Companion of Italian journalist says shooting was deliberate

our govt. is not worried about this, they know that this kind of talk isn't allowed in this country.

http://www.news24.com/News24/World/Iraq/0,,2-10-1460_1671944,00.html

<snip>

"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 700m from the airport, which means that they had passed all checkpoints."

The shooting late on Friday was overheard 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.

More…

doesn't sound good. Wonder what the outcome of this will be?

eom

so don't get no funny ideas


http://images.globalfreepress.com

peace

know we're pissing off even those countries foolish enough to support us. Even if this isn't true, it still is gonna put a chill in the relations.

Yup, Dumbo can't do anything right!

The shooting late on Friday was overheard 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.

So they were on the phone with Berlusconi at the very time they were getting shot up? Then the US military hung up on him? I bet Berlusconi is very, very peeved about all this.

shooting at.
An agent was on the phone to Berlisconi at the time of the shootings.
The military knows whose cell phones to silence.
The military does not know who they are shooting at.

What is clear is that this country is being run by thugs...

pissed off they didn't kill the reporter. Her newspaper is not in his stable. He will have to act peeved, because the majority of the Italians are most probably REALLY PISSED!

And he is not going to announce the information that was being relayed back to his office either.

What information could that be? It could have something to do with the journalist's hostage situation, like, for example, who was holding her hostage and what US involvement there was. The "Islamic Jihad Organisation" claimed to be holding her, but for some reason they have lied in the past about holding other Italians hostage.

The less conspiracy-oriented takes on the incident will be that the US military was trying to suppress the story she was working on:
"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

The famous Don Juan?
We are in trying times. With Negroponte in charge, so much of this seems to be a re-run.

Two days after the US State Department released its annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, Dr. Khalid ash-Shaykhli, an official at Iraq’s health ministry, told a Baghdad press conference that the U.S. military used internationally banned weapons during its deadly November 2004 offensive in the city of Fallujah.

Two days after the US State Department released its annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, Dr. Khalid ash-Shaykhli, an official at Iraq’s health ministry, told a Baghdad press conference that the U.S. military used internationally banned weapons during its deadly November 2004 offensive in the city of Fallujah.

During the attack on the city, eyewitnesses described horrific scenes that analysts have attributed to attacks with napalm, a poisonous cocktail of polystyrene and jet fuel that has the capacity of melting human flesh and bones.

Dr. ash-Shaykhli stated that his medical teams, assigned the responsibility of investigating the health situation in Fallujah by Iraq's health ministry, had done research that proved U.S. occupation forces used substances, including mustard gas, nerve gas, and other burning chemicals there. <snip>

http://www.ilcaonline.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=2050&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

When an illegal invasion is run as a black op, there must be many secrets to keep.

coalition of the willing, right? We are allies as much as ever in the war on terror, right?

As an American, I think the US troops involved in this killing and shooting should be named and held accountable.

How much longer will the obscene war go on, the UN should really take over the "occupation" There should be a UN advisory council helping the Iraqi people form their government, I pray that there can be a honorable solution to this quagmire.

I thought the Bushies sealed that word in the national archives not to be opened until Dems were in the WH.

Democratic Party.

Not by our new AG - AG.

Not by our Secretary of Defense or our Pres in the Bunker Seat - Cheney.

the only way they will be held accountable is by the world leaders,
it's time, the pressure needs to come down, if the Iraq war is a coalition of the willing, then we are responsible for the welfare of those we asked to participate, we have made a mockery of those who we rely on to help us.

the lines of an Italian CIA type, terrorism expert and hostage negotiator. Had worked on several previous hostage situations. If this was a deliberate hit, he is as likely to have been the target as the reporter.

and caught it, although it passed through him and got her, anyway.

Very, very sad event.

from NY. They were most probably kept out of the loop. The Blame lies directly on the higher-ups who fucked up their LIHOP assasination.

nt

:kick:

The husband of the Italian journalist: "the U.S.A. did not want that it left lives on Iraq"

The Italian journalist denies that the car was fast and his husband says that "the U.S.A. did not want that it left lives"

Pier Scolari, the husband of the Italian journalist released yesterday in Iraq after a month of kidnapping and that was wounded to the shot being the car in which she was transferred by soldiers of the United States, has assured that "there are indications to think that it has been an ambush". Giuliana, that has arrived east Saturday at Rome, has denied that the car was fast.
http://www.cadenaser.com/index.html

http://www.ilmanifesto.it/pag/sgrena/en /

THE NATION CALLS FOR RELEASE OF GIULIANA SGRENA

Florence and the others
GIULIANA SGRENA
il manifesto 14 January 2005

Ten thousand Iraqis in US and British prisons
GIULIANA SGRENA
il manifesto 29 December 2004

Two thousand victims in Fallujah
Giuliana Sgrena, Iraq
il manifesto 26 November 2004

Napalm Raid on Falluja?
GIULIANA SGRENA
il manifesto 23 November 2004

The death throes of Fallujah
Giuliana Sgrena
ilmanifesto 13 November 2004

“Stop the massacre”
GIULIANA SGRENA
il manifesto 12 November 2004

Bombs and tanks, hell breaks in Falluja
GIULIANA SGRENA
il manifesto 09 November 2004

Interview with an Iraki woman tortured at Abu Graib.
Giuliana Sgrena, our correspondent in Baghdad
il manifesto 01 July 2004

“Imminent attack” against Falluja
GIULIANA SGRENA
il manifesto 06 November 2004

Flight from a Falluja massacred by bombs
GIULIANA SGRENA
il manifestp 21 October 2004

UN: US crimes in Iraq
GIULIANA SGRENA
il manifesto 05 June 2004


Now ask your self something. Why would the Iraqis who want the US out of Iraq want this woman kidnapped or killed? I smell a Negroponte type "El Salvador" option in action here. This is his MO.

Don

(Pulled from the DU thread)

I'm not sure you need a tinfoil hat :tinfoilhat: to say this smells funky. She was revealing a lot of dirt on Abu Grahib and the battle of Fallujah.

Here are the links to the articles on the list you posted:

da "il manifesto" 14 January 2005
Florence and the others


GIULIANA SGRENA

“Don’t go to Iraq” was Chirac’s message to French journalists. And Fini echoed him in Rome. The various embassies in Iraq, under American pressure, had already instructed the journalists based there before the bombing began on the 20th March 2003, to abandon camp. The injunction was without effect, however, and the war was covered, for better or worse, both by journalists having to submit to the control of the Iraqi Ministry of Information, and by the embedded journalists censured by the Pentagon. The further deterioration of the situation in Iraq has made it even more difficult to provide information. The journalists are hostages to all the perverse effects of the military occupation and the privatisation of the war. The hostility of the Iraqis to the military occupation has extended to all foreigners present in the territory, contractors, journalists and workers in humanitarian organisations. It’s no longer enough to be French, given the French opposition to the war and the occupation, to get special treatment. And when a military occupation is dressed up as a “peace mission” as the Italian government has done, it’s hardly surprising that subtle distinctions are not made. Unfortunately, it is in this perverse spiral that Enzo Baldoni has paid with his life.

By now the Italian Army is also running courses for aspirant “embedded” journalists. And what’s worse, the revision of the military penal code that allows for the introduction of martial law in peacetime for civilians, journalists included, for the “illegal gathering, publication and diffusion of military information” has already been passed by the Senate and is now before the Chamber of Deputies. Obviously the immediate reference is that of the “peace mission” in Nasyria.

Information has thus been militarised.Sometimes, as in Fallujah, it is impossible to follow what is happening without being in train of an army. This way your perspective remains exclusively military, even though some shocking images may escape you, like that of the cold-blooded shooting in a mosque in Fallujah of an unarmed and wounded Iraqi by a Marine.

To rebel against this framework is risky, but it is a risk that has to be taken if information is to get through. To throw some light on a reality that would otherwise be confined to military bulletins or war propaganda.
(snip/...)

http://www.ilmanifesto.it/pag/sgrena/en/420dc28e4ad0d.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

da "il manifesto" 29 December 2004
Ten thousand Iraqis in US and British prisons
Number of detainees rises in an offensive launched by the occupation forces with the elections in view
Among the prisoners are 350 foreigners accused of terrorism.

GIULIANA SGRENA

10,000 prisoners are still locked in American and British prisons in Iraq. Most are Iraqis but there are also 350 foreigners. The figures were supplied by the Iraqi Minister of Human Rights, Bakhtiar Amin. These numbers are in strong contrast with the claims made some time ago by the Americans that the number of prisoners had been considerably reduced after the releases following the scandal of Abu Ghraib. Apparently the number of prisoners has been swelled by numerous arrests of the survivors of the attacks on Samarra, Falluja and Mosul. According to Minister Amin, the breakdown of the prison population is: 4,691 prisoners in Camp Bucca, near the port of Umm Qasr and 818 at Al Shuaiba (Bassura), both under British control; 3,411 are to be found at the notorious torture site Abu Ghraib; 104 on the other hand are “special” detainees, among them Saddam Hussein, who is being held in isolation in Camp Cropper near Baghdad Airport. It was predictable that the number of detainees would rise as a result of the campaign launched by the occupation forces, with the support of the pro-American government of Allawi, to eliminate resistance in view of the forthcoming elections. This was confirmed by Riyadh al Adhadh, in charge of enviromental policy of the citizens council of Adhamiya (Baghdad) in his testimony to the Rome forum of the World Tribunal on Iraq on 17 December. In the course of his duties he had been able to visit the prisons, where he said he had also found children under 16 and people over 63. The disturbing fact, apart from the numbers, is the treatment of prisoners in open violation of all international conventions: pictures of the tortures have been circulated around the world and the responsibility of the governors is constantly confirmed. Nor is this all. Frequently prisoners are not charged formally with any crime: the sole purpose is to extort information about the resistance, and detainees do not even have the right to the aid of a lawyer. The occupation forces are acting in defiance of international law and with absolute impunity with respect not only to the Iraqis but also to the foreign detainees. It is in fact the foreigners who are most at risk because they are accused of terrorism and the Allawi government has already introduced the death penalty, although provisionally and without legitimacy. Furthermore, many of the foreign prisoners have been transferred to third countries for interrogation. At the end of October 150-160 fighters ended up in the dock accused of attacks on the Iraqi government; if found guilty they risk the death penalty. At this moment, according to the Ministry of Human Rights, there are 353 foreigners in prison. The US military spokesman for prison operations, Colonel Barry Johnston, who has confirmed the overall total of detainees, does not want to make any statement about the foreigners, especially about their nationality. “We will give this information only to the government,” he said. And the Iraqi government, through Minister Amin, has announced that “American forces told us on 23 December that they are detaining 353 foreign terrorists.” According to the Minister, there are 61 Egyptians, 59 Saudis, 56 Syrians, 40 Jordanians, 35 Sudanese, 22 Iranians, 10 Tunisians, 10 Yemenis, 8 Palestinians and 5 Lebanese, among others. No more information is given, even in these cases, about specific charges.
(snip/...)

http://www.ilmanifesto.it/pag/sgrena/en/420dc2e2c4e2d.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

da "il manifesto" 26 November 2004
Two thousand victims in Fallujah
According to the Iraqi government. The UN reports that the number of children suffering from malnutrition has doubled.

