Wednesday, March 9, 2005 Posted: 11:57 AM EST (1657 GMT)
ROME, Italy (CNN) -- Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi says the intelligence agent shot dead by the U.S. military told them he would be escorting a newly released hostage to the airport -- contrary to U.S. claims.
Another Italian attache, who was at the Baghdad airport, also told U.S. military personnel the car carrying agent Nicola Calipari and journalist Giuliana Sgrena was on its way to the airport March 4 before the shooting occurred, Berlusconi told the Italian senate on Wednesday ...
On Tuesday, the top U.S. general in Iraq, Army Gen. George Casey, said he had no indication that Italian officials gave advance notice of the route the car was traveling ...
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/03/09/italy.sgrena/Ex-hostage disputes U.S. account of shooting
Italian journalist: 'I only remember fire'
Monday, March 7, 2005 Posted: 2:17 PM EST (1917 GMT)
ROME, Italy (CNN) -- An Italian journalist shot by U.S. forces in Iraq shortly after being freed from her captors has disputed a U.S. account of the incident in which she was wounded and a security agent protecting her was killed ...
The U.S. military said Sgrena's car rapidly approached a checkpoint Friday night, and those inside ignored repeated warnings to stop ...
But in an interview with Italy's La 7 Television, the 56-year-old journalist said "there was no bright light, no signal."
And Italian magistrate Franco Ionta said Sgrena reported the incident was not at a checkpoint, but rather that the shots came from "a patrol that shot as soon as they lit us up with a spotlight." ...
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/03/06/italy.iraq/index.html/'My truth'
By Giuliana Sgrena
Monday, March 7, 2005 Posted: 9:03 AM EST (1403 GMT)
... The car kept on the road, going under an underpass full of puddles and almost losing control to avoid them. We all incredibly laughed. It was liberating. Losing control of the car in a street full of water in Baghdad and maybe wind up in a bad car accident after all I had been through would really be a tale I would not be able to tell. Nicola Calipari sat next to me. The driver twice called the embassy and in Italy that we were heading towards the airport that I knew was heavily patrolled by U.S. troops. They told me that we were less than a kilometer away...when...I only remember fire. At that point, a rain of fire and bullets hit us, shutting up forever the cheerful voices of a few minutes earlier.
The driver started yelling that we were Italians. "We are Italians, we are Italians." Nicola Calipari threw himself on me to protect me and immediately, I repeat, immediately I heard his last breath as he was dying on me. I must have felt physical pain. I didn't know why. But then I realized my mind went immediately to the things the captors had told me. They declared that they were committed to the fullest to freeing me but I had to be careful, "the Americans don't want you to go back." Then when they had told me I considered those words superfluous and ideological. At that moment they risked acquiring the flavor of the bitterest of truths, at this time I cannot tell you the rest ...
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/03/06/il.manifesto/Italian Journalist: U.S. Lied
Former hostage Giuliana Sgrena Who Was Shot By U.S. Soldiers In Iraq Talks To Scott Pelley
(Page 1 of 2)April 13, 2005
... Sgrena says she was less than a half-mile from the airport, when the shooting began: "Seven hundred meters more, and we are in the airport, and we will be safe and we will be in the airport. And in the same moment, started the shooting." ...
The Italian government says the Americans should’ve been prepared for Sgrena’s approach, because they say U.S. commanders were informed about the rescue mission in advance. Sgrena told 60 Minutes Wednesday that at one point, her driver was on the phone updating their progress to Italian and American officers at the airport ...
The Army has finished an investigation, but the report isn’t expected until the end of the week. The Pentagon declined to talk with 60 Minutes Wednesday, but the Army issued this statement on the night of the shooting: “Vehicle traveling at high speed refused to stop at a check point.”
“attempted to warn the driver to stop by hand and arm signals, flashing white lights, and firing warning shots…when the driver didn’t stop the soldiers shot into the engine block which stopped the vehicle.”
"I think that is a lie," says Sgrena ...
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/04/12/60II/main687555.shtml
Where's the "political motivation" you claim?