clear their passage with the Check point people (The US) nor did they even inform the US that they were undergoing a hostage transfer.

posted March 07, 2005 05:45 PM              

The United States and Britain, which have the biggest military contingents in Iraq, condemn such payments, arguing that they fuel the hostage trade.

posted March 07, 2005 07:27 PM              

Jackie
_____________________________________________________________________________

posted March 07, 2005 07:50 PM            

The former hostage is also adding more information..now backing away from her original accusation that she was fired on because the Italians may have paid $1 mil for her release (which will go to terrorist). The US checkpoint people HAD no clue who was in the car as they had not provided any information..

Not to mention it was night time...

posted March 07, 2005 11:24 PM              

Wow harsh mouth pidua. Let me guess you were dumped and decided to come to the internet and start fights with people just so you can let out some steam huh?

posted March 07, 2005 11:26 PM              

March 8, 2005

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. soldiers at the checkpoint say they did what they were supposed to do.
The hand and arm signals, the flashing white lights and the warning shots -- all were steps designed to halt a vehicle like the one carrying a freed Italian journalist Friday night in Iraq.

Yet the shooting has focused worldwide attention on a recent spate of U.S. checkpoint shootings in Iraq that have come to tragic ends – including one this year that left four children orphaned -- and fueled criticism that the U.S. military isn't doing enough to prevent civilian deaths. Many Iraqis also are puzzled and angry about checkpoint shootings that they see as hard to understand and seemingly impossible to avoid, even for those who thought they were following the rules.

Sgrena insists that U.S. soldiers offered no warning and may even have been targeting the vehicle because the Bush administration was angry that the Italian government had negotiated with kidnappers -- and media reports in Italy suggest even paid a sizable ransom, with estimates ranging from $1 million to $8 million.
Sgrena, a reporter with the Communist daily Il Manifesto, has offered no proof to back up her allegations, and a second intelligence agent with her that day has told the Italian media that the soldiers did shine a spotlight -- but then began firing almost immediately.

The Pentagon has stood by its policies, calling the deaths a tragic and often unavoidable result of U.S. troops facing split-second decisions against an insurgency using car bombs as a gruesome weapon of choice.
"I hate to say it, but there's not much time to say, you stop or you don't. And if you don't, I have to put you in the category of enemy, and I have to try to kill you," a senior defense official said Monday.
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/ny-woshot0308,0,3642698.story?coll=ny-top-headlines

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Italy's relations with US soured by attack on hostage
By Peter Popham, in Rome
07 March 2005

The return to Italy of the journalist Giuliana Sgrena from captivity in Iraq was meant to be another triumph for Silvio Berlusconi's chequebook foreign policy - a boost for his ruling coalition as it faces regional elections next month. Instead, the killing of the chief negotiator, Nicola Calipari, by American "friendly fire" and the wounding of Ms Sgrena have created deep public anger against the Americans, which will take all Berlusconi's political skills to defuse
President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi announced that he was posthumously awarding Italy's highest military honour, the Medaglia d'Oro, to the ex-immigration officer who became a hostage negotiator, overseeing the release of six Italians abducted in Iraq in the past year.
Edward Luttwak, an American military commentator interviewed yesterday in La Repubblica, said Mr Calipari's death was "the sort of thing that happens all the time in a war", and he advised Italy to "take an aspirin and go to bed, you'll feel better in the morning".

The story began early on Friday afternoon when Mr Calipari and his team of military intelligence agents arrived in Baghdad from Abu Dhabi. After weeks of haggling, the ransom for Ms Sgrena had finally been agreed: at least $6m (£3.1m), according to the Italian press, and perhaps as much as $8m, had been handed over. The time and place for the release was settled.

Italy is well aware that its habit of paying large sums to secure the release of its nationals is disapproved of by the Americans and British. All negotiations are therefore carried on in secret. But at Baghdad airport Mr Calipari explained at the US headquarters what his team had come to do. It was arranged that an American colonel would be on hand at the airport when Ms Sgrena arrived for her flight back to Italy. By the time the team had rented a four-wheel drive it was already 5pm.

At 8.20pm, Mr Calipari's team reached the rendezvous on the outskirts of Baghdad. The vehicle they were looking for was there. Ms Sgrena's abductors had left her blindfolded in the back of the car. "I'm a friend of Pier and Gabriele," Mr Calipari said, naming Ms Sgrena's partner and editor. The 57-year-old journalist was a bundle of tension as they got her into their vehicle and left for the airport.

By now it was dark and pouring with rain. Baghdad is far too dangerous for people to go out after dark without excellent reason, and all scheduled flights had left. But the Italians decided that, with their plane waiting on the Tarmac, it was better to get Ms Sgrena home without delay.

They passed two American checkpoints along the airport road without incident and were 700 metres or so from the airport building. The road narrowed to a single, one-way lane and took a 90-degree turn. The car was going slowly now, approaching the end of the journey.