Giuliana Sgrena, Iraq

This month of November will be remembered as one of the bloodiest of the occupation. Since the beginning of the month, which is not yet finished, 109 Marines have been killed, a figure already greater than that of the earlier attack on Fallujah, last April. But it is above all the Iraqis who are paying the highest tribute : 2,085 killed in the attack according to the information given out by Iraqi Security Minister Quassim Daud, without specifying the number of civilians. The problem, says the Minister, is that of identification, as many of the victims were not carrying documents. But many observers say that the problem is that many of the bodies were unrecognisable because they were so carbonised that the use of napalm was suspected. At the same time as the victim count from Fallujah, more disturbing news is arriving from Oslo in the form of the report of an investigation conducted by the Iraqi Health Ministry, in conjunction with the Norwegian FAFO Institute for applied international studies and UNDP, into the health of Iraqi children. The report states that since the beginning of the war (March 2003) the number of Iraqi children under the age of 5 suffering from acute malnutrition has doubled, passing from 4 to 7.7%. Further, over 400,000 are suffering from chronic diarrhoea and protein deficit.
(snip/...)

http://www.ilmanifesto.it/pag/sgrena/en/420dc3a05e58d.html

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da "il manifesto" 23 November 2004
AL JAZEERA

Napalm Raid on Falluja?
73 charred bodies -- women and children -- were found

GIULIANA SGRENA

«We buried them, but we could not identify them because they were charred from the napalm bombs used by the Americans». People from Saqlawiya village, near Falluja, told al Jazeera television, based in Qatar, that they helped bury 73 bodies of women and children completely charred, all in the same grave. The sad story of common graves, which started at Saddam’s times, is not yet finished. Nobody could confirm if napalm bombs have been used in Falluja, but other bodies found last year after the fierce battle at Baghdad airport were also completely charred and some thought of nuclear bombs. No independent source could verify the facts, since all the news arrived until now are those spread by journalists embedded with the American troops, who would only allow British and American media to enrol with them. But the villagers who fled in the last few days spoke of many bodies which had not been buried: it was too dangerous to collect the corpses during the battle.
(snip/...)

http://www.ilmanifesto.it/pag/sgrena/en/420dd721e0ff0.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

da "ilmanifesto" 13 November 2004
The death throes of Fallujah
Fallujah is a ghost town: there is no water, electricity or medical supplies - and precious little food. Yet US forces and interim Prime Minister Allawi are preventing the humanitarian organisations from bringing in aid.

Giuliana Sgrena

The US military commanders are hoping that the resistance of Fallujah will collapse before morning. Maybe they're afraid that the end of Ramadan and the beginning of Eid might fan the flames of battle.

US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, on a visit to El Salvador, the only Latin American country with troops stationed in Iraq, was unwilling to talk about timelines: 'Everything's going fine and the operation is on track to succeed. It'll take the time it takes.'

George W. Bush agreed with this assessment: 'substantial progress' had been made, he stated during a joint press conference with British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

On the ground, the American troops are attempting to trap the resistance fighters in the south of the country, pressing them back along the banks of the Euphrates. 'They can't go north because that's where we are. They can't go west because of the river. And they can't go east because we have a strong presence there too,' declared Sergeant Major Roy Meek. A couple of hours later, however, a powerful explosion was heard in the North-West Jolan area.
(snip/...)

http://www.ilmanifesto.it/pag/sgrena/en/420dc44c4d41d.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

da "il manifesto" 12 November 2004
“Stop the massacre”
Appeal for Falluja by Mohamed Alla: Italy, withdraw the troops from Iraq

GIULIANA SGRENA

The massacre in Falluja continues . We spoke with Mohamed Alla, of the Center of studies for the rights and democracy in Falluja, who is in Rome to partake the meeting of “Building bridges of hope”.

Which are the last news?
“The bombing continues. In only 24 hours since the beginning of the attack 25 cluster bombs were dropped on the city. Forbidden arms have also been used”.

The resistance proposed to the government a negotiation ...
“The different components of the resistance are willing to negotiate in order to find a peaceful solution. The people of Falluja want peace to save their own lives, but also the lives of the Iraqi soldiers, of those who are in the middle and of the American soldiers manipulated and forced to act in such a way”.

Also, it seems impossible the stop the advancing of the troops with sophisticated weapons and it seems that the resistance wants to avoid a bloodshed ...
“We do not measure the grade of the resistance on the bases of military and technological quality nor quantity, but on the bases of the faith in God Almighty. How can a man embracing an Rpg face military technology? The resistance can be military or moral. Resistance is not weak, it has got various options and it still has not used them all. The bombings are not targeted because what the Iraqi government wants to hit is the symbol of resistance. But whichever will the ending of the battle be, there will be other Fallujas, one already hears talks of Musul, Baquba, Ramadi. We hope that the Iraqi government changes its attitude and respects its institutional mandate: to save Iraqi lives. A part of the government is not in favour of the military solution.”
(snip/...)

http://www.ilmanifesto.it/pag/sgrena/en/420dc4c73c2ad.html

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da "il manifesto" 09 November 2004
Bombs and tanks, hell breaks in Falluja
Phantom fury - At dawn starts the attack to the «city of the mosques», the tanks entered supported by planes dropping one-ton bombs

GIULIANA SGRENA

A fire rain crashed over Falluja as soon as the curfew entered into force, at 6 p.m., sunset, after the Iftar breaks the Ramadan fast. At the same time, from the minaret of the mosque, the voice of the Imam tried to rise over the noise of the bombs to incite the mujahidin to the battle, which for Falluja will surely be the hardest since the beginning of the invasion. Even harder and bloodier than the one of last April, when more than 600 people died. The Americans also have the same estimate, and they foresee the highest losses ever received since Vietnam times. The U.S. soldiers appealed to their God before starting the crusade against «Satan». «The enemy has a face. The name is Satan. Is in Falluja and we will destroy him», said Col. Gary Brandl. In fact, they will kill only believers of a different god, Allah. Whose Imam addressing them from the minaret did not leave them with many hopes, other than paradise: «God is great, oh martyrs». The airplanes mostly bombed the Northern neighborhoods, while tanks entered deeply. «Phantom fury» - though the Iraqi defense minister hypocritically calls it «dawn operation» - had officially started, as it was confirmed by the radio of the Marines in charge of the operation which should officially stop the resistance in the «city of the mosques». The green light to the attack had been formally launched by Iyad Allawy, the Iraqi interim premier, in the press conference: «We are determined to clean Falluja from terrorists». The excuse of terrorists is the pretext to destroy the symbol of resistance. The pro-American premier added that he had authorized the operation led by the American troops. The decision, actually, had come, as it always happens, from the White House, the real kick to the attack of Falluja came from the reelection of president Bush, and the president decided on the bases of rapport which he was given from the hawk Rumsfeld. Yesterday, while explaining the «reason» for the attack, Rumsfeld said that a part of the country cannot remain «under the control of terrorists and assassins.» But he also admitted that the offensive will «require time». Anyway «the insurgents will be defeated», said Scott McClellan, spokesman of the White House who added that the president is «conscious of the risks of the losses». Even though there are roughly 15,000 men (including 2,000 Iraqis) fully armed against an estimated 5,000 fighters, who have less sophisticated weapons but who are nonetheless resisting the tanks from advancing. What will the marines do? Will they come out of the tanks to drive out the fighters from their homes? It will surely be a bloodshed.
(snip/...)

http://www.ilmanifesto.it/pag/sgrena/en/421094ef4bbc1.html

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da "il manifesto" 01 July 2004
Interview with an Iraki woman tortured at Abu Graib.
In the middle of the night, American soldiers broke into the home of Mithal al Hassan and arrested both her and her soon. The soldiers later ransacked the apartment. Denounced as part of a vendetta, Mithal was condemned without trial to eighty days of horror in the company of other women prisoners who, like her, were subjected to abuse and torture. She has since spotted her tormentors on the internet.

Giuliana Sgrena, our correspondent in Baghdad

I had agreed to meet Mithal al Hassan in a hotel: 'I would prefer to talk on neutral ground,' she said, adding, 'at home, with my children around, I feel embarrassed.' But that appointment never came off. Having slipped into the Hotel Palestine, the sight of the cowed employees and the American soldiers had frightened her off. After all, she still hasn't had her ID papers returned. It took us hours to track her down again, but when we did she agreed to another meeting, this time at her apartment. She has a comfortable home - especially when the power cuts end - in a nice part of town, with tv, cd player, and computer. Her youngest daughter, just fourteen, came to the door, then vanished, only to reappear later with soft drinks, chocolates and grapes. Mithal was completely enveloped in her baya - not the shapeless black cloak worn by Shiite women in the poorer districts - but a wholly embroidered black dress, complete with veil. The dark kajal eyeshadow she was wearing emphasised the grey-green colour of her large eyes. Mithal got divorced eight years ago now. Her husband remarried and moved to Lybia. She has had to bring up their seven children single-handed, working first in a bakery and then as a taxi-driver. 'All Saddam taught us was how to work hard', she says. Her strength and her pride both emerge clearly when we come to speak of Abu Graib and the painful events that have been tormenting her these last few months. It's a long story and the details are harrowing. For Mithal, it was eighty days of hell.
(snip/...)

http://www.ilmanifesto.it/pag/sgrena/en/420dc5a37ba4d.html

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da "il manifesto" 06 November 2004
“Imminent attack” against Falluja
Warning from Kofi Annan: The attack on Falluja puts the elections at risk. But the USA is ready: waiting only for the OK from Allawi, who received, yesterday, a political boost from the European Union- but with scarse practical consequences.

