Home > US attack against Italians in Baghdad was deliberate: companion
US attack against Italians in Baghdad was deliberate: companion
by Open-Publishing - Sunday 6 March 20056 comments
Wars and conflicts International USA Italy
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.
Forum posts
6 March 2005, 13:29
Point / Counterpoint:
US Military - Sgrena’s car was speeding / Sgrena - car was traveling at normal speed
US military - Warning lights were flashed / Sgrena - there were no warning lights
US military - warning shots were fired / Sgrena - car was immediately fired upon
Given the history of US forces in Iraq firing on innocent civilians in their cars, whose account is more credible, theirs or Sgrena’s?
9 March 2005, 11:36
Well let’s see....would you buy a used car from the U.S. media?
6 March 2005, 16:26
"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. "http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?...
6 March 2005, 20:43
HELP FOREIGN PRESS!!!!
we need help to get the message out to the world about the axis of evil administration which holds us hostage in the u. s. hopefully guiliana sgrena will be able to speak her truth and let the world know what happened in the attack on her and her protectors. i hope she has the support of her people so she can be protected and tell the truth she knows about what is happening in iraq.
since the u.s. media whitewashes everything for the american audience, we need the foreign press to crack open the truth about the u.s. government or it will continue to go on. we in the u. s. have no one to speak for or with us in government aginst the atrocities of the bush house. please help get the message out as the whole world is in danger. thank you.
6 March 2005, 18:17
Does anyone have ANY doubt that the U.S. has orders to kill anyone who can tell the REAL truth about the atroscities they are committing in Iraq?
Remember the CNN exec who resigned after stating that the U.S. had killed members of the press?
The REAL truth is coming out. This has NEVER been about Democracy... it’s about COMPLETE control by the U.S..at all cost!
Unfortunately the citizens of the U.S. would never believe all thats going on over there, but they have No reason not to. This Administration has done nothing, NOTHING to make us trust them and LOTS to make us dis-trust them!
God Bless all that are in Iraq now!!
9 March 2005, 06:37
"Democracy", you say?
Are you forgetting the original reason for this war, namely, Iraqi WMDs?
Democracy is simply raison de jour, and because of the American public’s lack of memory, their ability to reason, and their tribelism; any excuse will do.
Have you noticed that after the Iraqi elections, almost all of the reporting has disappeared from the printed press? And little, if any, is in the broadcast media, save for the usual Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh’s drumbeating.
Mark my words, this is the lull to give rest to the public’s emotional hate — so that the tribe’s leaders can get them focused onto other matters, like Iran (et al).
Have a nice rest.