"At last I felt safe," Ms Sgrena said. "We had nearly arrived in an area under American control, an area more or less friendly, even if it was still unsettled."

Then, turning the corner, they found their progress baulked by an American tank. They were blinded by a powerful light. "Without any warning, any signal, we were bombarded with a shower of bullets," Ms Sgrena said. "The tank was firing on us, our car was riddled with bullets. Nicola tried to protect me, then his body slumped on top of mine, I heard his death rattle, then I felt a pain but I couldn't tell where I had been hit. Those who had fired came up to the car, but before I was taken to the American hospital there was an interminable wait, it's hard to know how long I was lying there wounded but perhaps it was 20 minutes."

CONFLICTING VERSIONS

There are some glaring discrepancies in the Italian and American versions of the killing of the agent Nicola Calipari and the wounding of released hostage Giuliana Sgrena and two other Italian secret service agents:

The Americans say: the car was travelling at high speed
The Italians say: it was travelling at 40-50kph

US: It approached a checkpoint near the airport at speed when soldiers fired on it to force it to stop as a "last resort"
Italy: It had passed three checkpoints without incident and was 700 metres from the airport when fired upon

US: The soldiers used hand signals and bright lights and fired warning shots before hitting the car with shots
Italy: There was no warning. Three to four hundred rounds were fired, afterwards the car seats were covered in spent cartridges. The Americans forced the Italians to remain in the car without medical attention for an hour

US: There was a lack of co-ordination between the Italians and the Americans
Italy: The Americans were kept fully informed

US: It was a regrettable accident which will be aggressively investigated
Italy: Ms Sgrena claims it was a deliberate ambush to kill her, as the Italians had paid a ransom, a practice America opposes, and as she had learnt inconvenient facts from her abductors.

posted March 07, 2005 11:38 PM            

And I don't stay glued to the TV..unlike you and your small one tracked mind, I multi-task. That means I can read and listen to the TV at the same time. Now, I know that makes you jealous and you wish you could actually do a couple of things at once, but since you can only resort to curse words..well, you will just have to live with that disadvantage.

posted March 08, 2005 12:08 AM            

quote:

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There will be no censorship here, and freedom of expression and speech rules supreme, but please be courteous and respectful of others while doing so. Linda had a talent for speaking her Mind without offending others. Let's try to do likewise.

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posted March 08, 2005 08:33 AM              

Italy's Fini Disputes U.S. Version of Shooting Death (Update1)

March 8 (Bloomberg) -- Italian Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini disputed the U.S. explanation of the fatal shooting of an Italian intelligence officer in Baghdad on March 4 and urged the U.S. to help find the ``truth'' to what he called an accident.

The car carrying Sgrena, Calipari and an unidentified agent approached a checkpoint at a ``high rate of speed,'' said Marine Sergeant Salju Thomas by telephone from Baghdad on March 4. ``It's an extremely threatening act,'' Thomas said. ``That's the exact same thing that car bombers do.''
Calipari's car hadn't encountered any U.S.-run checkpoint on the road, Fini said, citing testimony from the agent who was driving the Toyota Corolla. Their speed was only 40 kilometers per hour (25 miles per hour) when a bright light beamed onto the car and automatic fire from more than one weapon began, lasting between 10 to 20 seconds, the agent said, according to Fini.

An Apology

Two U.S. soldiers ``who appeared upset'' apologized to the agent after realizing their mistake, the foreign minister said. Caliperi was killed by a single gunshot wound to the head, and those responsible for his death should be punished, Fini said.
Sgrena, a reporter for the communist daily Il Manifesto, has repeatedly said the U.S. attack may not have been an accident.
``The dynamic of what happened certainly didn't seem like an accident,'' Sgrena repeated yesterday in an interview with Al- Jazeera television, Corriere della Sera reported. ``I had the clear impression that we were targeted.''
Allegations of an ambush ``are clearly unfounded,'' Fini said. ``It was an accident, but this doesn't impede the necessity that there be clarity.''
The U.S. will ``fully investigate'' the incident, but the notion that U.S. forces targeted Calipari or Sgrena is ``absurd,'' White House spokesman Scott McClellan said yesterday.

Dangerous Road

posted March 08, 2005 08:54 AM              

Italy Demands Justice from U.S. Over Iraq Death
Tue Mar 8, 2005 08:05 AM ET

By Crispian Balmer
ROME (Reuters) - Italy's foreign minister urged the United States Tuesday to punish any soldiers found guilty of wrongdoing in the killing of an Italian intelligence agent in Iraq last week.

"It is our duty to demand truth and justice," Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini told parliament, casting doubt on the U.S. military's account of the shooting of Italian agent Nicola Calipari outside Baghdad airport.
Calipari has been hailed as a hero after he died shielding a newly freed Italian hostage from the U.S. gunfire.