GIULIANA SGRENA

“The attack on Falluja would be a mistake; it could infuriate even more the Iraqis and further jeopardize the Jauary elections.” This warning, contained in a letter sent last week- but made public only yesterday- from the General Secretary of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, to the American president George Bush, the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, and the Iraqi ad-interim Premier Iyad Allawi, is unlikely to be heeded. “Falluja is a question for the concern of the Iraqi government,” was the the scornful reply of one of Blair's spokespeople- under pressure for the three Black Watch killed on Thursday. “It's a confused letter; it's not clear what he means,” was Allawi's comment, obviously not wanting to understand. The ad-interim Premier, on a visit to the European Union, in fact made it clear, as he has threatened for days, that the time for negotiation has by now run out, and that he intends to pass over to use of force. “We intend to bring order to the city as has been done in other parts of the country.” But at what price? The preparations underway are frightening, and the Marines at the US base in Falluja are only waiting for Allawi's green light- the one from Bush they got practically from the moment he was re-elected. The US soldiers have warned the population with leaflets and messages from loudspeakers: all men under 45 years of age that are found entering or leaving the city will be arrested; the population is urged to help the Iraqi-American troops capture the terrorists, while women and children have been advised to leave the city. The inhabitants have been fleeing for weeks. It is estimated that of an original population of 300,000 less than 60,000 remain. If the Iraqi special troops-led by ex-Baathists- who will join in the attack, are worried about the effect that a bloodbath will have, the US base in Falluja is preparing for the worst. The medical staff has been doubled, and a mortuary has been set up called “Cheaters of Death”. Already on normal days “we have 20-30 wounded per day, but we expect that number may double on crucial days,” said captain Eric Lovell, a Navy doctor. These are all unequivocal signs that an attack is imminent: “We're almost ready. We're in the last phase of preparations. Not much time is left. We're waiting for the go ahead from Premier Allawi,” said Michael Shupp, commander of the combat troops. There have been five raids during the day.
(snip/...)

http://www.ilmanifesto.it/pag/sgrena/en/42160be593a71.html

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da "il manifestp" 21 October 2004
Flight from a Falluja massacred by bombs
The conference on Iraq has been scheduled to November 22, 23 in Sharam al Sheikh. The US vetoes on who may participate places the initiative on risk and starts a dispute with France. Blair: the movement of the troops has not yet been decided. Care suspends its activities after the kidnapping of Margaret Hassan. In Falluja, a missile kills an entire family.

GIULIANA SGRENA

A family, parents and four children, massacred. The victims of yet another
American raid on Falluja. "The house was completely destroyed by a missile
let off by an American air plane and we have pulled out the bodies of four
children, a woman and a man from under the rubble", says Bassam Mohammed,
an inhabitant of Falluja, quoted by the French agency Afp. Meanwhile,
the macabre whining of the US Command's bulletins repeated even yesterday
two "houses, refuge of terrorists" tied to Zarqawi, the al Qaeeda
exponent, had been destroyed. But the victims are once again civilians; those
few that remain in Falluja because they don't know where else to go to. The
better part of the population has already fled in order to pass the Ramadan
in the nearby villages or in Baghdad. The mosques are empty both at the time
of prayers and of breaking the fast. Not only the inhabitants, but also the
combatants of the various groups, perhaps even the followers of Zarqawi,
have supposedly fallen back to the province of Anbar, in Hit, towards the
Syrian border and to Rawah, on the Euphrates. Last week, Premier Allawi had
threatened the population that if it didn't consign Zarqawi it would face
what is unfailingly coming about. A thousand men - joint Iraqi and American
forces - have encircled Falluja since many days and continue to bombard it.
In the adjacent areas they have even had to engage the resistance but they
still don't dare enter the city abandoned after the siege
of April. Recovering the city that has been the symbol of the resistance
right from the start of the occupation is not an easy task. Not even for
the potent American army that has, in fact, asked for reinforcements from
the British, who control the south of the country, in order to be able to
liberate forces from Latifya and Iskandria and, in all likeliness, move them
to Falluja. The request has immediately been seen in the light of the elections
as well, as a reiteration of Blair's support of Bush. Yesterday, Blair, faced
with the polemics that this kindled and also under pressure for the kidnapping
of the cooperant Margaret Hassan, declared that he had not yet decided whether
to move the troops from the south to the more dangerous zones of the centre.
Nevertheless, many think that he has already answered positively; the movement
of British troops around Bassora bear out on this hypothesis.
(snip/...)

http://www.ilmanifesto.it/pag/sgrena/en/42160c8c20e81.html

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da "il manifesto" 05 June 2004
UN: US crimes in Iraq
Report of the High Commissioner for Human Rights accuses the Coalition forces. Arbitrary detentions, torture, impunity. Living picture of a country under occupation illustrated by Bertrand Ramcharan, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, who proposes a "civic defender" for the Iraqi. To be nominated urgently. Did the USA try to block the indictment made public with two days of delay?

GIULIANA SGRENA

Saddam Salah al-Rawi, Iraqi, 29 years old, detained in Abu Ghraib prison
from 1 December 2003 to 28 March 2004, and released without knowing either
the motives of the release or those of the detention. During which (detention)
he was tortured for 18 days: teeth pulled out, kicking, beatings, guards
standing on his hands and, in addition to the physical torture, (infliction
of) mental cruelty with threats of sexual violence and of sending to Guantanamo
Bay if he did not confess. Tortures that lasted upto 23 hours a day and then
deafening music to keep him from sleeping. And again, threatened on the occasion
of the Red Cross visit. If he had spoken of the treatment reserved for him,
he would have regretted having done so. And so, when a delegation of the
Red Cross visited Abu Ghraib in January, al-Rawi says, "(I) did not dare
say anything about the suffered tortures. To the questions I limited myself
to saying 'I don't know'". The man had already known Abu Ghraib and also
the tortures in the days of Saddam. That of Saddam al-Rawi, one of the many
cases of "ordinary torture" under the occupation, is well documented in the
report made public yesterday by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights,
Bertrand Ramcharan. 45 detailed pages on the "serious violations" of International
Humanitarian Law and on the maltreatment of the Iraqi committed by the US-led
occupation forces in Iraq. "Wilful killing, torture and inhuman treatment",
acts "that might be designated as war crimes by a competent tribunal", says
the report whose publication was awaited two days ago but was then postponed.
And seeing the contents, it is easy to guess the contention. Even though
José Luis Diaz, the spokesman of Ramcharan, denied yesterday that the report
was watered down under blackmail of the United States. "There has been no
pressure on this office". The inferences are inspired by the excessive worrying
of the United States, for obvious reasons, to guarantee immunity to its soldiers
operating abroad. So much so that just yesterday, the lady soldier Lynndie
England, who has become sadly famous for having been photographed keeping
an Iraqi prisoner of Abu Ghraib on the leash, said she wanted Vice President
Dick Cheney and Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to testify in her trial
to be held in Fort Bragg on the 22nd of June.
(snip/...)

http://www.ilmanifesto.it/pag/sgrena/en/42234c337eaa7.html

Independents, NGO workers, socialists, humanitarian workers, certain reporters (not controlled by U.S. military), Shia leaders, "communists",...

,...the same target list utilized by ___________

posted by another DU'er


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=1286417&mesg_id=1287165&page=

48 journalists and media assistants killed since the start of fighting in Iraq in March 2003, four still missing

33 have been killed this year while doing their job.

Four other journalists are still missing

The names of the deceased:

33 Journalists killed


25.02.2005 - Raeda Mohammed Wageh Wazzan, Iraqiya

09.02.2005 - Abdel Hussein Khazaal, Al-Hurra TV

01.11.2004 - Dhia Najim, Reuters

27.10.2004 - Liqaa Abdul-Razzaq, Al-Sharqiya

14.10.2004 - Karam Hussein, European Pressphoto Agency

14.10.2004 - Dina Mohamad Hassan, Al Hurriya Television

7.10.2004 - Ahmad Jassem, Nivive television

12.09.2004 - Mazen al-Tomaizi, Al-Arabiya

26.08.2004 - Enzo Baldoni, Diario della settimana

15.08.2004 - Mahmoud Hamid Abbas, ZDF

15.08.2004 - Hossam Ali, freelance

03.06.2004 - Sahar Saad Eddine Nouami, Al-Mizan, Al-Khaima, Al-Hayat Al-Gadida

27.05.2004 - Kotaro Ogawa, Nikkan Gendai


07.05.2004 - Mounir Bouamrane, TVP

19.04.2004 - Assad Kadhim, Al-Iraqiya TV

26.03.2004 - Bourhan Mohammad al-Louhaybi, ABC News

18.03.2004 - Ali Al-Khatib, Al-Arabiya

18.03.2004 - Ali Abdel Aziz, Al-Arabiya

18.03.2004 - Nadia Nasrat, Diyala Television

28.10.2003 - Ahmed Shawkat, Bila Ittijah

17.08.2003 - Mazen Dana, Reuters

02.07.2003 - Ahmad Karim, Kurdistan Satellite TV

08.04.2003 - José Couso, Tele 5

08.04.2003 - Taras Protsyuk, Reuters

08.04.2003 - Tarek Ayoub, Al Jazeera

07.04.2003 - Christian Liebig, Focus

07.04.2003 - Julio Anguita Parrado, El Mundo

04.04.2003 - Michael Kelly, Washington Post

02.04.2003 - Kaveh Golestan, BBC

02.04.2003 - Kaveh Golestan, BBC

23.03.2003 - Terry Lloyd, ITV News

22.03.2003 - Paul Moran, Australian Broadcasting Corporation

15 Media assistants killed


25.08.2004 - Jamal Tawfiq Salmane, Gazeta Wyborcza

29.05.2004 - Mahmoud Ismael Daood, bodyguard, Al-Sabah al-Jadid

29.05.2004 - Samia Abdeljabar, driver, Al-Sabah al-Jadid

27.05.2004 - Unknown, translator

25.05.2004 - Unknown, translator

21.05.2004 - Rachid Hamid Wali, cameraman assistant, Al-Jazira

29.04.2004 - Hussein Saleh, driver, Al-Iraquiya TV

26.03.2004 - Omar Hashim Kamal, translator, Time

18.03.2004 - Majid Rachid, technician, Diyala Television

18.03.2004 - Mohamad Ahmad, security agent, Diyala Television

27.01.2004 - Duraid Isa Mohammed, producer and translator, CNN

27.01.2004 - Yasser Khatab, driver, CNN

07.07.2003 - Jeremy Little, sound engineer, NBC

06.04.2003 - Kamaran Abdurazaq Muhamed, translator, BBC

22.03.2003 - Hussein Othman, translator, ITV News

http://www.rsf.org/special_iraq_en.php3

Murder and attempted murder.
:grr:

ASSASINATION and attempted ASSASINATION. And as I said the NY NG troops were probably deliberately kept out of the loop.

Also, the Italians had a day of celebration planned...now they are going to turn it into a demonstration of "Bring the Troops Home."

...then this means that the level of evil, corruption and sickness in our government and military--is limitless.

It's as if there is no conscience left at all in these people.

I am terrified for the Iraqi people. It's as if they are being "liberated" by Charles Manson.

I hope to God that the troops who come home will start telling the real story--about what is going on over there.

It sounds like Dante's Inferno on acid...

Can you imagine all that happens--that we never hear about?

So sad. So utterly revolting...

and then there will be stuff that we don't hear over here, but which everyone in the Arab world hears, and which they'll exact revenge for.

This war just turned up the larger cycle of violence a notch.

now....it that came out...what would happen to the US?

I read where other witnesses said all living things there were dead, birds, dogs, cats. Oh God this is repulsive.

the use of napalm on Fallujah was never reported in America ??


http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/121004_fallujah_napalmed.shtml

http://www.indybay.org/news/2004/11/1707704.php

http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com/hard_news/archives/hard_news/000137.php

=================================================
FTW thanks Karen Ahern for assistance with these stories.

