"Italy outraged: Charge freed journalist shooting deliberate"

[Bluebear]

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.

http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=38029
http://www.pej.org/html/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=2030&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

[mourningdove92]

1. This is getting really scary.

"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.

HOLY SHIT

[Bluebear]

2. It is fascinating reading the world press!

This is getting to be a total "international incident" for everyone except the American media!

[Lone_Star_Dem]

5. Well, duh!

Martha's out of jail and Michael Jackson's on trial. Only the important stuff for us!

[tsuki]

15. You forgot Robert Blake. Duh :-)

[Lone_Star_Dem]

18. Shows how much I attention I pay to it all.

I've given up on our media and seldom watch anything but BBC and read foreign news sites.

[Doctor_J]

17. It could be a trial run for dealing with renegade journalists

and protestors here. Per another thread, anyone who shows up to protest *'s Tour Of Lies will get a SS file. It's not much of a leap from there to shooting into crowds of peaceably assembled patriots.

[flyarm]

22. there are already approx 60 dead journalists...

when does the test end??

fly

[bpilgrim]

3. the whole WORLD is OUTRAGED at our CRIMMINAL administration

while some on DU give cover for our dirty deeds :puke:

peace

[Nite Owl]

4. Couple this with Jordan Eason's

statements at Davos and his subsequent firing. Makes you more than wonder.

[NightOwwl]

26. I think this is huge.

Kinda makes you suspect there may have been more than just a shred of truth in his comments.

[Clark2008]

6. And when will this reach the American cWHOREporate media?

I'm betting that the average Joe out there won't hear about these details - sure, they'll know the reporter's entourage was taken out by our military, but they'll just hear that it was an unfortunate casuality of war.
And, of course, given the "righteous" proclivities of some of the rightwingers and supporters of Dear Leader, many will just assume that that "damn librul" media person and her friends "deserved it."

:mad:

[Bluebear]

7. Early sentiment: The Italians didn't follow the rules

WHat I see on the internets is that they were speeding anywhere between 40 and 100mph and didn't stop at the checkpoint, so who can blame the soldiers?

[Clark2008]

10. Weren't they closer to the airport and past all the checkpoints?

Of course, this probably isn't being reported in this country.

[Bluebear]

11. Yes but once that "checkpoint" story is out there...

it will be cemented in our hearts and minds.

[flyarm]

23. ahhhhhhhhhh no ..that is not what those in the car said!!!

they had already past all the check points..it was raining and the italians said it was impossible to speed through bagdad in the rain!!!!!!!

please go read the foreign papers and turn the bullshit american whore media off!!
they were hit with 300-400 rounds of gunfire! <after> passing all the checkpoints!!
and the pm of italys office people were on the phones with them..their phones were killed by US just before gun fire...

it was an ambush!

fly

[bpilgrim]

8. M$MW's will follow the DU sophist line...

it was all an accident and they're - the Italians - just hysterical considering the traumatic circumstances they were just freed from.

peace

[Cleita]

9. Laura Flanders show focused on this.

It seems this journalist has a lot of information on what we have done in Falluja and it isn't pretty. I think she has been targetted by the Bush Crime Family.

[TOOLZ]

12. Am I pessimistic, naive, or realistic?

This incident, 9/11, I underrate the intelligence and forethought for conspiracy for some of these idiots, and assume that they're just that incompetent. The cover ups lie in their trying to hide how stupid their mistakes were and their refusal to admit mistakes.

It's not evil, it's just stupidity.

[NightOwwl]

14. IMO, naive. n/t

[bpilgrim]

20. TOOLZ

sums it up

peace

[NightOwwl]

13. As usual, GOP controlled media is silent....

From CNN:

"But the happy occasion quickly turned sour when the car taking Sgrena, Calipari and other agents to the Baghdad airport was fired upon at a U.S. checkpoint."

Conveniently missing from the article is information about who fired the shots. Was it deliberate? Possibly, but our whore media will never report it.

edited to add: notice they are reporting shots fired at checkpoint, not after checkpoint. That's a mighty big discrepancy.

[senseandsensibility]

16. Oh, come now.

The AOL start screen has a hard hitting article with the headline Spy Died Trying to Save Her. What more do you want? Jeez...liberals are never satisfied..

[NightOwwl]

19. Damn liberals...

never satisfied with anything but facts and truth. What a bunch of whiners. :silly:

[flyarm]

21. fired between 300 and 400 bullets

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1431436,00.html

snip:

Italian reconstruction of the incident is significantly different. Sgrena told colleagues the vehicle was not travelling fast and had already passed several checkpoints on its way to the airport. The Americans shone a flashlight at the car and then fired between 300 and 400 bullets at if from an armoured vehicle. Rather than calling immediately for assistance for the wounded Italians, the soldiers' first move was to confiscate their weapons and mobile phones and they were prevented from resuming contact with Rome for more than an hour.

Enzo Bianco, the opposition head of the parliamentary committee that oversees Italy's secret services, described the American account as unbelievable. 'They talk of a car travelling at high speed, and that is not possible because there was heavy rain in Baghdad and you can't travel at speed on that road,' Bianco said. 'They speak of an order to stop, but we're not sure that happened.'

Pier Scolari, Sgrena's partner who flew to Baghdad to collect her, put an even more sinister construction on the events, suggesting in a television interview that Sgrena was the victim of a deliberate ambush. 'Giuliana may have received information which led to the soldiers not wanting her to leave Iraq alive,' he claimed.

[Bluebear]

25. They sure wanted whatever was in that car dead

300-400 bullets holy cow.

[LeftPeopleFinishFirst]

24. Holy s***!

I knew about the story and what happened, but this quote:

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

Really scares me.

[hector459]

27. The Italian people were right to protest the Iraqi war and they are right

to protest loudly about this incident. For almost every coalition partener in the Iraq invasion, the people of the countries involved were against the invasion and subsequent occupation. Only the leaders of these countries kissed Bush butt!! It's time for people all over the world to take to the streets and pressure their governments to stand up to the US Fascists. It's time for US citizens to take their own country back by starting with state, local, and Congressional elections. Anyone who is a Bush supporter should be soundly defeated!