The killing has strained ties between the United States and Italy, which has been one of President Bush's staunchest allies in Europe over the war in Iraq.
Fini dismissed speculation that U.S. forces deliberately fired on the Italians, but he said a U.S. military statement on the incident appeared to be at odds with what actually happened.
"It was certainly an accident, an accident caused by a series of circumstances and coincidences," Fini said.
"But this doesn't mean, in fact it makes it necessary, to demand that events are clarified ... to identify those responsible, and if people are to blame then to request and obtain that the guilty parties are punished," he added.
The U.S. military has said its soldiers fired on the car after it approached a checkpoint at speed and failed to heed signals to slow down.
But in a detailed reconstruction of the incident, Fini insisted that the Italians had been driving slowly and had received no warning.

FATAL MISSION

Fini gave a long account of Calipari's fatal mission to Baghdad but made no mention of any ransom payment. He also said Rome had never considered a military swoop to free Sgrena for fear such an operation would endanger her life.
He said Calipari arrived in Baghdad Friday afternoon after establishing contact with the kidnappers. He checked in with U.S. authorities at the airport before driving off with an Italian colleague to meet an Iraqi middleman.
The middleman took them to Sgrena, who was seated in the wreckage of a car, dressed in black robes and wearing a mask.
On the drive back to the airport, the Italians left the lights on in the car to help identify them to U.S. checkpoints.
As they neared the airport, the car slowed to about 40-km/h because the road was wet and because the driver had to make a sharp turning. Half way around the curve, a searchlight picked out the car and guns opened fire for 10-15 seconds, Fini said.
The intelligence officer who survived the attack was forced to kneel in the road until the soldiers realized who he was.
"Two young Americans approached our officer and, demoralized, they repeatedly apologized for what had happened," Fini said.
© Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=ABHQRVT1NN3B2CRBAEZSFFA?type=topNews&storyID=7838384&pageNumber=1

posted March 08, 2005 11:11 AM              

Yeah exactly......jwhop. How about worrying about yourself?

posted March 08, 2005 11:11 AM              

Yeah exactly......jwhop. How about worrying about yourself?

For being engaged you don't really seem to have a life since you are always on here. Doesn't your fiance take you out?

What a life.

posted March 08, 2005 11:12 AM              

Yeah exactly......jwhop. How about worrying about yourself?

For being engaged you don't really seem to have a life since you are always on here. Doesn't your fiance take you out?

What a life.

posted March 08, 2005 02:56 PM            

Your words are more like an offensive smell of dog doo coming in through an open window. All I have to do is shut it and it's gone. LOL...

Maybe if you had half a wit, learned a new game other that trying to call one vulgar names, you may end up being a half way..no no...a quarter way decent human being.

As for me posting on here...again, if you had half a brain you would have read what I posted. I do alot of work on the computer..and I can do many things at one time. So if I am doing research and waiting for a page to pop up, I can "pop" into here. I also type extremely fast, so 5 paragraphs to me is like 1 sentance in your world.

You will also notice that my hours of use are very spread out- and I have other things to tend to, but will periodically check in..unless I am on one of my trips to the mountains or lake..or seeing family...WITH my fiance.

Oh yeah..of course he takes me out..he spoils me..he is a Taurus

Maybe you could spend less time here..go to a polishing school, learn some manners, clean yourself up and actually attract someone. But, I fear you will always be alone, not out of an independent nature, but more due to the fact that your behaviour is reprehensible.

Alchemist,

I appreciate what you are trying to do, but this is one battle I am not going to let up on. MD is extremly offensive (and some may thing I am as well in some regards) but she has posted as Altantic Myst and been kicked off and now she is once again, using racial slurs, calling people b!tch..etc...because she can't prove her points.

As much as I would love to live in a gossamer world of love, light, peace and happiness, it's not realistic. Yes, this is Global Unity, but it is far from that and has always been that way. Should MD want to bring me to task for my opinions WITHOUT calling me a hick, b1tch, lesbian..etc.. then this would stop. Until that time, I will keep exposing her for what she is..and maybe she will get banned again..

posted March 08, 2005 03:48 PM            

quote:

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Since when is the word hick associated with race?

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I suggest you look it up.
In fact, let's make it a little easier for you:

"H*CK -- Anyone of a rural background, usually poor and especially white." http://feastofhateandfear.com/articles/from_aye.html

"H*ck - Whites - Country dweller, rustic farmer, unsophisticated tourist. The whites that live in the country." http://gyral.blackshell.com/names.html

I would also suggest you try to get to know the full meaning of words that you'd like to use before making use of them.

There is also no need to try to offend someone personally when you are discussing and/or debating. It adds nothing useful to the discussion and merely draws attention to the fact that you may not be able to substantiate your point of view.