FALLUJAH NAPALMED

Nov 28 2004
US uses banned weapon... but was Tony Blair told?
By Paul Gilfeather, Political Editor

http://www.sundaymirror.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=14920109&method=full&siteid=106694&
headline=fallujah-napalmed-name_page.html

US troops are secretly using outlawed napalm gas to wipe out remaining insurgents in and around Fallujah.

News that President George W. Bush has sanctioned the use of napalm, a deadly cocktail of polystyrene and jet fuel banned by the United Nations in 1980, will stun governments around the world.

And last night Tony Blair was dragged into the row as furious Labour MPs demanded he face the Commons over it. Reports claim that innocent civilians have died in napalm attacks, which turn victims into human fireballs as the gel bonds flames to flesh.

Outraged critics have also demanded that Mr Blair threatens to withdraw British troops from Iraq unless the US abandons one of the world's most reviled weapons. Halifax Labour MP Alice Mahon said: "I am calling on Mr Blair to make an emergency statement to the Commons to explain why this is happening. It begs the question: 'Did we know about this hideous weapon's use in Iraq?'"

Since the American assault on Fallujah there have been reports of "melted" corpses, which appeared to have napalm injuries.

Last August the US was forced to admit using the gas in Iraq.

A 1980 UN convention banned the use of napalm against civilians - after pictures of a naked girl victim fleeing in Vietnam shocked the world.

America, which didn't ratify the treaty, is the only country in the world still using the weapon.

http://www.whatreallyhappened.com
http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2003-08/10/article10.shtml

U.S. Admits Using Napalm Bombs In Iraq: Report

"The U.S. is the only country that has used napalm for a long time. I am not aware of any other country that uses it," Pike

WASHINGTON, August 10 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - The United States admitted dropping the internationally-banned incendiary weapon of napalm on Iraq, despite earlier denials by the Pentagon that the "horrible" weapon had not been used in the three-week invasion.

An upgraded type of the weapon, a terrifying mixture of jet fuel and polystyrene that sticks to skin as it burns, was used in March and April 2003, when dozens of napalm bombs were dropped near bridges over the Saddam Canal and the Tigris river, south of Baghdad, the Independent reported Sunday, August 10.

"We napalmed both those approaches," the paper quoted Colonel James Alles, commander of Marine Air Group 11, as saying.

"Unfortunately there were people there ... you could see them in the video. They were Iraqi soldiers. It's no great way to die," said Alles.

On March 22 a correspondent for Sydney Morning Herald, traveling with U.S. marines reported that napalm was used in an attack on Iraqi troops at Safwan Hill, near the Kuwait border.

His account was based on statements by two U.S. marines officers on the ground.

"Safwan Hill went up in a huge fireball and the observation post was obliterated. I pity anyone who is in there," a Marine sergeant said

The Pentagon insisted at the time the statement was "patently false".

"The U.S. took napalm out of service in the 1970s. We completed the destruction of our last batch of napalm on April 4, 2001, and no longer maintain any stocks of napalm," Lieutenant-Commander Jeff Davis, from the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Defense had said.

'Generals Love Napalm'
But a Pentagon official told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Thursday that U.S. forces used the new type against Iraqi forces in their drive towards Baghdad and defended their use as legal and necessary.

The official, who did not wish to be identified, said that U.S. marines jets dropped the fire bombs at least once to destroy Iraqi positions at Safwan.

"It is like this: you've got enemy that's hard to get at. And it will save your own lives to use it. There were no international conventions against it, the official said.

Marines used the bombs on at least two other occasions during the drive to Baghdad, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported this week.

"The generals love napalmÉ it has a big psychological effect," the paper quoted Alles as saying.

Marine Corps Maj-Gen Jim Amos confirmed to the paper that napalm was used on several occasions in the invasion.

A 1980 U.N. convention banned the use against civilian targets of napalm. The U.S., which did not sign the treaty, is one of the few countries that makes use of the weapon, as it was employed notoriously against both civilian and military targets in the Vietnam war, according to the Independent.

The revelation that napalm was used in the invasion of Iraq, while the Pentagon denied it, has outraged opponents of the war.

"Most of the world understands that napalm and incendiaries are a horrible, horrible weapon," Robert Musil, director of the organization Physicians for Social Responsibility, told the British paper.

"It takes up an awful lot of medical resources. It creates horrible wounds." Musil said denial of its use "fits a pattern of deception ".

It Is Still Napalm
The Pentagon said it had not tried to deceive. It drew a distinction between traditional napalm, first invented in 1942, and the weapons dropped in Iraq, which it calls Mark 77 firebombs. They weigh 510lbs, and consist of 44lbs of polystyrene-like gel and 63 gallons of jet fuel.

John Pike, director of the military studies group GlobalSecurity.Org, said: "You can call it something other than napalm but it is still napalm. It has been reformulated in the sense that they now use a different petroleum distillate, but that is it. The U.S. is the only country that has used napalm for a long time. I am not aware of any other country that uses it."

Musil said the Pentagon's effort to draw a distinction between the weapons was outrageous.

"It's Orwellian. They do not want the public to know. It's a lie," he said.

After the offensive on Iraq ended, Iraqis began to complain about unexploded cluster bombs that still litter their areas and the U.S. forces failed to take them away.

would steal a national election? As one DUer (whose name I didn't note) famously put it: they didn't steal an election in order to do GOOD.

I guess these stories still shock and surprise me.

I'm still coming out of denial, about the reality of these thugs.

It's hard to fathom sometimes.

... journalists?

Does Jordan get an apology now?

who do. Too bad such jobs are mostly in the alternative media, as if truth is just an "alternative" among several others.

Maybe "reliable media" would be a better description for the alternative media.

(Edit: name corrected)

wonder what does she know that would cause her to be shot at?

one theory could be that her reporting, oriented toward being critical of the war, could be more dangerous since she has a higher profile now.

And she could threaten the demonization campaign against the insurgents. She has already stated that she was treated well in her captivity, which contradicts the idea of them as the ultimate enemy, completely without humanity.

So here is a woman who has every reason in the world to hate the insurgents, and she STILL writes critically of the war? That could be a tough case for the Bushies and their whores to make.

alive to talk..to be interviewed...to talk at a trial...to tell the world about her writings.

If they were trying to kill her, why didnt they kill her? They knew who it was and they had the car dead to the rights. Why didnt they finish the job? Intimidation only, perhaps?

she WAS dead.

Italy is rightfully outraged over this despicable maneuver by the U.S. troops.

bush called Berlusconi and said he would conduct a full investigation. So, either we will have scapegoats, or it will be an investigation such as was conducted into Sept. 11, 2001, or the Plame outing. In other words, kicking at anthills while the crocodile eats the babies on the beach.

Let's take a moment and think about this :eyes:

and demanded answers!

There were also Italian troops and an Italian airplane at the airport waiting for Giuliana Sgrena.

Clearly it was the Italians that put her on the plane!

I don't think the GI's on the ground were necessarily in on it, so once the Italians finally got past the language barrier, they realized they had made a mistake and addressed it.

There is the fact that Italians look close enough to Iraqis to make men guarding airplanes with guns nervous.

It could have been an accident, because I don't know if anyone knew she was headed in that direction, I can't say she was set up.

However, there is a precedent of the Administration putting lots and lots of pressure on journalists and putting them in harms way and even warning them of the "dangers" and then telling them they were safe.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/022505A.shtml

You mean the journalist that died of a blood clot after he was riding around the desert in a small armored personnel carrier? I know others have been killed while reporting, and I don't condone that either, but if I were to choose combat photography I'd be ~really~ careful about poking my head around a corner.

Look, I'm fully aware that the WH has almost full control over what the media reports in this country, and I'm aware that this WH is fully corrupt, but I can't believe that if a hit was ordered on this woman (likely before the Americans even knew about it, unless they had all the cell transmissions to and from Italy tapped (which I'll even acknowledge is feasible)* she would be dead, dead and more dead. 300 to 400 rounds should have done it, but then, that number only comes from the survivor, and I doubt its accuracy.

All I'm asking for in this thread is less speculating being perceived as fact, and a little more common sense. Believe me, I've served as a 'grunt' behind heavy armor, and if we were ordered to open fire on a particular car, we would've made a freakin event out of it. 50 cals unloading entire belts, followed up by MK19's dropping a few hundred grenades (all of which have a 15 meter killing radius) right on top of the car, and then for the hell of it, we'd have driven out tanks over the wreckage a couple times.

I'm not condoning the above actions, but I ~can~ look back at my outlook on life while serving in the Marine Corps and can comprehend that this is most likely a big fuckup. It's a microfuckup in this big macrofuckup that is Operation Iraqi Liberation (OIL) Freedom.

I don't think so.

Photos of her leaving the plane in Rome, show some sort of IV device attached, and she looked pretty distraught. The Talking Rectums of the Chicken-Hawk Brigade, might try to make something out of that. Let them; she is one brave woman, and most will recognize that. Her Il Manifesto articles have the ring of truth, and are well worth reading. BTW: with ANYTHING of this sort, I get multiple second opinions from search engines, before I "run with it".

BTW: Earlier on DU, there was a 'sourced' story of a US colonel waiting for her at the Baghdad airport (I failed to bookmark it). That would make sense --- it is INCONCEIVABLE that the US military would fail to establish coordination with such a high profile hostage release.

Almost everything about military story STINKS, but it's too early to settle on MIHOP, or even LIHOP. But KEEP DIGGING, and connecting dots.

pnorman

If they overtly killed every journalist who they disagreed with it would be obvious what they were up to, but this way it's hard to know.

There is an article by Will Pitt that goes into detail on the first two journalists to die by friendly fire. Facts, pictures, evidence, real investigative reporting.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/022505A.shtml

Knowing the MO really helps to understand why it would be a covert op and why the people who actually fired at her may have been set up to take the fall.

I posted the articles she wrote in GD (and also noticed they've been added to this thread as well.) After seeing what she's written,it's no surprise she's been targeted. If they had just left her alone, she probably would have faded into the sunset just like everything else that pertains to Iraq. Now it's become an international incident and hopefully will put a spotlight on things.

:eyes:

First, I'd say there's very little doubt that a call of some sort was made as soon as she was released, before she got to the airport.

But most importantly, if the military wanted her dead, she'd be dead, plain and simple. They'd have probably dropped a bomb on her car and blamed it on an IED. This is silliness.

and you'll see in the story that he allows for the possibility that it was an accident.

That's the kind of reasonableness that makes him credible to me.

At a press conference he said: "Giuliana and the other people who were there told me that the American attack was completely unjustified. They had alerted the whole chain of command, the Italian troops were awaiting them at the airport. And yet, they fired 300, 400 rounds. Why?"

This wasn't just some folks driving around the desert. This was deliberate and they blew it. If they had succeeded, no one would have ever known what really happened.

You think this woman could be shot to pieces and "no one would have ever known what really happened", you're more naive than I thought.

This article IMO is just someone scrambling to find an answer to something incredibly stupid that happened.

Read the part you bolded over.

13 journalists have been killed since the invasion began, which if IRCC is the most journalists killed in any war. Those that were killed were mostly non-embedded, foreign journalists (meaning those NOT following the corporate media pack).

