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US soldiers exonerated: Firing at Italian reporter on secure road, while car was driving away is OK!

by Open-Publishing - Tuesday 26 April 2005
15 comments

Edito Newspapers-mags Wars and conflicts International USA Italy

Interview with Naomi Klein on Democracy now about her conversation with Giuliana Sgrena...

"She told me a lot about the incident that I had not fully understood from the reports in the press. One of the most - and at first, the other thing I want to be really clear about is that Giuliana is not saying that she’s certain in any way that the attack on the car was intentional.

She is simply saying that she has many, many unanswered questions, and there are many parts of her direct experience that simply don’t coincide with the official U.S. version of the story. One of the things that we keep hearing is that she was fired on on the road to the airport, which is a notoriously dangerous road. In fact, it’s often described as the most dangerous road in the world. So this is treated as a fairly common and understandable incident that there would be a shooting like this on that road. And I was on that road myself, and it is a really treacherous place with explosions going off all the time and a lot of checkpoints. What Giuliana told me that I had not realized before is that she wasn’t on that road at all.

She was on a completely different road that I actually didn’t know existed. It’s a secured road that you can only enter through the Green Zone and is reserved exclusively for ambassadors and top military officials. So, when Calipari, the Italian security intelligence officer, released her from captivity, they drove directly to the Green Zone, went through the elaborate checkpoint process which everyone must go through to enter the Green Zone, which involves checking in obviously with U.S. forces, and then they drove onto this secured road. And the other thing that Giuliana told me that she’s quite frustrated about is the description of the vehicle that fired on her as being part of a checkpoint. She says it wasn’t a checkpoint at all. It was simply a tank that was parked on the side of the road that opened fire on them. There was no process of trying to stop the car, she said, or any signals. From her perspective, they were just — it was just opening fire by a tank. The other thing she told me that was surprising to me was that they were fired on from behind.

Because I think part of what we’re hearing is that the U.S. soldiers opened fire on their car, because they didn’t know who they were, and they were afraid. It was self-defense, they were afraid. The fear, of course, is that their car might blow up or that they might come under attack themselves. And what Giuliana Sgrena really stressed with me was that she — the bullet that injured her so badly and that killed Calipari, came from behind, entered the back seat of the car. And the only person who was not severely injured in the car was the driver, and she said that this is because the shots weren’t coming from the front or even from the side. They were coming from behind, i.e. they were driving away. So, the idea that this was an act of self-defense, I think becomes much more questionable. And that detail may explain why there’s some reticence to give up the vehicle for inspection. Because if indeed the majority of the gunfire is coming from behind, then clearly, they were firing from — they were firing at a car that was driving away from them."

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/03/25/1516242

Forum posts

  • News flash, over 5000 people were rounded up when patriot act I was 1st signed. Most were Americans and didn’t have those scary Arab last names. Welcome to your new government full of blantant lies, brutality, misusing the youth (undertrained soldiers sent in to play with radiation), Bank and corp friend of the world. And no it would be no diffrent if Kerry had won, they are one and the same.

  • megalomania!

  • Rules of Engagement, folks. You just don’t like it because "La Mia Disgrazia" was a communist, pro-terrorist Komrade. Too bad about that. When a Marine with an M16 that can fire a shot through a concrete wall tells you to stop, you stop, dammit all. Or, you go down. And when they say slow down, you slow down. Take your pick. Iraq is a war zone, whether you agree with it or not. A full investigation has taken place, though I understand few on this site will trust its’ conclusions.

    Sgrena’s party deliberately gunned the engine, taunting the military to take a shot at them, thinking they would not. Just like Saddam, they "chose wrong."
    Gardis
    Proud to be an American

    • "Sgrena’s party deliberately gunned the engine, taunting the military to take a shot at them,"

      Were you there??????? I don’t blame the soldier. I blame a bad war started by a greedy mad man with no regard for his country or citisens.

      I am neither left, right, dem, rep, I am an American that has lived around the world and my eyes are open to the blantant corruption of "OUR" government. I have seen too much news most Americans are completely unaware of over the last 17 years, from traveling to and fro and living in many nations. And we are corrupt as sin. Nowhere is perfect, but Americans don’t see themselves in the real light because of the schools (false teachings) and MSM.

  • I’ve always wondered about people who live overseas so many years away from your home country. Perhaps you are ashamed to be an American. I don’t know what your claim to fame is, but I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else for years and years. I am suspicous of Americans who always love to tell us how "corrupt" we are, and then shut their mouths tightly as revelation after revelation about the UN comes to light .... that’s their lodestone, can’t bad mouth it. Well wait until John Bolton gets confirmed which he will. There was plenty of anti-Americanism during Clinton’s term also, but the MSM won’t have any of it. They want to blame it on President Bush.

    • I am the American that lived abroad for years and I DO NOT SUPPORT the UN, and nor will I ever. I want nothing to do with the UN, FEMA, CFR and all its foreign imitation ilk. They are organizations set up to create problems and make the worlds population to run to them and the blood trail they discretely leave.

    • Haven’t you ever heard the very true saying that goes something like.......

      A friend will tell you the truth, regardless of how ugly it is, not to judge, but to allow you to know the truth for your own gain.

      Where as your enemy will always agree with you and tell you all is well, you are right, to soften you and feed your ego and to blind you, so as you will always be by their side and follow them blindly, to your detriment.

      The hardest thing for a human to do is to admit they were wrong, face it, live it, and do something about it.

    • John Bolton is a nasty old scumbag, just the type of garbage that Bush loves. You are probably right that he will be rewarded for his criminal behavior in "cooking" intelligence to suit the administrations pehchant for conducting their policies through misinformation and lies, and no one is about to stop them obviously. The whole Bu$h administration makes the mafia look like like school boys playing a few pranks. They should all be removed to prison for many years and this would be a first step in the right direction to get some honesty bach in the US government.

    • She was murdered because she told the truth.

      Thats the last thing you will ever here from the US administration.

    • Another truth most Americans don’t know Gulf war 1 lasted years longer than they think. I remember flying back and forth, it used to kill me, I’d scream to myself and when I’d tell people they’d call me a liar, until they too had to start serious international travel for extensive stays. Also we’ve been bombing Iraq regularly since 98. Also our men and women are in many nations most Americans can’t find on a map and have been since the early 90s.

      Why do you think the military spending is as high as it is??? Do the math and some serious searches.

      I love my country, but I HATE her lies and propaganda, false news and history programming. I was helping my 12 y/o niece with her homework and couldn’t believe the out and out lies in her social studies book.

    • "I’ve always wondered about people who live overseas so many years away from your home country".

      You parochial idiot.

    • SHE didn’t die, goofball! The secret agent did!

  • If this commie reporter was deliberately targeted, why didn’t the American soldiers finish her off?

    She’s feeding off of the kind of tragic accident that happens all the time in war.

  • A vehicle runs a checkpoint in the dark. It doesn’t stop. It gets shot at! Case closed!

    • Hello? Did you even READ the interview?????

      Believe what you want to believe, I guess. It’s obvious why the military would want to cover their ass, but why would she lie?