I've just seen a new twist on the Giuliana Sgrena case. Sgrena is the Italian journalist who was shot by American troops after being rescued from Iraqi hostage-takers by Italian security. The Italian agent Nicolo Calipari was killed in the attack.
This article presents some claims by Sgrena that I haven't seen before: There Was No Checkpoint, There Was No Self-Defense by Jeremy Scahill, CommonDreams.org 03/28/05.
According to Scahill's article, Sgrena is now saying that there was no checkpoint at all. Instead, she claims that a group of American soldiers off the road started firing at the car with no warning. She also says that the Americans fired at the car from the side and behind, and that the bullet that hit her came from behind.
The article also says that the US is still refusing to allow the Italians to examine the car. Which certainly sounds suspicious, if that's correct.
I wish I could read Italian to be able to follow this story in the Italian papers. This could turn out to be a bigger mess than it already looked to be.
See also: Naomi Klein Reveals New Details About U.S. Military Shooting of Italian War Correspondent in Iraq (Interview with Amy Goodman) Democracy Now! 03/25/05.
4 comments:
I just recently ran across a website (www.watchingamerica.com) that translates foreign news into English. Their homepage proclaims, "Discover what the world thinks about U.S." Haven't had time to delve into it much so I don't know if they have the Italian news you're looking for, but it might be worth checking out.
This is one of those stories where the more you learn, the fishier it all sounds.
And it sounded fishy from the get-go!
And thanks for the translation link. - Bruce
Bruce,
I think even from the beginning the notion of a check point was challenged because of their proximity to the airport. Now it looks like we'll be able to see what the Italian papers are saying. Should be interesting.
Regarding the car, I found it odd that the only pictures to ever surface were fakes. The army initially told the AP that they didn't know where the car was. And now we're told they aren't letting anybody see it! I sure would like to see some pictures of this car.
dave
http://journals.aol.com/ibspiccoli4life/RandomThoughtsfromaProgressiveMi
It's also a grim commentary on the state of management in the Army that when this shooting occurred, which any good ole boy from backwoods Mississippi could have seen might turn into a serious diplomatic incident, they just put out what appears to be their standard press release: car going fast coming up to a checkpoint; we gave them hand signals to stop and they kept coming; we fired warning shots and they kept coming; so we shot at the front of the car to try to disable it.
It's looking like that may have been a total fabrication. Including the checkpoint part!
What is going on over there? Is it really considered acceptable practice to say, oh, if you wind up shooting up a car and killing some civvies, just put out the standard press release and don't worry about it? - Bruce
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