The bombed alJezeera station, the hotel journalists were staying at, and held other journalists.

But, I'm sure they're all just making this up and it's just coincidences and mistakes. Eason Jordan was right and that's why he was silenced.

Instead of insisting the rest of us have our tinfoil hats on too tight, perhaps you might consider opening your eyes. How do you explain away this consistent pattern?

cat right though this story's chest.

there were too many other people around, especially those Italian troops, for anything else to happen to her.

I'm sure the ambushers thought they had finished the job and didn't realize that she was still alive. Keep in mind she had an Italian agent on top of her and he was quite dead.

inside the car and slash her throat while unbuckling her seat belt.

Maybe the Gov't takes less precautionary steps for the unintended when doing assasination jobs than I would, but I doubt it. There's still the issue of silencing all the troops that were involved in the 'hit'. Believe it or not, not all troops are pro-Bush. Some would talk, and the political damage over a failed hit is worse than the political damage of a reporter who can be easily drowned out by Michael freakin Jackson/that Baretta Guy/Martha Stewart.

the 300 - 400 bullets would have been sufficient? Under the circumstances there is no such thing as a back up plan, except retreat.

Quote: DS1:

"If it was a hit a CIA/other medic would have been planted to reach
inside the car and slash her throat while unbuckling her seat belt."

Are they really always that 'good'?

Certainly you can imagine the problems of circumstance which might arise even with covert operations, when there are friendly, civilized people around and cover can't be blown and chances are they assume she's dead and after unloading 300 rounds has attracted a lot of attention the guy with the knife (who you seem to admire for profession competence) might have been subject to an instance of minor imperfection.

Certainly, you CAN imagine that as certainly you can imagine others around HERE not at all happy about how this story is going down with people who can see and think freely - wanting to INSIST they know this was just ANOTHER accident.

They had to have planned for the aftermath - that it was to be deemed a case of mistaken identity and act accordingly, while Italians on hand at the checkpoint who may have happened to notice the American service people unloading on the vehicle may have been cautious observers - too cautious to fool as you suggest.

You're also refusing to look at the phone cut-out as a controlled event or taking into consideration how the travel party was expected at the checkpoint.

You might as well be working on the defense team. The closed minded thing makes your local affiliation seem unlikely.

well Freep off, pal.

Closed minded, this would be the most unimaginably stupid way to pull off a hit ever, yet that's what you're arguing. It would make much more sense to just bomb the car, like I said above, be it from the sky or an "IED" planted and ready for such a contingent.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=1286417&mesg_id=1287165&page=

48 journalists and media assistants killed since the start of fighting in Iraq in March 2003, four still missing

33 have been killed this year while doing their job.

Four other journalists are still missing

The names of the deceased:

33 Journalists killed


25.02.2005 - Raeda Mohammed Wageh Wazzan, Iraqiya

09.02.2005 - Abdel Hussein Khazaal, Al-Hurra TV

01.11.2004 - Dhia Najim, Reuters

27.10.2004 - Liqaa Abdul-Razzaq, Al-Sharqiya

14.10.2004 - Karam Hussein, European Pressphoto Agency

14.10.2004 - Dina Mohamad Hassan, Al Hurriya Television

7.10.2004 - Ahmad Jassem, Nivive television

12.09.2004 - Mazen al-Tomaizi, Al-Arabiya

26.08.2004 - Enzo Baldoni, Diario della settimana

15.08.2004 - Mahmoud Hamid Abbas, ZDF

15.08.2004 - Hossam Ali, freelance

03.06.2004 - Sahar Saad Eddine Nouami, Al-Mizan, Al-Khaima, Al-Hayat Al-Gadida

27.05.2004 - Kotaro Ogawa, Nikkan Gendai


07.05.2004 - Mounir Bouamrane, TVP

19.04.2004 - Assad Kadhim, Al-Iraqiya TV

26.03.2004 - Bourhan Mohammad al-Louhaybi, ABC News

18.03.2004 - Ali Al-Khatib, Al-Arabiya

18.03.2004 - Ali Abdel Aziz, Al-Arabiya

18.03.2004 - Nadia Nasrat, Diyala Television

28.10.2003 - Ahmed Shawkat, Bila Ittijah

17.08.2003 - Mazen Dana, Reuters

02.07.2003 - Ahmad Karim, Kurdistan Satellite TV

08.04.2003 - José Couso, Tele 5

08.04.2003 - Taras Protsyuk, Reuters

08.04.2003 - Tarek Ayoub, Al Jazeera

07.04.2003 - Christian Liebig, Focus

07.04.2003 - Julio Anguita Parrado, El Mundo

04.04.2003 - Michael Kelly, Washington Post

02.04.2003 - Kaveh Golestan, BBC

02.04.2003 - Kaveh Golestan, BBC

23.03.2003 - Terry Lloyd, ITV News

22.03.2003 - Paul Moran, Australian Broadcasting Corporation

15 Media assistants killed


25.08.2004 - Jamal Tawfiq Salmane, Gazeta Wyborcza

29.05.2004 - Mahmoud Ismael Daood, bodyguard, Al-Sabah al-Jadid

29.05.2004 - Samia Abdeljabar, driver, Al-Sabah al-Jadid

27.05.2004 - Unknown, translator

25.05.2004 - Unknown, translator

21.05.2004 - Rachid Hamid Wali, cameraman assistant, Al-Jazira

29.04.2004 - Hussein Saleh, driver, Al-Iraquiya TV

26.03.2004 - Omar Hashim Kamal, translator, Time

18.03.2004 - Majid Rachid, technician, Diyala Television

18.03.2004 - Mohamad Ahmad, security agent, Diyala Television

27.01.2004 - Duraid Isa Mohammed, producer and translator, CNN

27.01.2004 - Yasser Khatab, driver, CNN

07.07.2003 - Jeremy Little, sound engineer, NBC

06.04.2003 - Kamaran Abdurazaq Muhamed, translator, BBC

22.03.2003 - Hussein Othman, translator, ITV News

http://www.rsf.org/special_iraq_en.php3

bushs PROPAGANDA machine.. like they are undermining all American media outlets (except air America.. yet). The truth is the cure to these criminals. Mr. Jordan's statements make more sense now huh, what did he know that YOU don't to make him say the US was targeting non embedded (read media not under our control) "reporters". And then a reporter held in Iraq is freed and heading for home, where she can report what shes seen! Then BOOM.. her car is hit.. did you know we BOMBED Al-Jazerras Baghdad office... DESPITE..or because, they told the US forces exactly where they were.. even providing GPS coordinates to avoid being targeted. You are silly to not open your mind to the truth! Try to explain why you think we DONT target journalist, and dont forget to mention US PROPAGANDA, because if you dont see it, your under it!

something was scrambled and they had to resort to fire power before the airport.
The military isn't %100 perfect.

just throwing that out there.

After all, he has been a big bush supporter and he doesn't want her coming back to tell it all.

He looks like a hero, gets her freed and then Americans kill her, not his fault, right.

And in America we know this won't go very far. It was a mistake, right???

Like I say, I really don't know what to believe, but this could possibly be possible. Or I just may be too jaded.

AND he's a right-wing media mogul, as well, just like _{George H. W. Bush's} Venezuelan "good buddy," Gustavo Cisneros.
I don't think he has much in common with Ms. Sgrena. I'll bet he'd feel perfectly comfortable with any kind of death they could arrange for her. The real theater here is probably the great charade pretending either Berlusconi or _Bush could give a damn.


Another mandate, _Bush?



Am I just too simple, or is the lil' rascal
wearing an "Il Duce-"styled hat? Unbelievable!

C'mon, think about this for five seconds. If the US government wanted to assasinate her, don't you think they'd have made it look like the insurgents did it, rather than risking a really ugly international diplomatic row and making themselves out to be murdering idiots? Or... um... actually killed her?

Italian troops were there at the airport...they had a chance and she is alive to "sing like a canary".

If she has nothing to say..."then why should anyone worry"

But after looking at the articles she's written...I think the US will have some "explaining to do" to the world.

>she is alive to "sing like a canary"

Then why doesn't she sing already? None of what she's written so far has been particularly worse than hundreds of other pieces that are floating around, completely ignored by the US media.

>But after looking at the articles she's written...I think the US will
>have some "explaining to do" to the world.

I highly doubt Bush is going to start explaining himself at this late date.

and while this may make an 'ugly international diplomatic row', it follows a very long line of outrageous, criminal behavior by we and ours. Maybe old Europe doesn't want to play anymore.

All I want to know is this: If it was US soldiers who pulled her from the car and dressed her wounds, then this theory is wrong on its face. Now, if the car managed to escape and get help somewhere else, there might be room for argument over whether it's possible. I still don't think it's likely, because it just doesn't make any sense. There's been enough reporting on our atrocities in the rest of the world that I simply don't see how one more report about Fallujah or Abu Ghraib would make any kind of difference that would be seen as worthy of an incredibly high-profile assasination with no attempt made to cover the identity of the assasins. It just doesn't make a lot of sense, regardless of how much criminal activity the US has done.

In fact, just keep asking questions to which nobody can possibly provide an answer.

makes sense?

made a lot of sense if it didn't fit a pattern already well established of killing "critical" journalists. she is hardly the first. None of us can say whether it's one way or the other at this point, but it would be foolish to exclude any possibility.

to all journalists that oppose and dare to speak out about the corrupt, lethal policies and tactics of the PNAC invasion of Iraq. It makes a degree of logical sense if seen from this viewpoint. Whether she was killed or not may be beside the point. The point of the shooting may have been to drive this message home to all honest journalists: "Tell the truth, and we will kill you."

It is a well recognized fact that one of the primary, if not THE primary, propaganda weapon in the US right-wing arsenal is fear. They have consistently used fear to control people in the US since 9/11.

Attacking an outspoken journalist could, IMO, easily be seen as an act to instill fear in other journalists. So killing her may not have been the reason for the attack; the high profile message was delivered through this seemingly "illogical and accidental" shooting, and there was no apparent need to outright murder her after the "mistake" had been made.

We just wanted to "send a message".

:eyes:

rather than using the propaganda techniques of vagueness and sarcasm with no content generally employed by RW radio talk show hosts?

PROPAGANDA TECHNIQUES
"Propaganda Techniques" is based upon "Appendix I: PSYOP Techniques" from "Psychological Operations Field Manual No.33-1" published by Headquarters; Department of the Army, in Washington DC, on 31 August 1979

Vagueness. Generalities are deliberately vague so that the audience may supply its own interpretations. The intention is to move the audience by use of undefined phrases, without analyzing their validity or attempting to determine their reasonableness or application.
snip---
Indirect name calling is used when direct name calling would antagonize the audience. It is a label for the degree of attack between direct name calling and insinuation. Sarcasm and ridicule are employed with this technique.

http://www.greeninformation.com/PROPAGANDA%20TECHNIQUES%20-%20US%20Army.htm

According to a Bloomberg News dispatch: Sgrena told Rome prosecutors Franco Ionta and Pietro Saviotti that the shots didn't come from soldiers standing at a checkpoint. "It wasn't a checkpoint, but a patrol that started shooting after pointing some lights in our direction," the Ansa news agency cited Sgrena as telling the prosecutors. "We hadn't previously encountered any checkpoint and we didn't understand where the shots came from."

and apparently they are right in their calculations i am just glad they BOTCHED this one BIG TIME because they deserve all the scorn and indignation the world and DU has to heap.

i can't wait to read her reports from falluja - our NANKING.




