No One Wants to Discuss the Italian Hostage?

[Aught Six]

Freed Journalist Fired Upon

So this Italian reporter went to Iraq for a story in her newspaper and subsequently was taken hostage. Then the Italian government came in with a $1,000,000+ ransom payment, closed the deal, and took off towards Baghdad airport. When our soldiers at the checkpoint saw her car flying towards them, they switched on the lights, tried to flag the driver down, and finally fired warning shots. The car kept coming, and they fired into the engine compartment, sending shrapnel into the reporter and her Italian secret service agent/hostage negotiator/rescuer/bodyguard.

The Italian agent died, and the reporter lived to paint a tragic story of a deliberate attack on her by U.S. forces. She says she was targetted by the U.S. military because she was a communist and vehemently opposed the war in Iraq.

Oh boy, I don't even know where to start here. First off, there have been some questions about her kidnapping. Seems she was treated pretty well during her ordeal, not to mention she had some questionable contacts in country, and some are left wondering if this was a deliberate stunt performed to aid the "insurgents" in Iraq. Terrorists can do a lot with $1,000,000 in hard cash, and what easier way to get it to them than setting up a phony kidnapping of an anti-U.S., pro-'freedom fighter' journalist?

Second of all, the Italian government (which has always been keen to pay ransoms) fell right into it! How many more American soldiers and Iraqi civilians are going to die because murderers have more IED money? Give me a frickin' break! Why is it so difficult to realize that when you negotiate with terrorists, you are giving them their way?!

And last, she's back in Rome now, spreading her message of anti-democracy and anti-americanism! She's doing her damnedest to put a wedge in between Berlusconi and Bush, who have been unusually close as far as U.S./European diplomatic relationships go. I don't know exactly what her vision of the future is (well, I probably do), but in any case tyranny is alive and well across the world. Most people don't think of old Europe as part of the third world, but you'd never know it with the types of thinking we come across there.

[tardfarmer]

Why would the Iraqi's kidnap a Commie beotch who against the U.S. ? And if they mistakenly did, why would they ask for a ransom?

this sounds like an illegal money exchange with a bulls*** scenario of a kidnapping.

[Aught Six]

this sounds like an illegal money exchange with a bulls*** scenario of a kidnapping.

Whew, glad you said something. I was beginning to feel like a paranoid lunatic.

But still not as paranoid a lunatic as fng.

[Tazman]

I hate to say this, but there is not much to debate or say about this, the commie is lying for 2 reasons, one to bash the US and two to help Italy cover up thier mess up!

[tardfarmer]

But still not as paranoid a lunatic as fng.

Paranoia keeps me alert.... and helps me avoid the black helicopters.

[Aught Six]

Paranoia keeps me alert.... and helps me avoid the black helicopters.

Yeah, I stay sharp by checking out the Beaver County Militia web site on an hourly basis.

[Aught Six]

Found this article on Drudge.

Italy Honors Slain Intelligence Officer

Calipari was killed when U.S. troops at a checkpoint fired at their vehicle Friday as they headed to the airport shortly after her release. Sgrena, a journalist who was abducted Feb. 4 in Baghdad, was recovering in a Rome hospital from a shrapnel wound to the shoulder and was not expected to attend the funeral.

Calipari was to be awarded a gold medal of valor for heroism. An autopsy was performed Sunday, and the Italian news agency ANSA quoted doctors as saying he was struck in the temple by a single round and died instantly.

Sgrena said Calipari died shielding her. She offered no evidence to support her claim that the attack was deliberate, and in an interview published in Monday's edition of the daily Corriere della Sera, she said she doesn't know what led to the attack.

"I believe, but it's only a hypothesis, that the happy ending to the negotiations must have been irksome," she said. "The Americans are against this type of operation. For them, war is war, human life doesn't count for much."

In separate remarks Sunday, she said: "The fact that the Americans don't want negotiations to free the hostages is known."

"The fact that they do everything to prevent the adoption of this practice to save the lives of people held hostage, everybody knows that," she added, speaking to Sky TG24 television by telephone. "So I don't see why I should rule out that I could have been the target."

Sgrena, who works for the communist newspaper Il Manifesto - a fierce opponent of the war and a frequent critic of U.S. policy - said she knew nothing about a ransom.

In an article Sunday, Sgrena said her captors warned her shortly before her release to beware of the Americans. She later told Italian state TV RAI that "when they let me go, it was a difficult moment for me because they told me, 'The Americans don't want you to return alive to Italy.'" She didn't elaborate.

Her editor, Gabriele Polo, said Italian officials told him 300 to 400 rounds were fired at the car. Italian military officials said two other intelligence agents were wounded in the shooting; U.S. officials said only one was.

[mike bell]

If your in a war zone, and run a military blockade checkpoint, then you sould expect to be greeted with a military style of response.

Stupid people die from being stupid.

[datamax]

According to tardfarmer there are no accidents as far as the discharge of a weapon. They didn't know their targets, they should go to prison and share a cell with Big Bubba.

[tardfarmer]

According to tardfarmer there are no accidents as far as the discharge of a weapon.

Nope, she was shot at. They didn't stop as they were supposed to and they were shot at.


Cut and dried son.