Berlusconi disputes U.S. report on agent (but not really.)

[Algorem]

http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/news/1156893...

Berlusconi disputes U.S. report on agent

ALESSANDRA RIZZO

Associated Press


ROME - Premier Silvio Berlusconi said Thursday that he disagreed with some of the U.S. military's conclusions into the March shooting death of an Italian agent in Baghdad, but he said those differences won't affect Italy's deployment of troops in Iraq or its friendship with Washington.

Berlusconi told lawmakers that it couldn't be ruled out that U.S. troops who fired on the agent's car from a checkpoint were to blame even if they fired mistakenly.

"Indeed, the lack of deliberate action doesn't rule out blame attributable to negligence, imprudence or even simple incompetence," Berlusconi told lawmakers in the Chamber of Deputies three days after Italy issued its own report concluding that soldiers' inexperience, stress and fatigue played a role in the fatal shooting.

He also complained, as Italian investigators have, that the scene of the shooting wasn't left untouched, although Berlusconi added that "the impartiality and good faith of the U.S. investigators cannot be questioned."...

[bemildred]

1. Really wants to fend off the idea it was done on purpose.

Hence the "lack of deliberate action" rhetoric repeated over and over.

[Moderator]

2. locking

Please feel free to repost with working link to actual story.