Japanese aircraft bombed south Shanghai Station Aug.28,1937.
About 200 people in the waiting room were dead or wounded by the bombing. A crying baby was left alone after the bombing. - Life Oct. 4, 1937



peace

they could be confident in two things. First, that journalists critical of the war will be scared.

Second, that no one in the media will seriously question whether this was deliberate. Ask Eason Jordan.

edit: maybe one more, maybe they know Berlusconi won't make too much trouble.

>First, that journalists critical of the war will be scared.

I would humbly suggest that the are already quite scared.

>Second, that no one in the media will seriously question whether this
>was deliberate. Ask Eason Jordan.

I would have more respect for his position if he presented some evidence, or if he were still saying that. I've just never seen how targeting reporters would be in the United States' interest, even given Bush's warpedness.

>edit: maybe one more, maybe they know Berlusconi won't make too much
>trouble.

I don't think we've heard the last of him on this issue.

As Joshua Micah Marshall points out, it was Dick Cheney who first raised the Niger uranium story in the Spring of 2002, and a few months later – presto! – a batch of forged documents showed up, just like magic, in Italy. Elisabetta Burba, a reporter for an Italian glossy, Panorama, got them from "an Italian security consultant," and the editor of Panorama, Carlo Rossella, instead of authorizing a trip to Niger to investigate the matter, had Burba hand over the documents to … the American embassy.

Why the Americans, instead of the Italian intelligence services? Panorama, I note in passing, is owned by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, a faithful supporter of Bush's war policies.

http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=1962

but they would have had a very limited window of opportunity since she was released earlier the same evening. The US may not have known in advance that she was going to be released. So no time to make it look like the insurgents did it. The only chance would be to fire at her while she was driving to the airport and blame it on "they were speading, didn't stop after all the signaling", the usual story.

The whole point of this type of activity is to terrorize and prevent people from acting. The US may want to make it perfectly clear that reporters who tell the truth are under a death warrent in Iraq.

Negroponte is the past master, remember.

They can't be SEEN with bloody hands. Maybe they did broker a deal with the insurgents and got double crossed.

Did you read about the first two reporters killed in Iraq?
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/022505A.shtml

The soldiers that killed them really thought they were shooting at hostiles, but things were set up in such a way that the reporters were moved to an unsafe location and "accidentally" killed.

((side note:))
It's also obvious they still don't require soldiers to understand any foreign languages. They shot Iraqi police the first month out who were chasing insurgents and tried to explain they were police, but kept running.

weekends ago.

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.

On 1 March, another video was released, this time of the French journalist Florence Aubenas, who was kidnapped on 5 January. Looking in terrible shape, Ms Aubenas said in English: "Please help me, my health is very bad."
The cases of Ms Sgrena and Ms Aubenas had been linked in large demonstrations demanding their release and an end to the war and occupation which convulsed Italian cities. The largest demonstration, estimated at half a million people, marched through central Rome two weekends ago.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=616985

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.

On September 1, 1939, Germans were told that the Polish army had crossed the German border and attacked a German radio station, and that the German army was defending the homeland. Most Germans, and many Europeans, believed in that crap. Many Americans believe in crap similar to the one the nazi propaganda machine used to feed the masses.

We're doomed!

in the car. Nope, never happens. Not ever.

He's saying something for which he cannot possibly have any proof. That alone makes the rest of his accusations suspect.

seen elsewhere in the thread.

;-)

I won't believe a word that comes out of the pathological liars at the Pentagon, State, or the White House unless there is solid proof that what they say is true.

The burden of proof is now on the Bush regime!

Department for me. It's simply looking at a story, and recognizing an individual's grasping for an explanation *no matter how illogical* for some traumatic event.

If the military wanted her dead, she'd be dead. The military isn't very good at selectively half-killing people, as I'm fairly sure you've argued in the past.

people that oppose them! This isn't the only case of attacked journalist.. if it was, I would be more sceptically about the intentional attacking of journalist... but its a pattern and you want to look at this event in a vacuum and say if they wanted her dead she'd be dead. Do a little research on dead journalists and then come back, you are sadly misinformed and are spewing it like you know whats going on, all apparently based on your inability to believe that she could live thru a hit!

If I was ordered to make sure nobody was left alive, I'd make sure nobody was left alive.

and you're calling ME naive?

sheesh

and to believe otherwise is naivity .....

The point is not whether it was a bungled assassination.... but the fact SOMEONE TRIED TO KILL HER .

For f*ucks sake what's wrong with all of you that remain in perpetual denial over this ? Afraid to admit it may be too close to home or something ?

You don't shoot 400 bullets into a car ... as a warning ...and hope no-one gets hurts !!!

" Errrr sorry Boss ... we did wot you said. We put 400 bullets into the car, 6 hand grenades through the back window, 2 mortar shells in the roof... and a sidewinder missile into the engine block .... just to scare the crap out of them ... but errr .... they accidentally died when the car burst into flames"

W.T.F. ........ ! ?

It 's irrelevant who is responsible for attempting to kill this brave, honest and courageous woman. Of primary importance is the undeniable fact that someone ordered it, and someone executed it ... albeit unsuccessfully.

And remember, we are talking about defenceless civilians inside a car ... shot at by heavily armed assailants.
Whoever fired on that car are not worth a spit on an open fire... in my opinion.

The US army could hardly blame " terrorists" for the incident, since she had allegedly been held hostage by them for over a month.

She has a mountain of evidence and eye-witness accounts concerning civilian torture, the systematic use by the US of Napalm, Mustard Gas and other banned chemical weapons on the citizens of Iraq .

After that many shots do you think there might have been someone coming to investigate just what the fuck was going on? And even though our soldiers can get away with shooting wounded Iraqis in the head on national television with no outcry, I don't think it would play well in Peoria to be doing the same thing to Italian intelligence agents. Probably wouldn't play well in Rome either.

Don

we've all seen the video now of our guys at the rolling security road blocks deal with this situation... it ain't pretty but even they don't unload 300 to 400 rounds :wow:

have we reached a 'tipping point'?

:cry:

peace

You?

but don't let that get in the way of your certainty.

peace

which gets us back to nowhere, like where we started

you leave that out of your perfect 'logic' i noticed :hi:

peace

to me that it was a fuckup, or 'mistake', probably some trigger-happy kid new to the country.

As is argued above, our troops are little more than Iraqi slaughters, your argument requieres the belief that after unloading '300 to 400' rounds into a car, they had a sudden change of heart/found God and all that.

Gimmie a break.

DU has devolved into nothing but people asking questions, in the belief that asking questions proves a point. You all need to grow up and get a grip.

There were Italian troops waiting for her at the airport, 700 meters away.

done it.

Who do you think you are talking to here? A bunch of kids? Seems like you hang around here specifically to give the Fox news version of everything.

Don

but you don't have a monopoly on the truth.

we know what this administration is capable of and got years of paper trails to back it up.

just because a hit is botched doesn't prove they are innocent.

peace

We had both the CIA and the Mafia try to kill him, yet there he sits, still alive and kicking.

Why do you find it so hard to acccept that this was a hit had gone wrong?

Accusing me of siding with Bush. Just because I don't accept his bullshit doesn't mean I have to accept bullshit from the our side either.

Let us not forget that Bush had a lot of help from enablers claiming to be on "our" side.

Anyone that believes in the flood of pathological lies of the Bush regime is without any credibility of their own.

President Chavez said it best:

“I have nothing against the American people or the American society. But how can one maintain any relations with the US government which lies about almost everything to its people and the world,” Chavez said.

<snip>

Chavez poked fun at George W. Bush for being the worst liar and regaled journalists by comparing the US President with a unfaithful husband who tries to convince his wife that the lipstick marks on his face are not from his lover but from a clown.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1050306/asp/nation/story_4460004.asp

DU discussion here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1288913

has any proof of anything at this point. That kind of goes without saying. We are simply speculating. If you do not wish to speculate, it is your God-given right to abstain from it. But to demand proof of a particular interpretation of an incident that happened on the other side of the earth less than a day ago is somewhat far-fetched, I think.

you got it ALL figured out, eh :shrug:

peace

technology, and it wouldn't surprise me to find out that the military knocked out the cell-phone towers much earlier on the major artery between Baghdad and the airport, as many roadside bombs have been set off with cellphones. This article suggests that the services were cut specifically for this incident.

Occam's Razor is having a field day over this, but like many bloggers, people these days think that merely asking loaded questions is equivalent to making points.

i am willing to bet those who drove on the road before know more about it being 'normal' than YOU.

after 4 years of atrocities, rape, torture and murder and the fact that she was writing about our nanking -> falluja no one will believe anything from the US military especially here where we know more than most and have a permanent record.

"Occam's Razor" my a$$ it's called sophistry.

peace

area of US control?

being set off ~as has been proven~ with cellphone calls.

The agent was on the phone with his superiors in Italy at the time of the hit.

Big difference.

Italy's top intelligence agent in Iraq, like his CIA counterpart, would not be using a regular cell phone to communicate with his superiors. It was a spook's satellite phone.

Makes me think that someone cutoff the satellite transmission. Iraqi insurgents, and the regular GI Joe, lack such capability.

You say I have my eyes closed, but they're wide open to you pulling 'details' out your ass.

KNOW THAT and take appropriate meassures?

no, in your sophistry, you got it all figured out no matter what facts may crop up.

peace

Last Updated: Saturday, 5 March, 2005, 13:32 GMT


Giuliana Sgrena: 'Voice of weakest'


Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena never thought she would be taken hostage telling the story of the people she deeply cared for.

A toughened war correspondent, her reports filter the impact of conflict through the lives of ordinary people - precisely what she was doing in Baghdad on 4 February when she was seized by gunmen.

The former left-wing militant has often been described as an advocate of the dispossessed and the have-nots.
(snip)

"For my whole life, I have fought and written on behalf of the weakest." Giuliana Sgrena

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4321173.stm

The U.S. military has been targeting reporters. Mostly foreign reporters who work for non-U.S. based media outlets.

I never meant to imply U.S. forces acted with ill intent when U.S. forces accidentally killed journalists, and I apologize to anyone who thought I said or believed otherwise. I have great admiration and respect for the men and women of the U.S. armed forces, with whom I have worked closely and been embedded in Baghdad, Tikrit, and Mosul, in addition to my time with American soldiers, sailors, Marines, and airmen in Afghanistan, former Yugoslavia, Somalia, Kuwait, Bahrain, and the Arabian Gulf.

-Eason Jordan, in his resignation letter

otherwise he wouldn't get any money if he is fired. Look at all the rightwingers CNN now has on camera.

I don't know, you figure it out. I'm just letting the man say it in his own words.

I know what I saw with my own eyes. It was in April 2003. I was watching a life feed on CSPAN of the invasion of Iraq. It was in the middle of the night here, daylight in Baghdad. I couldn't sleep during the early months of the war and was watching what looked like nothing more than a tank lumbering over a bridge very slowly and then stopping on the bridge somewhere in what appeared to be a Baghdad cityscape, not densely developed, but with a few large buildings in top third of the film frame.

The tank began manuvering it's gun. Suddenly, a blast, in a puff of smoke, was fired from the tank into what I remember as the center of a large multistory building in the distance.

The next thing that happened was that the tv camera that was shooting the film that was being televised on CSPAN, and my "eye" on the scene, suddenly was shot out. The picture went black. It was an experience I'll never forget, like I'd been shot. All I could think of was what happened to the camera men, but I don't remember any explanation of what had happened, just film from another location was switched on to the CSPAN feed.

The next day, I found out more about what happened (I guess). The tv camerman whose camera had been focused on the tank -- the one CSPAN was getting the feed from -- was supposedly not killed, but five members of the non-embedded media including two Reuters tv cameramen were killed in the building the tank's round hit.

Those troops, in the tank and the one or ones who shot out the camera, were acting in a manner that looked deliberate to me, like they had been given coordinates and were firing where they were told to fire. Although it may have been happening, I don't remember seeing any evidence of anyone firing on the tank.

Here's a link on the incident:
SNIP: "Shortly after the Al-Jazeera strike, two cameramen died when a US tank fired on Baghdad’s Palestine Hotel, which houses more than 200 international correspondents—nearly all of the “non-embedded” journalists left in the besieged city. The victims were Reuters cameraman Taras Protsyuk, 35, a Ukrainian national, and Jose Couso, 37, who worked for the private Spanish television station Telecinco. Another three members of the media were injured."

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/apr2003/jaz-a09.shtml

reporters out of Iraq over the next week. They knew they were being targeted.

ROME (Reuters) - Freed Italian hostage Giuliana Sgrena described on Saturday how U.S. forces sprayed her car with bullets as it neared safety in Iraq, wounding her and killing the man who had secured her release moments earlier.

U.S. forces at a checkpoint opened fire as the car carrying Sgrena neared Baghdad airport on Friday after she was released by the militants who had held her captive for more than a month.

Sgrena, a 57-year-old award-winning war reporter, returned to Rome on Saturday and looked in pain as she was helped off a government plane and into an ambulance.

"We thought the danger was over after my release to the Italians but all of a sudden there was this shoot-out, we were hit by a barrage of bullets," she told RAI TV by telephone.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=564&e=13&u=/nm/iraq_italy_shooting_dc

While moderate opposition leaders were cautious in their criticism, hard-line leftists said the shooting would galvanize anti-war opinion.


"I don't believe a word of the American version," said Oliviero Diliberto, head of the Italian Communist party, part of the main left-wing block led by former premier Romano Prodi.


"The Americans deliberately fired on Italians. This is huge. All of the center-left must vote in parliament for the withdrawal of our troops."

Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini, who will address the lower house on the incident on Tuesday, said it would not harm ties with Washington.

"My position on the United States will not change one iota from what I have expressed a thousand times," Fini told leading daily newspaper Corriere della Sera.

(same link)

I'm an American, and *I* don't believe a word of the American version.

"We sent them western union telegrams, used semaphor flags, sent up several flares, staged a fabulous musical to illustrate why crossing our cordons is bad, tried to throw saftey pamphlets in their window, and as our last three penultimate resorts...we used arm gestures, fired several warning shots (blanks), shone lights upon them in a flashing pattern. Then, after every other possible option had been exhausted, we fired another series of warning shots (live)...but they still wouldn't stop. So, we had no choice but to open up on them. They were comin' right at us."

Were left out of the loop so they could deny culpability. A simular tactic was used to justify the 04/03 US killing of non embedded reporters..

Truthout is doing a full investigation into that. I fear this one will become errily familiar when all is known.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/022405A.shtml

It lists the articles she was writing prior to being kidnapped and we've found out the name of the Secret Service Agent who saved her life.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1640443

http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=38029

<snip>
"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. .......

DID YOU GET THE FULL IMPACT??? "Then the US military silenced the cellphones,"

I'd say this was a black ops using the common soldier as a means to an end... again. 04/03 two journalists killed by people who honestly didn't know who they were shooting at because it had been ARRANGED that they WOULD NOT know. (Will Pitt TruthOut - Two Murders and a Lie)

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

That's fucking beautiful. I have relatives and friends who serve or who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan. It wasn't their idea to go. It was their obligation thanks to the major league assholes who run the show.

Don't conflate the Bush regime's evil schemes with the people who are forced to fight for them. The people I know who have been sent over joined before the Shrub came to power. At least two of them were out of the active military. One was recalled from the Reserves, the other from the National Guard.

Sgrena's shooters may have been scared, under orders to fire at fast-moving vehicles approaching checkpoints, or may not have been regular Army at all. Maybe they were planted. We don't know the full story. Yet you go on like it was a bunch of good ol' boy yahoos out to kill a foreigner for sport. Real smart.

bunch of shmoes to carry it out. The vast majority over there are just trying to make the best of a bad situation. The fact that only one of them was killed is itself an indication that the shooters didn't target them deliberately. But someone gave the order to fire on a non-speeding vehicle that had previously passed several checkpoints. That's who we should be looking at.

If they had meant to target Sgrena, she'd be dead. The soldiers, like most soldiers, are pawns.

shit about commie reporters regardless, but shouldn't the State Department be on this?

Let's see if we can get it above 4 folks.

I hope the Italian's force Berlusconi to withdraw then make him go away for being Bush's puppet.

The American soldiers killed the parents in the front seat. All we saw was the pictures of the blood-spattered little kids that were in the back seats..
Identical story. The car was speeding at a checkpoint and would not stop. What the hell is going on?

"Sgrena's partner Pier Scolari, speaking outside the hospital where she is being treated, accused U.S. forces of recklessness.

"I hope the Italian government does something because either this was an ambush, as I think, or we are dealing vith imbeciles or terrorized kids who shoot at anyone," he said.

Two other secret service agents were also wounded in the shooting. One returned with Sgrena, the other is being treated in Iraq. "

This time the victim didn't die and happened to be a "celebrity", otherwise like all the rest of these kind of murders, it would go unaccounted for.

...then why didn't they just put a bullet through her head while she sat in the car?

Anyone care to explain that one?

and many of them got their kicks by physically abusing and raping Iraqis. Their brutality is partly based on the racism that is so inherent in America, and on a religious theology that holds other religions to be false.

They shame the uniform they wear, and they smear those soldiers that have behaved honorably.

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In situations where you have an unknown car approaching, with little prep time, the goal is to get the car to stop - not to kill everyone in the car. You just want to keep it far enough away from you so that when the bomb goes off, it doesn't kill you. If they really wanted to kill everyone, and they were ready for it, they would have rocketed the fucking car to pieces.

this is breaking news just posted in another LBN thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1286617

besides this supposed to be a COVERT up where your not suppsed to get CAUGHT, D'oh!

peace

"unfortunate accidents" that just happen to routinely occur at checkpoints. That was the first hasty story that was put out, right? All about flashing lights and hand signals and speeding through a "checkpoint."

If all the people in the car had died, that would still be the story.

the same evening and immediately headed for the airport. There wouldn't have been much time to arrange anything fancy as regards method of assassination. They had informed the appropriate authorities that they were coming, so the soldiers who fired 3-400 rounds at them (apparently from an armoured vehicle) were obviously not "in the loop". The question is, were they intentionally kept out of the loop? We have to speculate along those lines, because there is a pattern emerging of "critical" journalists being killed or otherwise targeted which is starting to look like a little more than just coincidence.

if what we've witnessed the past 4 horrid years matters anymore...


http://images.globalfreepress.com

peace

of numerous onlookers--at that point, after the failure of the ambush, there would have been too many witnesses to administer the final coup de grace.

But of course, U.S. troops never murder, rape, or torture anyone, do they?

Hello? Think about it.. she was in the passenger seat, in the back of the car, and the ONLY reason she survived, is that an agent threw himself across her, to save her. The driver wasn't killed.. WOULDN'T you think that if they were APPROACHING a checkpoint, that the FIRST person in the car would have been the one to die?

AND... they said, at first, that they 'tried to shoot into the engine block to stop the car, the car stopped and 1 person was killed, one was injured. You tell me how 300-400 rounds were used to stop a car's engine, but only hit the hostage? If the agent had not thrown himself on her, she would be dead, not him, not the driver.

I'm not sure about the claims of this being deliberate.. but I can't ignore the questions about this. Since when do ANY of us take everything we hear from Bush's minions to be the truth?

Could have been another case of shoot first, ask questions later troops that have been killing families at checkpoints since this thing began.

:eyes: :shrug: Ya, know, kinda like a secret service agent taking a bullet for the intended target of an assasination?

PS: This car had passed several checkpoints...my uncle is a private contractor working in the Baghdad Airport training Iraqi police...no one gets within a mile of the airport without having checked with multiple checkpoints. There is no way they didn't know they were coming and who was in the car, short of complete incompetence and a failure communication. My Uncle has been working in Iraq making over $2000 a day tax free....he's back for a month+ break and then returns for another 3 month "duty"...I called him yesterday to ask him what he thought about this and he too found it highly "suspect"...I think since even he is working out there and knows how things "work" with security of the Baghdad airport that if he finds this suspect, that there are a whole lot of reasons for us on this and other threads to be equally suspicious around the circumstances of this shooting...

Why are you so intent on assuming it was nothing suspicious of the sort?

:shrug:

Sibel meet Giuliana.

I'm sure you have a lot in common

it's all in our heads, just ask the sophist here :crazy:

peace

perhaps Dyncorp in a soldier suit? They aren't governed by any rules of engagement.

Have heard that she and another individual had numerous photos of atrocities. Shall look for more info on this. Another thing comes to mind that Dahr Jamail reported on. The curious removal of tons of dirt and rubble that he witnessed. What was this all about? It was removed by coalition forces. What evidence was being removed?

I am beginning to feel that they would if they could get away with it. We live in a very scary country right now.

:kick:

He told me he has watched the military use bulldozers to push the soil into piles and load it onto trucks to carry away. This was done in the Julan and Jimouriya quarters of the city, which is of course where the heaviest fighting occurred during the siege, as this was where resistance was the fiercest. “At least two kilometers of soil were removed,” he explained, “Exactly as they did at Baghdad Airport after the heavy battles there during the invasion and the Americans used their special weapons.”

He explained that in certain areas where the military used “special munitions” 200 square meters of soil was being removed from each blast site.In addition, many of his friends have told him that the military brought in water tanker trucks to power blast the streets, although he hadn’t seen this himself. “They went around to every house and have shot the water tanks,” he continued, “As if they are trying to hide the evidence of chemical weapons in the water, but they only did this in some areas, such as Julan and in the souk (market) there as well.”


“In the mornings I found Fallujah empty, as if nobody lives in it,” he’d said, “Even poisonous gases have been used in Fallujah-they used everything-tanks, artillery, infantry, poison gas. Fallujah has been bombed to the ground. Nothing is left.”
http://dahrjamailiraq.com/weblog/archives//000173.php#more

I read stories like this and thing "This is America, we are to be an example of democracy, a beacon of hope..." I'm such a sorry bastard sometimes - it's like, it's like, I _hope_ or something.

How weak. How shameful.

And how bad am I going to feel when Sgrena publishes her story and it mentions US troops used chemical weapons?

Will someone care then? Because apparently this administration can get away with Torure, so why not that too...

"The US military did not want her to survive."

Yeah, no kidding -- because they thought she was a suicide bomber. And when it became clear that it was all one big mistake, they...get this...DIDN'T KILL HER.

She would be wormfood now if our military wanted her dead. I can't believe how gullible some of the leftists on these boards are. They're like Freepers, just with opposite politics.

Especially if some of them might have cameras. Not since that little Kevin Sites thing where he videotaped the shooting in the head of wounded and unarmed Iraqis in a mosque by US soldiers. Word came down after that. No more war crimes...while the cameras are running. I didn't notice you posting to any of the threads about that incident. Perhaps you did and I missed it? But I doubt it.

Don

"She would be wormfood now if our military wanted her dead."

you got everything figured out, eh?

peace

are calling this a case of mistaken identity on several points being blown over with quasi-violent denials:

"She would be wormfood now if our military wanted her dead."

We all know that the assault on Fallujah invlolved a radical amount of un-called-for killing of locals standing their ground on their home turf, carried by an invading, superior mega force in nothing shy of an ethnic massacre.

Why would the survivors' account of approach to the checkpoint contradict that of those who fired into the vehicle? Why wouldn't the survivors have left the scene with a fair amount of confidence that there had indeed been an identification issue if that's what happened?

Do you think they're embellishing their case as anti-American propaganda?

Do you think that the driver was speeding into the checkpoint because he's an idiot?

Just like Castro? Just like Khadafy? Just like Saddam Hussein? Just like Osama bin Laden? Just like Mullah Omar?

So all it takes is for the military to want to kill you and you're dead?

So all these figures I named are actually dead? Who are the doubles wearing their clothing, then?

suspicious went on?

I've been waiting to see how long it would be before someone escaped with their lives from the BFEE hitmen. This should get interesting if true.

It is quite natural to target nuns bearing witness to the corporate holocaust in the Amazon. It's quite common for journalists to be assassinated in touchy situations in war zones. The practice of purposefully targeting civilians, and they don't necessarily have to be of critical import e.g. union organizers, is policy in the Pentagon and a part of the training for Special Ops Forces. Strategy of tension. If you believe this is not a common theme study the history of the 'dirty wars' in Central America.


'You had to attack civilians, the people, women, children, innocent people, unknown people far removed from any political game. The reason was quite simple: to force ... the public to turn to the state to ask for greater security."

This was the essence of Operation Gladio, a decades-long covert campaign of terrorism and deceit directed by the intelligence services of the West -- against their own populations. Hundreds of innocent people were killed or maimed in terrorist attacks -- on train stations, supermarkets, cafes and offices -- which were then blamed on "leftist subversives" or other political opponents. The purpose, as stated above in sworn testimony by Gladio agent Vincenzo Vinciguerra, was to demonize designated enemies and frighten the public into supporting ever-increasing powers for government leaders -- and their elitist cronies.

First revealed by Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti in 1991, Gladio (from the Latin for "sword") is still protected to this day by its founding patrons, the CIA and MI6. Yet parliamentary investigations in Italy, Switzerland and Belgium have shaken out a few fragments of the truth over the years. These have been gathered in a new book, "NATO's Secret Armies: Operation Gladio and Terrorism in Western Europe," by Daniele Ganser, as Lila Rajiva reports on CommonDreams.org.

<snip>

Among the "smoking guns" unearthed by Ganser is a Pentagon document, Field Manual FM 30-31B, which details the methodology for launching terrorist attacks in nations that "do not react with sufficient effectiveness" against "communist subversion." Ironically, the manual states that the most dangerous moment comes when leftist groups "renounce the use of force" and embrace the democratic process. It is then that "U.S. army intelligence must have the means of launching special operations which will convince Host Country Governments and public opinion of the reality of the insurgent danger." Naturally, these peace-throttling "special operations must remain strictly secret," the document warns.

<snip>

Last month, it was widely reported that the Pentagon is considering a similar program in Iraq. What was not reported, however -- except in the Iraqi press -- is that at least one pro-occupation death squad is already in operation. Just days after the Pentagon plans were revealed, a new militant group, "Saraya Iraqna," began offering big wads of American cash for insurgent scalps -- up to $50,000, the Iraqi paper Al Ittihad reports. "Our activity will not be selective," the group promised. In other words, anyone they consider an enemy of the state will be fair game.

Strangely enough, just as it appears that the Pentagon is establishing Gladio-style operations in Iraq, there has been a sudden rash of terrorist attacks on outrageously provocative civilian targets, such as hospitals and schools, the Guardian reports. Coming just after national elections in which the majority faction supported slates calling for a speedy end to the American occupation, the shift toward high-profile civilian slaughter has underscored the "urgent need" for U.S. forces to remain on the scene indefinitely, to provide security against the ever-present terrorist threat. Meanwhile, the Bushists continue constructing their long-sought permanent bases in Iraq: citadels to protect the oil that incoming Iraqi officials are promising to sell off to American corporations -- and launching pads for new forays in geopolitical domination.

<snip>

http://globalresearch.ca/articles/FLO502B.html
And This:
The "peace correspondent" as she is mostly referred to by her colleagues, Sgrena has been the quintessential anti-war activist, writer, and journalist throughout her long career. She was captured outside a mosque in Baghdad while waiting to interview Falluja refugees for a story on the impact of the raid on their lives. Like many female correspondents, Sgrena tended to focus on the effect of war on ordinary people rather than recount the battle stories.

<snip>


Two recent developments are worth noting. Earlier in the year, Newsweek reported that the Pentagon is considering using the "Salvador Option" in reference to a counter-insurgency strategy of the 1980s which saw the CIA-train local secret forces to go after leftists insurgents and their sympathisers in the Central American country and which led to tens of thousands of deaths.

A few weeks ago, and of particular interest to Italy, researcher Daniele Ganser with the Centre for Security Studies at the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich published a book on the NATO's Secret Armies after WWII. The research offers plenty of proof on how NATO and the secret services in various European countries collaborated in attacks on civilians that were blamed on left-wing groups. It was not till the early 1990s that a former Italian prime minister, Giulio Andreotti confirmed that the secret group, code- named Gladio, existed.

Ganser's book contains various documented confessions including this chilling statement by former Gladio member, a right-wing extremist who was convicted for his part in one fatal attack, "You had to attack civilians, people, women, children, innocent people, unknown people far removed from any political game. The reason was quite simple. They were supposed to force these people, the Italian public, to turn to the state to ask for greater security."
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/732/in2.htm

likely revealing - Failed assasination attempt? Must be a reason for the attempt.
A statement or article could raise some serious questions and could well influence the WORLD community to TAKE ACTION to stop the U.S..
?
I remember WWI was started over an "assasination".

Published: 3/5/2005


ROME (AFP) 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.

(more at link)
<http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=38029>

For nearly two years the atrocities have been mounted in full and open view. Apart from consumers of sanitized American news media, the world has reeled at the appalling dispatches from Iraq.

Now, for all we know so far, the shooting may not have been premeditated. Given the ample evidence available that US forces frequently shoot at anything that moves, the troops may simply have been shooting...

..."to protect themselves," as it is called in the US press...

...while everywhere else that practice is known by its true and only word.

Bush promises Italian leader a full investigation

Philip Willan Rome
Sunday March 6, 2005
The Observer

The Italian journalist kidnapped in Iraq arrived back in Rome yesterday as fury and confusion grew over the circumstances in which she was shot and one of her rescuers was killed by American soldiers.

(clip)

The US Army claimed the Italians' vehicle had been seen as a threat because it was travelling at speed and failed to stop at the checkpoint despite warning shots being fired by the soldiers. A State Department official in Washington said the Italians had failed to inform the military of Sgrena's release.

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.

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

maybe this will help the rest of the world to wake up and see that this neo-fascist needs to be ignored and shunned and actively worked against until he run from office for the crimes he has committed.


too bad our own country cant do it on its own. :(

Some news of it is buried in this story
<http://www.aljazeera.com/>

French Muslim leader calls for release of journalists

3/5/2005 8:55:00 AM GMT

...Italian journalist freed, then shot at

U.S. troops opened fire at a car carrying Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena shortly after her release in Iraq, killing an Italian intelligence agent and injuring Sgrena, her newspaper Il Manifesto said on Friday.

Gabriele Polo, the editor of Il Manifesto newspaper, said that U.S. forces fired at Sgrena’s car as it was heading to Baghdad airport.

"This news which should have be a moment of celebration, has been ruined by this fire fight," Polo told Sky Italia television.

"An Italian agent has been killed by an American bullet. A tragic demonstration which we never wanted that everything that's happening in Iraq is completely senseless and mad," he added.

The II Manifesto reported that Sgrena was rushed to a U.S.-run hospital for treatment.

A second Italian agent was wounded in the shootout, while a third escaped unharmed. The Iraqi driver of the car was also injured, according to Italian media sources.

The U.S. military confirmed the news, claiming that "multinational forces" fired on a speeding car at an army checkpoint in Baghdad.

Italy’s President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi sent his condolences to the family of the killed agent, who was identified as Nicola Calipari.

Calpiari was involved in the negotiations for securing Sgrena's release.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said that the U.S. ambassador to Italy had been immediately summoned over the matter.

"As the fire came from American forces, I decided to summon the U.S. ambassador immediately," Berlusconi told a press conference.

He added that the U.S. ambassador have to "clarify the behaviour of the U.S. troops for such a serious incident, for which someone will have to take responsibility"...

(more at link)
<http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=7322>

Sgrena: US troops may have targeted me


Sunday 06 March 2005, 19:02 Makka Time, 16:02 GMT


The freed Italian said the driver had radioed US forces in advance



Related:
Wounded reporter returns to Italy
Italy summons US envoy over killing
Italians hopeful of journalist's release
Italy to pull troops out if asked
Italy under strain after soldier's death
Italian PM wants news blackout



Former Italian hostage Giuliana Sgrena, shot and wounded by US forces after being freed in Iraq, says she may have been deliberately targeted.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/BCF6FCC8-4680-4A6B-B1DF-8490271E6B8E.htm

...and then not even have the same stories.

I don't get that.:shrug: